The short version
Could one incident interrupt both connections?
Two Internet circuits can use different network routes yet pass through the same conduit, building entrance, riser, or equipment room. Damage at a shared point can interrupt both. Follow each circuit from the provider’s network to your equipment and ask which sections are separate, where they meet, and what remains unverified.
Identify the failures your business needs to withstand, then confirm whether the proposed paths and failover design address them.
Physical diversity reduces exposure to particular shared failures; it does not make a connection immune to outages. For the broader picture, including power, devices and backup capacity, see our Internet redundancy guide.
01 / See the difference
Separate circuits can meet at the same entrance.
In the first example, a single incident at the shared entrance could interrupt both circuits. In the second, a failure isolated to one entrance need not affect the other. The illustration does not establish whether the street routes, equipment rooms, upstream networks or power are independent.
02 / Trace the physical path
Where can the paths come together?
Start at your equipment and work outward with the providers and building team. Ask about each section rather than relying on a single “diverse” label.
Street and underground
Ask whether cables share a conduit, trench, access structure, bridge or other vulnerable crossing.
Building entry
Find out where each service enters, whether the entrances are separate and which spaces provide access.
Inside pathways
Check risers, cable trays, communications rooms and cross-connects between the entry and your space.
Handoff and equipment
Identify the handoff locations, routers, firewalls and power sources on which each service depends.
Separation has a scope. Different conduits in the same excavation, for example, may still be exposed to the same construction incident. The appropriate distance and protections depend on the risks and actual site.
03 / Understand the layers
Separate wavelengths do not prove separate routes.
A wavelength is an optical channel used to carry traffic over fiber. A dedicated wavelength or access channel can reserve capacity for a service, but two wavelengths can still travel through the same fiber cable or conduit. Likewise, separate fibers may be in the same cable or pathway.
Logical routing is another layer: traffic may use different network paths while the underlying physical facilities share a risk. Ask about both the logical design and the physical infrastructure that carries it.
04 / Our infrastructure
What Stealth owns and operates.
Stealth owns and operates its fiber network, builds with its own construction crews, and maintains its infrastructure with its own field teams. In certain areas, we also own and operate underground manhole infrastructure. That gives our team direct experience with the physical work behind the network. Our independently operated infrastructure can form part of a physically diverse design, subject to a review of the actual paths and shared dependencies.
A photograph of our construction is not evidence of a particular circuit’s route. The diversity available at your address depends on the actual routes, building entrances, internal pathways and other facilities involved. Our team can review a proposed design and explain what we can confirm, what is shared and what needs further investigation.
05 / Establish the evidence
Ask for a documented, scoped answer.
Give each provider the locations, services and failure scenarios you need assessed. Request an explanation of the route sections and building facilities they can verify, including where paths converge. A building engineer or riser manager may help confirm internal pathways and access.
Providers may not have visibility into another provider’s facilities or may limit disclosure of sensitive route details. Ask whether an engineering review can assess shared dependencies without publishing precise route information. Record unknowns explicitly and agree on how they will be resolved.
Availability and construction depend on the property and survey. Where a separate route needs new work, confirm feasibility, building permissions, cost, timing and approvals before relying on it in your continuity plan.
06 / Put the backup to work
A separate path still needs a tested failover plan.
Trace both services through your routers, firewalls, switches and power. A shared device or power supply can interrupt both even if the outside paths are separate. Check whether the backup has enough capacity for the applications that must keep working.
Agree on a maintenance window and rollback plan, then test representative failures with the responsible teams. Check detection and switchover time, VPNs, voice, cloud applications and public services. Some sessions may reconnect or fail if addresses change. Record results and repeat tests after meaningful changes or on an agreed schedule.
Separate providers, BGP, dedicated wavelengths and an availability SLA can each be useful in a design, but none alone proves physical independence or seamless failover. Our SLA guide explains commitments and their limits.
07 / Take this with you
Questions for your providers and building team.
- Which routes, conduits, access structures and crossings are separate, and where might one incident affect both?
- Do the circuits use separate building entrances, rooms, risers and handoff locations?
- Are the services on separate fiber paths, or only separate fibers or wavelengths in a shared path?
- What can each provider and the building team verify? What remains unknown?
- What construction, permissions, costs and schedule would improve separation?
- Do the links share equipment, power, an upstream facility or another important dependency?
- How will we test failover and confirm essential applications work on the backup?
To discuss an address or a proposed design with Stealth, contact sales@stealth.net. Existing customers can reach support at support@stealth.net or +1 212 232 2020.
Prepared by Stealth Communications, a provider of business connectivity. The available design and service terms depend on the location, infrastructure and agreement.