FCC Chairman Suggests Overhaul for Phone Internet System

By Daniel Starkey
published

The FCC will be gearing up to upgrade the U.S.’s telephone backbone soon. The current chairman of the organization announced that it will begin a new set of experiments in 2014 to prep phone lines with bigger networks that use IP instead of the current analog switchboard system.

In a blog post, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wrote, "This is what I call the Fourth Network Revolution… History has shown that new networks catalyze innovation, investment, ideas and ingenuity. Their spillover effects can transform society -- think of the creation of industrial organizations and the standardized time zones that followed in the wake of the railroad and telegraph."

It's a big step, and the full roll-out could take several years, but by the time it's all said and done, everyone in the U.S. will benefit from better call quality and more reliability.

Daniel Starkey
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • clonazepam
    NSA asked for a lil assist from the FCC... I bet the wire-tapping infrastructure streamlines quite nicely getting away from analog.
    Reply
  • stevejnb
    12047278 said:
    NSA asked for a lil assist from the FCC... I bet the wire-tapping infrastructure streamlines quite nicely getting away from analog.

    ... yeah, either that, or "the greatest nation in the world" has an internet infrastructure that some third world countries chuckle at, so someone figures something should be done about it.
    Reply
  • brandonjclark
    Oh, it will have built-in access. Almost time to leave this place.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    "instead of the analog switchboard system"

    The truly analog POTS has been practically dead for decades already with most phone lines terminating into digital switch boards... the DMS100 for example was launched in 1979. Those may not be IP but they are still very much digital.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    12047278 said:
    NSA asked for a lil assist from the FCC... I bet the wire-tapping infrastructure streamlines quite nicely getting away from analog.
    Pretty much the whole phone system save the copper line between your home and the CO is already digital: unless you live in the middle of nowhere, your phone line likely terminates into something equivalent to a DMS100 phone line card where your phone line gets sampled at 8kHz 12bits, compressed to 8bits, packed into framing of some sort such as ATM and shipped out to the next switch along your call's virtual channel.
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    You killed my fantasy but thanks for the schooling. I sold my soul to Comcast and am on their voip service.
    Reply
  • John Bauer
    What about NORMAL Internet? When will the Internet infrastructure of the US be improved?
    Reply
  • Darkk
    Quote:

    "What about NORMAL Internet? When will the Internet infrastructure of the US be improved?"

    I agree with that statement. Kinda backwards of what they are doing.
    Reply
  • ddpruitt
    Once again Tom's is out of date and misquotes, gotta love the people that don't read.

    Communications protocols are moving from circuit-switched Time-division Multiplexing (or TDM) to IP.

    Sounds like the FCC knows what they're talking about. More accurately they know that the system is dated and they want to update the standards. But instead of leaving it to the likes of AT&T and Verizon who's goal is to screw everyone over they want reliable consistent service. They're doing an RFC period so that they can hammer everything out.
    Reply
  • bochica
    12047945 said:
    What about NORMAL Internet? When will the Internet infrastructure of the US be improved?

    THIS!

    The joke a few friends and I have of the LTE acronym is it means "Lying To Everyone," because the US will not be able to achieve actual 4G speeds with its current infrastructure (there are 4G standards that double LTE, and even higher standards being deployed outside of the US). The rest of the world is running at high Fiber speeds than we have here, not to mention it is much more accessible. There are areas in this country that just received Cable internet in the past 3 years. Can you believe that? Still being on DSL while "bigger" parts of the country are on speeds 20x of what is offered in your area, at about the same cost (or at least not too much higher).

    Google tried to help the movement when they initiated their Fiber program. They offered people, whether they were selected or not, to email their state representatives to pass a bill in office, require each future road construction to put in conduits for Fiber Optic Internet/Phone lines. This would help reduce the costs of installation when providers would begin to use the lines.

    I have not even heard of that bill being passed since then. The bill was called "Broadband Conduit Deployment Act of 2009" which did not pass in 2009. It was reintroduced in 2011, and Congress still did not do anything with it. The US needs to wake up and catch up with the rest of the world in this sector of technology.

    Reply