The Biggest Dangers to Your Fiber

ffejie writes "Fred Lawler, SVP of Global Field Services at Level 3 has an amusing look at some strange fiber cuts that he's seen in his days maintaining a large fiber network across the U.S. Whether it's squirrels, vandals, storms or truckers, it seems everyone has a new way to destroy the fiber that keeps the global communications infrastructure afloat."

Comments

Oh....

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought it was going to be something about problems with All-Bran.
Well slashdot has been around for a while now...

Survival tip: always carry fiber.

[Tackhead]

Reminds me of the old joke:

Whether you like to go on a cruise or hike across the backcountry, the experienced traveler always carries a length of fiber-optic cable. Whether you end up shipwrecked and stranded on a desert island, or lost in the wilderness, all you have to do is bury the cable in the sand, snow, or dirt.

A few hours later, a guy driving a backhoe will be along to dig up the fiber. Hitch a ride with him back to civilization.

Re:Survival tip: always carry fiber.

[rubycodez]

The variation I heard on that joke 25 years ago had cable tv coax.

Learning to read?

[L1B3R4710N]

When they say "call before digging", I think they mean it...

Re:Learning to read?

[DudeTheMath]

Seriously, when they only bury it four inches deep, it doesn't matter. My fiber has been cut three times, twice by the neighbor just edging his lawn. Finally, Verizon sent out their own techs instead of a contractor, and buried it eighteen inches or so.

Re:Learning to read?

[smpoole7]

Even "call before dig" doesn't always work, though. When we were building our new studios, the plumbing contractor called a locator to make sure he missed the gas main. The locator was off by about 10 feet. My assistants and I were on the roof of the building, lining up the 2' dish for a microwave data link when we started smelling the gas. Needless to say, we cleared out.

The telcos themselves don't always get it right. I can't tell you how many times ATT's *own*contractors* have cut the T1 line at one of our 100,000 watt FMs. We went for a couple of weeks with a temporary line literally thrown across the ground, about 1/4 mile up the dirt road to the tower site. They figured it wasn't worth repairing until the contractors were finally done. :)

Re:Learning to read?

[Mitchell314]

The average Case backhoe can dig down 15 feet. A long-reach excavator can dig 72 feet. You'd be hard pressed to bury fiber "deeper than stupid".

Problem is that the planet is only 4,000 miles in radius.

Re:Learning to read?

[Hidyman]

I agree.
If you are on the interstate you probably have more than 8 miles to go.
I often go over 100 MPH on the Interstate (admittedly I'm usually on my bike doing that, but not always [turbos are fun]).
Interstates are built to go fast.

If the person on your right is going faster than you then you are most likely in the wrong lane.

Re:Learning to read?

[dbc]

4 inches???? Ummmm... sorry, that ain't code. At least not in California. I own some mountain (ranch land) property in the only county in California that does not have a single stop light :) Any time I've tried to dig a hole that had to be in a particular place, it usually requires blasting granite rock to get more than 12 inches deep. Still, the phone company puts things down 24 inches. Now, sometimes they build a "Woody wall" -- for a simple copper pair it sometimes isn't worth going down 24 inches, so they go down as far as they can and then pile rocks on top until they get 24 inches of cover. They don't have to walk very far to find enough rocks :) And the building inspector signs it off. (It's call a "Woody wall" because a Cat driver named Woody had the idea originally.)

Anyway.... a couple of years ago the local phone company put 10,000 feet of fiber across my property. They did that right and proper. First, a D8 Cat comes along with a vibratory pre-ripper that can chew through most rock and that you can hear two miles away. Then a D6 pulling a ripper/plow lays down conduit. A third D6 covers. They blow fiber from pull boxes. They put down 10,000 feet without blasting, although they were a little choosy about the route. (BTW, a D8 is big enough that moving it around on a low boy is an oversize load and requires permits and such, so they don't use it unless they need it. You also might wonder why they have fiber in an area with more bear than people -- it feeds mountain top communication towers, mainly. But I could have a DS3 at my otherwise off-grid cabin if I wanted to pay the monthly :)

Anyway.... 4 inches? That's bush league. I can't imagine how the building inspector signs that off.

Re:Learning to read?

[davester666]

No. Each end is now about 14 inches too short.

Crack heads?

[Fishead]

A buddy of mine had to sit at the bottom of a muddy hole in the middle of a sunday night splicing fiber once. Somebody used a truck to yank a length out of the ground thinking it was copper they could recycle.

What cuts the 4G wireless

[retroworks]

America, always fighting the last war against squirrels. We need to look forward, it is the flying squirrels who represent the risk tomorrow.

Re:What cuts the 4G wireless

[gman003]

Fact: The Predator drone was originally created to defend against the flying squirrel menace. However, due to normal government incompetence, it was instead used in the War on Terror.

Soldiers at the front continued to be baffled by why the drone's decoy launcher is filled with acorns instead of flares, something they, too, attribute to typical government incompetence.

Eminent Domain

[dcollins]

FTA -- "Well I’ve saved the best for last. There was a landowner whose property stretched across the border between Georgia and Florida. He was mad at Florida DOT because he didn’t get enough money when they purchased the right-of-way to widen the highway that cut through his property."

Okay, super-raw nerve here... because this is happening to my father's farm even as we speak. (Power company taking a strip directly through the middle of the farm on a state border, used for 5 generations by my family, for an unnecessary power line to nowhere.) The guy is not mad "because he didn't get enough money". He's mad because you threatened him with eminent domain, that he had no capacity to refuse giving up the strip of land, and he's super-mad and frustrated to realize he doesn't actually control what he thought was his own property. And you ruined the use of that property by cutting it in two. And yes, the power company we're dealing with is spewing similar spin in the PR battle. But that doesn't make it so.

He's mad and feeling powerless because you stole something under threat of state violence. Sorry, today I can't laugh at what you thought was your crazy-hilarious "best" punch-line.

Re:Eminent Domain

[jdpars]

Except the funny part has nothing to do with why he was mad. These things suck, yes, but getting a temper about it and damaging the lines is terrible to both sides. The joke is that he almost got away with it until he opened his mouth. I understand that you're bitter, but if you fight it civilly, then your situation is nothing like the man in #10.

Re:Eminent Domain

[Kral_Blbec]

Reading Comprehension fail.
There was already a highway running through the property. Eminent domain was used to purchase land to widen it. That's a big difference. He lost a few lanes worth of usable land from the border (and was paid for it), but that's hardly the same thing as punching a new hole down the center.

He was mad at Florida DOT because he didn’t get enough money when they purchased the right-of-way to widen the highway that cut through his property.

Re:Eminent Domain

[Mr. Slippery]

He's mad and feeling powerless because you stole something under threat of state violence.

"Stole something"? Who issued that land deed that turned a section of the planet's surface into "property"?

Property is created by the state. No one in the U.S. has some natural right to land, it's all stolen property. (Except maybe some reservation territory, and much of that was stolen from one tribe by the feds and given to another tribe.) Your "right" to "own" some specific piece of land is dependent on the public good.

Now, certainly eminent domain is sometimes used to fatten the pockets of the powerful rather than for the public good, and sometimes people are not justly compensated. Those are legitimate complaints. But complaining about the existence of eminent domain betrays an ignorance of the nature of property. It has always been the case that private property can be taken for public use, provided that appropriate compensation is made. It's in the Constitution, for cryin' out loud.

Re:Eminent Domain

[sjames]

Indeed, if you fight it civilly, they'll be back for more next year.

Re:Eminent Domain

[wierd_w]

Strange, I was under the impression that there was a constitutional right to prevent such things.. You know, the 5th amendment, which clearly says:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

The definition of "Just" in "Just compensation" is debatable, or course--- (In the case of it rendering a farm useless, what would be considered just compensation? Compensation for the loss of production, or just for the base-price of the property itself?) but your view on emminent domain is quite clearly not what was intended by the framers of the constitution.

Re:Eminent Domain

[superdave80]

I'm a little confused by the outcome to this story:

He refused to let anyone repair the fiber on threat of death! When law enforcement arrived, Mr. Landowner had moved back over to the Georgia side and claimed he had no idea how the damage had been done. He was out of their jurisdiction. There were no witnesses, and all the law enforcement could do was talk to him and try to get him to confess.

First point: Aren't they guys that were threatened with the 12 gauge considered 'witnesses'?

Second point: All you have to do to avoid arrest is go to the next state??? I'm pretty sure they just arrested a family of bank robbers in Colorado that shot at police in an entirely different state.

Re:Eminent Domain

[Martin Blank]

There were limits to what the police could do in the initial circumstances when all they had was two parties who accused each other of being in the wrong. However, once he said that he would threaten them again, he had both confessed and made a threat of physical violence in the presence of law enforcement officers. They had the ability at that point to cross the jurisdictional lines to make the arrest. He may have been turned over to authorities in Georgia as that's where the crime was committed, but Florida law enforcement was present and thus authorized to take immediate action to protect the workers who were threatened.

old problem, new medium

[kermidge]

In '67 whilst working for GenTel Wisconsin plowing feeders [average plow depth ~4'] and trenching drops we cut a main [around 120-pair] line from Milwaukee to Madison. No one was happy. Dug out the break, carved out a seat for the splicer, put up a sunshade. Not the most fun we had, but close. Not our fault, as it turned out: the charts were wrong, and the info on them was wrong as well.

Re:old problem, new medium

[c0nner]

Sadly a too large portion of utility maps are not accurate.

I had a house where I had to do plumbing repairs and they were right at the first shutoff valve inside the house. I had turned it off but I needed to be able to turn off at the curb to replace that internal shut off. I called the water company and they came out to turn it off but they couldn't find the shutoff. They looked at their maps and dug many many holes trying to find it. Then after 2 days of looking they were going to give up but they ended up finding it right next to the shutoff for the next house over. That was 50 feet from where it was supposed to be and as a result the pipe run was no where close to where the map said it was.

To make it worse the map was marked as being accurate as of just 5 years before. And there hadn't been any waterlines pulled up and replaced in that time so someone claimed they came out and traced the line as being where the map said but either never did or had no idea what they were doing.

Biggest Danger

[onkelonkel]

The Big Yellow Cable Locator. Also know in the communications industry as Backhoe Fade.

Burning evidence

[lucm]

I have a friend working for Hydro-Quebec (the power company in Quebec) and he told me that some people throw chains in power lines to short them and create a outage, then they try to cut the wires - but once in a while the breakers comes back on at the power company before the wire is cut. Every year they find a body or two because of that.

Re:Doesn't matter

[drinkypoo]

If you don't call before you find the power line with the bucket, your insurance premiums go up. So it's not BS, it's good sense.

Dumb Hunters

[billstewart]

Many years ago, a customer of mine was in the forestry business, and had a railroad to haul trees from their forests to their mill, and they had a few copper T1 lines they ran along the railroad route. Mostly it was buried under the tracks, but where they had bridges it was hanging under the bridge. And every year around hunting season, a few bubbas would shoot out their wires, either because it takes a lot more skill than shotgunning a stop sign, or because there'd be birds sitting on the wire or whatever.

Patrolling fiber routes by airplane

[billstewart]

I don't know if they're still doing this, but back in the early 90s when I was working on fiber restoration databases, AT&T used to fly small planes along the main cable routes to look for unregistered construction. If they saw any backhoes they weren't expecting, they'd drop them a package that had call-before-you-dig information, some chewing gum, playing cards, and some leather work gloves (which I gather were basically a bribe.) There were usually about 1000 backhoes within a quarter mile of our cable routes along the east coast, and there were often a couple of them that hadn't called in to check for fiber routes, gas lines, etc.

One of the early competitive fiber providers was Wiltel, who were a gas pipeline company that had started running fiber along their pipelines since they already had right-of-way. They had a real advantage, because Bubba the Backhoe Driver might not worry about a sign saying "Wimpy Fiber that won't slow down your backhoe, please don't dig here", but a sign saying "Gas pipeline" means "don't dig here, it'll blow up and you'll die."