What We Talk About When We Talk About “Tech Transitions”

[Commentary] If you follow tech policy, you’ve probably seen the summer’s hottest buzz-phrase: “the tech transition.” This opaque moniker (like most tech policy talk) doesn’t explain much about the underlying topic. So what is the tech transition? Simple answer: It’s about your phone. But it’s also about so, so much more. Including whether you can count on the phone network to work when you need it.

From its inception up until the mid-2000s, telephone traffic ran over copper wire. In the mid-2000s, companies began replacing copper lines with fiber optic cable. This switch -- taking out our old system and replacing it with the new -- is what we mean when we talk about the “tech transition.” It raises plenty of questions about what to do with legacy systems, and even more that would take pages to cover on their own, such as: who’s responsible for providing backup power if the fiber system goes down? How much notice are consumers entitled to before their provider switches to fiber, and what should that notice look like? What responsibilities do the carriers have? What kinds of features does the new fiber network need to replicate from the copper network to be considered “comparable” as a replacement? Are we really just “upgrading” the phone network, or are we replacing it with something completely new? All of these questions are playing out at the Federal Communications Commission right now.