[Outages-discussion] [outages] Verizon Issues?

[Jay Hennigan]

Charles Sprickman via Outages wrote:
> *Subject:* Re: [outages] Verizon Issues?
>
> So in other words, VZ has under-engineered their network so that a
> single point of failure brings the entire 911 system down for the
> region?  At the prices government pays for telco contracts, one would
> hope that’s not the case.

It probably isn't the case at all. Although true to some extent, media 
reports and corporate press releases tend to really drive home the 
impact on emergency services of these incidents.

It's certainly true that any singly-homed nodes downstream of the cut 
won't be able to initiate a call to 9-1-1. They also won't be able to 
call their local pizza parlor or escort service.

"These reckless perpetrators are risking the lives of countless 
Americans by cutting access to key lines of communications, especially 
to local police, fire and rescue personnel", makes a good press release. 
"Entire neighborhoods in disarray, unable to order pizza and hookers", 
not so much.

Don't get me wrong, this type of vandalism and destruction is a serious 
crime and *could* result in tragedy. Its impact on ability to reach 
emergency help is real. However, this aspect seems to always be the big 
story whenever there is any kind of outage affecting POTS or other voice 
services regardless of whether any actual emergency calls were prevented 
or delayed.

Yes, on that phone, they can't call 9-1-1. They can't call anyone else, 
either.
--
Jay Hennigan - CCIE #7880 - Network Engineering - jay at impulse.net
Impulse Internet Service  -  http://www.impulse.net/
Your local telephone and internet company - 805 884-6323 - WB6RDV