Sliced fibre, anyone?
All right, who smells that Xtra's and Telecom's problems today are thanks to someone (last time I remember something similar, it was a road contractor, but of course it doesn't mean it was them this time) slicing a little bit of Telecom fibre optic cable?
If it was just one cable, perhaps having a backup route might actually be a good idea...
I'm typing this over dialup. Helps having backup connectivity off a provider that avoids the telco that provides your usual network access. :)