[109716] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Telecom Collapse?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steven M. Bellovin)
Thu Dec 4 14:28:41 2008
Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 14:28:27 -0500
From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
To: Michael Thomas <mike@mtcc.com>
In-Reply-To: <49382D12.3000400@mtcc.com>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces@nanog.org
On Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:18:42 -0800
Michael Thomas <mike@mtcc.com> wrote:
> Joe Abley wrote:
> > This is straying far from network operations, but I think 911
> > generally engenders an unnecessary degree of hysteria. As I
> > suggested before, the marketing of this fear from certain quarters
> > has apparently been quiet effective.
> >
> > The probability of any single individual needing to call 911 is
> > already minute. The probably that all available cell and VoIP
> > services also won't work precisely at the moment that a 911 call
> > needs to be made is even smaller.
>
> We haven't really had a major catastrophe where we've been totally
> dependent on IP yet, AFIAK. Maybe all of the qos, call gapping and
> the rest of the stuff the TDM networks do to deal with disasters
> will be left in the dustbin of Moore's Law, but maybe they won't.
> One thing is certain: we'll definitely find out one day, and it's not
> likely to be from a position of having taken the precautions,
> congratulating ourselves IMO.
>
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10569 is probably worth
reading.
--Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
