Although it will be a few months before I can get my hands on recent FCC outage reports, even though they are supposedly "public" I always seem to run into difficulty obtaining copies, I'll use this message as a jumping off point. I have noticed that different 'fiber cuts' (or other transmission facility problems) seem to get different kinds of reactions. Some carriers' fiber cuts seem to pass unnoticed. While other carriers' cable cuts make the front pages of newspapers across the country. Further it is not clear to me if the current FCC reporting methods are really capturing the relevant data. Whether a fiber cut is a "reportable" event depends a lot on what type of customers had communication circuits on the fiber. If AOL had a fiber cut and was down for a week, it would not be a reportable event. Irregardless of whether all the newspapers report on it. Because AOL is considered one 'customer' as far as the reporting requirements. Even 635 DS3s being cut may not be a reportable event if most of the fiber is being used by only a a few hundred Internet providers (no matter how many end-users are effected). On the other hand, if the fiber was being used mostly for DS-0 switched voice circuits, it would be a likely be a reportable event because of the definition of blocked calls and circuits. Should ISPs start collecting and pooling data on the performance of various facility carriers because the data being collecting by the traditional facility carrier organizations such as ATIS and FCC Network Reliability Council doesn't seem to reflect the information required or received by ISPs?

This afternoon at about 13:45 WorldCom experienced a fiber cut, the cause of which is unknown.

The location of the cut has been determined to be between Stanton, DE and Broyhill, MD.

WorldCom has sent technicians.

Repairs are estimated to take 3-4 hours.

Approximately 635 DS3s have been effected by this outage.

A variety of IXCs have been effected. -- Sean Donelan, Data Research Associates, Inc, St. Louis, MO Affiliation given for identification not representation