Posted on 04/09/2009 5:10:42 PM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
ping.
TROP?
Testing? or just local hoodlums?
Either way, it’s not good.
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.
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.
“Either way, it’s not good.”
I agree.
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.”
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.
Yep.
Homeless residence of San Fran looking for mungo, somebody tell them “thars no copper in them thar lines”
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.
Industrial sabotage by a rival of Verizon?
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.
It happened in Tulsa, OK a few years ago. A jerk with a chainsaw got into the wiring system.
This happened right around the time it was announced that Russia and China have penetrated our grid.
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...
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.
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.
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