More than a million Optus customers were unable to use mobile and land line telephones, or reach Web sites outside Queensland for more than four hours when Gold Coast City Council workers severed a critical interstate fibre optic cable this week.

Amid buck-passing over the incident between Optus and the council, including a photo released by the telco clearly showing a cable warning sign two metres from the site and fears of compensation, questions were raised concerning just how an entire state can be crippled by a rogue hoe.

A further disruption occurred in a separate incident when a major point of presence failed, effectively marooning the state.

Peering networks, including PIPE, offered a hand, but analysts say Optus should have had a solid disaster recovery plan in place before.

Were you caught up by the cable cut? Should Optus have had a better disaster recovery plan in place? Or is it unreasonable to expect the telco to build redundancy across our vast land mass?

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