Wireless

More people throughout the world are hopping onto the high-speed bandwagon.

Global broadband access jumped by 16.6 million lines in the last quarter, reaching a total of 429.2 million lines throughout the world, says a report released Tuesday by industry group Broadband Forum.

Despite the sluggish economy, growth was slightly higher in the latest quarter than over the prior three months, according to the report.

In this past quarter, broadband access grew by 10 percent in 20 different countries. The biggest gainers were India at 13.4 percent, the Ukraine at 15.2 percent, Egypt at 10.6 percent, and Mexico at 10.3 percent. Access in North America rose 3.87 percent, reaching 93.5 million lines, the report said.

China ranks at the top of the list for highest number of broadband lines at 88 million, while the U.S. is number two with 83.9 million lines, the report said.

Among broadband technologies, DSL is still the most popular with a 64 percent slice of the market. Cable is next at 20 percent. Fiber is pulling up fast, capturing more than 3 million new lines to gain a 12 percent market stake, the report said.

Based in California, the Broadband Forum is a worldwide group of around 200 companies involved with telecommunications, computing, and networking. The broadband report was prepared for the forum by industry research firm Point Topic.

A simple snip of a few fiber-optic communications cables left thousands of people in Silicon Valley and throughout parts of the San Francisco Bay Area without phone, Internet, or wireless service for more than 12 hours on Thursday.

The San Jose Police Department is investigating the incidents, which took place in two different locations in San Jose and San Carlos and classified as acts of vandalism. Now that the network is up and running again, people are asking how difficult is it to take down the nation's communications network? And should we be more worried about the fiber optic cables that ring our communities and crisscross the country carrying all of our communications?

"A couple of well-placed attacks could do a lot of damage to the communications network," said Sam Greenholtz, co-founder and principal of Telecom Pragmatics, a consulting and research firm specializing in the telecommunications market. "And it's not really that hard to figure out where the fiber optic cables are laid and to get access to them."

That said, Sgt. Ronnie Lopez of the San Jose Police Department said there is no reason yet to suspect terrorism in this case. But the FBI has been briefed on the case.

AT&T is offering a $250,000 reward to anyone who can provide information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the vandals.

"We are aggressively working with law enforcement authorities to see that those responsible for this willful act are apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," the company said in a statement Friday.

AT&T also said in a press release that following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, its networks were declared National Critical Infrastructures, which means that anyone who tampers with, destroys, or disrupts the company's network or its components is in violation of both federal and state laws.

Wondering about vulnerabilities
Still, with recent reports that our nation's electrical grid has gotten less secure due to technological advances, incidents such as this one leaves many wondering how vulnerable the communications network really is.

I talked to a few experts about how telecommunications networks are built and how they operate. And I've concluded that while it's somewhat easy to figure out where fiber is laid and to gain access to the fiber infrastructure in the ground, it's much harder to actually cause major damage unless you know what you're doing.

Let me explain. In the AT&T fiber cut case, it was fairly easy for the perpetrator to access the fiber-optic cables that were eventually cut. Sgt. Lopez said that it appeared that whoever cut the fibers simply lifted the manhole cover, went down the ladder, and cut two cables.

But knowing exactly which manhole cover to open and which cables to cut that would cause widespread damage to the network is another story.

Greenholtz, who was a former manager in the Planning and Engineering Group at Verizon where he worked for nearly 28 years, said that causing a network outage of this magnitude was likely orchestrated by someone who not only knew which manholes provided access to AT&T fibers, but also knew which places on the network were most vulnerable and could cause the most damage.

"The manhole covers are not locked," he said. "Anybody can open them and go down there. But most of these networks have redundancy and diversity built-in to the architecture, so if you cut a cable, it reroutes itself and recovers."

Greenholtz explained that someone with knowledge of the network would know the most vulnerable points in the network and could pinpoint those areas.

Built in rings
AT&T declined to discuss specifics of the company's network architecture, but experts say that the Baby Bell phone companies, such AT&T's predecessor SBC Communications, typically built their regional fiber networks in rings. The rings themselves would help provide protection against an outage, because if a line were cut, the traffic could just reverse itself in less than 50 milliseconds and go the other direction around the ring.

But the phone companies also typically ran redundant lines that are spaced some distance apart from each other, so that if one line is cut, there is also a separate fiber carrying the traffic. And to ensure that the redundant line can handle excess traffic in an emergency, most phone companies run these systems at 50 percent capacity.

(Credit: Google Maps)

The fiber-optic cables that were cut in San Carlos, which were owned by Sprint Nextel, appear to have worked in this way. The traffic was quickly rerouted to another path, and service to Sprint's business customers was not interrupted.

Unlike regional networks, which have multiple fiber rings running through and between cities, undersea cables that connect continents do not have this type of redundant architecture because it's much too expensive to build it that way. This means that undersea cables are particularly vulnerable to fiber cuts. But because they are deployed beneath the ocean floor, they tend to be more difficult to tamper with. That said, cables are severed and massive outages do occur from time to time.

By contrast, some networks in highly trafficked regions or networks that service critical customers have even more redundancy built into them. Michael Howard, a principal analyst at telecommunications research firm Infonetics Research, said that carriers such as Deutsche Telekom have begun building meshed networks so that there is a third path for traffic if fibers are cut or there is some other disruption on the network.

"The more traffic there is on the route, the more redundancy the carrier provides," he said. "There are usually two aspects to a backup plan for networks. One is providing a diversity of virtual routes for the traffic, but the other is providing physically separate routes on separate fibers. I'd have to say the outage that occurred in Silicon Valley seems odd, given the traditional network architecture."

An inside job?
Indeed, AT&T's network failure seems to suggest that at least one other path that would have rerouted the traffic was also damaged or cut. Given that the police indicated that the incidents occurred in only two locations, San Jose and San Carlos, it seems likely that there was already some damage or issue happening on AT&T's network at the time the fiber was cut or the vandals managed to cut the ring in two places.

Of course, neither I nor any other expert could know this for sure. But the fact is that fibers are cut all the time in regional networks, and rarely do they cause massive outages that shut down entire regions for hours. Most of these incidents are accidents. Someone might be landscaping a yard and a back-hoe severs a cable. Or another utility worker accidentally damages a cable while working in the same manhole where communication cables are located.

"Fiber cuts happen more often than people realize," said Crystal Davis, a spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel. "It happens by accident all the time when someone is drilling or digging up a street. Or they're doing regular maintenance. We know this, and that's why traffic can be quickly rerouted."

This is also why Greenholtz believes that the AT&T fibers were likely cut by someone who knew the network and its potential weaknesses.

"If there was an ongoing maintenance issue on one side of the fiber ring that hadn't been addressed," he said. "And then the other side is cut, it would cause a major outage like the one AT&T experienced. But in order to cause that much damage, someone would have to know that. Otherwise, it was just a very lucky vandal."

More theories
This line of thinking has caused some bloggers to suspect that the vandal was a disgruntled former or current AT&T employee.

And some have even gone so far as to suggest that the perpetrator could be an unhappy union worker. AT&T is currently in contract negotiations with its largest union the Communications Workers of America, which represents some 80,000 workers at AT&T. Workers have already voted to strike if a new contract can't be agreed upon. So far, no date has been set for a strike, and Candice Johnson, a spokeswoman for the union said that the two sides are still negotiating.

But Johnson also said that the union was not involved in the vandalism and that claims that its members might be involved are unfounded.

"There is no basis for speculation that our members were involved in this act of vandalism," she said. "We are cooperating with authorities. We are currently at the bargaining table with AT&T management, and our workers are on the job. Our goal is to get a contract renewed."

Sgt. Lopez from the San Jose Police Department said that it's still too early in the investigation to talk about suspects or motives.

Regardless of whether the cables were cut by disgruntled employees or random vandals, the recent incident highlights the potential for such an attack to be undertaken on a broader scale by foreign terrorists, who may infiltrate our nation's telephone companies or gain access to information about the country's communications network. But Greenholtz and other experts say that because these networks have always been built with redundancy in mind, it would take a massive coordinated effort to target individual manholes and to cut fibers.

"If you really want to take down the communications network and cause damage, you'd probably target a central office," Greenholtz said.

A central office is the nerve center of a telecommunications network. It houses all the switching equipment and billing data for a particular region of the network. As an example, Greenholtz said that if a terrorist was able to damage Verizon's central office on 38th Street in Manhattan, communications services on Wall Street could be wiped out not just for a few hours, but likely for days, weeks, or even a month. Because these facilities are so critical, he said all the major phone companies have tight security.

"Those places have tons of security," he said. "You'd probably need Jack Bauer (of the TV show '24') to help you get in there."

AT&T has increased its reward to $250,000 for information that will help law enforcement arrest and convict vandals who cut the company's fiber-optic cables in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, the company said in its Twitter feed.

On Thursday, AT&T said it would offer a $100,000 reward for anyone who has information that could lead to the arrest or conviction of anyone involved in cutting the fiber.

Thousands of wireless, Internet, and landline phone customers were without service beginning at about 1:30 a.m. PDT on Thursday after vandals had cut four fiber-optic cables owned by AT&T. A cable in San Carlos, Calif., owned by Sprint Nextel, had also been severed about two later. But Sprint spokeswoman Crystal Davis said the company was able to reroute most of that traffic onto another fiber link and for the most part, service was not disrupted.

Wireless customers from almost every carrier were also without service, because AT&T's network is used to connect cell towers back to these carriers' respective national networks. Officials also said that residents in the San Jose/Santa Clara region were without emergency 911 service for much of the day.

AT&T said early Friday morning that service had been restored to all of its customers.

San Jose Police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said that the fiber cut appeared to be deliberate and the police department is treating it as a felony act of vandalism. The FBI has also been briefed on the case, although Lopez said that for now local officials are handling the investigation.

Anyone with information or tips is being asked to call 408-947-STOP.

The fiber cut that crippled phone and broadband service and knocked out 911 emergency services in Silicon Valley on Thursday has been fixed, according to a Twitter post from AT&T.

"CA Outage Update: Repairs to vandalized San Jose cables were completed overnight. Services are operating normally this morning. "

Sprint's public relations spokeswoman Crystal Davis "tweeted" at about 7 a.m. PDT that the "Fiber cut issue affecting Sprint's wireless service in San Jose/Santa Cruz has been completely resolved as of appx 2:40am EDT."

Service was slowly coming back online Thursday afternoon and into the evening for many wireless, phone and Internet customers. VerticalResponse, a San Francisco-based company that uses an ISP whose servers are collocated in Palo Alto, Calif., said its servers went back online around 12:30 p.m. PDT. And one CNET News reader living in San Martin, Calif. said he was able to make and receive landline and cell phone calls around 7:15 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

Thousands of wireless, Internet and landline phone customers were without service from about 1:30 a.m. PDT after vandals had cut four fiber-optic cables owned by AT&T. A cable in San Carlos, owned by Sprint Nextel, had also been severed about two later. But Sprint spokeswoman Crystal Davis said the company was able to reroute most of that traffic onto another fiber link and for the most part, service was not disrupted.

That was not the case with AT&T's fibers. Because AT&T is the local phone company in the area, nearly all wireless, landline telephone, and consumer broadband services travel over the company's regional network regardless of which company provides the service. For example, Verizon Wireless and Sprint use AT&T's regional network to connect their wireless cell phone towers to their respective national networks. As a result, wireless customers were without service in the region where the fibers had been cut.

Officials also said that residents in the San Jose/Santa Clara region were without emergency 911 service for much of the day.

Exactly how vandals gained access to the cables that had been severed is not yet fully known. Sprint's Davis said a manhole cover was opened and the cables simply cut. She explained that fiber cuts are common, but are usually accidental--done unintentionally by utility repairmen or landscapers.

AT&T said on its Twitter feed on Thursday that it is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who has information that could lead to an arrest or conviction of the vandals who cut the fibers. The company has also said it's working closely with law enforcement.

The Australian government has terminated the National Broadband Network tender process with no winner, instead flagging plans to invest billions of dollars in building its own fiber-to-the-home network to 90 percent of Australians over the next eight years.

Citing "deterioration of the economy," Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Treasurer Wayne Swan, along with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, said at a Canberra press conference on Tuesday morning that the government had not found any of the NBN bids, by players such as Acacia, Optus, Axia Netmedia, satisfactory.

Instead of accepting an NBN bid, Rudd said, the federal government would establish a company in partnership with the private sector to roll out its own network, based on fiber-to-the-home technology, that would reach 90 percent of Australians with speeds of up to 100Mbps.

"This is the single largest nation-building infrastructure project in Australia's history," Rudd said, comparing the project to the Snowy Mountains Hydro scheme and the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The remaining 10 percent of Australians would be served by a combination of ADSL broadband, wireless, and satellite.

Conroy said the government had found merit in the Tasmanian Government's submission to the NBN process and would begin negotiating with the state's government in the next 24 hours as to how its portion of the NBN could begin construction. "The Tasmanian rollout can be commenced by the middle of the year, June, July," he said.

The NBN company will be majority-owned by the Australian federal government, Rudd said, with private investment to be taken of up to 49 percent of the company. The government's share will, subject to market conditions, be sold off by the federal government five years after the network is complete, Rudd said.

Rudd said the company would invest up to $43 billion into the network, not all of which the government would provide. The government is putting in an initial investment of $4.7 billion.

The NBN company will provide only wholesale services, Rudd said, with open access being provided to retail providers.

Rudd said the network would create 7,000 jobs and $37 billion in economic activity for the life of the project.

As part of the new NBN process, Conroy has released a discussion paper on telecommunications regulatory reform. It is available from the Web site of his Department of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy.

The Prime Minister added that the creation of the company would solve "once and for all" the perceived conflict of interest in Telstra owning Australia's main telecommunications infrastructure and also providing retail services.

"Our critics might say: 'Just let broadband be sorted out by the markets,'" Rudd said. "It hasn't occurred over the last decade...it's time we bit the bullet on this."

Renai LeMai of ZDNet Australia reported from Sydney.