From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Mar 22 14:37:46 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i2MJbjx16655; Mon, 22 Mar 2004 14:37:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 14:37:46 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200403221937.i2MJbjx16655@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V23 #133 TELECOM Digest Mon, 22 Mar 2004 14:37:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 133 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #425, March 22, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Re: Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges (William Warren) Re: Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges (Lisa Hancock) Re: Western Union Clocks (Lisa Hancock) Re: Western Union Clocks (Mike Riddle) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk is definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:50:37 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #425, March 22, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 425: March 22, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** MTS Shares Fall on Allstream Deal ** Nortel Suspends CFO, Controller ** Vonage Readies Canadian Launch ** Staff Cuts at 3Com Canada ** Fired Videotron Execs Win Severance ** Competitors Get Power Rebates ** Telus Calling-Area Expansion Terms Approved ** Phone Card Company Fined $750,000 ** Aliant Union Seeks New Strike Mandate ** Two Toronto Conferencing Suppliers Join Forces ** Rogers Cable Names New COO ** Royal Host Equips Hotels With WLAN ** Pulver Brings VON to Canada ** Red Ink at Persona ** Telemanagement Online: Last Chance for Charter Rates ============================================================ MTS SHARES FALL ON ALLSTREAM DEAL: Shares of Manitoba Telecom Services fell 10% following last Thursday's announcement that it plans to buy Allstream Inc. for $1.7 billion. (See the Telecom Update Extra published March 18.) Many market analysts had been expecting MTS to reorganize as an income trust. ** BCE, which owns 21.7% of MTS, says it will "consider its alternatives," because the acquisition is "a significant change in the strategic direction of MTS." NORTEL SUSPENDS CFO, CONTROLLER: Nortel Networks has put its CFO and Controller on paid leave of absence pending completion of the current review of the company's finances. (See Telecom Update #424) VONAGE READIES CANADIAN LAUNCH: At the Merrill Lynch Global Communications Conference in New York last week, Vonage CFO John Rego said the company would launch its Internet telephony service in Toronto, Montreal, and Calgary "in about two weeks." Canadian pricing will be similar to that offered in the U.S., adjusted for currency. ** According to published reports, Yak Communications and AOL Canada also plan to offer VoIP services later this year. STAFF CUTS AT 3COM CANADA: 3Com has laid off an undisclosed number of Canadian employees as part of a decision to rely "more heavily on distributors and resellers." Among the employees dropped was Canadian general manager Bruce Comeau, hired just six months ago. ** In the nine months ended February 28, 3Com Corporation lost US$331 million on global revenues of $516 million. FIRED VIDEOTRON EXECS WIN SEVERANCE: The Quebec Superior Court has ordered Videotron Telecom to pay three former employees a total of $900,000 to cover severance and other amounts owed. CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau fired the three senior managers in 2001, shortly after Quebecor acquired the company. COMPETITORS GET POWER REBATES: The CRTC has ordered Bell Canada to pay rebates to co-locating carriers for power charges they paid between November 2000 and September 2002. The Commission said the competitors should not have to wait for the "significant sums" until Bell's new power pricing rates are approved. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/dt2004-18.htm TELUS CALLING-AREA EXPANSION TERMS APPROVED: CRTC Telecom Order 2004-90 approves a Telus tariff spelling out the terms and conditions that will apply to government requests to expand local calling areas in Alberta and B.C. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-90.htm PHONE CARD COMPANY FINED $750,000: Teleresolve, an affiliate of a Gold Line Telemanagement (Richmond Hill, Ontario) has agreed to pay an "administrative monetary penalty" of $750,000 for allegedly charging hidden fees and higher-than- advertised rates, and providing fewer minutes than promised, on its Wow and Lily prepaid long distance phone cards. ** The Competition Bureau says Teleresolve has also agreed to provide a 50% credit to purchasers of the cards. ALIANT UNION SEEKS NEW STRIKE MANDATE: Following the breakdown of negotiations with Aliant, two unions representing 4,300 employees are holding a strike vote. The workers could be in a legal strike position in April. (See Telecom Update #411) TWO TORONTO CONFERENCING SUPPLIERS JOIN FORCES: Globalive Communications, a teleconferencing wholesaler, has agreed to buy up to 47% of Enunciate Conferencing. Enunciate will assume management of Globalive's Assemble conferencing product in Canada. Both companies are Toronto-based. ROGERS CABLE NAMES NEW COO: Rogers Cable has named Michael Adams, formerly with U.S. cableco RCN Corp, as Chief Operating Officer, with a mandate to lead Rogers' move to Internet telephony. Adams replaces Dean MacDonald, who resigned earlier this month. (See Telecom Update #423) ROYAL HOST EQUIPS HOTELS WITH WLAN: Bell Canada has contracted with Calgary-based Royal Host to provide high- speed wireless LAN Internet in 5,000 rooms at 36 Royal York hotels across Canada. PULVER BRINGS VON TO CANADA: Pulver.com has announced that VON Canada 2004, a conference and trade show focusing on "the IP communications revolution," will be held in Markham, Ontario, May 18-20. Pulver has organized similar events in the U.S. and Europe since 1996. www.pulver.com/canada2004/index.html RED INK AT PERSONA: Persona, a St. John's-based cableco, reports revenue of $226 million for the 16 months ended December 31, including $15 million from telecom operations. A net loss of $6.1 million compares with a profit of $6.5 million for the year ended August 31, 2002. (See Telecom Update #418) TELEMANAGEMENT ONLINE: LAST CHANCE FOR CHARTER RATES: Subscribers to Telemanagement Online get the current issue a week before it is mailed, and have exclusive access to our online library of past issues, reports, and editorials. Subscribe now: Reduced Charter Subscription rates expire March 31. www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub-online.html. ** Telemanagement #213 includes a special feature report by Henry Dortmans on how suppliers view corporate RFPs for communications systems and services; and Part Two of John Riddell's survey of IP Telephony Systems for Branch Offices. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. 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The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: William Warren Subject: Re: Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges Organization: Comcast Online Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 13:41:13 GMT Schaffrath wrote in message news:telecom23.132.17@telecom-digest.org: > Danny Burstein wrote: >> New York, NY -- >> A filing today (11-March-2004) with the Federal Communications >> Commission (FCC) asks the agency to examine the harm caused by high >> phone rates charged to people in prison, and criticizes the >> relationships between prison administrators and commercial phone >> companies that give rise to the unusually high rates. > [ snippety snip, rest at (watch for line wrap) : >> http://www.brennancenter.org/presscenter/releases_2004/ >> pressrelease_2004_0311.html (alternate) http://tinyurl.com/yt88g > Of course one solution to paying the high prison phone rates is the > advice Jim Carrey gave to his client in "Liar Liar"; STOP BREAKIN' THE > LAW! From the press release: (the link to the actual filing doesn't work.) The Ad Hoc Coalition for the Right to Communicate includes families of people in prison, religious leaders, educators, social service agencies, and attorneys who seek to communicate with those behind bars. Sounds to me like the attorneys are concerned with the way the calls are automatically recorded. The reason for their concern is left as an exercise for the reader. BTW, the companies that provide automated attendant services aren't making a bundle of money: since they accept all the marginal costs of the operation, including the cost of fraudulent calls (from a prison; who'd have thought?), the added expense of having technicians service equipment in an environment where they can only have one tool on their person at a time (sometimes with a 610 foot walk back to the truck, through security each way, when they need a different one), and the exorbitant license fees the equipment manufacturers charge for the autocall hardware and software. It seems the judicial system is being called on, yet again, to lesson the incredible pain that those with relatives inside the bars have to suffer because the system done them wrong. In Kafkaesque parady of a sensible world, we law-abiding citizens are being told that those who choose to associate with convicted felons can't suffer any inconvenience by it. Everything from "conjugal" visits to cheap phone calls must be provided at taxpayer expense, so that the inmates don't have to worry about the mental stress and anguish the big, bad world is imposing on their relatives, lovers, dealers, bookies, boyfriends, and lawyers. Kafka is turning in his grave. Yet again, the government steps in to enable another sick, twisted system of dependence. Wasn't welfare vicious enough for the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.? Instead of encouraging a normal and independent life for those outside, i.e., the notion that those inside deserve to be there and those outside should write them off and move on, Uncle Sam's bitches are making sure that nothing much changes and nobody gets any uppity ideas about addressing the problem at its source, namely the slave labor trade that the underclass provides to the wealthy. What was it that Dennis Miller said about the way you have to thin the herd sometimes? I think Mao had it right: if you want to lessen crime, simply kill the criminals. Bill "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" Warren [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What Bill says *might* be true in prisons *most of the time*, however the vendors of the telephone service in prisons are also installing their high-priced, very restrictive telephone service in jails and police lockups as well. Since everyone knows that police never make any mistakes in their judgment of who is to be locked up, I would guess by that same reasoning the incarcerated people should be treated as 'criminals' right from the beginning. If you hear police radio transmissions, they refer to the people they take into custody as 'prisoners' right from the beginning. And since everyone knows that prisoners and criminals are all scum, it only makes sense that anyone who would associate with them (parents, other relatives, lawyers, pastors, co-workers, etc) must be scum as well. Ask any police officer to explain it to you. The only people police arrest are guilty to start with, and scum. Unfortunatly, the US Constitution has this thing in it where the pre-selected scummy criminals are entitled to a trial, etc. Police and prosecutors don't really care for that provision, but they have to humor the ignorant parents and other family members by allowing the scum of the first part to have a trial. *Whatever* can be done to discourage them from staying in touch with their prisoner family member must be effected. Does anyone remember when the rule was an arrested person had to be, under law, given a FREE phone call of his choice at the time of arrest? No longer, or I should say, it has now been interpreted to mean 'FREE phone call' is a collect call at an outragous rate to whoever. 'At time of arrest' means sometime in the two or three day period it takes to process the scum. Bill, did I interpret what you said about phone calls correctly? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Lawsuit Regarding Excessive Prison Phone Charges Date: 22 Mar 2004 07:48:57 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Schaffrath wrote > Of course one solution to paying the high prison phone rates is the > advice Jim Carrey gave to his client in "Liar Liar"; STOP BREAKIN' THE > LAW! All calls by prison inmates are made collect. The recipient must pay extremely high charges. The problem is that the people getting socked with the high phone charges -- the offenders' families -- are not the one who committed the crime. The high phone charges are in reality an unfair tax upon a captive audience. They are there to raise money for the state's treasury from those who can least afford it. The cost of a call today is nominal, even with security considerations. There is a practical matter at work here, too. We don't want inmates going back to crime when they get out. One way to reduce that is to have good family contact while the offender is imprisoned. Sadly, many inmates are housed literally hundreds of miles from their home, so it is hard for families to come visit, and some states make visiting a real burden. The telephone can keep family contacts ongoing and help in rehabilitation. I don't mind if the family has to pay the real costs of a phone call (including security), but that is far, far less than what is being charged today. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lisa, Lisa, Lisa ... of course we want the criminals going back into crime when they get out. The Corrections Industry has to survive also. Just ask any police officer; all that rot about 'rehabilitation' is just a pipe dream by a liberal social worker. If they were not scum, they would not be in prisons, jails or police lockups to start with, and I've already discussed how, by extension, their family, pastors, other friends are scum as well. That damn Supreme Court is to blame! They are the ones who insisted that people get some rights, so they have to be given phone calls. At the very least, keep them so outrageously expensive that almost no one can afford it. As you point out, some states have effectively made personal visitation of prisoners impossible, let's not allow for cheap phone calls to get in the way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Western Union Clocks Date: 22 Mar 2004 08:04:09 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mike Riddle wrote: > Several years ago our esteemed moderator ran several articles on > Western Union Clocks. These were typically installed in train > stations and other public places. They were electrically powered, > self-winding (made by the "Self-Winding Clock Company") and > synchronized with the Naval Observatory on a periodic basis through > a 20 or 60 ma (I'm not sure which right now) circuit to Western > Union. The city public schools I attended had IBM clocks. (IBM used to have a central-clock and timeclock business which was part of its original corporate merger; they sold it off in the late 1950s). On a day to day basis they worked ok, but if something went wrong, i.e. a power failure or especially seasonal change of time, it took days until they got them right again. If something broke, again it took days until it was fixed and they'd show all sorts of crazy times. The reset efforts would have the clocks relatively slowly advance. I don't know if these troubles was from the system itself or if school maintenance people had trouble maintaining them. IBM had sold out when I was in school, although the systems weren't that old (about 12 years old). I believe in the late 1960s, the Pennsylvania Railroad or early Penn Central replaced the old style clocks with modern looking digitial clocks. They had problems with those. In the waning days of the Penn Central RR, they replaced their station clocks with individual stand-alone units that each had to be set manually. They were always a few minutes off from each other which used to be a big no-no in the railroad business. I don't know why it's so hard to keep time coordinated. In the Philadelphia area, the transportation authority tells riders to use Bell (Verizon) time, 215-846-1212, as a standardized source. My $20 Casio "50M" watch is pretty reliable. Bell has offered that service since at least the 1960s (846 was TIme 6). ------------------------------ From: Mike Riddle Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 10:38:11 -0600 Subject: Western Union Clocks Pat: There are usualy a few for sale on Ebay. You might have to gut and paste this URL. http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F% 2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1 &SortProperty=MetaEndSort&query=Western+Union+Clock Mike ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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