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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

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