COMMUNICATIONS SABOTAGE
Last month, inFebruary we had no internet or land line for NINE DAYS because thieves demolished the ATT infrastructure tosteal the copper wire. This affected allof Stanford Weekend Acres, Ladera, much of Portola Valley and part ofWoodside. No information was availableto residents, and not even the ATT employees in their office or on the groundworking, were able to inform residents when service would be restored. In addition to that, Alpine road was blockedby numerous trucks and cranes making access by emergency vehicles almostimpossible. One fire truck trying to respond to an emergency was blocked atJunipero Serra. The Sheriff’s Office was also unaware of the problem since their access toATT website showed that there were no outages! For this gross inconvenience wereceived a $20 discount on our bill!
This month we arecurrently in Day FIVE of yetanother, even wider outage caused by yet another theft of copper. This time however, ATT has no idea when service will be restored, and no informationis publicly available.
However, after considerable sleuthing, a reliable sourceinformed me that since a Board of Directors of ATT resides in Portola Valley, FIBER is being installed in thattown. Allegedly fiber is alsoin the process of being installed (at least in parts of PV) along AlpineRoad. ATT has absolutely no information as to if and when it will beinstalled through Stanford Weekend Acres!
Apparently a while back, a billionaire Trump donor living inLos Trancos Woods paid $80,000 to install fiber to his estate but refused toallow other PV residents to access that line.
A few years ago, Stanford installed fiber from Campus toRural Lane then onto Alpine and across the front of our driveway andthence over Alpine to SLAC. However thatis SU’s private line.
QUESTIONS:
How was it possible for thieves to deconstruct and move 2 whole miles of copper wiring withoutanyone seeing them?
Knowing the vulnerability of utility lines why are they notprotected by cameras?
Since even PGE is able to detect disruptions in service, whyis ATT not?
Where is the market for obviously stolen copper?
Why is Ray Mueller, who usually craves photo ops with media,not on top of this and has apparently done absolutely nothing to discover thefacts or inform constituents?
Why is there nopublic information?
Why is there no definitive time line for restoration ofservice?
Who is going to pay for all this?
What is the county doing to require ATT to install fiberasap in all affected areas?
Is there a Federal crime force working on apprehending thesecriminals?
What, if any, liability does ATT have for not providing asafe and reliable service?
What contingency plans (if any) does the county have fordealing with similar problems and their impact on potential public service/fire/evacuation/terroristactivity?
What (if any) litigation does the county contemplating with respect to ATTand its incompetence?
What is the future for DSL land line connections, especiallyin remote areas?
BOTTOM LINE:
This is a disgrace regardingcommunications and shows up the fact that this area is not prepared for a truedisaster. One has to wonder how preparedthe County is for earthquakes, fire, dam failure, disruption of water and gasfacilities, tsunami, bridge collapse, terrorist activity, aircraft crash, etc. They certainly were NOT prepared for theflooding in 1998 and years after that. (Typed in the library)
