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 From Houston to Port Louis |
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The Fiber Next Time
Multiple outages demonstrate HumCo's informatic
helplessness
by HELEN SANDERSON
The last time the fiber optic cable broke, less than a month ago, Humboldt Merchant Services, a credit card processing company based in Eureka, couldn't access the transaction reports that merchants around the country send to the company every day.
Processing those reports is not something that can simply be put off for a day or two. So the company had to take action and bypass the fiber optic line. They immediately sent three of their employees to their main processing plant in Omaha, Neb., to finish the work in person.
That unprecedented fiber optic hiccup occurred the day after Christmas, when foul weather snapped an above-ground power line near Laytonville. This weekend lightning struck again, so to speak.
On Saturday, Jan. 20, at around 5 a.m., a structure fire just north of Willits burned the broadband wire hanging above it, effectively halting Internet connectivity, Verizon cell phone use, long distance calls and credit card transactions for most of Humboldt and Del Norte counties. Some cell phone carriers, like US Cellular, still had service, but others were down. While AT&T has a backup microwave connection, it is not strong enough to handle the volume the entire county requires.
Luckily for Humboldt Merchant Services, this time around those important reports had come in already, so no one had to board a plane bound for the Midwest. But the downed line still put a damper on business.
"We didn't have long distance," said Linda Grimm, the company's senior vice president and director of operations. "We couldn't call our processor with 800 numbers. It definitely was impacting us. Just not as much as last time."
The impact could have been much worse for many North Coast institutions as well. The fact that the meltdown occurred on a weekend saved the bacon of county and city institutions, along with Humboldt State University, where the spring semester is just getting underway.
"We were just flat lucky both times that the campus was closed, or it was a Saturday," said HSU's Chief Information Officer Anna Kircher. "But it is the concept that we have such reliance on the Internet, and it is difficult to attract research dollars here when we can't promise them good [Internet] service."
HSU, like many Humboldt County organizations, has an on-campus network that keeps the lines of communication open within the institution. That means that students using HSU computers could access their university e-mail on Saturday, but couldn't use the Internet at large. And, like at HSU, any county employee could hypothetically access online records or e-mail other county workers -- for example, a sheriff's deputy could still e-mail the county health department.
HSU's Rick Garcia, interim manager for telecommunication and network services, said he wants to talk with county leaders about setting up a county-wide network for all institutions, businesses and even residents. That way if a line breaks in Willits, at least Internet users on the North Coast can stay in touch.
And it's ideas like Garcia's that are perhaps the silver lining to a snafu like this. Humboldt's communication breakdown has opened up discussion between various stakeholders.
In particular, what's been talked about for a few years now is the creation of another fiber optic line -- typically called a "redundant" line -- to keep Humboldt connected to civilization, especially in the event of a natural disaster, like an earthquake. The outages have only cranked up the volume of the discussion, and more voices have joined the chorus.
Just a week after the Dec. 26 fiber optic break, the Redwood Technology Consortium began talking with Susan Estrada, a contractor from FirstMile.US, a non-profit that promotes the use of broadband in the United States. A new study, which is estimated to be completed by May, would explore whether communications stakeholders -- Verizon, AT&T, Suddenlink and others -- might be willing to jointly own a new, redundant cable line, which would preferably run above ground from Eureka to Redding along Highway 299. Another study conducted by FirstMile.US last summer found that such a line would cost approximately $11 million. (It would cost $25 million to put the proposed line underground.)
In the meantime, HSU President Rollin Richmond and Humboldt Area Foundation director Peter Pennekamp have also been in discussions with the state on how to improve Humboldt County's connectivity to the fiber optic network.
And considering how much talk is swirling around this topic now, and how dependent many North Coasters have become on broadband connectivity, it's hard to believe that Humboldt was first connected to the fiber optic line just four years ago. Since then, many companies have found that their business has grown. Humboldt Merchant Services is one of them. According to Grimm, the company has doubled its customer base and now employs 80 people.
Rene Agredano, of Agreda Communications, is another businessperson who has benefited from fast Internet connections. Agredano and her husband's graphic design business is totally dependent on the Internet. "Most of our clients are anywhere but here," she said, so when DSL connectivity came to the area they were able to work faster and take on many more clients than when they were using sluggish dial-up. But while Agreda Communications has grown, Agredano says that fiber optic mishaps are really bad for business.
"When stuff like this happens it makes customers question our ability to deliver," she said. "We were lucky it was Saturday -- it was mellow. The next time it happens, you know, third time's a charm: It's going to happen on a Monday."
But what no doubt propelled the fiber optic situation into the forefront of the county's collective consciousness was the loss of ATM use and credit and debit card processing. While local businesses that used Humboldt Merchant Services were still able to accept credit cards -- Grimm estimates about 300 businesses -- many, including corporate stores at the Bayshore Mall, were out of luck.
"This is a huge deal, it's huge," said Bayshore Mall General Manager Sue Swanson. "It renders us crippled."
In most stores checks could not be verified, credit and debit cards couldn't be processed and neither could gift cards. They day after Christmas, which is historically a big shopping day, returns could not be made unless it was a direct exchange.
"We are really hoping we get that redundant line soon," she said. "Talking to someone has to be my next step."
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