The first four fiber-optic cables were cut shortly before 1:30 a.m. in an underground vault along Monterey Highway north of Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said. The cables belong to AT&T, and most of the service disruption came from this attack.
Four more underground cables, at least two of which belong to AT&T, were cut about two hours later at two locations near each other along Old County Road near Bing Street in San Carlos, authorities said. Two additional lines were sliced on Hayes Avenue in south San Jose.
In each case, the vandals had to pry up heavy manhole covers with a special tool, climb down a shaft and chop through heavy cables. Britton said the four cables cut in San Jose were about the width of a silver dollar and were encased in tough plastic sheath. One cable contained 360 fibers, and the other three had 48 fibers each.
it cant be terrorism Obama the messiah is in office now and there is no terrorism any more every one loves us now
Could have been a test to see how bad the disruption would be… although I think it was a disgruntled employee. In the past when the local phone company employees went on strike, the main cables were always cut in the middle of the night… and they didn’t just cut them. They would take a long piece out of them.
30, Rat..
all 3..
Power companies DONT own the facilities that make the power(90% isnt owned) so it is not there concern. they think.
they only run the lines and poles and dig up the streets. they will not PLACE interconnects to SWAP power from 1 area to another, IF there is a problem.
The area I live in, 1 relay station went out/or was hit by a BAD driver, and knocked out over 250 miles/40k people of power for 12 hours. Much of the tech in the relay stations is 60+ years old, and WONT be repaired unless it burns down. other wise PATCH IT.
same goes for the phone system. ITS THE BACKBONE to many services. And its a ball of Loose strings connected at intermittent points. You could knock out connections from the WEST to the EAST by knocking out 1 station. It would take at least 1+ day to re-route calls threw that station threw another route.
Cable and CELLPHONE corps should make alternative backbones, and NOT RELY on the phone company.(even tho the phone corps OWN the net and the cellphone companies and SATELLITE)
I wont go into WHY MA’BELL was broken up, and that competition STILL ISNT around, or that cable companies dont have competition and that ALL roads lead back to the PHONE CORPS.
corp structure:
How many corps OWN all the TV channels in the USA? 4.
How many phone companies were created AFTER Ma BEll was broken up? 6.
Looking at the buying and selling of those 6 companies, how many are left at the TOP tier? 2.
Phone lines, Digital satellite, Satellite Internet, Sat Phones, cable, cellphones all lead back to the PHONE companies..
Maybe it’s a mob shake down. AT&T didn’t pay the protection money. Seriously, threatening equipment and lines for ransom is not unheard of. There’s no way to protect all the cable or junction boxes.
#29
2007 Estimate of population Santa Clara County: 1,748,976
#36 So? Santa Cruz has ~50k…
My apologies, #29. This was intended for #30.
2007 Estimate of population Santa Clara County: 1,748,976
Vandalism is a couple of punks bashing mailboxes or tombstones or maybe spry painting something. That’s bad enough but not much real damage done and not much planning.
This required specific knowledge not available to the general public and maybe a special tool or two that would be hard to get even if you knew what you needed.
It looks like several people put some serious effort into this. That sounds a lot more like sabotage to me.
Rumors are flying that this could be related to the strained labor relations between AT&T and the Communications Workers of America (CWA), whose contract expired around April 1, 2009. Contract negotiations are supposedly going on, but the union has not yet called for a strike. Perhaps they don’t even have to now. If the vandalism is union related, they’ve already made their point. All the evidence suggests this was an inside job done by a person or persons who knew exactly what cables to cut and where they were located to significantly disrupt communications.
(Feb. 2009 Ice Storm) When Western Kentucky lost all power in a ice storm for 9 days (some for 20 days or more).
It took 3 days for anyone to know that that Western Kentucky had no electricity. We had no phones, no transportation (ice and tree blocked roads), no heat, no computers, no TV.
When the city turned the water off everyone (I) got really upset.
We learned a painful lesson on sustainability.
I suggest that a TSA/Homeland Security officer be stationed in every manhole.
AT&T just raised the reward to $250K.
Cripes – if I lived in CA, I’d hit the streets on my own to track down the perps.
If there was no motive than it will likely be a prank that should result in them being found.
Pranksters need to tell their prank to complete the story.
If anything, it should raise awareness at how critical infrastructure is deployed and protected in the US.
42,
then WELD every lid down..
# 40 Terry – got to it before I did… contract negotiations are tough. People get riled up. One cable – not a big deal. But FOUR?! Not a coincidence. And only AT&T fibers got whacked?
All-in-all, good for my group. We are competitors and can point at this as another example AT&T is not infallible. Network diversity is always a good decision (if you do your homework and ensure your backup is not riding on a different fiber strand in the same cable).
# 34 ECA – no doubt you still work for a Bell company… Only “6” companies, huh? Time to get out and look at the scenery.
# 5 Li – the Internet was just fine in spite of this localized issue. Imagine someone cuts your DSL copper lines your cable. You are down, but the rest of the world could care less unless you are hosting dvorak.org out of your basement. Then yes, more people would notice.
# 46 Eric – Five 9’s are theory. Many talk the walk, but it depends on the implementation to be able to walk the talk. I’ve seen many network companies have the tiniest flaw and not be able to deliver in a situation like this.
The same think happened here when Rogers Cable was trying to break the union.
Same thing happened 10 years later when Shaw Cable was trying to break the very same union (they swapped the region with Rogers).
The same thing happened when BCTel (now Telus) had a prolonged strike.
This is at least the act of a disgruntled employee, if not a disgruntled union employee trying affect labour negotiations.
Or it was a disgruntled employee paid by terrorists. Just not as likely.
…”the pump don’t work ’cause the vandals took the handles.”
Maybe this was the “technical difficulty” that prevented John from doing his Tech 5 the other day?
A couple of things. First, this resulted in some nice PR for Amateur Radio Operators, who are generally ignored or insulted until a disaster when they are needed. Wait until a real bunch of shit comes down, and see how great your iPhones are.
Second, this was so very obviously a CWA union prick fucking with ATT. I would contribute to the reward if I could. Asshole.
How many lives did he disrupt and endanger just to get his point across? Just like shitheads who block traffic on bridges to protest the wars. So obviously NOT the work of a Muslim terrorist. They would have put a bomb in there. No. This required a guy who knew exactly which cable to cut. Stupid Media always covering for Unions. Obama would be proud of his constituents.
1st no speceal tool is required to lift those heavy lids. A standerd pick available in any hardware store will do the job. I lift these things all day. no fancy tool needed to cut it either. I have cut them acidently with a shovel. Also they are clearly labeled so they are Identifiable.
#54, fullofit,
Second, this was so very obviously a CWA union prick fucking with ATT.
Do you have any proof or are you just blowing blatant accusations out your asshole, again?
Stupid Media always covering for Unions. Obama would be proud of his constituents.
Why should the media publish stories for which they have no evidence? Has it ever occurred to you that the rest of the world isn’t afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome like you do?
Get a brain moran.
http://analystscorner.telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_flying_fickle_finger/index.htm
2002 article on what we are talking about, FROM THE TOP DOWN..
The time and money to splice a optical cable is expensive. If this was done on a wide scale over the country it could cause significant outages. When its one cable that can be a problem but will not cause widespread outages.
Still, this is a warning sign that we do not secure our communications very well.
The Sept. 11th, 2008 Chunnel fire that began one minute (1400 GMT) after the time of the 2001 fall of the first WTC tower (1359 GMT) never got its undoubtedly proper “terrorism” label either:
chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-chunnel-fire-080911-ht,0,3464438.story
#54, faxon, yes, some nice publicity for hams. I’ve been one since 1958, and it’s nice to know we’re still appreciated.
Actually ISP’s are calling it terrorism so they can invoke the acts of terrorism clause that lets them of the hook for the 9 hours of downtime some of us experienced. Expect to see this litigated.
Without a doubt, sabotage. Very likely technicians who are making work for themselves.