Re: Qwest Utah fiber cut

[sgorman1 () gmu edu]

Now it makes sense - we were missing the fiber route along US HWY 89.  We have data on their nation wide OC-192 network 
and metro fiber, but figured there was something we were missing.  Also explains why other providers were not affected 
- it must be a unique right of way.  Appreciate the help.

sean


----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron D. Gifford" <agifford () infowest com>
Date: Friday, May 21, 2004 3:39 pm
Subject: Re: Qwest Utah fiber cut

> sgorman1 () gmu edu wrote:
> > I was hoping someone might be able to shed some light on the 
> Utah cut.
> > The news report said that the cut happened near Monroe Utah, 
> which is several miles off of I 70.  Yet the cities that were 
> reported effected included St. George, Cedar City, and Salt Lake, 
> which all are adjacent to I 15.
> > The puzzling part is that in our "best effort" database Qwest 
> does not have long haul fiber running down I 70, but it does have 
> a lot of fiber running down I 15.  There is Qwest fiber on I 15, 
> all the cities affected are on I 15 yet the reported cut was near 
> Monroe off of I 70.
> > I'm not familiar with Utah geogrpahy and this comes simply from 
> looking at our maps.  Just trying to sort out the seeming 
> discrepency.  Any insight?
> >
> <<snip>>
>
> According to this map at 
> http://atlas.utah.gov/staticmapbin/urta_network.gif the Qwest 
> fiber in 
> question runs southward along I-15 from Salt Lake City, through 
> Utah 
> Valley (Provo, Utah, etc.) to Nephi, Utah, then turns eastward 
> away from 
> the I-15 corridor until it reaches highway 89, which it follows 
> southward parallel to I-15 but one mountain range to the east.  It 
> continues southward along 89 until I-17, then follows I-70 until 
> it ends 
> where it meets I-15, where the fiber continues southward along I-
> 15 to 
> St. George, Utah (where I'm at), the end-of-the-one-lane-dead-end 
> road.
> This route would be consistent with the news reports saying the 
> cut was 
> near Monroe, Utah or near Richfield, Utah.
>
> Such a route would agree with the telecommunication territories as 
> mapped out at http://atlas.utah.gov/telcom/viewer.htm which shows 
> Qwest 
> territories along I-15 except for the central Utah areas where 
> Qwest's 
> fiber follows highway 89 (which area IS a Qwest territory).
>
> While the news articles only mention that cellular, long distance, 
> 911, 
> and internet services were affected but local calling was not, 
> this is 
> not entirely true.  As one affected by the cut, I can attest that 
> the 
> resulting additional load on the local switches (perhaps as people 
> were 
> calling each other to find out what was happening -- I don't know) 
> made 
> many phones utterly useless, including my own.
>
> A similar cut happened some years go around Springville, Utah.  I 
> had 
> thought that Quest had since worked with local public safety folks 
> to 
> set up emergency 911 services that rely on the fiber to 
> automatically 
> fall-over to Qwest's older and lower bandwidth microwave network. 
> Apparently that plan fell by the wayside, or else I misheard it in 
> the 
> first place.
>
> Local area public safety personnel resorted to using the Emergency 
> Broadcast System over radio (television translators were also 
> affected 
> as many of them receive their video feeds over that same fiber) to 
> tell 
> citizens the direct-dial numbers, and in cases (like my home 
> phone) 
> where the phone system wasn't working at all (probably due to 
> overload), 
> local public safety folks told people to go to their nearest fire 
> station for emergency help.
>
> Messages over local radio indicated that the outage not only 
> affected 
> southwestern Utah counties (almost 1/3 of the state by area), but 
> Lincoln County, Nevada, and Mohave and Coconino Counties in 
> Arizona 
> (north of the Grand Canyon).  I don't know how accurate that 
> message was.
>
> Aaron out.