FCC votes to start trying a repair of US phone scheme

Citing the “Internet Revolution,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announces a sequence of experiments intended at replacing the country’s aging analog broadcast communications with an efficient IP-based system.

The country’s customary copper wire telephone networks could quickly go the way of payphones — becoming almost outdated.

The Federal Communications Commission generally voted on Thursday to start on a sequence of trials to examine how finest to update the nation’s telephone system. The idea is to replace the system’s traditional phone lines with networks that are based on Internet Protocol.

Phone providers like AT&T and Verizon have been approaching the FCC to begin experiments on the evolution to an IP-based system and will probable be concerned in the difficult. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has also been verbal in his support of an modernized network and has emphasized that the tests don’t engage new technology, but quite technology previously in use.

“Our communications are quickly transitioning to IP-networks — and that’s a good thing,” Wheeler said in a declaration on Thursday. “The move from the circuit-switched networks of Alexander Graham Bell to the new networks of the Internet Revolution is all around us — with prolonged deployment of fiber, with new forms of wireless, with bonded copper and coaxial cable. These transitions — plural — are a good thing because IP networks are more competent, which can allow better foodstuffs, lower prices, and huge benefits for consumers.”

The design of an overhaul of the telephone system has been in the works for awhile now. In November, Wheeler expressed his support for the upcoming testing.

While it appears the government might back a change in the system, it won’t happen overnight. Some worry that populace with disabilities and those living in rural areas could be technologically left out with an update. 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 communications still employs less-efficient analog technology.

The FCC said the tests will be voluntary and will cover areas with various population densities, topologies, and meteorological circumstances. Part of the mandate is that no person be left without communication services.

“This pilot program will aid us learn how fiber might be deployed where it is not now deployed; how fasten institutions — counting schools and libraries — can harness insist for the better good of an entire society; and how fresh forms of wireless can arrive at deep into the center of country America,” Wheeler said.

Proposals for the experiments are due February 20th and the FCC plans to make last choices on which projects to choose in May.