TELECOM Digest     Thu, 8 Dec 2005 16:06:00 EST    Volume 24 : Issue 554

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Hanging up on the New Ma Bell (Paul R. LaMonica)
    Yahoo to Offer Cheap PC to Phone Calls (Eric Auchard)
    Yahoo Updates Mesenger's Phone Features (Juan Carlos)
    Public Interest Registry Announces Milestone: 4 Million Domains (P Godwin)
    Vonage + Multi-Line Cordless Phones? (donotemailme@ekkinc.com)
    Busing Amazon Workers From Tulsa to Coffeyville (Wesrock@aol.com)
    Cellular-News for Thursday 8th December 2005 (Cellular-News)
    BT Enlists Content Partners For TV Service (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: Hypothetical SxS Question (Neal McLain)
    Re: Hypothetical SxS Question (Carl Navarro)
    Re: Communications History (Paul Coxwell)
    Re: FTC Do Not Call List (Lena)

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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               ===========================

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

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

From: Paul R. LaMonica (cnnmoney@telecom-digest.org) 
Subject: Hanging up on the New Ma Bell
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:46:22 -0600


SBC has joined forces with AT&T and taken its name...but the growth
still isn't there.

By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com senior writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Ma Bell is back. But it almost seems like
she never left.

SBC, the Baby Bell that was spun off during the AT&T breakup in 1984,
agreed to buy AT&T earlier this year. But SBC decided to hold onto the
old AT&T name for the combined company.

The deal was completed in November and shortly after closing, SBC got
rid of its "SBC" ticker symbol. Effective Dec. 1, the new AT&T
(Research) even adopted Ma Bell's old "T" ticker symbol.

So SBC no longer exists. It's now AT&T. Get it?

Lots of static

But can the new AT&T do any better in the cutthroat world of telecom
than the old one, or for that matter, the standalone SBC, did?
Analysts are skeptical.

Investors looking for the merger to quickly boost profits through cost
cutting may be in for a surprise.

"We think full realization [of cost-saving efforts] may not come until
2009 or beyond, which is a long time in this industry," wrote Dave Novosel,
an analyst with fixed-income research firm Gimme Credit in a recent report.

The other rationale behind SBC buying AT&T was that SBC would be able
to bolster its presence with so-called enterprise accounts, large
national corporations buying long-distance and data services.

SBC, like fellow Baby Bells Verizon (Research), BellSouth (Research)
and Qwest (Research), had struggled to extend its corporate business
beyond local regions. AT&T and its rival MCI (the former WorldCom)
remained tops in the enterprise game.

But holding on to AT&T's enviable list of Fortune 500 clients won't be
easy. With MCI (Research) being bought by Verizon, one analyst said he
thinks that the competition between the new AT&T and Verizon could be
brutal.

After all, the old AT&T and MCI often had to resort to price wars in
order to hold onto enterprise business and that's a big reason why
revenues at the old Ma Bell had started to decline.

"It's possible that Verizon and AT&T will come to unwritten terms on
having their own fiefdoms and not killing each other," said Patrick
Comack, an analyst with Zachary Investment Research. "But these guys
are going to be shooting for national accounts and I don't see how
they avoid bumping heads in a serious way."

Wireless weakling

Another analyst points out that as a result of the merger, AT&T will
not have as big a presence in the more lucrative wireless market. SBC
co-owns Cingular Wireless with BellSouth but the old AT&T unloaded its
wireless unit a few years ago and was left with mainly consumer long
distance and corporate divisions.

"We remain concerned with AT&T's higher exposure to the declining
enterprise long distance market as well as its moderately aggressive
broadband strategy which dilute the benefit of Cingular," wrote Kevin
Moore, an analyst with Wachovia Capital Markets, in a recent report.

Moore estimates that the new AT&T will generate less than a quarter of
its sales and about 21.5 percent of its earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) from the Cingular
wireless business.

By way of comparison, BellSouth generates about 41 percent of its
total revenue and 31 percent of EBITDA from wireless, Moore estimated.

Comack added that investors considering bets in telecom should focus
on companies that have stronger wireless businesses. He said that in
addition to competition from Verizon's wireless unit, the new AT&T
will face increased pressure from Sprint Nextel (Research) and the
group of top cable companies that are partnering with Sprint to offer
their own wireless service.

"If you are going to be in telecom at all, you want to be in wireless
stocks. There is no reason to be an investor in SBC/AT&T," he said.

And if competition from other big phone and cable companies wasn't bad
enough, AT&T also has to contend with a host of new challengers such as
Internet phone companies Vonage and Skype, which is now owned by eBay
(Research). Search giants Google (Research) and Yahoo! (Research) could
become a force in the so-called voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) market
as well.

To be sure, the new AT&T has a VoIP offering of its own. But Victor
Schnee, president of Probe Financial Associates, an independent
telecom research firm, said that the toughest task for the new AT&T
will be trying to expand in emerging telecom businesses like VoIP and
digital television services while also dealing with the integration of
the more mature assets from the old AT&T.

"This is a work in progress," said Schnee. "They are struggling with
how do they modernize and take advantage of new growth markets. It's
hard to get excited about closing the AT&T deal."

Other telcos are much better bargains

Of course, some might argue that all these risks are already priced
into the stock. AT&T, after all, trades at just 14 times 2006 earnings
estimates. But that's not exactly a bargain considering that analysts
expect earnings to increase by just 6.7 percent next year.

BellSouth also trades at 14 times next year's profit projections but
analysts expect earnings to increase by 11 percent. And even though
Sprint Nextel trades at a premium of 16 times 2006 estimates, it also
looks like a better bet than AT&T since its profits are expected to
increase by nearly 14 percent next year.

Given its prospects, the new Ma Bell looks an awful lot like the old
Ma Bell. And that's not a good thing.

Analysts quoted in this story do not own shares of the companies
mentioned. Wachovia has done banking for AT&T, BellSouth and Qwest The
other firms do not have investment banking ties to the companies.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/01/technology/techinvestor/lamonica/index.htm

Copyright 2005  CNN Money.

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.

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

From: Eric Auchard <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Yahoo to Offer Cheap PC-to-Phone Calls
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:41:41 -0600


By Eric Auchard

Yahoo Inc. said the company plans to allow computer users to make and
receive calls from phones at rates that undercut eBay-owned rival
Skype and are significantly below traditional phone companies.

Yahoo said on Wednesday a new version of its Yahoo Messenger text,
voice and video communications software to be introduced in the next
few days will include "Phone Out," with low per-minute charges for
calls from computers to phones, and "Phone In," a low-cost
subscription service for phone callers to call computer users.

The world's largest Internet media company said it plans to charge one
cent per minute to Yahoo Messenger users calling the United States
from, say, Russia, or anywhere else in the world and 2 cents a minute
to call 30 other countries including Australia, China, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan and Korea.

In all the Yahoo Messenger phone-calling service will be available in
180 countries, according to Terrell Karlsten, a spokeswoman for the
Sunnyvale, California-based company. Details were due to be available
shortly at http://voice.yahoo.com/.

Blair Levin, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus and a former staff member
of the Federal Communications Commission, said in a report to
investors that Yahoo's move is part of a broad and growing challenge
to traditional telecommunications carriers.

While unlikely to lead consumers to replace traditional phone services
on a broad scale, he said, computer-based phone services will put
further pressure on phone company revenues, even as they raise
regulatory issues about whether to begin requiring Internet services
to meet costly phone regulations.

"We believe pricing is dropping to a level where price itself is
likely to be less of a factor driving a consumer's choice," Levin
wrote. Instead convenience, ease-of-use, and how well voice-calling
can be integrated with other computer services will be what
differentiates Time Warner-owned America Online's AIM, Yahoo,
Microsoft's MSN and Skype.

YAHOO TRADES BLOWS WITH SKYPE

Yahoo, which has offered some voice calling features via instant
messaging software for five years is seeking to recapture momentum
from Skype, which has in two years built up a base of 68 million users
worldwide, including several million of Skype Out computer-to-phone,
low-cost calling services.

Yahoo Messenger calls to the United States are half the price of
Skype's 2.1 cents per minute. But the Skype rate applies to nearly 30
countries, making it comparable with Yahoo rates.
(see http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/ )

"In a basic sense, Skype is functionally identical to AIM, MSN or
Yahoo," said Nick Shelness, an instant messaging analyst with Ferris
Research based Perthshire, Scotland who was formerly a chief
technology officer at IBM's Lotus division.

"All three -- AIM, MSN and Yahoo -- have had audio capabilities for
quite some time. They just didn't stress those features," he noted.

Yahoo Messenger also offers e-mail links, text messaging to mobile
phones, photo sharing and video calling services. The new low-cost
calling services rely on deals struck with a variety of traditional
long-distance carriers which Yahoo inherited through its acquisition
of Dialpad in June 2005.

"Historically communications have been stuck in a bunch of different
silos," said Brad Garlinghouse, Yahoo vice president of communications
products, and a former executive at Dialpad.

"The home phone is one silo, the work phone is a silo, the mobile
phone is a silo, instant messaging is another silo and mobile phone
text-messaging is another silo," he said of how Yahoo plans eventually
to tie together communication services.

Phone In, the phone-to-PC service, costs $2.99 a month or $29.90 a
year, allowing people to select a personal phone number, and receive
incoming calls at no additional charge.

As an example, San Francisco residents using the service who have
friends or family in London will be able to choose a local
London-based phone number.  UK callers to the number would be charged
for making a local call.

Travelers can have multiple numbers that allow them to have local
numbers in each country they visit, starting first in France, the
United Kingdom, and the United States with other countries to follow,
Yahoo said.

The new version of Yahoo Messenger allows users to search for contacts
they have entered the system by name, by Yahoo nickname, by phone
number or other contact details. Users can then choose to communicate
via text, voice or e-mail.

To encourage use of its phone calling services, Yahoo said that, for a
limited time, it would offer a free headset to users who sign up for
its Phone Out service. Localized versions in various national markets
will be available, Yahoo said.

Copyright  2005 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. 

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

To discuss this with other readers, go to our forum area:
http://telecom-digest.org/chat.html

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

From: Juan Carlos <idg@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Yahoo Updates Messenger's Phone Features
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:43:04 -0600


Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Yahoo plans to upgrade Yahoo Messenger with a capability that lets
users dial out from the instant messaging service interface to
traditional or mobile phones, a Yahoo executive says.

Cheap Calls

Yahoo Messenger users will also be able to rent one or more phone
numbers from Yahoo to receive phone calls through the instant message
(IM) interface, said Jeff Bonforte, the company's senior director of
voice product management.

Calls made from within Yahoo Messenger to U.S.-based phone numbers
will be priced at 1 cent per minute, while calls to 30 other countries
with heavy telecommunications traffic in Europe, Latin America, Africa
and Asia will cost under 2 cents per minute, he said.

Calls can also be made to over 150 other countries, and rates vary, he
said.  The rates are based on where the call terminates, not where it
originates, Bonforte said, so it would cost someone in, for example,
Singapore or Brazil one cent per minute to call someone in the U.S.

To use this feature, which Yahoo calls "phone out," Yahoo Messenger
users need to prepay for the calls in chunks of either $10 or $25, but
the unused credit never expires, so a user could theoretically buy $10
worth of calls and take years to spend the amount, he said.

Yahoo Messenger has had PC-to-PC voice communications for years, and
it has offered users a fee-based option to dial out to a phone number
using the third-party Net2Phone service.

However, this voice capability is now being tightly integrated with
Yahoo Messenger and will be threaded into various other Yahoo online
services in the future, he said. Yahoo views voice communications not
as an IM-specific feature but rather as an application that is
becoming key to interacting online in general.

"This is just the beginning for Yahoo" in the voice space, Bonforte said.

Sounds Good, Says Analyst

Users will be able to obtain one or more phone numbers for $2.99
monthly or $29.90 per year to receive calls from regular or mobile
phones via their Yahoo Messenger interface. To start, only U.S.,
U.K. and French numbers will be available. However, Yahoo Messenger
users worldwide can get U.S. or U.K.  numbers, Bonforte said. So, for
example, someone living in Germany who speaks often with people in San
Francisco and New York, can get local numbers for those
U.S. cities. French numbers are restricted to residents of that
country, he said.

Yahoo hasn't yet announced when the new Yahoo Messenger version with
these phone-out/phone-in capabilities will become available.

While eBay's Skype is the undisputed leader in PC-to-PC voice
communications, Yahoo does well to integrate this functionality into
Yahoo Messenger and into its other online services, an analyst
said. That way, Yahoo will make it convenient for its users to engage
in PC-to-PC phone calling, both for those who also use Skype and for
those who don't, said Yankee Group analyst Kate Griffin.

"It definitely extends the value and functionality for users," she said.

Note: PC World has a partnership agreement to provide content to Yahoo
News.

Copyright 2005 PC World Communications, Inc.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

To discuss this with other readers, please go to our forum area:
http://telecom-digest.org/chat

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

From: Peter Godwin <godwin@isoc.org>
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 17:43:20 +0100
Subject: Public Interest Registry Announces Milestone of 4,000,000 .ORG Domains


Worldwide .ORG usage contributes to continued growth in the .ORG Community

RESTON, VA - November 30, 2005 - Public Interest Registry (PIR), the
 .ORG registry, announced today that over 4,000,000 .ORG domains are
registered worldwide. The successful growth of the .ORG domain is a
direct result of the increase in global internet use, the credibility
associated with the .ORG brand, as well as the success of over 180
 .ORG resellers worldwide.

"We have reached a significant milestone within the .ORG community,"
said Edward G. Viltz, President and CEO of PIR. ".ORG is no longer
considered to be the 'other' domain. It has become the established
Internet home of the worldwide noncommercial community. The attainment
of four million registered .ORG domains is a direct reflection of the
increased awareness and demand for the .ORG domain. We reaffirm our
commitment to the continued management of the .ORG Registry in the
public interest and thank our Registrars, their Resellers, Afilias
Global Registry Services and the .ORG Community for their support."

 .ORG, originally created in 1984, has grown to be the third largest
generic top level domain and the fifth largest when including country
code top level domains. PIR is promoting the use of .ORG within the
global nonprofit community through outreach programs targeting
developing regions of the world.  Additionally, PIR has offered to
.ORG registrars discounts targeting Latin America, Africa, India,
China and Southeast Asia in an effort to expand the Internet and
promote the .ORG domain in these regions.

About PIR Public Interest Registry ( http://www.pir.org ) is a 501(c)
(3) not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society (ISOC)
to manage the .ORG domain. PIR's mission is to manage the .ORG domain
in an exemplary manner, while educating and empowering the global
non-commercial community to use the Internet more effectively and,
concurrently, to take a leadership position among Internet
stakeholders on policy and related issues on behalf of the .ORG
community. PIR is based in Reston, VA, USA.

ABOUT .ORG

The .ORG domain, which has come to be associated with noncommercial
activities, is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country
specific top-level domain with more than 4 million domain names
registered worldwide.  In 2002, the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors selected ISOC's proposal
from among 11 organizations bidding to operate the .ORG top-level
domain. PIR assumed control of the registry on 1 January 2003.

ABOUT PIR

Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) is a not-for-profit corporation
created by the Internet Society (ISOC) to manage the .ORG top-level
domain. PIR's mission is to manage the .ORG domain in a manner that
supports the continuing evolution of the Internet as a research,
education and communications infrastructure, while educating and
empowering the non-commercial community to most effectively utilize
the Internet. PIR is based in Reston, Virginia.

For more information:

Michael Ward
Public Interest Registry
(703) 464-7005 x113
E-mail: mward@pir.org

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

From: donotemailme@ekkinc.com
Subject: Vonage + Multi-Line Cordless Phones?
Date: 8 Dec 2005 10:07:35 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


A little advice needed:

For a new office I am helping to setup, we are installing a 384k T1
line, and are planning on using vonage over that T1 line for our phone
service.  We plan to have at least 2 and maybe 3 phone lines through
vonage.  We are looking into cordless multi-line phones.  We figure
we'll need 1 base station and 4-8 handsets.  Vonage offers a call-hunt
feature that will ring the second or third line if the first line is
busy.  Will this multi-line service from vonage work with 1 mutli-line
base station?

Thanks,

Ken

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

From: Wesrock@aol.com
Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2005 20:28:11 EST
Subject: Busing Amazon Workers From Tulsa to Coffeyville


Amazon taps state for temp workers 

By Jim Stafford
The Oklahoman

TULSA - Amazon.com has reached into Oklahoma for some of the 1,000
seasonal workers it needs to staff its Coffeyville, Kan., shipping
center during the holiday season, luring them across the border with
daily chartered bus commutes that feature televised entertainment.
Every afternoon at 3 p.m., a chartered bus pulls out of the Albertsons
parking lot near E 51st Street and Memorial here and begins the
90-minute, 75-mile trek north to Coffeyville.

"It's a nice chartered bus with a television and VCR so they can watch
movies, things like that," said Lisa Brown, director of operations for
Chicago-based Staff Management.

Amazon.com contracted with Staff Management to hire the temporary
workers it needs to ship the vast quantities of books, electronics,
toys and other merchandise bought by online shoppers during the
Christmas retailing season.

The 45 long-distance commuters from Tulsa arrive at the
1-million-square-foot "fulfillment center" well before their 5
p.m. shift begins, Brown said.

Staff Management also buses almost three times as many temporary
workers to Coffeyville from Joplin, Mo., each day. Joplin is 67 miles
to the east.

"We are busing about 140 people from Joplin," Brown said. "And I
believe we do have some who are driving on their own."

Amazon.com opened the Coffeyville fulfillment center in a former
Golden Books distribution center in 1999, said Doris Scism with the
Coffeyville Chamber of Commerce. The center was expanded from an
original 450,000 square feet to the current 1 million, she said. The
Coffeyville center employs about 500 full-time workers, in addition to
the temporary employees.

Coffeyville's population of about 12,000 requires Amazon.com to look
beyond the immediate area for seasonal workers to meet the holiday
demand. Oklahoma's work force development agency, Workforce Oklahoma,
worked with Staff Management in recruiting the Tulsa workers, Brown
said.

A Staff Management news release said starting pay for employees at the
Amazon.com center is $9.50 per hour for day-shift workers and $10 per
hour for nights and part-time positions on weekends.

Staff Management offered the incentive of a "performance-based" raffle
of a new 2005 Chevrolet Aveo to workers who signed on for the seasonal
jobs. Those who complete their temporary assignments, which generally
end at Christmas, will be eligible for the drawing, Brown said.

This is the second year that bus transportation has been provided for
the temporary workers, Brown said. The Tulsa bus begins its return
trip into Oklahoma after the night shift ends at 1:30 a.m., and
arrives back in town about 3 a.m.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A large number of Amazon.com workers
also come from Independence, which is about twelve miles north of the
Coffeyville Industrial Park on Sunflower Avenue where Amazon is
located. Amazon is considered one of the major employers both for
Independence and Coffeyville.   PAT]

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

Subject: Cellular-News for Thursday 8th December 2005
Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 09:25:26 -0600
From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news-mail.com>


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

[[ Financial ]]

Dutch Government Trims Stake In KPN
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15143.php

The Dutch government on Wednesday said it trimmed its stake in the
country's leading telecommunications services provider, KPN, to around
8% and said it would get rid of its "golden share" in the company. ...

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15144.php

British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC isn't immediately planning to offer
mobile phones as part of its product range, a senior executive said
Tuesday. ...

Alfa Group Expects Telsim Sale Price To Be Too High-Executive
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15145.php

The head of Alfa Group's telecommunications branch, Altimo, said
Wednesday he expects the sale price of Turkey's Telsim Mobil
Telekomunikasyon to be too high. ...

Virgin Mobile Rejects NTL Takeover Bid
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15148.php

Virgin Mobile Holdings (U.K.) PLC said Wednesday that its board had
unanimously rejected the proposed takeover offer by NTL Inc. ...

Belarus' BeST to take $184 mln loan from China Eximbank
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15149.php

Belarus state-controlled GSM mobile operator Belarus  Telecommunications
Network, or BeST, has signed an agreement to take out a U.S. $184.2
million loan from Export-Import Bank of China (China Eximbank). The
agreement was signed during Belarusian ...

[[ Handsets ]]

PRESS: Russia's Euroset postpones Eurobond offering indefinitely
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15150.php

Russia's largest mobile handset retailer Euroset has indefinitely
postponed the offering of its debut, U.S. $150 million 30-month
Eurobond issue, the company's President Eldar Razroyev said, Vedomosti
business daily reported Wednesday. ...

Bulgarian Operator Extends Retail Presence
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15153.php

Bulgaria's M-Tel has expanded its retail outlets to include selling
its products through the independent retailers, Technopolis and Handy
shops. The two dealers will exclusively offer the services of the
biggest mobile operator in Bulgaria, including...

Nearly 1 in 5 of Recent Handset Purchases Have No Landline
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15155.php

New research released today by the USA's Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA) shows a shift away from landlines to wireless phones
for many American consumers, particularly younger age groups, those
who rent their homes and singles. A full 17% of c...

Wal-Mart and RadioShack Top US Handset Sales
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15156.php

Telephia has reported that Wal-Mart and RadioShack have posted strong
market share for retailing wireless handsets. Among recent wireless
purchasers who bought their phone within the last 6 months at a major
U.S. retailer, such as big box and consume...

UTStarcom Wins Vietnamese CDMA Handset Contract
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15159.php

UTStarcom has won a contract to supply its C1161 CDMA 1x handsets to
S-Fone, a nationwide CDMA service provider based in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam. S-Fone is the sixth operator in 2005 to offer
UTStarcom-designed and -manufactured handsets, joining S...

[[ Legal ]]

Lawmakers Ask Swiss Government To Explain Swisscom Disclosure
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15146.php

Two parliamentary commissions Wednesday asked the Swiss government for
a response to criticisms of its handling of Swisscom AG's
privatization plan and terms attached to it. ...

[[ Messaging ]]

Visto Powering Turkish Push Email Platform
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15160.php

Visto Corp. has announced that Turkey's Turkcell has deployed Visto
Mobile with ConstantSync technology to deliver mass-market push mobile
email services to a customer's wireless device of choice. Called
TurkcellE-Postaci, the new service is a perso...

[[ Network Contracts ]]

Contract to Improve Phone Coverage Inside Trains
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15152.php

Avitec has won the contract to provide and install OnBoard Repeaters
for mobile coverage in all of Sweden's high speed train wagons
(X2000). The order was signed by the Swedish Railway Authorities in
collaboration with SJ, TeliaSonera, 3, Tele 2 and ...

Ericsson Involved in Slovak Military Mobile Contract
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15158.php

The UK defense contractor, BAE Systems, along with Ericsson has been
selected by the Slovak Ministry of Defence to deliver a fully US, EU
and NATO interoperable mobile military communications system (MOKYS)
to the Slovak armed forces. The contract wi...

[[ Offbeat ]]

Nokia Face Of Africa returns in 2006
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15157.php

The continent's most established model talent search, the Nokia Face
Of Africa begins its sixth season this month as the African TV channel
M-Net and leading mobile company Nokia have renewed their commitment
to popular initiative. This time round 12...

[[ Regulatory ]]

Mexican Antitrust Regulator Expects Tougher Law In 2006
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15141.php

The head of Mexico's antitrust commission said Tuesday that he is
optimistic a new law giving regulators more power will be passed in
the spring congressional session. ...

[[ Statistics ]]

Ukraine's URS chief says subscriber base up to 219,000 Dec 1
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15147.php

The subscriber base of Ukraine's mobile operator Ukrainian
Radiosystems (URS) rose to 219,000 people as of December 1 from
160,204 people as of October 1, Sergei Mironov, chairman of URS'
executive board, told Prime-Tass Wednesday. ...

[[ Technology ]]

Ericsson Adds New Features To Mini-Link Product
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15142.php

Swedish telecommunications equipment manufacturer Telefon AB
L.M. Ericsson (ERICY) Wednesday said it has added new capabilities to
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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 13:17:05 EST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: BT Enlists Content Partners for TV Service


USTelecom dailyLead
December 8, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/zJBoatagCAbMBJtTDI

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* BT enlists content partners for TV service
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Virgin Mobile balks at NTL bid
* RIM, NTP communicate via mediator
* Analysis: What does the future hold for print directories?
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* In the Telecom Bookstore:  Wireless Crash Course
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Inmarsat announces satellite broadband service
* Mobile WiMAX standards approved
* Verizon Wireless to offer CBS shows
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* FCC seeks extensive data in Adelphia review
* Will Google's reach incite regulation push?

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

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

Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005 18:12:00 -0600
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com
Subject: Re: Hypothetical SxS Question


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> Suppose we wanted to install a PABX using step-by-step gear in a condo
> complex.  We need 250 stations.  My question regards the most
> efficient station number assignments.

> One person says the stations ought to have a four digit number that
> corresponds to the apartment number.  There are 19 buildings with
> 10-15 units per building.  So unit #103 would get phone number 0103
> and unit #1513 would be phone 1513.

> While the above is easier to remember, wouldn't that be a waste of SxS
> terminals and require more switch units without any gain in
> efficiency?  Isn't a four digit code inherently more complex than a
> three digit in an SxS environment?  I think the phone ought to be
> numbered strictly sequentially, starting from 111 and going upward.

The most "efficient" numbering plan (least amount of equipment) would be 
to assign extension numbers in three 3-digit ranges:

      211-200
      311-300
      411-400

This arrangement provides a total of 300 lines, enough to accommodate
250 apartments with spares for other uses (office, maintenance room,
loading dock, etc.).

Advantage: This plan requires only three sets of switches:
linefinders, first selectors, and connectors.  By contrast, the
hypothetical 4-digit plan that "one person" suggests would require
four sets: linefinders, first selectors, second selectors, and
connectors.  As you note, a four digit code [is] inherently more
complex than a three digit in an SxS environment."

Advantage: This plan avoids two SxS taboos: subscriber numbers beginning 
with 0 or 1:

   - Initial 0 is taboo because "experience has shown that in a single-
     office system it is not advisable to use subscribers' numbers
     commencing with the numeral zero (0) unless absolutely necessary
     to secure the desired capacity" [1].  And, of course, zero is
     traditionally used to reach the local operator, if any.

   - Initial 1 is taboo because an SxS (or any other rotary-dial) switch
     can't distinguish between an intentionally-dialed 1 and a false
     switchhook depression.

Disadvantage: It's not possible to match subscriber numbers to apartment 
numbers (although, as PAT notes, this might not be a good idea anyway).

[1] Kempster B. Miller.  "Telephone Theory and Practice" vol. 3 
"Automatic Switching and Auxiliary Equipment."  New York: McGraw Hill, 
1933, p. 129.

Neal McLain

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

From: Carl Navarro <cnavarro@wcnet.org>
Subject: Re: Hypothetical SxS Question
Date: Thu, 08 Dec 2005 17:46:43 GMT
Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com


On 7 Dec 2005 10:40:16 -0800, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> This question is purely speculative only, not for real use.

> Suppose we wanted to install a PABX using step-by-step gear in a condo
> complex.  We need 250 stations.  My question regards the most
> efficient station number assignments.

> One person says the stations ought to have a four digit number that
> corresponds to the apartment number.  There are 19 buildings with
> 10-15 units per building.  So unit #103 would get phone number 0103
> and unit #1513 would be phone 1513.

> While the above is easier to remember, wouldn't that be a waste of SxS
> terminals and require more switch units without any gain in
> efficiency?  Isn't a four digit code inherently more complex than a
> three digit in an SxS environment?  I think the phone ought to be
> numbered strictly sequentially, starting from 111 and going upward.

Of course it would waste resources, but on the bright side you'd only
have to clean the first two levels of the connector banks :-) Later
implementations would have used a tranlator and register senders.  You
dial 1513 and the translator converted it into 813.  The wiring and
troubleshooting of translators and register senders, even in a common
control crosspoint office, would have been a nightmare.

> The Bell System history talks about "graded multiples" to more
> efficiently use trunks and switchgear in central offices, but I don't
> think that would apply in this application.

> Now if we wanted to implement the above using modern technology, would
> only a PC be required with appropriate software and cards?  I guess
> we'd need capacity for about five conversations at once.

Or a PBX carded 4x250.  The high station count precludes an old analog
Mitel SX-200, but it would have served about 188 stations with 31
calling paths.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The problem as I see it with matching
> apartment number to intercom number is a security issue. Do you really
> want to let strangers know that the tenant in apartment 103 (0103) or
> the tenant in apartment 1513 (1513) is or is not at home?  With the
> Bell System 'Interphone' (or the competitor's 'Enterphone')
> arrangement, the intercom numbers were used randomly for more security.

In a Viking entry sysem, you assign 2 or 3-digit numbers to a
directory, but those numbers don't relate to anything but storage
bins.

Carl Navarro

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

From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk>
Subject:  Re: Communications History
Date:  Thu, 08 Dec 2005 13:51:33 +0000


> I am a bit of a communications history buff.  I've been doing a little
> research about telecom in the days before transoceanic phone service
> before cables and satellites.  The only way to bridge the oceans was
> hf radio.  It's interesting to note that anyone with a shortwave radio
> could listen to all the international point-to-point phone traffic.  I
> am going to assume that a form of independent sideband was used with a
> maximum of two or four circuits going to a specific country.  Ssb is
> very easy to receive even with a standard shortwave radio of the day
> as long as it had a bfo to demodulate and recover the signals.  I
> would like to know if any form of primitive encryption was used to
> make the circuits a bit more secure.  It must have been very easy to
> literally monitor all the international traffic to and from a given
> nation.  Anyone who can shed light on this subject would be
> appreciated to help scratch my historical itch.

In the earlier days, quite a number of the HF links were just regular
double-sideband AM with carrier, not even SSB.  Even today we still
have ship-to-shore telephone links operated over simple, unencrypted
SSB links in the marine band (2 to 3MHz-ish).  I'm on the east coast
of England, and there are still quite a number of calls placed this
way from the off-shore oil rigs in the North Sea.

When satellites started taking over international circuits, there was
no encryption either.  They used the same sort of basic carrier
arrangements as were already in use for coax systems, with each
circuit in an SSB channel of 4kHz overall bandwidth (wider than the
telephone speech bandwidth to allow for guard bands, pilot tones,
etc.).

12 channels made up a group, then 5 groups were multiplexed together
to form a supergroup, and so on.  The arrangement allowed for easy
routing of circuits at intermediate points without splitting
everything down to individual channels and then recombining.  If, say,
one group (12 channels) out of a supergroup was destined for a
particular place,you could just extract that group complete and then
multiplex it on to a different supergroup to send it on its way -- No
need to worry about the individual channel content of the group.

Anyone with a suitable satellite receiver/downconverter could connect
it to a receiver and then just tune across the band, finding an SSB
telephone channel every 4kHz or so.  In fact when I worked for BT in
the 1980s that's almost EXACTLY the way we would check a specific
channel off the satellite (or other carrier systems).  We had monitor
sets that we could connect to the downconverted satellite baseband.
They had precisely calibrated level meters so we could measure
pilot-tone levels to make adjustments, but they were still, in effect,
just fancy SSB SW receivers.

Of course, in this case you'd be picking up just one direction of the
conversation, as hybrids were used back at the origin to split the
circuit.  Finding the "mate" of a channel was easy enough with all the
records in front of you, although even that could take a while to set
up.  For someone tuning around without that information, it would be
much, much harder.


Paul

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

From: Lena <lenagainster@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: FTC Do Not Call List
Date: 7 Dec 2005 13:50:02 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> Telemarketers are scum ... non-profits ... aggressively calling for
> donations

It's not so much the non-profits, but the telemarketing companies they
hire to make the calls.  They are using the same obnoxious techniques
that were used before the Do Not Call went into effect.  As you
described, they hang up when an answering maching picks up.  The call
shows up as "toll free" or "out of area" on the Caller ID.  Sometimes
I'll see the number, so I know it's the same telemarketer calling over
and over again.  

I had one, calling on behalf of a legitimate charity, ring my phone
three and four times a day, every day over a period of two weeks,
anytime between 9 a.m. and 8:56 pm.  I knew who it was, because the
first time they called, I answered and said I was too ill to discuss
the charity.  After two weeks of this harassment, I answered and blew
off steam at the unfortunate young lady who made that call.  But they
got the hint, finally, and stopped calling me.  My next move was to
find the name and email address of the director of the charity that
hired the telemarketer and give him a piece of my mind about
telemarketers, how rude and inconsiderate they are, and how, by
choosing that form of soliciting for my contribution, I'll never give
them another dime.

Lena

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


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