November Phone/Internet Outage Update

Here’s a notice that was posted on the San Juans Department of Emergency Management’s Facebook page…

How the phone and data connections reach all the islands.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has released it’s report on the November 2013 CenturyLink outage (it’s a large PDF file, you can download it here: http://1.usa.gov/XAS23X . Report captures UTC staff recommendations- final decision by UTC is yet to come.

A few key points that islanders should be aware of:

1. CenturyLink efforts to build a microwave back up for the submarine cables are still underway and are not in place yet.
2. There are two “single route” cables (Lopez-SJI and Anacortes-Decatur) that will cause major service disruption if they fail. The one in Rosario Strait will be especially difficult to repair. Cables are expected to fail on an average of every 25 years. Anacortes-Decatur was laid 30 years ago (1984).
3. We were lucky that repair happened as quickly as it did in November. Report says that similar repairs can often take a month.

Bottom line – given our dependence on CenturyLink and our inability to control their business and operational decisions, we could experience a similar or more severe outage at any time. Island residents, businesses, and government should take steps now to make their communications systems as robust as possible- use multiple providers, have access to Skype, IP phones, multiple sources of internet service if at all possible. Especially if you are performing critical services or are reliant on communications for your business.

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