Widespread outage

Definition
A widespread outage is

"a sustained interruption of telecommunications service that will have strategic significance to Government, industry and the general public."

Overview
"Such an outage would likely affect the telecommunications service in at least one region of the country, including at least one major metropolitan area. It would involve multiple carriers, affecting both long distance and local service, and significantly degrade the ability of other essential infrastructures to function. Such an outage would have an impact on the availability and integrity of telecommunications service for at least a significant portion of a business day."