TELECOM Digest     Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:05:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 416

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Two Singapore Bloggers Charged for Racist Remarks (Reuters News Wire)
    cNN/Time Web Sites Merging (Reuters News Wire)
    eBay to Buy Skype in $2.6 Billion Deal (Joseph)
    Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO (Danny Burstein)
    Re: Arizona Budget POTS Plans (Lisa Hancock)
    Re: NYC Phone Rates, was: Sid Ceasar and Phones in Comedy (Tony P.)
    Help Needed Once Again (Patrick Townson)

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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
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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: Two Singapore Bloggers Charged For Racist Remarks
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:14:34 -0500


Two men were charged in a Singapore court on Monday with violating the
city-state's sedition laws by posting anti-Muslim comments on their
Internet homepages, police said.

The two ethnic Chinese men, aged 25 and 27, face charges for promoting
ill-will and hostility between ethnic communities on their personal
websites, or "blogs," in June.

The police said both men were accused of posting racist remarks aimed at
Singapore's mostly-Muslim ethnic Malay community. If convicted, they may
be jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

Singapore has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the
world, but also some of the toughest media laws.

Singapore police have wide powers to intercept online messages, and
Internet service providers are required to block websites containing
material that may be a threat to public security, national defense,
racial and religious harmony and public morality.

Political and religious websites must also be registered with the
authorities.

The government has defended these controls as necessary to maintain
ethnic harmony among its 4.2 million people.

About three-quarters of Singapore's population is ethnic Chinese.
Ethnic Malays account for 14 percent and ethnic Indians for another
eight percent.

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.

To read NY Times, Christian Science Monitor and hear National Public
Radio headlines/news reports, go to 
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html

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

From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: CNN and Time Web Sites to Merge
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 14:14:59 -0500


CNN, Time Inc. to merge business Web sites

Cable news network CNN and magazine publisher Time Inc. plan to
consolidate their business and finance-related Web sites divisions,
which will be relaunched in January 2006.

The new site brings together Time Inc.'s Fortune.com, FSB.com and
Business2.com with CNN's CNNMoney.com. It will retain the CNNMoney.com
name.

CNN and Time Inc. are divisions of global media conglomerate Time
Warner Inc.

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.

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

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: eBay to Buy Skype in $2.6 Billion Deal (USA Today version)
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:25:42 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


By Mattias Karen, Associated Press Writer

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Online auctioneer eBay (EBAY) said Monday that it
will acquire Internet communications company Skype Technologies for
about $2.6 billion in cash and eBay stock.
 
EBay CEO Meg Whitman, left, poses with Niklas Zennstrom of Skype. EBay
owns PayPal.

The total value of the deal may climb to $4.1 billion based on whether
Skype meets a series of performance targets over the next three years,
eBay said. The additional payments of $1.5 billion would be made in
2008 or 2009.

Ebay said the acquisition of privately held Skype will create "an
unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine" for Internet users
worldwide.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2005-09-12-ebay-skype_x.htm

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

From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Subject: Flat Rate Water, was: Verizon Complaints About EVDO
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 20:00:04 UTC
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


In <telecom24.415.12@telecom-digest.org> John L. Shelton
<john@jshelton.com> writes:

[ snip ]

> The moral issue is: whether an "unlimited" service sold to an
> individual can be shared with others.  Past history suggests "no." We
> don't share our unlimited local phone lines with the neighborhood, nor
> our cable TV. We don't rent one trash pickup in the nbhd and tell
> everyone to bring their trash on over to one house for pickup. We
> don't jam everyone possible into a car at the drive-in theatre in an
> effort to avoid paying for extra cars. In places with unmetered water
> (like NYC), we don't extend hoses to our neighbors so they don't have
> to pay for a basic water hookup.

Minor correction and update:

	NYC _used_ to have a kind-of flat rate service [a]
	for residential water users. You paid a fee based
	on your frontage (size of your property) _and_
	the number of faucets per the plans on file
	with the building department.

		[a] kind of like the kind-of flat
		rates for phone service, I guess...

Beginning about two decades ago all new residential hookups were
metered, and bit by bit all the older ones have been switched over as
well.

As a bit of a side trivia, NYC customers actually pay roughly _twice_
the metered rate since there's a corresponding sewer fee. There's a
small group of homeowners who have their own septic tanks and are
exempt from that -- if they know to apply ...

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
		     dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you mean to tell me septic tanks are
allowed in New York City? Here in Independence, KS, _everyone_ has to
be hooked to the sewer, with no exceptions. Outside the city limits
(that area which is known as 'rural Independence') is a different
matter.  Most of them are _not_ hooked to the sewer, but they are
hooked to the water, and many of them complain about the cost of
'rural water' which is much more expensive than 'city water'. I cannot
believe there are places and communities so backward that septic tanks
are allowed, except by default in small rural areas. But NYC? Not even
in Chicago do you see that any longer. 

The water meter-reader comes around once per month to read ours (they
have to lift a cover off of the hole in the ground where the water
meter is located; usually it is typically in the front yard (most are
actually in the parkway; the grassy area between the sidewalk and the
street). Based on that reading, the bills are sent out by the Water
Department. But the trick comes in the factors they use to calculate
the bill. Our bills are about three times the water amount. The water
consumption is only a small part of the bill; most of the bill comes
from the sewer, and the sanitation workers.  Garbage collectors come
around twice each week (Monday and Thursday in my case; other
neighborhoods are Tuesday/Friday or Wednesday/Saturday).  They empty
the garbage cans and are supposed to sweep the alleys and sidewalks. 
My monthly bill for water/sewer/sanitation is about $35 per month. And
once or twice a year I get a mailing telling me how the Filtration
Plant calculates what the water charges will be, and the chemicals
used to clean the water, etc, and how much the charge will be for
'rural' (out of city limits) users.

They say because I am a senior citizen and a 'hardship case' I get
the water at a cheaper rate; but the sewer and sanitation parts of
the bill are constant. If I were not a senior and/or hardship case
my bill would be about $38 or $39 per month. But septic tanks ...
my God!  My grandparents, when they lived in Coffeyville in the 
1950's had one of those, but only because the area they were in
had been 'rural' until it was annexed by Coffeyville sometime in 
the 1940's. I remember once grandpa Townson's septic tank got
plugged up somehow; they had to dig up the yard and clean it out.
A septic tank?  ... ugh ... PAT]

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

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Arizona Budget POTS Plans
Date: 12 Sep 2005 13:21:28 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Mike Sutter wrote:

> And so, finally on to the question, does anyone know if Qwest offers a
> real low cost (perhaps metered) service for POTS in the 480 area?

Unfortunately today there aren't many cheap basic phone services.  The
cost-saving between measured use and flat rate is about $2-$3; this is
the same  actual dollar amount it was  30 years ago.  But  35 years it
was significant money -- between paying $4.65/month nad $6.65 a month.

More significantly are all the extra fees every subscriber must pay
regardless of their service option.  There's the "FCC line charge",
perhaps a 911 fee, deaf service fee, universal service fee, line
portability fee, portabello mushroom fee, etc.  (Ok, you get my point).

Seriously, I had the barebest bones phone service you could
get--measured rate party line, and they STILL had to put 2 ounces
postage on the bill they sent me periodically with all the mandated
junk printed on it.

As mentioned, some areas have discounted service, but I believe there
are income eligibility requirements to receive this.

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: NYC Phone Rates, was: Sid Ceasar and Phones in Comedy
Organization: ATCC
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:34:47 -0400


In article <telecom24.415.11@telecom-digest.org>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com 
says:

> NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info wrote:

>> Danny Burstein wrote:

>>> In <telecom24.411.18@telecom-digest.org> Wesrock@aol.com writes:
>>> Bit by bit the 75 message unit allowance got cut down, so nowadays
>>> there's nothing there there. On the slight plus side back in the
>>> 1970s the "local area" for untimed calls expanded to the entire
>>> city.

>> Also cut out is the discount for LOCAL calls made in evening and night
>> altho Verizon kept itemizing how many were made eve and night.

> IIRC, more distant Message Unit calls in NYC were timed.  Immediate
> local calls were untimed, but more distant calls had a charge, such as
> one unit for every two minutes and the even further calls one unit for
> every minute.  There was a complex chart in the phone book that
> explained it all.

> Philadelphia used and continues to use a similar system to this day.
> It's called "measured service now" but the principles are the same--an
> non-itemized aggregate of cost for intermediate local calls in the
> "Metropolitan Calling Area".  In contrast to the above, in more recent
> years discounts are given for night/weekend calls, in the past there
> were no discounts for offpeak calling.  Also, in more recent years
> boundaries were liberalized and basically the charges declined.

I wonder how VoIP and unlimited local/ld is impacting measured
service.  Put it this way, a measured service line in RI would cost
about $25 a month. For that much I use Vonage and get unlimited.

> Based on the Bell System history, many big cities had measured
> service.  Adding meters to each line for panel switching did not seem
> to be a big deal; indeed, I think it was part of the plan.  I don't
> think adding meters to SxS was that hard either as it was done in the
> 1940s for Los Angeles.

> Note that cities had fairly large calling areas and the opportunity to
> reach literally millions of people on a local call.  In contrast,
> small towns had a much smaller calling area before going toll and far
> fewer people to reach.  So you in a small town could call your next
> door neigbhor for free, but your cousin in the next town was a toll
> call.

> For example, the regional high school serving my area covers a fairly
> large geographic area.  End to end is a toll call, in the middle are
> message unit calls, and local calls within narrow spots.  You can see
> the contrast in calling options and fees for a kid in a city high
> school (measured, but cheap) and a suburban kid (either free or toll).

> Remember too the Brady Bunch episode discussed here where too many
> calls were being made and the parents clamped down on the kids.
> Obviously they had measured service.  (In a modern house with six kids
> with three adults.  Hmm, yeah right.  Geez, even in those days
> families like that were putting in second lines for the kids to use;
> the phoneco even had combo packages.)

I've never had a measured service line. Just wasn't worth it to me,
particularly in the early 80's doing BBS testing where you might make
12 calls a day.

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

From: Patrick Townson <ptownson@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Help Needed Once Again
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 17:00:00 CDT


About one year ago, my laptop computer finally bit the dust; the one
I had around for however long. I asked here, and a couple of the 
readers graciously found older, used computers with Win 95 on them
and sent them to my rescue.  Now that very same problem has arisen
once again. Another very old computer (all mine are quite ancient, 
the same as me personally) has given up: A very old (circa 1996)
Toshiba laptop which served me faithfully for many years has 
decided to quit working. Until I can get it replaced/repaired (which
is quite unlikely because of its age) I have to limp along with what
I have. Can any of my generous readers find their way clear to send
me another old computer they no longer use nor want?  I will be
most appreciative.    

PAT

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #416
******************************