Ethan Jeans

Public Knowledge’s Senior Staff Attorney Jodie Griffin recently testified before the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet in Washington.

In a hearing entitled “Preserving Public Safety and Network Reliability in the IP Transition,” Jodie drove home the necessity of the fundamental values of the phone network carrying over to new technologies, as the IP transition moves forwards and underlying technologies continue to evolve in new and exciting directions. 100 million Americans still rely on traditional copper wire landlines; 85 million in said subset also have a mobile phone or other voice product.

This can be interpreted one of two ways: either (a) political theorists have had it wrong all, and humans are fundamentally irrational to the point that they enjoy writing two checks, or (b) traditional phone services offer users in the marketplace a service they value.

And yet, reports have surfaced indicating consumers are being forced off of legacy copper systems by providers, which heightens the need for more hardened protections in IP-based systems to ensure public safety. Ensuring that new technologies protect basic values with similar robustness to historic systems is critical, as is preventing rural and disadvantaged citizens from falling through the gaps during the transition process.

As Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) highlighted in reference to the loss of services on Fire Island (NY) and in Mantoloking (NJ) following Hurricane Sandy, transitions have the potential to quite significantly impact consumers in ways not evident at the outset.