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TELECOM Digest     Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:18:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 298

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Customer Given Access to Others' Accounts (Monty Solomon)
    Comcast / Starz Video-on-Demand (Monty Solomon)
    BT Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for TV (Monty Solomon)
    Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess (Monty Solomon)
    Verizon Wireless Leads Industry With Natl Wireless Broadband (M Solomon)
    Grokster Decision Launches Debate (Telecom dailyLead from USTA)
    Re: Where to Buy a Cellular Phone Jammer? (Dale Farmer)
    Re: Vonage and E911: Customer Service Response (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Vonage and E911: Customer Service Response (RodneyG)
    Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires (Steven Lichter)
    Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: G3 for Dialup Users (Nathan Strom)
    Re: Cardholders Kept in Dark After Breach (mc)
    Re: DSL Speed (Choreboy)

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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, 27 Jun 2005 23:52:06 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Customer Given Access to Others' Accounts


By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Bank of America Corp. says its recent conversion of FleetBoston
accounts to its computer network went smoothly, but don't tell that to
Mark Levy, who accidentally got online access to about $90,000 of
other people's money.

When Levy went to the bank's website to check his accounts, the
freelance writer from Brookline said, he also had access to several
accounts that weren't his. If he were criminally inclined, he said, he
could have emptied those accounts.

Bank spokesman Ernesto Anguilla said that what happened was an
isolated incident caused by 'human error' and 'unrelated to the
conversion.' While Levy got access to about 10 accounts, it appears
that they belonged to two customers, Anguilla said.

There was no way those customers could have suffered financial losses,
Anguilla said, because all Bank of America customers 'would be fully
reimbursed by the bank for any unauthorized transactions.'

Bank of America acquired FleetBoston Financial Corp. last year and
converted many FleetBoston accounts to its computer network this
month.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/06/27/customer_given_access_to_others_accounts/

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 08:46:49 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Comcast / Starz video-on-demand


     Comcast and Starz Entertainment Group Announce Groundbreaking
     Movie Deal

     Largest Movie Video-On-Demand Agreement to Date

     Long-term Starz and Encore Channels Agreement

PHILADELPHIA, and ENGLEWOOD, Colo., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast
(Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK), the country's leading provider of cable,
entertainment and communications products and services, and Starz
Entertainment Group LLC (SEG), the largest provider of premium movie
services in the United States, today announced that they will offer
more than 1,500 movies a year from SEG's extensive library to
Comcast's ON DEMAND video-on-demand service. This is the single
largest video-on-demand movie content agreement to date. The agreement
also covers the launch of two new SEG premium movie channels on
Comcast systems and provides for the extension of the affiliation
agreement between the two companies into the next decade.  Finally,
the agreement provides Comcast more control over future programming
costs while providing SEG greater predictability in its long-term
revenue stream.

The comprehensive agreement paves the way for Comcast to bring Starz
to more Comcast customers and expand Encore and its thematic channels
to additional digital cable customers. In addition to access to these
channels, the agreement covers broad video-on-demand rights. Comcast
plans to offer digital cable customers who subscribe to Starz 325 top
movie titles per month, and offer Encore customers 250 of these movie
titles per month - all at no additional charge. Digital cable
customers who would have paid $3-4 per movie to receive top movies now
will each be able to receive up to $1,000 per month worth of value at
no additional charge from Comcast.

Comcast will also make available for no additional charge 100 of the
250 Encore movies as part of a new digital cable package that will be
the gateway to video-on-demand for those customers who have previously
experienced traditional television content.

     - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50121576

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 08:48:03 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: BT Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for TV 


     BT Selects Microsoft TV as Software Platform for TV Over
     Broadband in the United Kingdom
     - Jun 28, 2005 06:48 AM (PR Newswire)

BT Plans to Test Services in Early 2006

REDMOND, Wash. and LONDON, June 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft
Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and BT today announced BT's intention to use the
Microsoft(R) TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software
platform to deliver TV over broadband in the United Kingdom. The
announcement further strengthens Microsoft's continued commitment to
working with the world's leading network operators to bring
next-generation television services to consumers.

BT plans to trial TV over broadband services powered by Microsoft TV
IPTV Edition in early 2006, with delivery of a commercial service
expected to begin in the summer of 2006.

     - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50121136

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:08:41 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Verizon Wireless Broadband Access


Verizon Wireless Announces BroadbandAccess Wireless Broadband
   Service Availability In Airports Nationwide

NEW YORK and BEDMINSTER, N.J., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon
Wireless, operator of the nation's largest and fastest wireless
broadband network, announced today its BroadbandAccess wireless
broadband service is available to travelers in airports from coast to
coast.  BroadbandAccess from Verizon Wireless gives enterprise
customers a fast, reliable resource to help them be productive and in
touch with the office and customers when they are traveling, enabling
them to tap into applications and tasks that are more suited to
broadband data speeds.  Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess gives
customers the speed, mobility, productivity and simplicity ideal for
mobile professionals in businesses small and large.

     - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50128314

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 11:10:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Verizon Wireless Leads Industry With National Wireless Broadband


Verizon Wireless CEO Denny Strigl: Company Continues to Deliver Popular
BroadbandAccess and V CAST Services to Customers Across the Nation

NEW YORK and BEDMINSTER, N.J., June 28 /PRNewswire/ -- From the Yankee
Group Conference today in New York, Denny Strigl, president and chief
executive officer of Verizon Wireless, the leader in wireless
broadband services, said the company continues to launch new major
markets, expand existing markets and it is on track to make its two
EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) based services, BroadbandAccess and V
CAST, available to half the U.S. population by the end of this year.
With these services, customers can do everything from work remotely at
similar speed and functionality as if they were in the office, to
being on the cutting-edge of entertainment -- downloading cool 3D
games, viewing short original programs made exclusively for cell
phones and watching music videos and concert performances from
favorite artists.

     - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=50126576

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 13:43:32 EDT
From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com>
Subject: Grokster Decision Launches Debate


Telecom dailyLead from USTA
June 28, 2005
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22681&l=2017006

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* Grokster decision launches debate
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Analyzing the Brand X decision
* BT enlists Microsoft for TV service
* Cisco snaps up security startup
* Cablevision unveils 100 Mbps broadband
USTA SPOTLIGHT 
* Free Webinar: Understanding Your Customer --  Increasing RevenueTomorrow,
Wednesday, June 29, 12:00 PM ET
Register now!
EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES
* BusinessWeek report looks at wireless technologies
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Level 3 beefs up e911 coverage

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22681&l=2017006

------------------------------

From: Dale Farmer <dale@cybercom.net>
Organization: The  fuzz in the back of the fridge. 
Subject: Re: Where to Buy a Cellular Phone Jammer?
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 05:11:46 GMT


Steve Sobol wrote:

> Dale Farmer wrote:

>> after the root causes of the bad behavior, then by blocking this or
>> that object from functioning, or making the object more difficult to
>> obtain legally for the ordinary citizen.

> So what legitimate reasons are there to use a cell phone jammer? (Note
> that I said legitimate, not legal.)

The only reason I can think of offhand is for a bomb squad to use to
block one possible source of remote detonation.  I started to type
that a hostage situation would also be one, but then it occurred to me
that there may be non-hostage innocents trapped in there as well, who
might want to call the police for assistance in escaping.  A cell
phone enabled scanner would be indicated, and a quick call trace from
the cellular carrier when needed.

Fred Atkinson wrote:

>> And here you fall into that common fallacy.  'We can't have these
>> people doing this bad behavior that we outlawed.  So lets ban one of
>> their instrumentalities to stop their bad behavior.'  Remember how
>> effective those laws against flagrant beeper use in the 80s were at
>> stopping the drug dealers?  You would be far better served by going
>> after the root causes of the bad behavior, then by blocking this or
>> that object from functioning, or making the object more difficult to
>> obtain legally for the ordinary citizen.

> And *you* think that you are going to stop the black market trade and
> the self abusive behaviors that goes on inside of prisons by 'dealing
> with it'?  I'm afraid you're in never never land.  It's not going to
> happen.

Solving the problems of bad stuff happening in prisons by blocking
just one or a couple bands of radio frequency is not going to happen
either.

> Using technology like this for better security in our prisons isn't a
> bad idea.

> Fred

Except it doesn't work.  Better to put scanners up and listen to their
transmissions.

    --Dale

------------------------------

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Vonage and E911:  Customer Service Response
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:42:26 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


RodneyG wrote:

> I wrote to Vonage Customer Service today (I am a customer) and told
> them I found out that another VoIP provider (Time-Warner RoadRunner)
> in my city (Charlotte, NC) could provide me with true E911.  I asked
> why Vonage could not.  I further asked when I could expect true E911
> from Vonage.

> Below is the response, a direct quotation.  I admit I haven't been
> following all the twists and turns 100%, but isn't this reply a bit of
> a stretch (or worse) from what we know?  Or did I miss something?

The CSR's response is in line with what I understand to be the case
(that VoIP providers are being required by the FCC to start offering
E911 within the next couple months).

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That was their entire response? I guess
> technically, they are correct. FCC gave them all 90 days to comply, as
> of mid-May. So mid-June (1), mid-July (2) and mid-August (3) gets us
> to 90 days, around to approximatly the end of the summer. You'd think
> that Kristen might have elaborated on it just a little; but who knows,
> maybe the bosses told Kristen to avoid any conversations with
> customers on the topic while they (the bosses) try to worm their way
> into an extension of time, either formally or informally. Maybe they
> told Kristen to be most careful about saying anything which could be
> construed as a 'promise' or a 'commitment'. PAT]

I don't know about the former, but I'm sure the latter did happen.

JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table"   --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

------------------------------

From: RodneyG <rodneyg@carolina.rr.com>
Subject: Re: Vonage and E911: Customer Service Response
Date: 28 Jun 2005 05:53:25 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


RodneyG wrote:

>   ---------- begin response from Vonage Customer Service ----------

> Dear customer,

> In response to your email, we are supposed to be E911 compliant by the
> end of the summer.

> I hope I have answered your question and thank you for contacting
> customer care.

> Sincerely,

> Kristen

>   ---------- end response from Vonage Customer Service ----------

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That was their entire response? I guess
> technically, they are correct. FCC gave them all 90 days to comply, as
> of mid-May. So mid-June (1), mid-July (2) and mid-August (3) gets us
> to 90 days, around to approximatly the end of the summer. You'd think
> that Kristen might have elaborated on it just a little; but who knows,
> maybe the bosses told Kristen to avoid any conversations with
> customers on the topic while they (the bosses) try to worm their way
> into an extension of time, either formally or informally. Maybe they
> told Kristen to be most careful about saying anything which could be
> construed as a 'promise' or a 'commitment'. PAT]

Yes, that was the entire response.  I thought it was lazy and
ill-worded.  But now that I think about it in the context of your
comments, "we are supposed to be" might actually be *carefully*
worded.

------------------------------

From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com>
Reply-To: Die@spammers.com
Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc.  (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co.
Subject: Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:43:19 GMT


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Hancock:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One important reason companies do not
> keep around 40-50 year employees any longer is because that employee's
> benefits package is usually so extravagant. For example, I recall one
> fellow who had worked for Standard Oil more than twenty years back in
> the 1960's, when I was there.  Working there that long, he was
> entitled to five weeks paid vacation every year, and first choice of
> the available times for vacation. He _always_ managed to parlay that
> five week vacation into _six_ weeks by scheduling his vacation times
> around weeks which had holidays in them, which entitled him to an
> extra vacacation day. For example, vacation during the week which
> contained Memorial Day, also the week which contained Independence Day
> and Labor Day got him _three extra days_ right there. So he would then
> take those three extra days vacation and either use them for the
> Monday <-> Wednesday of Thanksgiving Week when the entire office got
> two days (Thursday and Friday) off anyway. Or, depending on how the
> calendar worked out that year, maybe he would take those three days
> during Christmas/New Years week. 

> Needless to say, Standard Oil got quite annoyed at having to legally
> pay him for not being there for large gaps of time. Eventually, they
> had a whole bunch of people in that situation and of course, if you
> can find an excuse for letting the person go, then you also have to
> pay them for the _company's share_ of their 401-K plan or whatever,
> _plus_ their severance pay, _plus_ their pension, etc. And there is
> absolutely no reason a good supervisor cannot find an excuse -- _any_
> lawful excuse will do, to can you if they wish to do so. That is one
> reason most companies do not like to have employees around that long;
> to their way of thinking, the person has gotten just to expensive for
> them. 

> And ditto with the telephone company over the years. I recall a
> complaint I heard from a couple of very old, long term 'inside plant'
> technicians who got laid off by Illinois Bell just a week or two prior
> to some milestone for them (such as maybe reaching the point they were
> entitled to that very coveted fifth week of vacation each year). This
> was right around the time Wabash was cutting over to ESS, in 1974 or
> thereabouts. They both said Bell was extremely secretive about the new
> system. Although they both, by virtue of their longevity, had the run
> of the whole inside plant, the frames, etc, Bell kept the area where
> the computers for ESS were located totally 'off limits' with locked
> doors, to most of the older guys. "The only guys allowed to go in that
> area were the real young smart-alecks who knew something about
> computers. Those of us who knew nothing about computers were _not_
> allowed to go in that area at all."  PAT]

I don't know about Standard Oil and Illinois Bell, but I was a long
term employee of GTE and went into the Electronic Projects when they
first started.  A lot of senior employees did not want to learn the
new stuff and others were needed to keep the old equipment running,
but in the end the senior people learned the new stuff, transfered or
retired. In the end there were a few who got laid off, GTE did dump
most of the frame people and I could never figure that move out.

As to vacations, I would take the week of Thanksgiving through the end
of the year, and I would get extra days to my vacation, but no more
then if I had just taken them without the vacation time.


The only good spammer is a dead one!!  Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2005  I Kill Spammers, Inc.  A Rot in Hell Co.

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: 50 Year Unisys Employee Retires
Date: 28 Jun 2005 08:34:49 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One important reason companies do not
> keep around 40-50 year employees any longer is because that employee's
> benefits package is usually so extravagant. For example, I recall one
> fellow who had worked for Standard Oil more than twenty years back in
> the 1960's, when I was there.  Working there that long, he was
> entitled to five weeks paid vacation every year  ...

You are correct -- companies hate dealing with that.  They respond in
different ways:

1) Simply eliminating those vacation and pension benefits.
2) Outsourcing the department.
3) Making life a living hell for the employee so he quits
   and gets no severance.
4) Transferring the employee across the country and/or to a
   dumpy location.  Often such employees are pretty settled
   and it would involve uplifting kids at a bad time in their lives.

Companies today no longer provide those nice benefits people used to
enjoy.

There was a good business reason for those benefits: it encouraged
longevity which meant companies had experienced people and didn't need
to retrain and rehire (which is expensive).  But now companies don't
care and look at their people no differently than desk chairs or
computer monitors.

Years ago the house organ for companies would proudly feature their
veteran employees on the cover.  No more.

That fifth week of vacation isn't as much concern as pension costs
(very high) or health benefits.

Government agencies also had good benefits but they too are under fire
to eliminate them.  In some cases they "privitize" which is another
way of saying 'outsource'.  The employees lose all seniority and
benefits.

There was an article in Fortune Mag recently about corporate
executives in their 50s who face the same problem.  These very well
paid high-powered people find themselves out of the street along with
everyone else (including people they likely had a hand in putting out
on the street).

Age discrimination is now illegal, but corporations are creative are
circumventing that.  As you said, they make a new area restricted to
the young turks so the veterans get squeezed out.

The sad part is modern "outsourcing" companies offer next to nothing
in benefits.  Sometimes the workers aren't even 'employees', but
reclassified as "independent contractors" which is even worse for most
workers.

Back in the Depression my mother got a job for a small outfit owned by
what then was called a "skinflint" boss.  If an employee erred and a
letter was returned mis-addressed, the employee had to pay for the
postage out of their own pocket.  When the boss was there, he'd sit
behind his roll top desk staring at the staff.  But when he was on
vacation -- which was often -- the atmosphere was much more relaxed
and pleasant.

Today the "boss" never takes a vacation.  Companies monitor and record
every keystroke, every screen, every phone call, and every restroom
break.  If you fail to meet quota you're out.  If a customer has a
tough problem that needs extra time, too bad.

When I came of age I thought unions were too powerful -- they had a
lot and seemed to be too greedy.  But now the pendulum has swung the
other way.  We do need unions in many white collar jobs to protect
workers.  When corporate profits and CEO salaries are so damn high
while workers' wages languish, something is out of balance and needs
correction.

[public replies please]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Even in the olden days of manual
telephone service, operators were expected to keep up a pace of
a certain number of calls per minute/hour.  The supervisors would
see that each operator had a large number of cord pairs up on calls.
No certain number of cords, just an average which matched more or
less the other operators. Now let's say an operator got some sort of
very 'tough' call to handle; it took a few minutes extra to handle.
Since operators were taught to 'overlap' (that is, pull down the
cords on a finished call while installing a new call [new cord pairs]
in the process) after a couple minutes into handling the tough call,
her existing connections would have mostly finished and the cords
come down, so in essence she was sitting there with 'nothing on her
board' except the one tough call she was trying to complete. Sure
as the world, that was the moment the supervisor would happen to walk
past, and inquire, not necessarily in a gracious way, "what is going
on here? You don't seem to stay as busy as your neighbors." It seems
the supervisors could not understand that not all calls handled by
the operators were routine: (with cord in hand) 'number please',
(virtually toss the cord at the jack, start the ringing process) and
say 'thank you'; then click off and move on to the next call in the
never ending queue. Sometimes the operators _had_ to engage in
conversation for a few seconds with a customer, and during that few
seconds or maybe a minute of conversation her position would get
de-nuded of other connections. And God forbid the customer had a
_real_ emergency and the operator had to stay on the line with them
for a minute or two, which of course they were trained to do.

_An operator had a heart attack once while I was speaking to her_. I
had called something 555-1212 to get information; the operator
answered and took my request; apparently in the process of looking up
the desired number, she was stricken; the line went silent, but I
could hear people in the background talking, but it was muffled, but
obviously a group of anxious people chattering. Curious, I just sat
there trying to listen. After about a minute, someone else picks up
the headset and says, "may I help you?"  and I gave the request again,
and got a very prompt answer. I asked what happened to the person who
originally answered me? The new voice said to me, "it appears she had
a heart attack, the medics are here now to take charge." My goodness!

And Myrtle Murphy, an elderly lady who had been a phone operator
for Illinois Bell all of her working career comes to mind. She was the
very first _union steward_ in the Franklin Coin office in downtown
Chicago. When Ms. Murphy started working for the company, it was not
unionized -- in other words just like Sprint or Walmart today. She was
approached by some people who asked her to be their representative at
the CWA (Communications Workers of America), and she agreed. Many of
her fellow employees laughed and mocked her, saying "no one will ever
be able to organize the Bell ..." and the supervisors treated her like
a pariah; and told the other 'girls' they had better stay away from
Myrtle ... she is a trouble maker; associate with her and she will get
_YOU_ in trouble as well. Well, the other operators did associate with
her, and many of them signed the union cards she presented.  And like
Walmart, which doesn't hesitate to throw its weight around and make
hassles in every community it enters, Illinois Bell threw a lot of
its weight around also -- and these were the depression years when if
you had a job at all you were very lucky -- and fought to keep the
union away. 

So Lisa, the olden times were not much different than today. The same
ugly corporations and the same ugly bosses in charge of things (I
mean, is there a worker around anywhere who does not hate his supervisor?)
but the modality is all that has changed. We don't call it 'the Bell'
any longer, now we call it 'SBC' and the bosses all use ugly computers
to keep the workers on their toes. But same difference.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: nstrom@ananzi.co.za (Nathan Strom)
Subject: Re: G3 for Dialup Users
Date: 28 Jun 2005 06:22:06 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Patrick Townson <ptownson@telecom-digest.org> wrote in message
news:<telecom24.297.5@telecom-digest.org>:

> There have been some commercials on television lately I do not 
> understand at all. The announcer says, 'first there was dial up,
> then there was accelerated dial up, now there is G3, which is
> about the fastest you can go _without_ being on DSL or cable.'

> Exactly what is G3 for dialup users?  If I decided my cable internet
> was too expensive, and decided to resort to 'G3 for dialup' what
> would I get different than what I have now?

I've never heard of it, but a Google search shows it's Netzero's new
offering. Basically, it's just a standard 56K dialup or whatever, with
some special software running on the client end. Think lots of extra
caching on the local end, link prefetching, maybe some transparant
HTTP proxy servers on the ISP end, and possible image compression. All
in all, the same as "accelerated dialup" to me -- in short, a joke. If
you're downloading files or doing anything else on the internet than
browsing web pages, you won't notice a difference from standard
dialup.

 From http://www.techsupportforum.com/showthread.php?t=57748:

> 06-18-2005, 07:55 AM   	     · #2
> Terrister
> Moderator, Hardware Forum

> This page explains it. http://account.netzero.net/s/landing?action=viewProduct&productId=iso-acc-monthly&cf=sellpage

> It is standard dialup with caching. The speeds are the same as
> normal dial up.  The speed increase comes from storing
> information(caching) on your hard drive so you do not have to
> download it again.

Hope this helps, Pat. Don't believe the hype :)

------------------------------

From: mc <mc_no_spam@uga.edu>
Subject: Re: Cardholders Kept in Dark After Breach
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 09:51:54 -0400
Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net)


>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One problem with your list of
>> requirements is that sometimes, in a family, one member of the family
>> -- let's say the husband for example -- likes to use the net to look
>> at some, well, 'perverted' stuff and charge his viewing of same to the
>> family credit card.

Surely the person paying the bills has the right to know what they're
for!

------------------------------

From: Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com>
Subject: Re: DSL Speed
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 01:34:56 -0400
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


Neal McLain wrote:

> Choreboy <choreboyREMOVE@localnet.com> wrote:

>> A relative has a farm. His phone service comes in on 700 yards
>> of ordinary telephone cable buried along his driveway.  Last
>> week he got Bellsouth DSL.  It comes in on the same conductors
>> as before, but I've seen speeds fifty times faster than dialup

> And in a subsequent post, wrote:

>> Between the CO and the customer, isn't voice service just bare
>> wire?

> Not necessarily.  But let's clarify some terminology first.

> I assume that:

>   - By "between the CO and the customer," you mean what's
>     commonly known as the "local loop."

If only I had remembered the right term!

>   - By "bare wire" you don't really mean "bare" (as in
>     uninsulated); you're simply implying that there's nothing in
>     the wirepair, other than copper conductors, that would affect
>     the transmission of signals.

Oops, I was thinking "not coaxial" and "bare" popped into my head.

> Based on those assumptions, here's an attempt to explain "local loop":
> it's a pair of metallic (usually copper) conductors between the
> customer's premises and the telco's facilities.  The conductors are
> designated "ring" and "tip."  These terms originated from the physical
> configuration of the plugs used in old manual switchboards.  Photo:
> http://tinyurl.com/9pjla .  Note that the term "ring," as used here,
> does not mean "ringing the telephone."

> The two conductors are usually twisted together, and contained inside
> a cable along with several other wirepairs.  At the customer's
> premises, the conductors may run parallel (not twisted) in the drop
> cable from the pole (or pedestal) to the building.

> At the telco's end, the loop may terminate at the CO, or it may
> terminate at a "digital loop carrier remote terminal" (DLCRT, or just
> RT).  Telcos often deploy RTs to provide POTS service to outlying
> areas (e.g., new residential neighborhoods or business parks) in order
> to reduce the number and/or length of wirepairs needed to provide
> service to additional customers.  Photo: http://tinyurl.com/dlj7o .

I'll know to look for something the resembles the sermon billboard in
front of a church.

> Each RT is connected to a host CO, and from the point of view of the
> customer, it's indistinguishable from the CO.  POTS lines served from
> the RT are switched at the CO; the RT simply relays signals back and
> forth between the customer and the CO.  Numbers are part of the same
> NPA-NXX blocks as the host CO.

Is it indistinguishable if the customer has a V.90 modem?  I think I've
read that an RT won't allow 56k dialups.

> Each RT is connected to its host CO by one or more digital circuits.
> Depending on the number of POTS lines needed, the digital connection
> can be as simple as a single T1 implemented over two copper wirepairs,
> or it can be some multiplexed combination of several T1s implemented
> over coax, fiber, or microwave.  See http://tinyurl.com/9oqru .

Does an RT entail an extra A/D conversion?

> Whether or not these digital circuits are part of the "local loop" is
> a matter of some confusion: I've heard it both ways.  For the purpose
> of this explanation, I don't include them.

> Now slightly restating the original definition, we can state: the
> local loop consists of two copper conductors between the customer's
> premises and the telco's CO or RT.

> For POTS service, this copper pair carries an amazing number of signals:

>   - Balanced baseband analog voice signals in the range
>     300 to 3000 Hz., carried in both directions simultaneously.

>   - Audio control signals carried in the same 300-3000 voice
>     passband: DTMF signaling tones, dialtone, ring, busy, fault
>     tones, etc.

>   - DC loop current resulting from a DC bias voltage ("battery")
>     applied at the CO or RT.  Originally, this current was
>     necessary to operate the carbon microphones (or "transmitters"
>     as they were called) of older telephones.  Modern telephones
>     don't use carbon mikes, but they still need DC operating power
>     for their transistor or IC circuits.  Because this voltage is
>     applied directly across the talk circuit, it must be an
>     absolutely pure DC voltage (no noise, no ripple).  Typical
>     battery voltages, applied at the CO or RT, are:
>          Tip  = ground
>          Ring = -48 volts

>   - On hook/off hook status, implemented by interrupting the
>     DC loop current:
>          Loop open = no current = on hook.
>          Loop closed = current > 20 ma. = off hook.

>   - Rotary-dial pulses, implemented by interrupting the DC loop
>     current at specified intervals:
>          One pulse  = "1"
>          Two pulses = "2" etc.
>          Ten pulses = "0"

>   - Caller ID data, carried as analog data in the voice passband.
> 
>   - Ring voltage to ring the customer's phone.  The typical ring
>     voltage for a single-party line is 90 volts at 20 Hz,
>     asserted across the ring and tip conductors.  In party-line
>     service, several alternatives have been used:
>          Different frequencies (up to about 70 Hz).
>          Different connections (tip-to-ground; ring-to-ground)
>          Different ring cadences (one long, two short, etc.)
>          Combinations of above.

> All of the above signals are carried at frequencies below 4000 Hz.
> Although the voice passband is limited to 300-3000 Hz, the actual
> range of the audio channel extends to 4000 Hz.

> The 3000-Hz cutoff represents the highest frequency necessary for good
> voice communication.  That may not be very good by modern hi-fi
> standards, but it's fine for voice.

> Dialup modems (data, fax, home-security, whatever) all utilize this
> same frequency band.  There are several modulation schemes floating
> around, but they all do basically the same thing: they modulate the
> data signals onto one or more analog audio carriers, which are then
> carried over the loop in the 300-3000 Hz voice band.

> Every audio signal arriving at the CO (or RT) is digitized at a rate
> of 8000 samples per second before any further switching or
> transmission takes place.  This sampling rate is dictated by the
> Nyquist Sampling Theorem, which states that the sampling rate must be
> at least twice the highest frequency being sampled.  See
> http://tinyurl.com/474f9

> After sampling, each sample is quantized at one of 256 discrete
> levels, and the resulting value is encoded as an 8-bit binary number.
> The final result is a PCM data stream of 64,000 bits per second.  This
> data stream is then transported to the customer's ISP over the PSTN.

> Note that dialup-modem data signals carried in the 300-3000 Hz voice
> passband are not demodulated at the CO or RT; instead, they are
> sampled at 8000 sps just like voice or any other audio signal.  This
> fact imposes an absolute theoretical maximum dial-up data rate of
> 64Kbps.  As other contributors have noted, it's impossible to attain
> even that rate in practice due to synchronization errors between the
> user's modem and the sampling rate.

A carrier vor V.90 must have some very precise modulation.  It's amazing
that an 8kHz sampling can capture it well enough to be useful.

> Note further that this 4000-Hz limitation is imposed by the CO (or RT)
> equipment, not by the wires themselves.  It's possible to use
> frequencies above 4000 Hz for other signals.  And that's exactly what
> DSL does.  At the CO, a separate piece of equipment, called a "Digital
> Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer" (DSLAM) is connected ahead of the
> voice processing equipment so that it can provide an independent path
> for the DSL signals.  Small DSLAMs can be installed in RTs.  The DSLAM
> acts as a modem at the telco's end of the loop: it communicates with
> the customer's DSL modem using RF carriers in two frequency bands:
> Uplink (Modem to DSLAM) 30- 110 KHz Downlink (DSLAM to Modem) 110-1100
> KHz

> The DSLAM demodulates uplinked data carriers to recover the original
> data stream.  It then sends that data stream to the customer's ISP
> over whatever data link the ISP has installed (which might even be
> another DSL link).  For downlink data, the DSLAM accepts data from the
> ISP and modulates it onto a downlink carrier for transmission to the
> customer's DSL modem.  The maximum speed is limited by the speed of
> the two data links, the equipment involved, and the policies of the
> telco and the ISP.  Images: Large DSLAM for CO installation:
> http://tinyurl.com/7atcq Small DSLAM for RT installation:
> http://tinyurl.com/7nobj

They can bond copper loops to go as high as 27 Mbps!

> NOTE THIS DISTINCTION:

>  - Dialup modem signals are carried to your ISP over the
>    PSTN as a 64Kbps digital representation of the analog
>    signal that your dialup modem originally generated.

>  - DSL modem signals are carried to your ISP as the actual
>    data stream your DSL modem started with.

> Choreboy also asked or commented:

>> Are there inline amps [between the CO and the customer]?

> There are no inline amps, but there are plenty of other things that
> can impair DSL signals (and, for that matter, POTS):

> NOISE.  Wirepairs inside a multipair cable are not individually
> shielded (although the cable as a whole may be shielded).  Each
> wirepair is twisted so that inductive crosstalk from neighboring
> wirepairs is cancelled out, but some residual crosstalk (particularly
> from other DSL-carrying loops) may not be completely cancelled.
> External signals, such as power-line transients or AM radio station
> carriers, may be inductively coupled into the cable.  Drop cables at
> customer premises are usually not shielded; these cables are also
> vulnerable to external noise sources, particularly from nearby
> power-line transients.

Twisting is like low-tech coax.  It was advised when using a 300-ohm
flat cable from a rooftop TV antenna.  I imagine it could help for
telephone drop cables.

With one ISP, I kept dropping connections around lunch time.  One day
I had no trouble.  I noticed the mill down the street was closed.  The
drop line to the guard shack comes from the same aerial terminal as
mine.  The guard shack would get a lot of calls at lunch time.  I
wondered if crosstalk from his ring signal was getting me.

> All of these noise sources collectively impair the ability of the loop
> to carry DSL signals.

Local loop cables (trunk cables?) seem to deteriorate.  Phone men seem
to look for available pairs when customers complain of noise.  I
wonder if voltage from nearby lightning strikes might cause pinhole
damage to the insulation of twisted pairs, and over the years it gets
hard to find a good pair.

> Noise can be mitigated by careful testing to track down noise sources,
> and then by making appropriate repairs.  Several manufacturers make
> test equipment for this purpose; see http://tinyurl.com/7pnbz for an
> example.

I used a DMM to check milliamps.  My noise came from a spade terminal
in the wall jack.  I cleaned off the patina and the noise was gone.
Low tech!

> SIGNAL ATTENUATION.  Like any other electrical circuit, telco
> wirepairs comply with a fundamental law of physics: the higher the
> frequency, and/or the longer the wire, the greater the attenuation.
> This situation results from the interaction between the interconductor
> capacitance and the DC resistance of the conductors themselves.  Taken
> together, these two parameters cause the wirepair to act like an RC
> circuit (textbooks frequently represent a wirepair as series of lumped
> RC circuits; see http://tinyurl.com/cm5mn for an example).

> Th is problem can be mitigated by careful selection of transmission
> voltages and by judicious consideration of the tradeoff between loop
> length and transmission speed.  Ultimately, however, this situation is
> one reason for the limitation on the length of loops that can be used
> for DSL.

> LOAD COILS.  The frequency-dependent attenuation characteristics of
> the loop (as described above) also affect voice band frequencies
> (300-3000 Hz), resulting in rolloff of the higher frequencies of voice
> signals.  To solve this problem, telcos have traditionally installed
> "load coils" at 6000-foot intervals on long (typically >18K feet)
> loops.  A load coil is a small inductor installed across the
> conductors to cancel the affects of interconductor capacitance.
> Although load coils reduce high-frequency rolloff within the voice
> band, they cause severe attenuation above 4000 Hz.  See
> http://tinyurl.com/8njv3 .

At DSL frequencies I would have thought coil impedance would be too
high to matter.  I don't quite grasp it.

Load coils might be one reason a particular phone sounds distorted at
a particular location.

> This problem can be resolved by removing the load coils and/or by
> restricting DSL service to loops without load coils.  Of course,
> removing the load coils brings back the original problem: rolloff in
> the voice band.  Furthermore, any attempt to remove load coils assumes
> that the telco actually knows where they are (anyone who has ever
> worked with telco outside-plant records will recognize the futility of
> that assumption).  Appropriate test equipment can be used to determine
> if load coils are present, and to indicate their approximate
> locations.

> BRIDGED TAPS.  In a typical telco distribution network, big multipair
> "feeder" cables leave of the CO or the RT, and head off throughout the
> service territory, often along main streets.  Smaller (fewer wirepair)
> distribution cables split off from the feeders to serve the customers
> in a "serving area."  As the distribution cables pass through the
> serving area, "drop terminals" are installed at intervals.  From these
> terminals, drop cables feed individual buildings.  A single-family
> home is usually connected by a two- or three-pair drop; larger
> buildings are connected by appropriately larger drop cables.

> In areas where outside plant (OSP) is installed on utility poles,
> telco drop terminals are called "aerial terminals" or "boots";
> typically, a terminal is installed at each pole.  Images:

>    Aerial terminal:     http://tinyurl.com/7qzan

That's what somebody pointed out to me as an inline amp.  If I could
remember who it was, I'd correct him!

>    Aerial terminal:     http://tinyurl.com/74y7y
>    Pole with terminal:  http://tinyurl.com/7qqru
>    Drawing of interior: http://tinyurl.com/b62ej page 74 of 77

> In areas where OSP is buried, drop terminals are installed in
> pedestals.  In urban areas, telco peds are usually installed in
> easements along rear-property lines.  In rural areas, peds are usually
> installed along roadways, at the edge of the right-of-way.  Telco peds
> are often placed in "ped clusters" near CATV peds, power peds, and
> power transformers.

> Images: Telco ped, closed: http://tinyurl.com/apd3y
>         Telco ped,   open: http://tinyurl.com/8pok7 Ped
>                   cluster: http://tinyurl.com/cqjk7

> Each drop terminal has:

>   - Two cable ports for the distribution cable: input and output.
>     When a drop terminal is installed, these ports are often
>     sealed as protection against water intrusion.  These seals
>     make it virtually impossible to gain access to the individual
>     wirepairs within the distribution cable.

As I recall, a phone man appeared to have an aerial terminal open
after I lost phone service one day.  He said he'd made a mistake and
would try to figure out how to reconnect me.

>   - Several drop ports, one for each wirepair in the distribution
>     cable.  These ports are usually implemented with screw
>     terminals or punchdown blocks.

Across the street, a small trunk line (cable with lots of wire pairs)
comes from the aerial terminal down a couple of feet to a fusebox on
the utility pole.  (I think the telco calls them something besides
fuses.)  The drop cables come out of that box.

> Every wirepair appears at every drop terminal.  When a drop is
> installed, the installer connects it to the assigned drop port at the
> nearest terminal; electrically, the drop is bridged across the
> wirepair.  But the portion of the wirepair downstream from the bridge
> remains connected, and unterminated at the far end.  These
> unterminated downstream wirepairs have come to be known as "bridged
> taps."

> These unterminated wirepairs act like tuned-stub filters.  Since
> they're unterminated, arriving signals are reflected back; these
> reflected signals interfere with the primary signals.  In the extreme
> case -- when the reflected signal is 180 degrees out-of-phase with the
> primary signal -- the primary signal is severely attenuated.

Offhand, that sounds like a stub of 1/4 wavelength.  Could the modems
could mitigate the problem by the frequency they negotiate?

> This problem can only be solved by locating and removing bridged taps.
> This can be an exceedingly difficult job if the distribution cable is
> sealed at that point where it exits the drop terminal.

> Test equipment, such as the Fluke 990 http://tinyurl.com/7pnbz , can be
> used to determine if bridged taps are present, and if so, their
> severity.  If the effect of a bridged tap is "minimal" (Fluke's term,
> not mine), it can probably be left in place.

>> Is DSL modulated into some sort of analog signal?

> DSL signals are modulated onto carriers in two bands:
>         Uplink   (Modem to DSLAM)  30- 110 KHz
>         Downlink (DSLAM to Modem) 110-1100 KHz

I wonder how they're modulated.

>> It's hard to imagine carrying hig-frequency digital pulses on
>> copper telephone lines.

> Well, T1 circuits do just that.  But carrying high-frequency pulses on
> a POTS loop would present a different problem: overlap with the voice
> passband.

>> The farm appears to be 35,000 feet from the central office.  My
>> browser often shows downloads faster than 1.5 Mb/s (150kB/s).

> If the farm is indeed 35,000 feet from the CO, then I'd have to
> conclude that the loop between the telco and the farm is actually
> connected to a DSLAM-equipped RT, not directly to the CO.  Look for a
> large metal box somewhere along the road between the farm and the CO.
> It will have an electric meter; it will probably be set on a concrete
> pad, and it might be surrounded by a security fence.

>> On dialup, the farm couldn't negotiate modem speeds quite as
>> fast as I could in town.  I assumed the limitation was in the
>> wire.  That's why I was amazed to see that DSL seems to use the
>> wire in the same way as dialup.  Was I wrong to think the reason
>> dialup data rates were slower at the farm was that the wire to
>> the CO is longer?

> I'm not sure that it is longer.  See previous answer.

>> I don't understand what kind of signal dsl uses to carry so much
>> more data than dialup without needing broadband cable.

> I hope I've answered that question.

>> Ah, crosstalk!  It seems to me that if DSL uses the same wire
>> dialup used, the same crosstalk will be present.

> Crosstalk is indeed present, but it's usually only a problem when two
> DSL-carrying loops crosstalk to each other.

>> Does a POTS line from the CO to a house carry multiple
>> voices?  Anyway, DSL at the farm uses the same line that
>> the phones at the farm still use.

> In current practice, there's usually just one analog voice channel per
> loop.

> Historically, telcos have used various "pair gain" schemes.  In one
> scheme, additional voice channels ride on RF carriers superimposed
> across the primary voice channel.  See http://tinyurl.com/9oqru .  In
> another scheme, a "phantom" channel is run on two loops, yielding a
> total of three voice channels on two loops.  As far as I know, these
> schemes have been phased out by now, but I suppose there might be a
> few still in service somewhere.

> Of course, T1 circuits running on copper are still widely used today.
> Drive down country roads, and you'll often see T1 repeaters spaced at
> (approximately) one-mile intervals.  Each T1 can carry 24 voice channels
> over two copper pairs.  But a T1 wouldn't normally go to a farm.
> Photo: http://tinyurl.com/cgp6p .

>> I have trouble understanding on the phone, and I often resort to the
>> phonetic alphabet to be understood.  I think the problem may be more
>> in the typical quality of phones than in bandwidth.

> I agree; however, the limited bandwidth is also a factor.

> In a previous life, when I worked for a radio station, we sometimes
> used phone patches for connections to remote locations.  At each end,
> we'd connect a "phone patch box" directly to the ring-and-tip of a
> phone line.  Then we'd dial up a connection with a conventional phone,
> switch in resistors to keep the line open, and hang up the phones.
> Voice quality wasn't as good as it would have been with a wideband
> audio circuit, but it was certainly far better than it would have been
> if we'd used the telephones themselves.  More than adequate for a
> sports or news report.

I wonder if the phone patch box had adjustments to flatten the
frequency response.  I used to listen to Koss studio headphones (with
liquid-filled cushions) plugged into the jack on the front of a
stereo.  One day it occurred to me that with 220-ohm series resistors,
the impedance was too high for 32-ohm phones.  I used resistors to
make voltage dividers with an output impedance of 1 ohm or so.  What a
difference!

With a phone line, I guess it's not just a question of impedance.  It
might need a graphic equalizer.

> Of course, making a direct electrical connection to a phone line was
> illegal back in those days (late 50s, early 60s).  But we were on good
> terms with the phone guys, so they just looked the other way.

Could you have gone to the federal penitentiary?  Was there a good
reason for the law?

>> If the telco owns the DSLAM, won't their investment cost depend on
>> capacity?

> Yes.  But the equipment doesn't have to be installed all at once.
> Once the initial investment in the infrastructure (cabinets, racks,
> power supplies, etc.) has been made, circuit cards can be added as
> needed (equipment manufacturers call this approach "scalable").  It's
> the same approach telcos take to POTS.

>> If they contract for the DSLAM service, won't they be charged
>> according to traffic?

> Telcos don't "contract for DSLAM service"; they contract with other
> ISPs (e.g. Covad) who wish to offer their own DSL service over telco
> loops.  The telco charges them for the use of their loops.  Telco's
> claim they can't charge enough to recover their costs, but that's a
> whole different story -- one that will precipitate a thread even
> longer than this one.

>> Think what would have happened if RG-59 hadn't been invented.
>> Everybody would have used RG-6, which looks nearly the same but
>> attenuates uhf much less.  With better reception there would have
>> been more uhf stations and less demand for cable.

> As a former cable guy, I don't agree with that.  Many UHF stations
> depended on cable TV systems to distribute their signals throughout
> their "specified zones" (which, back in the '60s and '70s, was a
> 35-mile radius around the city of license).  This was particularly
> true in mountainous areas where cable T systems carried UHF signals
> to specified-zone communities that were beyond the reach of their
> transmitters.

With a bow-tie antenna, a good UHF amp, a rotator, and RG-6U, we could
receive so many channels that we weren't interested in cable.

> Neal McLain

Thanks, Neal.

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