Thursday, April 8, 2010

Another Thaw Reveals More Random Outages

I went home early yesterday afternoon, bringing my laptop with me in the hopes that I could enjoy my new little girl (just 6 weeks old) at home while still getting some work done. Now, I must preface this story with the guild-ridden confession that my home internet is not Accel-Networks wireless, but alas, the common consumer-focused cable/phone/internet packages so readily available. And, of course, I've made myself into a case study for Accel's benefit.

The broadband... out. Cable... out. My wife would have called to warn me, but of course, phones... out.

What happened? We looked up the cable company on our cell phones and called. The answer: another big thaw, and more random outages. The winter wreaks havoc on terrestrial networks, but often times, the damage is not realized until the thaw brings it to light. Freeze and thaw cracks insulation, and the inundation of water that comes much later then shorts the cable's connection. Often, the results go unreported--diminished signal, calls drop, etc. A total outage, as in our case, is somewhat rare. Unless, that is, you're on fiber-optic.

With the exploding popularity of fiber-optic cable now feeding much of the suburban landscape with their data networks, utility companies are realizing an unwanted downside. Fiber is surprisingly more susceptible to the freeze/thaw hazards than copper. Ground upheavals caused by temperature changes and water-table movement, combined with the jeopardized casings and conduits filling with water, lead to fiber outages that leave entire neighborhoods offline.

So, this spring, as the northern half of the U.S. begins to thaw, linemen and trenchmen everywhere can enjoy the budding trees and chirping birds as they sniff out and repair the inevitable onslaught of random outages. Ahh, the joys of spring time.

Labels: Broadband, Copper Cable, Fiber Optic, Random Outages