Thrill BillThrill Bill

11:40 AM -- Nortel CEO Bill Owens was clearly the most opinionated (and interesting) speaker on yesterday's equipment vendor panel at CTIA.

On the subject of security threats to mobile and data newtorks, he was rather blunt:

"The issue is much more than a firewall or shrink-wrapped software on the edge," Owens said. He added later that he does not see the government reacting appropriately to the potential threat.

Last year's power blackouts in the Northeast, he observed, "may be child's play in comparison to a major virus attack on telecom's packet-based systems...

"I don't think we're taking [security threats] seriously enough."

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading