Major UK Comms Backbone Bunker Burned Out

evilandi writes "The BBC are reporting that much of Manchester, England is without telephone service following a fire in a major underground tunnel system. The site in question is strongly suspected to be the 'Guardian' nuclear communications bunker system which is one of the main three UK subterranean communications backbone bunkers. The giveaway is this regional BBC news story which mentions Chapel Street, one of the very few entrance/exit points to the 'Guardian' system. If confirmed, Manchester could be without wired communications for some time. The MANAP Manchester Network Access Point regional Internet hub is officially reporting nothing, but a number of UK admins are seeing significant disruption."

Comments

Not everyone will notice

[thebra]

"while AOL said its customers in the area, who are connected to the BT network, would also experience problems."
...and they were so close to figuring out how to use internet...

Ping? *sizzle*

[Dark Lord Seth]

Pinging guardian.co.uk [212.187.153.21] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for 212.187.153.21:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 0, Burned to a crisp = 4 (100% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

Funniest line of the article

[mehtajr]

"People experiencing problems with their telephones were also asked not to report the fault."

Too bad they told them to wait. I can see it now, thousands of people screaming in the general direction of the phone company's office. A modern day, less funny, Monty Python sketch waiting to happen.

Re:Strange

[Scoria]

It's not. This is an obvious Al Qaeda attack against the free world's communications infrastructure. We need to invade Iran NOW and capture the terrorists operating out of there before it gets worse. Today it's wired telephone service, tomorrow millions of Finnish teenagers could be without cellular phone service. We must all band together to stop the terrorists.

Who authored this message, Bush or Dick?

Re:air in the tunnels?

[Neil Blender]

I was under the impression that many of these tunnels were filled with inert gasses, such as SF6

We keep sending guys to check on that, but they never come back...

Can you hear me now????

[Anonymous Coward]

I say, old chap... can you hear me now??????????

Malt vinegar and fish oil contributed largely to..

[planckscale]

...the fire delaying precious orders for more chips. Those near the fire were quoted as saying "Bloody fiber isn't in our diets anyway."

Re:Use protection!

[Draknor]

However, I do not wish to be seen as the 800 pound ogre in this market, so I am now offering licenses for my IP to all Scoria customers at the low rate of $699.00 per brain.

I take it there are significant discounts for SCO & RIAA directors, then?