From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Sep 7 02:41:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i876fN606576; Tue, 7 Sep 2004 02:41:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 02:41:23 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200409070641.i876fN606576@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 #419 TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Sep 2004 02:41:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 419 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson UK: Net Calls Get Their Own Area Code (Jack Decker - VOIP News) Congress Hangs Up on VoIP for 2004 (Jack Decker - VOIP News) Florida Town Rises From Hurricane Wreckage With VOIP (Decker-VOIP News) Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert (SELLCOM Tech) Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert (Geoffrey Welsh) Re: How to Call Blocked Canadian 800 Numbers From U.S. (Mark) Re: DTMF Over Modem (Julian Thomas) Re: One Alternative, Peaceful Perspective (John McHarry) Re: The Soft Invasion (Gary Breuckman) Re: Book Review: The Sinking of the Eastland (Lisa Hancock) Re: China Threatens Internet Porn Merchants with Life (Dave Close) HDTV Forum a Big Hit (Monty Solomon) 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 15:06:13 -0400 Subject: UK: Net Calls Get Their Own Area Code Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com Two articles on this topic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3630888.stm In the UK, the telephone area code for cyberspace will be 056. Government regulator Ofcom has picked the prefix for customers who sign up to make calls via the internet. Users can also opt for geographic numbers. The decision on numbers comes as Ofcom reveals how it plans to regulate services that use the net rather than the old fashioned telephone network. Ofcom says it will use a light touch when regulating voice over net services to help the new market flourish. Call charges "Broadband voice services are a new and emerging market," said Stephen Carter, Ofcom Chief Executive. "Our first task as regulator is to keep out of the way." Full story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3630888.stm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39165620,00.htm Ofcom cheers industry with VoIP number ruling Graeme Wearden ZDNet UK The UK communications watchdog says it want to help build a successful VoIP market in Britain, but one tough decision still has to be taken Ofcom has begun to lay out the future for commercial voice over IP (VoIP) services in the UK. The communications regulator announced on Monday that Internet telephony service providers will be able to offer both geographic and non-geographic numbers to their customers. Geographic numbers will begin with 01 or 02, like today's existing fixed-line telephone numbers. This will allow consumers to shift onto a VoIP service but retain their existing number, or choose another that indicates where they are located. Non-geographic numbers for VoIP will begin with 056. These will be suitable for people who want to use their Internet telephony service from a number of locations. For example, they could install the necessary software on their laptop and be contactable anywhere over a GPRS or 3G link. Full story at: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39165620,00.htm ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 15:33:27 -0400 Subject: Congress Hangs Up on VoIP for 2004 Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3403911 By Roy Mark Federal legislation to exempt Internet telephony from state regulations and tariffs has all but failed in the 108th Congress, ending an ambitious effort to carve out and protect Internet-related issues from looming, and highly uncertain, telecom reform. The idea was simple enough. Because IP-enabled networks are inherently interstate in nature, they should fall solely under the jurisdiction of the federal government and its appointed agent, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). No matter what telecom reform might bring, the distinction in the meanwhile would allow the emerging Voice over IP (define) technology to compete free of state regulations and tariffs for the next few years. For good measure, the FCC would be prohibited from delegating any authority to regulate IP traffic to the states, a position supported by the majority of the five-member FCC that is conducting its own VoIP investigation under the constraints of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Full story at: http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3403911 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 15:50:11 -0400 Subject: Florida Town Rises from Hurricane Wreckage with VOIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/zd/20040905/tc_zd/134768 Florida Town Rises from Hurricane Wreckage with VOIP Triple-Play Ellen Muraskin - eWEEK Homestead, Fla., made news on Aug. 24, 1992, as the community hardest hit by Hurricane Andrew. Just south of Miami, its residents certainly hope to stay out of the spotlight this week, as Frances hits. Some IP infrastructure players, however, would like to direct our attention precisely there, because this city of 32,000 directed a good chunk of its Andrew recovery money to the infrastructure that supports a novel kind of triple-play IP service. This is to be telephone, video and data service over really broad broadband 100M-bps optical fiber to the home. Homestead is not the first U.S. city to get into the VOIP (voice over IP) business. Several have taken advantage of their rights to dig up their own streets and lay down fiber, becoming CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers). Homestead's case, however, is groundbreaking on several different levels, and bears watching. In the first place, Hurricane Andrew presented Homestead with the worst kind of "greenfield" opportunity, simply because it destroyed 80 percent of the town. It destroyed 5,000 homes completely, demolished its Air Force base, and destroyed or damaged 85,000 businesses. Where no legacy wiring exists, IP's cost of deployment compares more favorably with traditional copper. And so, among the up to 15,000 homes that are due to go up in Homestead by 2010, Ethernet-carrying fiber-optic cable is being built right in, at a cost of roughly $1,000 per home. This will support a triple-play service of flat-fee IP voice, hundreds of channels of IP-TV and HD-TV, movies-on-demand, videoconferencing, and high-speed data. The first homes are due to deploy by year's end. The service is integrated with television in a way I've not seen before: In the home, via set-top box and remote control, it will allow subscribers to control their phones and calling features through the TV screen. In practical terms, this means that if your mother-in-law calls during "The West Wing," you will see her caller ID from a picture-within-a picture, if you like, and you will be able to send her to voice mail from the comfort of your couch-potato seat. Full story at: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/zd/20040905/tc_zd/134768 ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 20:02:45 GMT Lisa Minter posted on that vast internet thingie: > Experts say businesses and governments around the world will spend $36 > billion this year to defend their computer systems against electronic > spam, named for a brand of processed luncheon meat made from ground > pork and ham. > "Half of the e-mails in your inbox could be messages you never wanted > to see," Jean-Jacques Sahel, director of international communications > at Britain's Department of Trade and Industry, told a technology > seminar in the Chinese capital. You know why spam is such a problem? It is really very simple. The US ISPs who are enabling foreign spam sites with connectivity are not being held responsible for what they enable. If they would handle foreign spam sites the way domestic spam sites are handled the problem would be greatly reduced. ISPs like level3.net knowingly enable foreign spam and spam sites in spite of repeated notice. If the FTC would get the guts to deal with just level3.net things would get better fast. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Uniden 2line 5.8GHz cordless If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 18:43:53 -0400 Lisa Minter wrote: > Some experts blame China, which cracks down on political dissent and > pornography on the Internet, for being a haven for "spammers" due to > neglect. Last year, the government blocked dozens of computer servers > believed to be sending spam. You don't have to be an expert to blame China for being a part of the spam problem; analysis of the spam that I receive personally and the spam reported to me by employees at work show that the majority -- I'd estimate two thirds to three quarters -- of the URLs advertised point to China. I'd guess that others share the experience to some degree. I can only guess that the government is acting on spam sent within (or into) China and ignoring the (coincidentally, of course, revenue-generating) hosting of spammers' web sites. > The term spam originally comes from "spiced ham" made by U.S. canned > food giant Hormel Foods Corp. Well, that really explains the connection well. Geoffrey Welsh If anything worth doing is worth doing right, then surely anything not worth doing right is not worth doing at all. ------------------------------ From: xx-google@telefog.com (Mark) Subject: Re: How to Call Blocked Canadian 800 Numbers From U.S. Date: 6 Sep 2004 14:00:12 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I made a mistake in the original post. Under method 1, I referred to a "call like the one I described in method 1 above", which is obviously wrong. Here's the teleconferencing technique that I meant to include: You, as the moderator, are able to dial out to bring in an additional teleconference participant, but when you dial out, you can spend as long as you want talking to the new "participant" in a side conversation. That new "participant" can be CIC or CRA or ExpressVu or any other Canadian entity that blocks toll-free calls from the U.S., because the outbound call originates from Ontario. And way below I address this subthread initiated by the moderator: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think most 800 numbers simply >> get translated into a 'regular' number; if you dial via that >> 'regular' number you call will go through.... (1) [H]ave you tried >> dialing the untranslated or 'regular' number of the places you want >> to call...? > Pat, > Even though many toll free numbers translate to POTS lines there are > just as many that do not. This is especially true with large call > volume toll free numbers like the original poster was talking about. > Many times these lines come in on a T-1 directly from the IEC and > therefore don't have a POTS line associated with them in any way. > John P. Dearing > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What you say is true, but even if the > 800 lines terminated on a T-1 and were not themselves directly > dialable (as a 'regular' 7-D number), all the places he mentioned such > as Revenue Department, Immigration Department, etc would have > directory listed 7-D 'administrative numbers' he could use and ask to > be transferred as needed to the proper department. PAT] My original target was CIC, which sometime in the last year deactivated all three of its public 7-digit call center access numbers (one each in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal) and converted to a sole number, 888-242-2100, which is inaccessible from the entire U.S., as far I can tell. (The 7-digit numbers are still listed on some stale CIC web pages.) And CIC doesn't make its administrative numbers public. I did once call the minister's office in Ottawa for a hand, but they referred me to the 888 number. ExpressVu customer service was reachable by calling the main EV switchboard during Toronto business hours and asking to be connected, but they may have killed this back door. My original target for the technique that I laid out is CIC's, which is essentially unreachable by a mere non-hacking U.S. mortal such as me unless I find a way to dial out on a Canadian dial tone (or spoof ANI, but, again, I'm a non-hacker). So the first number I list as a primary target for my technique, and the other seven I list mainly to provide additional examples of Can. toll-free numbers blocked from the U.S. (for your testing pleasure); CRA probably has non-toll-free numbers and ExpressVu's switchboard may still connect callers to customer service on request. 888-242-2100 Citizenship & Immigration Canada (CIC) 800-665-0354 Canada Revenue Agency 800-959-1956 Canada Revenue Agency 800-959-8281 Canada Revenue Agency 800-339-6908 ExpressVu 866-801-9995 ExpressVu 888-759-3473 ExpressVu 800-255-4541 Canada Revenue Agency? ********** 1366294709 ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 18:25:50 -0400 Subject: Re: DTMF Over Modem [PAT - please mung my from address in the posting - thanks - jt] action@xmission.com (Prospecting Sucks) wrote about Play DTMF Tones Over a Modem on 5 Sep 2004 18:10:12 -0700: > I use a voiceblast system which allows me to keep up to date with > customers and clients > Does anyone know of a program where I can point it to a TEXT file and > have it play the telephone numbers over the modem? Basically just read > the numbers using DTMF tones over the modem line? Should be a fairly simple script to write if you have a real modem that understands the AT command set. You need to read the file line by line, send the number and then send the final "1". I can't find my AT command set guide at the moment, so can't be more specific right now. Julian Thomas: jt at jt-mj dot net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Boardmember of POSSI.org - Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc http://www.possi.org There is no such thing as luck. 'Luck' is nothing but an absence of bad luck. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: One Alternative, Peaceful Perspective Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2004 00:00:31 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Badnarik For President Committee wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This message has been supplied to > the Internet by Badnarik for President, 2004. Since neither Bush > nor Kerry will allow him to particpate in their debates and > discussions, many Internet news groups will try to help him. PAT] It is your newsgroup, and we all appreciate all the effort you have put into it for lo these many years, but that is really off topic. Since none of the minor party candidates have any chance of getting any electoral votes, it would seem a waste of insufficient debate air time to include them. Not that I think much of the electoral college. It denies equal voice to those who live in "safe" states. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Which came first, the lack of electoral votes or the lack of time for a debate? I suggest the Demopublican and the Republicratic candidates tend to 'gang up on' alternative voices to insure they won't be heard from. And there is no law against electors giving their vote to the candidate of their choice; if an overwhelming majority of the popular vote in some state went to Ralph Nader or Badnarik for example, then the electors should cast their vote that way also. Badnarik (and I think Nader for that matter) were entitled to be present at the debates because they represent legitimate political parties and did have candidates in some of the state primaries. But one person -- Ms. Brown of the National Presidential Debate Commission -- took it upon herself to exclude them as participants, no doubt at the beheast of Bush, who stands to lose the most votes if other voices are heard from. Ms. Brown caught much hell for her arbitrary decision on television Sunday morning when she was interviewed and took telephone calls and email from viewers, but she stuck to her guns on the issue. No outsiders to be heard from when the debates are broadcast, just the two we have chosen. for you. But the commission may get sued on that point, to force them to allow truely open debates between the legitimate candidates. Ms. Brown also expressed her dismay at the debate last week between Badnaric and Nader and others; (a) that they went ahead with the debate 'without clearing it with us' and that it was televised Monday on C-SPAN-2. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: The Soft Invasion Date: Mon, 06 Sep 2004 19:31:16 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , "Dan Lanciani" wrote: >> By WALTER S. MOSSBERG >> WHAT IF A private company could legally break into your house and rig >> your television so that it would always start up on a special station >> the company had created that showed deceptive ads every minute, all >> day? And what if, when you tried to change the station, you could >> choose only among obscure and dubious channels selected by the invading >> company? > Why exactly is it any more legal for companies to install unauthorized > software on my machine than it is for a virus writer to do so? Usually, because they ask! Ever visited a web site, and had a window pop up with something like "would you like to install our super-duper-find-anything search bar?" What most of these programs do is monitor what web sites you visit, and then pop up ads that relate to those sites. Of course some sites don't ask, or they bundle it with some other item that you are installing. What makes it 'more legal' is that YOU went THERE and got it. Also many don't report any data back, they just annoy you locally with related ads. Microsoft needs to make it easier to monitor and remove all the Internet Explorer add-ons. Many are really hard to get rid of. -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Book Review: The Sinking of the Eastland Date: 6 Sep 2004 17:57:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote > survivors of the July 24, 1915 accident which claimed the lives of > more than 800 workers at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works plant > in Cicero, Illinois. The book reconstructs the tragic event of that > Saturday morning in great detail. It is important that such tragedies be remembered. I don't know why some are remembered over others. I believe in that time frame an excursion boat out of New York City had a bad accident with a high loss of life as well. I know a lot of people have gripes about our present day economic situation. But on this Labor Day, we can look back and see how far society overall has come in terms of working conditions and standard of living. I've heard enough stories from my parents and grandparents about how hard and dangerous working life was back in those days. We also have to come to terms with our future, for better or worse. The former Bell System after the Depression was noted for job security. You didn't get rich working for the phone company and some jobs were terribly montonous, but the job security was important for many people. There was also a career path. In the 1950s working for the telephone company, especially in a smaller city or in the plant dept was a pretty good job (though not the best paying one). When functions were automated, the business was growing fast enough to find other jobs for people. With divesture, that job security is utterly gone. Both AT&T and the baby Bells have let go people with over 20 years of service as departments get realigned. Are the workers better off without the Bell System? Many once big and solid American companies are shrinking and abandoning no-layoff policies or their once high regard for their people. IBM is vastly different. Banks used to be very stable, but no more. FWIW, a history of MCI describes many boom and bust cycles. Then MCI had a very nasty bankruptcy of questionable accounting. Are we better off with a business world like that? It was stylish in the 1960s to knock the big corporations (especially the Bell System). But in hindsight many of the companies treated their workers much better than workers are treated today in "lean and mean" organizations when allowing for differences in the times. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In 1915 at the time of the Eastland disaster, there were no labor unions either. People working for Western Electric were typical in working 10 hours per day, five or six days per week. 'Closed on Saturdays' had not yet been started either. On that particular weekend, having Saturday as an 'extra day off from work' had been granted by management to some two thousand of the workers so they could attend the event (provided they had purchased a ticket [75 cents for each adult, 50 cents for children] in advance.) Much of the machinery there was very large and dangerous; accidents were not uncommon. Not only did workers not have any unions, they did not have any hospital insurance either. On Sunday, the day following the disaster, Western Electric management sent out a memo to everyone announcing that the next morning, Monday, the plant would open at the usual 7 AM starting time, even though in some cases, entire families had been killed in the event and there was not a single department which did not lose at least two or three workers; in a couple cases, every single worker in a department had been killed. The only thing that even slightly resembled it in more modern times was the brokerage company on an upper floor of the World Trade Center which lost several hundred employees on September 11, 2001. Western Electric was *that* decimated by the Eastland disaster in 1915. The entire book "Sinking of the Eastland" was a terribly sad and very depressing look at an event now largely forgotten in America. I hope everyone will read it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: China Threatens Internet Porn Merchants with Life Date: 6 Sep 2004 20:47:32 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Lisa Minter quotes Reuters: > "Depending on the seriousness of the cases, the sentences range from > living under compulsory surveillance, detainmen t, taking into custody > by the police, to various terms of imprisonment and life > imprisonment," Xinhua said. Makes the "Internet death penalty" seem mild ... I note they are not applying those rules to spam. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "If I seem unduly clear to you, dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 you must have misunderstood dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu what I said." -- Alan Greenspan ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2004 15:02:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: HDTV Forum a Big Hit By Ultimate AV Staff September 06, 2004 - Overshadowed by the Athens Olympic Games and the start of the Republican National Convention, the second annual HDTV Forum 2004 was a resounding success. Held the last week of August at the Westin Century Plaza in Los Angeles, the event was completely sold out, according to organizing companies DisplaySearch of Austin, TX and Insight Media of Norwalk, CT. The three-day event hosted 338 attendees from 12 different countries and featured 11 corporate sponsors, 14 exhibitors, 10 media sponsors, two audio/visual sponsors, and 15 media organizations-a diverse group from across the TV food chain, including representatives from TV and cable networks, content creators, government agencies, satellite and cable providers, retailers, distributors, TV brands, TV OEMs, panel/tube/engine manufacturers, and IC manufacturers. The HDTV format has made great strides in the past year, participants agreed, although noted that consumers need more education about the format and all involved in delivering it-manufacturers, cable and satellite providers, retailers, TV networks, local broadcasters, and independent production companies-need to pull together to really make HDTV succeed. The driving force for this success is and will be HD sports, according to the first day's keynote speaker, Bryan Burns, vice president of strategic business planning and development for ESPN HD. Among key drivers for the growing demand of HDTV will be ESPN HD's 6000 hours of HD programming in 2004, Burns told attendees. http://www.guidetohometheater.com/news/090604hdtvforum/ ------------------------------ 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #419 ******************************