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- (c)1989
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- ! When the World Comes Crumbling Down... ?
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- ! AT&T AND WORLD WAR III ?
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- ! by ?
- ? --]> Professor Falken <[-- !
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- What will Phreaks and Hacks do without a telephone system ? Phreaks will
- not have a network to experiment with nor will Hacks have such a direct method
- of infiltrating computer systems. The communication system for the " CORRUPT "
- computer generation will be destroyed. No matter what we do, almost everything
- is directly linked to the phone system. Thats why it will be the first thing
- to go if a limitied nuclear strike is initiated.
-
- Laying 40 feet below the surface of Netcog New Jersey is AT&T's
- National Emergency Control Center. All that is visible from the surface is a
- Yellow brick building the size of a large garage. Visitors are buzzed in
- through two ground level doors and must walk down four flights of stairs.
- Once at the bottom they must pass through two heavy vault doors that open one
- at a time. The two-story subterranean complex was constructed during the late
- 1960's. Blasting through solid granite was required to build the building,
- then concrete was poured and reinforced for the walls, and the roof and four
- feet of Earth was laid atop of that. Then entire structure is wrapped in steel
- to shield the inside from the electromagnetic pulses sent out by a nuclear
- explosion.
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- During peacetime, the Netcog center is a switching relay station on the
- Boston-Miami cable. In a pre-nuclear war crisis, the center's normal staff
- will be joined by workers from the AT&T Communications operations center at
- Bedminster, New Jersey, fifteen miles away. The workers at Bedminster
- oversee the nation's AT&T long distance network. Following a nuclear attack,
- they will reroute calls around cities that have ceased to exist.
-
- The AT&T Communications staff will work under fluorescent lights in a
- large open room in the Netcog center. Their phones, desks, and terminals
- all waiting for them. Bell System files are stored nearby and updated
- monthly, and a phone list of sixty people to be called to the center in a
- crisis is pinned to a bulletin board.
-
- In another area of the complex, lined wall to wall are ESS running units
- which are attached to the ceiling by heavy steel springs and anchored to the
- floor by think elastic bands. If the building is struck by a massive shock
- wave, the elastic bands will snap and the switching units will swing, cushioned
- by the springs. All other mechanical equipment in the center is similarly
- shock mounted. The storerooms are stocked with tanks of drinking water, and
- kerosene for generators. The ventilation system is equipped with fallout
- filters and blast valves that will close if a blast wave hits. Sometimes the
- blast valves are activated by thunder, which jolts the peacetime Netcog crew.
-
- The desks for AT&T executives are in a large open area next to the
- operations center. The AT&T Communications crew will run what is left of the
- long distance network, with help from backup centers in Kansas and Georgia and
- seven other underground centers.
-
- AT&T is a nuclear prepared corporation, across the country AT&T routed
- long distance cables around target cities and buried the cables inside steel
- and concrete conduits to protect them from nuclear blast. The 4,000 miles
- transcontinental cable was built by the Bell system to withstand national
- crisises, including a nuclear blast short of a direct hit. It can take
- pressure of over 100 pounds per square inch; an overall pressure of one half-
- pound per square inch would crush the average home. All communications
- equipment associated with the cable is shockmounted in underground concrete
- buildings. The cable runs from New York to California, skirting all major
- cities and potential target areas.
-
- If an attack were to strike the nation and the telephone system was still
- in operable condition special FCC regulations would be put in effect to
- direct telephone usage. These regulations outline a telephone call priority.
- Sorta of like the Autovon priority system ( Priority, Immediate, Flash, and
- Flash Override ) The highest priority category is designated " FLASH
- EMERGENCY. " All other calls in progress will be interrupted to put through
- FLASH EMERGENCY calls, which will include those involving command and control
- of military forces and " conduct of diplomatic negotiations critical to the
- arresting or limiting of hostilities. " From what I can understand the normal
- telephone service will become in effect an Autovon, primarily for military
- usage.
-
- In any case, the phone system would probably be trashed. So lets enjoy
- it and experiment with it while we have it. It is probably the best telephone
- network in the world, and we all have AT&T to thank for it.
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- Article written 12/27/88 by Professor Falken, Released 5/8/89.
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