The target in the Nashville attack

[BGBD]

Is really looking like its the AT&T data center. Thats not for sure, but it has to be right there at the top of the list.

I haven't seen anything about this place in particular but it's one of those Level 3 fiber facilities that groups like the NSA have used to tap into systems before. It is certainly the kind of target I could see a radicalized Qanon follower going after, believing that the intelligence community was using it to steal the election or some other nonsense.

[Sgent]

1. Listening to the local news

multiple residents mentioned that there was nothing there except for closed bars / restaurants (Christmas), and ATT. If this is the center I'm thinking of, its one of the major ones in the southeast. Nashville was the regional headquarters for AT&T, and then the corporate headquarters for Bellsouth / Cingular, so that is a major intersection of telecommunications.

[MineralMan]

2. I'd think that wouldn't be damaged by a car bomb explosion, really.

Which doesn't mean that it wasn't the target. The bad guys are often abject morons.

[dawg day]

4. ATT owns CNN, right?

"Terror" doesn't have to kill people to terrorize.
Decades ago, there was a serial bomber in Indiana, and no one died (one of the injured later took his own life). But everyone was legitimately terrorized for months.

[MineralMan]

8. I don't know.

We do not yet know much about this explosion. Until a thorough investigation is finished, we will not know much more.

I think speculation is probably way premature at this point.

[BGBD]

7. It did

Link to tweet

?s=19

[MineralMan]

9. So, the center is still operational. Just as I said.

Probably, most of the operations are underground, I'd guess, although I don't know. A surface explosion would be unlikely to affect underground installations, really.

Again, that doesn't mean that the ATT Center was not the target, if it was a deliberate thing.

[getagrip_already]

14. not likely underground.....

Nashville floods on occasion. All sensitive systems would be above ground, but heavily fortified. Not even any windows on most of that building, and doesn't appear to be much structural damage.

Plus most of the IT systems would have redundancy at disaster recovery sites. generators going offline and restrictions on personnel going back in are probably slowing recovery efforts.

as others have pointed out, we don't much at this point. There could be a cyber attack on the heels of a physical attack, or something else could be going on.

I would feel a lot better if we had a functional justice department and intel agencies looking at this though.

[miyazaki]

3. Known as the Batman building when I lived there.

I guess it still is.

[csziggy]

5. It's even listed on Google Maps as "AT&T Batman Building"

[BGBD]

6. No, i dont think

That's the building. I'm pretty sure there is a smaller building right at the blast site that houses the infrastructure. The blast took down 40% of the sites generator capabilities and internet is down in much of the area as a result.

Link to tweet

?s=19

[Klaralven]

12. The building attacked is not the AT&T Batman building.

The building sits on 2.7 acres (11,000 m2) of property on Commerce St between 3rd and 4th Avenues North, and has a footprint of ​1 2⁄3 city blocks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_Building_(Nashville)

The Batman building is essentially an office building, and, as such, not a particularly interesting target.

The buildings targeted are two buildings on 2nd avenue between 2nd and 3rd avenues, which are buildings housing telecom equipment. These buildings probably do not have staff other than technicians needed to do installation, change and maintenance jobs on the equipment.

[SWBTATTReg]

10. And even if the data center is knocked out, contingency plans are in plan (disaster

recovery was part of my duties at AT&T, in case of a data center getting knocked out, etc.) to route the traffic etc. to other facilities and/or have other facilities step in to take on the role of the disabled data center. Of course the local loops serving the immediate area are negatively impacted, but the outlying areas (traffic etc.) would be if needed rerouted, etc. These facilities/buildings are massively built, thus hard to damage. I suspect that if any damages occurred, more than likely it's in the streets surrounding the facility.

[phatkatt]

11. Wide Range AT&T Outages

My girlfriend's phone is dead. She has AT&T. Another friend on FB posted that her's is out. My alarm system's uplink is out.

I hope this is not preparation for something bigger!!!

[Klaralven]

13. AT&T Nashville problems

https://downdetector.com/status/att/nashville/

Reports of outages over quite a large area including 911 systems down.

The odd thing is that the outages really hit right after noon. My guess would be that the backup battery plant drained in a few hours and the backup generators are not able to power the entire building.

During one of the New York blackouts there was a celebrated instance where a building had the diesel generators in the basement replaced by turbine generators on the roof. Alas, the fuel tanks had been left in the basement and the pumps to lift the fuel to the turbogenerators had been connected to mains power, rather than the battery plant. The turbines started up, drained the small holding tanks on the roof, and promptly shut down.

[MerryBlooms]

16. Local Nashville news is reporting the AT&T building was penetrated by the blast,

and other carriers are working with AT&T to reroute services from AT&T.

[Klaralven]

17. There was a report of a window being pierced by an object blocks from the explosion

The explosive may have been designed to eject shrapnel in various directions.

[JI7]

15. Qanon people don't seem like they would be able to plan this out