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Agreed about privacy, but the "Mobile phones continue to work during a disaster" is a very optimistic view. It was no a disaster, far from it. In Belgium, few

Agreed about privacy, but the "Mobile phones continue to work during a disaster" is a very optimistic view. It was no a disaster, far from it. In Belgium, few years ago, a fire under a bridge broke an bunch of fibers from the main telco operator. Result on a region of about 200,000 inhabitants: - no radio (on my usual station), first thing I noted that morning. - no internet - no TV (comes via internet) - no cell phone coverage - no land-line either - emergency calls impossible (by cell-phone or land-line) This started early in the morning and was only solved in the afternoon for most people. We are over-reliant on some technology with many single point of failure we do not even know about.

sandos 7y ago
That sounds insane. Any network other than very basic ones should have physical redudancy, ie. not being in the same duct or even travelling close to eachother. Hell, our local MAN network here does it! Thats in a city with 130k inhabitants, they actually made the network backbone out of redundant rings. I would hope most telco networks would be somewhat resilient.
- briffle 7y ago
  A former employer of mine tried to have redundant connections. They had two fibers from two different providers, going separate paths from their Dallas office, etc. However, the 2nd provider utilized a 3rd provider as a regional carrier. And for about 100 miles between Dallas and Chicago, the fibers were run in conduits that were side by side. We discovered that when a single backhoe took down phones, data, etc, to all our southeast Region offices. (it also affected many others). Found out the hard way, that the 2nd providers redundant uplink also went through the same connection. Good luck tracing your fibers all the way from end to end.. Most of this stuff is all contracted to 3rd parties, and most don't want to give you detailed maps.
  - mordechai9000 7y ago
    Companies often sell services to each other, too. So what you think is a redundant connection may just be a link on the same fiber, resold.
- hyperman1 7y ago
  I heard in this case, both Proximus and Telenet, the main operators in Belgium, run their fibers in the same conduit. So every company thought they were redundant by buing both, but weren't. I also heard the railways are the main fiber provider: They have long stretches of rail between all major cities, so they are ideal for fiber. But very bad for redundancy
jolmg 7y ago
> - no radio (on my usual station), first thing I noted that morning. I imagine that's internet radio? That couldn't be normal AM/FM radio.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Normal AM/FM radio still needs a way to send the audio data to the transmitter. Either the studio was in the region and their internet uplink was affected, or the local transmitter was using the internet to receive the audio feed.
- leghifla 7y ago
  It was FM radio, and I think the studio sends its data to the antenna using some internet link, which was down.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]

sandos 7y ago

That sounds insane. Any network other than very basic ones should have physical redudancy, ie. not being in the same duct or even travelling close to eachother. Hell, our local MAN network here does it! Thats in a city with 130k inhabitants, they actually made the network backbone out of redundant rings. I would hope most telco networks would be somewhat resilient.

briffle 7y ago
A former employer of mine tried to have redundant connections. They had two fibers from two different providers, going separate paths from their Dallas office, etc. However, the 2nd provider utilized a 3rd provider as a regional carrier. And for about 100 miles between Dallas and Chicago, the fibers were run in conduits that were side by side. We discovered that when a single backhoe took down phones, data, etc, to all our southeast Region offices. (it also affected many others). Found out the hard way, that the 2nd providers redundant uplink also went through the same connection. Good luck tracing your fibers all the way from end to end.. Most of this stuff is all contracted to 3rd parties, and most don't want to give you detailed maps.
- mordechai9000 7y ago
  Companies often sell services to each other, too. So what you think is a redundant connection may just be a link on the same fiber, resold.
hyperman1 7y ago
I heard in this case, both Proximus and Telenet, the main operators in Belgium, run their fibers in the same conduit. So every company thought they were redundant by buing both, but weren't. I also heard the railways are the main fiber provider: They have long stretches of rail between all major cities, so they are ideal for fiber. But very bad for redundancy

jolmg 7y ago

> - no radio (on my usual station), first thing I noted that morning. I imagine that's internet radio? That couldn't be normal AM/FM radio.

Nextgrid 7y ago
Normal AM/FM radio still needs a way to send the audio data to the transmitter. Either the studio was in the region and their internet uplink was affected, or the local transmitter was using the internet to receive the audio feed.
leghifla 7y ago
It was FM radio, and I think the studio sends its data to the antenna using some internet link, which was down.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]