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Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

cnbc.com

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Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#471

Post by kevincox »

Scoundreller wrote: post #325
dktalks wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use Google Maps, it will automatically prompt you to download a map of the area if there is known poor coverage. It also has automatic (?) local maps.

One beef of mine with Google’s offline maps is that they’re only driving maps, and not walking/transit/cycling maps. Obviously you can kinda figure out walking paths anyway, but since I’m sometimes travelling without roaming access, it’s unfortunate.

No one walks in Mountain View or most of the US so product management doesn't understand the use case.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#472

Post by kevincox »

panarky wrote: post #443
giancarlostoro wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really shouldn't be the only way to verify its you if its going to prompt you every single time.

Tell that to $8 trillion Schwab and $12 trillion Fidelity.

Schwab support accidentally broke my account so that it sends 2FA verifications over email and I couldn't be happier.

(Well I could be happier if they supports TOTP, but I'm not holding my breath)

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#473

Post by BenjiWiebe »

zackkitzmiller wrote: post #459
danesparza wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well ... let's be honest: SMS 2FA shouldn't be a thing. TOTP or stronger, please.

SMS 2FA and TOTP aren't mutually exclusive are they? TOTP -> Time-based One Time Password SMS -> Delivery mechanism. You can deliver TOTP over SMS. Obviously, SMS shouldn't be used, but I was under the impression that the code generation mechanism and the code generation algorithms are completely disparate concepts.

Not sure I'm understanding you, but TOTP isn't delivered. It's generated locally/offline, based on the time and a private key that was set up when you first turned on TOTP 2FA.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#474

Post by BenjiWiebe »

silisili wrote: post #394
jader201 wrote: post #276

Something I'm not seeing discussion on: What is/were the cascading effects of this, particularly for drivers? Many people in buildings were unaffected, as they could fallback to wifi. But I imagine this had a pretty broad impact to drivers. Just a few things I can think of: - Packages delayed (UPS, FedEx, Amazon, truck drivers, etc.) for drivers that relied on their phone's mapping apps to get them to their deliverie…

What about those mobile card readers like you see in small businesses and food trucks and such? I've never owned one, but assumed they ran over cellular.

There are some models that can batch transactions throughout the day, and then upload them at the end of the day.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#475

Post by mjevans »

Scoundreller wrote: post #315
mjevans wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Multi-faceted failure mode. 0) At the network terminal level (mobile phone): at least for emergency calls if a given network fails to connect, fail over and try other networks. Even if the preferred networks claim to provide service. 1) At the network level: failure thresholds should be present. If those thresholds are crossed enter a fail-safe state. This should include entering a soft offline / overloaded response…

it’s that “0” level that surprised me the most here. Days later, Rogers said you might be able to pull out/disable your SIM card to call 9-1-1, but then it depends: if Rogers is the strongest network, you might end up in the same predicament anyway.

Agreed, 'zombie state' is a valid failure mode. Partners / Infra can think they're alive and respond but be non-functional. As can agents spoofing valid infra but always failing operations.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#476

Post by kccqzy »

sandworm101 wrote: post #358
taurath wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It only takes a few people missing an exit and swerving to create a bunch of traffic. So many people are used to not navigating manually anymore I can’t imagine it doesn’t have a big effect.

I have a 20-mile commute. I used my phone on day one at the new job, then never again since. It just isn't worth the effort for a road I've driven literally hundreds of times before. Do people also use google maps to get them from their front door to their garage? From the grocery store to wherever they parked their cars?

Two jobs ago, Google Maps literally suggested a different route from my home to work every single day during my first week at the job. The traffic on the main arterial was terrible every day, but somehow Google managed to find different detours every day to shave off a few minutes.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#477

Post by welcome_dragon »

Animats wrote: post #331

This is a serious architectural flaw. In the entire history of electromechanical switching in the Bell System, no central office was ever out of service for more than 30 minutes for any reason other than a natural disaster, or, on one single occasion, a major fire in NYC. The AT&T Long Lines system in the 1960s and 1970s had ten regional centers, all independent and heavily interconnected. There was a control center,…

What about the Chicago area outage in 1988? The entire area was without phone service for several weeks

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#479

Post by joezydeco »

welcome_dragon wrote: post #477
Animats wrote: post #331

This is a serious architectural flaw. In the entire history of electromechanical switching in the Bell System, no central office was ever out of service for more than 30 minutes for any reason other than a natural disaster, or, on one single occasion, a major fire in NYC. The AT&T Long Lines system in the 1960s and 1970s had ten regional centers, all independent and heavily interconnected. There was a control center,…

What about the Chicago area outage in 1988? The entire area was without phone service for several weeks

Hinsdale telco, 1988.

Didn't take out the entire Chicago area but was probably the worst case scenario for a suburban switch. Hinsdale handled the airports, FAA ATC offices, and the emerging mobile/cellular network. Long distance and 411 was down for whole counties.

This is a pretty good USENET archive/digest of the event, if you can get past the Web0.1 formatting:

http://telecom.csail.mit.edu/TELECOM_Digest_Online/1309.html

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#480

Post by mixdup »

deelowe wrote: post #425
thedaly wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that when AT&T built all the COs (1950-70s) they were constrained by both max number of lines and physical distance. You’ll see numerous COs in a big city, but they are also pretty widely dispersed throughout the suburbs and rural areas.

I used to work at BellSouth in outside plant engineering in the early 2000s. That's exactly what it was. Of course, by then any expansion was done via remote terminals and COs were becoming very antiquated.

>COs were becoming very antiquated.

I mean COs are integral in AT&T's architecture, it's where every fiber connection lands on an OLT

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