Vent IT: Were you caught in QLD's telco meltdown?

Let us know how the QLD blackout affected you.

Computerworld Staff (Computerworld)
18 July, 2008 12:14
Comments (2)

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?

Click here to vent.

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Comments

andrewhendry

Fri 18/07/2008 - 14:53

hope the nbn doesnt suffer the same fate

not personally affected by the outage, however I did notice several sites like including Whirlpool were down during the same time frame, dont know if they are hosted by optus though..... i just hope the national broadband network will have sufficient redundancy so that the entire nation doesnt go offline if some wild hoe severs a single cable!