Just like what happened in Asia where an earthquake destroyed fiber connections and thus shut down Internet access, Humboldt County was cut off by a mysterious failure yesterday. It began in the afternoon and lasted well in to the night. Not only was Internet access cut for everyone, but long distance calls were also unable to get through.
The Times-Standard article this morning was unable to come up with a cause. But The symptoms all point to a failure in our single fiber optic cable that carries all the Internet and long distance phone traffic in and out of the county. Whether it was a break caused by weather or slide, or a hardware failure, the story out of Asia and the one right here point to the fragility of a system we all have come to rrely on for both trivial and vital communications.
Time to kick that alternate fiber project in to high gear!
Update: I understand the Eureka Reporter has confirmed that it was a problem with the AT&T fiber line as I suspected. Details to appear in tomorrow’s ER.