This was rumored to be a backhoe fade but the advisory refers only to IP services and there was nothing in the popular press about any major phone outage, so I have my suspicions. Usually if there's a fiber cut they say so. About this time is when all of the major backbones began flooding the net with their notices of panic upgrades.

I have unconfirmed reports from last night that Qwest had major phone and IP outages in California last night. Secondhand report from their voice support folks as 'systemwide within california'. A physical failure was indicated but not described. I wasn't able to find a report on the web at the time, though. I haven't gone back today and looked in more detail. Phantom of the Backhoe? -george william herbert gherbert@retro.com