This was something that caught in my head. It may go into the main doc eventually, it may not. But here it is anyway.
FNS Newsblog, April 17, 2017:
A CELLPHONE IN EVERY POT: DESPITE RUMORS OF WAR, MODERNIZATION GOES ON
Jacob Sisko, Federation News Service
PHILADELPHIA – The Twenty-First Century is starting to creep into the United States. Everywhere in the nation’s capital city, communications towers are going up, and despite the constant talk of armed conflict between the United and Confederate States, the Federation Modernization Program is keeping on with the job.
The program, started as part of the general agreement between the United States and the Fenspace Convention last Christmas, intends to “re-wire” the areas of North America that lost international communications during the dimensional transfer event in November. The FMP hailed its first major success on March 18, when US President Al Smith made the first cellular telephone call from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, the first two cities to be connected under the FMP.
“The modernization program has made great strides,” said program press secretary Milo Walkerson. “In the last three weeks we’ve distributed seventy thousand phones and chargers. We’ve upgraded the switching gear in ten major US cities, and we’re looking to bring higher-bandwidth communications in towards the summer.” According to Mr. Walkerson, if the FMP has its way the United States will be fully connected to the global network by the summer of 2019 “at the latest.”
Some observers aren’t as sanguine about the prospects. Many individuals in the transferred United States are worried about what the free access of information many people in the rest of the world take for granted will do to their culture. One man in Philadelphia whom this reporter talked to on conditions of anonymity said “This whole giving telephones away, it seems like Red nonsense to me. What’s next, free beer every Friday?”
And of course, there are the threats of war. Relations between the US and the Confederate States of America have deteriorated from the immediate post-transfer rush, and fighting between the two nations is likely to begin sometime soon. Should war break out, the communications gear set up by the FMP will be both major target and collateral damage for acts of sabotage and bombing.
Mr. Walkerson isn’t concerned. “If we lose a tower, they’re easy to replace,” he said. “In the event of war, our hope is that enough people with phones will be able to help with rescue efforts, finding people in buildings or calling for help.”
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
FNS Newsblog, April 17, 2017:
A CELLPHONE IN EVERY POT: DESPITE RUMORS OF WAR, MODERNIZATION GOES ON
Jacob Sisko, Federation News Service
PHILADELPHIA – The Twenty-First Century is starting to creep into the United States. Everywhere in the nation’s capital city, communications towers are going up, and despite the constant talk of armed conflict between the United and Confederate States, the Federation Modernization Program is keeping on with the job.
The program, started as part of the general agreement between the United States and the Fenspace Convention last Christmas, intends to “re-wire” the areas of North America that lost international communications during the dimensional transfer event in November. The FMP hailed its first major success on March 18, when US President Al Smith made the first cellular telephone call from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, the first two cities to be connected under the FMP.
“The modernization program has made great strides,” said program press secretary Milo Walkerson. “In the last three weeks we’ve distributed seventy thousand phones and chargers. We’ve upgraded the switching gear in ten major US cities, and we’re looking to bring higher-bandwidth communications in towards the summer.” According to Mr. Walkerson, if the FMP has its way the United States will be fully connected to the global network by the summer of 2019 “at the latest.”
Some observers aren’t as sanguine about the prospects. Many individuals in the transferred United States are worried about what the free access of information many people in the rest of the world take for granted will do to their culture. One man in Philadelphia whom this reporter talked to on conditions of anonymity said “This whole giving telephones away, it seems like Red nonsense to me. What’s next, free beer every Friday?”
And of course, there are the threats of war. Relations between the US and the Confederate States of America have deteriorated from the immediate post-transfer rush, and fighting between the two nations is likely to begin sometime soon. Should war break out, the communications gear set up by the FMP will be both major target and collateral damage for acts of sabotage and bombing.
Mr. Walkerson isn’t concerned. “If we lose a tower, they’re easy to replace,” he said. “In the event of war, our hope is that enough people with phones will be able to help with rescue efforts, finding people in buildings or calling for help.”
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"