II> OTOH, there will always be those who will kill, pirate cable service,
 II> drive dangerously or monitor phone calls if they are able.  IMO, the
 II> soloution would be routine encryption, either voice scrambling or
 II> digitizing confidential phone calls, and the 
 II> realization that ANY phone
 II> call COULD be monitored, (even hardwired phones are 
 II> easy to tap if someone
 II> has the technical expertise and wants to go to the 
 II> trouble to install a
 II> tap, either wired or radio).
 
   You're absolutely right. But rather than add a little technology to the 
phones (and thereby jack up the cost somewhat), it was easier for the cell 
phone folks to pressure Congress into scanner-limiting legislation that did 
little to improve security, but *looked* good.
 
   Ironically enough, as the cellphone system goes digital, it'll be 
inherently unlistenable, even with no additonal attempt at encryption (and it 
could easily be added to a basically digital system), and some 900 mhz 
cordless phones use spread-spectrum, which is not only virtually impossible 
to follow, but almost impossible to tell is even *there.*
 
 
   And you may know from the PGP and Clipper Chip controversies that the 
government isn't keen on forms of encryption *they* can't break....
 
   Frank
 
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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