Phone Question on Cable/Traditional

[LouB]

Nah, its Texas.

Lou

[Kurt Ullman]

Texas tends to look at gun control as hitting what you aim at. So, this particular case goes against their gun control laws.

[mkirsch1]

If you can't get through, emergency services isn't going to have anyone to send to help you anyway. Best to wait until things calm down if you can. If you can't, put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye...

[LouB]

Not necessarily so. Cell circuits get overload with a zillion "are you OK" or "I am OK" calls having nothing to do with NEEDING help. Regular circuits do also.

Lou

[The Daring Dufas]

A little programming could block 90% of trivial calls allowing only 911 calls to go through. It could be an interesting twist to giving more control of the network over to FEMA for emergencies. I know that at one time, the national phone system could be basically taken over by the federal government during The Cold War. If I'm not mistaken, the feds have their own separate network now. All that extra fiber that was run during The Internet boom and bust hasn't gone to waste.

TDD

[DerbyDad03]

Define "trivial calls".

If emergency workers are trying to coordinate the efforts via cell- phone, how would they do that?

You might respond by saying that "official" emergency workers would/ should have their own network, but what about the thousands of workers from volunteer organizations that are helping out?

At any given disaster, there are innumerable people who chip in to supplement the "official" workers - people whose skills and efforts are really needed. If only 911 calls were allowed to go through, their efforts would be extremely hampered.

[George]

And then there is the law of unintended consequences. Cell systems can prioritize traffic but they don't. Lets say there is an emergency of some sort and you are trapped. The all knowing and powerful FEMA workers are yammering away on their prioritized phones and your phone no longer works because it doesn't have the right priority.

[flir67]

depends... pick up the phone base and look where the cable goes into it. if you see 4 gold pin connectors the answer is yes, if you see 2 the answer is no.. that simple.. I rewired my house a few years ago with cat 5 cable, you learn alot....

[The Daring Dufas]

911 calls are now allowed to any cell phone even if it's not registered to a particular network. Dang feller, you didn't get that?

TDD

[George]

But I was commenting on this:

"It could be an interesting twist to giving more control of the network over to FEMA for emergencies."

[The Daring Dufas]

Well, FEMA is part of Homeland Security now so I suppose they can do whatever in the hell they want to do. They got lots of guns.

TDD

[aemeijers]

Anybody that can afford to plink with a .50 ought to have the brains to have a big U-shaped dirt berm as a backstop.

-- aem sends...

[aemeijers]

There is a class of cell service that basically echoes the old 'flash priority' on AUTOVON in the old days. It bumps civilian cell calls. As to the wireline federal networks, they are mostly virtual networks at this point, riding leased lines or the public switched lines. Try dialing 10-10-FTS sometime. Yeah, the line between ATT Long Lines and the Fed was rather fuzzy in the old days. Not so much anymore, but the fed phone network is still basically a Bellcore creation.

-- aem sends...

[The Daring Dufas]

From what I've read about the Cold War era AUTOVON system is that it ceased to be used in the 1990's replaced by DSN. I'm sure the feds have their own pathways through the national network but there's some really bizarre proprietary stuff me and thee will never see that they use for secure communication. I spent some time at a US Missile Defense Command facility 20 years ago and there was a lot of secure microwave, satellite and fiber optic communication equipment there. Now, there's no telling what they are using but it certainly takes up less space.

TDD

[HeyBub]

If you can get away from the TSA and deal with the police, you'll be okay.

My squeeze was taking a flight from Houston to New Orleans to attend a trade show. As you can imagine, lots of scurrying about with last minute details.

Anway, as she was going through the X-Ray security, the machine went "TILT" over the pistol in her purse!

Immediately she was taken to a room in the basement, one bright overhead light, drain hole in the middle of the floor, strange terminals and protuberances on the walls.

Cops come in. "Tell us about the gun," they say.

"You'll find a concealed handgun license in my purse," she replies. They do.

"Go forth and sin no more," the cops say.

They wouldn't let her take her gun on the plane; her son had to go to the airport and retrieve it from the constabulary.

But everybody on the TSA shift got a Gold Star beside their name that day.

[aemeijers]

She is lucky they let her have a relative retrieve the gun. Most places, once a gun is in their hands, you never get it back, even if no law is broken. Taken for elimination purposes, recovered stolen property, whatever. And since the leftish folks think guns in civilian hands are EVIL, none of the 'public interest' groups holds the local power structure to account over it. Most individuals can't afford to hire a lawyer over a $400-500 gun, so, there you go.

-- aem sends....

[DerbyDad03]

Don't mind me...just testing.