Telecommunications Infrastructure (Nashville explosion)

[dcd]

Just returned from spending Christmas at my parents house near Nashville. After the Nashville explosion on Christmas morning, I lost my AT&T cell service and my parents lost their AT&T land line and internet. Nearly 48 hours later cell service is still out at my parents house and at my house over 200 miles away! (and all points between). I feel like I have been transported back to the 80’s or even earlier since at least landlines worked in the 80’s

Reports of many stores closing or accepting cash only and very few ATM’s in operation to get cash due to lack of internet/cell service.

Sister-in-law’s father is in COVID ICU and cannot visit via zoom or telephone as hospital’s telephone and internet is out. Only way to communicate is in person by writing notes on clip board and showing through glass.

It seems the whole telecom impact of this is under reported. Supposedly AT&T will not release the number of customers without service.

I am just amazed that damage to one building can create such an impact to our infrastructure.

My background is in the power industry where there are all kinds of standards for redundancy, whether lines, substations, or control centers. None should be susceptible to a single point of failure. Are there no similar standards for telecom?

 

[HangFire]

There are laws and standards for redundancy and reliability in telecom. AT&T and their ilk are desperate to avoid them, get out of the landline business and focus on cell phones.

 

[Number_35]

Just returned from spending Christmas at my parents house near Nashville. After the Nashville explosion on Christmas morning, I lost my AT&T cell service and my parents lost their AT&T land line and internet. Nearly 48 hours later cell service is still out at my parents house and at my house over 200 miles away! (and all points between). I feel like I have been transported back to the 80’s or even earlier since at least landlines worked in the 80’s

Reports of many stores closing or accepting cash only and very few ATM’s in operation to get cash due to lack of internet/cell service.

Sister-in-law’s father is in COVID ICU and cannot visit via zoom or telephone as hospital’s telephone and internet is out. Only way to communicate is in person by writing notes on clip board and showing through glass.

It seems the whole telecom impact of this is under reported. Supposedly AT&T will not release the number of customers without service.

I am just amazed that damage to one building can create such an impact to our infrastructure.

My background is in the power industry where there are all kinds of standards for redundancy, whether lines, substations, or control centers. None should be susceptible to a single point of failure. Are there no similar standards for telecom?

I worked in telecom for a power utility. Our telecom reliability requirements seemed to be an order of magnitude more stringent than a telco's.

We were part of a power pool with some American utilities, and had to comply with the NERC standards. There was a lot of emphasis on physical route diversity, and quick restoration time.

 

[dishdude]

It sure seems like this was a targeted attack on AT&T.

 

[nthach]

There are laws and standards for redundancy and reliability in telecom. AT&T and their ilk are desperate to avoid them, get out of the landline business and focus on cell phones.

Just returned from spending Christmas at my parents house near Nashville. After the Nashville explosion on Christmas morning, I lost my AT&T cell service and my parents lost their AT&T land line and internet. Nearly 48 hours later cell service is still out at my parents house and at my house over 200 miles away! (and all points between). I feel like I have been transported back to the 80’s or even earlier since at least landlines worked in the 80’s

Reports of many stores closing or accepting cash only and very few ATM’s in operation to get cash due to lack of internet/cell service.

Sister-in-law’s father is in COVID ICU and cannot visit via zoom or telephone as hospital’s telephone and internet is out. Only way to communicate is in person by writing notes on clip board and showing through glass.

It seems the whole telecom impact of this is under reported. Supposedly AT&T will not release the number of customers without service.

I am just amazed that damage to one building can create such an impact to our infrastructure.

My background is in the power industry where there are all kinds of standards for redundancy, whether lines, substations, or control centers. None should be susceptible to a single point of failure. Are there no similar standards for telecom?

Not really - and the scarier part is LECs like AT&T let CLECs and 3rd party vendors specializing in mission-critical connectivity host their equipment at their facilities or allow 3rd parties to be the pipe for their traffic. I know businesses that use a WAN(MPLS or SD-WAN) will usually sign an SLA with Verizon(they own XO), CenturyLink, Cogent, or another vendor who may not have a presence in all areas and the LEC has to respond to service calls. And it’s all interconnected - especially cell phones and public safety radios. Go to a leased cell site - there’s multiple fiber connections, multiple vendors of equipment(Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung or Motorola Solutions and Harris for public safety) but if one link goes down, it all goes down.

 

[dcd]

I worked in telecom for a power utility. Our telecom reliability requirements seemed to be an order of magnitude more stringent than a telco's.

We were part of a power pool with some American utilities, and had to comply with the NERC standards. There was a lot of emphasis on physical route diversity, and quick restoration time.

Yes, many power utilities have redundant telecom systems that are totally separate from telco’s. In fact many telcos lease physical fiber from power utilities.

 

[nthach]

PG&E in CA seems to use HughesNet at their local substations. I’ve seen satellite dishes at the local Kinder-Morgan depots.

I’ve noticed AT&T and T-Mobile tend to have their cell base stations at the same location. Crown Castle is one of the major cell/radio tower landlords/lessors. But, AT&T doesn’t have much redundancy for their cell sites - despite the fact they are pushing public safety LTE. Verizon once marketed the fact their cell sites have a diesel generator. I’ve seen T-Mobile park a generator nearby my house.

 

[M56959]

No one here knows the complete details of what happened, however speculation and theories are not BITOG purview.