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TELECOM Digest     Sat, 3 Dec 2005 15:35:00 EST    Volume 24 : Issue 546

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Wasps Could Replace Bomb, Drug-Sniffing Dogs (Elliott Minor)
    Grateful Dead Drop Ban After Fan Revolt (Michael Kahn)
    Security Firm to Investigate Iraq Video Clips (Reuters News Wire)
    School Psychologist's Student Records Accidentally Posted Online (Solomon)
    Google Search and Seizure (Monty Solomon)
    Re: Who Owns the Music? (Gordon Burditt)
    Re: Who Owns the Music? (Steven Lichter)
    Re: Who Owns the Music? (jmeissen@aracnet.com)
    Re: T-Mobile, was: Verizon, GTE, etc, etc (Steve Sobol)
    Re: When is TDMA Being Phased Out? (Jim Burks)
    Re: When is TDMA Being Phased Out? (Steve Sobol)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are
included in the fair use quote.  By using -any name or email address-
included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article
herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the
email.

               ===========================

Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be
sold or given away without explicit written consent.  Chain letters,
viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome.

We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

               ===========================

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

From: Elliott Minor <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Wasps Could Replace Bomb, Drug-Sniffing Dogs
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 13:00:39 -0600


By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer

Trained wasps could someday replace dogs for sniffing out drugs, bombs
and bodies. No kidding.

Scientists say a species of non-stinging wasps can be trained in only
five minutes and are just as sensitive to odors as man's best friend,
which can require up to six months of training at a cost of about
$15,000 per dog.

With the use of a handheld device that contains the wasps but allows
them to do their work, researchers have been able to use the insects
to detect target odors such as a toxin that grows on corn and peanuts,
and a chemical used in certain explosives.

"There's a tremendous need for a very flexible and mobile chemical
detector," said U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist Joe Lewis,
who has been studying wasps since the 1960s. "Our best devices that we
have currently are very cumbersome, expensive and highly fragile."

The "Wasp Hound" research by Lewis and University of Georgia
agricultural engineer Glen Rains is part of a larger government
project to determine if insects and even reptiles or crustaceans could
be recruited for defense work. That project has already resulted in
scientists refining the use of bees as land-mine detectors.

Through the years, Lewis and a USDA colleague, J.H. Tumlinson,
discovered that a tiny, predatory wasp known as microplitis croceipes
had relied on odors to locate nectar for food and hosts for its eggs -
caterpillars that damage crops.

While they don't sting humans, the female wasps use their stingers to
deposit eggs inside caterpillars, producing larvae that eventually
kill the caterpillars.

The scientists also discovered that plants being attacked by the
caterpillars give off SOS scents to attract the all-black wasps and
that the quarter-inch-long insects could be trained to associate other
odors with food and prey.

"They have to be good detectors because their whole survival depends
on it," Lewis said.

Rains said the wasps can be trained to detect a specific odor very
quickly.  The researchers expose hungry wasps to the target odor, then
let them feed on sugar water for 10 seconds and then give them a
one-minute break. After three repetitions of sniffing and feeding, the
wasps associate the odor with feeding.

Since the scientists couldn't put leashes on their trained wasps, they
needed a way to contain them while monitoring their reactions to
odors.

Enter the Wasp Hound -- a 10-inch-long plastic cylinder made of PVC
pipe with a hole in one end and a small fan on the other. Inside is a
Web camera that connects to a laptop computer for monitoring the
behavior of five wasps housed in a transparent, ventilated capsule.

When the wasps detect a target odor, they converge around the vent,
creating a mass of dark pixels on the computer screen. Otherwise, they
just hang out inside the capsule.

They can work for as long as 48 hours, then they're released to live
out their remainder of their two-to three-week life span.

"What we have ... is a technology-free organism that you can quickly
program and use in a highly mobile way," said Lewis, who believes the
Wasp Hound could be used to search for explosives at airports, locate
bodies, monitor crops for toxins and detect diseases such as cancer
from the odors in a person's breath.

"They're very cheap to produce and very sensitive," Rains said of the
wasps.  "Dogs take months to train and they need a specific
handler. Wasps can be trained on the spot."

Rains believes the Wasp Hound could be available for sale in three to
five years. He and Lewis are still exploring ways to breed more wasps
and to train hundreds simultaneously.

"We've done enough on it to know it's technically feasible to do
that," Lewis said. "It's just a matter of completing and refining the
methodology."

Lewis believes many other types of invertebrates -- bees, other types
of parasitic insects, even water bugs -- can be trained to sniff out
trouble.

"It's opened a whole new resource for invertebrates as biological
sensors," he said.

Other scientists also are working to harness the sniffing power of
insects.

In 2002, the Pentagon considered fitting sniffer bees with
transmitters the size of a grain of salt to locate explosives and
relay that information wirelessly to laptop computers.

A British firm, Inscentinel Ltd., sells trained bees and mini-hives
where the insects' response to scents from natural and man-made
chemicals can be monitored. The company says the system can be used to
screen for explosives, drugs, chemical weapons, land mines and for
food quality control.

Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at Montana State University,
is using bees for mine detection. The bees congregate over mines or
other explosives and their locations are mapped using laser-sensing
technology.

"Insects and their antennae have an olfactory system that is pretty
much on a par with a dog," Bromenshenk said. "They're a whole lot more
plentiful and a lot less expensive to come by."

Bromenshenk said bees may be more appropriate for open areas, while
the Wasp Hound may be better in buildings.

"The difference is that we let our bees free fly," he said. "That's
not good in confined areas like an airport."

On the Net:

Bee Alert Technology Inc.: http://www.mea-mft.org/hiednews8.htm
         Inscentinel Ltd.: http://www.inscentinel.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.

For more news headlines from Associated Press please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

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

From: Michael Kahn <reuters@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Grateful Dead Drops Download Ban After Fan Revolt
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 13:02:10 -0600


By Michael Kahn

Facing a revolt by its famously faithful fans, The Grateful Dead
backed away on Thursday from a move to block "Deadheads" from
downloading the jam band's concert recordings for free.

The San Francisco Bay-based band had asked an independently run Web
site to stop making thousands of the group's recordings available for
free download.

But the founder and director of the Web site http://www.archive.org
Brewster Kahle, said in an online posting on Thursday that bootleg
audience copies of the band's concerts had been restored for free
downloading.

That reversal came after fans, known as Deadheads, reacted angrily to
reports the group had asked the site to halt swapping of Grateful Dead
shows.

Many saw that request as a betrayal, since the band had always
encouraged fans to tape its concerts and then trade the tapes for
free. Some also threatened to stop buying merchandise in an online
petition that quickly garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

"It appears doing the right things for the fans has given way to
greed," the fan petition said.

Bass player Phil Lesh posted an apologetic message on his own Web site
saying he did not know the band had asked operators of the site to
take down the recordings.

"I do feel that the music is the Grateful Dead's legacy and I hope
that one way or another all of it is available for those who want it,"
Lesh wrote.

Grateful Dead spokesman Dennis McNally said a major concern for the
band was that trading music over the Internet did not create the same
sense of community as trading tapes in person.

"There was a consensus to address this issue and it got addressed," he
said.  "We are confronting an entirely new set of circumstances with
moving new music around, and we are struggling with it like a lot of
others."

The booming popularity of digital music and the market now led by
Apple Computer Inc. with its "a la carte" music purchasing service and
popular iPods has made free downloading over the Web a tricky issue
for bands like the Grateful Dead.

During its heyday, the band became one of rock's most successful
touring acts by playing improvisational concerts that varied nightly
and which spurred fans to eagerly collect and trade tapes of shows.

The band, which traditionally put an emphasis on touring rather than
recording and selling records, generated millions of dollars of
revenue from their shows.

But with the 1995 death of lead singer and guitarist Jerry Garcia,
band members no longer keep up such an active tour schedule, making
the Internet an important source of revenue.

The Grateful Dead, which first gained fame with its free-form
psychedelic style during the 1960s in San Francisco, offers its music
on the Apple iTunes service as well as its own Web site.


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: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Security Firm to Investigate Iraq Video Clips
Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 12:57:32 -0600


A British security firm operating in Iraq has launched an
investigation to find out if any of its employees were involved in
video clips which appear to show Iraqi civilians being shot at.

Aegis, which won a $293 million contract from the U.S. government last
year to operate in Iraq, said in a statement its inquiry would
"investigate whether the footage has any connection with the company."

The video clips have been posted on the Internet in recent days. One
of them is still visible on a company Web site http://www.aegisIraq.co.uk
while others have been shown by British television broadcasters.

The clips appear to show civilian cars being shot at on roads in
Iraq. One shows two cars veering off a road after being shot at from
somewhere near the camera and another shows an unmarked car smashing
into another.

Gunshots can be heard on the clips.

"Should any incident recorded on the video footage have involved Aegis
personnel, this ... will be subject to scrutiny (by the company),"
Aegis said.

Aegis is contracted to provide a range of services to the U.S. govern-
ment including the protection of civilians and soldiers traveling in
Iraq.

It says its rules of engagement "allow for a structured escalation of
force to include opening fire on civilian vehicles under certain
circumstances."

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.

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

Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 13:47:29 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: School Psychologist's Student Records Accidentally Posted Online


SALEM, Mass. -- A school psychologist's records detailing students' 
confidential information and personal struggles were accidentally 
posted to the school system's Web site and were publicly available 
for at least four months.

A reporter for The Salem News discovered the records last week and
alerted school officials, the newspaper said in a story Friday.

To protect students' privacy, the newspaper said it withheld
publishing the story until the documents were removed from the
Internet, which occurred Wednesday.

The psychological profiles, some dating back more than a decade,
contained children's full names, birthdays and, in many instances, IQ
scores and grades, the newspaper said. Some reports detailed
information about depression, drug use, and physical or sexual abuse.


http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/12/02/school_psychologists_student_records_accidentally_posted_online/

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

Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2005 13:45:50 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Google Search and Seizure


By Robert Kuttner  |  December 3, 2005

THE NEW York Times recently reported that in a North Carolina
strangulation-murder trial, prosecutors introduced as evidence the
fact that the defendant's Google searches had included the words
'neck' and 'snap.' The Times noted that the evidence had come from the
defendant's home computer, but could just as easily have come from
Google.

Google's whole business-model includes keeping track of users'
searches by putting 'cookies' (tracking devices) on users' own
computers, and then using the results to customize ad offerings that
pop up when we use their ingenious free search service.

In the era of the misnamed USA Patriot Act, which allows warrantless
police searches that are not even disclosed to the target, Google plus
Dick Cheney is a recipe for undoing the liberties for which the
original patriots of the American Revolution bled and died. Under the
Patriot Act, anyone suspected of enabling terrorism can be subjected
to these fishing expeditions. Depending on a prosecutor's whims, that
includes all of us.

In the 18th-century era of star-chamber courts and despotic monarchs,
the US Constitution put an end to government as prosecutor, judge, and
jury. Unreasonable searches and seizures were explicitly prohibited by
the Sixth Amendment. People (not just citizens) were guaranteed the
right to confront their accusers and to know the charges against
them. There were no 'national security' loopholes.

Google's internal slogan is, charmingly, "Don't be evil." Well, the
interaction of cyber-snooping and the unreasonable searches authorized
by the Patriot Act is pure evil.

Herewith an idea that I am putting into the public domain, which could
make some computer-whiz a billionaire: One of Google's competitors
could guarantee users of its search engines that all data keeping
track of searches will be permanently discarded after 24 hours. The
search process could still learn a broad pattern of users' purchasing
tastes, if we wish to be party to a bargain of being marketed to in
exchange for the convenience of free searches.

The same libertarian computer entrepreneur could offer e-mail
software, in which old messages are permanently erased unless the user
deliberately opts to retain them.

Google, like Microsoft and IBM before it, may be the current market
leader in whiz-bang technology based on sheer inventive genius. But if
Google is not careful, some competitor with a genuine regard for
privacy could displace it.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/12/03/google_search_and_seizure/


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have very mixed feelings about
'cookies'. There are times, that like 'speed dialing' on my phone and
'automatic call back' that they are tremendously helpful. I know I
very much enjoy automatically filling in the blanks on forms I must
deal with on the computer because a 'cookie' or a file somewhere on
my system has the information available because some other computer
put it there. But, as the author notes, if your computer is for some
reason or another confiscated or otherwise compromised, there can be
hell to pay. Why should telco be allowed to sell 'speed dialing' or
'automatic redial' and 'authmatic callback' but Google not be allowed
to deposit cookies (the very same thing really) out of some privacy
concerns?  It comes down to whether or not it is a good idea to have
repetitive information on your systems or not.   PAT]

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

From: gordonb.2asgo@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
Subject: Re: Who Owns the Music?
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 07:02:37 -0000
Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com


> The recent discussions about Sony led to some interesting discussions
> among my colleagues about the used CD market:

I have a number of floppy disks labelled "Sony".  Do I have to worry
about rootkits?  Actually, they may have been purchased before the
invention of rootkits.

> - if I buy a new CD, I am presumably entitled to record it for local
> (computer/IPOD/backup/whatever) use.  If I do that, am I (legally or
> otherwise) prohibited from reselling or giving away the CD?  

Yes you are prohibited from reselling it or giving away the original,
unless you include all your copies in the sale, or destroy them.

> There is a huge used CD market out there. And my kids keep taking my
> Frank Sinatra and Pink Floyd CDs.

> - if I resell or give away the CD, what about the next buyer/owner --
> is he or she entitled to record it, as above, and then pass it on to
> the next user?

Yes, provided she/he/it passes on all the copies or destroys them.

> - if I made a recording of the originally purchased CD, may I bequeath
> that to the above mentioned kids?

Yes, provided you pass on all the copies or destroy them.

> The point may be moot -- one of our Thanksgiving dinner companions
> suggested that in 5-10 years, CDs will be as obsolete as 8-track
> tapes, and that all storage will be on volatile media (flash drives,
> virtual drives, external hard drives, etc); I for one am going to miss
> the album notes and lyrics, but hell, they'll be on-line as well.

It is extremely difficult to design DRM to stop only *illegal*
copying, and Sony doesn't appear to have that as a goal.  It will
probably try to globally erase all copies of a song a few days before
a re-release of it, just to increase sales.


Gordon L. Burditt

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

From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com>
Reply-To: Die@spammers.com
Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc.  (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co.
Subject: Re: Who Owns the Music?
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 14:29:55 GMT


Michael Quinn Michael wrote:

> The recent discussions about Sony led to some interesting discussions
> among my colleagues about the used CD market:

> - if I buy a new CD, I am presumably entitled to record it for local
> (computer/IPOD/backup/whatever) use.  If I do that, am I (legally or
> otherwise) prohibited from reselling or giving away the CD?  There is
> a huge used CD market out there. And my kids keep taking my Frank
> Sinatra and Pink Floyd CDs.

> - if I resell or give away the CD, what about the next buyer/owner --
> is he or she entitled to record it, as above, and then pass it on to
> the next user?

> - if I made a recording of the originally purchased CD, may I bequeath
> that to the above mentioned kids?

> The point may be moot -- one of our Thanksgiving dinner companions
> suggested that in 5-10 years, CDs will be as obsolete as 8-track
> tapes, and that all storage will be on volatile media (flash drives,
> virtual drives, external hard drives, etc); I for one am going to miss
> the album notes and lyrics, but hell, they'll be on-line as well.

> Thoughts invited.

Common sense should tell you that if you sell/give away the CD you
should delete any copies you have of it.  That is the same rule for
computer software, you have the right to make a copy but once you no
longer own the original, you have to delete any copies you have for
backup.


The only good spammer is a dead one!!  Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2005  I Kill Spammers, Inc.  A Rot in Hell Co.

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

From: jmeissen@aracnet.com
Subject: Re: Who Owns the Music?
Date: 3 Dec 2005 18:49:52 GMT
Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com


In article <telecom24.545.8@telecom-digest.org>, Michael Quinn Michael
<quinnm@bah.com> wrote:

> The recent discussions about Sony led to some interesting discussions
> among my colleagues about the used CD market:

> - if I buy a new CD, I am presumably entitled to record it for local
> (computer/IPOD/backup/whatever) use.  If I do that, am I (legally or
> otherwise) prohibited from reselling or giving away the CD?  

It's really quite simple. If you no longer own the original media
then you are not allowed to retain copies of/from that media. You
should either transfer the copies with the original, or destroy
them. Otherwise it's really no different than making copies of
other people's media for your own use.


John Meissen                               jmeissen@aracnet.com

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: T-Mobile, was: Verizon, GTE, etc, etc
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 10:05:35 -0800
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Danny Burstein wrote:

> Net result (name wise)
> East Coast: Omnipoint -> Voicestream -> T-Mobile
> West Coast: Western Wireless -> Voicestream -> T-Mobile
> (minor disclosure: user and also shareholder in T-Mobile)

WW was originally GSM? I thought WW switched from TDMA to CDMA before being 
bought by Alltel.

Western Wireless also bought the CellularONE brand from SBC after SBC
merged its cellular operations with BellSOUTH, and some CellularONE
affiliates went TDMA >> GSM. Western Wireless C1 did not migrate to
GSM. Some others did (Dobson C1, for example).

What you're talking about must have happened before everything I just
described.


Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

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

From: Jim Burks <jbburks@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: When is TDMA Being Phased Out?
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 13:45:14 GMT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com


<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote in message 
news:telecom24.544.13@telecom-digest.org:

> Thanks for your information!  Some more questions if I may.

> Jim Burks wrote:

>> New handsets now are
>> either GSM only or CDMA only. The are also frequently locked to a
>> single carrier.  The better GSM handsets are tri-band or quad-band
>> (more frequencies). This will allow them to roam in many parts of the
>> world.

> Does this mean a cell phone bought today won't have analog capability
> as a backup if the digital signal isn't available?

Unless the phone is analog/GSM or analog/CDMA, it won't have any
analog capability as backup. On the other hand, analog is being phased
out sometime before 2010. Right now, the FCC requires

> When buying a cell phone, how can one tell what the handset can do?
> The clerks at cell phone kiosks will say anything to get a sale.

Pick your phone (or at least narrow the models) BEFORE going to the
store.  Go to the Nokia, Motorola, LG and Samsung websites and pick
out what features are important to you. Then determine what models
have those features. The websites tell you what carrier has those
phones. Then, go to the carrier store. If they don't have the handset
you want, ASK. If the Nokia site says Cingular carries the 6xxx
handset you want, and the store guys act ignorant, call the 800#. They
frequently have more phones in stock at the central depots than the
stores.

I invested in a high-end Smartphone (Symbian OS, camera, GSM,
Bluetooth, EDGE) because I plan to use the same carrier for three
years and the same phone. I've been very happy with it - but I've
never seen it in a store and none of the clerks know what Symbian is.

But, I can use it with a headset or my car kit, it has every contact I
might ever need in it, stores a bunch of pictures, downloaded games
(Solitare) and, best of all, I can use as a digital modem for the PC
at about 56k (using EDGE GPRS data service) without a cable, as the PC
is Bluetooth.

On the other hand, at the time (a year ago) it cost me $199 where I
could get a simple handset for free.

In the US markets, the handset makers are slaves to the carriers,
since they subsidize the handset to the tune of $100-200 each, and
require a 1-2 year contract. In the UK and Europe, people go to Nokia
stores, buy handsets and then get service from someone.

>> If you live in a big city, Sprint and T-Mobile are a little cheaper,
>> but if you travel out of the cities and off the freeways, you're out
>> of luck.

> What happens -- the phone is dead?  That doesn't sound good.

Yes, the phone is, for all intents and purposes DEAD. When you get no
bars of signal, you can't make a call. Cellular is NOT a 'cover the
US' technology. Neither are SkyTel 2-way. If you must have coverage
EVERYWHERE, get a satellite phone (www.iridium.com), but they are
horribly expensive for everyday use.

>> If you live in the wilds of Montana or Arizona, look on eBay for a 3
>> watt analog bag phone. They have MILES more range.
>> AMPS = all right now, going away before 2010

> It seems the main carriers, at least in my area, will not accept a new
> customer with a bag phone or any analog phone.  There have been news
> reports that people in remote areas can only get service with the high
> powered bag phone and they're having problems as carriers phase out
> analog.  What will happen in those areas?

Some of those areas will be out of luck as analog is removed. But, just 
because carriers won't activate a new analog-only phone doesn't mean it 
can't be used.

One of the little secrets that the cellular carriers DON'T tell you is
that an unactivated phone can ALWAYS dial 911. If you're looking for
pure emergency service, get one and leave it in your car trunk (with
the cigarette lighter adapter, as the battery will be run down). Get
it out and plug it in when you need help. The same goes for a old
digital handset, except for range (remember the car cord)! The
carriers don't tell you this, as some percentage of their paid market
is for emergency use only, and if they publicized that, it would go
away.

> There were many news reports that digital signals had lots more "dark
> spots" than analog signals did, even in well developed areas (or
> because of well developed areas).  Public safety new digital radio
> systems had lots of complaints, cops were carrying their own
> cellphones in case their police radio failed them.  Have these
> problems been resolved?

> I was on a train recently and my fellow passengers lost service in a
> particular area, but my old analog phone was still working.

As John points out, most of this is due to the 850 vs. 1900 mhz
difference.  All non-bag/non-car handsets have the same 600mw
output. No one ever (to my knowledge) built a 3w transmitter to hold
against your head.

Why are they phasing out analog?

Spectrum usage: they can support more users on a tower, or on a group
of frequencies using GSM or CDMA than they can with AMPS. Remember
that the frequency auction for the 1900mhz PCS space raised $Billions
for the US Government (selling what is already public). That's another
reason the FCC is pushing for digital TV. They are going to reclaim
some of the UHF spectrum, once the conversion is mandatory and
complete, and auction it off for big $$.

Fraud: it's much easier to clone an AMPS phone than a GSM or CDMA
one. It's also harder for them to figure out it's been cloned. The
only thing that's saving their bacon is that fewer and fewer calls are
analog, so any fraud stands out more in the pattern.

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: When is TDMA Being Phased Out?
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 10:07:12 -0800
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


John Levine wrote:

> T-Mobile will roam to Cingular, particularly if you have a dual-band
> phone.  Sprint, you lose.

Sprint will roam to other CDMA providers.


Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

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


TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm-
unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in
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TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational
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career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management
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The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
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Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #546
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