TELECOM Digest     Tue, 30 Aug 2005 00:50:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 392

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    New Orleans Facing Environmental Disaster (Matt Crenson)
    New Orleans Phones Out of Order for Duration (Jim Burks)
    Is Verizon Wireless Sabotaging Older Cell Phones? (Shalom Septimus)
    Free Wi-Fi at T-Mobile HotSpot Locations in Louisiana (Monty Solomon)
    History of Phone Billing (Michael Hyman)
    Re: Book Review: "Spam Kings", Brian McWilliams (mc)
    Re: RIP, Sussex Cellular (Mark Crispin)

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               ===========================

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and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

From: Matt Crenson <ap@telecom-digest.orf> 
Subject: New Orleans Facing Environmental Disaster
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:46:18 -0500


By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer

As Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Monday, experts said it could
turn one of America's most charming cities into a vast cesspool
tainted with toxic chemicals, human waste and even coffins released by
floodwaters from the city's legendary cemeteries.

Experts have warned for years that the levees and pumps that usually
keep New Orleans dry have no chance against a direct hit by a Category
5 storm.

That's exactly what Katrina was as it churned toward the city. With
top winds of 160 mph and the power to lift sea level by as much as 28
feet above normal, the storm threatened an environmental disaster of
biblical proportions, one that could leave more than 1 million people
homeless.

"All indications are that this is absolutely worst-case scenario,"
Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University
Hurricane Center, said Sunday afternoon.

The center's latest computer simulations indicate that by Tuesday,
vast swaths of New Orleans could be under water up to 30 feet deep. In
the French Quarter, the water could reach 20 feet, easily submerging
the district's iconic cast-iron balconies and bars.

Estimates predict that 60 percent to 80 percent of the city's houses
will be destroyed by wind. With the flood damage, most of the people
who live in and around New Orleans could be homeless.

"We're talking about in essence having -- in the continental United
States -- having a refugee camp of a million people," van Heerden
said.

Aside from Hurricane Andrew, which struck Miami in 1992, forecasters
have no experience with Category 5 hurricanes hitting densely
populated areas.

"Hurricanes rarely sustain such extreme winds for much time. However
we see no obvious large-scale effects to cause a substantial weakening
the system and it is expected that the hurricane will be of Category 4
or 5 intensity when it reaches the coast," National Hurricane Center
meteorologist Richard Pasch said.

As they raced to put meteorological instruments in Katrina's path
Sunday, wind engineers had little idea what their equipment would
record.

"We haven't seen something this big since we started the program,"
said Kurt Gurley, a University of Florida engineering professor. He
works for the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program, which is in its
seventh year of making detailed measurements of hurricane wind
conditions using a set of mobile weather stations.

Experts have warned about New Orleans' vulnerability for years,
chiefly because Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of
coastal wetlands in the past seven decades. The vast patchwork of
swamps and bayous south of the city serves as a buffer, partially
absorbing the surge of water that a hurricane pushes ashore.

Experts have also warned that the ring of high levees around New
Orleans, designed to protect the city from floodwaters coming down the
Mississippi, will only make things worse in a powerful hurricane. 
Katrina is expected to push a 28-foot storm surge against
the levees. Even if they hold, water will pour over their tops and
begin filling the city as if it were a sinking canoe.

After the storm passes, the water will have nowhere to go.

In a few days, van Heerden predicts, emergency management officials
are going to be wondering how to handle a giant stagnant pond
contaminated with building debris, coffins, sewage and other hazardous
materials.

"We're talking about an incredible environmental disaster," van Heerden
said.

He puts much of the blame for New Orleans' dire situation on the very
levee system that is designed to protect southern Louisiana from
Mississippi River floods.

Before the levees were built, the river would top its banks during
floods and wash through a maze of bayous and swamps, dropping
fine-grained silt that nourished plants and kept the land just above
sea level.

The levees "have literally starved our wetlands to death" by directing
all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico, van Heerden
said.

It has been 40 years since New Orleans faced a hurricane even
comparable to Katrina. In 1965, Hurricane Betsy, a Category 3 storm,
submerged some parts of the city to a depth of seven feet.

Since then, the Big Easy has had nothing but near misses. In 1998,
Hurricane Georges headed straight for New Orleans, then swerved at the
last minute to strike Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Lili blew
herself out at the mouth of the Mississippi in 2002. And last year's
Hurricane Ivan obligingly curved to the east as it came ashore, barely
grazing a grateful city.

Copyright  2005 The Associated Press. 

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.

Watch WWL television for ongoing converage, on the net at
http://www.wwltv.com

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

From: Jim Burks <jbburks@hotmail.com>
Subject: New Orleans Phones Are All Out, Also
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2005 02:16:28 GMT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com


AT&T has lost multiple DS-3s (probably the whole fiber) between New
Orleans and Jackson, MS, and between New Orleans and Gulfport, MS. No
ability to reroute at this point.

37 AT&T offices have lost power and are on battery or generator. BellSouth 
has 64 offices down.

Has anybody heard from Mark Cuccia? Hopefully, he either got out of town, or 
is keeping his head above water.

Jim Burks 

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

From: Shalom Septimus <sacrificial_trap@hotmail.com>
Subject: Is Verizon Wireless Sabotaging Older Cell Phones?
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 23:42:00 -0400
Reply-To: druggist@pobox.com


I have long had a Nokia 5180 phone (since Xmas 1998, to be exact). It
was on its second battery, but eventually couldn't even keep that
charged, and I finally decided, this past February, to claim on my
insurance and have them send me a new one. Whaddaya know, there's a
$50 deductible that nobody ever mentioned to me. OK, fine, here's my
credit card number, send me the damn thing.

They didn't have any more 5180s, so they sent me a 5185i. Fine so far,
except that this one had the exact same problem as my old one: you
turn it on, it lasts three seconds and shuts down. Besides which, it
had a manufacturing date somewhere in 2000. I send this back and they
send another; this one at least has a sticker saying it's a refurb
with a date of 5/04, so at least I know they haven't just sent me
someone else's old broken phone.

Fast forward six months. I'm standing there with the phone in my shirt
pocket, minding my own business, when the thing beeps. I look at the
screen to find the legend "Invalid roaming list", with a stop sign,
after which it says "Searching for service" and stays that way. I call
611 (from my wife's phone) and ask what's up, and they tell me it
needs to be flashed. Finally get to a Verizon store, leave it there
for an hour, come back and find that, like about 50% of the phones
with this particular failure mode, it has failed to accept the flash.

The following conversation resulted. Me: What now? Them: How would you
like to buy a new phone? Me: What of this New Every Two that you
advertise? Them: You aren't eligible. Me: Why not, I've had this same
phone for six years? Them: But you never had a two year contract. Me:
(walks out).

So I called Asurion (the insurance carrier) back, and told them that
the phone they sent me has crapped out. Them: Sorry, you only have a
six month warranty on refurbs, and you got that one six months and
eighteen days ago. Me: WTF, was there a countdown timer in it that
told it when to break? Them: You can file a new claim if you want. Me:
I don't want, as that would cost me another $50 deductible. Them:
Sorry, can't help you. Me: Lemme talk to a supervisor.

Supervisor echoes the above. I point out that at $5/month for six
years of premiums, plus the $50 they already got from me for the old
phone, I've already paid in at least three times the cost of a new
phone; besides, it was very likely that the phone they sent me was
defective from the get-go, as the exact same thing happened a few
months ago (but the flash worked that time). They check the records,
find that in those six years I've only had the one claim, and tell me
they're making an exception and sending me another new phone, but they
have no 5185i's left either, so I'm getting a 6015i instead; received
this last Friday, it works, so I'm set. It's too darn small, and the
Select button is where the Clear button was on the old phone, plus the
belt clip, car adapter, data cable and so on don't fit it, but these
are minor annoyances.

Except that I did some go0gling over the weekend, and find that I'm
not the only one with this particular phone failure, and it always
seems to happen to the older Nokia phones, mostly on Verizon. There
are two hypotheses advanced to explain this:

Hypothesis 1, the more innocent one: The roaming list has gotten so
huge over the years, what with nationwide roaming &c, that the limited
memory in these older phones wasn't enough, and the resulting overflow
clobbered the phone's firmware. (As evidence, when I tried to put my
phone in test mode (*3001#[security code]#), it crashed hard: screen
blank, backlight on, random ticking noise in both earpiece and ringer,
unresponsive to any keypress except to increase the rate of ticking.
Geiger counter anyone? Removing the battery and replacing it cured
this temporarily.)

Of course, this implies some stupidity on Verizon's part, as they know
exactly what kind of phone each customer has, and *should* know the
memory capacity of each type; if the phone is listed as one that can't
handle the full roaming list, then send it an abridged version, and
inform the customer that in some remote areas the roaming indicator
will indicate improperly, due to the age of the phone, but the phone
will otherwise function correctly. (Does the roaming list do
*anything* but tell the phone whether or not to light up the roaming
indicator?)

Hypothesis 2, the more paranoid one: Some people have been suggesting
that Verizon have been deliberately breaking these phones. The reason
given is that they aren't E911 compliant, and if they were still
functional, Verizon would have to *give* you another one in order to
be in compliance with the minimum 85% that the FCC wants. Now that
it's "broken", they can *sell* you another one, or lock you in to a
new 2-year contract. (Note that this doesn't necessarily contradict
the first theory.)

So: What do y'all think about this? Is there any evidence for one or
the other scenario?


Shalom Septimus 
Reply-To: works. From: also works but isn't read much, if at all.

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

Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 22:43:21 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Free Wi-Fi at T-Mobile HotSpot Locations in Louisiana,


Wi-Fi Internet Service Available Free of Charge at T-Mobile HotSpot
Locations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama; Residents and
Tourists Displaced by Hurricane Katrina Can Stay Connected at Open
T-Mobile HotSpot Locations

     - Aug 29, 2005 06:44 PM (BusinessWire)

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2005--T-Mobile

    What:  Free T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-Fi Internet Service
    When:  Immediately. This will be in effect through the end of the
           week, at which time the situation will be re-evaluated.
    Where: Locations offering T-Mobile HotSpot service (if open for
           business):

           --  Borders Books and Music
           --  FedEx Kinko's
           --  Starbucks
           --  Hyatt Hotels
           --  Red Roof Inn Motels
           --  American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and US Airways clubs
               and lounges

    News:  In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, T-Mobile HotSpot is
           offering free Wi-Fi Internet service at many of its nearly
           66 locations in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama which
           have not been forced to close due to the storm.

     - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=51444487

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

From: Michael Hyman <mhyman@yahoo.com>
Subject: History of Phone Billing
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:18:54 -0700
Organization: OnTarget Solutions


Hi,

I am looking for information on pre-computer and early computer 
toll/call billing systems.

Does anyone have a good site or reference?

Also, information on early call detail reporting/recording systems.

Does anyone have a good site or reference?

Thanks,

Michael


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: At the time my grandmother died, we
found among her possessions a _typewritten_ bill from Southwestern
Bell Telephone Company dated in 1938. I know of no reason why she was
saving it; there was nothing we noted unusual about it. In 1938, she
and my grandfather lived in Coffeyville, KS. Nice letterhead stationary,
with the AT&T corporate logo (bell in circle) and the phrase Southwestern
Bell Telephone Company at a local address in Coffeyville. Her phone
number was '309'. She as asked to return the bottom part of the page,
(below the perforation) with her payment for the month. Her 'subscription'
(as it was called) to service was three dollars and some change.  PAT]

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

From: mc <mc_no_spam@uga.edu>
Subject: Re: Book Review: "Spam Kings", Brian McWilliams
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 20:14:18 -0400


> "Spam Kings", Brian McWilliams, 2005, 0-596-00732-9, U$22.95/C$33.95
> %I   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> %O   U$22.95/C$33.95 707-829-0515 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com
> %O   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596007329/robsladesinterne

> After a while, you begin to realize that much of the material is
> padded out with conversations taken from old Usenet archives, as well
> as instant messaging and IRC (Internet Relay Chat) logs.  Oddly
> enough, these aren't as interesting as they sound.

I wonder how much money he's making quoting things *we* said.  Or are
the conversations arguments between rival spammers?

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

From: Mark Crispin <MRC@CAC.Washington.EDU>
Subject:  Re: RIP, Sussex Cellular
Date:  Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:24:40 -0700
Organization:  Networks & Distributed Computing


On Sun, 29 Aug 2005, John Levine wrote:

> Are there any other analog-only carriers in the US at all?  I can't
> think of any.  Even the little carriers in Alaska seem to be doing
> TDMA or CDMA.

Not true.

Copper Valley Wireless (Glennallen, McCarthy, Valdez, Cordova) is
still analog-only, although they are planning to offer CDMA in the
future.  Analog is likely to remain important for them, since quite a
few of their customers are on fishing vessels in Prince William Sound.

As far as I know, the carriers serving the Arctic (Kotzebue,
Wainright, Barrow, Prudhoe, Kaktovik) are still analog-only.

Dobson has done a remarkable job in building out the GSM network in
Alaska.  This year, GSM coverage seems to more or less overlap the
TDMA network, enough that I decided to switch from TDMA to GSM.  I
read complaints about GSM coverage in Anchorage about a year ago, but
I had no problem.

There is very little CDMA in Alaska.  I found (at best spotty) CDMA in
Mat-Su and Anchorage.  Even in Anchorage, TDMA and GSM are much more
reliable.

-- Mark --

http://staff.washington.edu/mrc
Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #392
******************************