TELECOM Digest     Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:26:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 390

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Katrina on the Way to New Orleans (Allen Breed)
    ID Theft Creates Opportunities for Data Companies (Alexandria Sage)
    Pod2Mob.com - Mobile Podcasting (Monty Solomon)
    ATM Cards Pirated For Plenty, Police Say; Ploy used Cameras (Monty Solomon)
    Who'll Mind the Mainframes? / Few Students Learning to Run (Monty Solomon)
    Boston Schools Get New System to Notify Parents in Emergency (M. Solomon)
    Colleges Struggle to Combat Identity Thieves (Monty Solomon)
    King Kong vs. the Pirates of the Multiplex (Monty Solomon)
    Google Wants to Be Your Best Friend On Your Computer (Monty Solomon)
    RIP, Sussex Cellular (Stanley Cline)
    Re: 5.8GHz Cordless Phones (DevilsPGD)
    Re: 5.8GHz Cordless Phones (beavis)
    Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working (Garrett Wollman)
    Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working (John Levine)
    Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working (Neal McLain)
    Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers (Joseph)
    Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area (Stanley Cline)
    Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area (Daniel AJ Sokolov)
    Re: Star Trek Phone Set to Thrill (Steve Sobol)
    Re: VOIP Over ADSL (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.  

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

From: Allen G. Breed <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Katrina Causes Havoc For New Orleans
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 16:32:49 -0500


By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer 21 minutes ago

Monstrous Hurricane Katrina barreled toward the Big Easy on Sunday
with 165-mph wind and a threat of a 28-foot storm surge, forcing a
mandatory evacuation, a last-ditch Superdome shelter and prayers for
those left to face the doomsday scenario this below-sea-level city has
long dreaded.

"Have God on your side, definitely have God on your side," Nancy Noble
said as she sat with her puppy and three friends in six lanes of
one-way traffic on gridlocked Interstate 10. "It's very frightening."

Katrina intensified into a Category 5 giant over the warm water of the
Gulf of Mexico on a path to make landfall at sunrise Monday in the
heart of New Orleans. That would make it the city's first direct hit
in 40 years and the most powerful storm ever to slam the city. It
eased slightly during the day, with top sustained wind down from 175
mph, but forecasters said fluctuations were likely.

But forecasters warned that Mississippi was also in danger because
Katrina was such a big storm -- with hurricane-force winds extending up
to 105 miles from the center -- that even areas far from the landfall
could be devastated.

"I'm really scared," New Orleans resident Linda Young said as she
filled her gas tank. "I've been through hurricanes, but this one
scares me. I think everybody needs to get out."

Showers began falling on southeastern Louisiana and other parts of the
Gulf Coast on Sunday afternoon, accompanied by pounding surf as far
east as the Florida Panhandle, the first hints of a storm with a
potential surge of 18 to 28 feet, even bigger waves and as much as 15
inches of rain.

"We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Mayor C. Ray
Nagin said in ordering the mandatory evacuation for his city of
485,000 people, surrounded by suburbs of a million more. "The storm
surge will most likely topple our levee system."

Conceding that as many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the
means to leave and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the
closing of the airport, the city arranged buses to take people to 10
last-resort shelters, including the Superdome.

Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with
sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer
vehicles to aid in the evacuation.

"This is very serious, of the highest nature," the mayor said. "This
is a once-in-a-lifetime event."

For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big
storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that's up to 10
feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees,
canals and pumps to keep dry. It's built between the half-mile-wide
Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, half the size of the state
of Rhode Island.

Estimates have been made of tens of thousands of deaths from flooding
that could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a 30-foot-deep
toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, and
waste from ruined septic systems.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Katrina's eye was about 150 miles south-southeast of
the mouth of the Mississippi River. The storm was moving toward the
northwest at nearly 13 mph and was expected to turn toward the
north. A hurricane warning was in effect for the north-central Gulf
Coast from Morgan City, La., to the Alabama-Florida line.

Despite the dire predictions, a group of residents in a poor neighbor-
hood of central New Orleans sat on a porch with no car, no way out
and, surprisingly, no fear.

"We're not evacuating," said 57-year-old Julie Paul. "None of us have
any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our
lifesaver."

The 70,000-seat Superdome, the home of football's Saints, opened at
daybreak Sunday, giving first priority to frail, elderly people on
walkers, some with oxygen tanks. They were told to bring enough food,
water and medicine to last up to five days. By afternoon, people with
bags of belongings lined up outside hoping to get in.

In the French Quarter, most bars that stayed open through the threat
of past hurricanes were boarded up and the few people on the streets
were battening down their businesses and getting out.

Sasha Gayer tried to get an Amtrak train out of town but couldn't. So
she walked back to the French Quarter, buying supplies on the way, and
then stopped at one of the few bars open on Bourbon Street.

"This is how you know it's a serious hurricane," she said. "You can't
find a slice of white bread in the city, but you can still buy beer."

Airport Holiday Inn manager Joyce Tillis spent the morning calling her
140 guests to tell them about the evacuation order. Tillis, who lives
inside the flood zone, also called her three daughters to tell them to
get out.

"If I'm stuck, I'm stuck," Tillis said. "I'd rather save my second
generation if I can."

But the evacuation was slow going. Highways in Louisiana and Mississippi
were jammed as people headed away from Katrina's expected
landfall. All lanes were limited to northbound traffic on Interstates
55 and 59, and westbound on I-10.

Evacuation orders were also posted all along the Mississippi coast,
and the area's casinos, built on barges, were closed.

Alabama officials issued mandatory evacuation orders for low-lying
coastal areas. Mobile Mayor Michael C. Dow said flooding could be
worse than the 9-foot surge that soaked downtown during Hurricane
Georges in 1998.

Residents of several barrier islands in the western Florida Panhandle
were urged to evacuate as Katrina pushed several inches of water onto
coastal roads and near homes.

Tourists stranded by the shutdown of New Orleans' Louis Armstrong
Airport and the lack of rental cars packed the lobbies of high-rise
hotels, which were exempt from the evacuation order to give people a
place for "vertical evacuation."

Tina and Bryan Steven, of Forest Lake, Minn., sat glumly on the
sidewalk outside their hotel in the French Quarter.

"We're choosing the best of two evils," said Bryan Steven. "It's
either be stuck in the hotel or stuck on the road. ... We'll make it
through it."

His wife, wearing a Bourbon Street T-shirt with a lewd message,
interjected: "I just don't want to die in this shirt."

Only three Category 5 hurricanes -- the highest on the Saffir-Simpson
scale -- have hit the United States since record-keeping began. The
last was 1992's Hurricane Andrew, which at 165 mph leveled parts of
South Florida, killed 43 people and caused $31 billion in damage.

New Orleans has not taken a major direct hit from a hurricane since
Betsy in 1965, when an 8- to 10-foot storm surge submerged parts of
the city in seven feet of water. Betsy, a Category 3 storm, was blamed
for 74 deaths in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.

National Hurricane Center deputy director Ed Rappaport warned that
Katrina, already responsible for nine deaths in South Florida as a
mere Category 1, could be far worse for New Orleans.

"It would be the strongest we've had in recorded history there,"
Rappaport said. "We're hoping of course there'll be a slight tapering
off at least of the winds, but we can't plan on that. ... We're in for
some trouble here no matter what."

On the Net:

National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Editors Note: Associated Press reporters Mary Foster, Adam Nossiter and
Brett Martel in New Orleans contributed to this report.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Attempts to reach someone I know in New
Orleans by telephone Sunday afternoon were met with either 'all
circuits are busy now' or 'emergency weather conditions prevent
completing your call at the time' announcements, depending on the 
carrier used. I hope it won't turn out as bad as is predicted, but I
am certain there will be at least _some_ damage before it is done
with.  I hope the people who will be housed in the Superdome take
along their cell phone and portable radios, _along with extra batteries_
for those devices.  PAT]

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

From: Alexandria Sage <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: ID Theft Creates Opportunities for Data Companies
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 17:02:03 -0500


By Alexandria Sage

For its victims, identity theft means worry, headache and countless
time spent restoring bad credit. But for some businesses, the
collective fear that consumer identities may be stolen can mean
opportunity.

The surge in identity theft, estimated to affect more than 9 million
Americans each year at a cost of $50 billion, is spurring credit
bureaus and banks to offer credit-monitoring services designed to
protect against fraud and guarantee peace of mind.

There is broad consensus that consumers need access to credit informa-
tion, but many advocates question whether some new services are
taking advantage of growing fears.

Some companies that have made headlines by compromising sensitive
consumer data in the past are now selling these watch-dog services to
their customers.

"Making money on identity theft is a growth industry and it's just not
pretty," said Pam Dixon, executive director of the nonprofit World
Privacy Forum.

This month, credit bureau Experian, a unit of Britain's GUS, settled a
U.S.  Federal Trade Commission lawsuit accusing it of using the
promise of free credit reports to deceive consumers into registering
for subscription credit monitoring services.

Experian, which did not admit to wrongdoing, agreed to give up nearly
$1 million and refund affected customers.

Under a 2003 federal law, consumers are allowed one free credit report
per year from each of the three national credit bureaus, Equifax,
Experian and TransUnion.

Although some consumer advocates say ordering a report from a
different bureau every four months is an adequate method of checking
one's credit, the credit-monitoring services appeal to those who want
less hassle.

Javelin Strategy & Research recently found that the services may
"represent true increased safety for account holders, while providing
valuable benefits to the institutions that offer them," including
revenue and branding opportunity.

"These services can provide value but don't pay too much for them and
don't pay for (those that use) deceptive practices," report author
James Van Dyke said.

PROFITING FROM IDENTITY THEFT?

Increased awareness of free credit reports has been a positive for the
consumer and the company alike, said John Danaher, president of
TrueCredit, a subsidiary of TransUnion.

"Once people realize they have a credit report and ongoing access to
and management of their credit report is something that's important to
them, that in turn leads them to purchase services," Danaher said.

Credit bureau Equifax, whose $49.95 and $99.95 per- year services were
favorably cited by Javelin, reported a 21 percent rise to revenue of
$29.3 million in the second quarter of this year in its division that
includes credit monitoring services, which include daily or weekly
notification of account activity, identity theft coverage and a fraud
victim hotline.

Some of the companies now offering to monitor credit have made
headlines when their own customer information was stolen.

Wells Fargo & Co., which has experienced various data breaches since
2003, launched a $12.99 per month plan last year, while Bank of
America, which lost non-encrypted data tapes containing information on
more than a million federal account holders last December, sells a
$129 yearly monitoring program.

Both banks offer the services free for their victimized customers.

Bank of America spokeswoman Betty Riess said the company had strong
privacy and information security systems in place, while Wells Fargo
spokesman Julia Tunis said credit monitoring services and past
problems with data security should be viewed "as two separate issues."

Data broker ChoicePoint, which acknowledged in February that identity
thieves gained access to a database of roughly 145,000 consumer
profiles, sells a $24.95 "pre-employment background check" for job
seekers to find information on themselves.

But World Privacy Forum's Dixon said that companies that were not
securing data were profiting from its theft, by virtue of the new
services. "It makes you cynical," she said.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:49:47 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Pod2Mob.com - Mobile Podcasting


PODCASTING ON MOBILE PHONES TUNES IN WITH POD2MOB SOFTWARE
PODCAST AUDIENCE SWELLS FROM 25M TO NEARLY 700M MOBILE USERS WORLDWIDE
SOFTWARE SUPPORTS SPRINT PCS, T-MOBILE AND CINGULAR NETWORKS

LOS ANGELES (--August 22, 2005--) Cut the white cord. Pod2Mob
(www.pod2mob.com) announced today the launch of its precedent-setting
podcast streaming service that enables consumers to listen to their
favorite podcasts on their mobile handsets. The launch of the free
software, which is first to market, forms a new milestone for mobile
media.

The power of wireless couples with the podcasting phenomenon to
exponentially expand access to a new medium. The new Pod2Mob
application transforms mobile handsets into a podcasting remote,
capable of browsing and selecting new shows while listening to the
audio directly from the phone.

http://www.pod2mob.com/main/pr1
http://www.pod2mob.com/

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 01:58:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: ATM Cards Pirated For Plenty, Police Say; Ploy Used Cameras


By David Abel, Globe Staff

Using small cameras and secretly-installed ATM card readers, a thief
stole private bank card information from more than 400 ATM users in
Greater Boston and withdrew at least $400,000 from their accounts over
the past two years, police alleged yesterday.

Ioan Emil Codarcea, a Romanian national, allegedly mounted the spy
cameras and magnetic card readers on ATM machines in communities
throughout the region, including Canton, Cambridge, Needham,
Wellesley, and Woburn.

The magnetic card readers -- which looked legitimate -- were sometimes
installed on the doors leading to the ATM machines. Other times they
were mounted on top of an ATM's actual card reader. They recorded
users' card information while the cameras captured images of users
punching in their PIN numbers, which were transmitted to Codarcea's
laptop computer, police said.

Armed with the information, Codarcea duplicated the magnetic strips
and produced his own ATM cards, attaching a sticker on each where he
scribbled the PIN number, police said. Working with accomplices, he
then visited cash machines in downtown Boston and along Route 1, and
withdrew cash from the accounts, they said.

Many customers, police said, were not aware they were being victimized
until their banks notified them. Police did not name the banks
involved, but said the customers were reimbursed for the money stolen.

Police say this type of theft, known as skimming, is becoming
increasingly common.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/10/atm_cards_pirated_for_plenty_police_say/

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:13:24 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Who'll Mind the Mainframes? / Few Students Learning to Run


By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff  |  August 26, 2005

They're the grizzled, unglamorous veterans of the computing world,
middle-aged men and women who don't create best-selling computer games
or dazzling special effects for the movies. All they do is quietly run
the most important computer systems in the world.

They operate mainframe computers, the 'big iron' machines that run
businesses and governments all over the planet. Mainframes issue
Social Security checks, track credit-card purchases, and oversee the
nation's air-traffic network. They're immensely powerful computers,
and immensely reliable, routinely running around the clock for years
at a time.

But many mainframe operators have been at it for decades, and they've
begun to realize that their time is running out.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/08/26/wholl_mind_the_mainframes/

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:30:13 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Boston Schools Get New System to Notify Parents in Emergency


By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff  |  August 25, 2005

Out with scrolling words at the bottom of television screens and form
letters crumpled at the bottom of backpacks. The next time Boston
public school principals need to notify parents of an emergency,
they'll pick up a phone, record a message, and in relatively short
order, thousands of parents will be called on their home, work, and
cellphones.

That means spreading the word faster if students are held hostage,
involved in a bus accident, or even if one is missing from school,
officials said yesterday.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's office announced yesterday that Boston public
schools will start using the automated system -- computer software
combined with phone lines and the Internet -- this fall to more easily
connect with parents.

The school system has received a nearly $250,000 federal grant from
the Mayor's Office of Homeland Security to improve its communication
system in case of terrorist attacks, said Carlo Boccia, the director
of Homeland Security for the Boston metro region.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/08/25/boston_schools_get_new_system_to_notify_parents_in_emergency/

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:36:56 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Colleges Struggle to Combat Identity Thieves


By Reuters  |  August 21, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- Despite their image as leafy enclaves of higher
learning shielded from the real world, universities across the United
States are finding themselves on the front lines of the battle against
identity theft.

With their huge databases, universities may rival financial
institutions as attractive targets for the crime, estimated to affect
over 9 million Americans a year at the cost of more than $50 billion,
specialists said.

Nearly half of the publicized incidents of data breach since January
occurred at universities, according to the San Diego-based Identity
Theft Resource Center.

The focus on campus computer security comes as pending legislation in
Congress seeks to address on a national level the growing problem of
identity theft, in which criminals steal personal information, so they
can impersonate the victim to obtain credit and drain money from
financial accounts.

In academia, major institutions such as the University of California
system and smaller private schools from Tufts to Stanford are equally
affected as hackers exploit computer vulnerabilities to access data
and laptops get stolen.

The problem is hardly new, but available data are incomplete.
California, for example, only recently started to require disclosure
after a data breach. Some specialists say that universities only
contribute to 20 percent of all breaches nationally.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/08/21/colleges_struggle_to_combat_identity_thieves/

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 03:27:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: King Kong vs. the Pirates of the Multiplex


By TIMOTHY L. O'BRIEN

SHORTLY before Christmas, Universal Pictures plans to unveil its $150
million remake of "King Kong," the 1933 sci-fi classic featuring an
overgrown beast with a soft spot for blondes, a craggy, fog-shrouded
island inhabited by dinosaurs and a squadron of biplanes buzzing the
Empire State Building.

The new version, aimed squarely at the hearts, minds and wallets of
the teenage-to-mid-30's set that Hollywood prizes, has blockbuster
written all over it. Peter Jackson, the maestro behind the "Lord of
the Rings" trilogy, is directing; Naomi Watts is stepping into Fay
Wray's shoes as the imperiled, scantily clad heroine; and the film is
rumored to be embroidered with mind-blowing special effects.

But even the mighty Kong may not be safe from the clutches of a
nebulous, tech-savvy network of film pirates who specialize in
stealing copies of first-run movies and distributing them globally on
the Internet or on bootleg DVD's. While Hollywood has battled various
forms of film looting for decades, this time seems different. Piracy
in the digital era is more lucrative, sophisticated and elusive than
ever -- and poses a far bigger financial threat.

"Piracy has the very real potential of tipping movies into becoming an
unprofitable industry, especially big-event films. If that happens,
they will stop being made," said Mr. Jackson in an e-mail message from
New Zealand, where he is putting the final touches on his version of
"King Kong." "No studio is going to finance a film if the point is
reached where their possible profit margin goes straight into
criminals' pockets."

Film piracy is taking place against a larger backdrop of technological
and demographic shifts that are also shaking Hollywood.  Elaborate
home theater components -- like DVD players, advanced sound systems and
flat-screen TV's -- are helping to shrink theatrical attendance, as
more and more film fans choose to watch while stretched out on their
couches. And with the advent of high-speed Internet connections that
can deliver large film files to personal computers, the movie business
is confronted with the same thorny challenges that the music industry
encountered several years ago with the emergence of file-sharing
programs like Napster.

Hollywood reported global revenue of $84 billion in 2004, according to
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm. With most theatrical
releases amounting to little more than an unprofitable, expensive form
of marketing, DVD's have become Hollywood's lifeblood: together with
videos, they kick in $55.6 billion, or about two-thirds of the
industry's annual haul, with box-office receipts making up most of the
rest.

The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that piracy
involving bootleg DVD's deprived the film industry of more than $3
billion in sales last year. That figure does not include lost sales
from pirated works peddled online, for which industry insiders say
they have no reliable estimate but which they assume to be
substantial.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/28/business/media/28movie.html?ex=1282881600&en=f19a921158bab2bd&ei=5090

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

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:57:38 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Google Wants to Be Your Best Friend On Your Computer


By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

For most Internet users, Google is synonymous with online search.
Millions of people begin every Web session at Google's famous, plain
home page.

But that's not good enough for the bright young upstarts who run
Google. They want Google to be your constant companion even if
searching or browsing the Web is the furthest thing from your mind.
They are working hard to make Google software a fixture on computer
desktops.

That is the aim of two new, free products the search giant released
this week. One is an instant-messaging program called Google Talk,
intended to be your primary means of real-time digital communication.
The other is an information-management utility called Google Desktop
2, designed to become a permanent part of your desktop, grabbing space
from Microsoft's Windows desktop.

I've been testing pre-release versions of both new products, which
only work on Windows PCs, and have found that both work well, with a
couple of exceptions. More important, both products, especially Google
Desktop, have great potential for expansion and are meant to become
indispensable.

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050825.html

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

From: Stanley Cline <sc1-news@roamer1.org>
Subject: RIP, Sussex Cellular
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:34:56 -0400
Organization: Roamer1 Communications
Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org


One of the most backward, most reviled, most laughed-at cell phone
companies in the US -- and one mentioned many times here in the Digest
over the years -- closed its doors earlier this month.  Sussex
Cellular (which operated as SciTel Wireless in its last days), the
carrier serving Sussex County, NJ that was infamous for its arrogance,
roaming agreement "hardball", and poor service and being one of the
last analog-only carriers in the continental US, requested that the
FCC cancel its license as of August 4.  http://tinyurl.com/9ua6j

Since that time their web site has disappeared from the net and the
trunks between their MTSO and the rest of the world have been either
busied out or disconnected.  Based on some digging in the FCC ULS
databases, it appears that Sussex is the ONLY cellular (as opposed to
PCS or ESMR) licensee to ever have built out a network and simply shut
down without selling its licenses, network, and customers to another
carrier; given their historical arrogance, that doesn't surprise me
one bit.

It doesn't look like anyone has stepped up to take over the vacated
license yet, but my guess is that Cingular will do so in order to
improve service in Sussex County, where Cingular currently has only
1900 MHz (PCS) coverage and where 850 MHz coverage would be helpful
because of the terrain.  Other carriers who might be interested in the
area include Dobson Communications, who serves areas of New York just
to the north of Sussex County, and Commnet Wireless, the roamer-only
carrier that serves scattered tertiary and rural markets stretching
from California (Lake Isabella/Kernville and Boron) all the way to
Tennessee (Mountain City).


Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org

"it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend

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

From: DevilsPGD <spamsucks@crazyhat.net>
Subject: Re: 5.8GHz Cordless Phones
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:26:21 -0600
Organization: Disorganized


In message <telecom24.389.3@telecom-digest.org> Den <nul@nul.nul> wrote:

> 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.

Both are vendor specific.  5.8GHz is simply a different frequency,
nothing else changes from 2.4GHz or the 900MHz phones of ages past.

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

Subject: Re: 5.8GHz Cordless Phones
From: beavis <nobody@nowhere.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:17:47 GMT
Organization: Road Runner


In article <telecom24.389.3@telecom-digest.org>, Den <nul@nul.nul>
wrote:

> 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.

Both vendor-specific.

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

From: wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman)
Subject:  Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:25:54 UTC
Organization:  MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory


In article <telecom24.389.14@telecom-digest.org>,
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> The long distance network was built to carry voice, TV, and radio.

No.  The long-distance network was built to carry voice, slightly
better-quality voice (for the radio networks), and baseband (*not*
broadband) video (for the TV networks).

-GAWollman
-- 
Garrett A. Wollman    | As the Constitution endures, persons in every
wollman@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own
Opinions not those    | search for greater freedom.
of MIT or CSAIL.      | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)

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

Date: 28 Aug 2005 16:44:39 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> 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.

I think you'll find the answer to the first question is that
regulators wouldn't let them do so in North America except in a few
rural areas.  The answer to the second is blindingly obvious: there's
already a cable system in place and every customer would have to be
poached, at great expense, from the existing system.  That's what a
natural monopoly means.

>> 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).

Fiber gives them lower maintenance and lets them offer cable modems,
HDTV and video on demand.  Nobody builds a cable system to offer VoIP,
which despite all the hoopla is still a teensy niche business.  They
build it to offer broadband applications.

> 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.

Widespread ADSL depends on signal processing chips that have only
become available in the last decade or two.  When CATV was being
built, the state of the art in phone line data was T1 with very
expensive equipment at each end of a not very long well line.


R's,

John

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:51:43 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com
Subject: Re: Broadband Competition Must Surely be Working


I 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.

hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
 
> The telephone system extensively uses coaxial cable to
> multiplex phone and TV signals.

But not in the local loop.

> Indeed, the phone co has been carrying TV signals for
> years.

But not in the local loop.

> The telco could've integrated cable signals into its existing
> plant and billing systems.

What do you mean by "integrated cable signals into its existing
plant"?

If you mean they could have placed coax cable plant on existing poles
and in existing easements, then I agree.  That's exactly what SNET,
Ameritech, GTE, TDS, and Bell Canada did.

But if you mean sending "cable signals" (NTSC signals modulated onto
carriers 54 MHz and above) over existing copper-pair loops, then I
don't think you understand physics.

> There would've been definite economies of
> scale to be gained if they used telco standards.

>> 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.

Yet you still claim that telcos could have built CATV systems at lower
cost by using union labor and following "telco standards"?

> Cable used existing infrastructure -- the same poles power and phone
> lines already used, they just added theirs.

Sure.  They were taking advantage of "economies of scale" by using
existing poles.  They even used the same "telco standards" of poleline
construction (they had to under their agreements with pole owners).
Moreover, most franchise agreements required them to use existing
poles whenever possible.  But you can rest assured that the owners of
those poles didn't let them do it for free.

> Because the cable is a common signal, it is much simpler to run than
> providing a unique channel for each subscriber.

Arguably not true.  But even if it were true, what's it got to do with
your original argument about "economies of scale"?  A cable signal is
a cable signal no matter who owns the plant.

> 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.

Ok, fine.
 
>> 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).

True.  But I thought this thread was about the relative costs of coax
plant v. copper-loop plant.

>> 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...

But none of those "various ways" changes the fact that local loop plant
won't carry NTSC television signals.  I agree that it's possible to
carry a few NTSC signals over DSL, but DSL didn't exist back in the 70s
and 80s when CATV companies were building plant. 

> As mentioned, telcos know about coax and TV.

Which probably explains why they didn't try to send TV signals over
the local loop.

>> 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.

Cross-ownership rules in place at the time required telcos to obtain
waivers from the FCC before they could build CATV systems.  Although
this requirement was a nuisance, it didn't prevent telcos from getting
franchises and building CATV systems: SNET and Ameritech did just
that.  Apparently, SBC decided that it wasn't a good business so they
canned it, but that too was a policy decision, not a technical one.

> The long distance network was built to carry voice, TV, and
> radio.

But the local loop wasn't.

> 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.

A local loop can be "set" to carry "pulsed signals (not modulated)"
all the way up to 1.544 MBps.  But CATV signals are (or were, back in
the 70s and 80s when CATVs were building plant) all analog in the
54-300 MHz range.

Neal McLain

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:44:05 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Paul Coxwell wrote:

> Despite the 999 system, there was, however, still a widely adopted
> convention that the regular number for the police should use 2222.

Sounds much like the convention that many US cities used where the
local police departments' phone numbers all ended in 1234 and the fire
departments ended in 1212. This was true of Cleveland and most of its
suburbs.

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A 'standard' set by AT&T for the
operating companies was to use '2121' or '2131' as well. The last four
digits were to preferably end in '1' and be repetitive.   PAT]n

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

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Internet Phone Companies May Cut Off Customers
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 07:10:54 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 22:02:12 -0500, Gordon S. Hlavenka
<nospam@crashelex.com> wrote:

> 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 :-)

All the no responders have another month's reprieve before service is
shut off for no response.  Likely there will still be some who haven't
heard about the requirement for a response or just don't *get it!*

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

From: Stanley Cline <sc1-news@roamer1.org>
Subject: Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 05:08:48 -0400
Organization: Roamer1 Communications
Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org


On Fri, 26 Aug 2005 19:52:38 EDT, Wesrock@aol.com wrote:

> Leonard can't use the Treo on the Alltel network because it uses a
> different technology. 

Correct ... AT&T Wireless was and Cingular is GSM, while Alltel is CDMA.

Alltel does own some GSM coverage in the West and Southeast as the
result of acquisitions, but Alltel does not sell GSM service to its
customers; the GSM in former Western Wireless territory in the West
only serves roamers from other carriers, and the GSM in former PSC
Wireless territory in the Southeast only serves a small number of
acquired customers (until they are weaned off GSM to CDMA anyway) and
roamers.

> And Cingular Wireless won't let new subscribers bring their own 
> phones even if they use the same digital network.

This statement is partly incorrect.  Cingular IS requiring that new
customers accept Cingular-branded equipment when activating service
(and AIUI, T-Mobile USA is too, but unlike Cingular only for
activations through indirect sales channels), but Cingular, like every
other GSM carrier in the world, does NOT prevent GSM customers from
using their own equipment.  Technically, Cingular could do so via a
variant of IMEI blacklisting, but no US carrier uses IMEI blacklisting
at all and no carrier in the world does it except for phones reported
lost or stolen.

The problem in this case is almost certainly that the Treo is locked
to the AT&T network (programmed to only accept an 'AT&T SIM') and
won't accept a 'Cingular SIM' ...but that can be very easily worked
around via any number of third-party unlocking services.  Cingular
itself won't provide unlock codes for AT&T-branded equipment because
a) AT&T Wireless flatly refused to provide unlock codes under any
circumstances for equipment it sold (AFAIK, they were one of the only
GSM carriers in the world, if not *the* only one, with such a harsh
and restrictive policy) and b) Cingular wants all AT&T-branded
equipment out of customers' hands so it can put Cingular-branded
equipment in their hands.  (Cingular DOES provide unlock codes for
Cingular-branded equipment when certain conditions involving length of
service, account status, are met.)

The solution in this specific instance is to:

- get the Treo unlocked via a third-party unlocking service (this
  would involve taking or shipping the Treo somewhere; AFAIK, there
  are no "remote unlock" options available for Treos like there are
  for virtually all Nokias and some Motorolas);

- activate a new line of service with Cingular with no data plan, 
  accepting any old phone (preferably one that is free or very cheap
  with a contract);

- move the SIM from the free/cheap phone to the Treo;

- request the PDA data plan on the newly activated line.

> 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.

Cingular generally doesn't allow *TDMA* users (what few there are
left) to do so, but as stated above, they can't exert the same power
over *GSM* users -- well, technically they could, but they don't.

> "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."

That is utter cow manure ... IF THE TREO WERE UNLOCKED, which Cingular
itself could do by providing unlock codes but simply refuses to do for
"AT&T"-branded equipment because of "marketing" policies, it would
work on Cingular's network -- or on the network of any other GSM
carrier in the world -- just fine.  All Treo firmware, including
carrier-specific versions, already contains all settings needed to run
on the networks of Cingular and a wide variety of other GSM carriers
in the US and around the world, and even if it didn't, GSM is
standardized enough that getting any device up and running fully on
any network just entails changing a few settings to get data and
SMS/MMS working, and to get basic voice service working even that
isn't necessary.

FWIW, I have a Treo 650 running on T-Mobile USA despite their not
selling or officially supporting it.  I bought an unlocked 650
directly from Palm(One) and just moved my SIM over from my previous
device, a T-Mobile Sidekick, after activating a data plan appropriate
for the Treo; as soon as I put my SIM in the Treo it configured itself
with the data and SMS/MMS settings required by T-Mobile's network and
has worked flawlessly with my T-Mobile service ever since.


Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org

"it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend

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

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:20:18 +0200
From: Daniel AJ Sokolov <sokolov@gmx.netnetnet.invalid>
Subject: Re: Alltel/AT&T/Cingular in Oklahoma City Market Area


Am 28.08.2005 04:18 schrieb Joseph:

>> 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.

In fact, they could. I don't know if they do, but the technology is
there. Any GSM-network can check the IMEI of any phone, that want's to
connect to the network, and decide whether to allow that phone on the
network or not.

This is actually an anti-theft measure. There are international
databases that collect IMEI numbers of phones reported as
stolen. These phones are rendered useless on networks, that cooperate
with such a database. Sadly, only very few networks do that. They
think economically: "Every phone, that is stolen from someone (which,
most likely, was a customer of another network in another country) and
ends up in my own network saves me (or my customer) a lot of money. So
why should I block it. My customer would be angry, if he didn't know
he bought a stolen phone."

However, you could use that technology the other way round: block all
phones on your network that do not have certain IMEIs -- these being
only IMEIs of phones you sold yourself. Still, I doubt that anyone
would do that, it's not economical.

I think, that the people who've run into problems here have simply
locked handsets and do not know how to unlock them. However, most
handsets can be easily unlocked (except recent Nokia models like 6630
and 6680). Their new provider is too dumb to tell them and rahter
utters some nonsense.

Daniel AJ


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

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Star Trek Phone Set to Thrill
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 23:41:49 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Tom Betz wrote:

> 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. 

Yawn. I had a Motorola StarTAC, a few years back, that everyone
claimed look like one of the communicators from the USS Enterprise,
and my current Motorola V188 makes a sound exactly like the doorbell
on the door of the captain's quarters. :) I wonder how many Trekkies
are designing phones for Moto ...

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

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

Date: 28 Aug 2005 16:25:32 -0000
From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com>
Subject: Re: VOIP Over ADSL
Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA


> What kind of equipment do I need to do sharing as well as having VOIP
> calls using regular phones.

> do I need to have purchase regular VOIP router which can also share
> connection, or do i need to have specific differnt one for ADSL.?

Any VoIP router should work, or you can buy a router and a separate
VoIP adapter.  Your ADSL modem should have a jack for a normal
Ethernet cable to plug into your router.  If it doesn't (there may
still be a few that are USB only), call up the telco and tell them to
switch it for one that does.

R's,

John

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


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