Fiber cuts and theft in Mexico left thousands of lines without service in 2026. How an automatic failover with Starlink can prevent this from happening to your company.
In March 2026, a theft of copper cable—which also severed fiber-optic cables—left more than 10,000 Telmex lines without service in eastern Mexico City, from early morning until midnight. This was not an isolated incident: the theft of copper and fiber-optic cables is a recurring problem that has been documented in several cities across the country. For a company that relies on the internet to process invoices, serve customers, or simply respond to emails, an outage like this isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s an entire day of halted operations.
This is a setup in which your company has two internet connections—typically dedicated fiber as the primary connection and Starlink as a backup—and a router or SD-WAN device that constantly monitors the primary connection. As soon as it detects that the primary connection has stopped responding, it automatically switches traffic to the secondary connection, without anyone having to call support or reconfigure anything. When the fiber connection comes back online, traffic automatically reverts to the primary connection.
The failover team sends health checks to the primary connection every few seconds. If there is no response within a configured threshold—typically between 10 and 30 seconds—the system switches traffic to the secondary connection. Starlink is a particularly robust backup option precisely because it does not rely on terrestrial cabling: a cable theft that cuts off fiber for an entire block does not affect a satellite dish on a rooftop.
A full day without operating systems means payroll is paid without any work being done, sales aren’t closed, and customers can’t reach the company—the same principle we discussed when comparing managed services to on-demand support. Given that risk, the cost of a backup Starlink connection (~$3,500 MXN at mes) is negligible.
Any company whose operations depend on being online at all times: electronic invoicing, call centers, e-commerce, and ERP systems. This is particularly relevant for subsidiaries of international groups in Mexico, where a day without connectivity also means a day without being able to report to the parent company—precisely when demonstrating operational continuity is most critical.
Keptos Designs and implements failover solutions using Starlink as a business backup solution. See details at Starlink for businesses in Mexico or for IT management services for businesses in Mexico.
30 minutes with one of our directors. No sales pitch—straight to the point.