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I find it interesting that all our major _competing_ cell phone providers were equally affected in a pretty material way by this. The claim (by Bell) is that a
by sbarre 7y ago
I find it interesting that all our major _competing_ cell phone providers were equally affected in a pretty material way by this.
The claim (by Bell) is that a "third-party fibre line" way up in North Bend BC was the root cause of this problem..
I know providers all stick their own gear on the same towers, but I guess I didn't realize how common it was for the top-level providers (i.e. the ILECs) to lease cables (as opposed to running their own). I always assumed this was just the resellers (CLECs) who did it..
I wonder if that cable is fully third-party owned, or belongs to TELUS (the quad-play provider for western Canada) and Bell/Rogers lease capacity from them for their wireless services.
- bobthepanda 7y ago> North Bend BC OT, but I was curious and looked it up, and there are three North Bends in the Pacific Northwest (OR, WA, and BC). What a coincidence!
- bearcobra 7y agoBased on an area information lookup, the line likely belongs to Shaw https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/sitt/bbmap/hm.html?lang=eng https://www.ic.gc.ca/app/sitt/bbmap/hm.html?lang=eng
- JTon 7y agoLonghaul cable infrastructure is expensive. Especially in Canada where business cases are crippled by thousands of km of emptiness (no opportunity to recover investments). Providers often swap lines through IRU agreements to reduce capital intensity. I've heard but can't confirm the infrastructure in question was laid down by CP and CN rail back in the 90s. I don't know the ownership structure. But I know the railways are still involved in the maintenance.
- Scoundreller 7y agoYou’re on the right track: Was called CNCP telecommunications: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNCP_Telecommunications https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNCP_Telecommunications
- mcpherrinm 7y agoOne interesting thing is that North Bend is alongside a highway/railway/river. Even if there were multiple independent cables running alongside the river, I suppose a large landslide could knock them all out. There are railway tracks on both sides of the river though, and phone lines were often run alongside railway tracks (or roads), so even though it's one valley, two fiber paths should be possible. Ideally you'd ensure geographically diverse routes for internet fiber, but I don't know how easy that is for legacy telephony networks. https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Bend,+BC,+Canada/@49.8847911,-121.534133,67211m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x548168489e864747:0xaa77aff7a5764798!8m2!3d49.882363!4d-121.4558121 https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Bend,+BC,+Canada/@49...
- Scoundreller 7y ago> I find it interesting that all our major _competing_ cell phone providers Bell and Telus got together to build their networks when they upgraded to 3G. Bell runs the towers in the east, and Telus in the west. (And they got Huawei to do it for them...) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/bell-teams-up-with-rival-telus-on-3g/article1200256/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/bell-teams-up-wit... The CEOs of these competitors literally called each other up and had a friendly about how to save themselves a few billion while eliminating the risk of any price war between eachother. They’re literally the same network appearing as 1. So while you have the big3 « providers » and a bazillion of their sub-brands, there’s only 2 « national » networks. And then Rogers leases some network space from Bell/Telus as the Rogers-Ext network for some rural areas, meaning everyone is using the same gear on the same tower.