Charter Deals With Raging California FiresMajor fiber burned, Charter waiting for clearance... ( old news - 11:56AM Tuesday Oct 23 2007) tags: business · cable · trouble · Charter PipelineIt's obviously the last thing that victims of the raging California wildfires are worrying about, but Charter says the fires have burned through a major fiber optic line, severing VoIP, cable and broadband service to over 90 percent of their Malibu-area customers. Charter estimates that 9,500 of its customers are without service and approximately 1,500 have limited service. Taking into account employee and public safety, Charter technicians are staying out of the evacuated areas, but are prepared to return the moment they are given clearance. By late Monday, fires in Southern California had burned through 269,000 acres (roughly 420 square miles), and destroyed some 892 buildings. Our resident Southern California users are tracking events and evacuations in our regional user forums.
Related:- And Here Come The Broadband Industry Job Cuts
- Charter Owns 20% Of Cable Industry's Debt
- Charter Misses Loan Interest Payment
- Charter To File For Bankruptcy Protection
- Charter Posts Wider Quarterly Loss
- Charter Files Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
- Charter Lenders Balking At Restructuring Plan
- Charter Faces Lawsuits On All Sides
|
 
inteller
Sociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK
1 edit | the fires are so bad, it is even altering the spelling. CaliFIRnia......Freudian slip?
hopefully this will encourage them to seek out better methods of deploying fiber....like maybe burying it a few feet deep. | |
|  | JSRoman
Premium
join:2005-03-10
Callahan, FL | Re: the fires are so bad, it is even altering the spelling. Most likey future post in Charter forum. .
Fires have been out for 2 hours and I still can't believe I don't have service. Charter sucks!
--
»www.seabee.navy.mil | |
| | 
ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs: | We you have fires burning that hot, a few feet deep most likely would not be sufficient. | |
| | | 
NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX
| Re: the fires are so bad, it is even altering the spelling. A few feet is fine, dirt is a great insulator and it's not like chernobyl is burning above it.
Most likely it's a building the fiber came up in for termination or boosting that caught fire. In that case they're in for a prolonged outage.
Could also be a place where the fiber had to run down a pole. | |
| | | |
ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs:
 ·VOIPo
 ·Metrocast Communic..
 ·AT&T DSL Service
·ViaTalk
| Re: the fires are so bad, it is even altering the spelling. said by NOCMan  :A few feet is fine, dirt is a great insulator and it's not like chernobyl is burning above it. Most likely it's a building the fiber came up in for termination or boosting that caught fire. In that case they're in for a prolonged outage. Could also be a place where the fiber had to run down a pole. True. After some fires I have been to there was quite a bit of damage a few feet down. | |
| | | 
jinjimbob
Troy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
| said by ptrowski :We you have fires burning that hot, a few feet deep most likely would not be sufficient. All utilities have to be atleast 3 feet down, I'm sure that the major ones are even deeper. | |
| | | | 
StevieD 4U
@pacbell.net
| Fiber on the pole All utilities have to be atleast 3 feet down, I'm sure that the major ones are even deeper.
Not true. Many major fiber lines are above ground on poles. For example, most of the major lines across the canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains and along Pacific Coast Highway can be seen strung on pole lines along the highways. Also fiber to nodes that serve hundreds of homes are located on poles.
I'm in Time Warner (former Adelphia) territory about 5 miles away from the fireline. We lost a couple of local channels the T-W carries via a fiber loop for a few hours before the rerouted it around the ring the other way during the height of the disaster Sunday night. | |
| | 
MacLeech
The one and only
Premium,MVM
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
1 edit | said by inteller :...better methods of deploying fiber....like maybe burying it a few feet deep. That's a great idea for a mountainous area prone to rock and mud slides... like Malibu. | |
| | NormanS
Premium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| said by inteller :CaliFIRnia......Freudian slip? hopefully this will encourage them to seek out better methods of deploying fiber....like maybe burying it a few feet deep. That part of California is nowhere near as flat as Oklahoma. They can sell two sides of the same acre in some places, down there.
I have trained, for the California Army National Guard, in similar terrain around Los Padres National Forest (Camp Robers and Fort Hunter-Liggett). And I worked the Roggé, and Ackerson Complex fires, near Yosemite, in 1996 (National Guard, again; drove a 2 1/2 ton truck in support of the fire fighters). You are talking steep slopes and narrow canyons.
One of the more impressive drives, in California, is the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road. My first trip on that road was from Bradley, California, west through Lockwood, and over teh Santa Lucia mountains down to S.R. 1, near Limekiln State Park. The decent from the divide down the mountain to the highway is breathtaking; considering that the mountains aren't nearly as high as the Sierra Nevada, or Colorado Rockies.
»sjs.jsei.ucla.edu/~sjs/Nacimiento/index.html
»gocalifornia.about.com/cs/hearst···enda.htm
But a fire of this magnitude dwarfs those that I worked. And my first night on the line was one of anxiety.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
| |
Fiber_MeltsTOO
@charter.com
| said by inteller :CaliFIRnia......Freudian slip? hopefully this will encourage them to seek out better methods of deploying fiber....like maybe burying it a few feet deep. You don't know much about heat do you? | |
| | 
KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Imagine relatives trying to call family members in the firezone and not being able to reach them, and getting no response on the Internet either. I'd bet they'd be worried, bad. Maybe this news will actually help calm some people... | |
| 
Hall
Premium,MVM
join:2000-04-28
Dayton, OH | How long before.... ....we start hearing or reading of people complaining about the outage caused by this ? | |
| |
NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX
1 edit | Re: How long before.... Nevermind.. thought the guy above was complaining.
What's the chance of MTV Studios burning down  | |
| | | Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
Premium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| Re: How long before.... said by NOCMan :Nevermind.. thought the guy above was complaining. What's the chance of MTV Studios burning down well that would be rough for MTV to burn down, the fire would have to burn its way into Manhattan and up to Times Square where MTV is in the Viacom building.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| said by Hall :....we start hearing or reading of people complaining about the outage caused by this ? In this case, I'll take the side of the companies. Houses are reduced to ash so I think broadband may need to wait a bit. | |
| | | 
james
join:2001-02-26
antarctica
| Re: How long before.... It isnt like you have to choose between the two... The cable and phone companies aren't the ones who are responsible for rebuilding houses. Why can't they restore service to people who's homes aren't burnt down right now, that way they wont get swamped later on when they have to hook up all the newly rebuilt houses as well. | |
| | | | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: How long before.... said by james :It isnt like you have to choose between the two... The cable and phone companies aren't the ones who are responsible for rebuilding houses. Why can't they restore service to people who's homes aren't burnt down right now, that way they wont get swamped later on when they have to hook up all the newly rebuilt houses as well. Umm, yes you do have to choose.
First thing after a major disaster is the restoration of basic services; electricity, major utilities, basic communications, food and water. Then you have to deal with those displaced from their homes. Then you work on everything else. Kinda hard to get people to work if their house is destroyed.
Telcos have to get basic communications back up first then worry about everything else. If their infrastructure is damaged, they need to re-route and get basic phone service back up (to restore 911 services.) After that, they have to see if there is infrastructure to put up wiring. Are the poles still up or damaged beyond repair? Are the areas with underground wires open are are they closed? | |
| | | | |
james
join:2001-02-26
antarctica
| Re: How long before.... So you're trying to say Charter is somehow responsible for fixing the electricity, utilities, food and water? As well as their "basic communications"? If you aren't saying that then why do you even mention those things at all?
Yes, obviously they are going to have to make sure that the phone lines work, but it's stupid to say oh they cant go in because the most important thing is getting food and water to people. They have NOTHING to do with either of those, it isn't their job. Their job is to fix the phone lines and hook their customers up with fast internet as fast as they possibly can. | |
| | | | | | moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: How long before.... said by james :Yes, obviously they are going to have to make sure that the phone lines work, but it's stupid to say oh they cant go in because the most important thing is getting food and water to people. They have NOTHING to do with either of those, it isn't their job. Their job is to fix the phone lines and hook their customers up with fast internet as fast as they possibly can. You can't have everyone going in at the same time. The welfare of the local population takes precedence.
First, you get the debris taken care of. Then, you let electric in to fix the poles and make sure there are no live wires to electrocute anyone. Gas company will also come in to check for broken mains and any leaks caused by the destruction of the houses. Telephone and cable are next once the poles are safe to work on.
Of course, you would want to send in the cable company first and who cares if they get electrocuted by a stray wire, someone needs to download porn in their time of need.  | |
| | | | | | |
james
join:2001-02-26
antarctica
| Re: How long before.... Exactly, they aren't going to service areas that are dangerous until they are safe, especially since half the houses are gutted and wont have anyone living in them again for a year. So in the meantime while they have nothing to do they can re-feed the safe areas that didnt have any fire damage, but who's supply lines were burnt up somewhere on the way to the area. Or I guess they can sit around and not do anything until the whole city is rebuilt. Then get cracking on the whole city at once. | |
| | Kearnstd
Elf Wizard
Premium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ
| im sure trunks will be restored as soon as the fire people say it is safe to do so. last mile stuff will most likely be done as the streets are rebuilt, if it was damaged at all.
--
[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports | |
| | | 
N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
·Verizon Online DSL
| Re: Terrible Situation My thoughts exactly.
My hope is they can put those fires out with a minimum continued loss of human life and property.
From what I've read, evacuations proceeded in a very orderly fashion, and firefighters are working 24 hour shifts (24 on, 8 off) to try and control the fire.
--
Petty people are disproportionably corrupted by petty power… | |
| | | 
maartena
Nice'n Round.
Premium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Terrible Situation said by N3OGH :From what I've read, evacuations proceeded in a very orderly fashion, and firefighters are working 24 hour shifts (24 on, 8 off) to try and control the fire. According to the local TV media, they are on a 12 hour on, 12 hours off shift, basically 2 groups of firefighters that are relieving eachother.
In the thick of things, firefighters are probably making more like 16 hours on and 8 hours off....
--
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -
Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father. | |
| | | |
N3OGH
Bear patrol must be working like a charm
Premium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs | Re: Terrible Situation I stand corrected,
Thank you | |
| 
mareastrum
join:2006-09-10
Saint Louis, MO | Already happened LOL, someone was complaining yesterday in the Charter forum. Methinks that someone needs to get their priorities straight.
»Malibu Fire - ET for repair? | |
| | 
MoJeeper
Trail Ready
Premium
join:2000-10-20
Springfield, MO
 ·Alltel Axess
·Cingular Wireless
| Re: Already happened said by mareastrum :LOL, someone was complaining yesterday in the Charter forum. Methinks that someone needs to get their priorities straight. » Malibu Fire - ET for repair? Id hardly call that complaining. The Op asked a question and ended the post with "Thanks"
Me thinks your off base a bit.
--
Semper Fidelis. 231 Years Strong. | |
| | | 
Apathy
Premium
join:2004-09-01
Saint Louis, MO | Re: Already happened I especially liked how he posted in that thread to get the ball rolling. | |
| | | |
MoJeeper
Trail Ready
Premium
join:2000-10-20
Springfield, MO
·Alltel Axess
·Cingular Wireless
| Re: Already happened said by Apathy :I especially liked how he posted in that thread to get the ball rolling. I missed the "Ball Rolling" part of his post. maybe you can share the link ?
--
Semper Fidelis. 231 Years Strong. | |
| | |
mareastrum
join:2006-09-10
Saint Louis, MO
| Sorry, but being from California, we learned that 1) get yer arse outta the danger area 2) deal with the small stuff (i.e. non essential needs, such as cable and high speed) later.
In this case, the fires need to be fought first before one can consider doing any repairs. I don't know what the containment is at this time, but with the growing number of people being evacuated (500k as of 4pm CST), I think there's a good chance that it's going to be a long while.
I stand by what I said. If you don't agree..well, okay fine. Your opinion, not mine. | |
| |
Apathy
Premium
join:2004-09-01
Saint Louis, MO | Doesn't really sound like OP is complaining but is just inquiring about the problem. | |
| | | | | Network Guy
join:2000-08-25
New York | Re: I can smell it here the past two nights Ditto.
I'm watching coverage on CNN. Pretty bad out there.  | |
| 
capecoddah
join:2005-03-18
Yarmouth Port, MA
| I'll listen to... The 3 posters from CA...
I saw on the news a microwve relay towe next to a fire lookout tower that is probably crisp by now.
Broadband at home would be pretty low on the priority list now. Bitching about what a company does from 1,000 miles away is, well, incomprehensable.
I have a buddy out there that does Red Cross, she's sweating her house too. | |
| 
batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ
clubs: | How is The Phone Company doing? I'll bet POTS is ringing off the wall. You want cheap? You got it. | |
| |
yeeaapppp
@centurytel.net
| Re: How is The Phone Company doing? i agree 150% right here!!! they only mention charter for loss in phone service, but not the POTS companies. wow, yet another downside i can use to tell customers about the cable peeps, if you have a fire around you, guess what, no phone! even if your house is safe! like you said, gotta love cheap! you get what you pay for! | |
|
growupnow
@verizon.net
| Charter Deals With Raging California Fires Wow, most people never think too deep.
Have you ever heard of digging a line, to prevent fires from spreading?? That normally will go more than a few feet!
Do you think, they waste time calling in for miss utility, in an emergency?
Let me, guess, most are the type that would stay in their burning homes, trying to call support to complain their internet is down. Oh, wait, phone system may be down too!!
You are prob trying your cell phones to sit and complain while others need everyone to turn to one another and help with real life values. | |
| nthdegree
join:2005-09-08
Grand Rapids, MI
·Choice One Communi..
| Gee folks, the fires aren't even out yet. As a former volunteer smoke jumper, I've seen up close the devastation wild fires can cause. The fires in CA are, potentially, the worse fires ever to occur in that state.
If you've never seen first hand the kind of destruction a fire like that can cause, it's almost hard to imagine. The pictures and tapes they show on TV can't begin to convey the destruction. In some cases the destruction is so complete, you would never guess there used to be a community there or that bone fragment used to be a person.
As for the utility and cable service cables, it doesn't matter where they are. They all terminate at some above ground location, a home, a building, a relay station etc.
Let's keep our eyes on the ball and let the fire fighters do what they do best first then we can worry about downloading this month's centerfold. | |
|
Charter Dead
@verizon.net
| Charter abrogated its public safety obligations, some say Loss of Charter Cable Link Exacerbated Crisis Conditions for Malibu
• City Officials Decry Lack of Backup Equipment for TV, Internet and Phone Services
BY HANS LAETZ
Malibu Surfside News
Charter Cable customers were disconnected from the e-world Sunday, when the only Charter line to the outside world burned at Bluffs Park, taking out that company’s vital cable television, Internet and telephone service during the fire emergency.
Compounding the problem, Charter could not begin repairing individual connections anywhere in Malibu until the connections to the company’s technical center in Monterey Park were restored, which was supposed to happen Tuesday night.
Some angry customers, including Malibu’s mayor pro tem, said they wanted to know why a crucial communications link did not have a backup, and why it was placed over a mesa where predictable Malibu catastrophes often sever utility lines.
City officials expressed surprise that Charter had removed local television reception equipment from Malibu, and transferred all local technical operations to a facility 40 miles away, connected only by a single fiber connection hanging above miles of disaster-vulnerable Pacific Coast Highway.
“That’s incredible, that’s unacceptable,” said Malibu mayor pro tem Pamela Conley Ulich, whose home Internet and e-mail service was dead. “I’m surprised they don’t have alternate lines, and I’m disappointed.”
The failure of the entire system left people in the city in varying degrees of electronic nonexistence. Most affected are persons who switched their landline telephone service to a cable-internet-telephone bundle, and lost all three services.
Ninety percent of Charter’s Malibu customers, and all of them in Topanga Canyon, were affected. A relative handful of Malibu Charter customers were able to see local television via a jury-rigged antenna system that could not be extended citywide, said Charter vice president Craig Watson.
Service went out Sunday morning when the firm lost 4000 feet of fiber optic cable in the Canyon Fire’s first hour.
Watson said his crews were staging equipment and personnel in Malibu Monday, but could not begin to restring the key link until Southern California Edison crews finished replacing poles across the mesa between Bluffs Park and the Ralph’s supermarket.
But Edison elected to abandon that reach of power poles Tuesday morning, Watson said. At first light Tuesday, Charter crews began drilling new pole holes and getting ready to plug Malibu back into the worldwide grid.
Fiber junctions must be spliced, a delicate and time-consuming operation involving technicians working with microscopes, he said.
From the beginning of cable TV service until a few months ago, Malibu residents received cable television signals from a “head-end” at the north end of Latigo Canyon Road. But the company, as it upgraded to an all-digital system that can handle advanced internet and telephone services, removed all the TV reception gear in Malibu and placed it at an operations center in Monterey Park, 10 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
“This was done so we could provide our customers with a centralized, professionally-staffed service center,” Watson said. “All television signals, as well as the controls and signals for Internet and telephones, now come from our operations center in Monterey Park.”
The company has acknowledged that it needed a backup connection in case the path to Monterey Park failed anywhere along the 50-mile route.
“Ironically, we have a signed contract in hand right now to provide a second link in to Malibu,” Watson said. The fire, however, hit before that backup fiber optic could be patched into to the new system.
In western Malibu, far away from the fire front and blocked by mountains from over-the-air local television, worried people went to neighbors with satellite dishes to see pictures of the fire and learn what was happening.
Verizon landline phone and Internet service interruptions were limited to places where equipment burned, a spokesperson said, and cellular phone service from various providers was not disrupted along the length of Malibu. Satellite TV reception, and off-air reception in the few areas that have it were unaffected by the fire.
Although some areas of Malibu sporadically lost electric service due to the windstorm, most of the city had continuous service during the emergency.
Water service from Los Angeles County Water District 29 was not interrupted during the fires or winds. Crews worked day and night to make sure that booster stations, hydrants and other key links were functioning normally.
Watson, whose company is in the midst of a campaign to win converts to its packaged phone and internet services, said the loss of service in Malibu was “particularly painful.”
“We understand that we are not just in the cable business anymore and, because of that we understand that our customers are reliant on our service,” Watson said. | |
|
Ma Again
@verizon.net
| The bottom line is ... ... Charter did a breathtakingly-bas action in removing local TV reception equipment from its Malibu head-end.
... the company was at the very least careless and negligent in routing all telephone and internet service down a 50-miles fiber connection with no backup.
... the company should have reasonably-foreseen that its vital communication link was in imminent peril when it elected - several months ago - to route it on fire-scarred poles across a mesa that has burned at least three times in the past decade.
... the company was unable to negotiate the ability to use already-installed conduits at the bottomof Malibu Canyo, where verizon and even Southern California Edison is abandoning above-ground lines and going underground, due to the severe fire danger there.
Anyone in Malibu could have looked at the Charter set up and predicted disaster. The company never told the city of Malibu about these changes, and given the neutered regulatory ability of local government "thanks" to the 1995 Cable "reform" Bill, the city couldn;t have done anything anyway.
Verizon service is uninterrupted everywhere except the immediate area that burned. And Verizon buried its Fios lines here wherever possible, and has multiple paths into the area. Charter didn't. | |
| | | |
|
|
·
