On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 8:51 AM, Seth Mattinen <se...@rollernet.us> wrote: > On 8/3/12 8:56 AM, William Herrin wrote: >> It >> seems the telcos and cable companies don't consider the commodity >> Internet part of their equipment to be something which needs >> electricity during an extended grid outage. Cox. Verizon. I'm looking >> at you. > > Most don't, and for the price being paid on commodity connections I feel > indifferent about it.
Back in the day they kept my land line phone on during extended power outages. And that was when they had to power the phone. Now all they have to do is power the equipment on their end of the line. My phone's out because hey, voip. My Sprint cell phone's out because the fools can't power their towers. It's 105 degrees out and I'm screwed if someone has a heat stroke because we can't even call 911. > The central plant days are mostly gone; there's > fiber huts everywhere and not enough trucks/manpower (in my area a > lineman sits in his truck and reads a book while tethered to the power > kiosk) to run them all if the outage is too widespread for too long. They put a quarter million dollars into the fiber hut. They can't put a $500 gasoline generator in a warehouse 50 miles away and go pick it up when there's an extended outage? I'll give Verizon a little credit. They restored service after about 12 hours of outage. Cox didn't restore service until 12 hours *after* my power came back on. Could be worse. I could have Pepco instead of Dominion. But it could be better. And 20 years ago the reliability was. -Bill -- William D. Herrin ................ her...@dirtside.com b...@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004
