brad(a)null0.qual.NET (Bradley Reynolds) writes:
>On a side-note, if you are in the ameritech service area,
>ixc's 800 number translation is not working. You get to
>hear a non-standard 'all circuits are busy'. If you need
>to reach them, call their austin number 5124273700
This is the third such incident I know of where a carrier
outage has also affected the ability to contact the carrier's
network control center. So far most of the carriers and
network operators I've spoken with don't consider this
a major concern. A few are concerned, but they are in
the minority.
I know, been there done that. I keep hoping one day some
folks will go "Hmm, maybe he has a point and we should do
something." Although everyone uses them, 1-800 numbers have
some interesting vulnerabilities for NOC's to rely on them
to contact other NOCs. I worry that the expansion of CLECs
into local service will bring similar single points of failure
to local exchange numbers serving NOCs of those carriers.
Its good that you use your own services. But when every method
of telecommunications (phone, fax, pager, cell, internet, etc)
to your NOC all goes through the same provider, I worry about
the affect of a wide-spread outage at that provider on the ability
for other NOCs to exchange information with that provider. Fire
drills are a good start, but without more analysis, its difficult
to predict how the system will react under real conditions.
--
Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO
Affiliation given for identification not representation
