Ray, points well taken. My mention of wireless was but an example. I was referring to standards across the board.
I can see that you have never experienced a dial tone crisis that lasted for any stretch of time. A yagi in the roof dilemma, maybe, but not a dial tone crisis. I have, and it wasn't pretty.
The year was 1969 and someone in power at the then NY Telephone Company made a monumental decision, based on his perception that there was no money in disconnects. So, the order went out to the field that no wires were to be pulled out when a customer sent in a disconnect order, or moved, or decided to reconfigure, or grew beyond a certain tier of services, or whatever.
The wires grew on the main distribution frames, and they grew in the field, and they grew in basements next to binding posts, and grew, and grew, until new connects were no longer possible due to installers' inability, no matter how they tried to find the soldering lugs (which were still prevalent at the time), to make new connections. And if the field never did disconnects, there would be no reason to suspect that pair assignment records were being kept up. So, no one knew what was working, and what was available for new installs. In fact, during the process of searching for terminations to solder to, installers routinely broke more wires than they installed.
This led to a major, multi-million (1969) dollar program whereby mainframe conversions and re-terminations were instituted, some of which took several years to complete.
Okay, this was only dial tone, you might suggest. But back then that's all there was. To gain an appreciation of what this meant, try not using the Internet for a day if you are in ecommerce.
Installation intervals were reaching several months at one point, for a measly dial tone line. Of course, at that time the telco would claim at the slightest provocation or technicality that could back them up that the "customer [was] not ready" (CNR). If a customer was classified as CNR their order was placed back at the bottom of the pile, and the entire process started all over again.
Eventually, entire districts of Manhattan slowly succumbed to the crippling effects of this major screw up, and as a result a number of small businesses actually went under, or were forced to relocate, on the spot. Like I said, it wasn't pretty.
Last week I wrote a piece here concerning the vulnerability of national interests vis a vis AT*T's financial health. Some might argue that telecomms and Internet are not as vital to everyday modern life as keeping power prices under control and electrons flowing in our utility lines. And some would differ. Any further thoughts on this topic? Ray? Anyone?
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