Live data from Hacker News

Verizon outages reported across U.S.

firstcoastnews.com

111–120 of 193 posts

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#111
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’ve got 100k people to run something that should run essentially on autopilot, you’ve got much deeper problems where merely laying off selected chunks of people will no longer help. The whole company is rotten and the only way is to start from scratch and not make the mistakes that led you to accumulate 100k people. I can't even begin to imagine what those 100k people actually do. For starters, none of the telc…

Obviously, you know exactly how to run a major telecomm operation ten times as efficiently as the dominant operator in the most prosperous nation on earth — you are wasting your skills and should absolutely be given funding to disrupt them and make Billions!! What is holding you back from joining the Oligarchs?

Have you considered that the inefficiency is a feature and provides cushy jobs for a lot of people and subcontractors? But yes, a modern telco can absolutely be run more efficiently if you operate it like a tech company and don't have to deal with decades of legacy sludge (whether bloated headcounts or heterogenous legacy infrastructure you have to support).

The problem is that this is a culture problem and once a company is ossified it is really hard to enact such change from the inside even if you wanted to because everyone enjoys the status quo (and who doesn't wouldn't be there to begin with).

Another example: have you seen the UK & EU banking scene and the boom of fintech and "neobanks" around 2017 like Revolut, Monzo, Starling, N26, etc? They managed to build from scratch on relatively shoestring budgets their own implementation of a consumer bank, something that their legacy competitors still can't replicate despite having way more budget and resources.

Unfortunately, the telco world is an oligopoly and they don't like new entrants (banking in the UK was actually a much more level playing field in comparison), so we can never actually see an experiment that proves or disproves my theory.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#113

I see multiple posts here speculating on cyberattack—as opposed to "we pushed a bad configuration update which messed everything up irreparably"—you know, like it has been every other time before this. E.g., Cloudflare, Meta (who in doing so also locked themselves out of the building), and didn't some bumbling major Canadian telco knock themselves offline for like a week not too long ago?

One of these times they will be right and you will never hear the end of the time they were first to recognize the start of a cyberattack.

It works both ways, a lot of people also take the "nothing ever happens" position and it is true that most of the time "nothing ever happens", so by taking that position, they're right 99% of the time and sound smart

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#114
post #7
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The alternative network reports are most likely people trying to call Verizon customers and reporting an outage when they can't get through.

You think like a person who’s debugged large systems failures before :). That feels very plausible.

I've seen it happen before - in the big AT&T outage a couple years ago reports came in on downdetector of outages for other providers.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#115
post #47

Recently downloaded bitchat so I can contact my family members if outages like this happen when we’re out and about. I got a few T1000 cards for meshtastic but there’s just too much friction to teach my spouse and others how and when to use it. I wish haloW was built into phones which would make long range local communication much better.

Really neat concept but that name is so unfortunate. Is it bit-chat or bitch-at? Frankly either would work.

I had not heard of it, and the first thing that came to mind was bitch-at. Maybe that's a reflection on my character, who knows.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of these times they will be right and you will never hear the end of the time they were first to recognize the start of a cyberattack.

It works both ways, a lot of people also take the "nothing ever happens" position and it is true that most of the time "nothing ever happens", so by taking that position, they're right 99% of the time and sound smart

Yes, but the majority opinion is "nothing ever happens" by default for everything, not just tech outages. It's not about sounding smart, but getting ahead of grifters and clout chasers.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#117

I got sniped away from Visible (Verizon MVNO) by US Mobile (multi-carrier MVNO) during a Black Friday sale. USM has an interesting thing where you can actually get a separate eSIM for each of the major carriers, and switch between them. I was curious so I signed up for all 3. It's been interesting to see how the signals vary from location to location, and at least a couple times I've been able to get significantly be…

I switched to US Mobile a long time ago just due to pricing. I was WFH most days of the week (before Covid) so I could do minimal data and pay around $100/yr for unlimited talk/text. Now, I do unlimited everything as I commute 5 days each week, but it's only $200/yr. Still significant savings.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#118

I got sniped away from Visible (Verizon MVNO) by US Mobile (multi-carrier MVNO) during a Black Friday sale. USM has an interesting thing where you can actually get a separate eSIM for each of the major carriers, and switch between them. I was curious so I signed up for all 3. It's been interesting to see how the signals vary from location to location, and at least a couple times I've been able to get significantly be…

Unfortunately GV has been having a ~week outage of outgoing MMS group messages. Well, let's say a brownout – many messages make it through to some recipients.

https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/incidents/THtvkD...

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#119

I got sniped away from Visible (Verizon MVNO) by US Mobile (multi-carrier MVNO) during a Black Friday sale. USM has an interesting thing where you can actually get a separate eSIM for each of the major carriers, and switch between them. I was curious so I signed up for all 3. It's been interesting to see how the signals vary from location to location, and at least a couple times I've been able to get significantly be…

I really love US Mobile. I was a flagship postpaid $90/mo VZW customer for a decade and was so hesitant to switch. It's been 4 years now, and all I can say is that I can't believe I waited so long.

Re: Verizon outages reported across U.S.

#120
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Obviously, you know exactly how to run a major telecomm operation ten times as efficiently as the dominant operator in the most prosperous nation on earth — you are wasting your skills and should absolutely be given funding to disrupt them and make Billions!! What is holding you back from joining the Oligarchs?

Have you considered that the inefficiency is a feature and provides cushy jobs for a lot of people and subcontractors? But yes, a modern telco can absolutely be run more efficiently if you operate it like a tech company and don't have to deal with decades of legacy sludge (whether bloated headcounts or heterogenous legacy infrastructure you have to support). The problem is that this is a culture problem and once a co…

> Have you considered that the inefficiency is a feature and provides cushy jobs for a lot of people and subcontractors?

Yes, this explains most of our jobs.

Post reply on HN