Overseas Listening/SIGINT Posts In Shadowrun?

[FlakJacket]

This is just an echo of a thread I started over on the ds forums, and I figured I might as well copy it here and get your feedbck as well. Here's the link to the original thread.

I was doing some research for a new character, and decided that whilst he was Russian with a background in intelligence, I wouldn't make him ex-KGB but instead ex-GRU, military intelligence.

Whilst reading up on the GRU I noticed that they operated two SIGINT facilities overseas, one at Lourdes, Cuba- that is closing- and the other Cam Ranh Bay- Viet Nam.

But anyway. The question is, would centres like these be needed in the 2060's? With more telephone/matrix messages going by untappable fiber optic lines, surveillance satellites and the matrix being worldwide allowing you to hack into hosts from anywhere you like, would they be made redundant? How would SR level technology affect them?

For our games we're keeping them as they're useful, but I was just wondering what peoples views were.

[paladin2019]

Two words...cellular telephones.

And you still have to have somewhere to coordinate everything.

[spudman]

Matrix-based listening posts. The NSA does this by attempting to pattern-match data as it flows through the system. I bet they're fairly good at it, all things considered. Executing on that intel in a timely manner, now there's the trick. Intel usually has a very short lifespan before it becomes worthless.