Sabotage attacks knock out phone service

SF GATE.com - SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE ^ | Thursday, April 9, 2009 | Ryan Kim, Nanette Asimov,Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writers

[Cindy]

(04-09) 16:37 PDT SAN JOSE -- Vandals cut fiber-optic cable lines belonging to AT&T at two locations early today, knocking out phones and access to 911 emergency services to thousands of residential customers and businesses in southern Santa Clara County, in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties and along the Peninsula, authorities said.

Four AT&T fiber-optic cables in an underground vault were severed shortly before 1:30 a.m. along Monterey Highway north of Blossom Hill Road in south San Jose, police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said. Four more underground cables, at least two of which belong to AT&T, were cut about two hours later along Old County Road near Bing Street in San Carlos, authorities said.

John Britton, spokesman for AT&T, said, "Clearly, we have some vandalism. Someone purposefully and deliberately cut the wires."

He added, "We can't speculate about any connection, but the method of operation appears to be the same.""

SNIPPET: "Landlines, cell phones and the Internet were all affected. The outage knocked out 911 service, and officials said anyone without phone access who needs emergency help should get to a police or fire station or hospital on their own or flag down a law enforcement vehicle."

SNIPPET: "Verizon spokesman Jon Davies said the outage was first reported to the company at 1:25 a.m. He said about 52,000 of the company's landline customers were affected in the Gilroy and Morgan Hill areas. Verizon is the sole provider of landlines in southern Santa Clara County."

[Cindy]

ping.

[Charlespg]

TROP?

[Rushmore Rocks]

Testing? or just local hoodlums?

Either way, it’s not good.

[driftdiver]

Testing IMO, but it could be union related. Thats happened before with the telecom industry.

Hoodlums wouldn’t go down into the manhole, too much work.

[Cementjungle]

Testing? or just local hoodlums?

Don't even think it! Obama's already completely overwhelmed overseeing the ransom negotionation between the four pirates in a lifeboat and the US Navy.

[Cindy]

“Either way, it’s not good.”

I agree.

[fella]

Aren't AT&T and the union representing the landlines workers at odds and working without a contract right now?

[Cindy]

SNIPPET from the link in post no. 1:

“Britton said AT&T has a good relationship with the CWA and was continuing to negotiate with the union on their contract.”

[lovesdogs]

Interesting. I heard about this early this morning on a radio news station when the AP reported it as “accidental”. My bullcrap detector nearly deafened me when it went off. Thanks for posting this.

[liege]

Yep.

[ronnie raygun]

Homeless residence of San Fran looking for mungo, somebody tell them “thars no copper in them thar lines”

[Cindy]

You’re welcome lovesdogs.

I couldn’t find any articles indicating “accidental” and I also wondered about animals gnawing on the wires.

Apparently (from what I have read so far), these were clean slices and apparently the m.o. was the same.

[Palladin]

Industrial sabotage by a rival of Verizon?

[martin_fierro]

I’ve been incommunicado all day (except for teh Intarwebz).

Verizon: OUT.

T-Mobile: OUT.

AT&T land line: OUT.

I hope they catch & prosecute whoever did this.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

It happened in Tulsa, OK a few years ago. A jerk with a chainsaw got into the wiring system.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

This happened right around the time it was announced that Russia and China have penetrated our grid.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Testing? or just local hoodlums?

Try job action. The fiber was cut at two points about 35 miles apart apparently around the same time.

AT&T and the CWA are currently in contract negotiations. The following is from the Mercury News article about the cable cuts:

Asked if the potential sabotage had anything to with the strike-threatened contract negotiations between AT&T and the Communication Workers of America, union national spokeswoman Candice Johnson replied: "Absolutely not. Our members are not involved in this."

Of course not...

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Industrial sabotage by a rival of Verizon?

The only "rival" Verizon has is AT&T and AT&T needs those tiny pockets of Verizon country to "prove" that they are functioning in a competitive environment and not functioning as a monopoly that needs greater regulation. The same goes for Connecticut where the former SNET territory is now owned by AT&T and resides in the middle of Verizon country.

The fiber network is highly meshed. This sabotage was done by people who knew the physical topology of AT&T's fiber network and knew that they could isolate a geographical area by cutting the fiber at Blossom Hill and Monterrey in San Jose and on Old County Road in San Carlos. This is not obvious to someone who doesn't know what lives down man holes and what the CLLI codes of the hardware is.

[artichokegrower]

I live in the area affected. We lost all 911 access. NETCOM was reduced to radio communication and residents were told to drive to the nearest sheriff’s office, substation or hospital in case of an emergency. Could be a labor action or it could be an exercise testing how to shut down emergency communication in a fairly large area. Kinda like the first World Trade Center bombing testing just what it would take to successfully accomplish the deed.

[comps4spice]

Heh.

[thecodont]

Kinda like the first World Trade Center bombing testing just what it would take to successfully accomplish the deed.

Or like the "student pilot" in the Cessna who flew down from Canada a few days ago.

You're scaring me.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

Out of curiosity, I wonder how many Pakistanis, Russians, and Chinese H1Bs ATT employs on the maintenance side of things...

H1B staff are employed on a project/outsource basis, usually for back office projects.

Outside plant staff, the ones maintain the physical infrastructure and who know where the fiber runs, are all represented by Communications Workers of America District 9 locals.

[higgmeister]

“Britton said AT&T has a good relationship with the CWA and was continuing to negotiate with the union on their contract.”

The CWA contract with AT&T expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Nuff said!   So much for "Benevolent Brotherhood"

[higgmeister]

Industrial sabotage by a rival of Verizon?

It took out Verizon Services also. Verizon leases space on some of the cables.

Verizon technicians were on site working with AT&T technicians to get service restored.

It sounds like good old boys at the local had to many beers and went out doing some contract negotiations of their own.

[higgmeister]

Intentionally harming the telecommunications infrastructure is also a federal crime. The is why the FBI has jurisdiction.

[wtc911]

I put myself through college working as CWA member for the long gone Western Electric. WE was the facilities installation arm of the also long gone Ma Bell.

Circa 1972 we had a slowdown before a strike. An installer named McDonald climbed up into the racks in the biggest Central Office on Long Island and chopped a six inch section out of the biggest cable he could find. It contained over a thousand twisted pairs (each pair was somebody's home line).

It took three days to find and repair.

He did it two more times before he was caught. He was fired but not proscecuted (for PR reasons).

[higgmeister]

You know I remember WECO!

The stories I'm reading this morning says it was not all fiber this time. There were some copper cables cut also, among four different sites. Well thought out by someone driving around in his truck the past few weeks. It's to bad he didn't think of the prison time he will do.

It will be so easy to identify and apprehend this guy. The FBI will even use forensics to match the groves of the cutters used with the knotches on the cables tying the act directly to the owner of the gear. Neither AT&T nor the CWA will cover it up in these times we live. The poor fool is toast.

[wtc911]

The slow down led to a strike that lasted 26 weeks (iirc). The union came back for a dime an hour more.

The shop steward and the level three boss put me in a vise. They assigned me (the college kid) to work on a rack in plain sight of the boss' office. If he came out and I wasn't working I got reamed. If the shop steward came by and I was working I got reamed.

After a week of that I started coming in early. I'd climb up and cut the pair to the boss' office phone. He'd come in, find out he had no coms and bellow for me to find the effin cut and get it effin fixed.

The only way to "find" the cut was to crawl along the racks from floor to floor (there were ten floors)tracing the pair by hand....could take hours. I'd disappear into the racks and read my Shakespeare. After a few hours I'd go to the cut and splice it again.

After a week or so of that they had me figured but knew they couldn't stop me so they stopped using me for a pawn.

The whole deal told me all I ever needed to know about unions.

[higgmeister]

God bless you! You have a divine conception.

Multi-level ironwork in a giant C.O. must have been really fun! I bet some places even the rats were afraid to crawl.

[wtc911]

It was a pretty good gig for a while, lots of physical work and a bunch of the older guys (45-50) were WW2 and Korea vets. One of them had been a neighbor once. He told them I was ok, not just another punk with long hair.

They busted my chops non-stop but once I figured out the rules of the game I gave as good as I got. It gave me the chance to know guys who fought on Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Italy and Chosin as friends. That alone was worth the bulls***.

[higgmeister]

I was a IP Sr. Maintenance tech for about twenty years at Verizon Business, MCI, or Wcom. The largest places I’ve worked only had two floors. That is really all you need for Long Distance work.

[EggsAckley]

I had a feeling you were down when we didn’t see you much here yesterday. For some strange reason, my little burg wasn’t affected much. I have no idea why.

I’m still saying inside job. The union connection to this is just a little too smelly.

[Velveeta]

Thank you.

[Cindy]

You’re welcome Vel.

A blessed Good Friday to you and your family.

[Cindy]

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2226893/posts

Skip to comments.

$250,000 reward in phone cable vandalism (Union denies involvement)
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 4-11-09 | John Coté,Michael Taylor, Chronicle Staff Writers
Posted on April 11, 2009 3:52:50 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182

Authorities hope a quarter-million-dollar reward will shake loose a tipster to lead them to the vandals who severed underground fiber-optic cables, cutting off phone service for tens of thousands of people and disrupting life throughout southern Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.

Investigators said Friday they are tracking down at least 10 leads and reviewing traffic-camera footage taken near one of four sites where the cables were cut Thursday in hopes of a breakthrough.[snip]

Contract talks

The sabotage in the South Bay came as AT&T was negotiating with the Communications Workers of America for a contract covering more than 80,000 employees, who have been working under their old pact since it expired Sunday.

“We are working under an expired contract and are prepared to strike at any time, which makes the timing of this vandalism difficult for us,” said Libby Sayre, a regional director for the union.

“Neither the union nor its members are involved in this in any way,” she said. “Our members spend their lives keeping up the equipment. We’re confident they didn’t do this.”................”

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...