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AT&T's new fiber optic phone network could delay disaster response
AT&T wants to put its old copper-based telephone networks to rest and start testing its next-gen fiber optic cables in more locations outside the initial ones in Florida and Alabama. There's just one not-so-tiny problem: this new high-speed technology doesn't work with the government's special telephone service for national emergencies, according to the Department of Homeland Security. High-level authorities access a priority line called Government Emergency Telecommunications Service (GETS) during, say, times of disaster or terrorist attacks when phone lines are usually clogged. Without that priority line, authorities would have to brave clogged phone networks to communicate with each other, and that could delay first responders and affect response or rescue operations as a whole.
