I suspect its a balancing act between reducancy, survival (network) and costs vs revenues.
not sure I'd call it a "poor job" for not planning all possible failure modes, or for not having links in place for them.
It depends on your perspective and what you expect from the net and what you see it doing for you in the future. As we move more advanced services to the net, we will also expect much more from it - also in terms of crisis. Just like the net was one of the prime sources of information during 9-11. In the event of a emergency, I would very much like to be as able to reach my bank via the net as walking into their offices. I do agree that it is a balance, but I am not so sure that everyone have realised this. I am not even sure that all the carriers that you would expect to have this planning have it... - kurtis -