Powertel failure hits NSW, QLD
- 18 June, 2009 14:54
- Comments 5
Powertel's voice and data services have blacked out across NSW and parts of Queensland.
The network failure occurred around 2.30pm AEST and the New Zealand-owned telecommunications wholesaler has yet to provide a resolution time.
The cause of the error is unknown, however a Powertel technical support officer said the problem could be due in part to “faults with the spanning tree protocol and Ethernet switches”.
Network providers following the fault have suggested the fault does not appear to be an IP outage.
The service has resumed intermittently over the last hour for some Powertel customers.
The Powertel outage comes 24 hours after a Telstra technical failure knocked out large parts of the Telstra Bigpond network across NSW.
The problem was blamed on a failure in core routing equipment and affected metropolitan Bigpond business and residential Internet and Telstra cable services.
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Comments
Anonymous
Darren, your attempt to turn this article into an attack on Telstra is absolutely woeful. The story was relative to an network outage with PowerTel, however you have decided to drag an unrelated Telstra problem into it in order to bolster your opinion which shows a clear shortfall in your understanding of the situation, as well as the environment - Go back to being an assistant. Also, your tags, with Bigpond being the first one, definately show your alligence to other providers as Telstra Bigpond should never have been part of this story.
Regarding your point about the the IP outage, I would suggest that the SPT (Spanning Tree Protocol) has got something to do with the problem as this would impact IP communications, especially voice/data backhaul. If you don't understand technology, don't report on it.
Finally, I quote you this:
"The Powertel comes 24 hours a Telstra technical failure knocked out large parts of the Telstra Bigpond network across NSW."
What the hell is that sentence? Did you study English at all at school? It makes no sense, however I am going to have a go at correcting it anyway:
"The Powertel (failure) comes 24 hours (after) a Telstra technical failure knocked out large parts of the Telstra Bigpond network across NSW."
Just in case you don't understand, the words in the brackets show the words you should have at least used in order to communicate your point. I am sick to death of stupid journalists using incorrect english to deliver their point quickly, without first having read and validated the quality of their post - This one surely takes the cake.
I rarely comment on any news article, however the sheer stupidity of this one was well worth the comment.
Anonymous
The anon reply above
"Also, your tags, with Bigpond being the first one, definately show your alligence to other providers"
They're auto-sorted into alphabetical order, you presumptuous jackass.
I'm mourning the death of literacy in the media as well, but to act like this is the WORST example of writing you've ever seen is ridiculous.
Have a Valium milkshake, take a few deep breaths and relax.
RL
Don't Shoot the Messenger
Hey Anonymous (Darren, your attempt to turn), don't shoot the messenger.
It's not Darren who is attacking Telstra, it's Powertel, assuming that they are a wholesale customer of Telstra's network and was affected by the outage. You Telstra supporters need to read the article first before accusing the innocent journalist of such ridiculous BS.
Darren Pauli - Computerworld journalist
Thanks for your comment. Indeed there was a grammatical error which can happen on close deadlines.
The reference to Telstra does not imply that the two are related, rather that the outage occurred after the BigPond failure.
The tags are automatic.
Gareth
An important story
Darren,
I for one am happy the article was posted. Chasing up these outages for IT staff to report back to Mgmt (and our own peace of mind) is so time consuming. As the customer of numerous ISPs, I regularly hear feedback like "problems's fixed" without them explaining the ramifications or cause.
All commercial press has commercial influences. We're all smart enough to read the info out of an article and leave the opinions to our own musings. Personally I didn't think the article leaned in any direction. If you worked for Powertel/Bigpond, I imagine you'd think differently.
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