$650 Attack Could Wipe Out City's LTE Network

So what would really be the point of such an attack?

Jamming the communications networks would be secondary to a primary attack (the big explosion)... just a way to create more chaos and slow down the response. That's why there is concern over emergency communication networks moving to a technology that may be more vulnerable to attack. At this point, however, it is too soon to tell if this is a significant threat or not.

It also suggests that moving infrastructure like traffic signaling or emergency responders onto LTE exclusively is a very bad idea.

Security-wise, wireless can be as secure as wired when properly encrypted. Critical wired infrastructure still needs to be adequately encrypted to prevent people from tapping into the wire and hijacking control.

For jamming, no miracle there... but unless you want to put a 1000km wire spool in every vehicle, hard-wiring them would not be practical

Who cares how secure it is because when you jam the signal, it still doesn't work.

Most signaling infrastructure is autonomous and only needs communication to change its programming and report BIST or other results. If the communication is jammed, this is a non-issue but if it gets hacked, it can be a much worse issue so security is more important than jamming there.

Since it is not practical to wire moving vehicles, those have no choice but to use some form of wireless just like they have always been, not much of a change there. If LTE is jammed, they just have to fall back on their CB radios and punch things down by hand. If CB radio is jammed as well, they are no better/worse off than without LTE.

And how many people still use CB?

Just about every emergency response service (police, firefighters and ambulances) still does rely on CB for dispatching and reporting. I doubt governments will ditch spectrum reserved for emergency services any time soon.

Sad thing is I bet the FCC that we know today would respond to someone seeing boobs on Network TV first and then look into their actual job of protecting the radio spectrum in the US.

Already illegal

Government agencies don't use the public networks for their business. They have savvy and complex antenna networks throughout each state. Their digital radios are very nice for vocal communication. Encrypted too.

Knocking out the public DATA network briefly is not that big of a deal. Well maybe for kids who forget their phones can be used for speech...

Maybe I am missing the point here but ANY wireless transmissions are subject to "jamming".