On the morning of Sunday August 30, CenturyLink’s IP network was reported to be down for about 4.5 hours – probably focused on the part of the network that came with their acquisition of Level 3. From what I’ve read (simplifying greatly), a CenturyLink customer had requested that they block a certain IP address from… Continue Reading
Network Ops
Why we all need red telephones
There’s a popular myth that there’s a red telephone on the US President’s desk that connects him directly to the Russian President in Moscow. While that’s a nice idea for the movies, that’s not literally true – but since 1963 the Washington-Moscow Direct Communications Link between the Pentagon and the Kremlin has existed to allow… Continue Reading
A 40 hour outage… and counting
If you’ve worked in telecoms for any length of time you’ll likely have some kind of psychological scars from dealing with an outage. Everyone tries to build a redundant network that is resilient to any problem, but even with the best of intentions outages happen. I’ve heard stories of human error – that time someone… Continue Reading
How is COVID-19 impacting network operations?
The changes we’ve implemented as a society in response to the coronavirus have caused a massive shift in data and voice usage patterns. While we might normally expect changes to take place in slow motion over years, these changes have been near instantaneous. What does this mean for your network? I wrote recently about the… Continue Reading
How telcos are protecting service techs and customers during COVID-19
Many governors have responded to the coronavirus pandemic by ordering residents to stay at home / shelter in place* except for essential reasons – such as buying food, accessing healthcare and performing essential work. (*At time of writing 13 states have official orders in place, and the rest of the country is strongly encouraged to… Continue Reading
What financial risk does the coronavirus pose for telcos?
Compared to many industries, the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on independent telcos is relatively small. Restaurants are closed for dining. Hotels are empty. Flights are cancelled. Concerts and events are cancelled. We can and should be grateful that we work in an industry where our livelihood has not instantaneously vanished. But that doesn’t mean… Continue Reading