ATC failure in Memphis

Denny writes:

ATC failed due to commercial phone lines going down, so we need to
replace ATC ????

No, the argument would be along the lines of ATC being fragile and dangerous,
either because it needs more people/money, or because it is outdated and needs
to be replaced with Something New (depending on which ax you are grinding).

I can see us spending 10 billion dollars for a whole new ATC structure
- that still depends on Ma Bell's 1912 phone lines...

Ma Bell built telephone lines to be very robust indeed; its successors are not
so conscientious, unfortunately. In fact, Ma Bell went well beyond that (cf.
AUTOVON).