Timeline for 20 years into the future - what would happen if the internet failed semi-permanently?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
14 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 15, 2015 at 0:46 | comment | added | Green | It depends on where the CO is. A CO in Manhattan is going to cover a much smaller geographic area than a CO in some backwater village. In 20 years, the phone system could switch from analog to the premises to digital to the premises. We already see this conversion taking places with VOIP services bundled with television and Internet service. It's not too far a stretch that your home router could disappear too along with all the networking hardware in the CO. | |
| Jul 15, 2015 at 0:26 | comment | added | Random832 | @Green How large of an area does a single Central Office cover, if it doesn't get converted to packet-switched until then? Is it a single exchange, or a whole city? Also (depending on interpretation), at what point is it going over a backbone network instead of phone company's private WAN? | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 16:43 | comment | added | Green | Ah, sorry. Allow me to clarify, I know that cell traffic goes over the same hardware as normal phone traffic. The "cell phones are different" was in reference to the evolution of how cell traffic is carried, not in reference to how they behave now. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 16:39 | comment | added | bowlturner | @Green At some point they use the same network as regular phones so same problem. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 16:36 | comment | added | Green | Cell phones are a different story and I'm not as familiar with how those networks operate. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 16:34 | comment | added | Green | @Frostfyre, the evolution of telephone networks is a fascinating subject and far too extensive to cover here. Pertinent to this discussion, there's a conversion at your local Central Office between digital packet based transfer to the analog signal you hear on your phone. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 15:49 | comment | added | Frostfyre | @Green What's the point of all the telephone lines if not to transfer phone calls? Or does the signal get routed to some central server that converts it into an IP thing? | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 15:00 | comment | added | Green | Nah, you can't even call across town anymore unless your local phone company is really really out of date. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 14:57 | comment | added | bowlturner | @Green I thought that might be the case, wasn't sure. Thought some of the older tech might still be around in places. So you might be able to call across town, but not across the state? | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 14:55 | comment | added | Green | @bowlturner It's actually worse than that. All voice traffic for phones now goes over the internet and has for quite a few years. All voice comms in this scenario are gone. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 13:56 | history | edited | bowlturner | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Added a bit about health care.
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| Jul 14, 2015 at 13:45 | comment | added | bowlturner | @Burki yes, healthcare would certainly be hampered as well. As far as phones, anything that really wipes out the internet will take out huge swaths of the phone industry too. As of now there isn't much difference between them both use the same 'pathways' and machines. On top of that, telephone traffic would skyrocket, since no more texting or chatting or email... | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 13:40 | comment | added | Burki | I like your answer, and you covered up large areas of our everyday lives. Maybe you could add the fact that hospitals and pharmacies would have quite some troubles, too. But i also think that for really important information, people would switch back to coice calls pretty quickly. So a lot of things might go haywire, but pretty soon a lot of ppeople would jump forward with practical (and profitable) ideas. | |
| Jul 14, 2015 at 13:22 | history | answered | bowlturner | CC BY-SA 3.0 |