Google has revealed that aerial fibre links to its data centre in Oregon were "regularly" shot down by hunters, forcing the company to put its cables underground.
The search and advertising giant's network engineering manager Vijay Gill told the AusNOG conference in Sydney last week that people were trying to hit insulators on electricity distribution poles.
The poles also hosted aerially-deployed fibre connected to Google's $US600 million ($A635 million) data centre in the Dalles, a small city on the Columbia River in the US state of Oregon.
"What people do for sport or because they're bored, they try to shoot at the insulators," Gill said.
wheel
12:22 pm on Sep 22, 2010 (gmt 0)
lol. Though they should correct their terminology though, as people running around shooting crap with guns aren't necessarily hunters.
Shooting insulators is a sport as old as the hills. I remember people shooting lightning poles back 35 years ago. And it wasn't 'hunters', a more apt description would've been 'people sitting on the back porch on a lazy Sunday afternoon :).
cien
10:21 pm on Sep 25, 2010 (gmt 0)
Yeah, careful at the Dalles! I visit my favorite Mexican restaurant "Casa El Mirador" often and I've dodged them bullets in that highway of hell. Afraid my head would end up one day on somebody's wall right there between Barbara Walter and a Buck's. LOL. Just joking. Stop signs are riddled with bullet holes over there. Good food at El Mirador I'll tell you that... Best Carne Asada around.
Maurice
10:50 am on Sep 28, 2010 (gmt 0)
well at least its fibre with the price of copper there have been loads of thefts of copper from telecoms and other untilities.
