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just a quick round up to help the discussion with fibre installs
http://www.thefoa.org/tech/ref...

While I also doubt that this is possible today, I am sure the NSA is looking at placing the respective sensors. Then we will have to do "analog routing" and mix in mains hum form several places to obscure where and when things have been recorded. Maybe we should start to offer recordings of local grid noise. Would not be that difficult to do.

It's not even that complicated.

Many power lines have optical fiber strung in the middle of them, it's called optical power ground wire (OPGW) (scroll down a bit). That fiber is used as Internet backbone, as telecom voice, and as diagnostic for when there are power grid problems. If a line goes down then they can use an OTDR to determine the distance to the break instead of having to hunt for it.

All that they'd have to do would be to put devices at termination points and use dark strands. Sure, the equipment to transceive on single-mode fiber at those distances would be pricey, but it's completely within the technology that we have right now.

Those middle of nowhere places typically have access to cable and phone, typically fiber as well. The reason: the middle of nowhere has large farms which are typically large businesses that require high speed access to the Internet to do their business. Also, to connect east coast and west coast and north and south, you typically have to cross a LOT of middle-of-nowhere. The ISP's simply sell along the lines they have to put in ANYWAY. Or did you think that east and west coasts of the US had a single line of fiber between them? The entire country is lit up: http://thefoa.org/images/image003.jpg

Here are some thoughts on all that. Not really a debate, just an illustration. Some of the below may be even wrong, however improbable that may sound :-)

"Service restored within days" - perhaps. But that's in case of flooding, to which the infrastructure (especially one that is mounted high on poles and towers) is relatively immune. You need to provide power, but that's basically all. Cables aren't afraid of water.

The situation can be very different after an earthquake. Those cables can be physically torn along a 100 mile long, 1" wide crack in the ground. Even if towers have power they can't deliver the data to anywhere else. You can talk to the tower, if you wish, but not to the switch that decides who calls who. The towers are connected with fiber; that cable is easy to break and pretty hard to repair, especially in bad conditions.

There is one more consideration. Katrina was a local event, completely harmless to anyone not at the center of the storm. Help was coming because help was sent. However in case of widespread emergency - say, a nuclear strike, or even a large riot - anyone who can help will be doing his best to run for the hills. Nobody will be coming to save you. If evacuation is required hams will quickly arrange for a convoy, with some people providing trucks and SUVs and with other people providing weapons and ammo, and yet other group of people will bring food and fuel... A convoy of a hundred vehicles is hard to attack; but if you go alone you will lose your car, your supplies and probably your life before you even get out of the city.

There is yet another possible consideration. Public communications can be intentionally disabled. This can be done by rioters, or this can be done by the natural damage done to the infrastructure, or this can be done by the government for any one out of several likely and good reasons. London riots demonstrated how much the modern communication technology aids rioters in forming flash mobs, evading the police, and planning new attacks. If the phone service is intentionally shut down it won't coming back up any time soon until the order had been restored.

Hasn't this "glass is a liquid" bullshit been debunked countless times?

Yes, it has.

Here are some links:

http://sciencegeekgirl.wordpress.com/2007/09/07/liquid-glass/
http://www.sciencenews.org/sn_arc98/5_30_98/fob3.htm
http://www.thefoa.org/tech/glass.htm
http://dwb.unl.edu/Teacher/NSF/C01/C01Links/www.ualberta.ca/~bderksen/florin.html

This urban legend has been thoroughly debunked. An amorphous solid (which is what glass is) is still a solid.

As for the other posters in this thread and in parallel branches who claim that there's no melting point for glass... this is also factually untrue. See this article for details.

Article was in June IEEE Communications. See the commentary http://www.thefoa.org/foanl-07-07.html from the optical side.

Note the linked article refers to "FTTH" - Fiber to the Home. Which isn't really much different than "FTTP" - Fiber to the Premises, other than it's limited to home and not business (hence the recent change to analysts using FTTP).

Unfortunately, it's not like a light switch. It's more like saying the house is wired for electricity, but you don't own any lamps. A LOT of capital equipment in the form of Routers and Optical Switches will need to be purchased to make the "dark" fiber into usable fiber.

Watch the results of Nortel, in particular, as it has a strong North America optical presence.

Note the linked article refers to "FTTH" - Fiber to the Home. Which isn't really much different than "FTTP" - Fiber to the Premises, other than it's limited to home and not business (hence the recent change to analysts using FTTP).

Unfortunately, it's not like a light switch. It's more like saying the house is wired for electricity, but you don't own any lamps. A LOT of capital equipment in the form of Routers and Optical Switches will need to be purchased to make the "dark" fiber into usable fiber.

Watch the results of Nortel, in particular, as it has a strong North America optical presence.