There's nothing quite like awakening on a Sunday morning to the triple play of fail: no phone, no TV and no Internet service. Think the kids were happy? Think their Mom was happy? ... Think Dad was happy?
Of course, we've been through this before ... and before ... and before ... but that wasn't going to replace anyone's favorite shows or my Red Sox game.
The good news is that Verizon had a technician to our house before the coffee was turned off this morning (it's not a Verizon coffee maker, thankfully) and he quickly discovered that there had been a cable cut inside one of their boxes atop a pole across the street.
What caused the cut?
Ants, the tech told my wife. Ants ate clean through glass.
Really?
That's what the man said. In fact, he said it's not an uncommon occurrence. (By the way, we're talking common black ants here, nothing exotic.)
Who knew?
(Update: I've contacted a couple of fiber optic cable manufacturers to see what they have to say about ants eating through their glass. True? Or suburban legend? Will let you know if/when I hear back.)
(Update 2: No, I haven't heard anything from the fiber optic manufacturers, but I did stumble upon a story that may confirm the Verizon technician's explanation: "Ant mega-colony takes over world." ... Taking over the world would certainly seem to include the ability to deprive my family of telephone, television and Internet access. Be afraid, be very afraid.)
The Leader in Network Knowledge
hornets
Fiberoptic eating ants. That's a new one. Mor than likely what happened was a tech tore up the fiber in the process of knocking the ants out of the box. Or an animal, (maybe a woodpecker) chewed the fiber up trying to get at the ants.
We had hornets build in a comm box outside one of our clinics. When the tech saw the hornets he sprayed them heavily with a couple of cans of wasp and hornet spray, then knocked the protruding part of the nest off the box. Then he sprayed the inside of the box thoroughly. Turns out that the bug spray was conductive. Took down the whole network. And no, I didn't tell the clinic manager about the spray incident. I just said that there were some communication "bugs" that took down the network. I have no shame.
Ants responsible for mine too
I've had 3 outages with FiOS so far. The first was due to a splice that didn't hold. OK, mechanical failure or a slip up by the installer. It happens, so I didn't think much of it.
The second was due to the same ant problem you described. It really surprised me when I heard the cause, but apparently some ants like the fiber cable and make nests in the splice boxes up on the poles. Then they begin to eat through the fiber cable. The piece of fiber the tech replaced looked well chewed on by some extremely tiny jaws, almost like it had been sitting in solvents.
The last was due to a failure on some of the early house comm boxes. Verizon replaced the box the next day with a new version that's been trouble free (it died Sunday evening).
I've been using FiOS for over 3 years now, and these have been the only issues I've had with the service.
Ants
That's creepy... Think of what else they could eat...
Tech was there before the coffee ??
Hmmmm Verizon tech onsite quickly NAW (no pun intended) ??
I think the ANT was dressed in a human suit
Glass-eating ants?
My guess is that if ants did cut the fiber, then it was a plastic one, and not glass. But, who knows. Ants do exude formic acid, though I don't remember enough of my college chemistry to know if it will eat through glass.
I thought fiber optic cable has Kevlar shielding?
I thought fiber optic cable has Kevlar shielding to prevent physical damage of this nature? Either that, or Verizon has been skimping on the quality of cable they use. Strange.
For the record, the only
For the record, the only acid which attacks (regular) glass is HF, hydrofluoric acid - very nasty stuff and highly restricted.
Fiber
What the Verizon tech said is very likely true. Fiber Optic cable is very strong when pulled length wise, but incredibly brittle when bent, twisted or pinched. Ants in a splice enclosure is an occasional problem as they break the splices as their nest expands.
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