Telephone, Internet Outage in Silicon Valley
By Ed Oswald | Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Wire services are reporting that a massive telephone and Internet outage is affecting Northern California, including portions of Silcon Valley. Telephone and Internet is out for Verizon customers in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, NBC News reports. This does appear to be a case of deliberate vandalism: as many as five AT&T fiber-optic cables have been severed, and a Sprint cable was severed hours later.
The incident occurred around 1:30 am PT (4:30am ET) this morning. Verizon is sending technicians to the scene to assist AT&T in repairing the damage, although at this time it is not known how long the repairs will take. In the meantime, AT&T has begun to take steps in order to reroute traffic.
ZDNet were affected by the outage, with slow page loading times and time outs. 911 and other emergency services in the region have also reported some connectivity issues.
Who’s the vandal? AT&T is currently involved in tense negotations with the CWA over contracts for landline workers. The CWA has issued a statement, denying that its members have any involvement, and condemned “vandalism.” More on this as we get it…
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April 9th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
That’s great and all…but why is this any more important then the power outage that just happened in my area?
April 9th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Heh, well.. due to the fact its in Silicon Valley. Power outages and service disruptions there can cause bigger problems for IT.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Typical union terrorists. Do vandalism orders come from the locals or are they passed down from the national CWA?
April 9th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
One thing…. California is not under the “tense negotations” contract talks. The contract only includes Michigan,Ohio,Wisconsin,Illinois and Indiana.
April 9th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
But other districts will soon be under talks through out the summer as well.
April 9th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
If California CWA isn’t negotiating with AT&T, they’ve pulled a fast one on their members. AT&T and CWA are negotiating in 5 districts, which include employees in CA, NV, MO, KS, OK, AR, TX, WI, IL, MI, IN, OH, CT, and employees who work for what was “The Company Formerly Known as AT&T” before it merged with “The Company Formerly Known as SBC” to become “The Company Now Known as AT&T.”
The district that represents “The Company Formerly Knowns as BellSouth,” also merged into “The Company Now Known as AT&T,” was negotiating as well, but recessed those talks until mid-July. Their contract expires in August.
As for whether or not the talks are “tense,” see http://district9.cwa-union.org/att/ for one (possible subjective) side of the story.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Betty you are way off. SomeGuy is correct. The IBEW and CWA District 3 (old BellSouth) are the only part of AT&T that is not negotiating at this time.
April 9th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
To call these acts “vandalism” is disingenuous. It’s sabotage, pure and simple, by someone with special tools and the insider knowledge of where to access the cables so as to cause the maximum amount of damage.
April 10th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Andrew, correct. I still question which terrorist union cell issued the directive: if it was the national organization or one of the many splinter cells that operate as local unions.
April 10th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Perhaps the union appologists can tell us what “BY ANY MEAN NECESSARY” and “WHATEVER IT TAKES” slogans on the CWA web sites mean.
http://district4.cwa-union.org/news/cwa-d4-at-t-midwest-bargaining-report-23.html
Probably that union fat cats are willing to cut off emergency 911 service to preserve their featherbedding prerogatives.
District 9, which covers CA, even has a post describing their “The War Against Tyrannical CEO’s”. It must be quite tyrannical for them to be offered 2% built-in raises in this economy.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12106301?nclick_check=1
“If people had emergencies, they were told to run outside and flag down passing patrol cars or drive to the nearest fire station. Firefighters perched on a hilltop to scout for fires. Banks locked their doors, issued handwritten receipts for deposits and allowed only one person inside at a time. Many restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations took cash only. Checks were made on the welfare of housebound residents and senior centers.”
“People were unable to call 911 throughout the day, but access was restored by Thursday evening. Four emergency stations were set up in Gilroy. At the main fire station in Gilroy, a caregiver rushed in to report that a girl was suffering a seizure at a medical facility. An ambulance took her to the hospital.”
“AT&T spokesman John Britton didn’t want to speculate about whether the sabotage may have been an inside job, but said one of the company’s fundamental security measures was obviously breached.
“One of them is to have those big, heavy covers over the manholes and special ways to get them off,” Britton said. “There’s a tool you use. And in this case someone obviously had access to that.””
CWA motto- WHATEVER IT TAKES… including girls having seizures and firemen having to use binoculars.
April 10th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this criminal act. Nothing justifies endangering the public in this way. Nothing.
April 10th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
First, I “mistyped” on the states that are involved in the total contract… My husband chastized me after the fact. Sorry.. still getting used to all this, but I am learning fast!!!
If these acts were commited by “skilled” humans as it says in the reports, they acted on very poor judgement and were obiviously with out a rational thought. Also, they acted ALONE…without influence!!! It is totally counter productive for a union member let alone a union as a whole to act like Idiots and Animals in a day and age they are in! Shame on the “skilled humans” OR the people who are trying to mess with the union and give them bad press! Karma is a Bi$@h regardless of who you are! Straighten up and think about people as a whole that could suffer from acts and stupidity like this.
April 11th, 2009 at 7:23 am
How do you reconcile your rebuke with the motto “WHATEVER IT TAKES”? And a “war on tyrannical CEOs”
What does that mean if not sabotage and intimidation? Clearly wearing red shirts isnt getting it done, so the union was a plan B.