nanog mailing list archives

Re: Telecom Collapse?


From: Chris Adams <cmadams () hiwaay net>
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 09:53:49 -0600

Once upon a time, Paul Stewart <pstewart () nexicomgroup net> said:
What worries me the most is a power outage longer than say 8 hours.
This is the typical battery time at most cell sites, telco remotes and
many telco CO's.  Beyond those 8 hours, it's quite probable that the
site will go down and you'll have no cell or landline anyways.

The AT&T (BellSouth) remotes around here installed in the last 10 years
or so typically have natural gas generators installed, and the COs have
a pair of generators for redundancy.  Even many of the cell towers have
generators.  The telco infrastructure is pretty well backed up (I don't
know how well tested any of it is of course).

On the other hand, it appears that the cable infrastructure doesn't even
all have batteries (I know some people whose cable voice and data
services blink with the power).

-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams () hiwaay net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.


Current thread: