[42821] in Cypherpunks
Telephone switch capacity
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mike McNally)
Fri Nov 3 16:08:41 1995
From: m5@dev.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 1995 14:51:54 -0600
To: Noah Brodbeck <nbrodbeck@hollandhart.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <s09a2bef.049@allegro.net>
Noah Brodbeck writes:
> Please be aware that the current capacity of the
> telephone system in the United States (and for that matter,
> most of the developed world) is only capable of supporting
> between 15 and 20 percent simultaneous telephone
> conversations. If the FBI wishes to set up a system that is
> capable of monitoring 1% of the total number of lines, that
> equates to a ability to tap 5%, not 1% of all calls in progress.
>
According to an article that was out on the AP newswire (check under
<URL:http://http://www1.trib.com/WIRE/CURRENT/>), the "1%" figure
applies to actual capacity. In other words, if there's a switch with
50K subscribers but actual capacity for 5K simultaneous calls, the FBI
wants to be able to make 50 simultaneous taps.
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| Nobody's going to listen to you if you just | Mike McNally (m5@tivoli.com) |
| stand there and flap your arms like a fish. | Tivoli Systems, Austin TX |
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