I’m glad to see them making efforts to rate-limit it upstream: even though I am configured locally to lessen the traffic, I’m still seeing tons of requests occasionally come down my Sonic DSL line, and it would be nice to free up the bandwidth.

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — AT&T today announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for an act of vandalism to the AT&T network in San Jose, CA.

Following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, AT&T networks were declared National Critical Infrastructures in recognition of their importance to the nation’s security. Anyone who tampers with, destroys or disrupts the company’s network or its components is in violation of federal and state laws. AT&T is assisting law enforcement to identify and prosecute those responsible.

The vandalism occurred in the early morning hours of April 16 and involved cuts of fiber optic cables in a manhole in San Jose.
technicians responded immediately and are working to restore service in the area.

Tips can be given to AT&T at 800-807-4205.

SANTA CRUZ – Internet and cellphone service in the county were disrupted Tuesday after one of AT&T’s fiberoptic cables in Gilroy was damaged.

The outage lasted all day and is expected to be fixed Wednesday.

It affected commercial customers such as Bay Federal Credit Union, which was unable to process deposits due to lack of Internet connectivity, individual AT&T and Verizon phone users, along with Sonic Fusion and Flexlink customers in Santa Cruz.

George Ross, a spokesman for AT&T, could not say how many customers were affected, but he said technicians are working to repair the damage as quickly as possible.

“This kind of situation is exactly why Cruzio started building our own network, wholly owned and managed locally, after the 2009 cut,” said Cruzio Internet co-founder Chris Neklason, referring to a similar outage on the same line. “Cruzio Velocity customers are affected. Cruzio DSL, wireless and datacenter customers, and anyone working at 877 Cedar, are not.”

Cruzio reported that AT&T “confirmed a major fiber cut in the area and have dispatched technicians out for repair.”

The fiberoptic cables were cut near Monterey Highway in Santa Clara County about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith.

By 11:15 a.m., Cruzio reported AT&T determined new cable was needed due to the extent of the damage and service expected to be restored by 4 p.m. An update shortly after 4 p.m. said AT&T had begun splicing.

Splicing will “take a while,” Neklason said. “Each hair-width glass fiber must be polished and attached to the corresponding fiber in the new bundle.”

That was not the only utility disruption Tuesday.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the San Jose Police Department received multiple phone calls of gunshots in the area of Monterey Road and Blanchard Road in the city of San Jose at 1:46 a.m. Both departments were unable to locate anything or anyone suspicious in the immediate area, but two hours later PG&E contacted the Sheriff’s Office regarding the breach of a security fence at their substation located in the 100 block of Metcalf Road.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, PG&E reported at least five transformers were damaged and hazardous materials spilled. Cause of the damage was not known.

The South Santa Clara County Fire District and PG&E worked to clean up hazardous materials spilled by transformers.

The two incidents occurred a half-mile from each other and near a gun range.