by
dane » Tue Oct 08, 2019 1:17 pm
ds_sonic_asif wrote:Interesting. Do these power generation capabilities cover all points in between a fiber customer's ONT and wherever you do your switching onto a backbone? Don't know if I am asking this question correctly. To put it differently, should a home fiber customer with proper backup power expect internet and phone service to continue if the face of a power outage (as opposed to some physical problem like a line being severed)?
Thanks.
Yes, of course. We are a public utility, so we've really got to deliver 24/7/365. So for example for copper-connected customers this means line powered services from the COs, so POTS will continue to function, as will the DSL. For our fiber-connected customers, all active equipment is also backed up. This all of course depends on all of the wide area networking, our data-centers and peering, our DNS and authentication and hosting, etc. All of these items are in facilities with freestanding power generation. And in the limited locations where we do have remote cabinets with equipment in them, we've got power connect points and generators that we dispatch to back those up. All normal stuff in the day to day operations.
The only area I've got some concern is refueling. Normal power outages are not as widespread nor as long, so I'm concerned that diesel itself and the ways to get it delivered may be impaired and that could affect entities like ours that otherwise have normal power generating equipment and contingency plans in place. This would be the first event of this scale, and it's more like the earthquake scenario, and we've thankfully never experienced what that does to the availability of fuel and its transport in a region.