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(Image: DownDetector)
A major outage caused by a failing fiber optic switch owned by Level 3 Communications left millions of cable subscribers along the eastern seaboard without Internet access Saturday.
The outage affected Cablevision and Time Warner Cable customers from Albany, N.Y. eastward to Long Island and north into Maine.
Some cable operators did a better job dealing with Level 3’s troubled equipment than others.
A Cablevision spokesperson indicated technicians discovered the problem, routed around it, and restored service about an hour later.
Time Warner Cable apparently waited for Level 3 to repair or replace the switch, leaving their broadband customers offline for most of Saturday morning.
The switch failure did not just affect Internet Service Providers. Some content distribution networks and regional servers for major websites including Facebook and Twitter also had problems.
Although the outage was too brief for Cablevision customers to qualify for a service credit, affected Time Warner Cable customers can use the company’s online chat platform or call to request a one day broadband service credit for the interruption.
There was major outage in Taos New Mexico too, a shame this does not get picked up on National Headlines or FCC inquiry? Regulatory capture at its finest.
Only telephone-related (and that includes VoIP) outages are subject to reporting.
Cable TV and broadband-related outages are not subject to reporting. The FCC tried to include broadband-related outages in their reporting requirements, but that got shot down as outside the scope of the law as passed by Congress.
So don’t blame the FCC — blame Congress for writing a bad law (wow, imagine that).