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TELECOM Digest Sat, 24 Sep 2005 16:08:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 435 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Web Scammers Strike Before Hurricane Does (Brian Krebs) Media Watchdog Tells Bloggers How to Avoid Censors (Timothy Heritage) Rita Pushes Blogs and Rich Maps to Forefront (Anik Jesdanun) Voice Over Internet (VOIP) Both Simple, and Complex (Frank Bajak) Broadcasting Stations and Music Publishers at Odds (Neal McLain) T-Mobile USA Response to Hurricanes Rita and Katrina (Joseph) T-Mobile USA Customer Concessions During Aftermath of Katrina (Joseph) Re: Vonage Urged to Consider Sale, Float, According to FT (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 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: Brian Krebs <washpost@telecom_digest.org> Subject: Web Scammers Strike Before Hurricane Does Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 12:57:04 -0500 By Brian Krebs Special to The Washington Post Saturday, September 24, 2005; D01 In a spree mirroring the online gold rush that accompanied Hurricane Katrina, online speculators are scooping up hundreds of Hurricane Rita-related Web domain names, and Rita-themed Internet auctions have begun. Scammers often use such Web sites to trick people into making donations, authorities said. The quick proliferation of questionable activities spurred the federal government to work with Internet service providers, computer security companies and anti-spam groups to shut down and prosecute owners of fraudulent sites, according to several participants in the ad hoc task force. The group has already closed more than 40 Web sites falsely claiming to raise money for relief organizations, said Tom Liston, a security consultant with Washington-based Intelguardians.com and an incident handler with the SANS Internet Storm Center, a nonprofit group that tracks online-hacking trends. Internet 'vigilante' groups closed down a few others on the very day they opened for business. Liston began tracking new Web site registrations containing the word "Rita" on Monday and as of yesterday had found more than 1,100 such sites, he said. On Thursday, someone used eBay to begin auctioning off a burnt piece of toast with the meteorological symbol for a hurricane and the word "Rita" scraped onto it, promising to donate 40 percent of the final auction price to storm victims. EBay shut down the auction later that day. An EBay official said that was a very revolting auction item. Several Rita-related domain names were for sale on eBay yesterday, including one for RitaAid.net that started the bidding at $10,000. The auction did not claim that any of the proceeds would benefit relief efforts. "I expect we're going to probably see just as many attempts at fraud with Rita as we did with Katrina, and the fact that both of these hurricanes hit at the same time is going to increase amount of scams out there," Liston said. "Because [the hurricane] is such a newsworthy issue and people constantly have this in front of them, unfortunately that's going to help these lowlifes out there to succeed in what they're doing." Organizations that said they were members of the ad hoc Rita task force working with the Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, include the SANS Internet Storm Center, the Spamhaus Project, the Anti-Phishing Working Group and San Diego Internet-security firm Websense Inc. Officials of the Homeland Security Department did not respond to interview requests for this story. After Katrina, scam artists set up dozens of Web sites asking for PayPal donations but offering little or no information about what they planned to do with the money. As the massive storm neared land, registrations of new Internet domain names containing the name "Katrina" skyrocketed, and hundreds of Katrina-related auctions emerged on eBay that flouted the auction site's rules for charitable giving. Virus writers also took advantage of the disaster by e-mailing malicious attachments posing as photographs of the storm's devastation. "Look what the storm did to our family's home," said one such virus attachment. The scams prompted U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to outline anti-fraud priorities for the FBI and the Justice Department. State attorneys general in Florida and Missouri also sued people who were fraudulently accepting donations for hurricane victims. Krebs is a staff writer for washingtonpost.com. Copyright 2005 The Washington Post Company 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. Additional news available at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Timothy Heritage <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Media Watchdog Tells Bloggers How to Avoid Censors Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 13:06:17 -0500 By Timothy Heritage A Paris-based media watchdog released a handbook on Thursday to help cyber-dissidents and bloggers avoid political censorship in countries as far apart as China, Iran, Vietnam and Cuba. The guide, published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) with the backing of the French government, identifies bloggers as the "new heralds of free expression" and offers advice on how to set up a blog and run it anonymously. "Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure," wrote Julien Pain, head of RSF's Internet Freedom Desk. "Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest." Blogs are personal Web sites that are easy to set up and are often written in the form of an online diary. The name is a shortened form of personal "Web log." The "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents" can be downloaded from the RSF website (www.rsf.org), and the media organization says it is available in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Farsi. The guide is based on technical advice from experienced bloggers and experts, and provides personal accounts by bloggers such as Arash Sigarchi, who received a 14-year-jail sentence in Iran last February but is free pending an appeal. "Internet journalism could advance freedom of expression and wider view points," wrote Sigarchi, who faced charges ranging from spying to insulting the country's leaders. "Although I have been convicted by Iranian courts, I have not lost hope and I am sure that in coming years the rulers of my country will have to respect the flow of information and freedom of expression." "TOOLS OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION" "Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new information revolution," RSF said on its Web site. "Because they allow and encourage ordinary people to speak up, they're tremendous tools of freedom of expression." The handbook offers advice on how to establish credibility by observing basic ethical and journalistic principles. One chapter offers advice on technical ways to get around censorship. Others feature bloggers' experiences from such countries as Nepal, Iran, Bahrain and Hong Kong. Publication of the handbook follows moves in some countries to crack down on Internet use. RSF said countries which were trying to control what their citizens read and do online included China, Vietnam, Iran, Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan. 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: Anick Jesdanun <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Rita Pushes Blogs, Rich Maps to Forefront Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 13:08:17 -0500 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer As Hurricane Rita approached, editors at the Houston Chronicle decided to experiment: They hand-picked about a dozen Web diarists and asked them to post regular dispatches on the newspaper's online blog -- all without any editorial intervention. "One of the benefits to blogs is that they tend to be more personal, they tend to provide more the emotional feel of an event," said Dwight Silverman, the Chronicle's interactive journalism editor. "In traditional reporting you put on your poker face and do your writing. ... It's not supposed to be the writer's emotions." The Chronicle set up a second blog for its own staff writers -- this one edited -- to post anecdotes and other info before they appeared in any stories, print or online. And science writer Eric Berger devoted his regular blog, SciGuy, to the storm. Besides the Chronicle's blogs, Web surfers were able to get firsthand accounts Friday through podcasts and photographs. They could track the storm using Google-powered maps. And they could find housing and other emergency information from government and private Web sites. At the Chronicle's citizen-contributed blog, Stormwatchers, one participant talked of being packed and ready to evacuate, while another wrote of the calm before the storm: "Our dog is happy, running around the yard, and having fun." Silverman said the newspaper picked experienced bloggers from the region, voices it expected would be civil, lively and informative. "We had been looking at doing more of these kinds of things, and this seems like a perfect venue for this kind of experiment," he said. "One of the nice things about the Web is if it didn't work, if it descended into babble, we can turn it off. So far it's been valuable." At The Wall Street Journal's Web site, News Tracker summarized the latest developments in a blog format -- reverse chronological order. The site, re-activated after an initial 12-day Hurricane Katrina run, even links to resources at other news sites -- something common in blogging but still rare for traditional media. Meanwhile, Russell Holliman and a few fellow podcasters from Houston decided to combine the emerging audio-distribution format with traditional Internet radio. They established a live streaming feed called RitaCast and made arrangements to produce a new personal audio dispatch every hour, each about 20 minutes long. The group was even trying to take calls from listeners -- something rare with podcasts. Each dispatch was packaged into an MP3 file and distributed as a podcast through Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes and other networks that automatically distributing free audio subscriptions. "It really just did start out as a technical experiment," Holliman said. "We wanted to see if it can be done. It introduces a new format for podcasts where people can actually get the live interaction with the listener." Some Texas newspapers, including the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, suspended their print editions and turned to the Internet instead. Others, including the Victoria Advocate, asked readers to submit photographs for online posting. Visitors to FLHurricane.com could track the movement of Hurricane Rita on a map, the colors of the markers changing from green to red as the storm intensified. The site combines Google Inc.'s mapping tools with data from the National Weather Service. The site's administrator, Mike Cornelius, has software to automatically pull latitude and longitude coordinates from the government advisories. Resources set up for Hurricane Katrina also have been adapted for Rita. Among them: MoveOn.org's Web site for connecting refugees with those who have housing to spare. On the Net: Stormwatchers: http://blogs.chron.com/stormwatchers RitaCast: http://houstonpodcasting.net Rita map: http://flhurricane.com/googlemap.php?2005s18 MoveOn project: http://www.hurricanehousing.org 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. Also see http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Frank Bajak <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Voice Over Internet Both Simple, Complex Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 13:09:51 -0500 Voice Over Internet Both Simple, Complex By FRANK BAJAK, AP Technology Editor We have more ways than ever of communicating, but trying to keep up with family and friends can be exasperating. Our overlapping free time seems to shrink. We constantly play phone and voice mail tag. And e-mail, in its tone-deaf impersonality, barely helps. One of the most unorthodox and intriguing among 32 new products launched onstage at this week's DEMOfall conference, a showcase of tech innovation, was a Web-based tool with a mission: to encourage emotional connection via audio messages. Not two-way conversations, mind you. Just me telling you my news. Click, talk and send. The product is called YackPack because the user creates groups, or packs, of people who can be audio-messaged individually or collectively. Each member of your pack gets an icon with his or her picture on it. An e-mail notification tells you when a Yack has arrived. "It turns out that asynchronous audio is the secret sauce for what keeps relationships alive and fresh," said B.J. Fogg, the company founder and chief executive. Much of YackPack's recipe came from the year Fogg spent with a focus group of women over age 50. Unlike Fogg, the typical tech startup CEO will bend your ear with metrics on market potential while spouting technobabble that would befuddle all but us geeks. Such people abounded at DEMOfall, where other promising products pitched to an elite crowd of investors and press also sought to better manage relationships: by turning a cell phone into a conference-call manager, helping eBay users place bids wirelessly, protecting the privacy of online consumers. Fogg, on the other hand, was more apt to be accused of psycho-babble. He is, after all, a Stanford psychologist in addition to being a computer scientist. "We're helping people connect emotionally, and that leads to happiness," he said. Santa Rosa, Calif.-based YackPack goes live in mid-October and will be free while in beta, then cost well under $10 per month, with a free ad-based version, Fogg says. There's no software to download, and Fogg says YackPack even works with dial-up connections. All you need is to get a microphone working with your computer. "Three-year-olds can do it. Grandmas can do it. People who can't read and write can do it," said Fogg. He sees the product as benefiting circles well beyond families -- cancer support groups, for example. DEMO's semiannual shows have been springboards for such industry standouts as TiVo, the Palm Pilot and the Danger HipTop. After six years under the DEMOmobile moniker, this year's fall show got a name change in recognition of our ability to finally go online wirelessly with increasing ease. DEMO show producer Chris Shipley says the legions of ultra-productive but also constantly reachable and thus often harried "always-on people" are driving today's tech market. Shipley calls it the dawning era of "ultrapersonal computing." Software and services thus dominated DEMOfall, with a number of products appearing poised to humble industry giants, especially in telecommunications. One was Mobile Call Manager from Menlo Park, Calif.-based TalkPlus Inc., which uses Internet phone technology over the traditional cellular network. It makes cheap calls available on cell phones while adding such features as the ability to have multiple phone numbers ring on a single handset and on-the-fly conference calling with up to 10 participants. That's something no wireless carrier now offers. CEO Jeff Black claims he'll be able to offer low, low rates -- 2 cents a minute for calls within the United States and Canada -- and he's lining up multiple carriers internationally for a Jan. 1 launch. He wouldn't name the partners. Jingle Networks Inc. of San Francisco sees directory assistance as another huge market -- worth an estimated $8 billion a year in the United States -- that's ripe for the plucking. To bypass the traditional carriers, Jingle connects callers for free to the business, government office or residence of their choice. The trade-off for using 1-800-FREE-411: Callers must first listen to a 12-second recorded pitch. Jingle's success will depend on its ability to sign up local merchants. When I called the service to get my home phone number, the pitch I heard, after following the voice prompts, was for Jingle itself. The cell phone is also the key for Camden, N.J.-based Smarter Agent Inc. Its first service, expected next year, will deliver real estate listings to mobile handsets based on a user's location. If you like a neighborhood but are nowhere near a computer, you'll be able to use a map on your cell phone screen to see what nearby houses are on the market, the asking price and other details. You'll even be able to search to see recent selling prices for comparable homes in the neighborhood. Smarter Agent, a registered Realtor, draws on the Multiple Listing Service used by agents across the nation on their Web sites. Safeguarding privacy online has become an ever more serious concern with identity theft a mounting problem. That was reason enough for a company called UniPrivacy Inc. to build a business on protecting consumers proactively. The company's newly launched DeleteNow product will, for $2.99 per month, remove information about you from more than 100 online sources -- search engines and databases including Google Inc. -- and check those sites daily to make sure the information stays off. However, plenty of sites that might contain personal information about you, such as Claria Corp., aren't cooperating, says chief executive Chaz Berman. The more customers UniPrivacy acquires, the more clout it will have, and Berman says it plans to eventually "out" those sites that refuse to cooperate. After all, "When you join we become your legal agent." Touche! Frank Bajak can be reached at techeditor(at)ap.org On the Net: http://www.demo.com/DEMOfall http://www.yackpack.com http://www.talkplus.com http://www.free411.com http://www.smarteragent.com http://www.uniprivacy.com 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. ------------------------------ From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com> Subject: Broadcasting Stations and Music Publishers at Odds Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 22:01:30 -0400 A friend recently sent me a photocopy of the following newspaper article: ----- start of quoted article ----- The Sunday Oregonian, Portland Oregon, August 26, 1923 BROADCASTING STATIONS AND MUSIC PUBLISHERS AT ODDS Broadcasters Maintain That Stations Help Musical Composition Rather Than Prevent Public From Buying -- Contest Will Determine Influence That Wireless Has Had Upon the Music Purchases of Country By Saul Emanuel Does radio broadcasting help to "make" a song or is it really detrimental to the sale of a new composition in the form of records or music rolls? Several months ago the claim was made by the music publishers and authors that the use of their compositions by the broadcasting stations was proving disastrous to the welfare of their trade. According to Arthur A Freistadt, president of United States Music Company of Chicago, the radio fan who can listen to a musical composition with an inexpensive radio set has no desire to buy the sheet music, piano roll, or phonograph record of the selection. Freistadt is for this reason entirely opposed to the radio broadcasting of music, especially of the popular variety. Royalties Are Asked. To offset this alleged decrease of their business, the publishers now demand the payment of royalties form the stations and declare that they will go to court to enforce such payment. One of their legal advisers recently made the statement that such royalties could also be extracted from certain receiving sets installed in commercial establishments for advertising purposes. The broadcasters contend, according to H. Gernsback, editor of Radio News, that broadcasting of these compositions could have but one effect upon them, an increase of popularity with an according increase in sales. Several instances are cited by Gernsback in which certain songs making an appreciable headway through the usual methods of exploitation were almost instantly popularized when they were sung from several of the large broadcasting stations. The sales of these compositions immediately jumped into the hundreds of thousands, declares the editor of Radio News. Fans Deny Charges. The controversy is attracting the attention of the radio public, now counted in the millions. Letters are being constantly written to different broadcasting stations from listeners who say that they would never have heard of such and such a song had it not been sung from that station. In many cases the listener wrote that he or she purchased a copy of the composition the following day to try it out on the piano. Others bought records of the song, they wrote. The broadcasters have no intention of being held up in this bold manner, according to statements from many of the stations. In fact an organization is being promoted among the stations to boycott the compositions of the musical trust and to broadcast only those from independent authors and publishers. Contest to Prove Point. To prove that radio broadcasting is the most powerful advertising medium for the popularizing of music, the Radio News has stated a contest for the two best compositions written before October 1 of this year. These selections, one of which is to be a march and the other a "jazz" piece, will be chosen in an open competition and promoted entirely by radio. Three hundred dollars in prizes will be awarded in the contest, one half for the best composition in march time and a like amount for the best composition in "jazz" time. The winning contestants will also be paid a generous royalty so that two new popular song writers will also be "made" by radio if the plan of Radio News is successful. Conditions Are Given. The conditions of the competition, as mentioned in the September issue of Radio News, follows: 1. Each composition to be not longer than the usual four pages. 2. Contestants may send in more than one competition. There is no restriction as to number. 3. All compositions to be executed in ink in the usual manner, using the usual musical symbols. 4. Compositions to be entitled "Radio March" or "Radio Jazz" as the case may be. 5. Authors unable to write down music themselves may have a musician do this for them. 6. All manuscripts to be submitted flat, not rolled. 7. All manuscripts not accepted will be promptly returned to the owners at the conclusion of the contest, provided that sufficient postage is enclosed with the manuscripts. 8. All prizes will be paid upon publication. 9. The contest closes in New York on October 1, 1923. 10. Address all compositions to Editor, Radio Music Contest, Radio News, New York. Those who will judge the contest will be Hugo Reisenfeld, conductor of the orchestras of the Rialto, Rivoli, Criterion theaters of New York; Ted Lewis of the well-known Ted Lewis band and Ted Lewis frolics; Vincent Lopez, director of the Hotel Pennsylvania orchestra, New York; Milton J. Cross, announcer of radio broadcasting station AJN, New York, member of the Institute of Musical Arts and of Paulist choristers; Leo R. Riggs, musical director of the Hotel Astor bands, and H. Gernsback, editor of Radio News. ----- end of quoted article ----- The name Milton J. Cross, one of the judges in the Radio News contest, caught my attention. Perhaps a few other elderly TD readers remember him as the "Voice of the Met" from 1935 to 1974. The same page of the Oregonian also contains an article COCKADAY CIRCUIT GIVES EXTREME TUNING SHARPNESS and even includes a schematic diagram (one triode) and instructions for winding the coils (excerpt: "The antenna coil L-4 is wound on another paper tube 3 1/4 inches in diameter and consists of 43 turns of No. 18 tapped every seventh turn."). Apparently then, as now, newspapers reported the latest techno-geek fads. Neal McLain ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: T-Mobile USA Response to Hurricanes Rita and Katrina Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:04:17 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com HURRICANE RITA T-Mobile is preparing for the potential impact of Hurricane Rita. The T-Mobile Disaster Recovery Team stands ready at several command centers within close proximity of the areas expected to be hit hardest -- enabling teams of technicians to mobilize, as soon as conditions permit, to work to restore service to cell sites that may be affected by the storm. In the event of widespread power outages throughout the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, T-Mobile has more than 10,000 gallons of fuel accessible and ready-to-roll into the affected areas to power cell site generators and company repair/transport vehicles, and for other emergency circumstances. T-Mobile also has on-demand access to thousands of gallons of additional fuel from suppliers. To help protect its core network, T-Mobile has fortified its network switch operations serving the greater Houston market, and continues to reinforce its switch in New Orleans, which remained operable through Hurricane Katrina. Microwave equipment has been trucked into the region to facilitate data communication from the cell sites to T-Mobile's network switches, as backup, in the event T1 fixed line service fails. T-Mobile has dozens of generators and several Cells-On-Wheels (COWs) on standby to support wireless communications to areas hardest hit by the storm. The company also is coordinating recovery efforts with local and state officials, as well as with U.S. Homeland Security and the FCC.n T-Mobile Customer Tips In order to better facilitate communication between families and loved ones, and to alleviate anticipated network congestion before, during and after the storm, T-Mobile recommends its customers follow these important tips: Utilize text messaging to communicate instead of voice calls. Text messaging has a greater success rate in getting through the network during high-usage periods versus voice calls. Keep your voice calls short in duration. Make sure your phone is fully charged prior to the storm. Consider obtaining a vehicle charger in the event of power loss. For T-Mobile Customer Care assistance, please visit http://my.t-mobile.com, call 611 from your T-Mobile handset, or dial 1-800-937-8997. HURRICANE KATRINA T-Mobile has restored its wireless coverage in the Gulf Coast areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina to either normal service levels or near normal service levels. T-Mobile's Disaster Recovery Team, working around the clock following Katrina's devastation, has repaired or restored service to many of its existing cell sites in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama damaged by the hurricane. If you are a T-Mobile customer in a FEMA-designated disaster area of Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama, click here for a summary of relief steps T-Mobile has taken to support its impacted customers. For questions, please visit a local T-Mobile retail store (click here for the retail store locator), call 611 from your T-Mobile handset, or dial 1-800-937-8997. Deutsche Telekom AG, parent company of T-Mobile, plans to donate approximately $2 million to assist in supporting the educational needs of children affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The company said it is exploring the specific form its donation will take and plans to announce those details as they become available. T-Mobile customers who wish to donate to the American Red Cross can easily do so by Text Messaging 2HELP. Through the Text 2HELP campaign, customers of participating wireless carriers can send a text message to 2HELP (24357) containing the message HELP and a $5 tax-deductible donation will be made to relief efforts. Donations will appear on customers monthly bills or be debited from prepaid account balances. The Text 2HELP campaign will continue through October 31, 2005. Contacts Information For Customers: From your T-Mobile phone, dial 611 free of charge. You may also call us toll free at 1-800-937-8997. ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: T-Mobile USA Customer Concessions During Aftermath of Hurricanes Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 21:40:00 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com T-Mobile Customer Relief In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, T-Mobile USA will provide to customers that have been significantly impacted in the affected areas of these states several relief measures to help support them during this time of hardship. These customers must have T-Mobile account locations in the FEMA-designated disaster areas in those states. Among the relief measures, T-Mobile will provide access to its available voice, data, and WiFi networks at no charge to its customers from the impacted areas beginning Aug. 29 until at least Sept. 30. Customers who have relocated outside of the impacted area will also receive the same services during this time, at no charge. [Voice access includes standard access, overages, nationwide long-distance and roaming; data access includes SMS and instant messaging.] In addition, until further notice, T-Mobile will not suspend the service of any customer from the impacted areas for non-payment of open balances. T-Mobile has established a process by which customers from the impacted areas can request a replacement handset, at no charge, for handsets lost, stolen or damaged. T-Mobile also continues to offer free Wi-Fi Internet service to all customers at its approximately 70 available HotSpot locations within Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. T-Mobile is closely monitoring the ongoing disaster recovery efforts and will make appropriate modifications to these policies as circumstances warrant. Customers may obtain more information by visiting a local T-Mobile retail store, calling 611 from their handset, or dialing 1-800-937-8997. http://t-mobile.com/hurricane/hurricane_katrina.asp ------------------------------ Date: 24 Sep 2005 03:29:22 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Vonage Urged to Consider Sale, Float, According to Financial Times Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA John Levine originally wrote: > That's very peculiar. I read today's FT all the way through (it's not > that big) and I found no mention of Vonage at all, much less a feature > about it. I found the article on the ft.com web site, but it doesn't seem to have made it into the printed paper. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7c536d06-2af2-11da-817a-00000e2511c8.html R's, John ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. 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