When the phones go down...

**Badawg** · 04-23-2009, 12:58 AM

An intersting read on the recent fiberoptic cable vandalism That happened in the SF bay area recently. If you remember, this little hack job brought down all 911 service in 3 counties...

http://perens.com/works/articles/MorganHill/

**Rick** · 04-23-2009, 05:36 AM

Wow. No big secret here. No terrorist villains. Let's see, AT&T negotiations with CWA break down. No contract reached by deadline. Both sides agree to continue to talk. Contract expires. Cables get cut. Golly gee. I wonder how that could have happened?

I've seen this same thing too many times. I was walking picket in 1974 when one of the guys I worked with pulled up in his pickup.

"Go look in the back of the truck," he said with a grin.

There lay a three foot section of 300 pair cable. I told him to get the he** out of there and not say another word. I didn't want to know any more. It turns out he had cut the cable "to show the company". What stupidity. When an employee sabotages their employer's property, all it does is damage the customer. How many 911 calls were delayed? How may patients in that hospital had treatment delayed? How many elderly folks went without being checked on? That same employee was later fired on unrelated charges and I said good riddance.

I don't care who you work for, damaging your employers equipment to send a message is just stupid. It winds up costing your customer in the end. Someone has to pay for it and it lands squarely on the customer. If you have a problem with your employer then sit down and talk to them like a man. If you can't get it resolved and your still that unhappy, move on.

Here's another article that sort of lays it out:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_121063...ce=most_viewed

**Ole WV Coot** · 04-23-2009, 11:40 AM

Never in my 32+ years on the East Coast did anyone I work with vandalize cable. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it harder to locate a damaged fiber cable if it's hit and banged, not a clean cut ? Lots of manholes I have worked in fiber is easily identified. In some areas gas or worse, dead air makes it dangerous just to enter and on a fiber loop can't it be fed in either direction from the CO? In one city I do know equipment wasn't fused because everything was underground and drawing dial tone or an outside short with house current would cause serious damage with copper cable to inside electronics. I have repaired every type of damage and the old pulp cable hit with a shotgun over several feet takes a long long time. Old maintenance splicers like me knew what and where to cut for max damage but the type of employee sure has changed.

**trax** · 04-23-2009, 11:43 AM

Doesn't matter why it happened, though, the fact that it did is enough. I was impressed in reading the articles with how well people responded. That line about the kid who was "so alone" because he couldn't text his friends I thought was pathetic. I liked what this doctor had to say, quoted from the article Rick posted : "Actually, I'm quite happy that something like this happened, because we get to test it in real life," said Dr. Amit Mathur, an anesthesiologist at Saint Louise. "Nobody's running around panicking."

**Rick** · 04-23-2009, 12:03 PM

The truth is things like that happen every day. Perhaps not to that extent but you'd be surprised how many get damaged every week. And how they get damaged. Sometimes it is a 25 pair, sometimes much larger. No matter the cause or the size some customer is inconvenienced. And I certainly never worked with anyone that didn't give up whatever they had planned with their family to fix them.

Manholes can be a really dangerous place. They collect all kinds of nasties. In the old days you just popped the cover and set up a fresh air trailer to blow it out. Now they use a sniffer to see what is down there. We had one full of gasoline fumes from a nearby gas station that had a tank leaking. A sniffer happened to find it before the cover was pulled off. Probably a good thing, too.

All you have to do is hang a set of tools on your hip and walk in carrying a test set and you have free pass to just about anywhere. The ONLY place I was ever stopped and ID demanded was working in a prison, working with the Secret Service during a Presidential visit and in a federal court house during a high profile trial by a U.S. Marshal that was about 10 feet tall and nearly as broad across the shoulder. My lip about, "You bet, it's right there on four wheels" didn't seem to cut it with him. At which point I kept my mouth shut and fished out my ID along with a lot of "sorries".

**trax** · 04-23-2009, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by Rick

All you have to do is hang a set of tools on your hip and walk in carrying a test set and you have free pass to just about anywhere.

Unfortunately, that is too true everywhere. I do believe we've had conversations about personal vigilence in the past...struggling for a way to fit "ergo" into this post...ooooh, I just did!

**Barefoot** · 04-23-2009, 10:48 PM

about 2 yrs ago some druggies destroyed the telephone wiring station thinggy (dont know what to call it) in my community and left 1600 people without phone for 3 days-2 weeks for some. they wanted the copper in the wiring for drug money.

interestingly enough, one of the same gentlemen was found dead about a year ago under a utility pole. he had wrapped a bicycle innertube around some cutters and tried to cut ELECTRIC CABLE. he was smoked and laid there rotting for 3 days before he was found due to the smell of his rotting corpse reaching the road.

enjoy!

**Rick** · 04-24-2009, 06:40 AM

Too bad. Theft has always been a problem. Probably more so today I'm sure. I've seen guys steal wire still on the reel. Cart it off some place and try to burn it for the copper. It's a lot of work for very little copper. You usually find the reels half burned and abandoned.

Nothing like making friends with some part of a 7200 or 12470 distribution. Sort of gives new meaning to the word 'Smokin'.