I got shouted down a couple of years ago when I suggested that there already was a metaphorical "switch" to shut down the net in America except for the military and possibly banking services. And probably the comm satellites have a back door switch, too.
"Impossible!" they cried.
Hmmmm.... at the time, I thought it rather impossible for it
not to be. After all, military thinkers always plan to go after the communications setup of the opposition first.
Boy, my 13WPM is down to <2 WPM. Time to re-load my old DOS-based Code Practice Program.
And maybe my old DOS-based dial-up Bulletin Board software, to boot. What was the name of it..? oh, yeah... Procomm.
Oh, oh... and I should look up "silversmiths" in the yellow pages, call 'em up and see if they own any fast horses.
And I'll betcha all the large-scale gangs already have emergency communications setups. Block-to-block, city-to-city, county-to-county, state-to-state, and probably country-to-country, too.
Maybe by fast Chevvies.
Terry, 230RN
Cf also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station