The DSL shakeout continues. Today, NorthPoint (a DSL provider) decided that it would have to just shut down 100,000 subscribers; about 20% of which are Internet business customers. Ouch. I know their pain all too well. Based on my own DSL saga, it also hints of what could happen if the electric utilities go under. You see, the various utilities and stuff that connect to your house aren't owned or controlled by one company. It's a vast network established by commercial and government supply agreements - which in the case of the water supply can go back 150 years. If any one of those networked entities goes belly up, it could be practically impossible to arrange for alternate service. There is no company or government entity that can get things working again. First "somebody" has to re-establish control of the supply line in question (through purchase or bankruptcy disposition or government takeover) , and second they need to re-establish commercial agreements with everybody else on the network (perhaps dozens or hundreds of other commercial interests) in order to provide a feed. You cannot sue anybody to regain control of the part of the line which has failed, because the company controlling it no longer exists. You'll have to get in line and wait for years behind larger creditors to be heard in bankruptcy court, and there is no money to pay for switching your service even if you manage to go through all this and win an injunction - remember the original providor is bankrupt, and there may be no other route for the service except through the "failed" part of the network. Are you scared? You should be...

As a matter of fact, my original DSL line is in this limbo state and it will take a court order to get it back. The only reason I have service at present is because the telephone wiring includes a redundant circuit pair. The phone company controls one of them. The only DSL providor that I could get service from following the original providor's bankruptcy was subsequently the phone company.

The electrical feeds, water lines, gas lines, etc., do not have this second circuit. The cable line might, but only if it was installed during a certain period of time. But the message is that even if you know who controls the wires and pipes which directly feed your house, you could still be screwed if the owners of a substation 40 miles away go into financial default and you happen to depend on it.