On November 4, Tom Wheeler was sworn in as the new Federal Communications Commission chairman and shortly thereafter signaled that he had a great interest in promoting the “IP Transition” in the United States. The FCC has been studying this transition for about a year now, looking at how to manage the switch from old copper-line telephone and data communications technology, such as the T1 lines familiar to many libraries, to newer “Ethernet” technology based on the Internet Protocol (IP). Large telecommunications companies would like to discontinue their support for the old technology because it is expensive for them to maintain two different technologies in their networks. But consumer advocates warn that any transition must not leave people in areas that have only copper infrastructure without necessary communications services.
- The IP Transition: Starting now (Official FCC Blog/Tom Wheeler) “Fiber networks are expanding. Bonding technology is showing interesting possibilities with regard to the nation’s traditional copper infrastructure. Communications protocols are moving from circuit-switched Time-division Multiplexing (or TDM) to IP. And wireless voice and data services are increasingly prevalent, empowering consumers to connect at the place and time of their choosing. This is what I have called the Fourth Network Revolution, and it is a good thing. History has shown that new networks catalyze innovation, investment, ideas, and ingenuity.”
- FCC chairman: US phone system needs Internet makeover (CNET/Steven Musil) “While many consumers already make phone calls on the Internet using voice over IP, which transmits large amounts of data in packet form, much of the nation’s telephone infrastructure still employs less-efficient analog technology. Wheeler, who won Senate confirmation as the commission’s chairman late last month, wrote in a blog post Tuesday that he expects the commission to vote in January on a package of recommendations to speed the initiation of experiments and analysis of their outcomes, as well as consider the associated legal, policy, and technical issues.”
- The IP Transition: What is it and what the debate is about (GigaOM/Stacey Higginbotham) “Wheeler can call it the Fourth Network Revolution or whatever he wants. The transition is already happening, it’s the FCC’s job to figure out how to do this without causing a loss of access and problems for millions of Americans who still rely on the copper network. It also means we need to ensure that cellular and VoIP 9-1-1 actually gets help to people when they need it and that VoIP services are reliable in a crisis. It also means that customers have access to a voice network even if they are in rural America and that access shouldn’t come with expensive strings attached.”
- Who will upgrade the telecom foundation of the Internet? (O’Reilly Radar/Andy Oram) “Everyone knows that Internet technologies, such as voice over IP, are less reliable than plain old telephone service, but few realize how soon reliability of any sort will be a thing of the past. When a telecom company signs you up for a fancy new fiber connection, you are no longer connected to a power source at the telephone company’s central office. Instead, you get a battery that can last eight hours in case of a power failure. A local power failure may let you stay in contact with outsiders if the nearby mobile phone towers stay up, but a larger failure will take out everything.”
T1 fact:
If all goes as planned, OPLIN will complete its own “IP Transition” sometime next summer, as we replace the last of our old T1/DS3 circuits with Ethernet connections.
