RE: US hunters shoot down Google fibre

[Todd Snyder <tsnyder () rim com>]

"Fiber Week"?

-----Original Message-----
From: Leslie [mailto:leslie () craigslist org]
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 11:29 AM
To: Christopher Morrow
Cc: nanog () nanog org
Subject: Re: US hunters shoot down Google fibre

Hunters, backhoes, and ship anchors are all fiber's natural enemies -
I'm surprised Discovery Channel hasn't done a special on it!

On 9/21/10 6:19 AM, Christopher Morrow wrote:
> this was presented at the nanog in ... SF I think as well:
> <http://www.nanog.org/meetings/nanog49/abstracts.php?pt=MTU5NSZuYW5vZzQ5&nm=nanog49>
>
> not really news...
>
> On Tue, Sep 21, 2010 at 6:04 AM, Eugen Leitl<eugen () leitl org>  wrote:
> > http://www.itnews.com.au/News/232831,us-hunters-shoot-down-google-fibre.aspx
> >
> > Repairers forced to ski in to Oregon back woods.
> >
> > Google has revealed that aerial fibre links to its data centre in Oregon were
> > "regularly" shot down by hunters, forcing the company to put its cables
> > underground.
> >
> > The search and advertising giant's network engineering manager Vijay Gill
> > told the AusNOG conference in Sydney last week that people were trying to hit
> > insulators on electricity distribution poles.
> >
> > The poles also hosted aerially-deployed fibre connected to Google's $US600
> > million ($A635 million) data centre in the Dalles, a small city on the
> > Columbia River in the US state of Oregon.
> >
> > "What people do for sport or because they're bored, they try to shoot at the
> > insulators," Gill said.
> >
> > "I have yet to see them actually hit the insulator, but they regularly shoot
> > down the fibre.
> >
> > "Every November when hunting season starts invariably we know that the fibre
> > will be shot down, so much so that we are now building an underground path
> > [for it]."
> >
> > Gill said that on one occasion, a snowstorm and avalanche prevented Google
> > from transporting repairers and gear into the area of the cut.
> >
> > It usually used a helicopter or a Caterpillar D9 tractor for transport. It
> > improvised by sending three technicians on skis to "repair the fibre that got
> > shot down".
> >
> > "These guys had to cross country ski for three days," Gill said.
> >
> > "[One guy] is carrying what is known as a fusion splicing kit on his
> > backpack."
> >
> > He joked: "These guys had to go in and fix the fibre while facing gunshots
> >
> > "So [the] internet... [it's] more dangerous than you realise."


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