The End of an Era: The Abandonment of the PSTN

The End of an EraThe Abandonment of the PSTN

Mark J. Fletcher, ENPChief Architect Worldwide Public Safety SolutionsMarch 2014

© 2014 Avaya Inc. All rights reserved. 2

Brief History of the Bell System

1875 Alexander Bell forms American Bell

1876Bell Telephone Patent #174,465

18781st Telephone Exchange – New Haven, CT1st Switchboard / Operator – New Haven, CT1st Telephone in the Whitehouse

1882American Bell buys Western Electric

1884AT&T is formed as a subsidiaryLong Distance Connection (NY CHI)

1899AT&T Buys out American Bell assets



1899Bell competitor Brown Telephone forms

1949U.S> Anti-Trust Lawsuit against AT&T

1956AT&T not allowed to enter computer and information servicesAT&T allowed to keep Western ElectricAT&T Long Distance formedBell Labs became ‘research’1st Trans-Atlantic Telephone cable run (TAT-1)

1968Microwave Communications of America, Inc. (MCI) was formed



1968Microwave Communications of America, Inc. (MCI) formed

1971MCI receives Government approval to compete with AT&T for long distance services

1974 Department of Justice files Anti-Trust Lawsuit



1982The FCC allows AT&T to get into the computer and information systems business, provided:

AT&T leaves the local-exchange market

Divests itself of all Bell Telephone assets except phone system manufacturing facilities

Converts the 22 separate Bell Operating Carriers into 7 Regional Bell Operating Carriers (RBOC)

AmeritechBell AtlanticBellSouth CorporationNYNEXPacific Telesis GroupSouthwestern Bell CorporationUS West

The RBOCs are barred from competing in long distance


2012 FCC Technical Advisory Council Report States:

[T]he FCC should set a date after which the circuit-switched voice elements of the PSTN would no longer constitute the network of record in the United States.


Verizon is filing Tarrifs to quietly step away


Decreasing Equipment Lifecycles

Based on simple math alone, if you bought a “box” to provide a service to your customers, and the life expectancy of that box was 20 years, you could easily calculate your cost per month per customer. If, because of new technology, the life expectancy were reduced to five years, your monthly-amortized cost would increase by four times to compensate for that event. 5 Years

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Monthly Cost Over Lifespan

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Diminishing Customer Base

Based on simple math alone, if you bought a “box” to provide a service to your customers, and your customer base diminishes by 50%, based on the above “20 year model”, your annual amortized expense would double per customer.

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Cost Per Customer

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Decreased Support Cost For New Equipment

The legacy network required a trained workforce, roving around in specialized vehicles, full of expensive test equipment.

New modern networks can reside in “dark centers” where access to programming and diagnostics is all accomplished remotely through a data connection.

While this does nothing to reduce the expense of a trained workforce, but it does remove the requirement to have that workforce out in the streets in vehicles.


The Perfect Storm: SANDY

Late in the fall of 2012, Hurricane Sandy barreled its way up the East Coast causing significant damage to our telecommunications infrastructure from Washington DC to New England.

It was a classic example of the 100 year storm, and in addition to causing several outages, much of the infrastructure became destroyed.

This poses a unique problem to telecommunications carriers like AT&T, Verizon and Century Link. Do they rebuild their aging infrastructure that was just recently amortized off the books, or was just about to be?

If they do, they have to start the “20 year clock” all over again, but they are faced with statements that the PSTN will start to go away in five short years.


Services that are dependent on POTS

Credit Card Machines

Modems

TTY/TDD

ATM Machines

Alarm Lines

Point to Point Special Circuits


A new analysis of data released by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) shows that nearly half of all calls received by 9-1-1 emergency centers in North Carolina from wireless phones in June 2013 did not include the accurate location information necessary to find a caller in crisis.

The problem has worsened over the past year, as the percent of calls lacking such information has risen from 36% in June 2012 to 47% in June of this year.

What about 911 service?


How will it affect YOUR business?

PSTN Abandonment:Clearly, it’s happening

Even more clearer, is the fact that we ARE NOT READY!

The End of an Era: The Abandonment of the PSTN

Technology

bell system

bell telephone assets

bell telephone patent

american bell assets

att buys

information services

years monthly cost

new equipment