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A comment on F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as a Utility. Parent comment

Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by spiritplumber on Monday February 02, 2015 @02:16PM (#8986155)
I'm surprised at how reliable utilities are in America. I was in a low income neighborhood in San Antonio during university, and had maybe 2 blackouts in 3 years.
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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by pluma on Monday February 02, 2015 @02:21PM (#8986202)
Where are you from exactly? I live in Europe and 2 blackouts in 3 years would still be an outrage.

(To be fair, we have less natural disasters.)

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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by soccerdave on Monday February 02, 2015 @02:26PM (#8986248)
The length of the blackout would probably need to be given to provide some perspective. 2 30 minute blackouts would be much easier to deal with than 1 3 day blackout.
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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by sliverstorm on Monday February 02, 2015 @02:39PM (#8986353)
We're missing a lot of context. San Antonio is in Texas, which means these could have been rolling blackouts, one of the last-ditch efforts employed by power companies during record summer temperature spikes (which translate to monumental load spikes in the form of A/C)
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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by mbreese on Monday February 02, 2015 @02:51PM (#8986448)
Or it could be weather related (like most outages), or a bad transformer, or a car running into a pole, or a ton of things...

So, you're right that we're missing a lot of context - including the duration. A 30 min outage due to an accident is very different from a 3 day outage due to a storm.

And like you said, AC can be a big drain on the grid during the summer.

(Disclaimer: I'm not sure what the weather in San Antonio is like...)

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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by lkbm on Monday February 02, 2015 @05:01PM (#8987315)
Not very rainy. No hurricanes or blizzards. Very hot. Usually in a drought, and not to uncommonly 50+ days exceeding 100 Fahrenheit in a year.

(I'm in Austin, which is pretty close to San Antonio, but I see now is considerably hotter: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ewx/?n=100degreedays.htm ww.usclimatedata.com/climate/san-antonio/texas/united-states/ustx1200 )

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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by kevin_thibedeau on Monday February 02, 2015 @03:20PM (#8986669)
The heat alone contributes to reduced life of power handling equipment. Most parts of Europe don't have to deal with that.
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Re:F.C.C. Is Expected to Propose Regulating the Internet as ... by spiritplumber on Monday February 02, 2015 @04:21PM (#8987077)
The Italian Alps.
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