It happens more frequently than you hear about it. Though it’s big news when it hits a major metro area. Unprotected cables running under a bridge where “homeless” had fires burning took out a whole city for days. Other times, it’s guys with backhoes.

Fiber is too cheap not to have redundancy, particularly when telcos have business contracts that guarantee service, unlike residential customers, who typically have contracts saying they don’t necessarily have to get anything at all in return for paying their bills.

I’m of two minds when it comes to coms. In one way, we’re much better off with fiber-optic lines. In another, satellite-based coms have a strong appeal (but they are vulnerable to mischief by international actors.