Telepocalypse

Madrid

One short comment on the disgusting massacre in Madrid. The Register notes that yet again the phone network can't cope in emergency situations. Will the authorities eventually come to see the cause of the problem? All those voice calls and messages had to be routed through centralized telco systems. They are inflexible and capacity-constrained. Handsets are unable to peer directly, and the messaging applications are unable to degrade gracefully under network load.

What if someone had spotted one of the later bombs but couldn't phone emergency services due to network load? What if there was an instruction to clear certain areas but no means of distribution?

Moving beyond traditional telephony is becoming an issue of national security. Two changes are needed. The obvious one is open end-to-end networks. The less obvious one is an identity infrastrcture that encourages people use the resulting possibilities in a responsible manner. If you cry wolf, you had better be serious.

Anyway, I'm sure there are many people today with more serious issues than the lousy phone system, and my thoughts are with them.