At last! The perfect plan to make all telecommunications more easy to spy on - AND - remove any system redundancy or fallback in the event of a cyberattack or other disaster.
This from the
If It Ain't Broke - Break It!" Department:
AT&T plan to shut off Public Switched Telephone Network moves ahead at FCC
FCC to greenlight IP phone trials, but won't completely deregulate AT&T.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to take its first major step toward letting AT&T and other carriers replace the country's traditional phone system with one that works entirely over Internet Protocol networks...
Here's a question:
In return for being allowed to move the entire US phone system (which "just works" under extremely adverse conditions
and whose infrastructure is already
paid for) over to a more high tech system (that is intrinsically more fragile and open to abuse and vandalism)...may we expect
significant price reductions for AT&T customers considering Ma Bell will soon be saving
large amounts of money by going over to a virtual system?
And especially since the
savings realized on servicing FISA court orders alone should be huge once the transition is made?
Note: the plan is to end
public wired service. You can be sure Uncle Sam and his ilk will be in no rush to completely abandon
their wired systems.