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A Hole In the Net, Down Under

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the you-can-never-get-enough-fiber dept.

cjm_in_oz writes: "Since 4pm yesterday, Australia's leading ISP has lost 60% of its bandwidth due to either an earthquake, or as is more likely, a ship's anchor. Read more here ." Most of the entire continent's bandwidth, you see, courses through a particular manhole ... sheesh. This sure sounds like an argument for more and more fiber, along different courses.

5 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. The outage is 60% of Telstra, not Australia! by dustpuppy · · Score: 5
    Just to clarify the point, the cable that has been cut has resulted in a 60% loss in capacity for Telstra. Telstra happens to be the biggest provider of Internet access for Australia, but it is not the only provider, there are others, eg Optus. So while Telstra customers are experiencing slow Internet access, us people on Optus are experiencing no such delays.

    And a couple of additional bits of information:

    • Telstra doesn't have any connection to the new fat pipe to the US - Optus does.
    • Telstra has restored capacity to approximately 75% by rerouting traffic through satellites

  2. They have limited bandwidth.. and what happens.. by mrbill · · Score: 5

    When an ISP is operating under limited bandwidth, the LAST thing you want to do is POST A STORY ON SLASHDOT POINTING TO A WEB SERVER ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PIPE, restricting said bandwidth even further. *sigh*

  3. Timothy, puhlease... by lpontiac · · Score: 5
    Try not to be such a patronising twat. You make Australia sound like some kind of backwater that's up there with the places they have more guns than food.
    • Most of the entire continent's bandwidth, you see, courses through a particular manhole ... sheesh
    Read the article, and you'll see:

    • Other ISPs and networks such as Optus were uncongested.
    Yes, Timothy, we do have more than one ISP out here. And I believe Telstra carries a minority of traffic (given they're over 100% times more expensive than other bandwidth providers). Anyone that has someone like Optus or uuNet (my ISP has redundant links to both) as their upstream would not have been any more affected by this than your typical American (some Aussie sites may have been down).
  4. So that's what it was... by ectizen · · Score: 5

    I thought I was having a flashback to when pr0n arraived at 2400 baud...

    --

  5. Now ain't that suspicious by Leghk · · Score: 5

    Only a week ago a competing company fired up a new link.. Now suddenly their only competition has their wire cut. Hmm. Sounds like a good way to acquire customers for that new expensive link, -- while permanently destroying your competition.

    Sounds like what they were talking about in Cryptonomicon, cable cutting wars. Easy to start, but nobody dares start them.