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TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 Sep 2005 23:58:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 403 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Some Wireless Service Now Repaired in New Orleans (Reuters News Wire) Getting Electricity Restored to Gulf Coast Area (Ron Scherer) Internet is Bulletin Board For Katrina Victims (Todd Eastham) Let Stockholders Decide Verizon-MCI Merger Fate (Murray Sabrin) Verizon Files First Lawsuit Against Telemarketing Company (Linda Johnson) Congress Weighing New Rules for Cable Franchises (Janice Morse) The Mobile Snatchers (Mark Halper) Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criticism? (John Hines) Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criiicism? (John L. Shelton) Re: Katrina's Real Name (Steve Sobol) 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 journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Some Wireless Service Now Repaired in New Orleans Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 18:07:20 -0500 Verizon Wireless to deploy mobile units to storm-ravaged areas NEW YORK - A number of wireless carriers said this weekend they are starting to restore service in the New Orleans area in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in some cases with generators on the roofs of hotels. The collapse of the communications network in the New Orleans area has been widely blamed for contributing to the disaster there, as local officials were unable to talk to each other and to federal authorities to arrange relief in the days after Katrina laid waste to the city. Verizon Wireless said it is at work restoring parts of New Orleans and surrounding areas including Mandeville, Lacombe, Hammond and Covington. It has also restored Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, which is being used for relief airlifts. The company, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone, said it has restored service in Baton Rouge and Jackson, Mississippi, and is working to bring back Mobile and Biloxi. In addition, Verizon said late Saturday it was awaiting approval to deploy COWs -- Cells on Wheels -- to boost coverage in the affected areas. T-Mobile USA said late Saturday it has set up a cell site on the roof of a hotel on Canal St. in New Orleans, running on a generator, and has reestablished service in many areas of the flooded-out city. T-Mobile said its network is now available at the Superdome, the convention center and Armstrong Airport. The company's main hardware in the area survived the storm, it said. T-Mobile is a unit of Deutsche Telekom. Sprint Nextel Corp. was more cautious on New Orleans, saying as of Saturday night that it remained challenging. The company said it has assembled a team in Baton Rouge to make repairs in areas where it was deemed safe. The company, whose Nextel phones are popular for their walkie-talkie capabilities, has provided 3,000 phones to relief officials. A spokesman for Cingular Wireless was not immediately available to comment on the state of their network in the region. Copyright 2005, Reuters URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9207212/ 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. ------------------------------ From: Ron Scherer <csm@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Getting Electricity Back to the Gulf Coast Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 18:18:17 -0500 http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0902/p02s02-ussc.html By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor NEW YORK - Heat. Humidity. Fifteen- to 16-hour days. Not to mention snakes and high-voltage wires. Jeff Malaby knows that conditions will be tough as he and thousands of other electric utility workers head to the Gulf Coast to restore power in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. But repairing the damage to the electrical system is vital for the region to regain its footing. Without power, essential services -- from sewage plants to hospitals -- can't operate. Police officers are unable to recharge their phones. The need is also pressing to repower the giant refineries that supply an important portion of the nation's gasoline. And at some point, the crews will start the long process of connecting homes so that air conditioners and dehumidifiers can run again. "Electricity is always a priority in disasters," says Jane Bullock, a former chief of staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and now an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management. "For essential functions, it is just necessary." The process is likely to be long. Some 2.8 million customers lost their power in the region. And it's not just a matter of restringing electric wire as crews did in Florida after Katrina passed through there. "I expect to see complete devastation, and our efforts will be to completely rebuild the lines," says Mr. Malaby, a Dominion Virginia Power worker who just finished leading a team of 50 in south Florida. But utility companies, particularly those in storm-prone areas, have considerable experience rebuilding the electrical system. They usually start with a broad assessment of damages, says Ken Hall, director of security, transmission, and distribution operations at the Edison Electric Institute in Washington: "They need to determine what needs to be replaced, to determine whether the power lines were blown down or something landed on them." Mr. Hall says the normal process is for some crews to work on the transmission system -- that is, the large voltage lines transporting electricity from the generating station to the substation. These lines are typically mounted on large metal towers that tend to survive storms better than the wooden poles moving electricity to residential and commercial customers. At the same time, other crews will tackle the distribution system, working out from the substation. They will repair the main lines, then the lines leading into neighborhoods, and finally the hookup to homes, says Hall. Getting the electricity back in downtown New Orleans, however, will be more challenging. For one thing, some of the electric lines are below ground. If mud and water have seeped into the electrical wiring, the cable will have to be replaced. Depending on the damage, crews can often get electricity restored relatively quickly. After hurricane Ivan, they averaged between five and 10 days to rebuild the systems, says Hall. Thursday, in the aftermath of Katrina, Florida Power & Light Company reported that it had returned power to 99 percent of its customers. (Some 15,490 were still without electricity.) The Florida utility company also released 1,000 restoration workers -- most from other utility companies -- so they could head for the Gulf region. Among them is Malaby and his 50-person crew from Virginia. Thursday, they were heading to Amite, La., a staging ground for repair work, to join up with more than 300 other workers from Virginia. For the trip to the Gulf, Malaby is buying bottled water and nonperishable food supplies so the crew can be self-sustaining for a few days. "We won't be getting three square meals a day, and we'll probably be sleeping on cots in a gymnasium," he says. "I have some concerns about the sanitary conditions as well." But despite the harsh conditions, it's a job he's volunteered for. "There is a lot of job satisfaction in these efforts," he says. It's one of the reasons the crew will work extra hours. "Sometimes if you are close to getting people back their power, you don't want to leave until you get it done," he says. "Some people are eternally grateful. There can be hugging and kissing and people offering you sodas." www.csmonitor.com | Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. 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. Read the Christian Science Monitor on line each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html (far right column). *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, the Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Todd Eastham <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Internet is Bulletin Board For Katrina Victims Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 17:01:41 -0500 By Todd Eastham After 9/11, descriptions and photos of missing family, friends and co-workers were plastered on walls and bulletin boards in lower Manhattan, but with New Orleans a ghost town after Hurricane Katrina, the Internet is now the medium of choice for those seeking lost loved ones. "My aunt Geraldine, age 95, lives with her 75-year-old daughter, my first cousin Bernadine Givens ... in New Orleans. ... We believe Geraldine's 76-year-old half brother, my uncle Raul Maurice, was also with them," read one posting on craigslist.org, a popular community bulletin board. "Geraldine is in a wheelchair. Please Help Me. I spoke with them on Sunday August 28th, the day before Katrina hit ... and nothing since," said the posting under the "missing people" icon in a New Orleans section of that site. While the power of the Internet offers promise to people struggling to reconnect with hurricane survivors, people and pets, several phone calls on Sunday -- six days after the Category 4 storm hit the Gulf Coast -- yielded only one happy outcome, recounted by Kristina Carapina, 21, of Houston. "Today is my birthday and yesterday I heard from the Red Cross that they were rescued from the roof. "They called at 11:30 last night from a shelter. ... They were in St. Bernard, the worst hit area. They were on the roof for five days." 'They' were her boyfriend Brian, 27, Tim McHughes, 24, and their mother, Dianne Clement. They were "a little worn out and bruised up, but they're good. "They brought a barbecue up to the roof. They had some canned food." Still, two people from that family remained unaccounted for in the ruined city -- a grandmother and an uncle. 'SEARCHING FOR MY COUSINS' And that was among the most gratifying outcomes. Salvador Mendez of Ohio's posting on craigslist read: "I am searching for my cousins, David Roberto, Luis or Matilde Mendez of Taqueria Corona as well as their mother Aminta Hue zo Parada." Contacted on Sunday, Mendez said, "Unfortunately, I don't have any news about them." He had also posted notices on the New Orleans site nola.com and findkatrina.com. Of those sites, he and others said craigslist was most user friendly. The Web search wasn't limited to people. Billie Sue Bruce of Jonesville, Virginia, said she was outraged to see television footage of a white bichon dog named Snowball torn from a little boy's arms by a guardsman as the boy was evacuated by bus. Bruce posted a $500 reward for return of the dog to the boy and was joined by others. The reward, now posted on craiglist, and other sites like http://savejustone.com and http://smallpawsrescue.com, had risen to $2,500 with other contributors. "That story terribly upset me because it was a combination of a child's heartbreak and an abandoned pet," said Bruce. Bjay Lateny of San Diego posted on craigslist a search for Marie-Helen Poulaert from Belgium, saying she had used the Web site in the past for "getting rid of stuff in my backyard ... looking for work," but never for anything like this. "I went to high school with her in northern Arizona. She was an exchange student. But I've had no word. You're actually the first call," she told this reporter. News Web sites including CNN.com have also set up Internet help centers, including missing persons lists, resources for survivors, ways to donate and volunteer. The success of these sites in bringing survivors together with friends and loved ones could not be immediately determined. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Also consider http://wwl.com which is maintained by WWL-TV, channel 4 in New Orleans. There was something on http://wwl.com inquiring about Mark Cuccia. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Murray Sabrin <asburypark@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Let Stockholders Decide Verizon-MCI Merger's Fate Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 18:01:56 -0500 Published in the Asbury Park Press 09/4/05 BY MURRAY SABRIN The conventional wisdom about a business merger, especially when it leads to a near monopolistic control of a market, is that it is anti-competitive and thus should be disallowed by government regulators. The proposed merger between Verizon and MCI is being opposed by consumer advocates and others because the new company would provide more than 80 percent of the wired phone connections in its regional market. According to the conventional wisdom, a Verizon-MCI alliance would be an example of a "monopolistic" company that will drive up prices and stifle competition in the telecommunications market. On the face of it, opponents of the Verizon-MCI merger may have had a strong case if the world of telecommunications today looked like it did prior to the 1984 breakup of AT&T. Pre-1984, AT&T did have a 100 percent telephone monopoly in most regions of the country. AT&T also was the nation's only long-distance phone carrier at the time. However, after the Justice Department ordered the AT&T breakup, the regional Baby Bells, as they were called, became regional phone monopolies. AT&T became a long-distance carrier and began to face competition from Sprint and MCI. Since the 1980s, virtually all the original seven Baby Bells have merged with one another and other phone companies. The remaining regional entities are SBC, Verizon, Bell South and Qwest, a non-Baby Bell that merged with US West. Currently, SBC is seeking regulatory approval to merge with AT&T, while Verizon is seeking to merge with MCI. Opponents of the Verizon-MCI merger assert that consumers will pay higher prices than they ought to because the new firm will have a near monopoly in its operating region. "Nonsense", respond the proponents of the Verizon-MCI merger. At the local level, telephone calling prices may be on the verge of an historical downward adjustment because of the latest technological developments. The telecommunications world of the 1980s and even 1990s is gone forever. Cell phones, once a bulky, weighty and expensive piece of hardware that cost users about $1 a minute for service, has been replaced by units that fit in the palm of your hand and cost less than $50. Competition has driven the price of cell phone calls to about a penny a minute. In addition, more than a third of local phone calls and more than 60 percent of long-distance calls are made on wireless networks. In short, consumers are giving up their land lines, the ones provided by the Baby Bells, such as Verizon. Meanwhile, cable companies are not your parents' or grandparents' cable company any more. They are providing not only clear reception, on demand video services and premium channels, but they also are in the telecommunications business, competing with the phone companies. Cable companies provide Internet access as well as phone service. VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology has revolutionized the telecommunications industry. Consumers can now send and receive voice, video and data through their computer without the use of a telephone. To state that telecommunications is changing rapidly is an understatement, if there ever was one. Technological breakthroughs are working their way from the laboratory to the marketplace in record-breaking speed. Companies cannot rely on their brand names or traditional infrastructure to meet the needs of consumers. Cable companies, wireless firms and phone companies are in one of the most competitive environments we have witnessed in our history. If firms like Verizon and MCI believe their strategic goals and competitive advantages can be met by becoming one entity, then shareholders should make that determination, not regulators. The intense domestic and global competitive forces will cause telecommunications companies, especially the remaining Baby Bells, to provide consumers with high-quality and lower priced services - or else. The name of the game is market share and utilizing the latest technological innovations that drive prices down. If a company, no matter how large its market share, does not embrace new technologies or meet its customers' needs, there are more than enough competitors for consumers to choose from. Opponents of the proposed Verizon-MCI merger are "fighting the last war" -- preventing two merged companies from having more than 80 percent market share of a diminishing market. As long as a combined Verizon-MCI delivers services that its customers approve, then the marketplace will have spoken. Otherwise, Verizon-MCI's competitors, cable companies, wireless companies and unbeknownst firms in the future will be more than happy to sign up its customers. Murray Sabrin is professor of finance in the School of Business at Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah. Copyright 2005 Asbury Park 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Asbury Park Press. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Linda A. Johnson <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Verizon Wireless Files First Lawsuit Against Telemarketers Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 18:03:44 -0500 By Linda A. Johnson, The Associated Press TRENTON, N.J. -- Verizon Wireless has sued a pair of telemarketing companies, accusing them of illegally soliciting the company's cell phone users and making more than 1.2 million calls to its customers this summer. Verizon Wireless said it believes its two lawsuits -- filed against Intelligent Alternatives of San Diego and Resort Marketing Trends of Coral Springs, Fla. -- are the first ever filed by a U.S. wireless company against telemarketers. "We just consider it to be a tremendous invasion of privacy," Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Robin Nicol said Friday. "Customers look at their wireless phones as one of the last bastions of privacy that they have." Verizon, one of the country's biggest cellular phone companies with 47.4 million customers, is seeking injunctions against further telemarketing to its customers, as well as monetary damages. The Bedminster, N.J.-based company said the telemarketers violated both the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act and state laws. The calls used prerecorded messages offering a prize or reward to those who called a toll-free number, and callers then received pitches to buy vacation time-shares, according to Nicol. Nicol said that in July and August, Intelligent Alternatives made more than 1 million calls to Verizon Wireless customers, including 65,000 on July 20 alone, and Resort Marketing Trends made more than 200,000 calls over the two months, including 17,253 in one hour on Aug. 2. Verizon Wireless attorneys believe the calls were made using automatic dialing devices, Nicol said. The lawsuits were filed Wednesday. The suit against Intelligent Alternatives was filed in state Superior Court in Sacramento, Calif., while the one against Resort Marketing Trends was filed in state Superior Court in Somerville, N.J., because Verizon Wireless customers in New Jersey and California received the largest number of calls from the telemarkers. "There were people throughout the country who received these calls," Nicol said, and Verizon is continuing to collect data on such calls. At Intelligent Alternatives, spokesman C. Earl Rogers said the company "has not willfully or knowingly called a cell phone number." He said the lawsuit has been referred to his company's legal counsel and declined further comment. Officials at Resort Marketing Trends could not be reached Friday because the telemarketing company does not have a listed telephone number. According to Nicol, Verizon Wireless previously has sued spammers for contacting its customers, but has never before sued telemarketers and believes these are the first such lawsuits in the country. Copyright 1997-2005 PG Publishing Co., Inc. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, PG Publishing Company, Inc. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Janice Morse <Enquirer@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Congress Weighing Rules for Cable Franchises Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 18:08:56 -0500 By Janice Morse Enquirer staff writer Payments to cities for local programs may end. The days may be numbered for cable access channels that allow people to tune into local government meetings, church sermons, even high school football games. Congress is considering three bills that would change federal telecommunications laws. That could prompt cable operators to unplug community channels, cable-access advocates say. "This is a 'life-or-death' thing for anybody who wants local voices to still remain in media," says Tom Bishop, head of Media Bridges Cincinnati. The three bills seek to create new federal standards for cable franchises. Supporters say the reforms would help consumers by making the field more competitive and eliminating red tape in the cable industry. Critics warn that the proposals also could slash franchise fees that cable companies pay to local governments, which paid for community access channels and other services. "People have come to rely on local programming that they can't get anywhere else," said Patricia Stern, executive director of the Intercommunity Cable Regulatory Commission in Sharonville. It produces cable shows for 30 local communities. "None of the networks will cover the Loveland City Council meetings gavel-to-gavel, or the Hamilton County Commissioner meetings, or Friday night high school football games." Stern and other cable-access advocates are urging lawmakers and citizens to oppose the bills. The Alliance for Community Media, a national group representing more than 1,000 public-access TV centers, says national TV/video franchising would take away local officials' control over companies installing service lines along roads. The proposed legislation would require cable companies to repay communities for damage caused by installing cable lines. But it would eliminate or reduce "rent" for using public rights-of-way. In Cincinnati, those fees total $3.2 million a year, including a $700,000 community service fee that pays for local-access programming, officials said. The legislative battle is occurring because state and federal lawmakers are facing increasing pressure from telecom lobbyists. Two of the bills, in the Senate and House, aim to help telephone companies break into the TV business. Another Senate bill would eliminate local governments' franchise agreements with video/TV providers. That bill arose from "a desire to update the telecom laws and not have new technology stifled by a patchwork of laws across the country," said Jack Finn, spokesman for the bill's sponsor, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada. Finn contends the proposal would not have the devastating effects that cable-access advocates fear. But Tim Broering, executive director for the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky said, "This legislation would outlaw all cable franchises across the country. This would be the federal government telling local governments how to manage their right-of-ways." Derrick Blassingame, 19, of Avondale, produces twice-monthly Cincinnati cable-access political show called "Real Talk Live." His show may not be well-known, but his audience pays close attention. Each telecast attracts 50 to 300 e-mailed comments, he said. He says the proposed laws would cut off access to people like him. Cable access channels provide more than 20,000 hours of local TV shows each week . That's more than all the programming produced by NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and PBS combined, the Alliance says. Still, it's unclear how many people watch community access shows. But Warren County Administrator Dave Gully said citizens' comments lead him to believe that cable-access telecasts of local governments' meetings attract substantial viewership. E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com Copyright 2005, The Enquirer 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. National news daily at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Mark Halper <time@telecom-digest.org> Subject: The Mobile Snatchers Date: Sun, 4 Sep 2005 21:17:10 -0500 By Mark Halper Wi-fi changed the way the world surfs the web. Now it's coming to a phone near you -- and telecoms will never be the same. When operations manager Spiros Stefanou learns that a flight coming into Athens International Airport is due in early, he picks up his mobile phone and alerts baggage handlers to scramble a crew quickly. Nothing unusual about that -- except that the Cisco-supplied handset that Stefanou and some 100 other airport employees use never touches a mobile network. Instead, it wirelessly taps into the airport's internal network, which transmits the call for free anywhere in the 16-sq-km airport. "It bypasses any mobile or telecom network," says Fotis Karonis, the airport's director of information technology and telecommunications. "It's an advantage, because you don't have to call with your mobile and pay." Using this system helps save airport workers as much as $163,000 per year. It might seem like little more than the reinvention of the walkie-talkie, but Stefanou and Karonis are on the cusp of a movement that could be called The Invasion of the Mobile Snatchers. Ever since the beginning of commercial cell-phone services some two decades ago, mobile phones and mobile operators have gone together like railroad cars and railroad tracks. Handset vendors such as Nokia and Motorola provided about 2 billion phones to mobile operators like Vodafone, Orange and Verizon, which in turn put them in the hands of consumers who pay to transmit calls over the operators' mobile networks. Indeed, many operators subsidized the handset business, picking up the cost of the phones as a loss leader that would be more than made up by charging consumers for use. But after all that cooperation, something radical is happening. Handset vendors are starting to build Internet technologies into their phones that permit users like Stefanou to bypass mobile networks. The same wi-fi chips that have worked their way into laptops and turned tens of thousands of coffee shops and hotel lounges into Internet surfing zones are starting to appear in handsets. Customers using this phone simply place a call as normal, provided they have access to a wi-fi zone. This lets them do an end run around the mobile network. The lines between Internet service and phone service are blurring, and just as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has shaken up the fixed-line phone business, it is now poised to disrupt the mobile business. At stake is a slice of the $550 billion in voice revenue that London research firm Informa Telecoms & Media says mobile operators will generate in 2010. The revelation in August that Google will begin providing free voice transmissions over computers, and Microsoft's announced acquisition last week of the VoIP start-up Teleo, show that the biggest tech players are not going to sit this game out. For some companies, that will be liberating. "Making calls from a mobile handset is no longer the preserve of just the mobile operator," says Ryan Jarvis, head of convergence products for British mobile and fixed-line provider BT. Because BT only recently entered into the mobile-service business, it has been among the first of the old-line telecoms to cautiously embrace mobile VoIP. Since June, BT has started 400 of its home broadband customers on Fusion, a Motorola-supplied phone that makes cheap Internet Protocol (IP) calls from home and switches to pricier mobile transmission outside the house. It's still a fledgling technology, because the phones use Bluetooth to make an IP connection, which limits the range in which supercheap calls can be made. But things should get more interesting in 2006, when BT and other providers add hybrid wi-fi/cellular phones. At least four of the largest mobile-handset vendors -- Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and LG -- are known to be preparing such devices, which will bring wi-fi phoning more into the mainstream. "2006 will be a big year for [mobile] wi-fi," pred icts Nokia senior vice president Ilkka Raiskinen, noting that wi-fi will become a standard feature in Nokia's multimedia and business phones next year, and that by 2006 Nokia will put it into many midrange models (it currently offers wi-fi only in an $800 phone called the 9500 Communicator). At handset maker Motorola, chief strategy officer Richard Nottenberg echoes Nokia's views, and pledges that Motorola will next year introduce a "significant" number of wi-fi phones. Indeed, Motorola has made a deal with the company that many phone firms associate with the Devil; its mix of products next year is expected to include a phone loaded with software from Luxembourg-based VoIP firm Skype, whose users can make free VoIP calls to each other. Skype has signed up 51 million "registered" users of its software, though probably less than half of those actually use it. Many Skype users call from their PCs, laptops and handheld devices via fixed or wi-fi-accessed broadband lines. "Five years from now, most calls, everywhere in the world, will be routed over the Internet, [via] affordable, cell-phone-like products that are Skype- and Internet-enabled," predicts Skype ceo Niklas Zennström. In these early days of mobile VoIP, analysts find it difficult to quantify its potential impact. But many expect a shakeup. "Can carriers, either wireless or wireline, prevent its spread? The answer is no,'' says Allen Nogee of research firm In-Stat. The company forecasts that global shipments of mobile phones with wi-fi will hit 13.5 million in 2007, leap to 52.8 million in 2008, and surge to 136 million by 2010 -- probably a conservative estimate. And it's not just voice calls that are under threat. As phones morph into data and entertainment devices, wi-fi chips will also permit phone users to browse the Web and download music without coming near a mobile network. Nokia, for instance, is building wi-fi into its N91, a slick, music-playing phone capable of storing 3,000 songs, due by the end of the year. Wi-fi and other Net connections also threaten operators' profitable text-messaging business, because users can send IP-based "instant messages" instead. Of course, mobile operators will not sit idly by. Some will point out that wi-fi phones have short battery life and poor wandering capabilities. Mobile operators are also requesting that handset makers like Nokia and Motorola build into their hybrid phones a technology that will route wi-fi-initiated calls over mobile networks. And then there's the ultimate weapon: price cuts, which could make the underlying technology irrelevant. "At the end of the day, it's a pricing game," notes Gartner analyst Martin Gutberlet in Munich. Many mobile operators, for example, now provide virtually free intra-office calls. This fall, several will offer free calls that stay on the operator's own network within a country, says Gutberlet. But eventually, most operators will be forced to join the VoIP revolution. Some already run wi-fi hot spots; in France, Orange subscribers can tap the Net with laptops and other devices, so adding VoIP phones to its portfolio could help the company hold onto at least some voice revenue. Germany's third largest operator, E-Plus, last week said that it will include Skype software as part of its flat-rate 40-per-month data-card subscription for use on laptops, starting in October. "In the long term, as part of an evolution, we'll go to VoIP-enabled over the phone," concedes Dave Williams, chief technology officer at O2. Like the planes in Athens, mobile VoIP looks set to take off, and woe to any carrier that stays on the runway. Copyright 2005 TIME Magazine. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, TIME Magazine. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: John Hines <jbhines@newsguy.com> Subject: Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criticism? Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 20:10:09 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > There's been a great deal of criticism of the response of > 'government', especially the Federal level, to help the flood victims. I have concerns with Bush's personal response to this disaster, which threatened thousands, as well as a third of our energy supply (from the gulf), when it is compared to his response to the single life of Terry Schavio. I wish this country had a better leader. So far only Gen. Honore has gotten any positives on leadership. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 14:30:10 -0700 From: John L. Shelton <john@jshelton.com> Subject: Re: Flood Relief Efforts - Unfair Criticism? > In looking over the logistics -- many thousands of people needing help > NOW! -- I wonder if our expectations of government miracles are too > high. We're used to instant gratification from the Internet and TV. > But maybe in the real world things work a little differently. I have seen very little, if any, coverage discussing the individual responsibilities in such disasters. It is sad that people are willing to blame government for their circumstances, and in particular push the Federal government for absolute responsibility. Individuals owe themselves responsibility. People can better plan for emergency. People can choose where to live, knowing the risks. People can behave responsibly during a crisis. But there's been little evidence of this. It will be very hard to convince me that 100k people in New Orleans were incapable of leaving in advance. Many poor people have cars, or have friends/families with cars. There were enough cars in NO to evacuate everyone. If one has as an emergency plan climbing into the attic during a flood, one should take an ax. If you don't have an ax, don't trap yourself in an attic. Better to float downstream than drown trapped in an attic. Here in earthquake country, many of us stock a few days' supply of food and water. It doesn't cost very much. Looting and raping are the actions of individuals. While it would be nice to have police protection against these, I hold the criminals responsible, not the police. What is in the minds of those who say that stealing and rape are bad, except in an emergency? (Perhaps this is a product of public-school education??) How did NO citizens elect such a nit-wit mayor? We saw much better behavior from NYC's mayor in 2001. Perhaps NYC has more resources, but I think they have a better track record of electing responsible, take-charge mayors. Why is the Federal government responsible? Why hasn't the city of NO actually put into place better emergency plans, and prepared physically for the inevitable. Here in Earthquake country, we've been quake retrofitting for 50 years. Geepers ... =John= john@jshelton.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: Katrina's Real Name Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 18:21:30 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Monty Solomon wrote: > By Ross Gelbspan > THE HURRICANE that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by > the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming. > When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause > was global warming. Since when did 2005 begin in November 2004? Ross's calendar is a couple months off. 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: That was a good catch, Steve! I think what he meant to say was 'when _last winter_ began' rather than 'when the year began'. 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