A construction worker in Baltimore recently drilled through a fiber that knocked out 27 DS-3s. It impacted a few carriers.
In California, a developer doing road work on a new subdivision accidentally tore up 2,000 feet of fiber optic cable, knocking out voice, video and data for 20,000 business and residential customers.
Telephone, Internet and e-mail communications between Anchorage and communities north were significantly disrupted after an Alaska Railroad work crew accidentally severed a fiber link.
Problems like this are fairly common often, especially if you reside in an area undergoing heavy construction. Businesses need to be ready with alternate ways of reaching customers. Distributing private lines among competing carriers, specifying alternate routes, or having telephone numbers that reside on another network can mean the difference between staying open for business or shutting down operations for an indeterminate period.
