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UK Government to Shut Down GSM Networks
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Apr 01, 2006 06:50 AM
from the worrisome-most-worrisome dept.
from the worrisome-most-worrisome dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Mobile Gazette is reporting that the British government wants to shut down the UK's GSM networks next year and re-use the frequencies for gambling terminals and a new citizen surveillance program extending the use of the new compulsory ID cards. Although we should perhaps welcome the move away from old-style 2G mobile phone networks, there are perhaps a few worrying things about the new "Big Brother" citizen monitoring that the government is proposing to put in."
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Hope it's an april story (Score:1)
April Fools (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:April Fools (Score:5, Funny)
The Government could never get that project in place by next year.
RJG.
Re:April Fools (Score:1)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Funny)
In Re: April Fools (Score:2)
I know this is Truthday, and Big Brother tells me the Prollies will love this doubleplusalot.
Ouch (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Ouch (Score:1)
For me the eyes-burning pink-colored css-styled atrocity that is today's main page was kind of a giveaway.
Re:Ouch (Score:2, Funny)
After games.slashdot.org, nothing would surprise me.
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Well, that and the fact that the ID cards aren't cumpulsory - yet
[note to self, spellhink mistaxe]
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
And besides, the only thing that made this story unbelievable was the gambling terminals thing. The rest is totally plausible and non-ridiculous.
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Re:Ouch (Score:2)
Why do they bother? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/a pril/1/newsid_2819000/2819261.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Apparently the supermarkets sold out for fear of a shortage.
Mod me informative! (Score:1)
what about (Score:1)
Re:what about (Score:2)
Wouldn't surprise me... (Score:3, Insightful)
frogs != lobsters (Score:2)
you're thinking of frogs, dude. lobsters don't get slowly boiled, they get thrown right in the pan of boiling water.
frogs, however, apparently don't notice they're being boiled if you turn the heat up on them very slowly. h
Oh come on (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Oh come on (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Oh come on (Score:2, Insightful)
You obviously don't live in the UK. It's a bit of a stretch, but not that much less believable than doing away with parliament
Re:Oh come on (Score:2)
Well, here in the USA, the government is taking away spectrum from a well established industry:
http://www.atsc.org/faq/faq_general.html [atsc.org]
Oh, and they are requring everyone i
Re:Oh come on (Score:2)
at least it's not goin the other way shafting first responders to line some fatcat's pockets
It wasn't that bad... (Score:1)
ancient times (Score:1)
Wow, this is just like... (Score:2)
I love it when governments get ideas from my favorite Sci Fi! But I think a lot of other people on slashdot really like that book, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't wait
Email Day (Score:2, Insightful)
no joke (Score:3, Insightful)
One example of this is the Texas State lottery, which exist under the guise of increasing funding to education. Of course funding for education, as a percentage of the Texas budget, has fallen considerable over the past 15 years even as lottery revenue has grown. So what is the new proposal? Well a official named Strayhorn want gambling machines. Now this is the lady that attempted to start the process of a state religion for Texas by attempting to rescind the tax exempt status of a church, the denomination of which has existed from the birth of the United States and in many ways reflects the values of our founding fathers, as many of these men had input in it's creation. Combine this with the fact that the demonination has no profit motive, unlike the megachurches that infest Texas, and one wonders if Strayhorn is primarily concerned with well being of the average Texan or the a personal campaign of religious zelotry in which those that disagree with her liberal view of gambling are ignored.
To be clear I am not concerned if people gamble or not. I do not see how we can justify lottery machines in an time when we no longer have cig machines. How can one say that we can enforce the 18+ limit on tickets any more that cigs? I am not sure that having gambling machines in every corner is a net benifit. Like illegal drugs it take money to feed the habit. But, at the end of the day, in a capatilist conservative country like ours, built on a the standards of minimal government and private enterprise, I suppose the government is in the best position to effecintly run a gambling bussiness.
OMG: Another (Score:2, Funny)
Blair lied, cellphones died!
lame tag (Score:2)
Re:Is it me? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Is it me? (Score:2)
Re:Is it me? (Score:1)
Re:Is it me? (Score:2, Offtopic)
It is true that in China, 4/1 means 1th of April, but that's because they use the yyyy-mm-dd format, which is a logical order (most significant–least si
Re:Is it me? (Score:2, Informative)
Nonsense. Middle-endian dates are pretty much unique to the USA (which despite what some of the inhabitants seem to think is not "most of the world").
Apart from the USA, th
Re:Is it me? (Score:2)
Re:Is it me? (Score:1)
So it isn't true?
Damn, 8th time that happened to me today
Re:Is it me? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:nice one.... (Score:2)
I do not think this word means what you think it means.
Re:nice one.... (Score:2)
entries found for redundant: Chiefly British. Dismissed or laid off from work, as for being no longer needed.
Re: stopping at noon (Score:1)
And to quote Alan Jackson, "It's five o'clock somewhere." So at a minimum, us GMT-5 folks could get anoth
Re: stopping at noon (Score:2, Informative)
The UK thing is that if you are unprepared enough not to have played your joke before 12 noon, then you are yourself the fool.
Its all part of the tradition here in the UK, and why breakfast jokes are some of the most common, ie switching the salt and suga
Re: stopping at noon (Score:2)
Actually April Fool's Day is now held on April 3rd, in line with new EU standards. Didn't you see that on th
Re:nice one.... (Score:2)
I would not be so sure. At least until the country is governed by a government lead by Antonio Bliar.
Re:Please, for the love of all that you hold dear (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Please, for the love of all that you hold dear (Score:2)
With the current state of our Government, would you really put it past them to do something like this?
Re:the scary thing is.. (Score:2)