(1) Over a dozen large carriers participate in activities to protect their networks from damage by backhoes and other hazards. What is the latest news from the backhoe damage prevention industry?

(2) An analysis of network outages and events in the Year 2000 compared to previous years shows some changes in the types of outages, and their impact on network users. Are users being impacted by fewer events, or has the number of users grown, diluting the impact of network problems? With little hard data from providers, can we use other measurements of Internet performance to guage the effects?