TELECOM Digest     Tue, 25 Oct 2005 15:19:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 485

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Florida Recovering From Another Hurricane (Curt Anderson)
    Wilma Continues to Punish; Northeast Comes Next (Driscoll & VandenBrook)
    Hurricane Wilma Caused Verio Bay Area Web Outages? (Inspector Dreyfus)
    Hurricane Wilma Verio Outage Affects E-Commerce (Ozzard_of_wiz@yahoo.com)
    Wilma Causing Network-Wide Outages With Verio-Hosts (Robert Weller)
    Caller ID Time For Setting Time on POTS Analog Phone (pmettes)
    Sneaky Cingular Wireless (Bob Hofkin)
    Privacy Worries? Don't Print in Color (Monty Solomon)
    Cellular-News for Tuesday 25th October 2005 (Cellular-News)
    Ericsson to Buy Marconi's Telecom Equipment (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: More on San Francisco and Oakland Numbering (Wesrock@aol.com)
    Re: More on San Francisco and Oakland Numbering (Mark Roberts)
    Re: 1960s Long Distance From San Francisco (Mark Roberts)
    Re: Midnight Cutovers (Neal McLain)
    The First Mayoral Long-Distance Call (Mark Roberts)

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: Curt Anderson <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Florida Recovering From Another Hurricane
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:27:27 -0500


By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

Floridians lined up for water, gas, ice and generators Tuesday outside
the few stores that were open after Hurricane Wilma cut a costly,
deadly swath across the peninsula.

The storm slammed across the state in about seven hours Monday,
causing billions in insured damage and leaving 5.9 million people, or
a little less than 3 million homes and businesses, without electricity
and phones. More than 5,000 residents remained in shelters Tuesday as
the hurricane's remnants headed toward the North Atlantic.

Wilma was blamed for at least five deaths in Florida. Earlier,
authorities reported six deaths in the state but on Tuesday they
revised the total to five deaths.

Officials of Florida's three most populous areas -- Miami-Dade,
Broward and Palm Beach counties -- prepared to distribute ice, water
and other essentials to residents Tuesday, while utilities warned that
restoration of phones and power could stretch into weeks.

"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade
Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

Before smashing into Florida, Wilma killed at least six people in
Mexico and 13 others in Jamaica and Haiti.

The storm devastated resort towns along Mexico's Caribbean coast,
severely flooding the tourist hotspot Cancun, where looters ransacked
entire blocks of stores. Thousands of tourists remained stranded along
the resort-studded Yucatan coast Tuesday.

In Cuba, the storm flooded Havana's streets and ripped off chunks of
the famous Malecon seawall.

In Florida, most stores remained closed because of the widespread
power outages, creating long lines at those that were open. More than
500 people queued up outside a Broward County Super Wal-Mart, which
was letting in about 20 people at a time.

The first person in line, Joyce Carr, had been waiting several hours
in hopes of buying a generator only to learn the store was out. But
she still wanted to buy a grill, charcoal and water.

"We've heard different reports that the power will be out for some
time so we're worried about supplies for our family," Carr said.

Gov. Jeb Bush thanked emergency workers for their efforts.

"My heart goes out to people that have lost a lot and they can be rest
assured that the state government and the federal government will be
working to provide support," he added Tuesday in Miami.

His brother, President Bush, signed a disaster declaration Monday and
promised swift help. He plans to travel to Florida on Thursday.

"There are a lot of people without power and that's obviously a
priority right now," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said
Tuesday. "We're working to support the state of Florida's efforts, and
they were well prepared for this."

Miami-Dade and Broward authorities reported few problems despite the
loss of power. Fourteen people were arrested for violating a curfew in
Miami-Dade, where fewer than 10 looting arrests were made. Broward had
six reports of looting, with one arrest.

Wilma, the eighth hurricane to strike or pass by Florida in 15 months,
landed on Florida's Gulf coast as a Category 3 hurricane, littering
the landscape with power lines, wrecked signs, torn awnings and other
debris.

Trees and roofs dotted expressways, and all three of South Florida's
major airports -- Miami International, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and
Palm Beach -- were closed. Miami's airport might not reopen until
Wednesday, spokesman Marc Henderson said.

"Miami is a major point, and this is a major disruption," said John
Hotard, a spokesman for American Airlines, which has a major hub in
Miami.

At 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Wilma was centered about 570 miles
east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The system had weakened to a
Category 2 storm with 105 mph sustained wind but was moving incredibly
fast for a tropical system -- 53 mph. It was expected to lose its
tropical characteristics over the cooler Atlantic late Tuesday or
early Wednesday.

Although it was so far out to sea, it was contributing moisture to a
nor'easter that was blowing through the Northeast, causing power
outages in Connecticut and Massachusetts and hammering New Jersey
beaches with 20-foot waves.

On Florida's Turnpike near Miami, dozens of cars waited to get gas at
a station that had power. At the Orange Bowl near downtown Miami, cars
stretched at least half a mile at a distribution point for ice and
water.

"I wasn't prepared for anything. I never thought it would be this
bad," said Virginia Davila, 29, as she waited at the stadium.

Ellen Seigel, 56, of Naples, sat on a bench in the neighborhood near
downtown Fort Lauderdale where she was staying. The street was
littered with broken glass and pieces of foam insulation as people
bought carts full of water and milk in a drug store.

"I haven't seen anybody that's in bad humor at all," Seigel said.
"Especially after what happened in Katrina, I think people are just
thankful that they're safe. I mean, how can anybody complain about
this?"

Eqecat Inc., a risk modeling firm, said early estimates projected that
Wilma's insured losses would range from $2 billion to $6 billion. AIR
Worldwide Corp. estimated that insurance companies will have to pay
claims ranging from $6 billion to $9 billion. Risk Management
Solutions estimated a range of $6 billion to $10 billion.

Authorities said two people were dead in Collier County, one in Palm
Beach County, one in Broward County and one in St. Johns County.

Associated Press writers Michelle Spitzer in Coral Springs, David Royse in
Key West and Adrian Sainz in Miami contributed to this report.

On the Net:
National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

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: Tom Vanden Brook & Patrick Driscoll <usatoday@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Wilma Continues to Punish; Northeast Comes Next
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 12:30:59 -0500


By Tom Vanden Brook and Patrick O'Driscoll, USA TODAY

NAPLES, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma, which raced into the Atlantic on
Monday after ravaging southern Florida, could join forces Tuesday with
an unusually early nor'easter off the New England coast, worsening
that storm's effects on a region already saturated by heavy rain this
month. 

Wilma walloped Florida from Key West to Daytona Beach with damaging
wind, severe flooding, power outages and tornadoes. But forecasters
say its wrath may not be over.  cleanup)

"We know the nor'easter is going to be bad," said meteorologist Tom
Moore of The Weather Channel. "But the boost, if Wilma gets involved,
will be added rainfall, maybe by a third." Even without Wilma, the
storm is forecast to batter the Northeast with up to 4 inches of rain
and wind gusts of 60 mph or more. Six inches to a foot of snow could
fall in mountain areas.

At 11 a.m. ET Tuesday, Wilma's center was located about 570 miles
east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. The system was still a Category
2 storm with 105 mph sustained wind, and was moving northeast
incredibly fast for a tropical system -- 53 mph. It was expected to
lose its tropical characteristics over the cooler Atlantic.

Floridians in search of water, cleaning supplies and generators lined
up Tuesday morning outside the few stores that were open after
Hurricane Wilma cut a costly, deadly swath across the peninsula.

Officials of Florida's three most populous areas -- Miami-Dade,
Broward and Palm Beach counties -- prepared to distribute ice, water
and other essentials to storm-struck residents Tuesday, while
utilities warned that restoration of electric and phone services could
stretch into weeks.

"It will be days or weeks before we are back to normal," Miami-Dade
Mayor Carlos Alvarez said.

Across Florida, Wilma tore off roofs, toppled trees and hurled traffic
signals into intersections. The hurricane shattered windows in
high-rises in Fort Lauderdale and Miami and swamped one-third of Key
West in seawater.

"It went through like a buzz saw," said Jim Tobin, 48, of Naples.

More than 6 million Floridians lost electricity and phones. Florida
Power & Light said repairs could take weeks.

HURRICANE WILMA

Hurricane Wilma sets records for tropical cyclone activity in the
Atlantic basin:

Wilma is the 21st named storm of the season.  The formation of
Tropical Storm Alpha, the 22nd named storm, broke the previous record
of 21 tropical storms or hurricanes in a season. The previous record
was set in 1933.

Wilma became the 12th hurricane of the season, tying the previous mark
set in 1969.

Wilma came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane with winds of 125
mph. This is the fourth major hurricane (Cat 3 or stronger) to make
U.S. landfall this season. This has never happened before -- hurricane
record keeping goes back to 1851. Previous years with 3 major
landfalling hurricanes were 2004, 1954, 1933, 1909 and
1893. Meterologists all agree that the several storms pushing
northward through the Atlantic this year 'contributed greatly' to the
excessive rainfall in New England and other northeast areas of the USA
during the past month.  (Source: Stu Ostro, The Weather Channel)

The hurricane was blamed for at least six deaths from falling trees,
collapsing roofs and car accidents. One victim was blown into the
windshield of his van. Another died when a sliding glass door fell on
her.

South Florida's three major airports, at Miami, Fort Lauderdale and
Palm Beach, were closed at least into Tuesday.

Wilma brought 8 inches of rain to Miami-Dade County, nearly 6.5 to
Naples and 3 to Fort Lauderdale, and caused considerable street
flooding as sewers were unable to contain the flow.

Wilma was a strong Category 3 hurricane as it came ashore with 125-mph
winds at 6:30 a.m. ET at Cape Romano, about 20 miles south of here.
Wilma earlier pounded Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Cuba, Haiti and
Jamaica, killing 19.

The hurricane sped across the Florida Peninsula in four hours,
whipping both coasts as it slipped to a Category 2 with winds of 105
mph.  After blowing into the Atlantic, Wilma regained Category 3
strength in the warm Gulf Stream, but will lose much of its power as
it moves north toward New England and Canada.

About 33,000 people rode out the storm in public shelters. In Fort
Myers Beach, Wilma tossed the sunroom roof of a mobile home into a
tree. Structural damage from downed trees was less severe there
because many had come down last year during Hurricane Charley.

Wilma was the eighth hurricane to strike Florida in 15 months.

O'Driscoll reported from Denver.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Doyle Rice, USATODAY.com weather
editor.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-10-23-florida-wilma_x.htm?c
sp=N009

Copyright 2005 USA Today.

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.

For more news reports from USA Today each day, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html

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

From: Chief Inspector Dreyfus <cidreyfus@yahoo.com>
Subject: Hurricane Wilma Caused Verio Bay Area Web Outages?
Date: 24 Oct 2005 17:48:33 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


One of my favorite web sites went down this morning, and it was
apparently caused by Hurricane Wilma. The domain for the site is
hosted by Verio.

NOTE: Service to customers of Verio, Inc., located in Boca Raton,
Florida was interrupted Monday morning (Oct. 24) when commercial power
failed in Boca Raton and Verio's emergency backup generators failed to
start. Verio is a major provider of web services to customers ranging
from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses in the U.S. and four
countries.

According to one report from Verio's Texas offices, after commercial
power failed, Verio attempted to start the rooftop emergency generators
but discovered the roof had collapsed.

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

Hurricane Wilma rips through Florida, 6 killed in Florida; 6,000,000
residents without power, phones.

October 24, 2005 4:43 P.M. PDT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma knifed through Florida with
winds up to 125 mph Monday, shattering windows in skyscrapers, peeling
away roofs and knocking out power to 6 million people, with still a
month left to go in the busiest Atlantic storm season on record At
least six deaths were blamed on the hurricane in Florida, bringing the
toll from the storm's march through the tropics to 25.

Warm regards to all,

I am, Chief Inspector Claude Dreyfus, Surete, Emeritus,
and I have inspected this post before sending.

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

From: ozzard_of_wiz@yahoo.com
Subject: Hurricane Wilma Verio Outage Affects E-Commerce in California
Date: 24 Oct 2005 23:12:47 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


There are some California business web sites hosted by Verio, and
these web sites are down, because Verio did not protect adequately
against catastrophic failures.

        ----------

NOTE: Service to customers of Verio, Inc., located in Boca Raton,
Florida was interrupted Monday morning (Oct. 24) when commercial power
failed in Boca Raton and Verio's emergency backup generators failed to
start. Verio is a major provider of web services to customers ranging
from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses in the U.S. and four
countries.

chuck wrote to n3td3v:

> I just spoke to a gentleman in Verio's Dallas, TX office. He said that
> the Boca Raton (sp) FL site was being hit by Wilma. He said that all
> power was out and that the building that holds Verio's auxillary power
> generator has had a roof collapse. For safety and access reasons, they
> are waiting for the storm to subside before powering up their other
> generator options. He also said that, to his knowledge, the building
> that holds the storage/servers does not seem to be affected.

Hurricane Wilma rips through Florida, 6 killed in Florida; 6,000,000
residents without power, phones.

October 24, 2005 4:43 P.M. PDT

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Hurricane Wilma knifed through Florida with
winds up to 125 mph Monday, shattering windows in skyscrapers, peeling
away roofs and knocking out power to 6 million people, with still a
month left to go in the busiest Atlantic storm season on record At
least six deaths were blamed on the hurricane in Florida, bringing the
toll from the storm's march through the tropics to 25.

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

From: Robert Weller <rweller@h-e.com>
Subject: Wilma Causing Network-Wide Outages With Verio-Hosts
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 16:52:53 -0700


We are a west-coast (San Francisco) firm.  Our website, which is
hosted by Verio, has been down since at least this morning.  The
problem appears to be a "proactive shutdown" by Verio's data center in
Boca Raton, Florida.  Since Verio provides hosting services for
millions of customers, I expect that this action in Boca Raton is
having internet-wide implications and affecting many, many businesses.

The Verio website shows the following status messages:

10/24/2005 7:00 pm ET update

To Verio shared hosting customers:

Verio is continuing to work with the building/facilities management on
an on-site technical assessment of the generator system. Our team will
be at work throughout the evening as needed to continue work on power
and service restoration. A new status update will be posted here at
8:00 pm ET.

Many of our shared hosting customers have been impacted by Hurricane
Wilma's effects in the south Florida area. Our Boca Raton data center
facility did experience power loss this morning, and backup
generators, which were tested just four days ago and found to be
working properly, are not operational at this time. At this time, we
have proactively powered down servers to minimize impact to our shared
servers located in the Boca Raton data center. We will restore these
servers once power comes back online. In the meantime, we are
aggressively working with the local power company to assess when power
will be restored, and we are working with the building facilities
management to restore service to backup generators as well. We will
continue to provide updates and any time estimates on this site as we
have them.

Thank you for your patience during this time. We understand the impact
of this action to your business, and the Verio Disaster Recovery team
is diligently working to have power and service restored as quickly as
possible.

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

Our website came up sometime this morning.  The following message was  
posted on Verio's status page:

10/25/2005
10:00 am ET update

To Verio's domestic and international hosting and colocation customers
impacted by Hurricane Wilma and the Florida data center service
interruption:

Our Boca Raton facility is currently operational on backup generator
power with services in the process of being restored. All servers
either have already been powered on or are in the process of coming
online. We are continuing to monitor any issues during this process in
an effort to minimize impact to the servers and data. We are also
continuing to monitor the restoration of primary power service to
minimize any impact should the facility transfer over from generator
power to primary municipal power automatically. At this time, that is
a possibility and one we are watching closely due to possible service
interruption.

Due to weather conditions related to Hurricane Wilma, our south
Florida datacenter lost primary and backup power at approximately
9:40am ET, Monday October 24th. Verio's other datacenters, including
premier datacenters located throughout the US, Europe, and Asia, were
not impacted by this outage.

At approximately 8:40am ET on October 24th, Verio lost municipal power
to the south Florida facility. The facility has a system of five
secondary generators which supply power in the event of a power
outage. The secondary backup system began providing power when
municipal power was lost. When issues with the backup system became
apparent, the system was immediately converted to battery backup and
systems operated for as long as possible. After battery backups were
depleted, Verio electively turned off systems in the datacenter to
minimize impact to servers and data.

Due to extremely difficult weather conditions outside the facility,
technicians were unable to effectively access the backup generators
for much of the morning and early afternoon. As technicians were able
to access the system, they began doing an initial assessment, and the
generator vendor was also able to dispatch technicians to assist with
repairs. Due to hazardous conditions, including high winds, power
lines, and debris, the vendor technicians arrived on-site during the
early evening hours, October 24th.

After diagnosing the problem and effecting the appropriate remedy, the
generators were sequentially brought back on line starting at
approximately 1:40 am ET on October 25th. Once the generator plant was
producing the correct voltage and frequency with the requisite
stability, power was switched to the data center's split-system (DX)
computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, and simultaneously to the
chilled water plant that feeds the bulk of the facility's cooling
infrastructure. Once the cooling system restored safe operating
temperatures in the raised floor areas, Verio was able to energize the
data center network equipment, before proceeding to begin powering up
the shared hosting and colocation environments at approximately 7:10
am am ET on October 25th.

In preparation for Hurricane Wilma, a full battery of tests was
conducted on the generators and systems. These tests were last
conducted on October 19th, just days prior to Hurricane Wilma passing
over our facility. These tests all came back positive, with no
issues. We are continuing to fully investigate these issues in our
follow up efforts.

Robert Weller

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

From: pmettes@gmail.com
Subject: Caller ID TIME For Setting Time on Regular Pots Analog Phones
Date: 24 Oct 2005 17:16:42 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Where does the time come from that analog handsets use to set their
clock? My company's time is off by 2 min and I can verify that its
getting the time from somewhere but where?

I can prove it is getting the time from somewhere by setting it 1 hour
off and calling it with my cell phone, and watching it get set again,
problem is, its off by 2 min.

- Thanks


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The time comes from a clock in the
central office serving the phone. That two minutes difference most
likely is an accumulation of a few seconds here and there over the
several months since daylight time went into effect. Our time of day
here comes from the Southwestern Bell central office in Independence
which tends to 'drift' a little bit regularly. When Standard Time
returns in the next week or so, the clock setting will get set to
almost perfect. I say 'almost' because your caller ID device is not
intended as any sort of time standard.   PAT]

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

From: Bob Hofkin <bhofkin@notchur.biz
Subject: Sneaky Cingular Wireless
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 23:15:05 -0400


[PAT, please remove my email address & name from this message. --Bob
Hofkin]

Two bits of sneaky language showed up on my Cingular Wireless bill
this month. First, a new late fee, announced in all caps:

LATE PAYMENT CHARGE: A 1.5% LATE PAYMENT CHARGE PER MONTH MAY BE
APPLIED FOR AMOUNTS UNPAID 20 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF INVOICE (AK
0.875%, AR 0.085%, NE 1.33%, WI 1.00%).

Second, a bit of legal bogosity in smaller print on the return stub:

Use of service or payment of this invoice indicates agreement with the
General Terms and Conditions for wireless service.

I really wonder what they've got planned and why they're coercing an
"agreement" here. Maybe it's to get former AT&T Wireless customers in
line somehow, but it sure smells rotten. I'm sure they wouldn't let me
off without paying the bill or the early termination fee if I don't
agree with their terms.

I think publicity is probably the best way to deal with this
particular nastiness.

boB

That's another fine message you've gotten us in.

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

Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 03:22:01 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Privacy Worries? Don't Orint in color


Privacy worries? Don't Print in Color

By Hiawatha Bray

You've got to love black-and-white laser printers. You can get a good
one for $150 or so, and each toner cartridge cranks out thousands of
pages before you need a refill. Best of all, they don't spy on you.

You can't say the same about color laser printers, as we learned last
week. Actually, we should have learned it nearly a year ago. That's
when PC World magazine reported that makers of color laser printers,
in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, have programmed their
machines to print tiny yellow dots on every printed document. These
dots are almost invisible under normal conditions, but can be spotted
by anyone with a magnifier and the right sort of lighting.

Most of us ignored the news, but not the civil libertarians at the 
Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. The group asked its 
members to mail in documents generated by dozens of color laser 
printers. They got hundreds of submissions run off on printers made 
by a variety of manufacturers -- Minolta, Canon, Hewlett-Packard and 
Xerox, among others.

Last week, the foundation announced it had cracked the code on a 
document generated by a Xerox printer. By reading the yellow dots, 
staff members were able to identify the serial number of the very 
machine that had produced the printout.

No big deal, unless you're a counterfeiter. "Ten years ago, 1 
percent of counterfeit currency was produced by copiers and printers; 
now it's 56 percent," said Eric Zahren, spokesman for the US Secret 
Service, the government agency that battles the funny-money trade. So 
the Secret Service and other security agencies persuaded printer 
makers to embed subtle markers into their machines. And not just 
printers, said Edward Delp, a professor of electrical engineering at 
Purdue University. "Color copiers have done this for a long time," 
said Delp.

As a result, police can play spot-the-dots with pieces of phony
currency, then use sales records to trace the machine and its owner.

Of course, the same technique can be used to identify anything else 
from the printer. But Zahren says privacy-conscious citizens have 
nothing to fear. "You only have to worry about it identifying you if 
you have partaken in illegal activity," he said.

Famous last words? Maybe not. Why would cops bother to inspect the
billions of pages printed every day, just to figure out which printer
produced them? It might be worthwhile to study anonymous ransom notes
or death threats. But usually it's obvious where a document came from;
the cops needn't bother looking for subtle yellow dots.

Then again, few of us live in countries with a low regard for human
rights. Pity the poor Cuban worshiper at a secret church who cranks
out a few religious tracts on the office laser printer. Let one of
those tracts fall into an informant's hands, and the cops will know
exactly where to find him.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/10/24/privacy_worries_dont_print_in_color/

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

Subject: Cellular-News for Tuesday 25th October 2005
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 07:45:03 -0500
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news-mail.com>


Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com

New Call Center for Vodafone Portugal
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14534.php

Vodafone Portugal is to open a new Call Centre in Braga in
November. With 180 operator stations (resulting in the creation of
360-400 jobs when fully operational), the new Call Centre is a further
addition to the company's Customer Care structure out...

Sweden Rejects CDMA450 for Rural 3G
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14533.php

Sweden's telecoms regulator, the PTS has declined requests to allow
alternative 3G technologies to be used in the country's rural
areas. PTS has decided that the 3G operators Hi3G (3), Tele 2/Telia
and Vodafone shall continue to roll-out 3G in Sweden...

Vodacome Passes Subscriber Landmark
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14532.php

South Africa's Vodacom says that its customer base in South Africa had
passed the 16 million mark, putting paid to long held speculation that
the local market was nearing saturation....

BREW in Taiwan
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14531.php

Qualcomm has signed a definitive agreement with Asia Pacific Broadband
Wireless Communication (APBW), Taiwan's first 3G broadband wireless
service provider, to commercially launch its wireless data service
based on Qualcomm's BREW solution....

Lesotho Operator Expands Network
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14530.php

Mobile phone operator Econet Ezicel Lesotho has embarked on its first
major expansion program in three years to expand geographical coverage
and increase its subscriber base. Chief executive Elvis Gwanzura said
the expansion includes the installation...

SMS Improvements for Bahrain
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14529.php

LogicaCMG has won a contract with Bahrain's Batelco to upgrade its
existing LogicaCMG mobile messaging platform to an IP-based Next
Generation Messaging solution. In addition, Batelco has selected
LogicaCMG's Direct-delivery Message Router (DMR) to a...

Camera Phones Drive CMOS Past CCDs - report
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14528.php

In 2004, the inevitable finally happened: Complementary Metal Oxide
Semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor shipments surpassed Charge-Coupled
Devices (CCDs), reports In-Stat. This shift was the result of the
exploding camera phone market, with shipments m...

Russia's MTS launches EDGE services in two regions
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14527.php

Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems, or MTS, has
launched Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) services in
the Voronezh and Lipetsk Regions, the company said in a press release
on Monday. ...

Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar launches EDGE services
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14526.php

Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar has launched Enhanced Data rates
for Global Evolution (EDGE) services, the company said in a press
release Monday. ...

Mexico's America Movil Seen Posting A Strong 3rd Quarter
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14525.php

Another tale of strong growth is expected from Mexican wireless phone
company America Movil when it reports its third-quarter earnings this
week. ...

Nextel Partners Holders Force A Takeover By Sprint
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14524.php

Nextel Partners Inc. shareholders approved a put option Monday that
forces Sprint Nextel Corp. to acquire the affiliate. ...

Russia's Sigma threaten to get 20% in SMARTS through court
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14523.php

Russian investment group Sigma plans to file a lawsuit seeking an
order that would allow it take over a 20% stake in regional mobile
operator SMARTS, if the company's shareholders do not sell the stake
for U.S. $44.114 million, Sigma's General Direct...

Russia's VimpelCom Bashkortostan user base up to 715,400 people 
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14522.php

The subscriber base of Russia's second-largest mobile operator
VimpelCom rose to 715,400 people in the constituent republic of
Bashkortostan as of the end of September, from 600,000 people as of
the end of June, the company said in a press release ...

EU Clears France Telecom Takeover of Spain's Amena
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14521.php

The European Commission Tuesday cleared French telecommunications
giant France Telecom (13330.FR) to buy an 80% stake in Spanish mobile
operator Amena. ...

NTT DoCoMo Dissolves Capital Tie-Up With KPN Mobi
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14520.php

NTT DoCoMo said Monday that it has dissolved a capital tie-up with KPN
Mobile N.V. of the Netherlands. ...

Vodafone Germany Launches Wireline Attack With EUR100 Box
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14519.php

Vodafone Group's German unit Monday said it will launch its
long-awaited offensive that aims to encourage German households to
cancel their traditional fixed-line phones, by offering a similar
product that runs on Vodafone's third-generation wireless...

TeliaSonera Won't Cooperate With Rivals On 3G Build
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14518.php

Swedish telecommunications operator TeliaSonera won't cooperate with
Vodafone Group and Hi3G Access to finish construction of its Swedish
third generation mobile network, Marie Ehrling, president of
TeliaSonera Sweden told Dow Jones Newswires Monday....

Ericsson CEO: To Make Fresh Investments In India 
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14517.php

Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (ERICY) plans to make fresh investments in
India to strengthen its presence in the rapidly growing local market,
said the telecommunications equipment provider's chief executive
Monday. ...

Virgin Mobile, Carphone Warehouse In France JV Talks
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14516.php

Virgin Mobile Holdings (U.K.), The Carphone Warehouse Group, and
Virgin Management Limited Monday announce that they are in discussions
regarding the launch of a nationwide Mobile Virtual Network Operator
(MVNO) in France. ...

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

Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 13:05:13 EDT
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Ericsson to Buy Marconi's Telecom Equipment


USTelecom dailyLead
October 25, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/wMBoatagCveeldeofn

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* Ericsson to buy Marconi's telecom equipment business
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Skype grows at faster clip; announces business service
* Nextel Partners shareholders approve Sprint Nextel buyout
* Cingular lays groundwork for 3G future
* Verizon Wireless expands Bay Area EV-DO network
* France Telecom cleared for Amena buy
* News from TELECOM '05
* BellSouth reports earnings
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Technology officers, innovative exhibits mark TELECOM '05 opening
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* SureWest readies HDTV service via Internet
* Future mobile phones will use multiple wireless networks
* Why BitTorrent is a threat and what to do about it
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Q-and-A: FCC's Martin discusses goals for broadband
* Spam: now made in Asia

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/wMBoatagCveeldeofn

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

From: Wesrock@aol.com
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:17:16 EDT
Subject: Re: More on San Francisco and Oakland Numbering


In a message dated 24 Oct 2005 13:29:03 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
writes:

>> Thanks to the clipping files at the History Room of the Oakland Public
>> Library, I have been able to pin down the date that San Francisco and
>> Oakland went fully to 2L-5N numbers: August 10, 1947, a Sunday, at 12
>> midnight.

>> The Tribune referred to it on Saturday, which would have been August
>> 9, of course, but it also is clear from the context that the
>> switchover activities began on Saturday night.  Either the Tribune's
>> style considered the day to begin at 12.01 am, or there was some
>> confusion when the story was edited.

The standard nationwide time for making changes was 3:01 a.m. Eastern
Standard Time, which would be 12:01 a.m. Pacifc Standard Time, still
on Sunday.  (A day does began at 12:01 a.m.; it's not just a style
issue.)

>> In other words, there was, for a time, 2L-5N-1L dialing to some
>> exchanges!

> I always wondered if that existed.  When did party line letters go
> away and replaced by individual dialable numbers?  On SxS there was a
> coding schema where one digit differed for each party, all others the
> same.

I lived in a small place that had terminal-per-line SxS.  Terminal per
line means that the line is designated by a number; an additional
number is required to desginate the party and the number is listed in
the directory that way without any hyphens or other distinctions.

All the party lines were in the same connector group.

Later terminal-per-station became the standard, where each terminal on
the connector designates an individual station.  So a two-party line
would require two terminals (and two directory numbers), a four-party
line would have four terminals (and four directory numbers) and an
eight-party line would require eight terminals (and eight directory
numbers).

This much simplified intercept and regrouping.  In most offices any
terminal could be jumpered to any ringing bus in the terminal, so it
could be the ring party at one time, after regrouping or other changes
it could be made the tip party, and in offices with full selective
four-party ringing any terminal could be connected to any of the
ringing buses -- postive tip, positive ring, negarive tip, negative
ring.

       [ ... ]

>> It has more than 333,000 unfilled telephone orders, also a second
>> place record.

> Bad problem throughout the U.S., took years to clean up.  Many people
> who get service were stuck with party lines, partly as a result of
> inadequate CO capacity, not just local loop capacity.  I wonder if
> they were afraid of slow dial tone during busy periods and the use of
> party lines was a way of rationing out service capacity.  I wonder if
> in those years they added new manual exchanges as a temporary fix
> since cord switchboards were a lot cheaper and faster to install than
> dial machines.

The shortages went back to the Great Depression of the 1930s, when
capital spending was necessarily reduced and indeed with the loss of
customers and lack of construction there was little need for capital
expenditures.

The outside plant was usually the limiting factor--an individual
copper pair was needed for each line.  After World War II (during
which construction and capital spending was almost non-existent) there
were many cable routes that had not been reinforced since before the
Depression.  When the end of the war came, there were suddenly new
housing developments, new business and industrial construction,. and
heavy new demands for service.  Their magnitude was such that the
sudden change for little demand to furious demand could not be met
overnight, both because of the finite funds available for capital
spending and the very real limits on production capacity.

> The famous Levittown communities had to make do with temporary corner
> pay phones for a while.

So did many other new developments all across the U.S.A.


Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com

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

From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts)
Subject: Re: More on San Francisco and Oakland Numbering
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:32:36 -0000
Organization: 1.94 meters


Tim@Backhome.org <Tim@Backhome.org> had written:

> Mark Roberts wrote:

>> Thanks to the clipping files at the History Room of the Oakland Public
>> Library, I have been able to pin down the date that San Francisco and
>> Oakland went fully to 2L-5N numbers: August 10, 1947, a Sunday, at 12
>> midnight.

> I don't believe any telco has done a cut on Sunday night.  It was
> typically Saturday night (or perhaps 2:00 AM on Sunday) in early post
> WWII years.  Then, Bell tended to do ESS cutovers at 2:00 AM on
> Saturdays, so they would have the weekend to work out kinks.

But read the article: It *clearly* states that the switches would not
have full capacity until 6 a.m. that Sunday and that work would not
commence until the preceding Saturday night.


Mark Roberts | "A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, 
Oakland, Cal.| but rather by touching both at once."
NO HTML MAIL |               -- Blaise Pascal
Permission to archive this article in any form is hereby explicitly denied.

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

From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts)
Subject: Re: 1960s Long Distance From San Francisco
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 00:38:39 -0000
Organization: 1.94 meters


Anthony Bellanga <anthonybellanga@notchur.biz> had written:

> Note that San Francisco/Oakland was using N11 codes in the 1930s
> rather than the "step-by-step" format of 11X codes. N11 codes in use
> prior to the 1960s is an indication that the location developed with
> Panel and/or #1XB rather than SXS switching.

Indeed, true: The 1935 telephone directory already had the familiar
211, 411, and 611 codes.

> Also, you mentioned some NN0 central office codes. These were highly
> discouraged by AT&T for use until the 1960s/70s time period. 

I actually saw only one, and that was 530. It appeared only in the
1965 directory. It was gone in the 1966 directory. The reverse
listings going up to 1974 show no 530-xxxx numbers. Yet, in
retrospect, it clearly was contemplated for expansion in this area
(OKLDCA13) because it's one of the currently common prefixes for the
Fruitvale rate-center/OKLDCA13 combination, along with the original
531 which apparently served the area's needs for some time.


Mark Roberts | "A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, 
Oakland, Cal.| but rather by touching both at once."
NO HTML MAIL |               -- Blaise Pascal
Permission to archive this article in any form is hereby explicitly denied.

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

Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 21:56:25 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
Subject: Re: Midnight Cutovers


I've enjoyed reading the discussions about midnight telco cutovers.
When I was working in the cable TV industry, we did midnight cutovers
too.  But for a different reason: taxes.

When a cable TV company purchases another cable system, it usually
does not want to purchase an "operating entity" -- it wants to
purchase only the "assets" of the selling company.  So to keep the tax
lawyers happy, the tech staff has to shut off all signals during the
closing.

In practice, it worked like this.  I, representing the buyer, would
meet the seller's chief tech around 11:00 pm at the headend.  We'd cut
off all signals at 11:59 pm, and turn them back on at 12:01 am.
During the two-minute break, we'd reprogram the character generators
(or connect new ones) so that the new company's name would be
displayed when the signals came back up.  There were no signals at
midnight; ergo, for tax purposes, the business was not an operating
entity when the sale officially closed.

Of course, this was all a legal fiction: the lawyers certainly weren't
sitting around signing documents at midnight!

One of these purchases turned out to be very complicated: we were
buying a system that had seven headends interconnected by microwave.
But because a different combination of PEG access channels was
inserted locally at each headend, we had to shut down the signals at
each headend separately.  And, of course, all seven shutdowns all had
to occur at precisely the same time.

This required seven two-man teams -- a total 14 technicians -- one
team at each headend.  Each team consisted of one employee of the
seller and one employee of the buyer.

The lawyers insisted that we had to have a central coordination scheme
for this (we couldn't do it with something as simple as "synchronize
your watches"), so I set up a seven-way telephone conference call.  We
even had a dress rehearsal the night before to make sure that all
seven teams would be able to get through all the locked doors and
fence gates required to reach their respective headends.

It all came off without a hitch, but the lawyers still weren't happy.
The following day, all 14 technicians (all of whom were now employees
of the buyer) had to come into the office and sign a pair of
affidavits (one for each company) affirming that they had, in fact,
done the job.  Then each affidavit had to be notarized by two
notaries, one from the buyer and one from the seller.

Neal McLain

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

From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts)
Subject: The First Mayoral Long-Distance Call
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 04:35:28 -0000
Organization: 1.94 meters


"Mayor to Get 1st Dial Phone Call From N.J.", in the Oakland
(Calif.) Tribune, November 9, 1951.

[Alameda is the island community adjacent to Oakland on the south.]

ALAMEDA, Nov. 9 -- Leslie Denning and Frank Osborn -- who don't know
each other -- will make history together tomorrow.

They will inaugurate the first transcontinental direct dialing system.

Denning, the mayor of Englewood, N.J., a small city on the Palisades
facing Manhattan, will twirl his telephone dial 10 times and, in a
matter of seconds, be connected with Alameda's Mayor in his City Hall
office.

Englewood was chosen by Bell Telephone Company technicians as the
"guinea pig" site for establishing the ultra-complex mechanisms that
will enable the area's 10,000 residents to dial telephone calls to
most parts of the country direct.

Thus far, the new direct system [rip in clipping lost some words] can
be placed in operation [another rip] in the New Jersey city.

HISTORIC NUMBER

Their Mayor will be given his history-making companion's number -- LA
kehurst 3-9727 -- but before ringing that up on his phone he will spin
out 4-1-5.

That is the code number for the Oakland area, good for dialing any
phone in Alameda, Albany, El Cerrito, El Sobrante, Emeryville,
Hayward, Oakland, Richmond, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and San
Pablo.

[I'll interject here: Based on my reading of the phone directories
from this period, the core "East Bay" area extended from El Cerrito,
just to the south of Richmond, to San Leandro. I'm not sure what would
have been considered local to Richmond or San Pablo; similarly, what
would have been local to San Lorenzo and Hayward.]

Similarly, the area code number for the San Francisco area is
[missing]-8 [is this 3-1-8? I'll have to check the microfilms]; for
Sacramento, it is 9-1-6; for New York it is 1-1; for Chicago, it is
3-1-2.

Denning, employed by a New York investment firm, will make the call at
about 8:30 am (11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard time). At [missing] .m,
Englewood residents can begin dialing their friends across the nation.

[Too much was missing from around the rest of the article to
transcribe, though the article indicates that company and newsreel
photographers would be on the scene. Also notable was that the Alameda
Times-Star 25 years later ran anniversary stories about the occasion,
also in the Oakland Public Library's clippings file.  At the time, the
Times-Star was an independent newspaper; it has since been merged into
the Oakland Tribune.]


Mark Roberts | "A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, 
Oakland, Cal.| but rather by touching both at once."
NO HTML MAIL |               -- Blaise Pascal
Permission to archive this article in any form is hereby explicitly denied.

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


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