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COMPUTING

Crickets put the bite on $5.5 million project

Yes, crickets stymied a big fiber-optic network installation in North Texas.

November 10, 1998
Web posted at: 11:30 AM EDT

by Mary Nell Westbrook

From...

(IDG) -- Everyone's heard of computer viruses, but it was bugs that put the brakes on a $5.5 million network project at a school district in Texas. No, not software bugs, but the creepy, crawly kind - crickets, to be exact.

The Northwest Independent School District, north of Fort Worth, Texas, is in the midst of a project that involves upgrades to computer centers and the installation of data networks in six new buildings on three campuses. As part of the project, Southwestern Bell installed about $2.5 million worth of fiber-optic cable in and between the new buildings. But after what seemed to be a routine installation and test, something went terribly wrong

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"We went back to make sure our tester was calibrated properly and nothing happened," says Ann Hallstrom, a project manager for Southwestern Bell in Dallas. "Everything was dark."

The fiber-optic cable terminates in boxes that look like large electrical outlets on interior walls. When troubleshooting the net, a Southwestern Bell crew opened one of the 156 boxes and found that crickets had invaded it, destroying some of the fiber.

So far, Hallstrom says her crew has found about 20 infested fiber boxes, all located in the new buildings. None of the existing structures, which were also newly wired for fiber, suffered any cricket damage.

Who ya gonna call?

Carl Shawn, technology director for the school district, did what any good network manager would do in such a situation - he called a consultant. But this was no ordinary consultant: Shawn called John Jackman, an entomologist from Texas A&M University. Jackman told Shawn that the crickets were likely trapped behind the sheetrock walls during construction of the new buildings. Crickets naturally follow light, so any light that was shining in from the room through holes in the fiber box would have lured the crickets. As the crickets followed the light, they dropped into the small box, unable to escape the way they came in.

The crickets were forced to eat whatever they could, be it the strands of fiber or each other, Jackman says.

Southwestern Bell also called in a consultant: Keith Haas, an entomologist with Granowsky Consultants in Bryan, Texas. Haas agreed that several factors contributed to the cricket infestation, including the recent drought in North Texas, which caused a surge in the cricket population, and the new construction, which disturbed the crickets' natural habitat.

Southwestern Bell opted to wait for the crickets to die, then make the repairs.

The carrier is now in the process of testing the 156 boxes, which hold a total of 1,000 fiber strands. The company will examine the fiber and replace or repair the strands as needed - at a cost of no more than $64,740.

Southwestern Bell ultimately agreed to pick up the tab, although the company admits no wrongdoing, saying the cricket infestation was a freak occurrence.

"I called all the manufacturers of similar cable, and the only problem anyone had ever heard of was termites destroying fiber in Australia," Southwestern Bell's Hallstrom says.

Through it all, Hallstrom is trying to keep her sense of humor. "People are telling me, 'Crickets need fiber, too,' " she says, and friends are offering recipes for delicacies such as chocolate-covered crickets.

Westbrook is a freelance writer in Jacksboro, Texas.

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