Comments on: Need for redundancy seen in Northern MN

By: More info on the Outage in NE Minnesota « Blandin on Broadband

More info on the Outage in NE Minnesota « Blandin on Broadband — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:09:30 +0000

[...] info on the Outage in NE Minnesota Last week I posted a note from Chris Swanson on the broadband outages in Northeast Minnesota. I’ve had a few people (thank you!) send me follow up articles, which I [...]

By: Christopher Swanson

Christopher Swanson — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:17:11 +0000

Zachary,

The network design of Mediacom and Qwest along the North Shore is not redundant. a single fiber line cut in Duluth would bring down Mediacom along the North shore as well.

The eye opener is that we can lose all service without redundancy and now that Mediacom is a telecommunications company I would hope they would look into a redundant network for the citizens, visitors, and business owners along the North shore.

By: TECHdotMN – Get to Know #2: Rep. Sheldon Johnson + Related Broadband News

TECHdotMN – Get to Know #2: Rep. Sheldon Johnson + Related Broadband News — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:29:43 +0000

[...] Need for redundancy seen in Northern MN – 1/29/10 [...]

By: Paul Durrant

Paul Durrant — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:48:55 +0000

Located in central MN, not the NE area. But I feel the need for redundancy. I telecommute full time. I have one internet connection, and that goes down occasionally. Recently only for a few minutes, only a few times per month; but in the past for longer times and more frequently. These down times have significant impact on my ‘presence’ at work. I really need redundancy!! Not just one ISP with its own redundancy, but multiple ISPs so that if one goes down, there’s still another likely to be up and running.

By: Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:33:19 +0000

Very interesting to hear from both of you – thanks!

Zach – your comments speak to the need for more than one provider in any area! Then businesses with mission critical needs can build their own redundancy – and it leave a community with choices.

Peter – Thanks! The plot thickens, huh? It will be interesting to see what they are able to find out about the outage.

By: Peter Fleck

Peter Fleck — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:04:26 +0000

Ann – The Duluth steam plant says there was no broken steam pipe. It sounds like that would be a significant event with with a big cloud of steam. Qwest has backed off that story but no further explanations although the story hints it could have been melted fiber due to lack of “proper insulation” which Qwest had been warned about.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/159006/

By: Zach Raskovich

Zach Raskovich — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:23:38 +0000

Not a single Mediacom broadband subscriber on the North Shore – Commercial, Residential, or Enterprise (dedicated fiber) – was affected by this outage. Mediacom Phone customers in Two Harbors were not able to dial out or receive calls locally due to the LEC fiber being cut in Duluth. Long Distance calls were still being made and received during the time other service providers’ voice communications were down.