TELECOM Digest     Sun, 28 Aug 2005 00:26:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 389

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Jealous Lover Program Creator Is Indicted (Monty Solomon)
    Beating Over-the-Air, But Not Quite Perfect (Monty Solomon)
    5.8GHz Cordless Phones (Den)
    Star Trek Phone Set to Thrill (Tom Betz)
    Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area (John Levine)
    Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area (Daniel AJ Sokolov)
    Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area (Joseph)
    Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers (John Levine)
    Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers (Gordon S. Hlavenka)
    Re: The Luncheon Meat Associated With Junk Email? (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: The Luncheon Meat Associated With Junk Email? (John Hines)
    Re: Gmail Account For Mobile Phone Users (Steven Lichter)
    Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: Last Laugh! Turning the Tables on Nigeria's E-Mail Conmen (John Levine)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
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herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
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               ===========================

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.  

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:52:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Jealous Lover Program Creator Is Indicted


The Associated Press
Saturday, August 27, 2005; 9:13 AM

SAN DIEGO -- The creator and several buyers of a computer program
designed to allow jealous lovers to snoop on their sweethearts' online
activities have been indicted for allegedly violating federal computer
privacy laws.

Carlos Enrique Perez-Melara, 25, was indicted Friday on 35 counts of
manufacturing, sending and advertising a surreptitious interception
device and unauthorized access to protected computers.

The Loverspy program, disguised as an electronic greeting card showing
images of puppies and flowers, was sent as an e-mail. When it was
executed, it would begin recording victims' e-mail messages and the
Web sites they visited, prosecutors said. The information would be
transmitted to computers operated by Perez-Melara and relayed to
customers, authorities said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082700545.html

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:51:53 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Beating Over-the-Air, But Not Quite Perfect


By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer

Satellite radio in a nutshell: I spent one night earlier this summer
driving around and listening to the Washington Nationals close out an
exciting win. Where I was driving around, however, was Charleston,
W.Va., well outside the broadcast range of the Nationals' Z104/WFED
radio network. It was not, however, out of range of XM Satellite
Radio, which this season began carrying every game of all 30 Major
League Baseball teams and beaming them across North America.

It was terrific to be able to keep up with the team from afar; every
win sounded like the World Series on the radio, thanks to the vocal
fans.

So, as the final out of this particular game was recorded, the Nats'
announcer enthused, "Just listen to that crowd!" It was a cruel
taunt. At that precise moment, I drove into one of a handful of dead
spots around Charleston where XM service drops out for several
seconds.

Hence, the often-simultaneous joy and frustration of satellite radio.

Now, with nearly 6 million subscribers between them, XM Satellite
Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. have established a
foothold as a competitively priced entertainment option for auto, home
and mobile use. Like the cell phone, however, satellite radio is an
infant technology compared with its predecessor, which has had more
than a century to perfect its delivery system. And, like an infant, it
still spits up from time to time.

On the face, Sirius and XM are comparable services: Both have more
than 60 channels of commercial-free music covering a broad spectrum of
niches, from old-school country to today's hits, from the most
experimental jazz to the spaciest New Age, from the raunchiest hip-hop
to the kid-friendliest Radio Disney.

Each has channels devoted to music from the decades of the '40s to the
'90s; each has bluegrass and standards channels, each has several
hip-hop and classical channels and so on. XM has a fun unsigned bands
channel that Sirius does not have; Sirius has a groovy, trip-hoppy
electronica channel that has no XM equivalent.

Both also have more than 50 channels of news, talk and entertainment
and share many of the same third-party providers: Fox News Channel,
the BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC and CNN.

And both cost a fair amount of money over time: The receivers for each
start at $50 (in some cases, after a mail-in rebate), and each service
runs $12.95 a month before any family-plan or pay-in-advance
discounts.

But over the course of their short life spans, each service has begun
to develop a personality and a direction.

Music fans will find a deeper and better-defined selection of stations
on XM.

Sports and talk fans, however, will gravitate toward Sirius, which
broadcasts NFL and NBA games. Sirius also has swiped NASCAR from XM,
starting in 2007, and will resume NHL games, assuming anyone cares.
XM cannot rival this lineup. For live action, it offers only baseball,
the PGA Tour, three college conferences and IndyCar racing.  Through
its carriage of ESPN, it also broadcasts the NBA playoffs but not the
regular season.

Of course, Sirius also can claim the sui generis Howard Stern, who
probably will be good for 1 million new subscribers on his own after
he joins Sirius in January.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082700203.html

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

From: Den <nul@nul.nul>
Subject: 5.8GHz Cordless Phones
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:20:55 GMT


All:

Dumb questions about the 5.8Ghz cordless phone systems standards:

* Is a handset from one vendors system automatically compatible with
that from another vendor, or are they all vendor specific.

* Is there a limit to the number of additional handsets that can be
added to a base station, or is this vendor specific.

Thanks,

Den 

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

From: Tom Betz <spammers_lie@pobox.com>
Subject: Star Trek Phone Set to Thrill
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 03:20:55 UTC
Organization: Some


I'm surprised I haven't seen this here yet!

 From http://wired.com/news/print/0,1294,68577,00.html :

Get ready for your phone to go where no phone has gone before. 

Sona Mobile and Viacom Consumer Products are set to offer a Star Trek
communicator-themed mobile device that will let users make calls, play
video clips, play online Star Trek games and surf the internet.

The cool gadgetry on the classic TV series has made dreamers drool
since the first time Captain Kirk barked the words "Beam me up,
Scotty!" into his little black box and snapped it shut.  But this is
the first time Viacom, which owns the rights to the TV and movie
franchise, has put its licensed imprint on such a device.

The special-edition Star Trek Communicator Phone is part of the
ramping-up of events and promotions tied to the 40th anniversary of
the Star Trek franchise next year. But the timing was also right
because "the technology is better now," said Sandi Isaacs, VP of
interactive at Viacom Consumer Products. "With the prior generations
of handsets and mobiles, it was really hard to give consumers a rich
experience."

Viacom and Sona are still finalizing details of the look and features
that the communicator phone, due in stores Sept. 30, will sport. But
fans can expect the devices to chirp and beep with ringtones that
mimic the familiar sounds of the communicators used in the Star Trek
TV series and movies.

    	[...]

My wife keeps nudging me to replace her phone ...


 George Bush's War of Choice on Iraq is a totally unnecessary war. 
  Every life lost, every limb lost, every disfigurement, every 
 disability caused there is more blood on George W. Bush's hands, 
   and on the hands of everyone who voted for George W. Bush.

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

Date: 27 Aug 2005 20:33:34 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> So does Cingular do something active to block the use of "foreign"
> GSM phones on its network or does it rely on such phones being
> subsidy-locked to another provider's network?

I've used a variety of GSM phones on my Cingular accounts, and they
all work fine so long as they work at the right frequencies.

In Cingular's mild defense, in some areas they're various combinations
of GSM 850, GSM 1900, and still some TDMA 800 and 1900.  Most used GSM
phones are GSM 1900, maybe with Euro 900 and 1800 mixed in, and they
won't work on Cingular's largely GSM 850 network.

Even the wrong Cingular phone can fail to work on their own network,
e.g., I just bought a used Nokia 6340i and the seller accidently sent
me a 6340, with the difference being that the 6340 doesn't do GSM 850
which is what Cingular uses around here, so it only gets a faint
signal from an ex-AT&T GSM 1900 cell ten miles away.  Oops.  I took
one look and knew what was wrong, but a non-technical user could
easily leap to the wrong conclusion about what his problem was.

> Cingular spokesman Frank Merriman said the company won't allow users
> to bring telephones from other networks to ensure "quality remains the
> same across the board" for its users.

That's not even true.  When my wife lost her phone last month,
Cingular was happy to sell me a new SIM chip to use in an unlocked
T-Mobile phone I had lying around.

R's,

John

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:32:52 +0200
From: Daniel AJ Sokolov <sokolov@gmx.netnetnet.invalid>
Subject: Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area


Am 27.08.2005 14:29 schrieb Joseph:

>> "When someone upgrades from AT&T Wireless to Cingular, they need a new
>> phone, and the reason they need to upgrade is there is unique software
>> imbedded in the phone to enable it to work properly," Merriman
>> said. "The AT&T network is not functioning anymore, and there is no
>> way that equipment can operate on the system as it is."

> Which for a GSM phone is a line of BS.  As long as the phone is
> unlocked it can work on any compatible GSM network.  Of course they
> don't want you using an unlocked phone it's one less phone that they
> couldn't sell you. Cingular made the decision that when they
> "captured" all the former AT&T Wireless callers that Cingular would
> reap all the benefits and all the former AT&T Wireless subscribers
> would have none of it.  To the victor goes the spoils.

How odd. They should be happy to have customers who do not expect to
receive a free handset, but bring their own. Especially in the case of
a Treo. This is likely to be a high value customer with high ARPU und
AMPU.

Daniel AJ

My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net

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

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:18:30 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 04:18:18 EDT, Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com> wrote:

>> That "performance" statement has to be the biggest crock I've seen in
>> quite a while, GSM is GSM is GSM, the whole concept of a standard is that
>> all equipment that complies with it will interoperate.

> So does Cingular do something active to block the use of "foreign" GSM
> phones on its network or does it rely on such phones being
> subsidy-locked to another provider's network?

No, they can't do that.  Unlike other technologies such as CDMA and
TDMA (IS-136) where you have to register and authenticate the
handset's ESN to activate it on the network no such stipulation exists
for GSM.  If an operator (such as Sprint PCS for example) doesn't want
you to use certain equipment on their network all they have to say is
that they won't activate any ESN other than what they sell or have
sold in the past for use on their network and check it against a
database which they hold.  Operators can be as cooperative as they
wish or as uncooperative as they wish.  T-Mobile for instance has no
problem securing the unlock codes for any of their handsets.  

They'll even attempt to get the unlock for present subscribers from
competing operators.  They can't get codes for AT&T Wireless because
AT&T Wireless never released unlock codes under any circumstance.
Still the AT&T Wireless subscriber with GSM equipment isn't totally
out of luck.  Some handsets such as are sold by Nokia have readily
available unlock code calculators for PCs which you can download and
generate an unlock code for your handset provided you know what your
operator's MCC/MNC (mobile country code/mobile network code.)  Also
there are on line sites that will calculate the code for you while
you're on line either free or for a small fee.  Other manufacturers
handsets can be unlocked with procured codes or by modifying the
hardware with flashing and by other means.

It is only the arrogance of this "mouthpiece" from Cingular who
insists that you have no alternative except to buy equipment from
them.

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:08:52 +0100
From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers


> Sometime between my freshman year in high school (1984-5) and my
> junior year (1986-7), I did a piece for the high school paper about
> Cuyahoga County, Ohio's new 9-1-1 system (not Enhanced 9-1-1, mind
> you, just 9-1-1).

> Cuyahoga County is one of the largest counties in Ohio (second largest
> IIRC), and includes Cleveland, the 25th largest city in the USA.

> I thought it was a godsend. The South Euclid Police Department's
> number was 216-381-1234 and our home phone number was
> 216-381-1231. I'd gotten tired of taking emergency calls for them. :)

Back in the early 1960s my mother and her friend ran a little diner in
north London, with the telephone number LABurnham 1122.  She said they
frequently took calls intended for a rather large company which had
the number LADbroke 1122.  It just doesn't pay to have some numbers!

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also see the news report in this issue
> from Reuters which stated that several VOIP carriers, including
> AT&T, have filed an emergency request for a further extension of time
> from FCC.
  
> Like yourself, I do not know how people managed to get by from the
> start of dial or automated telephony until (in most communities) the
> advent of 911 back around the early/middle 1980's ... Does anyone
> remember when the standard that AT&T set up for the operating
> companies called for police emergency to be (prefix)-1313 or
> (prefix)-2121 and fire emergencies to be (prefix)-2131. In large
> cities such as Chicago, where there were many exchanges and calls
> were routed automatically through internal telco switches they often
> times used POLice-1313 and FIRe-1313. In cases where there were
> two separate and distinct communities (each with own PD or FD) but
> sharing one phone exchange, where one community was '2121' and '2131'
> the other community would be '2181' and '2191' for police and
> fire respectively.

One of the few firsts we Brits can claim over America was the adoption
of our 999 emergency number, which started in the 1930s and was in
fairly widespread use in dial areas by the 1950s.  Under the U.K.
system at that time, 999 calls were handled by normal GPO operators --
In fact in most places they were the same operators who took regular
"0" (later "100") assistance calls.

On the standard cord boards of the day, the emergency trunks had red
call lights over each jack in place of the usual white ones, and every
incoming 999 call also operated a klaxon and a large red light atop
the boards or on the wall until the trunk was answered.  If was then
entirely up to the operator to complete the call to the appropriate
police, fire, or ambulance department.  In many cases, she had
dedicated jacks with direct outgoing trunks to each of the major
emergency stations for the area to allow the call to be completed as
quickly as possible.

Despite the 999 system, there was, however, still a widely adopted
convention that the regular number for the police should use 2222.
The legacy of this can still be seen in many local police numbers
today, e.g. the general (non-emergency) number for my area is 402222.
(These days a local number is often routed to a police HQ in a distant
town, but that's another story).

The convention also spilled over to companies with large PBX systems,
where they had a security officer (or some other person in charge of
any emergency situation on the premises) and extension 222 was
assigned for emergencies.

Of course, the most famous British police number (excluding 999)
didn't follow this convention.  For many years the general number for
Scotland Yard, Metropolitan Police HQ in London, was WHItehall 1212.

-Paul

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

Date: 27 Aug 2005 22:08:05 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


>> Providers of Internet-based phone services may be forced next week to
>> cut off tens of thousands of customers who haven't formally
>> acknowledged that they understand the problems they may encounter
>> dialing 911 in an emergency.

Am I the only person on the planet who noticed that the FCC extended
the deadline yesterday until the end of September?


Regards,

John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711
johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, 
Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 22:02:12 -0500
From: Gordon S. Hlavenka <nospam@crashelex.com>
Reply-To: nospam@crashelex.com
Organization: Crash Electronics
Subject: Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers


Bruce Meyerson wrote:

> Providers of Internet-based phone services may be forced next week to
> cut off tens of thousands of customers who haven't formally
> acknowledged that they understand the problems they may encounter
> dialing 911 in an emergency.

I have a Vonage box that I use only occasionally.  I'm signed up for
the $15/mo service; originally I saw it as an inexpensive way to
"park" a couple of phone numbers, but Vonage was unable to transfer
the numbers in (partly my fault) so I never really got much use out of
it.

I'm probably going to be canceling the service soon in any case.  In
the meantime, experimentally, I'm leaving it alone and intentionally
not responding to their notices just to see what will happen with this
whole 911 thing.

On July 3 I got my first notice saying, "In response to a recently
announced FCC 911 ruling, we are required to ensure that you
acknowledge your understanding of our 911 Dialing feature."

A week later (7/11) I got another: "...due to a recently announced FCC
911 ruling, we are required to ensure that you acknowledge your
understanding of these differences. To continue to provide you with
premium Vonage service, please login to your web account to review
this feature and acknowledge your understanding."

A few days later (7/15): "Recently we've sent you notifications about
the important differences between our 911 Dialing feature and
traditional 911 ... [P]lease Click Here to view a notice on our 911
Dialing and acknowledge that you have read and understand the
information. Please do so now as failure to do so may affect your
Vonage service."

Then (7/19): "You may have missed the recent notifications requesting
that you view a notice on our 911 Dialing. Click Here to view the
important differences ...  Failure to do so may result in a disruption
of your Vonage service."

On 7/21, 7/28, 8/4, 8/11: "We have sent numerous notifications
requiring that you view a notice on our 911 Dialing. Click Here now to
view the important differences ... Failure to do so may require us to
restrict your Vonage service, as per the FCC."

On 8/18, then daily from 8/22 to present: "We have sent numerous
notifications requiring that you view a notice on our 911 Dialing.
Pursuant to an Order from the Federal Communications Commission, <b>if
you do not acknowledge this notice, we will be required to restrict
your outbound calling for your Vonage service.</b>"

Along with the latest note, I've also been getting daily recorded
messages on the Vonage line.

It's been interesting to watch the details fill in as time goes on.
At the moment (8/27) the Vonage line is still working normally; we'll
see what happens Tuesday :-)


Gordon S. Hlavenka           http://www.crashelectronics.com
        If your teacher tells you to Question Authority
                      Should you do it?

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:08:46 +0100
From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: Re: The Luncheon Meat Associated With Junk Email?


> The "Columbia Journalism Review", a magazine for reporters, often has
> ads by corporations reminding people about using trademarks as
> everyday words.  I guess the most common example today is using
> "Xerox" as a verb ("go xerox this letter") or a noun ("I'll send you a
> xerox of the letter").  It is a trademark and is properly used to
> describe a particular brand of copier machine or the company that
> makes them: ("I'll run them off on our Xerox machine").

Xerox isn't used in a generic sense quite so much in Britain as in the
States, but we have plenty of other examples.

"Hoover" is commonly used both as a generic name for any sort of
vaccuum cleaner, and as a verb, e.g. "I'll just hoover up" or even
"I'm going to do the hoovering."  The Hoover name never became generic
for any of the other types of appliances they made, such as irons and
refrigerators.  Had the latter been the most widely associated product
of the company, maybe today people would talk about "Getting some milk
from the Hoover."  Sounds weird, but it could have happened.

-Paul

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

From: John Hines <jbhines@newsguy.com>
Subject: Re: The Luncheon Meat Associated With Junk Email?
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 20:01:27 -0500
Organization: www.jhines.org
Reply-To: john@jhines.org


Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com> wrote:

> Besides, Hormel is bowing to the inevitable.  There's no way to stop
> the world from calling the email byproduct "spam", all they can do is
> make sure people know if it's a meat byproduct, it only comes from
> them.

It sure is amazing how a single Python sketch has influenced culture,
getting it's own word in the dictionary, not related to the food
product.

That and a musical <G>

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

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: Gmail Account For Mobile Phone Users
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:45:29 GMT


suzanne.hoy@gmail.com wrote:

> However, one cannot use one's existing Gmail account, correct? So I
> had to create a new user name. How does one get text msgs with
> existing Gmail account? Can this be done?

I believe when you created the new account your old one was
transfered.  My old regular Google account was absorbed into the new
Gmail account.

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: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working
Date: 27 Aug 2005 17:55:32 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Neal McLain wrote:

> I agree with Garrett.  Your local cable company HAD to build a
> separate network in order to carry NTSC television signals.  A cable
> network is vastly different from the telephone network: it has to
> carry much higher frequencies (by about 14 octaves), and it serves an
> entirely different market.

The telephone system extensively uses coaxial cable to multiplex phone
and TV signals.  Indeed, the phone co has been carrying TV signals for
years.  The telco could've integrated cable signals into its existing
plant and billing systems.  There would've been definite economies of
scale to be gained if they used telco standards.

> Huh?  That's news to me.  CATV plant uses essentially the same "work
> methods" as telcos: same poles, same pole hardware, same type of
> supporting strand, same trenches, same pedestals, same rights-of-way,
> same easements, same construction methods.  ...

> In fact, CATV constructions cost were often higher.  Because most CATV
> networks were built half-a-century after telco networks, construction
> costs in existing neighborhoods were often substantially higher than new
> construction would have been.  But these differences resulted from
> having to work around existing facilities, not from different "work
> methods."

> On the other hand, CATV labor costs were often lower than telco's
> because CATV companies were usually non-union.  Furthermore, a CATV
> headend costs less than a telephone central office, but that doesn't
> affect the construction cost of the outside-plant network.

I've seen and dealt with cable construction by various companies.  To
say "non union labor" is an understatement.  Cable companies got day
laborers off the street and ragged 2nd-hand equipment.  Lines were
strung on poles FAST.  They disregarded the wishes of communities and
shoved their work through, irritating the heck out of property owners
and towns, knowing once the work was done the town likely wouldn't
litigate.  Cable reliability is far less than phoneco; their
underground lines are very shallow.

Cable used existing infrastructure -- the same poles power and phone
lines already used, they just added theirs.  Because the cable is a
common signal, it is much simpler to run than providing a unique
channel for each subscriber.

So, either the costs of cable are so high that the phoneco should've
done it to provide for economies of scale, OR, cable laying isn't so
expensive that others couldn't do it too.

> Telephone service over CATV networks wasn't realistically possible
> until VOIP came along (some would say it still isn't).

I dare say VOIP and other value-added services were in mind when they
went to fibre (another rush job).

> Because local loop plant won't carry NTSC television signals.  The only
> way a telco could/can provide CATV is by building a coax (or, nowadays,
> HFC or all-fiber) network.

A great many phone subscribers do not have a dedicated pair of copper
wires between their home and the CO.  There are various ways of
multiplexing the line (see the discussion on party lines) plus the use
of concentrators.  The Bell Labs history and "Bell Labs Record"
describes many of those techniques.  As mentioned, telcos know about
coax and TV.

> And because, under federal law, the telcos' "natural monopoly" didn't
> apply to CATV service.  Any telco that wanted to offer CATV still had to
> get a franchise from every LFA.

Telcos couldn't do so because of a policy decision, not a technical
one.  The long distance network was built to carry voice, TV, and
radio.  The local loop can be set up to carry high speed data and at
one time could carry pulsed signals (not modulated) for Teletype
machines.

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

Date: 28 Aug 2005 03:48:18 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Turning the Tables on Nigeria's E-Mail Conmen
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> The other day on a local TV station; reported that a Hollywood
> producer called a friend and said he was being chased by people, it
> was also reported that he had just gotten some money from people
> involved in one of the 419 scams.  That was the last time anyone had
> heard from him.

He showed up yesterday standing naked in the creek washing his pants.
He probably imagined the whole thing.  See:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/valley/la-me-irwin27aug27,1,637173.story

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #389
******************************