TELECOM Digest Fri, 6 May 2005 23:15:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 201 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #480, May 6, 2005 (John Riddell) Swedish Raid on ISP Called Major Blow to Piracy (Lisa Minter) Big Brother Isn't Here Yet (Eric Friedebach) 1A2 Help Requested (Matt) Review of Ameritech History Book (Thank You) (Brian_Coffey@nps.gov) Closed Captioning (was How is Weather Channel Data....) (Neal McLain) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Here's how Vonage-Verizon E-911 Will Work (Barry Margolin) Michigan Senate Technology And Energy Committee Meeting (Jack Decker) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #480, May 6, 2005 Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 15:04:32 -0400 From: John Riddell ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 480: May 6, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Nortel Sales Down From Last Year ** CRTC VoIP Decision Due Next Week ** CallNet to Acquire GT Assets in NB, NS ** Rogers Leads in New Wireless Sales ** Labor War Heats Up at Telus ** Telus Announces 3G Wireless Plans ** Bell Meets First SuperNet Target ** Qwest Abandons Attempt to Buy MCI ** Primus Canada Up to 40,000 Local Lines ** SaskTel Chooses Alcatel for Converged IP ** FCC Chair Wants 911 on Internet Phones in Four Months ** Aliant: Revise Our Quality Reports, Too! ** ITU Plans European Show ** First Quarter Financial Reports BCE Profits Steady Telus Profits Double MTS Net Income Rises Call-Net Makes Gains NORTEL SALES DOWN FROM LAST YEAR: Nortel Networks reports fourth quarter revenues of US$2.62 billion, up 20% from the preceding quarter but down 20% from the same period a year ago. Net income of $133 million was down 75% from a year ago. Enterprise sales in 2004 were 9% less than the previous year, and made up about a quarter of total revenues. CRTC VoIP DECISION DUE NEXT WEEK: The CRTC's long-awaited decision on the regulatory framework for Voice over IP services in Canada is scheduled for release next Thursday, May 12. Next week's Telecom Update will provide a summary. CALLNET TO ACQUIRE GT ASSETS IN NB, NS: Call-Net has agreed to acquire virtually all of the former Group Telecom's intercity and local networks in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, along with certain switching and network equipment, from Bell Canada for $12.6 million. (see Telecom Update #435) ** Call-Net has also paid Bell $1.7 million toward an option to purchase over 90% of the remaining GT network in Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador by the end of 2006, for a maximum price of $22.4 million. ROGERS LEADS IN NEW WIRELESS SALES: Cellco results for the first quarter show Rogers with a net gain of 89,200 new wireless subscribers. Telus Mobility grew by 80,200, Bell Mobility by 37,000. Bell says its results reflect the cancellation of 45,000 non-paying accounts. ** Subscriber totals as of March 31: Rogers 5.58 million; Bell 4.96 million; Telus 4.02 million. LABOR WAR HEATS UP AT TELUS: The battle between Telus and its employees organized in the Telecommunications Workers Union escalated again this week. Recent developments: ** Telus announced that it will stop deducting union dues from employees' wages and cease remitting the dues to the TWU. ** The TWU launched a Web-based campaign against Telus, and is urging the federal Minister of Labor to press Telus to settle. See www.anotherwrongnumber.com ** The TWU is questioning the legality of the election of directors held at this week's Telus AGM. A TWU member ran for the board, but the chair disallowed proxy votes for him. TELUS ANNOUNCES 3G WIRELESS PLANS: Telus Mobility says it plans to launch EVDO service, which transports data at "Third Generation" rates of up to 2 Mbps, in selected markets across Canada in the first quarter of 2006. (See Telecom Update #462) BELL MEETS FIRST SUPERNET TARGET: By April 30, Bell Canada had connected 421 of 429 communities to Alberta SuperNet, meeting the target set by the Alberta Government. The eight remaining will be connected when weather permits. (See Telecom Update #470) ** Bell and its partner, Axia NetMedia, aim to have the majority of government facilities connected to the network by June 30 and to complete construction by September 30. QWEST ABANDONS ATTEMPT TO BUY MCI: This week, MCI accepted Verizon's US$26 per share acquisition offer, although it was $4 less than Qwest's. Qwest has pulled out of the bidding, saying it is "no longer in the best interests of shareowners, customers, and employees to continue in a process that seems to be permanently skewed against Qwest." PRIMUS CANADA UP TO 40,000 LOCAL LINES: Virginia-based Primus Telecommunications Group says its Canadian subsidiary had 40,000 residential lines in service by March 31. About 90% of the new local customers take a Primus LD plan as well. SASKTEL CHOOSES ALCATEL FOR CONVERGED IP: SaskTel has chosen Alcatel, one of its long-standing data network suppliers, to equip the telco's IP network with the Alcatel 7450 Ethernet switch and 5620 Service Aware Manager. FCC CHAIR WANTS 911 ON INTERNET PHONES IN FOUR MONTHS: Published reports say the U.S. Federal Communications Commission will vote May 19 on a proposal to require providers of Internet telephone services to route 911 calls directly to the appropriate emergency lines by the end of September. The proposal is said to be supported by the new FCC Chair, Kevin Martin. ALIANT: REVISE OUR QUALITY REPORTS, TOO! Aliant has asked the CRTC to exclude some of its Quality of Service results from the calculations that require it to pay refunds to customers for poor service. Aliant wants to exclude results for 4Q 2004 and 1Q 2005 that it says were affected by last year's strike, which lasted from April 23 to September 20. ** Telus made a similar request last week. (See Telecom Update #479) ITU PLANS EUROPEAN SHOW: Two years ago, the International Telecommunications Union decided to move its flagship Telecom World trade show and conference from Switzerland to Hong Kong in 2006. The ITU now says it will add a new event, Telecom Europe, to its schedule for 2007-2008. The date and location remain to be determined. ** May 17 is World Telecommunications Day, marking 140 years since the formation of the ITU. FIRST QUARTER FINANCIAL REPORTS: ** BCE Profits Steady: BCE's revenues of $4.86 billion were 4.8% higher than a year ago; profits were $474 million, compared with $470 million in 1Q04. Bell Globemedia's sales rose 4.1%; Bell Canada's, 2.5%. Wireless revenues rose 9.5%, and data revenues rose 6.6%. ** Telus Profits Double: Telus net income of $242 million was 139% higher than during the same quarter last year; net income rose 9.5% to $1.97 billion. Data sales rose 11%. Wireless revenue rose 19% and now makes up 38% of Telus's overall sales. ** MTS Net Income Rises: Manitoba Telecom's profits of $42.5 million were 34.1% higher than a year ago, excluding one- time events. Revenues of $495.1 million were up 135% from a year ago, which did not include Allstream. Sales of the Manitoba division rose 5.3%; those of the national division were similar to the previous two quarters. ** Call-Net Makes Gains: In Q1 2005, Call-Net revenue grew 7% compared to Q1 2004, to $216 million. EBIDTA, cash flow and gross margins increased. Fifty-six percent of revenue in the quarter were from non-long distance business. Net loss was $13 million, down from $30 million a year ago. Call-Net added 30,000 new local lines in the quarter, to total 336,100 residential and 159,000 business lines. HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca. 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 19:56:47 EDT From: Lisa Minter Subject: Swedish Raid on ISP Called Major Blow to Piracy By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The U.S. film industry on Friday hailed a raid by Swedish police against an Internet service provider as a major blow to European piracy of movies and music on the Web. The raid was carried out a week ago Thursday at the Stockholm offices of Bahnhof, Sweden's oldest and largest ISP, which U.S. copyright protection experts have considered a haven for high-level Internet piracy for years. "This was a very big raid," said John Malcolm, worldwide anti-piracy operations director at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents Hollywood's major studios. "The material that was seized contained not only evidence of a piracy organization operating in Sweden but of online piracy organizations operating throughout all of Europe," he told Reuters. Bahnhof, the first major ISP raided by the Swedes without advance notice, was home to some of the biggest and fastest servers in Europe, the MPAA said in a statement. Authorities in Sweden seized four computer servers -- one reputed to be the biggest pirate server in Europe -- containing enough digital film and music content for up to 3-1/2 years of uninterrupted play, the organization said. Malcolm said authorities in Scandinavian countries had been reluctant to take such action in the past but were recently cracking down on piracy. About 20 individuals suspected of Internet piracy have been the targets of smaller raids by Swedish authorities during the past month. The servers seized during the operation contained a total of 1,800 digital movie files, 5,000 software application files and 450,000 digital audio files -- amounting to 23 terabytes of data. The MPAA says the film industry loses $3.5 billion a year to videotapes and DVDs sold on the black market, but it has no estimate for how much Internet piracy costs the industry. Reuters/VNU 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters Limited. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Big Brother Isn't Here Yet Date: 6 May 2005 13:22:22 -0700 Arik Hesseldahl, 05.06.05, Forbes.com NEW YORK - There's an old saying that goes, "Gentlemen don't read other gentlemen's mail." It's attributed to President Herbert Hoover's Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, who in 1929 shut down the office in the U.S. State Department responsible for breaking codes to read messages sent between embassies of other countries and their capitals. It didn't take long for the government to realize that eavesdropping on the communications of other countries and even its own citizens is a necessary evil in a dangerous world. Government surveillance is a sensitive topic, fraught with a good deal of paranoia and a lot of misunderstanding. I was reminded of this when someone with whom I trade e-mail sent an article noting that the number of court-ordered phone wiretaps is on the rise. The Administrative Office of U.S. Courts tracks statistics on wiretaps ordered by judges at the state and federal levels on an annual basis in order to report them to Congress. The headline on most stories detailing the report was that the overall number of wiretaps was up 19%. The friend who sent the story used this in part to bolster her side of a long-simmering discussion about how the U.S. is morphing into Oceania, the surveillance-obsessed nation described in George Orwell's 1984. "Hogwash," I said, and promptly tore into the numbers. Federal and state judges approved 1,710 wiretaps covering wire, oral and electronic communications in 2004, none of which were related to terrorism investigations, for which an additional 1,754 warrants were issued last year according to a separate report put out by the U.S. Department of Justice. So last year's grand total was 3,464 wiretaps approved for all state and federal investigations. That works out to less than one tapped phone line for every 100,000 people in the U.S. Compared to other countries, the U.S. is significantly more conservative in ordering wiretaps for criminal investigations. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2005/05/06/cx_ah_0506diglife.html Eric Friedebach /An Apollo Sandwich from Corky & Lenny's/ ------------------------------ From: Matt Subject: 1A2 Help Requested Date: 6 May 2005 13:42:34 -0700 All, I googled this group and found some questions, slightly related to mine, but not exactly, and all 3 or 4 years old. Also, I apologize if I munge some terms. So -- the story. The old 6 button western electric wink/blink/flash business phones have always fascinated me. Don't ask me why ... I dunno. Currently I don't have any "new" phones at home ... Over the years I have found them all to be crap for one reason or another, regardless of price, and have bought several of the old 60s/70s style phones to replace them. I was amazed how much I prefer the sound of the old style ringer to the glitzy electronic chirp I'd gotten used to. So now, the grumpy old man in me is satisfied. But the geek in me isn't. So, on to the next step -- installing one of the 6 button business phones at home. (I don't/won't have multiple lines. All 5 buttons will tie to the same number, or perhaps I'll use some of them for intercom functionality, etc. one day). I'm bidding on some manuals that apparantly go very deeply into the operation and wiring of this type system -- but in the chance I lose the auction, I was hoping to get some help here. Can anyone break down, at a high level, the components I will need to get something like this working? I know I need the phone itself, and it has to have the 25 pair amphenol connector on it. And I know I need a 1A2 Keyset Unit. And this is where things get fuzzy for me. When someone says 1A2 keyset unit -- does that automatically infer all the pieces that go with it? For example, I know there are various cards, which enable certain options, and so, there must also be a power supply to power the cards. Is this all self contained within what is called a KSU? Are there other pieces to a 1A2 KSU I need to know about? For example, do I need to get some punchdown blocks that go in between the phones and the KSU? I guess my problem is I don't know what to ask -- because I don't know what I'm doing. I'll continue searching the web to learn more, and in the meantime, if anyone could provide some links (Surely I'm not the only one to do this?), or perhaps offer comments, I'd be most appreciative. Thanks, Matt ------------------------------ Subject: Ameritech Book Review (Thank You) From: Brian_Coffey@nps.gov Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 16:25:48 -0400 Thanks for the nice review of our "Snapshots in Time." When I was hired as an intern by Bill Cauglin to catalog the Ohio Bell collection, it seemed both sad and crazy that those picture might be doomed to sit on shelves. The prototype for that book were simple 3-ring binders with copies of photos and some captions. We took the Illinois binder to the State Fair and sent one to the Ohio Ameritech office. I feel so happy that we were able to use those photos for something educational, and, we hope for the old "Bell Heads," something inspirational. I later presented a paper "From Princess to Coquette: The Role of the Telephone in The American Home," at the American Poplular Culture Conference. It was about how AT&T used a propaganda blitz to convince people to get a second phone, and the eventual demise of the Dreyfuss designs and the last gasp of design that gave us the "Design Line." Thanks again. BRIAN F. COFFEY LCS COORDINATOR SERO/CRD 404-562-3117 EXT. 642 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As I mentioned to you in private email, you are quite welcome. And it appears nothing has been said about that book for several months, so a refresher review might be in order: Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:35:50 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 Feb 2004 23:35:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 87 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: A Photographic History of Ameritech (TELECOM Digest Editor) Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 22:57:22 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Book Review: A Photographic History of Ameritech Did you know 'Ameritech' originally stood for '(AM)erican (I)nformation (TECH)nologies, Inc.? You will learn that and a lot more in a recent book "A Photographic History of Ameritech". Subtitled 'Snapshots in Time', this photgraphic essay of the companies which make up the present day north-central region of SBC is a brilliant presentation of how our past evolved into our present. Written and compiled by William D. Caughlin, the manager of Ameritech Corporate Archives, with co-authors Brian F. Coffey and Ilana N. Pergam, this 200-page large size paperback book uses pictures to tell the story of the history of telephone service from its beginning in 1876 through the end of 1999, when Ameritech (or Illinois Bell as most of us knew it) became part of SBC, or what we knew as Southwestern Bell. When Alex Bell invented the telephone in March, 1876, many considered it just a novelty, an electrical toy. Everyone -- at least all readers of this Digest -- are aware of how Western Union essentially thumbed its nose at the invention, a snub that about a century later would put it out of business, along with email showing up a few years later. The Chicago Telephonic Exchange was founded on June 26, 1878 to serve the needs of Chicago businessmen. When the general public also wanted phone service, the Chicago Telephonic Exchange merged with a competitor to form the Chicago Telephone Company, in business from 1881 through 1920 to provide local service around the city. About the same time, (1883-1920) Central Union Telephone Company started offering service in other parts of northern and central Illinois. Actually ahead of Chicago by about 9 months (it started in October, 1877) was the Michigan Telephone and Telegraph Construction Company, which was the nation's first Bell Operating Company. Like Chicago, their first interest was private line service for businesses, but on August 5, 1878 the Detroit Telephonic Exchange opened for business. During 1879, telephone exchanges were established in several towns throughout Michigan, and after two years, in 1881, these various Michigan exchanges were affiliated in the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and two years following that, in 1883 (through 1904) the Michigan Telephone Company was formed. Then comes January, 1879 and the Columbus, Ohio Telephone Exchange. By the end of 1879, there were cities all over Ohio with phone service. It was about that time, that telephone switchboards were started. In the earliest days telephones were all connected directly to each other: in other words if company A had a phone and company B had a phone and Company C wanted to talk to A and B they had to have two telephones, one each to A and B. Multiply that by the number of companies in Chicago alone and you can see why the skies overhead were black with telephone wires running in all directions. Most companies had a phone to most other companies, so typically there were wires running through the air everywhere. Ditto in Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere. In March, 1879, Ameritech's first predecessor in Indiana -- the Indiana District Telephone Company began operations in Indianapolis. It eventually became part of the Central Union Telephone Company and had phone exchanges all over the state. Milwaukee's first switchboard opened in 1879, and in July, 1882 (through 1983) the Wisconsin Telephone Company was incorporated to serve that state. These five companies -- Central Union, Chicago Telephone, Cleveland Telephone, Michigan Telephone and Wisconsin Telephone became known as Associated Companies in the Bell System, and that is what this photographic essay is all about: The 1876 through 1999 period as those five companies were born, developed, merged then merged again and (as Ameritech) had still another merger into Southwestern Bell Telephone Company which then changed its name into SBC. The rapid expansion of telephone service in those early years brought with it the need for many skilled employees, especially operators. Although the first operators were young men, it soon became apparent that the subscribers preferred women in this role. Women soon became the switchboard operators, and men handled installation and maintain- ence. But around 1972, the companies began once again employing young men as operators in Directory Assistance and elsewhere. Page 139 in this book shows a young man at work in Directory Assistance in Dayton, Ohio. Caughlin and his associates picked through nearly one hundred thousand pictures in their archives and present several hundred of them in this fascinating book along with some text to place all the pictures in context. The book is broken into several parts, covering these periods of time: 1876-1899 1900-1939 1940-1969 1970-1999 and in addition a section is devoted to Ameritech's lineage. You may wish to order one or more personal copies for your library. The SBC Archives and History Center is pleased to offer the book entitled, Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech. This 192-page soft-cover book chronicles the evolution of telecommunications in the SBC Midwest (former Ameritech) five-state region through select historical images. It offers more than 225 captioned photos of switchboard operators, crews with their vehicles and technicians testing central office equipment. The book begins with an 1876 portrait of Alexander Graham Bell and ends in 1999, on the eve of the SBC/Ameritech merger. The cost for each book is $25.00, plus $4.95 for shipping. To order, fill out the form below. If you have questions, please call Bill Caughlin at (210) 524-6192. Or send him an e-mail at wc2942@sbc.com --------------------------------------------------------------- ORDER FORM FOR Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech NAME __________________________________________________ BUSINESS UNIT ________________________________________ ADDRESS _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ CITY _________________________ STATE _____ ZIP __________ PHONE NUMBER (______)_________________________ I would like to order _______ copy(ies) each at $25.00, plus $4.95 shipping, for a total of _____________. No cash, please. Make your check or money order payable to SBC Services, Inc. and send it to: SBC Archives and History Center 7990 IH-10 West Floor 1 San Antonio, Texas 78230 [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1994 Note: This review will go in the Telecom Archives section on history for future reference. You may wish to visit the history section in the archives http://telecom-digest.org and check out several interesting files there about the history of the telephone, etc. I am in the process now of attempting to establish an online museum of telephone history with pictures, etc. I'll need readers help to do it however. PAT ] Then, the next day, the author wrote with some corrections and further comments which appeared in V23_#88 Re: Book Review Corrections, Comments (Bill Caughlin) From: William D. Caughlin Subject: Author's Feedback on Book Review Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 11:13:49 -0600 Dear Patrick: Many thanks for your splendid review. It should spur a lot of interest in the book published in September 1999. We had already received five prior orders because of your earlier mass e-mail. I have two minor quibbles, though, about your review: (1) the book's primary title is 'Snapshots in Time,' while the subtitle is 'A Photographic History of Ameritech;' and (2) the official name of Ameritech between 1983 and 1991 was American Information Technologies Corporation. There was no "Inc." in it. Ameritech Corporation (the official name beginning in 1991) merged in October 1999 with SBC Communications Inc. (the holding company formerly known until 1995 as Southwestern Bell Corporation, or simply SBC). Southwestern Bell Telephone Company was just one of the many subsidiaries of parent SBC. Today, the former is called SBC Southwest. As part of the process to create a unified national brand, in December 2002, Ameritech became known as SBC Midwest and the former Illinois Bell (a.k.a. Ameritech Illinois) was rebranded as SBC Illinois. At the same time, the holding company Pacific Telesis Group (acquired by SBC in April 1997) became SBC West. And later, Southern New England Telecommunications Corporation (acquired in October 1998), parent of SNET, was simply renamed SBC East in January 2004. In fact, the former Bell Operating Companies in the 13 SBC states are now doing business as: SBC California, SBC Connecticut, SBC Indiana, SBC Missouri, SBC Texas, and so on. Ours is a very complicated industry, and so all the mergers and name changes tend to make things unclear. Finally, I was the manager of the *former* Ameritech Corporate Archives. That entity moved in June 2002 from Chicago to San Antonio, and is but one collection (out of five) in the present SBC Archives and History Center. Thank you again for sharing my book with your readers. I hope they will like it as much as you. Regarding our archival photos, we have digitized about 250 images (out of 200,000), which are currently mounted on the SBC Archives and History Center Intranet website, launched in December. Pending legal approval, we hope to make the site accessible to SBC retirees through the retiree portal. But reproduction of individual photos outside SBC requires license agreements approved by the Legal Dept. SBC doesn't want its copyrighted photos ending up in uncontrolled ventures without its permission. William D. Caughlin Corporate Archivist SBC Archives and History Center 7990 IH-10 West, Floor 1 San Antonio, Texas 78230 Tel: (210) 524-6192 Fax: (210) 321-5577 E-mail: wc2942@sbc.com ======= (End of 1994 notes) ====== So, readers, if you missed this review in the Digest a year ago and would be interested in a fascinating pictorial history of Illinois Bell, use the coupon above to order your copy for $25.00 from the SBC Archives, and Mr. Caughlin's office. And thank _you_, Mr. Coffey for the reminder to tell new readers of this Digest about it once again. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 04 May 2005 22:37:17 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: Closed captioning (was How is Weather Channel Data....) PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards closed caption, since I > sometimes these days do not hear as well as I would like, I > frequently leave closed caption turned on (it is an on/off > option on my television set) even though I am also using sound > as well (closed caption allows me to keep up with words I miss > or do not understand occassionally.) But has anyone else > noticed how they really _blow it bad_ sometimes, with trash > symbols instead of the words, etc,... The "trash symbols" you see are the result of corrupted CC data. In an NTSC video signal, the CC data is encoded on Line 21 of the picture raster (if you slightly underscan your TV set, you can see it dancing along at the top of the screen as a horizontal line of black and white dots and dashes). It other words, the CC data is part of the video signal, not a separate data stream. Consequently, it's subjected to all of the various degradations that also affect the video signal: noise, distortion, non-linear heterodyning, scrambling/descrambling, interference from outside sources. Furthermore, if the video signal is sent digitally (as on digital cable or DBS), Line 21 is sampled right along with the rest of the video. Even if the sampling data stream is error-corrected, the underlying CC data is not. > ... or sometimes just approximations of the phrases used > instead of the actual words? Sometimes this is done intentionally; sometimes not. An ad libbing speaker often speaks in a hesitant manner, sometimes repeating himself or inserting extraneous or meaningless words. An effective closed-caption track captures the essential meaning of the speaker's words, but it isn't necessarily a literal word-for-word transcription. Indeed, a word-for-word transcription can be difficult to follow, and sometimes downright annoying (it certainly isn't necessary to transcribe every "...uh...uh..."). > And in the case of VCR or DVD movies, I assume the closed > caption is just encoded right on the finished product, is that > correct? Yes. It's also true of prerecorded network programming; in fact, it's true of just about everything you see on television except live or live-delayed programming. I once observed a captioner at work at the National Captioning Institute; at the time of my visit, he was captioning a sitcom. He already had the original script as a text file; his job was to copy the script to the CC track, match it to the sound track, and modify it if necessary (as he explained, actors who really know their roles tend to adlib their lines, especially in sitcoms). I was amazed at how fast he worked: fingers flying across a standard PC keyboard, one eye on the video monitor, one eye on the text monitor, half-listening to the sound track. I asked, how he could do it so fast? He just shrugged and said "all sitcoms are alike" -- once you know the basic rhythm, you just know intuitively where to insert the CC data. > And if it is a 'live program' such as a newscast instead of > some pre-recorded stuff, it appears they also create the > closed caption live, since it drags behind the audio by a few > seconds. PAT] During live events, CC data is created on-the-fly using the same 22-key "stenotypes" that court reporters use. Some community colleges now teach stenotyping, emphasizing the training for, and the future job prospects of, both court reporting and closed captioning. Of course, doing this type of work accurately requires more than just stenotyping: it also requires knowledge of the subject at hand. Court reporters obviously have to understand legal terminology; closed-captioners have to understand the terminology of whatever they're transcribing. Inevitably closed-captioners make mistakes. Among my favorites: Senator Daniel Anyway of Hawaii Felix Mendel's son a feat snobs John Maynard Cain Nevertheless, considering the vast range of topics that closed-captioners have to deal with, I think they do an amazing job. Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your comment about transcribing an extemporaneous speaker was a good one. For a few years in my former life in Chicago, IL I had a job of tape-recording then transcribing a lecture series given at the Chicago Public Library. It was stressed to me, 'do not transcribe him literally, transcribe what he _meant_.' So I would listen to the tape three or four times, jotting down some notes. Then I would listen to the tape again, and type it up mostly 'word for word' (these notes were given out to persons who requested them later on), but I would *make complete sentences* where the speaker had made partial sentences; I would eliminate the extraneous 'ah, um' things. But then before I took the finished transcription to be mimeographed in a large quantity, I took my finished product to the speaker and said "if this correctly states your lecture, _please sign off on it for me_" then when the speaker and myself were in agreement (we almost always were), then I would get the copies run off. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 6 May 2005 14:03:22 -0700 Justin Time wrote: > The issue that needs to be resolved is if the ownership of the data, > residing on the company's (in this particular case - Yahoo!) belongs to > the sender or is it the property of the equipment provider? Seems to me it is clear the email is the property of whomever is paying the bill for email service. In the case of a worker, it is his employer. In the case of someone on their own, it is that person. Keep in mind ISPs have denied any responsibility for illegal activity transmitted over their systems -- if you download illegal stuff, you're in trouble, not your ISP. Accordingly, the ISP has no property interest in transmissions. Actually, this particular issue seems to be more of 'privacy'. But as mentioned, this is by no means a new issue. Once you're dead (or incapcitated) your affairs revert to legally designated people. As mentioned, the discovery of old love letters has had devastating results. Indeed, our nation's history was directly affected by such a case. FDR had an affair with a woman, and later on Eleanor discovered the old love letters. Their relationship remained strained forever more and more of a business partnership than a marriage. Note that the US Post Office will deliver mail addressed to a decedent to an executor unless officially notified otherwise by the executor. Mail is not automatically returned unless there is no one to accept it. If there is held mail (ie for a signature), the executor or POA is authorized to sign and receive it. > If I am _renting_ the use of the computer then the computers output > should belong to me. As I mentioned, Yahoo is not liable if you use their facilities for illegal stuff, thus they can't claim any interest in your mailings. The area of law is not "property ownership" but rather IIRC "bailments" where someone else is entrusted to hold your property, such as a safe deposit box at a bank. When you die, your executor has the right to open your safe deposit to inventory the contents (sometimes the state will order this done to get their inheritance tax cut) and then distribute or sell the contents per your will. Bailment law has been around forever and there are numerous case histories. Undoubtedly something close to today's issue can be found. > If I am employed on the farm and work with your tools, then I > suppose the crops are yours also. But not if the machinery, etc is > under my exclusive control for some period of time. PAT] The crops would belong to the property owner even if you used your own tools to harvest them. Basically it would depend on the agreement you had with the farmer for your compensation for work and equipment. Now Congress or the states could, if they chose, pass specific laws and exemptions from general practice for electronic communications. But until they do so, existing precedents apply. IMHO the email provider showed disrespect to the decedent's family for failing to provide with what was clearly lawfully theirs. From the point of view of the family, I'd be pretty annoyed. Again, if you have stuff you don't want others to see, don't use email. I just got burned with that--someone who promised me clearly they wouldn't forward my email went ahead and did so anyway ("oh, sorry, I forgot".) No great harm done since I was careful what I said originally, but it still proves the point. EMAIL IS NOT PRIVATE. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 00:40:38 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Lisa Hancock wrote: > Lisa Minter wrote: >> by Susan Llewelyn Leach Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor >> It's an old story with a heart breaking twist. A young marine is >> killed in the line of duty in Iraq and his parents, in their sorrow, >> request all his belongings, including his correspondence -- in this >> case, his e-mail. > The e-mail should be treated no differently than any other personal > belongings and they revert to the next of kin or recipients specified > in a will. "Not exactly." ALL the property and "personal belongings" of the deceased belong to the ESTATE of the deceased. Until properly distributed to the inheritors -- either in accordance with a distribution schedule specified in a will, or according to statutory specifications. > This really should be a no-brainer, and the parents should not have > had to go court to get what was rightfully theirs. It _is_ a no-brainer. and the parents went about things the *wrong* way. > There is nothing special about e-mail that make them any different > than any other very personal belongings, such as a diary or account > statements. All of these pass on to an estate via the executor or > next of kin. Everything passes _into_ the ESTATE, and is distributed from there to the inheritors. All that had to happen was for the _executor_ of the estate to contact the Internet company, providing the *COURT*AUTHORIZATION* that (a) certifies that the person *is*, in fact, deceased, and (b) gives them, _as_executor_, access to any/all property belonging to the deceased. The family did _not_ have such documentation, when the original request was presented. The Internet company quite _rightfully_ refused to turn over the property of another person, on the "say so" of an unknown party, who was claiming that the account holder was deceased. [[.. munch ..]] > In the event there is any legally confidential material in an email > account, the estate executor would be responsible to care for it just > as he would any confidential documents found within an estate. Eureka! That's right. But it was *not* the _executor_ that made the request to the Internet company. Hence the "difficulties". > Senders of sensitive information by email have often been told that > email is not private and to be cautious. >> The Internet company refuses to give out the marine's password, saying >> that would violate its privacy rules. > To do that the Internet company would have to have explicitly had a > contract clause stating it would destroy all stored email upon the > death of a subscriber in all cases. Wrong. Until the "Internet company" has _proof_ in their hands that the requesting party is *legally*authorized* to have access, their responsibility is to (a) the account holder, and (b) if the account holder is deceased, to the _estate_ of the account holder. They must be notified _by_the_estate_ "agent" -- the executor -- if ownership of the property has been transferred to another. As the parents did *NOT* present a claim that they were acting 'on behalf of' THE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED, *their* request -- made in their own persona -- was properly denied. "Even if" they claimed that the estate executor had authorized the request, a denial was still proper. The Internet company must hear it directly from the executor -- not mere 'hearsay' that the executor authorized the action. [[.. munch ..]] > It doesn't work that well. Your personal effects automatically > revert to your family or estate unless you explicitly give > instructions otherwise. This is the way it always worked. BZZZT! Such effects belong to the ESTATE. Unconditionally. Which is responsible for distributing them according to law, and _maybe_ the specifications of a will. > The executor of an estate is duty bound to ascertain all assets and > personal property of a deceased and distribute per the will. > Accordingly, the executor needs access to anything and everything > belonging to the deceased. If no executor was appointed, that would > to next of kin with the same rights of access. Wrong. Next of kin does *NOT* have any legal "rights of access". "Next of kin" is simply the statutory 'default' beneficiary of the estate, absent other distribution requirements (statutory, or the "express wishes" of the decedent). In an "informal" settlement of an estate, if *nobody*objects*, and there are no "recorded" title matters involved, the various parties can just 'divvy things up' amongst themselves. However, if _anybody_ says "no", then the formal processes *are* required. That's what happened here. The mail-provider said "No. We require the _formal_ process." They were entirely _correct_ to do so. Just for one extreme hypothetical -- suppose that the soldier had had a falling-out (entirely on _his_ side) with the family and did not want them to have *anything* of his. That he had left a will to that effect with the military -- naming his new girlfriend (of whom the family knew nothing) as his *sole* beneficiary. Now, what happens if the Internet company did give the parents access to his account, and _later_ the executor demands access/control. HOW does the Internet company explain to the executor that they "gave away" that account, and the mail in it, to somebody else? Yes, it _looks_ "cold and uncaring", but the Internet company DID THE RIGHT THING here. The emotional appeal of "but, we're his _PARENTS_!" does not substitute for the _legal_ authority to access another's private property. Even if that person is deceased. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would think however, that if the 'internet company' later got in a legal hassle about this -- let's say for example, tomorrow I showed up at the ISP's office with my properly notorized papers as the executor of the soldier's estate and asked them where is my email, and made a legal stench because they (ISP) had already given it away to someone else, they (ISP) could make a reasonable defense: "We acted in good faith; not knowing of any other executor to the estate. Typically for unmarried young soldiers who die in combat, their parents _are_ the executors, and in good faith we worked with them on that basis." I think that would hold up if the ISP were to get sued, since it is unreasonable the ISP as one of its obligations is to search for other executors. But ... I got these stories out of order. About two weeks ago I published a report from Associated Press on this self-same soldier and the parents grievances with the ISP: In that version from AP last month the _ISP_ had handed over the mail to the parents who (at that point) had started sorting it out for the scrapbook collage the mother wanted to make. Much ado about nothing it seems. After the soldier's father had sorted through a couple thousand plus pieces of email (the build up between the time of his death, the parents starting their inquiry, Yahoo finally obeying the court order, etc), it turns out the _real_ saveable email from his buddies, girl friends, etc amounted to _five_ pieces of mail; _huge_ loads of spam, unsolicited porn, etc made up the rest -- the majority -- of it. Not being particularly internet-savvy, the father had spent several days _actually reading through each of the propositions_ -- commercial and err, 'otherwise' that had stuffed this kid's email box before finally throwing up his hands in disgust; five email letters, a couple thousand pieces of trash ... had it been _me_ or most of you, if the subject line had not given it away, the first two or three words of the text would have been sufficient to cause it to get bashed. Poor parents! What _must_ they think of us here on the net these days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Here's how Vonage-Verizon E-911 Will Work Organization: Symantec Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 20:47:21 -0400 In article , John Levine wrote: >> While the process documented mirrors the process for traditional >> landline phones, it doesn't address what happens when the VoIP user >> takes their phone someplace else and then calls 9-1-1. Which center >> is called? The one for their home of record or the one serving the >> hotel/motel/grandma's house? > What kind of nitwit would go to all of the effort of booting up a VoIP > phone in those circumstances rather than using the POTS phone next to > the bed? > The VoIP E911 issue only really matters for people using VoIP as a > primary home phone, and it is my distinct impression that those phones > rarely move. I think people are expecting more and more users to start doing VoIP on mobile devices, replacing cellphones. So their VoIP phone will be hanging on their belt, always on and looking for open WiFi hotspots to connect through. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 18:00:10 -0400 Subject: Michigan Senate Technology And Energy Committee Meeting Thought some of you might want to know about this committee meeting - I would guess that Commissioner Chappelle will be making a pitch for more regulatory authority over VoIP by the MPSC, given their recent order. (Forwarded message:) Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 16:12:23 -0400 From: "Chris Kelley" Subject: T & E Committee Meeting Notice, 05-11-05 THE SENATE TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY COMMITTEE SENATOR BRUCE PATTERSON CHAIRMAN MAY 6, 2005 NOTICE OF SCHEDULED MEETING DATE: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 TIME: 3:00 p.m. PLACE: Room 210, Farnum Building, 125 W. Allegan Street, Lansing, MI 48933 PHONE: Christopher Kelley (373-7350) Committee Clerk AGENDA SB 334 Sen. Patterson Public utilities; electric utilities; annual approval for a low income and energy efficiency factor regarding a distribution service; provide for. Discussion of the Michigan Telecommunications Act Presentations by Commissioner Laura Chappelle, M P S C; Consumers' Energy; and Shpigler Group on Broadband over powerlines And any other business to come properly before the Committee. Individuals who wish to bring written testimony need to supply a minimum of twenty copies for distribution. __________________________________________________ In the spirit of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), individuals with a disability should feel free to contact the Office of the Secretary of the Senate by phone [(517) 373-2400] or by TDD [(517) 373-0543] if requesting special services to effectively participate in the meeting. How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #201 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 8 May 2005 19:51:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 202 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Unbrand America Causes a Mess on the Net Over Weekend (Patrick Townson) Big Media Companies Weigh Blog Strategies (Lisa Minter) Jail for 'Robin Hoods' Who Cost Microsoft Millions (Lisa Minter) Municipal Report: Fiber Kung-Fu in the Bayou (Jack Decker) Phisher Price: Phishing on E-Bay During the Holidays (e.lamb) Re: Wireless Headsets for Cordless Phones ? (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Robert Bonomi) 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: Patrick Townson Subject: Unbrand America Causes Mess on the Net Over Weekend Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 17:01:57 -0500 Hi Everyone, Telecom and dozens (maybe hundreds) of other newsgroups have been spammed by Unbrandamerica.org. The NNTP server used for this spam is under jurisdiction of Asian Pacific Network. However the server's address is not registered with APN and so is not in their database, so it appears they may have used an unregistered open server or something of that kind to send their spam. Somehow they were able to bypass the Moderators of newsgroups and post directly to telecom and other groups. I did NOT approve any of their spam messages for posting to telecom. Unbrandamerica.org appears to be part of or associated with Adbusters.org. Here is what Adbusters says about themselves on their web site: "We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century." They have a magazine which they describe as "Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Adbusters is a not-for-profit ... magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces. Our work has been embraced by organizations like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, has been featured on MTV and PBS...." They also have what they call The Culture Jammers Network "We are a global network of artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to advance the new social activist movement of the information age. Our aim is to topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century. We believe culture jamming can be to our era what civil rights was to the '60s, what feminism was to the '70s, what environmental activism was to the '80s. It will alter the way we live and think. It will change the way information flows, the way institutions wield power, the way TV stations are run, the way the food, fashion, automobile, sports, music and culture industries set their agendas. Above all, it will change the way meaning is produced in our society." These radicals appear to have no concept of common courtesy or decency, only caring about imposing their radical ideas on everyone, even to the extent of engaging in illegal activities in order to accomplish their goals. Unfortunately, because of the way usenet works, there is little we can do to delete their spam from the net. Once a piece of spam is accepted and posted on a usenet server, it is almost instantaneously propogated to hundreds of news servers around the world, and there is no way we can recall those posts, except 'cancels' one by one . It's kind of like gossip -- once you have passed on a bit of gossip, there is no way of getting it back. Those Unbrandamerica messages were NOT approved by newsgroup moderators for posting, nor do we in any way endorse the garbage they are preaching. Please accept our apologies. All we can suggest to do is to ignore those posts, and continue to cancel them as we find them. Oddly, there were certain newsgroups which got hit the worst; many of the Christnet groups were hit very hard, along with some of the social issues forums. Other newsgroups that the Unbrandamerica people approve of did not get hit as badly. Perhaps the Unbrandamerica people realize that while not exactly sympathetic to them, there are _many_ netters who think 'nothing can be done about spam' and that we have to tolerate it, and the same netters insist in their delusions that 'no one wants anything different than it is.' Maybe someday there _will_ be some major changes on the net, with or without the cooperation of the guys who keep claiming 'nothing can be done, this is an anarchy' and all that talk. I sure hope so for one. PAT ------------------------------ Date: 08 May 2005 15:11:30 -0700 From: Lisa Minter Subject: Big Media Companies Weigh Blog Strategies Are the newspapers being to feel a squeeze from the internet? And what about the cable news operations? Some of them were just a little shocked to read the recent survey results showing that many Americans who _were_ spending an hour or so each day either in front of the television for news or buried behind their newspapers reading it have now chosen to instead read blogs and news feeds on the internet instead. The newspapers of course chant their ongoing mantra, 'But who edits it and approves it prior to publication?' Well, that's a no-brainer. The people themselves atttend to that. And oooh, that makes the television and newspapers editorial people so angry. "What do you mean, we no longer control what they see and read? Who is going to buy what our sponsors have for sale?" Read about some of it here: Big media companies weigh blog strategies http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050506/wr_nm/column_pluggedin_dc ------------------------------ Date: 08 May 2005 15:12:36 -0700 From: Lisa Minter Subject: Jail For 'Robin Hoods' Who Cost Microsoft Millions Robin Hood, according to legend, took from the rich and gave to the poor. Microsoft has been particularly hard hit from this, and has decided to strike back. http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050506/wr_nm/tech_internet_dc ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 21:35:21 -0400 Subject: Municipal Report: Fiber Kung-Fu in the Bayou I'm passing this along only to highlight the sort of dirty tricks and deceptive tactics that the phone and cable companies will resort to when trying to keep out municipal broadband. http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63279 Municipal Report Fiber Kung-Fu in the Bayou Written by Karl Bode When Comcast and SBC wanted to convince three Illinois cities to vote against running their own fiber, they conducted "push polls" designed to shape voter perception, not gauge it. This, combined with more than a quarter million dollars in often misleading local marketing, helped "educate" voters that they should stay out of the broadband business. That public relations victory was a model for a battle that's now brewing in Lafayette, Louisiana. The Illinois surveys, which we were the only outlet to get a copy of, contained questions like "Should tax money be allowed to provide pornographic movies for residents?" As explored by Mother Jones recently, they played an integral part in defeating the initiative twice (See our interview with local leader Ed Hodges). It later turned out that SBC spent $192,324 on defeating the ballot measure, while Comcast spent $89,740. Fiber for our Future, the community group pushing the initiative, spent $4,325. Not months after the first vote failed, the Illinois area in question saw Comcast rate hikes as high as 33% in some neighborhoods. Now the city of Lafayette, Louisiana is preparing to vote on a non-tax (revenue bonds) based fiber network. Cox and Bellsouth, as recently explored by USAToday, have been fighting this plan tooth and nail. Their efforts have included not-so-veiled threats (the Independent) that BellSouth could pull a local wireless call-center (1,300 local employees) if the plan moved forward. They've also trotted out not-so-independent policy groups like the Heartland Institute (also a big player in killing the Illinois project) to try and convince locals that the enterprise is akin to capitalistic cancer. Heartland's warning comes despite the fact the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, some 2,400 businesses strong (ironically including Cox), studied the local impact of the plan for a year and came out in favor of it. After considerable legal wrangling, BellSouth and Cox managed to get the fiber plan put to a vote. There's no great love of Democratic process here; the providers wisely know that they can easily win in public relations politics, usually by outmanning and outfunding their opponents. As the incumbent PR campaign ramps up in Lafayette ahead of the July vote, push polls have again emerged as a tactic of choice. According to the Advocate, locals are amazed at some of the questions being asked. One local Louisiana television channel quotes several local residents, one of whom claims they were told by a pollster: "if the government controls the cable TV, you may not be able to watch TV except on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 'cause they could ration your TV watching." Lafayette's fiber plan goes to a vote on July 16. The Lafayette Chamber of Commerce research into the plan is available here for those interested. Arguments for the project can be found at the Lafayette Pro-Fiber website. Arguments against the project can be found at the Fiber411 website. Article + reader comments at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63279 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: elamb.security@gmail.com Subject: Phisherprice: Phishing on Ebay During the Holidays Date: 8 May 2005 16:13:28 -0700 A hacker tried to get a free phone using a phishing technique that I had never heard of. The phisher used a Western Union Auction Money order form (a fake number) and actually sent me the fedex lable and had fedex come to my house to pick up the phone. Even though I didn't have the cash for the phone yet. The Phishing exploit relies on the buyers greed and the feverish haste of holiday spending. Here is the phishing exploit in detail: http://elamb.blogharbor.com/hacked/phisherprice.htm rob http://elamb.org ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Wireless Headsets for Cordless Phones ? Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 18:12:23 GMT kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) posted on that vast internet thingie: > You can get cordless phones with headsets and body packs. Hello > Direct has a couple models. That might be closer to what you're > wanting. Plantronics has a nice wireless headset that is at 900mhz. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Panasonic 5.8Ghz 2line; TMC ET4300 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Brickmail voicemail Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Firewood splitters www.splitlogs.com If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz. New www.electrictrains.biz ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 20:25:15 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In an addendum to article , PAT noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would think however, that if the > 'internet company' later got in a legal hassle about this -- let's say > for example, tomorrow I showed up at the ISP's office with my properly > notorized papers as the executor of the soldier's estate and asked > them where is my email, and made a legal stench because they (ISP) > had already given it away to someone else, they (ISP) could make a > reasonable defense: "We acted in good faith; not knowing of any other > executor to the estate. Typically for unmarried young soldiers who > die in combat, their parents _are_ the executors, and in good faith > we worked with them on that basis." I think that would hold up if > the ISP were to get sued, since it is unreasonable the ISP as one of > its obligations is to search for other executors. You're right on one thing. It is *NOT* the ISP's duty to 'search out' other executors. It is their duty to act *only* _with_ the "properly desigated" executor. Which requires _proof_ of the appointment to that position. Which comes only from the court. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #202 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 9 May 2005 18:00:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 203 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft Changes Mind Again on GLBT Employees (Lisa Minter) Appeals Court Tosses FCC's Broadcast Flag Rule (Lisa Minter) Intel's CEO Claims WiMAX Competitive With DSL, Cable (Lisa Minter) Name Twin's Misdeeds Plague a Good Driver (Monty Solomon) Early 'True' National Direct Long Distance Dialing? (Lisa Hancock) Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? (Paul Robinson) DTMF Ring Tone Midi File (dlois@aol.com) Mobile Phone TV Set For Primetime (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) The Only Exciting Thing In Tech? (Eric Friedebach) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Justin Time) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Unbrand America Causes Mess on the Net Over Weekend (Steve Sobol) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Lisa Hancock) Re: Sprint/PCS Lousy Web Interface (D.M. Hendricks) Telecom Digest 800 Business Directory (Robert Pierce) Alcatel Reminder (Simon Templar) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft Changes Mind Again on GLBT Employees Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 20:56:19 -0500 By SARAH KERSHAW Microsoft, faced with unrelenting criticism from employees and gay rights groups over its decision to abandon support of a gay rights bill in Washington state, reversed course again yesterday and announced that it was now in support of the bill. Steve Ballmer, the company's chief executive, announced the reversal in an e-mail message sent to 35,000 employees in the United States. "After looking at the question from all sides, I've concluded that diversity in the workplace is such an important issue for our business that it should be included in our legislative agenda," Mr. Ballmer said. He added: "I respect that there will be different viewpoints. But as C.E.O., I am doing what I believe is right for our company as a whole." Long known for its internal policies protecting gay employees from discrimination and offering them benefits, Microsoft sparked an uproar when officials decided to take a "neutral" stance on the antidiscrimination bill this year, after having supported it the two previous years. Critics, including employees who said they were told that Microsoft would back the bill, said the decision to withdraw support had been made under pressure from a local evangelical preacher who threatened to boycott the company if it supported the legislation this year. Company officials have disputed the accusation. The bill, which would have extended protections against discrimination in employment, housing and other areas to gay men and lesbians, failed by one vote on April 21. But it is automatically up for a new vote next year because bills introduced in the Washington Legislature are active for two years even if they are voted down the first time. After the defeat, Mr. Ballmer sent an e-mail message to company employees, defending the decision to withdraw support. In that note, Mr. Ballmer said that he and Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates, personally supported the measure but felt the company needed to focus its legislative efforts on measures that had a more direct connection to their business. In yesterday's message Mr. Ballmer suggested that employees' responses had helped persuade Microsoft officials to renew their backing of the measure. More than 1,500 employees signed an internal petition demanding that the company support the bill, and scores wrote in protest to Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Gates. A Microsoft executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that senior company officials met after Microsoft's widely publicized turnaround on the bill prompted an uproar, and that they had decided to change the company's stance because of pressure from employees. "This issue got attention at the highest levels of the company in a way it didn't before," said the executive, who did not attend the meeting but was briefed on it. "It was a rocky path, but we got to the right place." Some lawmakers had said that Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., could have lent crucial backing to the legislation through influence on lawmakers representing Redmond and the suburbs outside Seattle. In explaining why the company had not supported the bill this year, Mr. Ballmer and other Microsoft officials had said over the last two weeks that they were re-examining their legislative priorities and debating when and whether to become involved in public policy debates. Gay rights groups said they were contacted by Microsoft officials before Mr. Ballmer's statement was publicly released. They applauded the decision. "We're very happy," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay advocacy group. Mr. Solmonese met recently with several Microsoft employees after he learned of the earlier decision not to back the bill, which was first disclosed by The Stranger, an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle. The Microsoft officials, Mr. Solmonese said, "took it very seriously." "They said that there had been a huge outpouring of concern via e-mail, both internally and externally," he said. Ed Murray, an openly gay state legislator from Seattle and a sponsor of the bill, said of the company's reversal: "I think it's important. It sent a message that this issue is not simply a so-called social issue or cultural war issue, but it's an issue that is good for business, and it's an issue that business considers important." But the company's decision disappointed others, including Microsoft employees who belong to the Antioch Bible Church in Redmond. The church is led by the Rev. Ken Hutcherson, who met with Microsoft officials twice about the bill and claimed to have persuaded them to change their position on it. "I feel that it's been kind of a stressful day," said a Microsoft employee who is a member of the church and who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I feel that it was wrong for the company to say that they will be supporting issues such as this. Businesses should not actually be publicly taking a stance on that, regardless of their internal policies." The employee, who has worked at Microsoft for four years, said the company should "stay out of it" when it comes to the debate over gay rights. Dr. Hutcherson, whose church offices are near Microsoft's headquarters, said earlier that he believed his boycott threat had persuaded Microsoft not to support the bill. He did not respond to messages left yesterday on his cellphone and at his office. Microsoft responded that "Dr. Hutcherson will have to do what he feels is best regards boycotts, etc." and we will do what we feel is best to protect all our employees." Steve Lohr contributed reporting for this article. Copyright 2005 New York Times Company NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Appeals Court Tosses FCC's Broadcast Flag Rule Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 21:00:15 -0500 By Peter Kaplan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a Federal Communications Commission rule designed to limit people from sending copies of digital television programs over the Internet. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the FCC had "exceeded the scope of its delegated authority" with the 2003 rule, which would have required TV set manufacturers to start using new anti-piracy technology by July 1. "We can find nothing in the statute, its legislative history, the applicable case law, or agency practice indicating that Congress meant to provide the sweeping authority the FCC now claims over receiver apparatus," the three-judge appeals court panel said in its opinion. FCC officials have said copyright protections were needed to help speed the adoption of digital television, which offers higher-quality signals and broadcasters said they would ask Congress to step in to address the matter. The music industry has been plagued by consumers copying and sharing songs for free over the Internet, violating copyright laws. Hollywood wants to prevent similar problems with its programs as it rolls out more digital content. "Without a 'broadcast flag,' consumers may lose access to the very best programming offered on local television," said National Association of Broadcasters President Edward Fritts. "We will work with Congress to authorize implementation of a broadcast flag..." The FCC declined to comment. The NBC Universal television network also argued the decision would hurt consumers. "Today's court ruling imposes crippling restraints on the FCC's ability to effectively support the development of a safe, sustainable marketplace for the creation and distribution of digital TV broadcasting," said the network, a unit of General Electric Co. Under the FCC rule, programers could attach a code, or flag, to digital broadcasts that would, in most cases, bar consumers from sending unauthorized copies over the Web. The regulation required manufacturers of television sets that receive digital over-the-air broadcast signals to produce sets that can read the digital code. Consumers could record and copy shows but would have been limited from sending them. Opponents complained the rule could raise prices to consumers and would set a bad precedent by allowing broadcasters to dictate how computers and other devices should be built. The ruling brought praise from the American Library Association and other non-profits who brought the court challenge. They said the broadcast flag rule "seriously undermined" educators rights to distribute digital material. "This is a big victory for consumers and libraries," the association's Washington office director, Emily Sheketoff, said in a statement. A spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America, which backed the restriction, was not immediately available for comment. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Intel's CEO Says WiMAX Competitive With DSL, Cable Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 21:02:56 -0500 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Intel Corp. Chief Executive Craig Barrett said on Friday that new wireless high-speed data technologies would be competitive with Internet links provided by cable and phone companies. Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is pushing WiMAX, which would provide high speed data over areas as large as a small city, as a way to spread cheap yet ubiquitous wireless broadband access. Intel is hoping to replicate the success it had in popularizing the short-range wireless WiFi standard popular in airports and coffee shops. In a conference call with Reuters reporters, Barrett said most telephone digital subscriber lines and cable broadband connections were not fast enough. "Most of us who have DSL or cable at home do not have good broadband but kind of half-ass broadband, which doesn't really allow for good streaming video or that kind of stuff," he said. Few home broadband connections today offer higher download speeds than five megabits per second, and Barrett said good broadband -- which would be capable of delivering high-quality video transmission -- should be able to move at least 10 megabits per second. WiMAX, which should be capable of 50 megabits to 100 megabits per second, is "significantly better than what we typically look at with DSL and cable," Barrett said. "I think that will be very competitive with those technologies, and especially where those technologies aren't built out, in rural areas. "Will it compete with wired access? Absolutely. Will it be perhaps the only broadband solution you have in some areas? Absolutely, especially in rural areas." With Intel's muscle behind the WiMAX push, some 240 companies have joined the industry group developing WiMAX standards and equipment. Sprint Corp., and Intel said on Thursday they would cooperate on WiMAX tests. Intel expects the first commercial trials of WiMAX early next year, with different variations of the technology for mobile users available for trials by early 2007. Intel and others envision WiMAX equipment installed outside homes and business, linking up with base stations hosted by fixed-line telecommunications operators. A short-range, Wi-Fi signal, or perhaps an Ethernet cable, would bring the Internet to individual PCs in the home. 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: Sun, 8 May 2005 22:09:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Name Twin's Misdeeds Plague a Good Driver Again, Registry's mixup triggers bid to pull license By Ralph Ranalli, Globe Staff Nearly everyone has to share a name with someone, somewhere. David Edward Greene just wishes his counterpart hadn't been such a nightmare on the roadways. For the third time in 10 years, Greene, who lives in Arlington, is facing torment as his license comes due for renewal. The Registry of Motor Vehicles has sent him notice that it is about to revoke his license because of unresolved out-of-state driving offenses. That means Greene, a driver with one ticket in 25 years, has to prove he is not David Eugene Greene of Florida, who has the same birthdate but is a convicted sex offender whose license was revoked for multiple drunk driving arrests and court defaults. Previously, Greene of Arlington has presented a range of documentation, including a letter from Florida motor vehicle officials to prove he is not a scofflaw from the Sunshine State. In the past, Massachusetts officials eventually granted him a new license -- although once it happened after he inadvertently drove for several weeks with a revoked license, risking arrest and the impoundment of his car if he was pulled over. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/03/name_twins_misdeeds_plague_a_good_driver/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This type of thing used to happen a lot in Chicago, when the Cook County States Attorney would issue a warrant for someone with a very common name. Now in recent years, when a person (who is _NOT_ the wanted person) gets arrested and hassled, they are permitted to apply for a boilerplate letter which announces to one and all this particular [common name] is not wanted by law enforcement _at this time_. And it gives a phone number to call for verification. The common name person is 'encouraged' to carry this letter in his possession (his wallet perhaps) at all times, and present it to arresting officers, in the event of a mixup on his social security number or other details. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Early 'True' National Direct Long Distance Dialing? Date: 9 May 2005 08:00:52 -0700 Everyone knows that Englewood NJ was the site of the first subscriber based Direct Distance Dialing, where the phone user could dial directly himself long distance calls to other parts of the country. This was in the early 1950s. However, a review of the booklet given to Englewood subscribers shows that only a few major cities were dialable. While a considerable amount of population was reachable, a considerable amount of the country's physical area was not directly diable and an operator was still required. I was wondering how long it took for most of the country (ie all cities and most suburban areas) to be able to _receive_ directly dialed calls from subscribers. That is, how long did it take for Englewood to be able to dial more places? Also, I was wondering how long it took for other towns to get DDD? Was in phased in immediately after Englewood on a continuous basis, or did they wait a while and see how Englewood worked out before proceeding further? My guess is that it took until at least 1960 for all of this to happen. A great many small towns did not have full 7 digit phone numbers. These had to be assigned to every town, and more significantly, the intermediate switchgear set up to 'know' all the new addresses. (For many years, small towns could continue dialing 5 digits for local calls and needed only 7 digits for long distance). Also, there were considerable manual exchanges that had to be cut over to dial, and differing dialing patterns of independent and co-op phone companies. Anyone familiar with the expansion of DDD in the 1950s? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well yeah, I remember a few cuts to dial from manual service, and the pattern in how it was done was sort of erratic, IMO. It was always on a Saturday at 2:00 AM as I recall in each community but getting the Rate/Route tables updated sometimes got done whenever. Often times also, the operators would call Rate/ Route for instructions and get told something like it was areacode plus (fixed three digit exchange) plus 4-D. And you, the user could in fact dial it in that way and get through, mostly, usually, but sometimes not. Some places that were in GTE territory had tie-lines to a large Bell city, such as (comes to mind) Lafayette, Indiana and Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both towns were 7-D at that point, and the former was right in the center of the 317 area, but Rate/Route would say 'it is NOT area 317, it is 'Lafayette, Indiana'. A lot of the smaller towns were in fact dialable _within their own towns_ but with some dialing pattern which would not work from anywhere else. So to call to Lafayette from Chicago, you had to ask your operator for 'long distance' and when she answered then ask for Lafayette (number). Even though it was seven digits; then she would 'ring-down' to Lafayette and repeat the requested number when the distant operator answered. I remember going to Lafayette to see a friend of mine once and while there I asked if I could call back to Chicago. He said it was okay, 'but you have to dial the operator to reach it'. I did, and when the operator answered I asked for 'Chicago, areacode 312' and the operator cut me off at that point saying "I do not know anything about it being 312, that's not how we do it." She did the same ring-down routine, but this time at least it kept on ringing forever; just like trying to call a middle east country in those days; the operator only answered when she got ready, etc. In my case it rang, and rang, and rang and rang ... finally the Lafayette operator pulled the plug and said to me "I am sorry sir, Chicago is not answering right now; please try later" (??!!!?) Locally in Chicago, even though every exchange in town was dialable, to call Northern Indiana (Whiting, East Chicago, Hammond area were still manual) we had to dial 511 (from Chicago exchanges) to reach the Hammond operators, 711 to reach the East Chicago, Indiana operators, and 911 to get the Whiting operator. To reach my grandfather in his office at the Standard Oil Refinery in Whiting, I had to dial 911 and wait (there was no audible ringing signal in my ear) while the line 'clicked' a couple times then the old biddy operator would scream at me 'Whiting!' and one could at that point either ask for the 'official' number which as '2111' or more commonly just ask for 'Whiting Refinery' or 'Refinery'; the operator knew what was wanted and made the connection. My grandfather had two phones on his desk; one was the PBX phone on the refinery switchboard, the other was a 'direct outside line' but it was a Chicago 312 number, a 'foreign exchange' tie-line thing. I think actually he had a six-button, five-line phone, one button of which was his private line with the Chicago number on it, and one or two of the buttons were extensions from the refinery PBX. On the PBX, dialing '8' got you a Chicago dial tone, dialing '7' got you a dialtone from the 'StanoTel' network, but when you dialed '9' you had to just sit there and wait until the old biddy came on and screamed 'Whiting!' at you then tell her what you wanted. And of course '0' got the refinery operator. I was at his house overnight when Whiting was cut to dial, and I wanted to test it out for sure. The telephone man had already put dials on all the phones with a note saying 'dial not operational until (some date) at 2:00 AM.' So, about 1:58 AM I lifted the receiver, told the lady to give me '1234' which was the number for the local movie house recorded message of coming attractions. I tried it again at 2:00 AM exactly and got no answer at all. At 2:01 I lifted the receiver again, got dial tone, and dialed 659-1234 and got the movie house hotline again directly. Just to satisfy my curiosity more, then I dialed 659-2111, it rang a couple of times and a lady answered saying 'Standard Oil Refinery'. So I knew it was going to work as they claimed. Hammond had 'gone dial' about a year before Whiting and although in Hammond, once it was dial, you still had to dial 911 and have the biddy answer you; Whiting was able to call Hammond numbers direct. When you told her the Hammond number that you wanted, you would then hear a very fast beep, beep, beep, boop sound and the number you wanted would start ringing. Same thing in Chicago, but a few years earlier; I had some friends who could dial me direct, but I had to use the operator to call them; that was about 1950 or so, where Hammond/Whiting was about 1956/1960. PAT] ------------------------------ From: paul@robinson-telephone.com Subject: Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? Date: 9 May 2005 08:55:21 -0700 I'm a little bit new to the actual specifications of hardware operations so this is something I wanted to ask because it seems to be the case according to what I've read. (I've been primarily a software person myself.) I understand that standard 4-pair wire (cat 5) running data at 10mbps does not use the blue/white and blue pair (wires 4 and 5), which is typically the standard color for running a phone line along an ethernet wire. If this is correct, is it possible to run a standard analog phone line over cat 5 ethernet sold in hardware or computer stores, simply by connecting to the blue & blue/white pair and using that? Since the wire is typically twisted pairs, I had the impression this was possible without crosstalk between either the ethernet and the phone line. Also, if the network cards being used are of the typical 10/100 type that sell these days for $20 or less, or are included on the motherboard of the user's PC, does that mean you can't do this because 100mbps will use all 4 pairs, or is it that you can run 100mbps service over the other pairs and it won't really use the inner blue-blue/white pair? The things I have read indicate there are two types of 100mbps service, 100Base-T, 100Base-T4 and 100Base-T8, where 100base-T8 uses all of the wires in a 4-pair ethernet cable, and 100-Base-T4 uses only two of the pairs. How would I know which is being used in ordinary connections? This also seems to imply that the other pair (wires 7 & 8) is also available for use as phone service, conceivably implying you can run 100mbps ethernet and two analog phone lines on the same 4-pair cable without problems or interference. I'd like to know if this is the case. Paul Robinson Paul@robinson-telephone.com ------------------------------ From: douis@aol.com Subject: DTMF Midi File Date: 9 May 2005 14:19:31 -0700 Is it possible to create a dtmf midi file for use on a project and experiment using a dtmf ringtone? Can you have or create a dtmf ring tone ? Can this be done and if so how or where can I get this done? Any info or help would be appreciated. Many thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 12:54:32 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Mobile Phone TV Set For Primetime Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 9, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21430&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Mobile phone TV set for primetime BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Some MCI shareholders may oppose Verizon deal * Cablers make inroads with digital phone services * Intel's chief touts WiMAX USTA SPOTLIGHT * At SUPERCOMM: Register today for the IP Video Conference HOT TOPICS * Report: FCC chief seeking E911 requirement for VoIP * Verizon raises offer for MCI * Sprint, Intel announce WiMAX partnership * Qwest drops MCI bid * Korea: World's first TV service for cell phones begins EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Special report looks at cutting-edge wireless technologies * Mediacom ups top speed to 10 Mbps REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Court rejects FCC broadcast flag rule Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21430&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: The Only Exciting Thing In Tech? Date: 9 May 2005 10:20:14 -0700 Lisa DiCarlo, 05.09.05, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Still using your cell phone just to make phone calls? How passe. If the seers are correct, within a year your cell phone will be capable of live television, music downloads and playback, videogames, storing movie clips and viewing everything from photo albums to digital home movies. In short, more than you may have ever thought possible. Of course, there are high hurdles to clear before all this great stuff happens -- complex rights agreements, conflicting technology standards and the sometimes fractious relationship between carriers and content providers -- but everyone involved has a stake in making it work. How big a stake? It's almost too big to put a number on. Pacific Crest Securities, which hosted a mobile entertainment conference in New York on May 6, believes the sector will be the next driver for growth in the technology industry, and the dominant investment opportunity for the next decade. http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/09/cx_ld_0509mobile.html Eric Friedebach /An Apollo Sandwich from Corky & Lenny's/ ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 9 May 2005 06:22:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Pat stated: > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ignoring for a minute those situations > where the computer belongs to the company and the worker _should be_ > attending to the business of his employer. In those cases I do agree > the computer's output should belong to the employer. I am thinking > now instead of those cases where one has an account with an ISP such > as Yahoo for example: If I am _renting_ the use of the computer then > the computers output should belong to me. Another example might be > I live on a farm and rent or lease a machine to plant my crops. Now > my crops grow and are harvested. Do the crops belong to you since I > rented the machinery from you to do my work? If I am employed on the > farm and work with your tools, then I suppose the crops are yours > also. But not if the machinery, etc is under my exclusive control for > some period of time. PAT] I will try to address some of your more relevant points. I am thinking now instead of those cases where one has an account with an ISP such as Yahoo for example: If I am _renting_ the use of the computer then the computers output should belong to me. The issue here is the intellectual property. The output of the computer belongs to you. You are free to take it with you and do with it as your heart desires. The other side of the coin is the data you leave on the rented computer. It does not belong to you. It is the property of the machine owner. All those temporary files Microsoft creates and stashes where only the programmer knows are not yours once you leave the machine and return it to its owner. A case in point is the example of rental machines at Kinko's. Some of us may remember a few years ago the problem of some people who rented machines at Kinko's were finding confidential and personal information that had been left by prior users. There are also instances where these "public" machines have been siezed with a warrant for evidence of illegal activities. The entire point being the owner of the machine has the ownership of your intellectual property -- in this case Yahoo! and the email files -- because you left them on their machine. If you had taken them with you, or deleted them, then the owner of the machine would not have your intellectual property. Then Pat wrote: > Another example might be I live on a farm and rent or lease a > machine to plant my crops. Now my crops grow and are harvested. Do > the crops belong to you since I rented the machinery from you to do > my work? And the answer to this is if you left your crop in the machine, then yes, it is theirs. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And of course, Lisa Hancock responded that the crops actually belong to the owner of the land. I was assuming I owned the land and had gone to the 'rent-a-tractor' place before starting my work. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 9 May 2005 07:49:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Robert Bonomi responded to Lisa Hancock: >> The e-mail should be treated no differently than any other personal >> belongings and they revert to the next of kin or recipients specified >> in a will. > "Not exactly." ALL the property and "personal belongings" of the > deceased belong to the ESTATE of the deceased. Until properly > distributed to the inheritors -- either in accordance with a > distribution schedule specified in a will, or according to statutory > specifications. My point was that it be handled like any other personal effects, not the fine points of estate law. I was disagreeing with those web enthusiasts as described in the original post who didn't want the email released at all. Keep in mind that many estates are settled without probate and court orders. Getting that stuff is expensive and not worth it if the estate is small, such as often in the case of a young person. > All that had to happen was for the _executor_ of the estate to contact > the Internet company, providing the *COURT*AUTHORIZATION* that (a) > certifies that the person *is*, in fact, deceased, and (b) gives them, > _as_executor_, access to any/all property belonging to the deceased. > The family did _not_ have such documentation, when the original > request was presented. I would presume the family presented a death certificate which is normally issued upon death. As I mentioned above, going to court for probate and documentation is expensive. For a person without any significant estate this could be a waste of money. > Eureka! That's right. But it was *not* the _executor_ that made the > request to the Internet company. Hence the "difficulties". If there is no will, the next of kin (as defined by law) becomes by default the executor. I would suspect military documentation provided that information. > As the parents did *NOT* present a claim that they were acting 'on > behalf of' THE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED, *their* request -- made in > their own persona -- was properly denied. Do we know that for sure? I would agree that if the parents just merely showed up with no documentation that their request should be denied. However, I presume there is official military documentation stating next of kin and so forth and they could've presented that. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Unbrand America Causes Mess on the Net Over Weekend Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 21:54:20 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Patrick Townson wrote: > Telecom and dozens (maybe hundreds) of other newsgroups have been > spammed by Unbrandamerica.org. The NNTP server used for this spam is > under jurisdiction of Asian Pacific Network. IP address? > Somehow they were able to bypass the Moderators of newsgroups and post > directly to telecom and other groups. I did NOT approve any of their > spam messages for posting to telecom. It's actually pretty easy to do if you know how. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Date: 9 May 2005 12:01:06 -0700 Matt wrote: > And I know I need a 1A2 Keyset Unit. And this is where things get > fuzzy for me. The Antique Telephone Collectors Assocation (ATCA) and Telephone Collectors International (TCI) would be the places to contact for assistance with this type of thing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell this much; no one,but no one tampers with or tries to rewire the inside of a 1A2 phone. The wiring is just too complex. All the rewiring is done in the box on the wall where there is room to move your arms and fingers, _not_ in the phone itself. PAT] ------------------------------ From: D. M. Hendricks Subject: Re: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface Date: 9 May 2005 13:10:47 -0700 Steve Sobol wrote: > D. M. Hendricks wrote: >> It's good to know that Sprint cares so much about fraud prevention. >> Why is it so terribly difficult to find out who called me? > All US carriers except Cingular have the wrongheaded idea that when > someone calls their customer, the caller has a right to privacy. Screw > that -- you have no such right when I'm paying per minute for you to > call me. If on a landline with a flat monthly fee, that's > different. Not on a cell phone where I have to count airtime > minutes. But again, Cingular is the only carrier in the industry with > a clue regarding incoming call details. Yeah, I think this is wrong too. Good to hear I'm not the only one ;) I didn't know Cingular printed incoming calls on your statement. I'll hafta check them out when my plan expires. However, I've had my fair share of problems with SBC and AT&T in the past, so we'll see ... ------------------------------ Subject: Telecom Digest 800 Business Directory Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 17:03:02 -0400 From: Robert Pierce Pat, please remove my e-mail address from this posting. Thanks. I just received a telemarketing call -- on my _cell_ phone. It was a recorded message offering me a chance for a free cruise. Just what I wanted! I called the number they gave me -- (800) 664-0366 -- and talked to Dean (no last name) of Intellegent Alternatives. He pleasantly informed me in his accented English that 1) _He_ didn't call me, someone else in his company did; and 2) It is not illegal to telemarket to cell phones. Also, if I had any comments about their marketing practices, his supervisor was not available, but I could call (858) 452-3585 and speak to someone there. If any of your gentle readers would like a chance for a cruise, they can call (800) 664-0366 and talk to the dear folks there. I hear they love to talk. Rob [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A cruise sounds like a nice deal. The last time I went on a nice boat trip was years ago when we went on the Chesapeake and Ohio ferry across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee to a place in Michigan where we stayed all night at a motel then came back on the boat the next day. Do you think they could arrange that for me again at 800-664-0366 or would it be better if I talked to the supervisor at 858-452-3585? Any of you guys who check it out please report back here on it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Simon Templar Subject: Alcatel Reminder Date: 8 May 2005 20:41:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi guys, Just a reminder about http://alcatel.gadot.net : forums and knowledge base about the system ! Simon ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #203 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 9 May 2005 23:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 204 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Naval Cybercafes Help Sailors/Soldiers/Marines Stay in Touch (L. Minter) Cell Phone Taxes (Lisa Minter) Free Municipal WiFi for Castro Area GLBT People (Lisa Minter) Spyware ... Ugh (bob@coolgroups.com) 3rd International Conference on Mobile Systems, Apps (Danielle Young) Re: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface (Steve Sobol) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? (Robert Bonomi) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Tim@Backhome.org) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Naval Cyber Cafes Help Sailors/Soldiers/Marines Stay in Touch Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 20:11:23 -0500 By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER, Associated Press Writer Mon May 9, 1:27 PM ET CHARLESTON NAVAL WEAPONS STATION, S.C. - Since the Navy began setting up "Internet cafes" for soldiers overseas to keep in touch with their loved ones, almost 200 of the high-tech tents have sprung up in war zones. Two years ago, civilians working for the Navy started the $20 million program to set up communications systems -- basically tents with 20 laptop computers and eight telephones -- as a morale boost for Army soldiers stationed in Iraq. Now there are 183 of the sites in Iraq, four in Afghanistan and even two aboard oil platforms in the Persian Gulf that are manned by the U.S. military, said project manager and retired Marine Steve Rhorer. "I manage it all from here," he says, opening his arms wide during a recent interview in his small office cubicle at the military base just a few miles up the river from historic downtown Charleston. Rhorer is part of the Navy's research and development arm known as SPAWAR, which designs and installs communications gear and maintains other high-tech items for many government agencies that involve gleaning battlefield intelligence, surveillance information or support for military aircraft control towers. The mobile communication stations were developed here. Each unit is contained in a 640-square-foot tent outfitted with printers, air conditioning, generators and satellite communication sets. Each site is designed to serve about 1,000 soldiers. Rhorer said his unit hopes to begin sending smaller tents to more remote areas of Iraq and Afghanistan to serve groups of 400 to 500 soldiers. "We want to expand. We are looking at half-size cafes," he said. The cyber cafes' No. 1 enemy isn't insurgent attacks; it's the dust, Rhorer said. "The dust is just a killer. You are involved in constant preventive maintenance," he said. Showing how the Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol system works, Rhorer dialed up a co-worker in Iraq, Troy Caffey, a civilian with 31 years in the Navy. Caffey, who spoke from a site north of Baghdad, said he's pleased the systems have helped soldiers stay in contact with their families and friends. "In all the years I was in the Navy, there was a lot of separation anxiety. I don't feel any of that here at all," he said. In recent years, e-mail communication has become easier for sailors on some larger ships and at some high-tech military bases around the world, but it was not available to most soldiers in the field. Caffey said the cafe at his base is very busy. Even at 4 a.m., "there's always someone here. ... This place is in constant use 24 hours a day," he said. The e-mail service is free and phone calls cost about 4.7 cents a minute. Soldiers can pay by credit card or families can prepay for them. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some long time readers will recall that the time I moved from Chicago back home here to Kansas I had a job for a few months as a civilian employee for the U.S. Army in Junction City, Kansas working at Fort Riley where I was teaching some guys _how_ to operate/maintain cybercafes. This was in 1999, or prior to the most recent conflict. Even back then, the Army wanted to make the transition to email/internet where the soldiers were concerned. The Army wanted some 'internet experts' (I guess they thought I was one) to teach the guys what to do, so they in turn could show new recruits in overseas bases, etc. Then my brain had to blow apart in November of that year, sort of like the exploding frogs in Belgium last month, so that ended my role in it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: City, State Cell Phone Taxes on the Rise Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 20:12:43 -0500 By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY Mon May 9, 6:20 AM ET Cell phone users are being hit by new taxes as state and local governments scramble to replace declining tax revenue from traditional phones. The new charges are adding $2 to $10 or more a month to cell phone bills on top of existing federal and state taxes and fees for emergency 911 communications. Examples: . Thirty-two of Virginia's 39 cities have levied cell phone taxes since the Legislature approved the tax in 2003. Most recently: Alexandria approved a $3-a-month tax last week. . Baltimore added a $3.50 monthly tax in September. . Oregon's Legislature is considering a 5% tax, the Missouri Legislature a 3% or 4% tax. Many state and local governments consider new cell phone taxes necessary to recoup money lost from a drop in the number of standard wired phones. The number of wired phone lines nationwide fell from 167 million in 2000 to 132 million in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission reports that cell phone subscribers rose from 109 million to 182 million during that time. The wireless industry says cell phones are already taxed heavily and often unfairly. The industry is funding a Web site -- www.stopaddingtomybill.com -- as part of its lobbying effort to squelch the new taxes. "People can just look at their cell phone bill and see the taxes are already excessive," says Joseph Farren, spokesman for CTIA - The Wireless Association, an industry trade group. He says taxes accounted for about $9 of the average $51 monthly cell phone bill last year. Farren says the "watershed event" that started the new round of taxation was Pennsylvania's approval of a 5% cell phone tax in 2003. Other state and local governments have followed suit or are considering it. State and local governments have long taxed land-line telephones, but cell phones had escaped most of these taxes. An exception: In California, about 160 local governments have cell phone taxes, including 10% in Los Angeles and 7.5% in San Francisco. "The question is, does it make sense to treat one phone differently from another?" asks Ken Fellman, mayor of Arvada, Colo., a Denver suburb, and head of a telecommunications committee for the National League of Cities. Wireless companies say they shouldn't be treated the same as old phone companies because they are not monopolies and do not use public rights of way for phone lines. "The wireless industry has never been a utility and shouldn't be treated that way," Farren says. But local governments are changing tax laws to reflect changes in the economy. cell phone revenue grew from $56 billion in 2000 to $102 billion in 2004. During that time, land-line revenue dropped from $228 billion to $197 billion, the Telecommunications Industry Association says. Independence, Missouri will collect $1.75 million in taxes next year from land-line phones, down from a peak of $2.4 million in 2002. "A phone is a phone is a phone," city councilman Jason White says. "A cell phone company doing business in our community should pay the same taxes." Cell phone taxes earmarked for emergency services are rising quickly, too. West Virginia last week doubled the state's 911 service fee on cell phones to $3 per month. Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Gannett/USA Today. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: The Castro Goes Wireless Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 19:29:33 -0500 By Ryan Wylie, 365Gay.com Waiting for an email from Mr Right? Want to check out the latest news from 365Gay.com? Want to do it while you shop or sip a latte in the Castro? Now you can. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and AnchorFree Wireless have unveiled a free wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) hotzone in the heart of San Francisco's Castro District, the world's famous gay and lesbian community. Consumers can access the Internet wirelessly at no cost indoors and outdoors along the commercial segment of Castro Street. "We are pleased to support the efforts of AnchorFree to bring all citizens access to free wireless broadband services," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. "This new service will certainly benefit citizens, visitors and businesses in the Castro further encourage technology innovation in San Francisco." "San Francisco's Castro area is an ideal location to blanket with free wireless Internet access", said David Gorodyansky, President of AnchorFree Wireless. "It is a tech-savvy district with lots of foot traffic and is filled with vibrant cafes, restaurants and bars. We are delighted to have our presence in such a well known community." AnchorFree has completed Intel's Centrino mobile technology compatibility testing through the Intel Wireless Verification Program (WVP), helping to ensure consumers can enjoy the productivity and lifestyle advantages of Wi-Fi technology within AnchorFree's Wi-Fi hotzones. "As a participant in Intel's wireless verification program, AnchorFree has tested its Wi-Fi service for compatibility with common configurations of notebook PCs based on Intel Centrino mobile technology, Intel's premier technology for wireless mobile computing," said Karen Regis, director of marketing programs for Intel's Mobile Platforms Group. "By providing consumers with free wireless Internet connectivity in San Francisco's Castro District, AnchorFree helps enhance the 'unwired' experience for Intel Centrino mobile technology users, connecting them back to their work place as well as their family and friends." In April of 2005, AnchorFree launched twin Wi-Fi hotzones in San Francisco's Marina District. The Marina area is located approximately 5 miles from the Castro District. Copyright Gay.com 2005 NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. Also see http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/gaynews.html for more gay.com articles. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Gay.com For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: bob@coolgroups.com Subject: Spyware ... Ugh! Date: 9 May 2005 15:46:45 -0700 I just got infected with some evil spyware that keeps going to http://www.clicksearchclick.com/free.php Does anyone know how to get rid of this thing? I can't find any info on it on Google or any search engine. It's killing me ... Adaware and Spybot both did nothing against it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might check out what I use in such an emergency: Google for something called 'Hijack This'. I have used 'Hijack This' a couple times and it works pretty well. You have to download it from the net and install it, then on your request, it puts up a list of your program files and their associated entries from the Windows Registry. On your command, it takes the files involved and pulls them out, then rebuilds your registry. Did Adaware or Spybot even find it (but then ignore it) or not find it at all? Even if you find and erase some of that stuff, if it is in the registry it may well come to life again after a reboot. So, let 'Hijack This' snatch it out of the registry totally. By the way, that program 'Hijack This' should not be used carelessly or casually. Truth be told, it scares the hell out of me. You can also use the Windows program 'regedit' (type that at a command prompt in DOS) if you know for certain what files you want and how to use it. You should _never_ get into the Windows registry without professional guidance as needed, and always be prepared for the worst when you do such an emergency procedure. You've been warned. Of course, a _real-man_ would know how to deal with the registry, and anyway, 'no one on the net (or so a _real-man_ would tell you), want any changes made on the Internet to eliminate the folks who write those spyware things' ... 'Its an anarchy, you know' they proudly proclaim as most of us struggle to keep up and running most days. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 15:20:24 -0700 From: Danielle Young Subject: 3rd International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, MobiSys '05 Join us in Seattle, June 6-8, 2005, for innovative, significant research in the area of mobile and wireless systems. MobiSys 2005 will bring together engineers, academic and industrial researchers, and visionaries for 2.5 exciting days of sharing and learning about this fast-moving field. The conference will feature refereed paper presentations, a poster and demo session, a keynote address by Rick Rashid of Microsoft Research, and a plenary session with Alfred Spector of IBM Research. Workshops: MobiSys 2005 is co-located with two workshops for highly focused discussions of new and emerging topics: = EESR '05: Workshop on End-to-End, Sense-and-Respond Systems, Applications, and Services = WiTMeMo '05: International Workshop on Wireless Traffic Measurements and Modeling: Both workshops will take place Sunday, June 5, 2005. Registration for workshops is separate from MobiSys 2005 registration. To ensure a productive workshop environment, attendance will be limited. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: SprintPCS Lousy Web Interface Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 16:10:44 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com D. M. Hendricks wrote: > Yeah, I think this is wrong too. Good to hear I'm not the only one ;) > I didn't know Cingular printed incoming calls on your statement. I'll > hafta check them out when my plan expires. However, I've had my fair > share of problems with SBC and AT&T in the past, so we'll see ... I was corrected a while ago ... according to someone else, T-Mobile does too. Everyone *should.* :) JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 00:37:12 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi responded to Lisa Hancock: >>> The e-mail should be treated no differently than any other personal >>> belongings and they revert to the next of kin or recipients specified >>> in a will. >> "Not exactly." ALL the property and "personal belongings" of the >> deceased belong to the ESTATE of the deceased. Until properly >> distributed to the inheritors -- either in accordance with a >> distribution schedule specified in a will, or according to statutory >> specifications. > My point was that it be handled like any other personal effects, not > the fine points of estate law. I was disagreeing with those web > enthusiasts as described in the original post who didn't want the > email released at all. > Keep in mind that many estates are settled without probate and court > orders. Getting that stuff is expensive and not worth it if the > estate is small, such as often in the case of a young person. (A) That stuff is _not_ expensive. court costs are generally in the very low 3 figures, _at_most_. (B) "informal" settlement works *ONLY*IF* nobody objects. As soon as any 'involved party' raises an objection, or demands the formal procedures, the informal techniques are no longer a viable option. Those who insist on employing them in the face of opposition, are _personally_ legally liable for not using the formal procedures. If the objection comes from a beneficiary of the estate, or a creditor thereof, those who take property from the estate "without benefit of formal procedure" can find themselves subject to criminal action (for 'theft'), as well as civil suit to recover the value of the stolen property. >> All that had to happen was for the _executor_ of the estate to contact >> the Internet company, providing the *COURT*AUTHORIZATION* that (a) >> certifies that the person *is*, in fact, deceased, and (b) gives them, >> _as_executor_, access to any/all property belonging to the deceased. >> The family did _not_ have such documentation, when the original >> request was presented. > I would presume the family presented a death certificate which is > normally issued upon death. Which doesn't prove "boo" as regards who is the authorized agent of the estate, and the only party legally entitled to access to the property of the decedent. > As I mentioned above, going to court for probate and documentation is > expensive. For a person without any significant estate this could be > a waste of money. >> Eureka! That's right. But it was *not* the _executor_ that made the >> request to the Internet company. Hence the "difficulties". > If there is no will, the next of kin (as defined by law) becomes > by default the executor. I would suspect military documentation > provided that information. FALSE TO FACT. Statute prescribes who (defining 'kin' relationships) is the _inheritor_ of the proceeds of the estate of an intestate (that means 'died without leaving a will') decedent. Statute does _not_ define a 'default' executor. >> As the parents did *NOT* present a claim that they were acting 'on >> behalf of' THE ESTATE OF THE DECEASED, *their* request -- made in >> their own persona -- was properly denied. > Do we know that for sure? I would agree that if the parents > just merely showed up with no documentation that their request > should be denied. However, I presume there is official military > documentation stating next of kin and so forth and they could've > presented that. Any such presentation of documentation to anyone outside of that military organization would be greeted with (effectively) laughter. Such a designation means *absolutely*nothing* to anyone other than the party _to_whom_ that designation was made. When a member of the military designates, _to_that_military_, whom they wish that organization to consider to be their 'next of kin', that designation applies *ONLY* to actions involving that military organization. As in, "who should be notified in an emergency", "who should be consulted for certain kinds of decisions, if/when you are unable to make them", etc. Such a designation has *NOTHING* to do with who obtains _ownership_ of any physical property that belongs (belonged) to the decedent. The _only_ document that specifies that is a "will" -- and which may, or may *not*, take precedence over statutory specifications. (In some states, a wife, for example, may "elect against the will", and get the statutory share of the estate, regardless of express provisions in the will.) The only means for formally transferring ownership of property that belonged to the decedent is 'probate'. Something as simple as ownership of a car requires probate -- to get the owner's name on the title straightened out. Note: it is _entirely_ within the realm of reason for an individual to designate several *different* persons as 'next of kin' in different contexts. It happens _fairly_frequently_ in the real world. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 00:56:32 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > I'm a little bit new to the actual specifications of hardware > operations so this is something I wanted to ask because it seems to be > the case according to what I've read. (I've been primarily a software > person myself.) > I understand that standard 4-pair wire (cat 5) running data at 10mbps > does not use the blue/white and blue pair (wires 4 and 5), which is > typically the standard color for running a phone line along an > ethernet wire. Correct. > If this is correct, is it possible to run a standard analog phone line > over cat 5 ethernet sold in hardware or computer stores, simply by > connecting to the blue & blue/white pair and using that? Since the > wire is typically twisted pairs, I had the impression this was > possible without crosstalk between either the ethernet and the phone > line. Yup. This is *expressly* part of the original design. > Also, if the network cards being used are of the typical 10/100 type > that sell these days for $20 or less, or are included on the > motherboard of the user's PC, does that mean you can't do this because > 100mbps will use all 4 pairs, or is it that you can run 100mbps > service over the other pairs and it won't really use the inner > blue-blue/white pair? Nope. Standard 100mbit Ethernet uses the same 4 wires, and those four wires only. There are some early 'non-standard' 100mbit implementations that did use all 8 wires. Most common was one with 'VG' as the last part of the protocol name. Also, beware of "100Base-TX". that trailing 'X' is signficant. > The things I have read indicate there are two types of 100mbps > service, 100Base-T, 100Base-T4 and 100Base-T8, where 100base-T8 uses > all of the wires in a 4-pair ethernet cable, and 100-Base-T4 uses only > two of the pairs. How would I know which is being used in ordinary > connections? Virtually everything 100mbit on the market (in recent history) uses only the standard 4 wires that plain old 10mbit Ethernet uses Note: _gigabit_ Ethernet, aka "1000mbit Ethernet" is a different story. it _does_ use all 8 wires. As far as I know anything that advertises itself as 10/100mbit Ethernet will use only the 4 wires used by 10mbit. > This also seems to imply that the other pair (wires 7 & 8) is also > available for use as phone service, conceivably implying you can run > 100mbps ethernet and two analog phone lines on the same 4-pair cable > without problems or interference. I'd like to know if this is the > case. Yes. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 18:16:36 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original query: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell this much; no one,but no > one tampers with or tries to rewire the inside of a 1A2 phone. The > wiring is just too complex. All the rewiring is done in the box on > the wall where there is room to move your arms and fingers, _not_ > in the phone itself. PAT] No doubt. No one ever changed the wiring within a 1A2 or 10A2 set, with the expection of installing a buzzer for intercom. But, that wasn't really rewiring; rather loosing a couple of screws to overlap u-connectors. And, no one in the field re-wired a 1A2/10A2 KSU, other than to restrap the tie down wiring to change features, etc. Ain't computers great?! TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really do not think anything much can be done inside those phones without a lot of grief that cannot be done better and quicker at the punchdown block on the wall. I've done 'stuff' inside those phones but mainly things like remove or re-arrange the ball-bearings under the push buttons so I could get two or more buttons to stay down at one time. And once I converted a five- line six-button phone with a hold button into a three line phone with three associated hold buttons by using two of the line strips for each line, so that three buttons merely put a short on each of the associated three lines, and re-arranging the ball-bearings as needed. This was circa 1975. It was not a fun project. That was the day I vowed never to take one of those 1A2 phones apart again. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #204 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 May 2005 02:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 205 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Attack Called Broad and Longlasting by Investigators (L Minter) Talking About Bloggers (Lisa Minter) ACL in Avaya Gateways (JRRJR) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Name Twin's Misdeeds Plague a Good Driver (DevilsPGD) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Internet Attack Called Broad and Longlasting by Investigators Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 23:49:59 -0500 By JOHN MARKOFF and LOWELL BERGMAN SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 - The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet. Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation -- involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe -- in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated. Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories. The break-ins exploited security holes on those systems that the authorities say have now been plugged, and beyond the Cisco theft, it is not clear how much data was taken or destroyed. Still, the case illustrates the ease with which Internet-connected computers -- even those of sophisticated corporate and government networks -- can be penetrated and also the difficulty in tracing those responsible. Government investigators and other computer experts sometimes watched helplessly while monitoring the activity, unable to secure some systems as quickly as others were found compromised. The case remains under investigation. But attention is focused on a 16-year-old in Uppsala, Sweden, who was charged in March with breaking into university computers in his hometown. Investigators in the American break-ins ultimately traced the intrusions back to the Uppsala university network. The F.B.I. and the Swedish police said they were working together on the case, and one F.B.I. official said efforts in Britain and other countries were aimed at identifying accomplices. "As a result of recent actions" by law enforcement, an F.B.I. statement said, "the criminal activity appears to have stopped." The Swedish authorities are examining computer equipment confiscated from the teenager, who was released to his parents' care. The matter is being treated as a juvenile case. Investigators who described the break-ins did so on condition that they not be identified, saying that their continuing efforts could be jeopardized if their names, or in some cases their organizations, were disclosed. Computer experts said the break-ins did not represent a fundamentally new kind of attack. Rather, they said, the primary intruder was particularly clever in the way he organized a system for automating the theft of computer log-ins and passwords, conducting attacks through a complicated maze of computers connected to the Internet in as many as seven countries. The intrusions were first publicly reported in April 2004 when several of the nation's supercomputer laboratories acknowledged break-ins into computers connected to the TeraGrid, a high-speed data network serving those labs, which conduct unclassified research into a range of scientific problems. The theft of the Cisco software was discovered last May when a small team of security specialists at the supercomputer laboratories, trying to investigate the intrusions there, watched electronically as passwords to Cisco's computers were compromised. After discovering the passwords' theft, the security officials notified Cisco officials of the potential threat. But the company's software was taken almost immediately, before the company could respond. Shortly after being stolen last May, a portion of the Cisco programming instructions appeared on a Russian Web site. With such information, sophisticated intruders would potentially be able to compromise security on router computers of Cisco customers running the affected programs. There is no evidence that such use has occurred. "Cisco believes that the improper publication of this information does not create increased risk to customers' networks," the company said last week. The crucial element in the password thefts that provided access at Cisco and elsewhere was the intruder's use of a corrupted version of a standard software program, SSH. The program is used in many computer research centers for a variety of tasks, ranging from administration of remote computers to data transfer over the Internet. The intruder probed computers for vulnerabilities that allowed the installation of the corrupted program, known as a Trojan horse, in place of the legitimate program. In many cases the corrupted program is distributed from a single computer and shared by tens or hundreds of users at a computing site, effectively making it possible for someone unleashing it to reel in large numbers of log-ins and passwords as they are entered. Once passwords to the remote systems were obtained, an intruder could log in and use a variety of software "tool kits" to upgrade his privileges -- known as gaining root access. That makes it possible to steal information and steal more passwords. The operation took advantage of the vulnerability of Internet-connected computers whose security software had not been brought up to date. In the Cisco case, the passwords to Cisco computers were sent from a compromised computer by a legitimate user unaware of the Trojan horse. The intruder captured the passwords and then used them to enter Cisco's computers and steal the programming instructions, according to the security investigators. A security expert involved in the investigation speculated that the Cisco programming instructions were stolen as part of an effort to establish the intruder's credibility in online chat rooms he frequented. Last May, the security investigators were able to install surveillance software on the University of Minnesota computer network when they discovered that an intruder was using it as a staging base for hundreds of Internet attacks. During a two-day period they watched as the intruder tried to break into more than 100 locations on the Internet and was successful in gaining root access to more than 50. When possible, they alerted organizations that were victims of attacks, which would then shut out the intruder and patch their systems. As the attacks were first noted in April 2004, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, found that her own computer had been invaded. The researcher, Wren Montgomery, began to receive taunting e-mail messages from someone going by the name Stakkato -- now believed by the authorities to have been the primary intruder -- who also boasted of breaking in to computers at military installations. "Patuxent River totally closed their networks," he wrote in a message sent that month, referring to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. "They freaked out when I said I stole F-18 blueprints." A Navy spokesman at Patuxent River, James Darcy, said Monday said that "if there was some sort of attempted breach on those addresses, it was not significant enough of an action to have generated a report." Monte Marlin, a spokeswoman for the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, whose computers Stakkato also claimed to have breached, confirmed Monday that there had been "unauthorized access" but said, "The only information obtained was weather forecast information." The messages also claimed an intrusion into seven computers serving NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. A computer security expert investigating the case confirmed that computers at several NASA sites, including the propulsion laboratory, had been breached. A spokesman said the laboratory did not comment on computer breaches. Ms. Montgomery, a graduate student in geophysics, said that in a fit of anger, Stakkato had erased her computer file directory and had destroyed a year and a half of her e-mail stored on a university computer. She guessed that she might have provoked him by referring to him as a "quaint hacker" in a communication with system administrators, which he monitored. "It was inconvenient," she said of the loss of her e-mail, "and it's the thing that seems to happen when you have malicious teenage hackers running around with no sense of ethics." Walter Gibbs, in Oslo, and Heather Timmons, in London, contributed reporting for this article. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. See http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html for the daily newspaper. Go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/chatpage.html to join in a discussion 24/7 relating to the obnoxious and malicious behavior of hackers and spammers. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, New York Times Company. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Would you believe I actually get messages here from readers who try and tell me "there is no mutual agreement on the net as to what consititutes 'malicious behavior' on the net". My God, how blind can they be? If this story from the NY Times over the weekend is not an example of maliciousness personified, then I don't know what is. Maybe among _their_ friends there is no consensus, but that is their fault, not mine. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Talking About Bloggers Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 23:54:28 -0500 By TOM ZELLER Jr. DON'T ask Nick Denton, publisher of Gawker Media and its growing list of popular Web logs, about his empire. "People come up to me as if it's witty and say, 'How is the empire going?' " Mr. Denton said, "which is pretty pathetic." Don't ask him about his business plan, either. He says he never had one. The only reason he formed the company, he said, was to make his network of blogs -- which includes Gawker, the flagship chronicle of Manhattan news and gossip; Fleshbot, the thinking person's diary of smut; and about 10 other titles -- more attractive to advertisers. "It doesn't help with readers," he said. "It's actually a disadvantage, because it looks corporate." At a time when media conferences like "Les Blogs" in Paris two weeks ago debate the potential of the form, and when BusinessWeek declares, as it did on its May 2 cover, that "Blogs Will Change Your Business," Mr. Denton is withering in his contempt. A blog, he says, is much better at tearing things down -- people, careers, brands -- than it is at building them up. As for the blog revolution, Mr. Denton put it this way: "Give me a break." "The hype comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe," he said. "They want to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed." For all of the stiff-arming and disdain that Mr. Denton brings to the discussion of this nonrevolution, however, there is no question that he and his team are trying to turn the online diarist's form -- ephemeral, fast-paced and scathingly opinionated -- into a viable, if not lucrative, enterprise. Big advertisers like Audi, Nike and General Electric have all vied for eyeballs on Gawker's blogs, which Mr. Denton describes as sexy, irreverent, a tad elitist and unabashedly coastal. He says that there is no magic behind Gawker Media, his three-year-old venture based in New York. To his mind, it is built around a basic publishing model. But like it or not in the overheated atmosphere of blog-o-mania, Mr. Denton, 38, remains one of the most watched entrepreneurs in the business. If his reluctance to be interviewed is theater, it is deft theater. A British expatriate and former Financial Times reporter, Mr. Denton is tall, slim, and salt-and-pepper handsome, with the slightly embarrassed air of someone who invested in the dot-com boom and came out unscathed. (He made millions in two previous ventures -- including a company called Moreover Technologies, an online news aggregator that presaged the twitchy, check-this-out linking that now make blogs de rigueur reading for desk jockeys worldwide.) STRIDING toward the unadorned third-floor TriBeCa loft that is the closest thing to a Gawker nerve center, Mr. Denton reiterated, in a polite, sometimes halting staccato that often fades into a string of inaudible syllables, that he would not discuss money. He declined to say if Gawker was profitable, or how much he paid Gawker's dozen or so bloggers -- editors, as the company calls them. He fired up a Marlboro Light and, hustling across Canal Street, chattered obliquely about overhead (minimal in the blogging business), libel (always a concern) and Fred Durst. In March, Mr. Durst, the Limp Bizkit front man, sued Gawker, among other sites, for linking to a sex video in which he appeared. "Honestly, though, we don't know why you're so mad at us," Gawker's editor, Jessica Coen, sneered in a March 4 entry. "The situation is really rather simple. Someone sent us a link to a video of your penis, we went into shock, and we shared it with the world for about two hours. Then we wept, found God, took a hot bath, and removed the video from our site." Mr. Durst eventually dropped the suit. A grueling climb led to the quiet, whitewashed loft space where a few Gawker Media hands -- including Lockhart Steele, the company's managing editor, and Gina Trapani, the editor of one of the company's newest blogs, Lifehacker -- were plucking away at laptops. (Gawker shares the space with another blogger, Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of Apartment Therapy.) Mr. Steele, who joined the company in February, is the den mother for Gawker's far-flung collection of bloggers and is in near constant communication with them throughout the day via Instant Messenger. About half of the editors live in New York. The rest are distributed around the country. In California, Mark Lisanti edits Defamer, the Los Angeles counterpart to Gawker, and in Colorado, Brian D. Crecente edits one of the newer sites, Kotaku, dedicated to video games. In New Orleans, John d'Addario edits Fleshbot, while Ana Marie Cox covers political gossip from Washington on Wonkette. Each editor is under contract to post 12 times a day for a flat fee, Mr. Steele said. (Gawker has two editors and now posts 24 times a day.) It is best to have eight posts up before noon, if possible, to keep readers coming back, he said. The editors scan the Web for the best tidbits. Readers, and apparently even published authors, send in tips. When a Gawker site highlights articles from, say, The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times, it is likely, both Mr. Steele and Mr. Denton said, that the article's author sent an e-mail message to Gawker pointing out its existence. (This reporter's naiveté about this process was met with gentle laughter.) Site traffic is a particular obsession. Gawker draws just over a million unique visitors a month; Fleshbot, the most popular site, lures nearly twice that number, and Gizmodo, a site dedicated to gadgets, roughly 1.5 million. All editors can earn bonuses if they manage to generate spikes in traffic -- say, with a link to the latest Paris Hilton crisis or Fred Durst's anatomy. Ms. Trapani's hour-by-hour traffic statistics serve as the desktop image on her computer. "It's extremely fast paced," she said. "It's a lot of output. Some days it's overwhelming without a doubt. Other days it goes really smoothly if I get some good reader tips and there's something great going on." Like Mr. Denton, she was careful not to discuss specifics of Gawker's business, including how much its editors are paid. But a published interview with Mr. Steele earlier this year provides some insight. Bloggers are paid a set rate of $2,500 a month, he told a digital journalism class at New York University taught by Patrick Phillips, the editor and founder of I Want Media, a Web site focusing on media news. Critics of the blog movement wonder whether the hoopla over the commercial viability of blogs -- particularly as publishing ventures -- is overstated. "Blogs primarily excel at marketing and promotion for companies or individuals," Mr. Phillips of I Want Media said. "I think blogging can catapult unknown writers, and it can give them a platform if they're talented. But as a stand-alone business, I think the jury is still out on that." Mr. Denton, who says that no one, least of all him, is becoming rich publishing blogs, would seem to agree with that notion. It's not about the money, he said -- or about corrupting the art of the blogger. "If someone is saying that we publish according to a routine of at least 12 posts a day and begin in the morning and if someone is sick we replace them, then I plead guilty," he said. "We believe in regular posting schedules." But he also says that nothing he is doing prevents other blogging models from taking shape, or independent bloggers from logging on and doing what they have always done. "Some of my own favorite sites are ones that have no consistency beyond the wit and charm of the writer," he said. "There's room for both." And there is, apparently, a ceiling on Gawker's expansion. Last month, the company started Sploid, a Drudge-like headline news blog with a tabloid look, and Mr. Denton says two more titles are planned for the short term, although he would not be specific about the particular consumer itches he'll be scratching this time. Having covered everything from BlackBerries to Beltway gossip, it's hard to imagine what else looms, but he said writers had already been lined up. That will bring the number of titles to 14, and Mr. Denton indicated that 17 seemed a good stopping point, if for no other reason than that is the number of titles published by Condé Nast. He also plans to reintroduce Gawker's "blog of blogs," called Kinja - a service that even Mr. Denton says was rather badly deployed and even more awkwardly explained in its original form. A team of programmers has been working for the last two years to revamp the service, which allows users to explore and scan their favorite blogs in one place. The new version will be ready in about a month. SO, onward goes the nonrevolution. "If you take the amount of attention that has been devoted in the last year to Web logs as a business and something that's going to change business and compare that with the real effect and the real money, it's totally disproportionate," Mr. Denton said, "in the same way all the coverage of the Internet in the late 90's was out of whack. "There are too many people looking at blogs as being some magic bullet for every company's marketing problem, and they're not," he added. "It's Internet media. It's just the latest iteration of Internet media." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: JRRJR Subject: ACL in Avaya Gateways Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 22:06:02 -0500 Organization: Cox Communications I want to regulate the IP addresses that have access to AVAYA WEB Admin Interface. Does anyone have step by step instructions on how to? If I read AVAYAs docs properly, the web admin for G350 goes over port 80 (like all web traffic). Please advise. rick.rodriquez@cox.net ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 9 May 2005 20:45:18 -0700 Justin Time wrote: > The issue here is the intellectual property. The output of the > computer belongs to you. You are free to take it with you and do with > it as your heart desires. The other side of the coin is the data you > leave on the rented computer. It does not belong to you. It is the > property of the machine owner. All those temporary files Microsoft > creates and stashes where only the programmer knows are not yours once > you leave the machine and return it to its owner. > A case in point is the example of rental machines at Kinko's. Some of > us may remember a few years ago the problem of some people who rented > machines at Kinko's were finding confidential and personal information > that had been left by prior users. There are also instances where > these "public" machines have been siezed with a warrant for evidence > of illegal activities. The entire point being the owner of the > machine has the ownership of your intellectual property -- in this > case Yahoo! and the email files -- because you left them on their > machine. If you had taken them with you, or deleted them, then the > owner of the machine would not have your intellectual property. I do not believe the above is correct. Again, the idea of leaving property in the care of another is nothing new, it is covered under the section of law known as bailments. That law defines the duties of holders of property relative to costs and abandonment of property. The owner of a machine never had the ownership of your personal property when you're using his machine or even if you abandon it on his machine. I want to point out there is no such thing as "finders keepers". If you lose something, you have not lost ownership in it, and someone finding it does not gain ownership in it. For example, if the doors of an armoured truck break open and the money flies out (which has happened several times), it is theft to keep any such money you find and people have gone to jail taking such money. One person who found a large sum of money in the street and kept it went to jail because he failed to make a reasonable effort -- such as reporting the find to the police. The police had a report of the missing money and would've matched it to the owner. As to intellectual property, this isn't anything new either. Say I go to a library and write up notes on paper, then leave the papers in a book: Those papers remain my property. JT mentioned internal temporary files -- qsuch things probably never were a person's property in the first place because of their temporary nature. However files I create would be my property. Now if the computer use was intended to be temporary, the owner would have no obligation to maintain files after I've gone -- they could run an automatic sweep. But if someone comes in asking for a file and it happens to be still available on the computer, they are entitled to get their file back. I do not believe the owner of any machine ever has ownership of your property that you're running on it, any more than the landlord of your apt has any ownership interests in your furniture kept in an apt you're renting from him. If I leave an expensive coat at a restaurant, that coat still belongs to me -- the restaurant owner cannot simply give it away and must hold it for a period of time for me to return to claim. Bailment law defines what the hold period would be and the proper care the owner must exercise while holding the coat. Obviously I can't show up five years later and claim it. If I checked the coat in their checkroom, they shouldn't store it next to the stove where grease will splatter on it, but on the other hand, they don't need to store it in a climate controlled vault either. As to seizing _anything_ for a criminal investigation, property ownership is irrlevent except to state who receives the search warrant. If the cops think there's evidence in a restaurant to catch a criminal who frequents that restaurant, they will search the restaurant and its fixtures. As to finding confidential information, it is theft to use such information, in some cases a very serious felony. As to a computer rental place, it may be necessary for the store to automatically clean the file space (as my public library does between users) or alert customers to do so. A public service has a duty to take _reasonable_ precautions to protect its customers, just like the restaurant must make a reasonable effort to protect an expensive overcoat left behind, and just as a checkroom won't hang up checked coats in the back alley in the rain. Generally, when such reasonable precautions are taken there is no further liability. Some rental agreements expressly limit or even deny liability -- you see signs in restaurants "not responsible for lost or stolen items". ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Phone Line on cat 5 10-Base-T Ethernet? Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 04:04:38 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , > Also, beware of "100Base-TX". that trailing 'X' is signficant. That's wrong. All 100Mbit Ethernet on copper -- now that 100VG/AnyLan is rather definitively dead, and excluding a few oddities like shielded twisted pair -- is "100baseTX". Gigabit on copper, however, is just "1000baseT". Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Name Twin's Misdeeds Plague a Good Driver Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 22:46:17 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Monty Solomon : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This type of thing used to happen a lot > in Chicago, when the Cook County States Attorney would issue a warrant > for someone with a very common name. Now in recent years, when a > person (who is _NOT_ the wanted person) gets arrested and hassled, > they are permitted to apply for a boilerplate letter which announces > to one and all this particular [common name] is not wanted by law > enforcement _at this time_. And it gives a phone number to call for > verification. The common name person is 'encouraged' to carry this > letter in his possession (his wallet perhaps) at all times, and > present it to arresting officers, in the event of a mixup on his > social security number or other details. PAT] While that might help reduce the inconvenience, it sure would reduce the chances of getting lucky with a kidnap and unlawful detainment civil suit after the fact. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #205 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 May 2005 15:14:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 206 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hit "*" for More Options (Jack Decker) BT Objects to US Telco Mega-Mergers (Jack Decker) Ethernet Services Market Poised For Boom (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) STP Vendors (tnerber@gmail.com) Re: The Only Exciting Thing In Tech? (Tony P) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Tony P.) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Carl Navarro) 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: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 08:08:09 -0400 Subject: Hit "*" for More Options http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1059204,00.html By Owen Thomas, May 09, 2005 When Mark Spencer was starting a Linux company six years ago, he had $4,000 and some cheap, leftover hardware from a company where he had interned during college. His first conundrum: How were customers going to call him? A private branch exchange -- the specialized hardware that routes calls around an office -- was going to set him back $6,000. So Spencer decided to program his own Linux-based PBX. "Telecom was not really our core business," he says. But he released the software as open-source, and as contributions of code started coming in, Asterisk was born. Today, his company, now called Digium, focuses entirely on developing Asterisk and selling related hardware and software. He won't disclose the revenue of his closely held company, but he says it is profitable. The success of Asterisk shows the growing power of open-source. Digium could have tried to roll out its own proprietary PBX -- and likely would have been crushed by the likes of Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel. But by sharing his code, Spencer has created an ecosystem full of niches waiting to be filled. That should keep his phones ringing for quite a while. Full story at: http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,1059204,00.html How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 10:09:36 -0400 Subject: BT Objects to US Telco Mega-mergers http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=2BB6940A-C7DB-4C00-BDED-62115F6C129A Concerns over the competitive impact of the proposed mergers of AT&T and SBC Communications and MCI and Verizon Communications are increasing, with BT Group and the New York attorney general among the latest object. 10 May 2005, 09:38 GMT - BT met with US Federal Communications Commission staff late last week to ask the regulator block the two mergers, saying that they would create a "classic duopoly" in the telecommunications market, and consolidate control of the internet backbone. The UK incumbent carrier said the mergers "will significantly impede effective competition, resulting in higher prices, lower quality and reduced innovation for business customers", according to a FCC filing released yesterday AT&T is being acquired by SBC for $16bn, while Verizon is currently the approved frontrunner to pick up MCI for $8.5bn, a drastic consolidation of the US carrier market that needs separate regulatory approval before they can be closed. According to BT, allowing the SBC-AT&T merger would give the merged company the ability to "abuse its dominance" over the local loop. This would be compounded, the company said, by a simultaneous Verizon-MCI deal. [.....] New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, known as one of the fiercest consumer rights activists in elected office in the US, did not object to the mergers outright, but asks the FCC consider two potential problems that mirror BT's concerns. First, Spitzer said Verizon should be forced to offer naked DSL, that is broadband internet connectivity without the requirement to take phone service, if it buys MCI. It should also be dissuaded from preferentially routing IP over MCI's internet backbone, Spitzer said. Combined, BT's "duopoly" would control over half of the internet's backbone assets, Spitzer claimed. Also expressing some concern over the deals is Vonage Holdings, the private company that is becoming a bit of a player in the voice over IP space. Full story at: http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=2BB6940A-C7DB-4C00-BDED-62115F6C129A ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 12:48:10 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Ethernet Services Market Poised for Boom, Report Says Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 10, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21459&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Ethernet services market poised for boom, report says BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon launches marketing campaign for TV service * Symbian phone shipments jump 180% * Report: For telecom, more subscribers aren't growing revenue * Qwest offers VoIP USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA's VoIP Webinar Series: Now Available On Demand! EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * The mobile phone revolution * Reality-TV czar Mark Burnett stages online-only bout REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Cisco code theft part of broader hacker attack * MCI settles Mississippi tax claims * Advocacy groups form coalition to urge Telecom Act rewrite Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21459&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: tnerber@gmail.com Subject: STP Vendors Date: 10 May 2005 05:41:30 -0700 Hello, I am trying to find a list of STP Vendors. The only one I am familier with is Tekelec but there must be many others. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks, tnerber at gmail dot com ------------------------------ From: Tony P Subject: Re: The Only Exciting Thing In Tech? Date: 10 May 2005 09:48:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com The only flaw I see in this logic is that they assume everyone wants to watch television on a screen that's < 2" diagonal. Or play games for that matter. Give me a roll up OLED screen and I might start to consider it, but I'm a purist who believes a phone is a phone, though I do like SMS. But then, I don't want to carry a cell phone. It is nothing but an interruption. Unfortunately the job requires it. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 07:12:59 -0400 In article , Tim@Backhome.org says: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original query: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell this much; no one,but no >> one tampers with or tries to rewire the inside of a 1A2 phone. The >> wiring is just too complex. All the rewiring is done in the box on >> the wall where there is room to move your arms and fingers, _not_ >> in the phone itself. PAT] > No doubt. No one ever changed the wiring within a 1A2 or 10A2 set, with > the expection of installing a buzzer for intercom. But, that wasn't > really rewiring; rather loosing a couple of screws to overlap > u-connectors. > And, no one in the field re-wired a 1A2/10A2 KSU, other than to > restrap the tie down wiring to change features, etc. > Ain't computers great?! > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really do not think anything much can > be done inside those phones without a lot of grief that cannot be done > better and quicker at the punchdown block on the wall. I've done > 'stuff' inside those phones but mainly things like remove or > re-arrange the ball-bearings under the push buttons so I could get two > or more buttons to stay down at one time. And once I converted a five- > line six-button phone with a hold button into a three line phone with > three associated hold buttons by using two of the line strips for each > line, so that three buttons merely put a short on each of the > associated three lines, and re-arranging the ball-bearings as > needed. This was circa 1975. It was not a fun project. That was the > day I vowed never to take one of those 1A2 phones apart again. PAT] At least you could modify a 2565 or 565 type set. Modifying a 7406, 8410 or 6408 is almost completely out of the question. I note the OP is a fan of modern phone system, as am I. But there is one tiny little problem. Our PRI between our two switches regularly goes down for anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This seems to occur most between 8:30AM and 9:00AM and then again between 2:00PM and 2:30PM. Verizon claims they can't figure it out. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In that case, next month when it is time to pay the bill is tell Verizon "I can't figure out where I left my purse and money." PAT] ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 08:27:41 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Mon, 09 May 2005 18:16:36 -0700, Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original query: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell this much; no one,but no >> one tampers with or tries to rewire the inside of a 1A2 phone. The >> wiring is just too complex. All the rewiring is done in the box on >> the wall where there is room to move your arms and fingers, _not_ >> in the phone itself. PAT] > No doubt. No one ever changed the wiring within a 1A2 or 10A2 set, with > the expection of installing a buzzer for intercom. But, that wasn't > really rewiring; rather loosing a couple of screws to overlap > u-connectors. > And, no one in the field re-wired a 1A2/10A2 KSU, other than to > restrap the tie down wiring to change features, etc. > Ain't computers great?! > TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really do not think anything much can > be done inside those phones without a lot of grief that cannot be done > better and quicker at the punchdown block on the wallI The 10-button sets were the most fun, because you had tons of room. True, most of the surgery involved adding things like bells, buzzers, flash buttons and speakers, and removing screws from the keystrips for signal buttons, but sometimes you had to field replace a keystrip, tone pad/dial, or a network module. Or in the case of the last Comdials, whole circuit boards. I still may have some of those items in the corner of my warehouse :-). Carl Navaro [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For a good time, try adapting a six- button/five-line phone to use the little twist knob up in the left corner of the dial plate for something or another. You know, the little twist knob which (on a two line phone with mechanical hold) would switch between lines when you lifted the plunger on the left side of the switchhook. Many folks had those in their homes for two lines, but they did not realize the twist knob actually had a _third_ position as well: turn it sideways or up and down to select the desired line, but depress it as well (it was spring loaded and only would stay down if you held it). On those phones, where red/green in the cable was line one, and yellow/black was line two, the blue/ white was the third position output. Pressing down on that twist knob was often times used to (a) ring an intercom buzzer manually, or (b) apply ground as needed on a ground-start line. Those little plungers built into the left side of the switchhook had various jobs also. On two line phones with mechanical hold, they were used to short the pair _not_ being used, to keep it on 'hold' while you were talking on the other line. When the little plunger was used as an 'exclusion key', lifting it up would disconnect all the other instruments which were in series behind it. To make that happen you came from the demarc in to that phone _first_, wired it up, _then_ took the wire back out to the demarc and went to the other phones on the line. I also sometimes saw the little twist knob used to feed (or not) the operator headset jack built into the back of the six button phones, and sometimes the little plastic plunger in the switchhook was used to activate a monitoring line to a speaker (or a combination speakerphone/monitoring unit). The switchhooks of course are spring loaded also to make them pop up and down, but the ones used in connection with twist knobs could additionally be pulled up a bit further as needed. And here is a good project with a two-line twist button phone: Take a little neon bulb, the kind that only flashes when it gets 90 volts of current. Open the two line phone plastic case and mount that neon bulb inside right next to the plastic twist/turn knob. Attach the wires to one of the pairs. Now put the phone back together and dial the number associated. Watch the neon bulb flash in cadence with the ringing signal. If you get really cagey, you can attach the neon in a way that when you are on one line or the other, the _alternate_ line will feed the neon bulb, so that if you get a second call in the midst of it, instead of a loud ring to disturb you, all you will see is that twist knob blinking at you as the _alternate, not currently in use_ line is 'ringing'. Sort of an elegant 'beehive lamp' IMO. I haven't had one of those two-line or five-line phones around for many years. They can be such fun projects to work on, at least the two-line phones. I wish I could find one around somewhere. Trying to work inside the six-button phone itself was enough to make any sane person go crazy, so you can imagine what it did to me. How in the hell I got all the way to 1999 in my life without my head exploding is beyond me. I was due for it years before it happened when I contemplate some of the phones I messed around with. On the other hand, at the inside terminal block, if you could say to yourself 'line, light, hold' over and over as you counted by threes down the block in there, you had it made. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #206 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 10 May 2005 18:19:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 207 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cisco Says Swede Arrested in Hacking Incident (Lisa Minter) Power Outage Causes E-Bay to Shut Down (Lisa Minter) Microsoft Phone Software Runs Hard Drives (Lisa Minter) Actor Morgan Freeman Wins Cybersquatting Case (Lisa Minter) Avaya Emergency Help Needed (Jason Kolb) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Scott Dorsey) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Matt) Re: STP Vendors (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: STP Vendors (John McHarry) 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Cisco Says Swede Arrested in Hacking Incident Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:37:48 -0500 By Andy Sullivan and Niklas Pollard WASHINGTON/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc. said on Tuesday authorities in Sweden had detained a person for stealing its source code, the basic instructions for the machines that direct Internet traffic around the globe. "We are aware that a person has been detained in Sweden related to the IOS source code theft and are encouraged by this action," the San Jose, California, company said in a statement. Swedish police have declined to say whether their investigation of a 16-year-old boy is related to a May 2004 incident that exposed the inner workings of Cisco's Internetworking Operating System, or IOS. Police in Uppsala, a university town north of Stockholm, said on Tuesday they had been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation about a teenager already in trouble with the law in Sweden for allegedly hacking into university computers. Swedish police said the teenager, whom they would not identify by name, had been questioned about hacker attacks on Uppsala University computers, but had not been arrested. "We have not received any formal request from (U.S. authorities) to question or apprehend the 16-year-old," Uppsala police spokesman Christer Nordstrom said. "But I can confirm that there has been an exchange of information with the FBI." The New York Times reported that the Cisco theft was part of a broader hacking campaign that targeted computer systems run by U.S. universities and government agencies. Several supercomputer labs in April 2004 reported that computers connected to the high-speed TeraGrid network had been breached. A spokeswoman for the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico confirmed that the facility had experienced an intrusion around the time that Cisco reported its breach, but said no sensitive information was obtained. "Basically, they got into some local weather forecasts," spokeswoman Monte Marlin said. Source code, the underlying blueprint of computer software, determines how programs work. Companies like Microsoft Corp. zealously guard their source code because they consider it the lifeblood of their business. Cisco said last May that portions of its IOS source code had been copied from its internal systems and posted on a foreign Web site for several days, where presumably other hackers could examine it closely for security flaws. The company said at the time that the breach would not put customers' equipment at risk. The FBI said in a statement it had been working with authorities in Sweden and Great Britain to track down the culprit. "As a result of recent actions, the criminal activity appears to have stopped," it said. Authorities in Great Britain arrested a 20-year-old man last September in connection with the Cisco hacking, but no charges have been filed. (Additional reporting by Reuters Stockholm bureau) 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. To discuss this news with other readers, go to our conference area: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/chatpage.html ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Power Outage Causes E-Bay Shutdown Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:36:09 -0500 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Web marketplace eBay Inc. said on Tuesday that its site was temporarily down worldwide on Monday evening due to a power outage at a primary hosting facility in the San Francisco area. The outage at the facility run by Qwest Communications International Inc., shut down eBay's site for 100 minutes starting at 7:30 p.m. PDT Monday (0230 GMT Tuesday). A company spokesman said eBay had restored global access to virtually all of the functions on its site within three hours. EBay said in a message to users that it will issue credits and listing extensions as per company policy. In an unrelated event, the site for eBay's PayPal online payment service was down for nearly 30 minutes on Monday evening due to a hardware failure in its Denver data center. 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Microsoft Phone Software Runs Hard Drives Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:33:01 -0500 By Reed Stevenson SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. , on Tuesday released a new version of its mobile phone software with the ability to run miniature hard drives and new features like a walkie-talkie style "push-to-talk." The world's largest software maker has struggled in the mobile phone world but sees a chance to unseat entrenched rivals such as market leader Symbian Ltd. with Windows Mobile 5.0. "We've made a heck of a lot of progress," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in an interview, "I think we've learned a lot." The maker of the Windows computer operating system launched a mobile phones unit about five years ago. The cell phone market is a fragmented collection of wireless carriers, handset makers and other technology providers that need to work together to deliver closely integrated products and services and Microsoft made a rocky start. "With carriers launching higher speed networks the business case for more advanced devices is starting to make more sense," said Hugues De La Verne, analyst at researcher Gartner Group. Microsoft's share of the mobile device software market is estimated at 16 to 18 percent, while Symbian is seen having a 61 to 71 percent market share. Symbian, created in 1998, is half-owned by Finland's Nokia, as well as handset makers Siemens, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which owns the Panasonic brand. DECENT CHANCE Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said that 40 hardware makers are shipping devices so far using its Windows Mobile software. In the United States, however, phones running Windows Mobile, which Microsoft calls Smartphones, have been overshadowed by hot-selling devices such as Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices as well as PalmOS-based phones such as the Treo. Microsoft said Windows Mobile 5.0 would let e-mails pop up on a user's phone as they arrive. The software will also work with "push-to-talk" features, which allows phone users to chat walkie-talkie style, by pushing a button when they want to talk to another party. Support for hard drives could also turn phones into multimedia devices that could store music and video, potentially taking the of a separate cell phone and a separate digital music device, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod music player. Microsoft said that it expects phones running the new mobile software to be offered by carriers within the next few months. Moreover, faster speeds on cell phone networks also mean that users will have better access to online e-mail, data and content that will provide a stronger incentive for them to upgrade to more advanced phones. (Additional reporting by Sinead Carew in New York). 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Actor Morgan Freeman Wins Cybersquatting Case Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 15:33:54 -0500 GENEVA (Reuters) - American actor Morgan Freeman, winner of this year's best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in "Million Dollar Baby," won a cybersquatting case in a ruling by an international arbitrator Tuesday. Freeman was found to have common law rights to the contested Internet domain name (morganfreeman.com), which had been registered by a Saint Kitts and Nevis-based web site operator. The operator, identified as Mighty LLC, misused the celebrity's trademark to lure surfers to its web site in "bad faith," independent arbitrator Peter Nitter said in a ruling. The ruling was announced by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), a United Nations agency which promotes protection of trademarks and patents, and whose arbitration center resolves disputes over domain names. Freeman, who has appeared in more than 50 films in a career spanning four decades, joins the ranks of entertainers including Julia Roberts, Spike Lee, Madonna and Eminem who have won their cases under WIPO's fast-track, low-cost procedure. Ownership of the domain name is transferred within 10 days unless the loser launches a court case challenging the decision. Freeman won his first Oscar in February for his supporting role in the boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby," which also won Oscars for best director, best picture and best actress. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I only wish I had the financial wherewithall to file suit against the guy who is cybersquatting on the domain name I used for a several years (internet-history.org). The _very day_ that that the domain name slipped away by accident the fellow (in Geneva, CH of all places) grabbed it, knowing full well it was in use. He knew what he was doing ... and I thought that the .org domain was such that his porn and commercial stuff would not be allowed (which is true if you look at the PIR charter). But it seems the PIR charter, etc is subservient to the ICANN rules, and ICANN could give a damn less about regular web sites; their whole thing is the large, commercial sites. I wish I had the money to get a lawyer who would dismantle the whole setup. Alternatly, the guy who is cybersquatting on internet-history.org said he would 'gladly' release it back to me if I would pay his blackmail rate of eight hundred dollars (and of course the fees the ICANN pirates would charge in addition.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jason Kolb <jason.kolb@gmail.com> Subject: Avaya Emergency Date: 10 May 2005 13:04:21 -0700 Well, Avaya has gotten me into a bind. Maybe somebody out there has run into this before, it's worth a shot :) We have an internal outsourcer running Avaya IP phones and an S8300 with SLP. In the states, we have an S8700 that we need to use to run the IP phones (the S8300 is failover). Unfortunately and unavoidably we are getting latency times of about 315ms roundtrip to the remote site. This seems to be on the verge of acceptable, because the IP phones can sometimes register, but other times we are receiving an error "2011 IP FURQ-NoQ931 msg rcvd Force Unregistration Request". It seems to be extremely random. We called Avaya and it they said the registration confirmation is not getting from the phone back to the 8700 in a timely mannger. There are absolutely no firewall restrictions of any kind between the phone and the 8700. So what I'm left with is either finding a way to MAKE this work, or putting a bunch of really expensive equipment up on eBay :( We are looking for a way to override this behavior, either by extending the timeout or forcing the phone to register somehow. By the way, I'm willing to pay for advice that works ... Thanks for any help you can offer!! Jason Kolb jason.kolb at gmail dot com ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Date: 10 May 2005 14:58:24 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> wrote: > Our PRI between our two switches regularly goes down for anywhere from > 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This seems to occur most between 8:30AM and > 9:00AM and then again between 2:00PM and 2:30PM. Verizon claims they > can't figure it out. Clock slip? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Matt <mattmorgan64@msn.com> Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Date: 10 May 2005 12:06:55 -0700 Thanks all, for the comments, links etc -- I've gotten several replies from the people in this group via email. My KSU should be here tomorrow ... and the phones to follow shortly. There is a bunch of the 25 pair cable up in the attic of the building I work in; I even found one with a female connector on one end. Now I'm shopping for a good punchdown tool. Looks like it's going to be the most expensive part of this whole endeaveor (Phone: $45. KSU: $55. Punchdown tool: $65 - 75). Ah well, thats life. ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: STP Vendors Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 19:03:25 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article <telecom24.206.4@telecom-digest.org>, <tnerber@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > I am trying to find a list of STP Vendors. The only one I am familier > with is Tekelec but there must be many others. Any suggestions would > be helpful. The big vendors in the market used to be Tekelec and DSC. DSC was eaten by Alcatel, if I remember right -- but Tekelec had just rolled out new products that were more or less wiping the floor with everyone else, integrating enough SCP functionality into their Eagle STP to do local number portability and a range of other high-volume applications. Of course there were other platforms out there like the Lucent one, mostly deployed at AT&T, and Nortel's offering, about which I know very little -- and there were actually a few networks out there using Tekelec's MGTS SS7 test appliance as an STP, which is a little crazy but I've seen it work. That was almost 10 years ago, about when I got out of the SS7 business. I am not sure what's happened since then (I'd assume further consolidation, as well as probably some business siphoned off by SS7 over IP type boxes) and in fact I'd be curious to know. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net> Subject: Re: STP Vendors Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 20:53:48 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Tue, 10 May 2005 05:41:30 -0700, tnerber wrote: > Hello, > I am trying to find a list of STP Vendors. The only one I am familier > with is Tekelec but there must be many others. Any suggestions would > be helpful. Nortel and Lucent made them at one time. I don't know if they still do. DSC was a major player before they were acquired by Alcatel. I don't know if they still are. Don't expect much from the major European vendors; they use F links there. Does anyone know why the US went with STPs instead of F links? Last I knew, the Europeans thought it was because of a lack of processing power in the 1AESS, but the Americans mostly thought the reason Europe didn't was the hop by hop setup used there. Neither answer is very satisfactory. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #207 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 May 2005 02:49:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 208 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Firefox Has Hassles Just Like Internet Explorer (Lisa Minter) Child Porn Getting _Much Worse_ on Net (Lisa Minter) Live Child Molestation on Net For All to Watch (Lisa Minter) Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Jack Decker) US Signal Introduces Quality of Service Enhancement to (Jack Decker) Re: STP Vendors (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Actor Morgan Freeman Wins Cybersquatting Case (Fred Atkinson) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Tony P.) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Firefox Has Hassles Just Like Internet Explorer Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 17:32:58 -0500 Firefox Vulnerable to Malicious Code Writers By Jennifer LeClaire LinuxInsider "It's a non-issue whether or not Microsoft is a larger target than Mozilla," said Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox. "The point isn't why your city is getting bombed instead of someone else's. It's what do you do about your city getting bombed." Sanity while working in Windows: MKS Toolkit products enable you to preserve your investments in UNIX/Linux software. Click here to learn more. Security firm Secunia is reporting two "extremely critical" flaws in Mozilla's Firefox. The vulnerabilities can be exploited by malicious people who wish to take control of victims' computers. The Mozilla Foundation is aware of the two flaws. The organization said there are currently no known active exploits of these vulnerabilities, although a "proof of concept" has been reported. Mozilla said changes to its update Web service have been made to mitigate the risk of an exploit. "Mozilla is aggressively working to provide a more comprehensive solution to these potential vulnerabilities and will provide that solution in a forthcoming security update," said Mozilla executives in a security alert. Unprotected, Unverified The first problem is that "IFRAME" JavaScript URLs are not properly protected from being executed in context of another URL in the history list, Secunia said. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary HTML and script code in a user's browser session. The second problem is input passed to the "IconURL" parameter in "InstallTrigger.install()" is not properly verified before being used. Secunia said this can be exploited to execute arbitrary JavaScript code with escalated privileges via a specially crafted JavaScript URL. Successful exploitation requires that the site is allowed to install software. Bombs are Falling Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox told LinuxInsider that there will always be flaws in software, and arguments about why hackers target certain browsers are ongoing all the time. The true test is how effectively open source responds to the threats compared to its commercial counterparts. "It's a non-issue whether or not Microsoft is a larger target than Mozilla," Wilcox said. "The point isn't why your city is getting bombed instead of someone else's. It's what do you do about your city getting bombed. During World War II, Winston Churchill could have talked about how London was a bigger target than New York City. But what would such an argument have meant to Londoners during blackouts?" A Temporary Fix Secunia also said a combination of the two vulnerabilities could be exploited to execute arbitrary code. The firm also claims that the exploit code is publicly available. The vulnerabilities have been confirmed in version 1.0.3. Other versions may also be affected. A temporary fix has been added to the sites "update.mozilla.org" and "addons.mozilla.org." Mozilla said users can further protect themselves by disabling JavaScript. With the bombs falling on Firefox and the anticipation surrounding Microsoft's Longhorn beta release this summer, some have wondered whether the popular open-source browser could lose its momentum. Wilcox doesn't think so. "There are plenty of people using Internet Explorer despite security flaws," he said. "So if you use that as a metaphor for Firefox, then the increase of the flaws may not have an immediate impact." Copyright 2005 ECT News Network, 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. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Kiddie Porn Problem Severe, Expert Sees it Worsening Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 18:08:43 -0500 Posted by Robert T DeMarco on 05/04/05 Last year 705 children in the U.S. were abducted by a mouse. That's how Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of child exploitation and obscenity for the U.S. Department of Justice, described the luring of children through the Internet for sexual meetings with adults. Oosterbaan was the guest speaker at a one-day symposium hosted by Microsoft at the University of Toronto. It brought together international lecturers, police, lawyers, social workers and psychiatrists in an effort to find better ways to protect children from internet predators. "The problem is becoming more severe," Oosterbaan said. "The marketplace is diversifying." The Internet and cheap digital camera technology have provided those inclined to abuse children with the technology to become international producers and distributors of child abuse images, Oosterbaan said. KIDS AS COMMODITY He said "children are viewed as a commodity and will be victimized as a commodity," and he saw that first hand in Miami, where he worked with the U.S. Attorney's office for 10 years before taking his recent position in Washington. SEX IN PLAYGROUNDS Oosterbaan said school police in Miami-Dade County monitor online chat sites and have observed adult predators asking very young children at schools "to have sex with them in the playground areas." And Oosterbaan said the victims are getting younger. "Now we are seeing babies whereas before, 10 to 15 years ago, at the outside, the youngest might have been 12," Oosterbaan said. Later this spring a report will be put together from the presentations and discussions at yesterday's symposium in an effort to further evaluate options for strengthening laws in Canada to protect children. It is estimated one in five children will view some form of child abuse image when they log on to the internet. Police are now using the Child Exploitation Tracking System, designed by Microsoft Canada and Toronto Police, to tackle the growing problem of online child exploitation. In 2003, Toronto police estimate they seized more than two million images and videos of child sexual abuse. Copyright 2005 Watch Right. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that you -- like myself -- probably looked askance at the claim in the article about the kids who this happens to getting younger, but in the next report today from Lisa about the Internet Slum, she reports on a woman who fondled a little boy _on camera_ for all to watch in a Yahoo Group. Some who watched the spectacle included a Naperville, IL police officer who know is assigned almost entirely to the Internet Kiddie Porn patrol. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Woman Allegedly Fondles Toddler on Camera in Chat Room Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 18:15:50 -0500 BY ANDY KRAVETZ AND KAREN McDONALD Peoria, Illinois Journal Star PEORIA - A 21-year-old Minonk woman faces federal charges after being arrested for allegedly showing live video on the Internet of her fondling a naked 16-month-old boy that she was baby-sitting. Taylor A. March of 719 Oak St. was arrested Monday evening at her home, hours after she allegedly posted the video in a Yahoo! chatroom, "Preteen Sex on Camera." March had been baby-sitting six other children -- all of whom were girls. The children ranged in age from 16 months old up to 8 years old. When she was arrested, only the 16-month-old child was at her home. The other children were not present when the alleged crime occurred, said Woodford County sheriff's Detective Terry Glaub. The Sheriff's Department and State's Attorney's Office plan to conduct interviews with those children to determine whether any other crimes occurred. The State's Attorney's Office also is reviewing the case for possible local charges, officials said. "It wasn't long and drawn out. It's nice to get a perpetrator like that off the streets," Woodford County Chief Deputy Darren Evans said. March faces a single charge of "knowing use (sic) a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct." U.S. District Judge Joe B. McDade ordered her held in custody of the U.S. Marshals pending a bond hearing Thursday morning. If convicted, March faces up to 15 years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Keith said authorities are examining March's computer. According to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, March had logged into the chatroom and began chatting about having sex with children. At some point, she aimed a Web camera toward her so the others in the room could see her. The complaint alleges March began to change the child's diapers in view of the camera. She then allegedly touched and masturbated the child as the Web camera sent live video to other chatroom members, the complaint states. March had been caring for the boy since late last year. She does not have any children of her own and is not related to any of the children she baby-sat, Glaub said. "Our concern was to expedite this case to ensure the child wasn't in harm's way," Glaub said. An undercover Naperville police officer captured the Internet video and informed authorities here, the complaint states. Copyright 2005 Peoria Journal-Star 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Do you recall an old saying from years ago when movie/show people talked about 'sort of racy', x-rated movies and one of their citerion was always "Will it play in Peoria?" Well this 'movie' not only played in Peoria but was created in Peoria. And when someone asks why is this sort of malicious behavor allowed on the internet, _someone_ always hastens to tell us that 'there is no consensus on the net for what is malicious.' And if we wish to listen to them rattling on and on, they will tell us how this is an anarchy, how the internet does not really exist, that it is only a collection of sites and how we dasn't interfere with a private site and whatever trash and scams they send out. And of course they insist that 'no one is in charge of anything' and further ...'that is the way that everyone wants it to be.' The hell they say! I say this: if ICANN is going to throw their weight around and purport to be the people in charge (which effectively they do with their lop-sided contracts that _everyone_ has to sign, then Vint Cerf and Esther Dyson and their gang should come back off of vacation in Argentina (or wherever they are this week) and write up new and meaningful contracts which everyone has to sign (ICANN has had no trouble making that happen up to now and I am _certain_ they can phase it in; but that's the catch, the joke is on you, me and other netters. Vint Cerf cont- tributed more to the advancing Internet Slum than anyone else out there. And I guess they are not going to back down, but neither am I. So you little precious ones who get so offended when you are told what a mess this net has gotten to be, and that many of you were and are responsible for it, write yourself a Perl script (or use the one I put here the other day for what's-his-name) and just begin skipping over the Editor Notes. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 22:39:33 -0400 Subject: US Signal Introduces Quality of Service Enhancement to Prioritize http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-10-2005/0003592291&EDATE= US Signal Introduces Quality of Service Enhancement to Prioritize VoIP, Other IP Traffic Across its Network http://www.ussignalcom.com Enhanced SLA, Four Data Priority Levels Delivered By Latest Cisco Technology GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- US Signal today announced the introduction of a new Quality of Service (QoS) product enhancement that gives its IP/Internet managed service customers the ability to prioritize VoIP, video and other critical data applications across the entire US Signal IP network. Grand Rapids, Mich.-based US Signal said QoS is available to its Internet customers who utilize US Signal to manage connectivity. For customers selecting the QoS product option, US Signal will install and manage a Cisco state-of-the-art Integrated Services Router at a customer's location to classify and route data traffic as required by the customer's applications. The US Signal QoS enhancement was developed in response to assisting customer deployment of VoIP solutions and the resulting need to prioritize VoIP data packets. The Company noted that customers are increasingly moving to optimize their internal networks to give priority to VoIP data up to the edge of their Internet connection. Available May 1, the QoS enhancement extends that optimization across US Signal's core network. The QoS offering also comes with an enhanced Service Level Agreement (SLA) that sets high-level performance standards, including "five 9s" of network reliability, as well as stringent metrics for latency, packet loss and jitter. The US Signal network, the largest in the Midwest, includes a total of nearly 3,000 route miles of long-haul fiber connecting first-, second- and third-tier markets in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. It also includes more than 500 miles of fiber optic metro rings around 14 high-growth cities and 75 on-off ramps, comprised of major carrier hotel locations and incumbent telephone company central offices. "We are pleased to be able to bring this advanced QoS enhancement to our growing list of IP customers utilizing or considering VoIP, as well as those looking to leverage additional data stream-critical tools such as video streaming and video conferencing," said US Signal's vice president of sales and marketing, Stephen Oyer. "Our utilization of Cisco's 1841 router allows us to offer four distinct classes of data performance to customers, giving them value-based QoS options today that can also scale with the customer as they grow. US Signal's QoS is also backed by one of the strongest SLA's in the industry, demonstrating our confidence in our performance." About US Signal US Signal (http://www.ussignalcom.com ) is a full-service fiber optic solutions provider, offering a wide range of telecommunications solutions to wholesale customers and channel partners. The Company has built and developed one of the most comprehensive fiber optic networks in the Midwest. As a full- service solutions provider, US Signal offers unlimited high-speed capacity, dark fiber and collocation services, and also works with customers to design and build new network construction projects. SOURCE US Signal Web Site: http://www.ussignalcom.com ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: STP Vendors Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 00:28:30 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , John McHarry wrote: > Does anyone know why the US went with STPs instead of F links? Last I You've got the question backwards; the network architecture originated in the US, and was adapted by the Europeans to more nearly approximate their hop-by-hop analog interoffice signaling. F links are, in essence, wasteful; generally they lead to a significant surplus of signaling bandwidth at some points in the network and periodic deficits elsewhere. It is also somewhat easier to engineer a heavily redundant signaling architecture -- particularly in the tree-structured EO and tandem voice network US carriers inherited from Bell -- if you physically separate packet switching for the signaling links from the actual presence of voice trunk groups between switches. Finally, it's noteworthy that other network protocol suites (e.g. IP, XNS, SNA) generally distinguish between the routing and end-host functions; certainly most stacks can do both, but a really high performance router, for most protocols, doesn't make a great end host, and vice versa. Why expect it to be different for SS7? You don't _need_ all the baggage of a voice switch along for the ride if your intent is to just forward signal units, and dispensing with it means reduced cost and size, which means you can have more message routers and more links on those routers, which means you can have a more redundant network. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Actor Morgan Freeman Wins Cybersquatting Case Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 20:56:44 -0400 > GENEVA (Reuters) - American actor Morgan Freeman, winner of this > year's best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in "Million > Dollar Baby," won a cybersquatting case in a ruling by an > international arbitrator Tuesday. > Freeman was found to have common law rights to the contested Internet > domain name (morganfreeman.com), which had been registered by a Saint > Kitts and Nevis-based web site operator. If this is true, then why isn't the domain registered to anyone right now? I would think it should be registered to Morgan Freeman at this point. I imagine that this would set a precedent to protect actors (and other artists) name(s) on the Internet, rather than each having to file a case each time. He is a pretty good actor, by the way. I really enjoyed his peformance in 'The Shawshank Redemption'. Fred ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 22:05:19 -0400 In article , kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net says: > In article , Tim@Backhome.org > says: >> TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original query: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I can tell this much; no one,but no >>> one tampers with or tries to rewire the inside of a 1A2 phone. The >>> wiring is just too complex. All the rewiring is done in the box on >>> the wall where there is room to move your arms and fingers, _not_ >>> in the phone itself. PAT] >> No doubt. No one ever changed the wiring within a 1A2 or 10A2 set, with >> the expection of installing a buzzer for intercom. But, that wasn't >> really rewiring; rather loosing a couple of screws to overlap >> u-connectors. >> And, no one in the field re-wired a 1A2/10A2 KSU, other than to >> restrap the tie down wiring to change features, etc. >> Ain't computers great?! >> TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I really do not think anything much can >> be done inside those phones without a lot of grief that cannot be done >> better and quicker at the punchdown block on the wall. I've done >> 'stuff' inside those phones but mainly things like remove or >> re-arrange the ball-bearings under the push buttons so I could get two >> or more buttons to stay down at one time. And once I converted a five- >> line six-button phone with a hold button into a three line phone with >> three associated hold buttons by using two of the line strips for each >> line, so that three buttons merely put a short on each of the >> associated three lines, and re-arranging the ball-bearings as >> needed. This was circa 1975. It was not a fun project. That was the >> day I vowed never to take one of those 1A2 phones apart again. PAT] > At least you could modify a 2565 or 565 type set. Modifying a 7406, 8410 > or 6408 is almost completely out of the question. > I note the OP is a fan of modern phone system, as am I. But there is one > tiny little problem. > Our PRI between our two switches regularly goes down for anywhere from > 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This seems to occur most between 8:30AM and > 9:00AM and then again between 2:00PM and 2:30PM. Verizon claims they > can't figure it out. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In that case, next month when it is > time to pay the bill is tell Verizon "I can't figure out where I left > my purse and money." PAT] Well, it is a state agency I work for and it would be relatively easy to sic PUC after Verizon. I just might do that. In article , kludge@panix.com says: > Tony P. wrote: >> Our PRI between our two switches regularly goes down for anywhere from >> 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This seems to occur most between 8:30AM and >> 9:00AM and then again between 2:00PM and 2:30PM. Verizon claims they >> can't figure it out. > Clock slip? That's my gut feeling on it. I've tried explaining that to Verizon but it just falls on deaf ears. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And their request for payment should likewise fall on deaf ears for a few months. And when you get tired of playing that game after a few months, _then_ sic the government on them as you indicated above. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #208 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 11 May 2005 18:20:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson America OnLine to Unveil Free Email Service (Lisa Minter) Microsoft Will Expand MSN in China (Lisa Minter) Big Providers Add Record Broadband Subs in Q1 (Telecom dailyLead USTA) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Thor Lancelot Simon) Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Spyware ... Ugh! (bob@coolgroups.com) Re: Kiddie Porn Problem Severe, Expert Sees it Worsening (NOTvalid) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: America OnLine to Unveil Free Email Service Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 14:00:03 -0500 By Kenneth Li NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online will begin offering a free e-mail service on Wednesday tied to its popular instant messaging service, ahead of a big relaunch of its free AOL.com Web site later this year. AOL's free Web-based e-mail service is nearly a decade behind Microsoft's Hotmail service and several years behind a Yahoo E-mail offering. But the online division of Time Warner Inc. is betting that the combination of e-mail with its ubiquitous instant messaging software (AIM) will create a more powerful service combining all electronic and phone messages. AOL will integrate its recently launched digital phone service this fall, when the AIM software will be rewritten, allowing users to retrieve voice mail, e-mail and instant messages from any computer. "AOL is a bit late to the Web mail game, but it's not too late," said Joe Laszlo, a senior analyst at Jupiter Research. "It's a question of integrating different communications channels together giving them an opportunity to go a bit further than anyone else has gone." The once prominent provider of paid online services will offer free e-mail to 20 million active users of the free AOL Instant Messenger as a test before it's final launch about a month later. The e-mail service, which offers 2 gigabytes of free storage space, will be subsidized by banner advertisements that run alongside the e-mail screens, similar to other free Web-based e-mail services. AOL's new AIM Mail service is part of an ambitious plan to overhaul its business model to focus on freely available services and programming from one that depends on subscription revenue. The move is a dramatic reversal from its previous strategy, built around assembling the most compelling package of Internet programming in order to get subscribers to pay about $20 a month for dial-up Internet service. AOL has been losing subscribers to phone and cable companies offering high speed Internet packages. At the same time, AOL's advertising revenue has exploded, jumping 45 percent in its most recent first quarter from a year ago, prompting the Internet service to rethink its strategy last year. "It's a part of our broader 'Audience' strategy that takes advantage of the significant increases in advertising, search and e-commerce on the Internet," said Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president and general manager of AIM at AOL. AOL will be up against Yahoo Inc., at which e-mail services accounted for 53.2 percent of traffic to all Web mail services in the week ended May 7, according to measurement firm Hitwise. It will also be up against Google Inc. Google's e-mail service, Gmail, helps marketers target e-mail users by serving ads linked to key words in e-mail text. Google uses technology to sift through e-mail for relevant text and has said no humans actually read users' e-mail. "That's creepy," Palihapitiya said, referring to Google's use of technology to target e-mail users with ads. AOL has a lucrative partnership with Google, which provides the search engine foundations of AOL's search site. An AOL executive said AIM Mail will also include junk e-mail fighting features, like AOL. AIM users will automatically qualify for an account using their current AIM user name. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft Will Expand MSN in China Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 14:01:29 -0500 By Reed Stevenson and Doug Young SEATTLE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. said on Tuesday it would form two new ventures for its MSN Internet service in China, becoming the latest player to expand in the crowded market. The deals will allow Microsoft to offer "the full gamut of what a true Internet portal should be" in China, said Bruce Jaffe, a Microsoft, chief financial officer of the MSN division. "We have been looking at China for quite some time," he said. Microsoft already offers MSN services such as Hotmail and Messenger services in Chinese, but the new joint venture will offer more communication, information and content beginning this spring, the company said. Microsoft also said that it would buy assets from Chinese mobile phone software provider TSSX to offer MSN-based services to China's 340 million mobile phone users. China is the world's second-largest Internet market with 94 million users at the end of 2004, a number expected to rise to 134 million by the end of this year, according to official data. Microsoft -- which already operates a China site at china.msn.com -- is a relative bit player in a market where Yahoo Inc. eBay Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and InterActiveCorp have made a string of acquisitions. Google Inc. said on Wednesday it got a business license for China and bought a China-based Web domain. Microsoft's late entry, coupled with its strategy of working with relatively unknown partners, means it could face a tough time gaining traction, said one analyst who spoke on condition his name not be used. "If you look at what Yahoo has done ... they had to pay quite a significant sum of money" to acquire an existing search engine in China, he said. "This may be a better way in China -- to take over a key player in a particular area." The entry into the mobile services market would put Microsoft competition with a host of homegrown start-ups such as Sina Corp., Sohu.com Inc., Linktone Ltd. and Tom Online Inc. Those companies rose to profitability -- and saw their shares soar as well -- by offering short messaging services (SMS) over mobile phones. but many have lately fallen out of favor amid a government-led cleanup of the industry. Microsoft has long seen China as a key growth market, but also a headache because of widespread software piracy and copyright issues. Censorship has been a major problem for many Internet players, who voluntarily block searches and other links to sensitive subjects like the Falun Gong spiritual movement and the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square. Microsoft and Beijing have become closer in recent years, with the Redmond, Washington-based company opening up a research lab in Beijing in 1998. Microsoft formed one of the two ventures, an MSN China joint venture, with government-operated Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd. (SAIL) to develop MSN products and services more closely tied to China. 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: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:50:21 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Big Providers Add Record Broadband Subs in Q1 Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 11, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21483&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Big providers add record broadband subs in Q1 BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Microsoft unveils Windows Mobile 5.0 * Analysis: Small VoIP providers may feel heat as market grows * FTTH connections surge since September 2004 * Comcast sees growth ahead * Cisco reports earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Yahoo! Music Unlimited offers tunes for less * Nike launches interactive Times Square billboard REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Editorial: Telecom market has changed Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21483&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 11 May 2005 06:58:18 -0700 The difficulties won't "derail" VOIP. The VOIPS will have to spend some money maintaining the appropriate customer databases and then develop a protocol to transmit that information 911 centers. That requires some cost and effort, but it is not impossible as long as the VOIP owners understand and accept their responsibility and liability in this matter. I suspect it will increase the cost of providing VOIP service and raise fees a bit, but since the protocols and databases should be standardized, the computer costs could be spread out among many VOIP customers, so it won't be a big deal. What I think a concern should be is service reliability. On the next virus/worm attack when the Internet is flooded with messages and intermediate switching/relay points can't keep up, it's possible VOIP telephone service won't be available or be difficult to use. I don't know how VOIP handles "traffic jams" where packets are delayed en route. Also, if some business which is dependent on VOIP for its voice has major server problems will voice traffic be disrupted? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Lisa, since we are chatting about 'service reliability' and how important it is, what about when a place like California has an earthquake now and then, or now and then in New York City when an airplane crashes into a tall building and all the people get excited and stirred up and all everyone jumps on the phone at one time bringing the phone system to a screaming halt with all the dialtone missing and the switching capacity totally used up? Or, about every 14-15 years on average when a telco central office burns down, and there is no phone service at all for a few weeks or months, i.e. New York City, middle 1970's; Hinsdale (Chicago), Illinois in 1988. Telco has been known to have its share of 'traffic jams' also, so my question is, considering how many business places are dependent on telco, how do they manage to get by when telco has an incident like that? You know, I guess, that the events in NYC on 9-11-01 damn near wrecked the central office serving lower Manhattan from the size and fury of the 'traffic jam' as people found out what was happening. Do we dare trust something like telco when reliability is important? PAT] ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 20:56:30 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. In article , Jack Decker wrote: > The big problem for VoIP providers is that there is no easy 911 > solution. I think we've been around this block a few times before. The big problem for VoIP providers whose financial models rely on avoiding the cost of regulation imposed on traditional providers (rather than on the inherent efficiency of packet voice) is that there is no *free* 911 solution. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Who Gets to See the E-mail of the Deceased? Date: 11 May 2005 07:32:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I still don't think we know the actual details in this particular case. IMHO, the email holder was being too tight about this, legally or not (see below). We don't know if the family's "court order" was from probate or litigation. Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Keep in mind that many estates are settled without probate and court >> orders. Getting that stuff is expensive and not worth it if the >> estate is small, such as often in the case of a young person. > (A) That stuff is _not_ expensive. court costs are generally in the very > low 3 figures, _at_most_. I am not a lawyer. However, after handling two estates I have a bit of experience. Many lawyers told me probate is expensive and to be avoided if possible. Our family was quoted $1,000 in legal fees (ten years ago) to handle a very simple of estate (no car, no real property, just some bank accounts). We ended up doing it ourself. > (B) "informal" settlement works *ONLY*IF* nobody objects. As soon as > any 'involved party' raises an objection, or demands the formal > procedures, the informal techniques are no longer a viable option. > Those who insist on employing them in the face of opposition, are > _personally_ legally liable for not using the formal procedures. > If the objection comes from a beneficiary of the estate, or a > creditor thereof, those who take property from the estate "without > benefit of formal procedure" can find themselves subject to > criminal action (for 'theft'), as well as civil suit to recover > the value of the stolen property. Basically true. However, the value and contents of the estate plays a big part of this. If there's real estate or a business involved, you'll need official documentation to legally transfer titles or sell. But for an elderly person who say is in a nursing home with little property left, or a young person killed in the service, there simply may not be enough assets to even cover the cost of probate. Anyone can certainly file a civil suit, but the value in question must be significant to justify the cost of litigation. On the flip side, sometimes people with substantial estates and duly executed wills still run into litigation as beneficiaries feel they're were cheated out of their perceived rightful share. Many estates have been ruined as litigation dragged on for years. >> I would presume the family presented a death certificate which is >> normally issued upon death. > Which doesn't prove "boo" as regards who is the authorized agent of > the estate, and the only party legally entitled to access to the > property of the decedent. I thought more about it and in some cases a death certificate is all that is needed. Been there/done that, with the above two estates. I conducted numerous transactions submitting only the death certificate or even only a copy of the newspaper's obituary notice. Certain property by law automatically defaults to someone else in the event of death, and no probate certificate is necessary. A common example is joint bank accounts and husband and wife. > Such a designation has *NOTHING* to do with who obtains _ownership_ of > any physical property that belongs (belonged) to the decedent. The > _only_ document that specifies that is a "will" -- and which may, or > may *not*, take precedence over statutory specifications. (In some > states, a wife, for example, may "elect against the will", and get the > statutory share of the estate, regardless of express provisions in > the will.) Again, in practice when there is a very modest amount of property at issue, the above is not closely adhered to. I don't know military procedure, but given the reality of life risk in military service, I still presume that they provide soldiers with appropriate documentation that is acceptable to outsiders. Naturally I recommend consulting an attorney for such matters. But like anything else, fees can vary tremendously and getting several opinions from recommended attorneys is a good idea. Setting up joint title to some property will be helpful but that has its risks. (In my state, the joint title saved 50% of the inheritance tax and eased probate.) (But other setups can waste money. I know a fellow who borrowed money from his mother for his mortgage. He insisted it be recorded. When she died, that became part of her official estate and the probate taxes on the mortgage, recording payoff fees, etc., were steep. He spent $20,000 on legal fees alone and that was 20 years ago). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When my maternal grandfather died in the early 1960's my grandmother had us drive her to the bank the next morning (before any notices got in the papers, etc.) so she could clean out their safe-deposit box. _After_ she had gone in the vault room and taken the contents of their box, then on the way out the door she stopped and mentioned to the bank clerk "you know, my husband passed away yesterday evening." The bank clerk's response was "well, I certainly wish you had told me that _before_ you went into the safety-deposit box." Grandmother replied, "I am sure you do, but it is too late now." She had been a joint tenant with rights of survivorship in the box, but did not want to mess around with any paperwork the bank or taxman might have later requested. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bob@coolgroups.com Subject: Re: Spyware ... Ugh! Date: 11 May 2005 12:22:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Did they change the name of Hijack This to Alertspy or is Alertspy something else? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have never heard of 'AlertSpy'; I know nothing about it. I first became aware of 'Hijack This' when I had a similar problem. A program I knew nothing about was causing my computer to try and go to a certain site immediatly on boot up. Trouble is, the site had been discontinued, so all I would ever get was a 404 message (immediatly on boot up, without even asking for the URL.) I zapped the mysterious program but then on bootup it was right back there doing its thing again, time after time. A friend of mine said we would have to go kill it in the registry where it was hiding, always looking for a way and time to restart itself. He told me where to find Hijack This on the net; I got it and installed it. It gives you many warnings in the process of installation, essentially telling you if you don't know what you are doing, to get back out of the way and find a _real-man_ to do the job. My friend talked me through it over the phone, and once the proper registry entry had been located and deleted, that was the last of the problem; at that point, following the hijacking process, I had to turn the computer off, wait a couple minutes then turn it back on. I thought to myself at the time the spammers/hackers/whoever who go and deliberatly tamper with your system registry in the process of installing their crap should be ashamed of themselves. But my friend pointed out 'this is the internet. There has been no shame around here in years ...' When I first told my friend about the mess I was certain I would have to do a fresh install of Windows to get rid of it. But Hijack This cured it all, and even rebuilt the registry in the process. PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Kiddie Porn Problem Severe, Expert Sees it Worsening Date: 11 May 2005 10:43:43 -0700 In NYC one of the local radio stations, WQHT jokes about child slavery. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sounds pretty sick to me, but I have never heard the station so cannot comment on the 'jokes' nor their context. All anyone can really comment on is what they, themselves have experienced: In my case, my sister (18 years younger than myself; I grew up as an 'only child' until I was 18) ran away from home when she was 15; went to live in Orlando, FL where she promptly got the first 'job' which came to mind; between that and her cocaine addiction she was essentially a 'child slave'. Between her several stays in the Orange County Jail over the years variously for prostitution and drug abuse she would call us collect or write letters now and then. Now, in the past year, neither mother nor myself have heard from her; she might be dead, or might be alive, living with someone, we have no clue. Some of you may recall Bill Pfieffer from before his passing: He was the Airwaves.com moderator and the Usenet rec.radio.broadcasting guy. He ran away from home when he was 12 years old from an abusive environment. He was searching for his true parents, who had abandoned him years before. Needless to say, like many young guys he fell into the same trap as my sister did. Bill _always_ ran the Amber Alert javascript on his web site (and its predecesser program "Have you Seen Me?") because he knew as I know, what an insidious evil the problem of missing children (often times in sexual/drug slavery) can be. Call the radio station: tell them its nothing to joke about. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #209 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 12 May 2005 18:20:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 210 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC, Vonage Feud Over '911' Service (Jack Decker) SBC to Offer E911 Access to VoIP Providers? Oh yea? I Want (Jack Decker) Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Jack Decker) Broadvoice Blames Problems on Telecom Carrier (Jack Decker) AOL Jumps Into Free E-Mail Business (Monty Solomon) MITC Starts SpotNet, Offering Low Cost Hotspot Services (dg@mitc.net) Mass. AG Pulls a Spitzer Versus Spammers (Danny Burstein) How is a Number Switched (AT&T to Vonage)? (Dennis G. Rears) Setting up an Automated RSS Feed (TELECOM Digest Editor) PRI Problems (was Re: 1A2 Help Requested) (Justa Lurker) Web Phone (MarcoSoul@gmail.com) Cegetel, Neuf to Merge (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (AES) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (lookemintheye) Re: Any Free VoIP Internet-to-Telephone Calling Left? (suburbperson) Re: Spyware ... Ugh! (jmeissen@aracnet.com) 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: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 00:29:57 -0400 Subject: SBC, Vonage Feud Over '911' Service http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-COYC1115851648806.html Technology Daily By Chloe Albanesius SBC Communications Wednesday unveiled an enhanced 911 service for Internet telephony customers -- an offering that voice-over-Internet protocol provider Vonage immediately characterized as half-baked. Vonage requires its customers to request activation of its 911 service; in some cases, it directs those customers with activated 911 service who call for help to unmanned emergency facilities. This policy has created controversy in several states due to recent episodes in which customers in distress were either met with a recorded message saying their phone did not provide 911 services or were directed to the voice mail of local police administrative offices. SBC's service would provide VoIP providers such as Vonage with access to its E911 database, allowing VoIP customers to reach a live operator when dialing 911. But Vonage contended that SBC's offering would be useless for the 40 percent of its customers who travel with their VoIP service. "SBC offered a fixed solution, which would only work for local phone numbers," said Brooke Schulz, vice president of communications at Vonage. "The problem is that the 911 network in this country ... only knows and understands local phone numbers." If a Vonage customer with a Washington, D.C. 202 area-code number traveled to New York, plugged into the network and called 911, the 911 system would cancel out the call because it is coming from a 202 number, Schulz said. Full story at: http://www.njtelecomupdate.com/lenya/telco/live/tb-COYC1115851648806.html How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 10:45:56 -0400 Subject: SBC to Offer E911 Access to VoIP Providers? Oh Yea? I Want http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=410 Oh Yea? I want these 12 questions answered first. -Posted by Russell Shaw @ 4:19 am Sorry, but I am still skeptical over the timing and scope of SBC's announcement yesterday that, the company has plans that in the words of my colleague Alorie Gilbert will help Internet phone companies "offer more reliable 911 services for their subscribers." While SBC says that the service will permit emergency dispatchers to see the address and call-back numbers of VoIP callers at fixed locations, that's just not enough. It seems that the media are adapting a fawning attitude toward these pronouncements on the part of Qwest, Verizon, BellSouth and SBC. They are not asking the tough questions. But I will. That's why you've come here. Full story at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=410 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, Vonage claims about 40 percent of its customers travel with their adapters at hand. Still, that leaves about 60 percent of its customers who should get along nicely with this effort. If Vonage is typical of all VOIP, then having 60 percent plus or minus of all customers 'cut over' to valid, working E-911 does sound like a good accomplishment. And even with my cell phone, I know there are many places I could travel (obviously in 'roaming' mode) where the 911 service would be flaky at best. So I don't know what Russell Shaw is complaining about. 60 percent is a great start if they can make it happen. And who knows ... in the next few years maybe the local ISPs can be convinced to intercept 911 calls coming over VOIP and instead of sending them where the adapter box says for them to go, the local ISP (in the area you are traveling in) can begin routing those calls to a local PSAP, which is still not the best, but it would resolve the issue for another 90-95 percent of the travelers (those who can speak up and explain themselves when the local [substitute PSAP] answers the line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 10:49:36 -0400 Subject: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/articles/2005/vonage-voip-911-opt-out.htm By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist Tired of state attorney generals threatening lawsuits over its 911 offerings, VoIP provider Vonage Holdings Corp. said it will change its registration process to make 911 services an opt-out rather than an opt-in option, according to wire service reports this morning. Vonage chief executive Jeffrey Citron said the company would change its registration procedures to the opt-out format "sometime this summer," as part of an overall revamping of the company's 911 services implementations. Vonage is currently facing lawsuits from several states over both the advertisment and implementation of its 911 services, which some states claim are misleading. CEO Citron said Vonage's conversations with the Texas attorney general led him to believe that changing 911 from opt-in to opt-out was a way to make progress on resolving Texas's issues with Vonage's publicity material and business practices. Full story at: http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/articles/2005/vonage-voip-911-opt-out.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not sure that is going to be an improvement. At least now, (with opt-in) if a person takes the messages he receives seriously and makes an effort to get 911 turned on, as I did, he is going to have at least some working knowledge of the limitations of the system. The hassle now are those people who 'just assume VOIP works like any other phone'. Most of the time, those people know from nothing, all of a sudden have an emergency and dial into 911, find it unavailable then the VOIP carrier catches hell for it. At least VOIP can now respond, "We _told_ you and you agreed to our terms." The people who 'just assume' are still going to be around, but VOIP really does leave itself open for a lawsuit when they begin to contend (by making it an opt-out function) that VOIP is 'just like any other phone', when in fact 911 will possibly be the critical distinction why it is not. Now the dummies can truthfully say "you never told me". I hope, for legal reasons, VOIP holds off on the conversion between opt-in/opt-out until they have so throughly and completely tested it under stressful conditions that they _know_ it will work for the largest number of their customers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 00:38:43 -0400 Subject: Broadvoice Blames Problems on Telecom Carrier http://voxilla.com/voxstory163.html Business By CAROLYN SCHUK for VOXILLA.COM Significant service outages that BroadVoice customers have been experiencing for a week is the result of an unresolved 12 month dispute with one of the provider's carriers, according to a letter of apology to Broadvoice customers by company President & CEO David Epstein. The carrier, though not named by Epstein, is Bermuda-based Global Crossing. Beginning on May 6, about 7,000 BroadVoice customers lost all of their inbound service and experienced interruptions to their outbound service, the letter states. The dispute involves the carrier's charges. "Even though BroadVoice has received bills from the carrier that inflated charges due by over 44% and, in some cases, reflected rates that are 13 times the contracted rate," says Epstein's letter, "BroadVoice has paid 100% of the undisputed charges." [...] Recent reports indicate that other Global Crossing customers, including several VoIP providers, have complained about unusually high charges from the company for international call termination and other services. Full story at: http://voxilla.com/voxstory163.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 02:36:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Jumps Into Free E-Mail Business By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Its subscription business in decline, America Online Inc. is launching yet another product on the open Web: a free, ad-supported e-mail service tied to its instant-messaging platform. Users of AOL Instant Messenger will be able to send and receive mail with "aim.com" addresses using their existing AIM screen names. Initially, users will need the latest version of AIM software, available as a "beta" test download for Windows computers beginning Wednesday. Ultimately, they'll be able to send and receive mail from any Web browser. Each account comes with 2 gigabytes of storage _ comparable with Google Inc.'s Gmail and more generous than the free offerings from Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail and even AOL's flagship subscription service. And unlike AOL's main accounts, which keep new messages for 27 days and messages already read for up to a week unless users actively save them, AIM mail never expires. AIM mail will also incorporate a few features unique to AOL until now: The ability to check whether AOL and AIM recipients have opened a message and to delete an unopened message from the recipients' inbox (This won't work with e-mail sent to users of other services). The Web-based interface will also have drag-and-drop capabilities, allowing users to sort mail without having to check multiple boxes and hit a "move" button. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49066326 ------------------------------ From: dg@mitc.net Subject: MITC Starts SpotNet, Offering Low Cost Hotspot Services Date: 12 May 2005 03:22:23 -0700 SpotNet http://www.trans-it.biz offers standalone hotspot equipment for public places like restaurants, hotels, marina's and cafe's, offering them the possibility to charge for public wireless access by using just their Paypal account. SpotNet does not require expensive billing software or signup with third parties offering back office services for hotspots, instead it fully relies on Paypal's web billing system which is basically free. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Mass. AG Pulls a Spitzer Versus Spammers Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 00:38:55 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC (Mass.) Attorney General Tom Reilly today obtained an emergency court order shutting down dozens of websites allegedly operated by a sophisticated ring of Boston area 'spammers' who transmit millions of unsolicited, deceptive e-mail messages to lure consumers into buying unapproved drugs, pirated software, and pornography. ..... Ag Reilly added, 'This type of spam is more than just an annoyance to consumers. It poses a real danger to people who may be folled into buying counterfeit version of precription drug or unwittingly open e-mail links to sexually explicit websites.' ..... According to AG Reilly's complaint, Kuvayev' scheme involves a complicated web of Internet sites and domain names selling a variety of illegal products including counterfeit drugs, pirated software, pornography, mortgage loans, and phony designer watches. While the exact number of e-mails the defendants have sent out is unknown, they are likely reponsible for disseminating hundreds of millions of unsolicited messages ... rest at: http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=986&id=1416 ------------------------------ From: Dennis G. Rears Subject: How Is a Number Switched (AT&T to Vonage)? Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 22:36:54 -0400 Organization: Optimum Online I switched from my local phone service to Vonage in January. I am completely happy with the service and have had no problem with it. I was able to keep my number and the transfer took only 20 days. I recommended the service to my dad and he switched. He had a lot of problems with the number transfer. He had AT&T for both local and long distance. I don't have the exact dates so I will make them up. On day 22 of his service his phone jacks went dead and he was informed via email that the switchover of his phone number to Vonage had taken place. The problem is/was that if anyone outside of Vonage called him, they would get the message that the phone number was disconnected. Since I am on Vonage, I was able to call him with his original phone number. The number was (856) 23X-XXX. This persisted for 18 days. I suspect the problem is not with Vonage but with the entity that manages the North American databases. Can someone explain to me what the technical process is for switching over and what may have happened? Dennis P.S. This is my first post to the Telecom digest in a decade. Hi Pat, I'm glad that you are still moderating this forum. BTW, you might remember me as drears@pica.spam.army.mil [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I sure do remember you, Dennis! While you were around here before in the early/middle 1990's you started a mailing list of your own on computer privacy. I remember helping you get it started. (_BIG_ hug!) What have you been doing with yourself since 1994-95? Whatever happened with your computer privacy mailing list? And yes, I am still around, as thick-skinned as ever, maybe even more radical than before. I know some of these guys will be _so happy_ to see me die or otherwise retire; they'll be able to get back to business as usual. In the meantime, yeah I am still here, and please don't stay away for another decade (another big hug!) ... But let's get on to your questions today: AT&T is not, never was a _local_ telco or operating company. They got into the business of local service doing like Prairie Stream, Gage, and several other companies; they broker or lease all the equipment -- a UNI-P sort of deal -- from whomever the 'carrier of record' is in your area. For me here in southeast Kansas it is of course Southwestern Bell. So when your father tried to 'port' his number over to Vonage, he had to go through an extra step: He told AT&T (as a local carrier in this instance) what he wanted; _they_ in turn had to tell the 'true' telco in your area (SBC, I assume; they are gradually gobbling up the entire world). In the Chinese telephone of him telling AT&T and AT&T telling the local telco, I suspect someone 'misunderstod' what was wanted. Assuming you were with a 'local carrier of record' all along, that extra step of the UNI-P CLEC telling the ILEC what was wanted was eliminated. Your father had it happen though. You said 'his phone jacks went dead ...' (but apparently the telephone adapter of Vonage continued to work). I suspect that your 'local ILEC bozos of record' either accidentally on on purpose failed to send (yet further) notice on this to the administrators of the records and tables for the North American Numbering Plan. To all the telephone central offices of the world, when they loaded the tables with the revised information, father no longer existed because ILEC showed it as a disconnect rather than a transfer. When telephone users attempted to reach your father, _their_ central office looked in its tables and and said he no longer existed. How did you find out the problem? You may have tried from your bozo-co landline (if you still have one) and got the not in service message, then you tried from your Vonage line and got through just fine. I had that happen to me once. I tried at my office (using our default carrier, Illinois Bozo-co) to reach a number in a small town in northern Wisconsin. I got intercepted repeatedly. Then I tried it again, but dialing 10222 first (MCI) and got through okay. Ditto Sprint. The lady I spoke to in the Wisconsin town told me that 'often times my friends in the Chicago area cannot reach me'; she did not know why. I chatted with one of Bozo's service reps; she said she thought she knew the problem, but would have someone call me back a bit later. In about 30 minutes, I got a call from a guy who works for AT&T who was in Denver, CO. I told him about the various reps who had been unwilling to listen to me or help. He said he knew about those things (either missing table entries or typographical errors in the tables which get sent out to all the central offices) and "they will listen to me, they will do as I say; try again after about 2 AM tomorrow morning when the new tables get downloaded; it will get corrected." I did _not_ get up at 2 AM to test it (after all, I am no longer a kid who lays awake all night to play with my [or other guy's] phones), but when I did try it the next day, yes, it worked just fine, on the various carriers as well as my default Illinois Bozo-Co.) You said 'the problem persisted for 18 days' and I assume you mean that after 18 days everyone could get through once again, regardless of the bozo -- err -- carrier of record they chose to use. It definitly sounds to me like an error when the tables got downloaded (the night after your father was first notified that he had been ported to Vonage.) Vonage (all VOIP carriers actually) would be doing the world a big favor by terminating an 800 number on their switch in their office) which people could use to get into the 'Vonage system' (or whichever VOIP) so people could make a call totally via Vonage to test these things out as needed. Remember when cell phones had two ways to reach 'roaming numbers'? You could try to dial direct into the number and hope to get through _or_ you could dial a number in the community where the person was roaming; the cellular switch assigned the user a 'temporary local number' for that purpose. Maybe they still do. Anyway Dennis, I hope this answered your question a little, and please don't wait another decade before you write again. Your freind, Patrick. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 23:15:14 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Do any Digest readers know how to go about setting up an _automated_ RSS feed? I would make this Digest available using RSS if I knew how to do it. If so, could you please email me? I will really appreciate your help. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Justa Lurker Subject: PRI Problems (was Re: 1A2 Help Requested) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 01:03:30 GMT >>> Our PRI between our two switches regularly goes down for anywhere from >>> 30 seconds to 5 minutes. This seems to occur most between 8:30AM and >>> 9:00AM and then again between 2:00PM and 2:30PM. Verizon claims they >>> can't figure it out. >> Clock slip? > That's my gut feeling on it. I've tried explaining that to Verizon but > it just falls on deaf ears. Can you be more precise about what PRI "goes down" means ? I guess that could be interpreted a lot of different ways. When the trouble happens, are calls in progress affected, or do they stay up while "new" calls in one direction or another are blocked ? Have you monitored the PRI line at your end with a suitable analyzer so you can see what is happening at the various layers (or does your switch provide any detailed debugging trace) ? For example, does something strange happen down at Layer 1 (physical layer) when the problem occurs ... loss of pulses, loss of framing, excessive bit errors, T-1 alarm conditions, whatever ? Do the ESF Performance Monitoring history data show anything (I assume it is running over a B8ZS ESF T-1 with some sort of PM functionality at each end)? Is there a smart jack involved, and/or any LEDs to take a look at? Or is some trouble occurring at Layer 2 (link layer) with the LAPD protocol causing the D-channel to appear 'down' ? How about Layer 3 (network layer) ... are you seeing any incriminating result codes during the failure ? While the problem exists, does the Verizon switch busy out your lines to incoming calls ? Surely their 5E or DMS or SC or GTD or whatever must maintain (or they can selectively enable) some sort of event log for your line. Although I suppose a timing/sync problem with clock slippage **might** be the culprit, it's funny that it only manifests itself twice a day rather than constantly [for severe uncontrolled slips] or at evenly-spaced intervals throughout the day & night [for less frequent slips]. Of course, the toughest part is getting through to talk to someone at Verizon who even has a clue what you're talking about. If you're lucky enough to get to talk one-on-one with one of the switch techs or craft or engineers who can log into a maintenance console and knows what a PRI ISDN line really is, then usually you'll make some progress getting it resolved in fairly short order. Finally it may be worth checking with the folks in comp.dcom.telecom.tech to see what they think/suggest about your problem. ------------------------------ From: MarcoSoul@gmail.com Subject: Web Phone Date: 12 May 2005 09:32:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello. I have been trying to do some research on exactly how Companies such as www.ingenio.com use technology to connect people on the phone and charge them fees. Are there programs or frame works on the internet that any of you heard about. I would like to know how I could set up a similar system myself that would connect two people together -- almost like a virtual total phone or a virtual party line. I appologize if I don't make much sense. Thank you. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have thought about that a couple times myself; setting up on the Digest web pages a 'virtual phone booth' where users could make calls to whoever. But I have never gotten anywhere with that idea. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 13:08:01 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Cegetel, Neuf to Merge Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 12, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21534&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cegetel, Neuf to merge BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Canada's Rogers buys Call-Net * SBC to offer 911 service to VoIP providers * Details of 21CN deals still emerging * 3G U.S. adoption hinges on pricing, services * Fiber glut remains for various reasons USTA SPOTLIGHT * Hear Telecom Crash Course author Steven Shepard at Telecom Engineering Conference @ SUPERCOMM EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * RealNetworks enters mobile game arena REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Alliance urges lawmakers to consider VoIP security in Telecom Act review Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21534&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 15:39:08 -0700 Organization: Stanford University To recap a speculative post I made some time back, seems to me that at least in those (quite widespread) situations where copper (or cable, or fiber) connections to business and residential premises already exist, or will continue to be created: a) VOIP telephone service totally without 911 could be the norm. b) All of the existing "hardwired connections" could continue to exist (including copper pairs included in or installed with fiber or TV cables), but would extend only to the telco (or cable, or fiber) "central office" and not be expected to provide any telco service beyond that point. c) These would however provide the hard-wired connections not just for "911" services (activated perhaps by "pushbuttons" or the equivalent in the hardwired premises), but also for many other kinds of related security services (fire alarms, home security systems, home control systems, alarm bracelets for the elderly, "iPots", etc), provided by vendors who would take over the wiring infrastructure, and very possibly some or all of the CO facilities, from the telco. Utility meter reading via these hardwired connections would be another potential user -- not to mention DSL for those cases where cable, fiber or wireless didn't provide the broadband services to a given premises. I appreciate there are many sunk costs, vested interests, and so on in this whole infrastructure, so it may not be obvious how to get from here to there; but if the vast majority of telephone traffic ended up on VOIP, wouldn't this make some sense, and in fact, maybe be the way in which you'd set up new green-field developments? ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 11 May 2005 19:36:55 -0700 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Hancock: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Lisa, since we are chatting about > 'service reliability' and how important it is, what about when a place > like California has an earthquake now and then, or now and then in New > York City when an airplane crashes into a tall building and all the > people get excited and stirred up and all everyone jumps on the phone > at one time bringing the phone system to a screaming halt with all > the dialtone missing and the switching capacity totally used up? Or, > about every 14-15 years on average when a telco central office burns > down, and there is no phone service at all for a few weeks or months, I think you're making an "apples vs. oranges" comparison that isn't valid. First off, major diasters like you describe are very rare. And if they do occur, I suspect VOIP lines will be just as jammed as conventional phone lines. There are switching buildings housing nothing but servers and data lines that are vulnerable to fires and disaster just like phoneco offices. Second and more importantly, service problems with the Internet are much more common. Every so often some glitch causes havoc and makes the newspapers. More frequently are localized problems and response time troubles. Frequently I don't get an answer from an email and then I learn my correspondent's company had server problems and nothing went in and out. Many people use cable TV lines for broadband service, and they complain during certain times service gets slow, such as when kids come home from school and bang away. How does VOIP fare in such times? ------------------------------ From: lookemintheye Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 12 May 2005 10:25:52 -0700 Not all Service Providers are scrambling. The better business oriented VOIP service providers are diligently maintaining phone location databases that interface with their switches and provide correct and normal location info to 911 dispatchers. I am with CallTower, who is a 5 year old VOIP unified communications company. We are oriented toward companies with 11 - 1000 employees and in our agreement with our customers, is a clause to be initialed that the customer must inform us if they move one of our Cisco phones to other premises. And when our customers move office premises, we update our location database and do it with pride and accuracy. While our service product is designed to deliver Fortune 500 feature sets to smaller businesses, and our high value product allows us to incur the expense of accurately maintaining our 911 database, we would welcome strong guidelines that require others to do the same. The cost of inaccurate (or missing) 911 location info is not only potentially life-threatening to VOIP users, it loads additional cost onto the emergency response system. Thanks for listening. harris Jack Decker wrote: > http://voxilla.com/voxstory162.html > Regulation > By CAROLYN SCHUK > for VOXILLA.COM > In recent months, 911 has quickly become a VoIP industry hot button, > and a major headache to service providers who have enjoyed a largely > regulation-free business environment absolving them of the need to > provide emergency calling services similar to those required of > landline telephone providers. > But the climate is rapidly changing and VoIP service providers are > scrambling to find solutions to the 911 dilemna. And, with the threat > of federal regulation requiring VoIP providers to quickly implement > 911 service looming, some providers are saying they will be forced to > severely limit their service markets. One major operator, AT&T, says > it may have no choice but to pull the plug on current customers. > A recent allegation that an infant in Florida died after her mother > could not reach an emergency services operator through the family's > Vonage service, and lawsuits against Vonage by state attorney generals > in Connecticut, Michigan and Texas over the company's 911 limitations, > have put a lot of heat on all US-based VoIP service providers. > Adding to their new difficulties is a recent significant change in > composition of the Federal Communications Commission. When led by > former Chairman Michael Powell, the FCC maintained a hands-off > approach to IP telephony. But in March, President Bush appointed the > less VoIP-friendly Kevin Martin to replace Powell, and when the > commission next meets on May 19th, it is poised, for the first time, > to directly regulate VoIP by requiring providers in the US to offer > emergency calling services through traditional 911 systems. > The big problem for VoIP providers is that there is no easy 911 > solution. > Full story at: > http://voxilla.com/voxstory162.html > How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: > http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html > If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Subject: Re: Any Free VoIP Internet-to-Telephone Calling Left? Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 01:13:50 -0500 John R. Levine wrote in message news:d5uoq0$ntj$1@xuxa.iecc.com: >> what I am after, is free PC to *TelePHONE* calling. > I'd be surprised if you could find anything. Sending calls to the > phone network costs real money, and the dot.com free money bubble > is long over. > There's plenty of services that will do outgoing calls pretty cheap, > like 2 cpm. Skypeout is an obvious choice, although I've had voice > quality problems with them. > If you plan to make a whole lot of > calls, one of the flat rate plans from a VoIP carrier like > Broadvoice or Packet8 would probably be your best bet. > R's, John Thanks, John I figured it would be pretty unlikely to find anything decent that was truly free for PC-to-telephone calling. Yet, the dot.com free money bubble, I thought that had burst in 2000 or so. I'm surprised that there was anything left in 2002 when I arrived into the world of VoIP -- guess it was trickling off by then. I think I'm going to try SkypeOut, Broadvoice and Packet8, and any others that get mentioned later. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You might also look at Free World Dialing (FWD) which not only has PC to PC free dialing all the time, but I have found you can prefix the dialing string with *1 (the USA country code) and make calls to toll free USA phones anywhere, plus which now and again the FWD people give away 'holiday gifts' of free calling anywhere in the USA or to certain countries. Add to that the fact that you can easily get one-way incoming lines at no charge to be attached to your FWD number. I have a couple of those in the 360-227 office (somewhere in Washington State) which ring through to the FWD phones on one of my laptops. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Spyware ... Ugh! Date: 12 May 2005 16:29:24 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , wrote: > Did they change the name of Hijack This to Alertspy or is Alertspy > something else? No. Although certain spyware will try to prevent you from finding it. It is always available here: http://www.merijn.org/ Or, as it says on that page," Can't reach this page from a CWS infected computer? Try using http://216.180.233.162/~merijn/index.html." I've found it to be invaluable. I've used it enough that I can now recognize what doesn't belong without asking for help. But if you haven't used it before, read the FAQ! And then visit the forums. john- [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for that helpful tip on where to find 'HiJack This'. I think it is really pathetic how so many viruses these days as their first order of business when they land on your computer is set about trying to prevent you from being able to reach AdAware and/or Spybot, and now, apparently, HiJack This as well. A virus got into my Windows 2000 one day which absolutely forbade me to download the latest definitions file through Spybot. I had to load a brand new copy of Spybot on another computer, then transfer it in to the (combo) Win2000/Linux machine with all the new definitions intact. The net, they say, is supposed to be so much fun for everyone. How do people actually use it without getting attacked daily from so many directions by malware? Oops, I almost forgot: Many netters tell us 'there is no consensus on what constitutes malicious behavior, and there is no way to stop it, and anyway no one (read this as _my friends_) want anything different.' Sigh ... PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #210 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Fri, 13 May 2005 17:03:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 211 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Canadian Telecom Update #481 (John Riddle) Front Lines - May 13 Issue(Jonathan Marashlian) FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (Monty Solomon) GSM Roaming (Graham Gower) AT&T-Cingular-Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Steve) Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (Lisa Hancock) CRTC Reins in Major Carriers on VoIP (Jack Decker) SBC Joins VoIP E911 Club (Jack Decker) Cell Phone as (Only) Home Service (Ken Abrams) Gates: Mobile Phones Will Supplant iPod (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: AOL Jumps Into Free E-Mail Business (nstrom@ananzi.co.za) Re: Spyware ... Ugh! (nstrom@ananzi.co.za) Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed (nstrom@ananzi.co.za) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Dean M.) Last Laugh! Telco Smears Other Telcos on Moral Issues (Lisa Minter) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #481, May 13, 2005 Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:52:20 -0400 From: John Riddell ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 481: May 13, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** CRTC Keeps VoIP Under Local Service Rules ** Telcos Outraged, Competitors Happy ** Rogers to Buy Call-Net ** 2004 Telecom Statistics Ready Next Week ** FCC to Consider VoIP-911 Rules ** Nortel Unveils New Small-Office IP-PBX ** VoIP Boosts Videotron Telecom ** CRTC Proposes Price Cap Extension ** Shaw, Bell VoIP Services Under Review ** Ottawa Launches Spectrum Policy Review ** BlackBerry Adds a Million Subscribers ** Cisco Telecom Sales Up 35% ** Mail Boxes Etc. to Offer Wi-Fi ** Conference Marks 20 Years of Cellphones ** More Cellphones Than Citizens in Ten Countries ** Vote Now for CATA Innovation Awards CRTC KEEPS VoIP UNDER LOCAL SERVICE RULES: CRTC Telecom Decision 2005-28, released yesterday, rejects arguments by Bell and Telus that VoIP-based local telephone services are, or should be, forborne from regulation. With two Commissioners dissenting, the Commission ruled that Voice over IP services come under the same regulatory framework as circuit-switched services. Key rulings include: ** The incumbent telcos must file tariffs for "in-territory" local VoIP services, at rates that at least cover costs, and must comply with existing rules on bundling and winback promotions. "In-territory" is defined by the customer's phone number. ** Cablecos that offer local phone service must register as Competitive Local Exchange Carriers and comply with all CLEC obligations. ** Incumbent telcos and CLECs must allow VoIP customers equal access to all long distance service providers. Resellers are not bound by this rule. ** Incumbent telcos and cablecos must amend their wholesale broadband tariffs to allow ISPs and other resellers to provide VoIP over these connections. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-28.htm TELCOS OUTRAGED, COMPETITORS HAPPY: Industry responses to the CRTC's VoIP decision depended, for the most part, on whether the responder was an incumbent phone company or not, but the division was not clear-cut: ** Most incumbent phone companies were outraged. Bell, Telus, Aliant, and SaskTel all said they will appeal the decision. Bell's Lawson Hunter called the ruling "an historic mistake," and Janet Yale of Telus said the CRTC "chose to look backward and to impose restrictions from the past that are no longer relevant." ** However, MTS Allstream said the decision is "good for consumers and competition" because it limits the ability of "dominant providers like Bell Canada ... to stamp out their smaller rivals." ** The cable industry and most IP telephony providers also said the decision will prevent the telcos from crushing new entrants. ** Montreal-based BabyTel said the CRTC should regulate services offered by the cablecos, not just the telcos. ** The Coalition for Competitive Telecommunications criticized the CRTC's "intrusive regulatory approach," and called the decision "bad news for business." ROGERS TO BUY CALL-NET: Rogers Communications has agreed to buy Call-Net Enterprises, the parent of Sprint Canada, in a share swap valued at approximately $330 million. The deal, which could close as early as July 1, will give Rogers some 600,000 consumer and business customers across Canada. ** Sprint Canada will probably be rebranded with the Rogers name. ** Rogers says that when it deploys its cable telephony service some of Call-Net local service customers will be migrated to that platform. 2004 TELECOM STATISTICS READY NEXT WEEK: The Monday, May 16, edition of Statistics Canada's "Daily" will summarize telecom industry statistics for Q4 2004. The full report will be available later in the week. FCC TO CONSIDER VoIP-911 RULES: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will hold a public meeting on Thursday May 19 to consider E911 requirements for IP-ba telephone services. (See Telecom Update #480) ** Last week a Florida couple said that their three-month-old daughter died because a 9-1-1 call on a Vonage phone was routed to an admin phone in the sheriff's office, which was closed for the day. NORTEL UNVEILS NEW SMALL-OFFICE IP-PBX: On May 27 Nortel Networks will launch Business Communications Manager 50, an IP-based phone system targeted at offices with fewer than 50 users. It can support up to 80 extensions. VoIP BOOSTS VIDEOTRON TELECOM: Quebecor's Videotron Telecom unit had first-quarter revenues of $23.6 millthan the same period last year. The company attributes the gain in part to Videotron's consumer VoIP service, which now has 23,000 subscribers. Videotron Telecom is being integrated into Videotron Ltee this year. ** CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau says Quebecor will offer wireless service this year. CRTC PROPOSES PRICE CAP EXTENSION: The CRTC has invited comments on extending the current price cap regime for the major incumbent telcos, as well as for Telebec and Telus Quebec, by two years. A review at that time would allow the Commission to take into account the impact of VoIP competition and the framework for local service forbearance, to be decided in 2006. To participate, notify the CRTC by June 2. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-3.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Notices/2005/pt2005-4.htm SHAW, BELL VoIP SERVICES UNDER REVIEW: The CRTC has resumed consideration of Telus's complaint that Shaw is not complying with CLEC obligations (see Telecom Update #475) and the complaints by Cogeco, Quebecor, and the CCTA that Bell's Digital Voice service violates Commission rules (see Telecom Update #476). Both disputes had been suspended pending the release of the VoIP decision. OTTAWA LAUNCHES SPECTRUM POLICY REVIEW: The federal government has begun a full review of Industry Canada's spectrum policy, and is inviting public comment. A public consultation paper has been posted on Industry Canada's website. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/insmt-gst.nsf/en/sf08383e.html BLACKBERRY ADDS A MILLION SUBSCRIBERS: Research In Motion's BlackBerry platform now has three million users worldwide, after adding a million subscribers in six months. BlackBerry is now sold at 50,000 retail outlets. CISCO TELECOM SALES UP 35%: Cisco Systems' results for the quarter ending April 30 show a 35% rise in telecom revenues compared to the same period a year ago. Net income of US$1.41 billion was up 17%. Overall sales were $6.19 billion, up 2.1% on the quarter and 10.1% on the year, which was about half the rate of increase recorded during the preceding year. MAIL BOXES ETC. TO OFFER WI-FI: Mail Boxes Etc. is equipping most of its 275 Canadian centres with Wi-Fi Internet access for business travelers. Bell Canada, which is partnering with Boldstreet Wireless to provide the service, hopes to enlist other carriers to bill usage to cellphone accounts. CONFERENCE MARKS 20 YEARS OF CELLPHONES: Mobile Telephony in Canada, a conference organized by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association on June 8 in Ottawa, will mark the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of cellular service in Canada. http://www.cwta.ca MORE CELLPHONES THAN CITIZENS IN TEN COUNTRIES: TeleGeography says that at the end of 2004 in Luxembourg there were four wireless accounts for every three inhabitants. Ten countries, including Germany, exceeded 100% wireless penetration. Canada edged past 50% penetration early this year. VOTE NOW FOR CATA INNOVATION AWARDS: The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance will hold its twentieth annual Innovation Awards Gala June 21 at the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. Online voting for the awards, offered in five categories, closes on May 20. www1.cata.ca/cata/news/awards/innovation/innovnominate2005.cfm HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Marashlian" Subject: The Front Lines - May 13, 2005 Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:38:09 -0400 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry FCC DENIES SBC FORBEARANCE PETITION; CITES PROCEDURAL FLAWS AND LACK OF EVIDENCE In an Order released May 5, 2005, the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") denied a Petition, filed by SBC Communications ("SBC") in February of last year, in which SBC requested forbearance from Title II common carrier regulation applicable to "IP Platform Services," which SBC defined as "those services that enable any customer to send or receive communications in IP format over an IP platform, and the IP platforms on which those services are provided." The FCC found that it would be inappropriate to grant SBC's petition because it asks the Commission to forbear from requirements that may not even apply to the facilities and services in question. The FCC also found that SBC's petition and the evidence in support thereof were not sufficiently specific to enable the Commission to determine whether the requested forbearance satisfies the requirements of section 10. Although SBC's petition asked the FCC to forbear from applying Title II of the Act to IP Platform Services, SBC did not concede in its petition that Title II currently applies to such services. SBC thus acknowledges, in its forbearance petition that the Commission has not yet decided the extent to which IP-enabled services are covered by Title II and its implementing rules. In its Order, the FCC concluded that SBC's petition was procedurally flawed because section 10 neither contemplates nor permits grants of forbearance relating to obligations that "may or may not" apply to the telecommunications carrier or telecommunications service at issue. The FCC also denied SBC's petition for the independent reason that it was not sufficiently specific to determine whether the requested forbearance satisfied the requirements of section 10. According to the FCC, "we are unable to determine with certainty which services and facilities SBC's petition is meant to cover, as well as the specific statutory and regulatory provisions from which SBC seeks forbearance." Without a clear understanding of the scope of the petition, the FCC stated that it could not determine whether SBC's request for forbearance satisfied the criteria of section 10(a) and that granting SBC's petition under such circumstances would create regulatory uncertainty. Similarly, SBC stated that its petition was intended to apply only to the "common carrier" provisions of Title II, but, according to the FCC, SBC never clearly identified which specific provisions of Title II for which forbearance was sought. According to the FCC, the degree of uncertainty with respect to the intended scope of SBC's petition would make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine that the three prongs of section 10(a) had been satisfied. For all these reasons, the FCC denied SBC's forbearance petition. NECA PROPOSED TRS FUND CARRIER CONTRIBUTION The FCC announced NECA's proposed Telecommunications Relay Service ("TRS") Fund contribution factor for the period beginning July 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. NECA proposed a carrier contribution factor of 0.00528, and a fund size requirement of $413.3 million. The proposed factor reflects a significant increase over the current factor, which is $0.00356. TRS contributions are calculated based on interstate and international telecommunications end user revenue, as reported in interstate service providers' FCC Form 499-A. FCC SEEKS COMMENTS ON PETITION TO PREEMPT STATE REGULATION OF TELEMARKETING The FCC is requesting comments on an April 29, 2005, petition filed by a coalition of 33 organizations, including trade associations, individual companies, and non-profit entities engaged in interstate telemarketing activities ("Joint Petitioners"). The Joint Petition raises issues concerning the scope of the FCC's jurisdiction over interstate telemarketing calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"). In particular, Joint Petitioners ask the Commission to issue a ruling declaring the Commission's exclusive regulatory jurisdiction over interstate telemarketing calls and barring state regulation of such calls. Joint Petitioners assert that, in the TCPA, Congress sought to "establish uniform national standards that balance the concerns of consumers with the legitimate interests of telemarketers." According to Joint Petitioners, states have adopted and proposed "divergent rules applicable to interstate telemarketing that undermine the desired uniform federal regulatory regime." Citing dozens of existing and proposed state laws that differ from the Commission's TCPA rules and that do not distinguish between intrastate and interstate telemarketing calls, Joint Petitioners contend that these state regulations place "undue and at times impossible compliance burdens on interstate telemarketers, and lead[] state courts in enforcement actions to.impose substantial fines on telemarketers for interstate calls expressly permitted by the federal rules." To resolve this situation, Joint Petitioners ask the FCC to assert its federal authority to preempt state laws and regulations which conflict or are otherwise not in keeping with the federal program adopted pursuant to the TCPA. Comments on the Petition are due 30 days after publication of the FCC Notice in the Federal Register. FCC INITIATES RULEMAKING TO ESTABLISH NEW PER CALL PAYPHONE COMPENSATION RATE In a further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding payphone services, the FCC is seeking current and accurate data on the average number of compensable dial-around calls made from payphones on a monthly basis in order to establish a new per call payphone compensation rate. In its First Payphone Order, the FCC fixed the default compensation rate at $0.35 per call. This rate was recently increased to $0.494. Data submissions in the form of Comments on the NPRM are due June 27, 2005 with Replies due July 25, 2005. FCC IMPLEMENTS MANDATORY ELECTRONIC FILING FOR ALL INTERNATIONAL SERVICES On May 11, 2005, the FCC ordered the implementation of mandatory electronic filing for all international services. Electronic filing has been the method of choice for many applicants since establishment of the FCC's internet-based filing systems more than six years ago. According to the FCC, the transition to mandatory electronic filing for all international services will enable the Commission to further streamline its filing processes, reduce unnecessary costs associated with processing paper filings, and respond more efficiently to evolving user needs. The FCC's Order applies to applications and associated filings in connection with: section 214 authorizations; cable landing licenses; accounting rate changes; assignment of data network identification codes; recognized operating agency status; assignment of an international signaling point code; and foreign carrier notifications. The requirement for electronic filing will take effect in several phases. First, mandatory electronic filing of applications for international telecommunications services that can currently be filed via IBFS will take effect following a 60-day transition period that will begin this Spring. These include: * applications for initial International Section 214 Authority * assignments and transfers of existing International Section 214 * Authority requests for Special Temporary Authority related * to International Section 214 Authority * applications for a new Submarine Cable Landing License * new or modified international Accounting Rate Change filings * requests for initial assignment of Data Network Identification * Codes notifications of Foreign Carrier Affiliation * requests for Recognized Operating Agency status * request for initial assignment of an International Signaling Point * Code Next, in cases where electronic forms are not currently available, mandatory electronic filing will be phased-in as IBFS is enhanced to accept the filings. As each new electronic form is available, the International Bureau will release a public notice announcing the start of a 60-day transition period, after which only electronic filings will be accepted. Paper filings made after the close of the transition period will be returned to applicants without processing. ==================================== The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, LLP, providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ The Helein Law Group, LLP 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 THLG Affiliations: http://www.voicelog.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 01:29:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You By Declan McCullagh What's all the fuss with the Real ID Act about? President Bush is expected to sign an $82 billion military spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the package -- which includes the Real ID Act -- on Thursday. What does that mean for me? Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards. The Real ID Act hands the Department of Homeland Security the power to set these standards and determine whether state drivers' licenses and other ID cards pass muster. Only ID cards approved by Homeland Security can be accepted "for any official purpose" by the feds. ... http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5697111.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Times are getting tough all over in this country; all I can say is I am _so glad_ that over the next ten to fifteen years, as the United States sinks deeper and deeper into trouble and strays further and further away from the type of life I remember here, I will probably be dead and not have to deal with it. Do not misunderstand; I do not intend to off myself, I'll just let nature takes its normal course, but I am very fearful about how 'things will be' for the younger guys forty or fifty years from now, assuming the United States is still around, with about half the population in prison and the other half employed to guard them, etc. The laws will be _so restrictive_; social security will be a thing of the past, etc. I guess you saw in the papers or on the computer yesterday that the FBI arrested _three dozen_ individuals, mostly American soldiers (National Guardsmen mostly) _and several border patrol agents _and_ several law enforcement officers in a 'drug sting on the Nexican/US border. Things are getting so depressing everywhere one goes in this country these days. I agree with the words of Johann Sebastian Bach in his work "Come Sweet Death, Come Blest Repose". Some days it couldn't be soon enough for me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Graham Gower Subject: GSM Roaming Date: 12 May 2005 20:31:01 -0700 Do switching centres lookup a person's phone in the local VLR before searching for its HLR? e.g., If my friend from Sydney calls me when I get off the plane (at Sydney airport), does the switching centre realise that I'm already connected to the local VLR, or will it try to find me via my HLR instead? Would this happen often enough for it to be a worthwhile optimisation? Graham ------------------------------ From: Steve Subject: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: 12 May 2005 21:04:23 -0700 I am apparently one of those "unlucky few" who got switched from AT&T to Alltel (via Cingular). Though I wasn't very happy with AT&T to begin with, I was happy to find that Cingular bought them out, given Cingular's rollover, roaming, and other options. Unfortunately, I then discovered that I was nothing more than an asset that was being sold to Alltel. All-WHO?! All I want to know is if anyone has successfully used this MESS as an excuse to terminate service w/o a fine. As far as I'm concerned, my contract was with AT&T, NOT Alltel (or even Cingular for that matter). I was not warned about Alltel and (like most people), believed all the hoopla that I was now a Cingular customer, with all the associated benefits. This thing smells like class-action lawsuit to me!!! Disgusted in Oklahoma. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think what you will find is the contract you signed at some point or another expressly gives _them_ the right to assign your contract. It did not give _you_ any rights like that however; just AT&T. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: 13 May 2005 07:41:58 -0700 As mentioned on this newsgroup, in the early days of cell phones, users could switch their phones from their primary carrier to the alternate carrier serving their area (originally there were two). I wonder in practice how many people bothered to do that; indeed if they knew that option was available. Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 11:22:12 -0400 Subject: CRTC Reins in Major Carriers on VoIP http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050512.wvoipgm0511/BNStory/Technology/ By SIMON TUCK Thursday, May 12, 2005 Updated at 10:10 PM EDT From Friday's Globe and Mail Canada's telecommunications regulator ruled Thursday that the country's dominant phone companies will not be able to set their own prices for on-line telephone services, part of its effort to create more competition and lower prices in the budding market. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rejected the arguments of the country's largest telephone companies Bell Canada and Telus Corp., who had argued that voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) should be left unregulated like other Internet applications. Instead, the commission decided that it would regulate the large phone companies' prices in the VoIP market, preventing them from cutting rates to keep out rivals at least until there is legitimate competition in local phone services. The large phone companies' challengers, however, such as upstarts and cable companies, will not have their VoIP prices regulated, as The Globe and Mail reported last week. CRTC chairman Charles Dalfen said the market could reach an acceptable level of competition within the next two years. "This is precisely the moment when Canada needs a regulatory framework that will provide the quickest road to competition," Mr. Dalfen said. Bell and Telus reacted harshly to the ruling, and they plan to appeal the decision to the federal cabinet and may launch legal challenges. Full story at: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050512.wvoipgm0511/BNStory/Technology/ How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 11:47:48 -0400 Subject: SBC Joins VoIP E911 Club http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1115924718.htm SBC has become the latest -- and last -- of the so-called Baby Bells to publicly agree to provide E911 services to VoIP carriers. The Baby Bells run the vast majority of all E911 services in the United States. SBC had been known to be working with VoIP carrier Vonage on E911, but reportedly the two have been dickering over technical and business details. Speculation is that SBC didn't want to announce E911 services until it had resolved the issues with Vonage, but recent events have overtaken the carrier. Last week BellSouth said that it would provide E911 service to VoIP providers. That announcement came shortly after Vonage announced it had cut an E911 pact with Verizon (Initial reports in TelecomWeb had indicated that Verizon was providing E911 only to Vonage, but Verizon has since informed us that the offer is open to all VoIP carriers). Qwest, too, has acknowledged tests with Vonage and reportedly agreed to provide E911 to all providers. Full story at: http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1115924718.htm ------------------------------ From: Ken Abrams Subject: Cell Phone as (Only) Home Service Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 19:09:11 GMT Does anything like this exist: Cordless home phone equipment that uses a cell phone as the network connection? More specifically, I would like to be able to plug my cell phone into a stand at home that charges it AND extends the service to two (or more) cordless extensions. Seems like this would be easy to do using the headset contacts on the cell phone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It _is_ easy to do, and requires just a few pieces of equipment. You want to get a device referred to generically as a 'Cell Socket' (but various companies making them refer to them under different names). The best supplier I know of on this is Mike Sandman mailto: mike@sandman.com or his catalog at http://www.sandman.com . The pinouts on a cell phone (as well as the general shape and size is such that there is _no_ standardization. Mike can tell you more about this and if it is possible to get a 'cell socket' device for your particular make/model of cell phone. You can reach his office at 630-980-7710 in the Chicago area. *Have your phone make/model/type/serial number handy when you call or write him.* (That's how varied the devices are). If you can find one, then you set the cell phone in its cradle, plug the modular jack into an idle wall jack somewhere, and telephone instruments plugged in the line elsewhere give dial tone, and you dial calls in the normal way. On mine, you then press the '#' key at the end of the dialing string and that functions as the cell phone's 'send' key. When not in use, the cell socket keeps the cell phone charged. Also, on mine, -- used in the old Nokia 5100/6100 'series' of phones -- there is an external antenna connection which it helps to use. I would say you can usually get by with one or two external phones; don't press your luck; the REN is not all that high. What I did, because of my disability and I need to have phones around every few feet it seems, is I plugged the output of the Cell Socket into my mini-PBX. I go 'off hook' on the cell socket (and thus the cell phone) by dialing '7' from any phone in my house. (Dialing '8' uses my Vonage/VOIP line; dialing '9' uses my SBC/Prairie Stream landline.) Plus which, as sort of icing on the cake, the various extensions around my house can dial each other using the format '100' through '105', or the 'operator' by dialing '0' but I rarely use any of that stuff. Whatever you do, though, the Cell Socket is *easily offended*, just like the VOIP telephone adapters. _Make certain_ there is no 'live' dial tone from somewhere that might come in contact with Cell Socket. If it does, you'll lose your new toy in a minute, and maybe your cell phone as well, if the backwash gets that far up the line before you catch it. You may need a couple of modular patch cords for convenience, Mike has those also as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 12:31:12 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Gates: Mobile Phones Will Supplant iPod Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 13, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21574&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Gates: Mobile phones will supplant iPod BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Report: Alcatel to stop development of IPTV product * Dell may link laptops, mobile phone networks * Major MCI shareholders oppose Verizon deal * T-Mobile USA reports earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * See USTA's Small Company Summit Presentations Online -- Free EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Microsoft unveils next-generation Xbox VOIP DOWNLOAD * Cisco, British Airways sign VoIP deal * Canadian regulators rule in favor of VoIP upstarts * Chip makers team up to develop VoIP chips REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Locating many wireless 911 callers remains a problem Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21574&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: nstrom@ananzi.co.za Subject: Re: AOL Jumps Into Free E-Mail Business Date: 13 May 2005 06:27:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Monty Solomon wrote: > By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer > NEW YORK (AP) -- Its subscription business in decline, America Online > Inc. is launching yet another product on the open Web: a free, > ad-supported e-mail service tied to its instant-messaging platform. > Users of AOL Instant Messenger will be able to send and receive mail > with "aim.com" addresses using their existing AIM screen names. Can't AOL screen name holders already get free webmail using their screenname @netscape.net? ------------------------------ From: nstrom@ananzi.co.za Subject: Re: Spyware ... Ugh! Date: 13 May 2005 06:31:30 -0700 bob@coolgroups.com wrote: > Did they change the name of Hijack This to Alertspy or is Alertspy > something else? Nope; it's still Hijack This and is available at http://www.merijn.org/. Note that the official Hijack This page has the following to say: -- snip -- April 22, 2005: Just a short note on the domain HIJACK-THIS.NET: this is not mine! It has been registered by an affiliate of XoftSpy (who are also on the Rogue Antispyware List on SpywareWarrior.com) and they are luring people into downloading their software believing it is HijackThis. Also, they have registered a few AdWords at Google leading to the same result. We'll see where this goes. In the meantime, if you want to download any of my programs, the official domain is and always will be www.merijn.org. -- snip -- The domain hijack-this.net is hyping some "Alert Spy" product; this must be where you got tricked. Anyways, on the topic of Spyware, I use AdAware and Spybot S&D and recommend them both. Sometimes one catches something that the other doesn't. Also keep in mind that if you have spyware in memory, it often can't be removed until you reboot your computer into safe mode. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And for a long time, they were each accusing the other one of being a spy because the characteristics in each. But a warning when you first start either program tells you about that propensity they have and how to deal with it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: nstrom@ananzi.co.za Subject: Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed Date: 13 May 2005 06:40:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Do any Digest readers know how to go about setting up an _automated_ > RSS feed? I would make this Digest available using RSS if I knew > how to do it. If so, could you please email me? I will really > appreciate your help. I'm not sure if this helps, but the new Google Groups interface provides Atom feeds for the usenet version of the digest; see here: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.dcom.telecom/about The feed seems to work for me as a live bookmark in Firefox; note that the links point to the messages on groups-beta.google.com and not the archives on telecom-digest.org. (As an aside, I personally hate the new Google Groups interface and still use the old interface which is still accessible via some tricks.) ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 16:42:32 GMT AES wrote in message news:telecom24.210.13@telecom-digest.org: > To recap a speculative post I made some time back, seems to me that at > least in those (quite widespread) situations where copper (or cable, > or fiber) connections to business and residential premises already > exist, or will continue to be created: > a) VOIP telephone service totally without 911 could be the norm. > b) All of the existing "hardwired connections" could continue to exist > (including copper pairs included in or installed with fiber or TV > cables), but would extend only to the telco (or cable, or fiber) > "central office" and not be expected to provide any telco service > beyond that point. > c) These would however provide the hard-wired connections not just for > "911" services (activated perhaps by "pushbuttons" or the equivalent > in the hardwired premises), but also for many other kinds of related > security services (fire alarms, home security systems, home control > systems, alarm bracelets for the elderly, "iPots", etc), provided by > vendors who would take over the wiring infrastructure, and very > possibly some or all of the CO facilities, from the telco. Utility > meter reading via these hardwired connections would be another > potential user -- not to mention DSL for those cases where cable, > fiber or wireless didn't provide the broadband services to a given > premises. > I appreciate there are many sunk costs, vested interests, and so on in > this whole infrastructure, so it may not be obvious how to get from > here to there; but if the vast majority of telephone traffic ended up > on VOIP, wouldn't this make some sense, and in fact, maybe be the way > in which you'd set up new green-field developments? I'm a little perplexed by your speculation. Why would a move to VoIP have anything to do with killing off use of cable/fiber/copper for telco services? Are you predicting a move to a completely wireless service provision or am I just misunderstanding your comments? And if indeed you are predicting a move to an entirely wireless world, why are you portraying VoIP as the cause for this? Can you elaborate? Dean ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 12:00:42 -0500 Unholy marketing department By Nick Farrell: Thursday 12 May 2005, 10:28 A CHRISTIAN TELCO in Oklahoma, has been drumming up business by smearing its rivals on moral affairs. United American Technologies has been billing itself as "the only carrier that is taking an active stand against same sex marriages and hardcore child pornography." According to the Wonkette, here, its sales and marketing division has been even more explicit to customers who ring them up with questions. One of Wonkette's readers asked the outfit if AT&T sponsors child pornography and was told no, but MCI did. The sales person made the outrageous suggestion that MCI has "a paedophile Web site for men who love boys" based in Montreal. Verzon, said United American Technology, trains its employees to accept the gay and lesbian lifestyle. Without a trace of irony, the salesman agrees with the caller that, "God hates AT&T, MCI, and Verizon". You can here recordings of the conversations here and here. Caller Eugine Mirman is clearly having a bit of fun with the very straight UAT marketing salesperson. Apparently the company is doing quite well with more than 2000 people switching a month, which says some people obviously think it is important to have a right-wing phone company. A cut of the proceeds helps fund conservative political campaigns, via a 527 called "Faith Family and Freedom" created by the Republican floor leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives. However, it will be interesting to see how long it all lasts, briefs for MCI and Verizon should be in a holding pattern as we speak. Copyright 2005 Breakthrough Publishing Ltd. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Breakthrough Publishing Ltd/Inquirer. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Neither Lisa nor myself could find where the .wav files (indicated by 'here' and 'here' above) went to. If you are reading the text-based mailing list of this Digest, you may wish to look up the web site for the (British) Inquirer, read the article and see if you can locate the missing .wav files. It should make good listening. Too bad these folks were not around when AT&T _was_ sliding into this territory a little. Remember a few years ago when the big deal on chat/sex telephone lines was 'this is a free call; all you pay is toll charges'. The catch was, it was always _overseas, international_ toll, in some god-forsaken backward island country somewhere, or so they claimed in the process of re-routing the call. You _had_ to place the call over AT&T; they used T-1 lines to reroute you and deliver your call as needed. Of course the chat was 'free', AT&T made its money from the sheer volume of inbound traffic diverted to it and the associated tolls. In their ads, AT&T had clever ways of parsing the number they gave you to call supposedly so you would not discover it was the country code for Guyana or wherever. In the ads, always with an S&M overtone, we'd see these 'Mistresses' or gay 'masters' with the proper boots, leather clothing, whips, etc. And the text would be something like "Reach Out and Touch a New Friend" and AT&T's helpful advice, 'this is a free call; no charge for chat; just pay tolls'. AT&T learned years ago there was a lot of money to be made from 'obscene' long distance calls which went on for an hour or so per call all night long, commonly known as 'phone sex'. Had the very conservative (it would appear) United American Technologies and their right wing allies been around in the late seventies when long distance phone sex chat was so common, they'd have had a field day making accusations against AT&T, Sprint, MCI and others. I wonder if any of those people even remember the reputation 'area code 900' had when it was in the news so much 20 years ago? Geeze, and _you_ thought the net was wide-open wild-west territory. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #211 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sat, 14 May 2005 06:19:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 212 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Yahoo Gets Sued Over Candyman Child Porn Site (Lisa Minter) Senate Technology & Energy Committee Meeting Scheduled 5-18-05 (Decker) PESQ Testing Software Cost (wle) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (AES) Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed (Isaiah Beard) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (John Levine) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (NOTvalid@surplus) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Mark Peters) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Steve Sobol) Re: GSM Roaming ({{{{{Welcome}}}}) Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations (Pete Romfh) Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations (Linc Madison) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Yahoo Gets Sued Over Candyman Child Porn Site Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 03:05:48 -0500 SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A minor and his parents have filed a $10 million lawsuit against Yahoo Inc. and a man who once operated a Yahoo Groups site where members traded child pornography. The lawsuit, filed on May 9 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, charged that Yahoo breached its duties by allowing co-defendant Mark Bates and others to share child pornography on a site, called Candyman, that Mister Bates created and moderated via the Yahoo Groups service. Yahoo spokeswomen Mary Osako said the company had not been served and did not comment on pending litigation. Mister Bates pleaded guilty in 2002 to setting up the Candyman group site for the trade and distribution of child pornography, the Houston Chronicle reported at the time. The site attracted several thousand users and was in operation for two months before Yahoo closed it down in February, 2001. Pornographic photos of the plaintiff -- who is using the name little Johnny Doe -- were taken and posted to the Candyman site by a neighbor, said the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. Among other things, the plaintiffs alleged that Yahoo was aware of the activity on the site and that it took no action to block or remove the pornographic images of little Johnny Doe and other children Doe's who were in the pictures also. Attorneys familiar with cases involving online service providers said the Communications Decency Act generally shielded Web sites from responsibility for material posted by users. "Unless the plaintiff has very concrete proof that Yahoo knew that this group contained child pornography, it's very likely that Yahoo will not be liable," said John Morris, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington. "We believe that they knew, and at a minimum didn't exercise reasonable care on their sites," said Adam Voyles, the plaintiffs' lead attorney for little Johnny and the other Doe children. "After all, thousands of uploads/downloads of kiddie porn to it each day." A child pornography investigation led by the FBI and dubbed Operation Candyman targeted Yahoo Groups users and resulted in the arrest of more than a thousand people in the United States. With the arrest of Mister Bates and many participants, others were frightened and ran off and as of yet have not identified, according to FBI, who stated 'Candyman was the largest raid of its kind ever.' 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Limited. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 03:44:05 -0400 Subject: [VoIP News] Senate Technology & Energy Committee Meeting 5-18-05 The notice (converted to plain text) is below. Note that a "Discussion of Voice Over Internet Protocol and 911" is on the agenda. THE SENATE TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY COMMITTEE SENATOR BRUCE PATTERSON CHAIRMAN 505 FARNUM P.O. BOX 30036 LANSING, MICHIGAN 48909-7536 PHONE: (517) 373-7350 FAX: (517) 373-9228 May 13, 2005 NOTICE OF SCHEDULED MEETING DATE: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 TIME: 300 p.m. PLACE: Room 210, Farnum Building, 125 W. Allegan Street, Lansing, MI 48933 PHONE: Christopher Kelley (373-7350) Committee Clerk AGENDA HCR 8 Rep. Schuitmaker A concurrent resolution to urge the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. HCR 9 Rep. Proos A concurrent resolution to urge the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend the operating license of the D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant. SB 334 Sen. Patterson Public utilities; electric utilities; annual approval for a low income and energy efficiency factor regarding a distribution service; provide for. Discussion of Voice Over Internet Protocol and 911. And any other business to come properly before the Committee. Individuals who wish to bring written testimony need to supply a minimum of twenty copies for distribution. In the spirit of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), individuals with a disability should feel free to contact the Office of the Secretary of the Senate by phone [(517) 373-2400] or by TDD [(517) 373-0543] if requesting special services to effectively participate in the meeting. How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: wle Subject: PESQ Testing Software Cost Date: 13 May 2005 12:47:52 -0700 Does anyone have an idea what the OPERA test system from Opticon costs with the hardware [pc]? Thx, wle. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 16:44:39 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Dean M. wrote in response to AES proposal regarding VOIP and 911 service: > I'm a little perplexed by your speculation. Why would a move to VoIP > have anything to do with killing off use of cable/fiber/copper for > telco services? Are you predicting a move to a completely wireless > service provision or am I just misunderstanding your comments? And if > indeed you are predicting a move to an entirely wireless world, why > are you portraying VoIP as the cause for this? Can you elaborate? > Dean Apologies if I'm not making myself clear. 1) It seems likely that in the not too distant future telephone service will be almost entirely provided by (or thru) VOIP. And, there seem to be real technical difficulties -- in particular serious "caller location identification" difficulties -- associated with providing 911 service to VOIP phones. Therefore I'm trying to envision a future situation (admittedly hypothetical at this point) in which telephone service will no longer necessarily be directly linked to 911 service, and a telco connection will no longer be presumed (or legally required) to include 911 capability -- or alternatively where 911 emergency response to calls from a given location will no longer necessarily be provided or connected to emergency providers through the telephone network. 2) As a prelude to this, I'm noting that I, and many other residences and businesses, will likely in the near future obtain our telephone service and also our broadband Internet access either via a cable connection, or via a neighborhood or municipal wireless service, or via a cell phone connection, or via a fiber-to-the-premises connection, rather than via a conventional twisted-pair telephone wire to our premises. If (or rather when) that happens I, and many others, will no longer need those copper telephone wires (twisted pairs) that currently come directly from a telco central office (CO) into our homes or businesses. (Of course if our broadband Internet connection happens to be DSL we will continue to need that telephone twisted pair, though we won't need classic phone service on that wire any more, unless we're really backward and still use a modem.) 3) Nonetheless, all the current telephone twisted pairs between premises and telco COs will continue to exist, unless they're deliberately ripped out or allowed to deteriorate. And even for new homes and buildings ("greenfields construction") there's no technical reason that similar twisted pairs can't be brought into these new premises as part of the cable TV connection, or the fiber, or even just the electrical power wiring. 4) So, let's think about how we might use these existing and any new copper twisted pairs, not for telephone any more, but for other "utility" purposes -- possibly including a new kind of 911 service. In fact, let's refer to these wires, beginning at that point in time, not as "telephone wires" but as "utility service wires". 5) So, here are just some off the cuff thoughts as to useful services that could be provided over these utility wires, earning income for some utility service provider in the process: a) The telco won't be able to get income any more from selling telco service over it's telephone wires -- pardon me, utility wires -- and it therefore won't need banks of telephone switches to service those wires in its CO any more. So, maybe it will sell all this infrastructure to "utility providers", or maybe it will go into the "utility" business itself. b) One utility service could be a variant of 911 service. That is, in case of an emergency instead of dialing 911 you just push a red alarm button on a kind of intercom box in your house or office and it connects you over the utility wires to your "utility CO" (which was once your telco CO). This utility CO then connects you -- perhaps automatically -- to the 911 emergency dispatch setup in your town. c) Or, maybe you still dial 911 on your VOIP phone -- but instead of treating this as a VOIP call, your PC connects it to the utility wires, which are still connected into your home LAN. (If you move your VOIP phone to a new location in another town, and connect it to the PC in the new location, that PC will still do the right thing for your VOIP call.) d) Using add'l hardware and working with the utility service provider, your local gas, electric and water providers will read your meters, not by some "dial-in" call on the VOIP network, but by a hard-wired connection over the utility service wires. e) Commercial "always on" burglar alarm and security services can be provided over the utility wires by security services that work with or are part of the utility service providers. f) Ditto fire alarm services. g) The emergency medical pushbutton gadget that your elderly grandma, who lives alone, wears on her wrist to call for help could communicate not over her VOIP telephone service, but over the utility service system. And so on for lots and lots of other things. (And note that one of the featured advantages of VOIP telco service is that you can take your VOIP phone with you and get into the Internet anywhere -- but these local utility services are inherently local in character, and are much better hardwired into a *local* structure, with no need for the Internet.) 6) Bottom line: I recognize there would be lots of thorny problems (including major economic and public policy issues) in getting from the systems we have now to some new scheme like this; and very likely some downsides and practical problems that I haven't even thought of. But just maybe, at some point, the very tight connection between telephone service and 911 emergency service that we're so familiar with now could evolve so that 911 and telco were more or less completely de-linked, with both needs met in innovative and more effective new ways. I'm just trying to do some thinking about how that might happen. So, comments welcomed ... ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:36:10 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > Do any Digest readers know how to go about setting up an _automated_ > RSS feed? I would make this Digest available using RSS if I knew > how to do it. If so, could you please email me? I will really > appreciate your help. > Patrick Townson http://www.myrsscreator.com/ Unfortunately their website is a bit "flash"y (as in heavy use of Macromedia products), but they do offer a tool that purports to automate the creation and dissemination of rss feeds. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ Date: 13 May 2005 22:55:38 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? None that I've seen. Typically the A carrier is TDMA or GSM, and the B carrier is CDMA, so if you forced the phone to the other one it'd have to fall back to analog and cellco's don't like that. Ten years ago when I had an analog car phone I would force it to switch all the time when I was on trips because I knew that the non-default carrier had a better roaming deal. R's, John ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: 13 May 2005 19:33:49 -0700 > wonder in practice how many people bothered to do that; indeed if they > knew that option was available. I did it whenever someone asked to use my phone. I would switch it to other carrier and say "talk as long as you want" follow the intructions, it will be collect or credit card. > Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? My current Virgin Mobile phones only get the Virgin[SPCS] network. -- Incredibly low long distance phone rates, as low as USA-Canada 1.9CPM! Works as prepaid phone card. PIN not needed for calls from home or cell phone. Compare the rates at https://www.onesuite.com/ No maintenance or connection fee or minimum. Use promotion code "034720367" for some FREE time. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Minter) Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: 13 May 2005 14:07:47 -0700 Monty Solomon wrote: > What does that mean for me? Well, right now we're seeing whole airline flights disrupted because a person on board _might_ be a terrorist: "BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- An Air France jetliner en route from Paris to Boston was diverted to Maine to check on a passenger with nearly the same name and birthdate as a person on a no-fly list suspected of terror connections, officials said. "You had a match of the name save for slight deviation in spelling and the exact date of birth," said Mark Hatfield, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration. (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Flight-Diverted.html) So, if your name happens to be the same or nearly the same as a terrorist or fugitive, you're in trouble. It means there will be increased risk that you, as an innocent person, will be locked up because of mistaken identity or false/malicious charges. This will happen because as you go about your daily business, your name will be frequently checked against fugitive, terrorist, and pvt sector risk lists. If there is even a fuzzy match, a red flag will go up and your desired transaction will be held up. If you're lucky, your official ID will be scrutizined, perhaps your picture compared sent in and compared against a database, and after a wait of an hour or so, you'll be cleared to proceed (assuming there is nothing nasty or outstanding about you). But if you're unlucky, the police will be called and you will be removed in handcuffs. You will sit in a jail cell without any outside contact until they get around to determine you aren't the terrorist or serial killer the match-up suggested you were. It's happened that fingerprints came over the fax fuzzy, so you just might match them and will be in even worse trouble. Keep in mind this isn't just government. The private sector keeps many more lists and is quite sloppy about accuracy and security. If there's a fuzzy match, you might not get arrested, but you won't do your banking or be able to cash a check, get a job, rent an apt, do anything with a credit card, etc. until the mess is cleared up. You may need to hire a lawyer at big bucks to unfreeze everything and prove to them -- at your own expense on your own time -- that you're you and who they fear you are. Back in school they'd threaten us with darkening our "permanent record" with a discipline infraction. Well, today we all do have that 'permanent record' and have no control over what goes on it nor who may see it (except we OURSELVES can't look at it or even know who has it). The new laws will require checking that permanent record much more often than now and increasing the risk of flagging. As all of us go through life, we have our share of problems. A bitter divorce or romance breakup. Fired from a job. Fight in a bar. Dispute with our landlord. Disputes with our neighbors. Thanks to modern LAWS all of these incidents are carefully tracked on our permanent record and may come back to haunt us. (And give our creditors an excuse to charge us more!) Sadly, controls are weak and inaccurate and malicious info can be added as well. As mentioned, we don't even know the companies who keep this stuff and we can't get at it. ------------------------------ From: Mark Peters Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 16:10:08 -0500 A big problem is visitors, especially children who have been taught to dial 911 in case of an emergency. A device that looks like a phone and provides dial tone is expected to behave like a phone which includes 911. 911 should not be opt-in or opt-out. 911 should be there. E911 is the goal. If there is the possibility of having children visit the house, how do you propose instructing the visiting children that the phones do not work properly in emergencies? How do you check that these children really understand the difference in the phones? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am not sure that is going to be an > improvement. At least now, (with opt-in) if a person takes the > messages he receives seriously and makes an effort to get 911 turned > on, as I did, he is going to have at least some working knowledge of > the limitations of the system. The hassle now are those people who > 'just assume VOIP works like any other phone'. Most of the time, those > people know from nothing, all of a sudden have an emergency and dial > into 911, find it unavailable then the VOIP carrier catches hell for > it. At least VOIP can now respond, "We _told_ you and you agreed to > our terms." > The people who 'just assume' are still going to be around, but VOIP > really does leave itself open for a lawsuit when they begin to contend > (by making it an opt-out function) that VOIP is 'just like any other > phone', when in fact 911 will possibly be the critical distinction > why it is not. Now the dummies can truthfully say "you never told me". > I hope, for legal reasons, VOIP holds off on the conversion between > opt-in/opt-out until they have so throughly and completely tested it > under stressful conditions that they _know_ it will work for the > largest number of their customers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:50:04 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Steve wrote: > I am apparently one of those "unlucky few" who got switched from AT&T > to Alltel (via Cingular). Though I wasn't very happy with AT&T to > begin with, I was happy to find that Cingular bought them out, given > Cingular's rollover, roaming, and other options. > Unfortunately, I then discovered that I was nothing more than an asset > that was being sold to Alltel. All-WHO?! Alltel, the fifth or sixth largest carrier in the country. You probably aren't aware of them because they primarily serve smaller cities. > All I want to know is if anyone has successfully used this MESS as an > excuse to terminate service w/o a fine. As far as I'm concerned, my > contract was with AT&T, NOT Alltel (or even Cingular for that matter). What is Alltel doing that is so horrible that you want to cancel, or are you just ranting because you're not a Cingular customer? > I was not warned about Alltel and (like most people), believed all the > hoopla that I was now a Cingular customer, with all the associated > benefits. This thing smells like class-action lawsuit to me!!! Please. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think what you will find is the > contract you signed at some point or another expressly gives _them_ > the right to assign your contract. It did not give _you_ any rights > like that however; just AT&T. PAT] Yes, the cell phone contracts generally allow companies to assign contracts to third parties. Read your original contract. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: {{{{{Welcome}}}}} Subject: Re: GSM Roaming Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 23:38:50 +0100 Thus spaketh Graham Gower: > Do switching centres lookup a person's phone in the local VLR before > searching for its HLR? > e.g., If my friend from Sydney calls me when I get off the plane > (at Sydney airport), does the switching centre realise that I'm > already connected to the local VLR, or will it try to find me > via my HLR instead? > Would this happen often enough for it to be a worthwhile optimisation? > Graham http://www.mobileshop.org/howitworks/roaming.htm ------------------------------ From: Pete Romfh Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 23:07:42 -0500 Organization: Not Organized TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Minter: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Neither Lisa nor myself > could find where the .wav files (indicated by 'here' and > 'here' above) went to. If you are reading the text-based > mailing list of this Digest, you may wish to look up the > web site for the (British) Inquirer, read the article and > see if you can locate the missing .wav files. It should > make good listening. Here's the link to that audio file. It's hilarious. Pete Romfh, Telecom Geek & Amateur Gourmet. promfh at hal dash pc dot org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _Where_ is the link, Pete? That's the same thing that Lisa got; copy the file out and nothing is there. 'Here' just turns out to be a blank space. In the next message, Linc Madison did his homework and entered the URL manually, so it could not get away. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 14:04:02 -0700 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > Unholy marketing department > By Nick Farrell: Thursday 12 May 2005, 10:28 > A CHRISTIAN TELCO in Oklahoma, has been drumming up business by > smearing its rivals on moral affairs. The original article, with links intact, can be found here: The MP3 files mentioned in the article can be found here: I think this one is good fodder for my new blog, "The Third Path," http://3rdpath.blogspot.com . I'll be discussing politics, the media, and, yes, occasionally even telecom ... Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for going to that effort, Linc. And, good luck with your new blog. I hope you are around with it many years from now. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #212 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 15 May 2005 02:20:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 213 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service (Lisa Minter) Verizon FiOS (William Cousert) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (Michael Sullivan) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (Steven M. Scharf) Re: How Is a Number Switched (AT&T to Vonage)? (Tony P.) Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed (Steve Sobol) Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations (Steve Sobol) Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations (Pete Romfh) 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 00:18:11 -0500 Microsoft Corp. , the world's largest software maker, unveiled on Thursday plans to launch a computer subscription service that would include anti-virus and security updates for personal computers. The Redmond, Washington-based software giant said it will initially distribute the new service, called "Windows OneCare" among its employees this week and will offer a trial, or beta, service for PCs running Windows later this year. Users would pay a yearly fee for the subscription. In addition to providing anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall protection, Windows OneCare will also include tools to keep PCs maintained for optimal performance and back up key data. Microsoft did not say how much it expected to charge for the service, which had been expected for a while by the security software community. Microsoft acquired anti-virus technology from GeCAD Software Srl., a Romanian software company, in 2003 to develop its own software. A major security-focused update to Windows XP, called Service Pack 2, was delivered last year. Such efforts have hit the shares of major security software vendors. McAfee Inc.'s shares are down 13 percent so far this year while Symantec Corp.'s stock has declined 28 percent in the same period. "We're designing the service so it will continually update and evolve over time," Ryan Hamlin, Microsoft's general manager of the Technology Care and Safety Group said in a statement. Nearly all of the major anti-virus security programs are designed to be updated regularly over the Internet for a monthly or yearly fee, so that they can cope with new virus threats as they appear. 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: William Cousert <williamcousert@gmail.com> Subject: Verizon FiOS Date: 14 May 2005 13:03:35 -0700 I have a few qestions about Verizon's new FiOS service. It was recently installed in my neighborhood and I'm thinking about switching over from Comcast. 1. Does Verizon offer Usenet access with their accounts? Comcast only offers a limited amount of bandwidth for Usenet and charges extra if you exceed it. 2. Can I connect without using MSN? 3. I have three computers. Will they charge me extra for the additional IP's? If so, how much? 4. Can I run a personal server? I'd like to be able to host my own home page on it, as well as a message board. What about game servers (quake 3, etc.)? 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump Comcast completely. Will they have video on demand? 6. 15/2 service costs $49.95 per month. 30/5 costs $199.95 per month. Twice the bandwidth, four times the price. Why such a big jump in price? Can you get two 15/2 packages and join them together (remember shotgun modems? You could have two 56k modems work as one)? 6a. Does the $199.95 package give you the right to run servers? Maybe that's the reason for the big increase? 7. Can FiOS handle higher speeds in the future, or will they need to replace the fiber once again when the next leap in speed comes? 8. Has anyone in this group made the jump from Comcast to FiOS? What do you think so far? Thanks, -William Cousert ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan <userid@camsul.example.invalid> Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 03:45:45 GMT John Levine wrote: >> Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? > None that I've seen. Typically the A carrier is TDMA or GSM, and the > B carrier is CDMA, so if you forced the phone to the other one it'd > have to fall back to analog and cellco's don't like that. My CDMA/Analog Kyocera 7135 can choose A preferred or B preferred; it can also be set to analog only or digital only. Obviously, it won't work on TDMA or GSM, but can be used on a manually forced analog A or B. Not that I would have any interest in doing so, however, because I would prefer to have more than a minute or two of battery life. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is the battery drain _that_ dramatic between analog and digital (you said 'prefer to have more than a minute or two of battery life'). PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steven M. Scharf <scharf.steven@linkearth.net> Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 03:53:56 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net John Levine wrote: >> Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? > None that I've seen. Typically the A carrier is TDMA or GSM, and the > B carrier is CDMA, so if you forced the phone to the other one it'd > have to fall back to analog and cellco's don't like that. > Ten years ago when I had an analog car phone I would force it to > switch all the time when I was on trips because I knew that the > non-default carrier had a better roaming deal. There are quite a few areas with two TDMA and two AMPS networks. Depending on the phone, it can be easy or difficult to switch it between networks. Some phones require being hooked up to a computer to be switched, and some can be programmed over the air. In areas where both Cingular and AT&T have TDMA networks, the networks are still separate (labeled orange for Cingular, blue for AT&T, but it is still A & B for AMPS). I've recently activated several old TDMA phones for use on Beyond Wireless (http://gobeyondwireless.com) or CallPlus. These have to be phones that were either previously on the AT&T TDMA network, or that can be reprogrammed over-the-air. I.e., they can't activate a locked Cingular TDMA phone that can't be reprogrammed over the air. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: How Is a Number Switched (AT&T to Vonage)? Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 11:45:02 -0400 In article <telecom24.210.8@telecom-digest.org>, drears@runningpagespam.org.lga.highwinds-media.com says: > I switched from my local phone service to Vonage in January. I am > completely happy with the service and have had no problem with it. I > was able to keep my number and the transfer took only 20 days. I > recommended the service to my dad and he switched. He had a lot of > problems with the number transfer. > He had AT&T for both local and long distance. I don't have the > exact dates so I will make them up. On day 22 of his service his > phone jacks went dead and he was informed via email that the > switchover of his phone number to Vonage had taken place. The problem > is/was that if anyone outside of Vonage called him, they would get the > message that the phone number was disconnected. Since I am on Vonage, > I was able to call him with his original phone number. The number was > (856) 23X-XXX. This persisted for 18 days. I suspect the problem is > not with Vonage but with the entity that manages the North American > databases. Can someone explain to me what the technical process is > for switching over and what may have happened? > Dennis > P.S. This is my first post to the Telecom digest in a decade. Hi > Pat, I'm glad that you are still moderating this forum. BTW, you > might remember me as drears@pica.spam.army.mil Let me dispel the myths about why number transfers take so long. I find it infinitely amusing that a cell phone can be transition within 48 hours, as can a land line when going regulated carrier to regulated carrier. There is nothing technical about it. Instead it is foot dragging by the incumbent carriers, nothing more. The same thing is happening with E-911. There isn't a true technical reason why E-911 can't work with VoIP. Instead, the incumbents tend to control E-911 systems in most places and you guessed it, they drag their feet. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: Setting up an Automated RSS Feed Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 14:57:28 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Isaiah Beard wrote, responding to TELECOM Digest Editor who asked: >> Do any Digest readers know how to go about setting up an _automated_ >> RSS feed? I would make this Digest available using RSS if I knew >> how to do it. If so, could you please email me? I will really >> appreciate your help. > http://www.myrsscreator.com/ > Unfortunately their website is a bit "flash"y (as in heavy use of > Macromedia products), but they do offer a tool that purports to > automate the creation and dissemination of rss feeds. There are a lot of blogging programs that have RSS feeds as one of their features. I use http://www.blogcms.com/ but that's far from the only one. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am in the process of getting an RSS feed set up now for the Digest. You can examine what has been done thus far at http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 14:56:46 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Linc Madison wrote: >> A CHRISTIAN TELCO in Oklahoma, has been drumming up business by >> smearing its rivals on moral affairs. I bet they advertised themselves as being good Christians, too. I know many people who are God-fearing, moral people who generally choose to Do the Right Thing. A large number of them are Christian. These *real* Christians don't have to advertise how wonderful they are. Whenever I see a business owner who feels the need to advertise that he or she is a Good Christian(tm), that business owner falls to the bottom of my list of choices for whatever good or service I'm shopping for. In my experience, people who feel the need to crow "Jesus loves me because I'm a wonderful person who never does anything wrong" are usually hiding something. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Pete Romfh <promfhTAKE@OUThal-pc.org.invalid> Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Christian Telco in Gay Smear Allegations Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 07:23:05 -0500 Pete Romfh wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Minter: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Neither Lisa nor myself >> could find where the .wav files (indicated by 'here' and >> 'here' above) went to. If you are reading the text-based >> mailing list of this Digest, you may wish to look up the >> web site for the (British) Inquirer, read the article and >> see if you can locate the missing .wav files. It should >> make good listening. > Here's the link to that audio file. It's hilarious. > Pete Romfh, Telecom Geek & Amateur Gourmet. > promfh at hal dash pc dot org > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: _Where_ is the link, Pete? > That's the same thing that Lisa got; copy the file out > and nothing is there. 'Here' just turns out to be a blank > space. In the next message, Linc Madison did his homework > and entered the URL manually, so it could not get away. > PAT] In my case it was a defect in the Keyboard-Chair interface device. Some adjustments are being made this morning. #print <wry grin> ; OOPS! #include <strong coffee> ; before posting. =;) Pete Romfh, Telecom Geek & Amateur Gourmet. promfh at hal dash pc dot org ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #213 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 15 May 2005 17:03:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 214 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft, Sun, Pursue Gap-Bridging Product Plans (Lisa Minter) EFFector 18.13: Action Alert - Protect Public Weather Data!! (M Solomon) EFFector 18.14: Action Alert - Support DMCA Reform - (Monty Solomon) Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (D. Dude) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (DevilsPGD) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Lisa Hancock) Re: Verizon FiOS (Steve Sobol) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (DevilsPGD) Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service (P Thompson) Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service (Wolfgang Rupprecht) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Jail For 'Robin Hoods' Who Cost Microsoft Millions (Henry Schaffer) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft, Sun, Pursue Gap-Bridging Product Plans Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:14:04 -0500 PALO ALTO (Reuters) - Former bitter rivals Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. on Friday said they were nearly ready to release products that help bridge the gap between their operating systems, a result of their legal settlement more than a year ago. Microsoft, the world's largest software company and Sun, a maker of network computers, servers and software, in April 2004 agreed to settle a years-long battle, with Microsoft paying $2 billion to Sun to resolve the dispute in a 10-year technical collaboration agreement. Sun had charged Microsoft with anti-competitive behavior. The two companies announced new plans that would allow a Web-based single sign-on between systems that use both Microsoft and Sun software, potentially eliminating the need for multiple user names and passwords for different computer systems and software programs. "These are huge messages to our employees and to our customers that we're working together," Sun Chief Executive Officer Scott McNealy said in a joint news conference with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Palo Alto, California. Microsoft and Sun will ultimately submit the new specifications to a standards organization for finalization and for ratification as industry standards. Ballmer and McNealy also said the two are working together on systems management software that will allow interoperability between their operating systems and management software. As part of that effort, the firms are collaborating on the development of WS-Management, a Web services specification co-authored by Microsoft, Intel Corp. and other companies that defines a single protocol to meet systems management requirements spanning different types of hardware, operating systems and applications. "We've been hard at work, the two companies, for a year," said Ballmer. "We're poised to leave the computer lab now and enter the marketplace." 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: Sun, 15 May 2005 02:23:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.13: Action Alert - Protect Public Weather Data!! EFFector Vol. 18, No. 13 April 28, 2005 donna@eff.org In the 329th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert - Protect Public Weather Data! * Alert Update - National ID and Trademark Bills Still Moving * California Anti-RFID Bill Gains Momentum * EFF Responds to Apple's Arguments in Online Journalism Appeal * Law Firm Shows Ignorance of the Law in Anonymous Email Case * BayFF Event: Explore the World of Anonymous Online Communication, May 10 * MiniLinks (15): Breaking the Stupidity Pact * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/13.php ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 02:24:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.14: Action Alert - Support DMCA Reform - Help Pass HR EFFector Vol. 18, No. 14 May 5, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 330th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert - Support DMCA Reform - Help Pass HR 1201! * CA Alert - Keep RFIDs Out of California IDs! * EFF Editorial: The Right Way to Fight Spyware * EFF Announces New Activism Coordinator * BayFF Event: Explore the World of Anonymous Online Communication, May 10 * MiniLinks (10): Sensenbrenner Tells EU Not to Put RFIDs in Passports * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/14.php ------------------------------ From: D. Dude Subject: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 11:58:23 GMT Organization: Global Dial Pty Ltd Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use for cell service and phone/calling cards. Pre-paid, since I assume I'm ineligible for credit, but I would consider allowing a provider to directly bill a credit card number (if they can be trusted). I don't have a SSN, or permanent US/European address if that matters. Services that require a minimum of pre-paid credit or offer wider coverage would be better. My calls would be a mix of local and long-distance including international. Having the option of toll-free access for the calling card would probably be useful, if that is not a given for US calling cards (it is not in Australia but we have larger local call areas). I would expect that my cell usage would be fairly low, limited mostly to receiving calls. For the US, I'd like to have service in Hawaii, California, New York, and the New England states. I'll pretty much be sticking to major cities and the more touristed parts of these states. I don't have a phone suitable for the US, so your recommendations for a specific technology (CDMA, GSM etc) and a low cost handset (or rental) would be welcome. WAP support would be plus if compatible with the cheapest plans. A phone suitable for an elderly person with poor eye-sight and dexterity, would be another plus, but not essential. Offers for loaners or purchase of this phone would also be welcome. For Europe, I'm planning on visiting the continent mainly to EU states. Thanks for any help, D. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 00:33:41 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Mark Peters wrote: > A big problem is visitors, especially children who have been taught to > dial 911 in case of an emergency. A device that looks like a phone and > provides dial tone is expected to behave like a phone which includes > 911. 911 should not be opt-in or opt-out. 911 should be there. E911 is > the goal. Agreed -- But how is the child better served if 911 connects them to a call center which might not even be in the same state, and all they know is that they're at dad's house? Having 911 (or better, E911) for a fixed location VoIP device is already being implemented by many/most carriers that sell a non-portable solution. However, making roaming 911 work is a challenge which won't be overcome easily unless you can force users to enter a current valid address whenever they move the VoIP device. It's virtually impossible to get reliable GPS signals indoors, so it simply isn't feasible for the device to do the trick itself. Cell phones at least have a fixed location of the tower, which can give the call center a rough idea of where the problem is, but VoIP doesn't even have that advantage. I don't know about anybody else, but I'd rather have 911 return a "Stop, this phone is not equipped to dial 911. Please use another phone to dial 911" error message rather then have someone get routed to a 911 call center that can't help them -- At least knowing that no help is coming gives them a chance to obtain assistance elsewhere. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder how this scheme would work ... any calls to 911 from a VOIP get intercepted by the broadband ISP who is handling the connection. The IP address in use (and its physical address) get transmitted 'like ANI' to the local police. The 'ANI-like' information passed along (from wherever) to the PSAP identifies it as a VOIP from address (registered with the ISP for the IP street address.) Am I correct in my assumption that most stationary computers with broadband stay in the same place and they are almost always on the same IP address as well? I know in my instance I have been 24.xxx.xxx.xxx for however long, here at the same street address, etc. Can't those two items (IP and street address) often as not be matched? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: 15 May 2005 11:33:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mark Peters wrote: > A big problem is visitors, especially children who have been taught > to dial 911 in case of an emergency. A device that looks like a > phone and provides dial tone is expected to behave like a phone > which includes 911. 911 should not be opt-in or opt-out. 911 should > be there. E911 is the goal. It's not just children. From reading messages in the newgroup, it appears that the technocrats assume everybody out there is as tech-savy as they are. The reality is that the vast majority of the people have no clue as to what VOIP even is, let alone how it works or its limitations. To expect another person to know the phone isn't 911 equipped is ludicrous. The goal of 911 is to have a universal help number so a stranger/outsider can get help quickly in an emergency. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 23:09:08 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com William Cousert wrote: > 6. 15/2 service costs $49.95 per month. 30/5 costs $199.95 per > month. Twice the bandwidth, four times the price. Why such a big jump > in price? Can you get two 15/2 packages and join them together > (remember shotgun modems? You could have two 56k modems work as one)? They probably figure 30/5 will be much more heavily used. They're billing based on the average amount of bandwidth they expect to be used, and I'm pretty sure they figure 30/5 will be used primarily be really, really heavy users. > 6a. Does the $199.95 package give you the right to run servers? Maybe > that's the reason for the big increase? I'm thinking it has to be. > 8. Has anyone in this group made the jump from Comcast to FiOS? What > do you think so far? I'd like to get it. Keep in mind that, as a friend of mine who is a retired telecomm guy pointed out, once you go FiOS, neither you nor any future occupant of your home will be able to get copper from Verizon. They disconnect the copper PERMANENTLY. You can request that your POTS line not be disconnected, but you have to specifically request it. And I doubt Verizon will give you the option if you don't. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 00:33:42 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > As all of us go through life, we have our share of problems. A bitter > divorce or romance breakup. Fired from a job. Fight in a bar. > Dispute with our landlord. Disputes with our neighbors. Thanks to > modern LAWS all of these incidents are carefully tracked on our > permanent record and may come back to haunt us. (And give our > creditors an excuse to charge us more!) Sadly, controls are weak and > inaccurate and malicious info can be added as well. As mentioned, we > don't even know the companies who keep this stuff and we can't get at > it. Sure -- I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm willing to deal with the resulting fallout if I get in a fight in a bar or with my landlord or whatever. What I'm not willing to deal with is the same fallout because somebody else (with the same name) had one of the above issues happen. In this respect, a universal ID is a good thing, names simply aren't unique enough. Whether the other issues are significant enough to be concerned about or not is another question altogether, but in my opinion, the benefit outweighs the risk right now. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 09:30:29 CDT From: P Thompson Subject: Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service On Sun, 15 May 2005, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > From: Lisa Minter > Subject: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service > Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 00:18:11 -0500 > Microsoft Corp. , the world's largest software maker, unveiled on > Thursday plans to launch a computer subscription service that would > include anti-virus and security updates for personal computers. Expect to see it hawked mercilessly by the M$ monopoly marketing juggernaut. Expect some security update or service pack for IE will reset your home page to a page hawking the new service. Then another will place an icon for a trial version on your desktop. Undoubtably MSN will mention it on every page. The other vendors and consumer choice are screwed. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service From: wolfgang+gnus20050515T122844@dailyplanet.dontspam.wsrcc.com Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 20:22:23 GMT > Microsoft Corp. , the world's largest software maker, unveiled on > Thursday plans to launch a computer subscription service that would > include anti-virus and security updates for personal computers. I supposed fixing the underlying security problems with their software would be asking too much? I guess it is much more profitable to sell cheese-cloth operating system software and then sell subscriptions to fix-up software that deals with the after effects of the security penetrations. Thanks to Microsoft's shoddy software practices, I'm once again being hammered with bounces from viruses running on MS-windows boxes. What makes this one special? It seems that the latest virus is spewing out neo-nazi rantings. Imagine my joy when I see that my email address was being attached to such hate-mongering messages. Do I really need the worry that someone unfamiliar with reading email headers got one of these messages and thinks I really wrote it? Worse yet, what about worrying about someone in the effected group showing up at my door with a handful of their closest friends? I don't exactly keep my contact details a secret. It is a shame that the forgery victims of these messages can't all get together and collectively sue the pants off of Mr Gates' company for criminal negligence. I don't see how this is much different from the Pinto case where the auto manufacturer saved a (very small) bit of money by not cutting the ends of some bolts off. They knew quite well that those bolts would puncture the fuel tank in the event of a rear-end collision, but simply ignored the problem. How long has Microsoft known about their virus problems and how stupid an idea it is to allow a user to click on a program sent to them in the mail in order to have it installed in their system. Why is this still not fixed? -- Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 15 May 2005 11:29:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com AES wrote: > 1) It seems likely that in the not too distant future telephone > service will be almost entirely provided by (or thru) VOIP. And, > there seem to be real technical difficulties -- in particular serious > "caller location identification" difficulties -- associated with > providing 911 service to VOIP phones. What time frame do you mean by "not too distant future"? Why do you think all telephone service will go over VOIP? To do so would require every home and business to have broadband service and the capacity isn't out there to accomodate that. Many areas are offered broadband, but if _everyone_ used it the trunks would be flooded and unusuable; indeed, the cable company has some capacity problems now. Remember, in many places you do not have a private copper pair from your home/business to the central office -- but at some point your line goes into a modern day 'concentrator/ multiplexor' (or maybe even an old style one), and the consolidated trunk only has limited capacity. If everyone were to have broadband, more trunk capacity would be required. Now the phone companies have been installing more capacity which is how more people can get DSL with better speeds than the past, and they're trying out "FIOS" (see other thread). But a broadband connection, by definition, is "broad" and requires more capacity than a POTS line. There's also a heck of a lot of old or very old "drop lines" from the telephone pole to the subscriber that might suffice for POTS calls but not for broadband work. Who will pay to upgrade, esp when many subscribers might not want broadband? > Therefore I'm trying to envision a future situation (admittedly > hypothetical at this point) in which telephone service will no longer > necessarily be directly linked to 911 service ... I strongly doubt that. Public policy has been completely the opposite -- to provide universal 911 service and upgrade all services to provide the enhanced features (911 originally not that sophisticated.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would think if it ever got that critical (where 'everyone' went with VOIP instead of landline) the VOIP administrators would develop the equivilent of the 'Erlang tables' in an effort to develop the amount of capacity needed to keep up with it. Telcos today, or anytime in the past, would never have been able to keep up if _everyone_ wished to be connected _all_ the time. Telcos place their bets on the fact that at any typical time of day/day of week, _maybe_ one or two percent of their subscribers are actually using the phone. At 'busy hours' _maybe_ eight or ten percent of the subscribers are on the phone, in a residential setting at least, possibly fifteen percent in a business setting. If they develop capactity to deal with their 'busy hour' they generally have it made. Why do you feel VOIP would be any different? I cannot imagine the _ratios_ would be much different than they are now. I understand eight percent of a small handful is still much less than eight percent of a nation-full, but I suspect as they need it, they will 'develop' more capacity in the form of bandwidth. Telco engineers quite familiar with Erlang can tell you, this is Tuesday, 10 AM, therefore there are X persons using the phone and be rather accurate in their statement. I am sure VOIP, as it matures will be the same way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E Schaffer) Subject: Re: Jail For 'Robin Hoods' Who Cost Microsoft Millions Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 19:04:50 +0000 (UTC) Organization: North Carolina State University In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > Robin Hood, according to legend, took from the rich and gave to > the poor. Microsoft has been particularly hard hit from this, > and has decided to strike back. > http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050506/wr_nm/tech_internet_dc The description given always says things like "The cost of their activities run into very many millions in lost profit ... the losses are incalculable," This is usually (always?) calculated by taking the list price of the software, multiplying it by the maximum estimate of the total number of copies that might have been distributed illegally and publishing the result. Of course, this usually (always?) seriously overstates the loss. The estimate of the number of copies is usually taken as the top it might have been -- i.e. the number distributed is usually considerably lower. Furthermore, a lot of the copies distributed aren't used. Additionally, even if it is used -- it shouldn't count unless the person would have bought the software absent the illegal copy. (There is *no* lost profit in a teenager's illegal CDROM copy of an expensive piece of commercial software -- if the teen couldn't have afforded to purchase that software.) The overstatement of the loss continues with the use of the list price of the software, because software is usually sold at a discount from list. So to be honest (this isn't a consideration when one is trying to get a lot of PR :-) the minimum sales price (or perhaps even the average) should be used. -- --henry schaffer hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #214 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 May 2005 18:00:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 215 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Senate Tech & Energy Committee Proposed VoIP 911 Resolution (J Decker) Canada Regulates ILEC VOIP Pricing (Jack Decker) BellSouth Sells Cellcom Stake (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Original Definition of 'Class 5' (soren.telfer@gmail.com) Very Early Modems (Lisa Hancock) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Mark Crispin) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (John Levine) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Justin Time) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Joseph) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (DevilsPGD) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Dave Garland) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Robert Bonomi) 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: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:19:25 -0400 Subject: Senate Tech & Energy Committee Proposed VoIP 911 Resolution [Forwarded message:] Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 11:51:40 -0400 From: "Chris Gillett" Subject: Senate Tech & Energy Committee We will likely be looking at a resolution much like the one attached at this Wednesday's committee hearing. It will be submitted for introduction tomorrow, and then officially introduced on Wednesday. Please let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns with this resolution. Thank you! Mr. Chris Gillett Legislative Director Senator Bruce Patterson P.O. Box 30036 Lansing MI 48909 517-373-7350 517-373-0753 (direct) 1-866-262-7307 517-373-9228 (fax) 517-281-8431 (cell) [Text of attached resolution follows:] ***Draft1*** Senator Patterson offered the following concurrent resolution: Senate Concurrent Resolution No. A concurrent resolution to urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use its authority post haste to require that VOIP service providers make enhanced 9-1-1 emergency services available to all customers. Whereas, Access to enhanced 9-1-1 emergency services is vital to the health and safety of Michigan's citizens. Enhanced 9-1-1 emergency services route 9-1-1 calls to the designated dispatch center for the caller's location, provide the caller's name, call back number, and location, even when the caller cannot speak; and Whereas, The public has an expectation that by dialing 9-1-1 they will immediately reach a trained responder who can provide emergency assistance, regardless of the type of phone service and whether it operates on the public switched telephone network, wireless networks, or the Internet; and Whereas, Many VOIP service providers offer a very limited level of 9-1-1 service or they offer no 9-1-1 service at all. Additionally, there is a very real likelihood that a 9-1-1 call from a VOIP telephone will be lost, delayed, or misrouted; and Whereas Significant growth in the use and availability of VOIP telephony services, which may be indistinguishable from traditional public switched telephone services, is expected in the near future. More than four hundred vendors are now selling VOIP; and Whereas, The FCC has declared that a certain type of VOIP service is not subject to traditional state public utility regulation. The FCC nullified a state attempt to require a VOIP service provider to offer emergency 9-1-1 service comparable to that provided by incumbent phone companies. The FCC makes clear that it, and not state commissions, has the responsibility and obligation to decide whether certain regulations, including enhanced 9-1-1 rules, apply to Internet Protocol-enabled services like VOIP. Recognizing that the FCC has the power to preempt state regulations that thwart or impede federal authority over interstate communications; now, therefore, be it Resolved, by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that we urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to use its authority post haste to require that VOIP service providers make enhanced 9-1-1 emergency services available to all customers; and be it further Resolved, that copies of this resolution be transmitted to the Federal Communications Commission. R 0186'05 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:24:34 -0400 Subject: Canada Regulates ILEC VOIP Pricing http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=73831&site=lightreading Canada Regulates ILEC VOIP Pricing The Canadian telecommunications regulatory agency ruled last Thursday that the country's ILECs must get regulatory approval on pricing for VOIP products. But the VOIP offerings of the country's startups, CLECs, and cable companies are immune (see Rogers Picks Sigma for VOIP and MetaSwitch Lands Canadian Deals). The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled that VOIP is more like a telephone service than a data service and must be regulated as such. The ruling comes as Canada's VOIP market is getting its legs, and it may have serious impact on which industry and which companies take an early lead in the competition for users (see Nortel Comments on VOIP). In its ruling the commission sought to prevent Canada's ILECs from forcing smaller players out of the market by selling VOIP service at bargain basement prices (see VOIP for Life?). The ILECs hold a strong position in the Canadian marketplace, controlling 97 percent of the country's wireline telephone business. The commission also rejected forbearance requests from BCE Inc. (Bell Canada) and Telus Corp. The two said they will immediately appeal the CRTC's decision. Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=73831&site=lightreading ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:28:58 EDT From: Telecom DailyLead From USTA Subject: BellSouth Sells Cellcom Stake Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 16, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21606&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * BellSouth sells Cellcom stake BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * ECI snaps up Laurel Networks * Qwest could bid again for MCI * Telcos fight to get their ads on cable systems * DSL port shipments rise 6% in Q1 * AOL Europe plans home phone service for U.K. USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA's VoIP Webinar Series: Now Available On Demand! HOT TOPICS * Ethernet services market poised for boom, report says * Gates: Mobile phones will supplant iPod * Big providers add record broadband subs in Q1 * Report: For telecom, more subscribers aren't growing revenue * Mobile phone TV set for primetime EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Report predicts VDSL boom * Internet TV narrowcasters bet on large audiences REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Mobile phone taxes help cities close budget gaps * India mulls giving away free 3G licenses Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21606&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: soren.telfer@gmail.com Subject: Original Definition of 'Class 5' Date: 16 May 2005 05:44:52 -0700 Can someone point me to a technical document that 'defines' class 5 switch functionality? Does one exist? I somewhat understand the historical development, but I'm interested in some text, preferable from Bell. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Very Early Modems Date: 16 May 2005 13:14:42 -0700 In the IBM history series by Pugh et al, they said IBM converted punched cards to paper tape for transmission in the 1940s. My guess is that that particular transmission used telegraph TTY lines (not voice) of either AT&T or Western Union. Recall that AT&T maintained telegraph long distance lines as part of carrier long distance circuits. Because of the low bandwidth, a telegraph channel could be carried on the low end of a carrier channel. Accordingly, no modulation was required and thus no modem needed. It was also said IBM limited development in this area to avoid annoying AT&T who was IBM's best customer. However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with AT&T. I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out until the 1960s. Comments by anyone familiar with pre-1960 data communications would be greatly appreciated. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:15:15 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Sun, 15 May 2005, D. Dude wrote: > Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future > so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use > for cell service and phone/calling cards. I assume that you are from Australia. If your Australian cell phone is an unlocked "tri-band" or "quad-band" phone (that is, with GSM 900/1800/1900 or GSM 850/900/1800/1900) then you can use your Australian cell phone in the USA and Europe. All you need to do is buy a prepaid SIM card in from a cell phone provider in the country that you are visiting. For the USA, the big two GSM providers are T-Mobile and GSM. If your Australian cell phone is unlocked, but just dual-band (GSM 900/1800) then it is useless in the USA but you can use it in Europe. You will have to buy a phone in the USA. If your Australian cell phone is locked, see if you can get your Australian carrier to unlock it for you. Of course, if you do not mind paying exhorbitant roaming charges, you can use your Australian SIM card in the USA and Europe. Presumably, you're asking about pre-paid service so you don't have to pay roaming. Ask your Australian carrier for more details. Foreign roaming rates start at about US $1.25/minute, but if you only make one or two calls that would be cheaper than buying a pre-paid SIM. If you find that you must buy a prepaid phone in the USA, there are several carriers which offer prepaid service and cheap prepaid phones. You can buy prepaid phones at many places, including grocery and convenience stores, but activating the service may be difficult. As elsewhere in the world, the social problems caused by anonymous prepaid phones have caused many USA carriers to require some form of identification for their prepaid customers. Basically, they want some means of identifying the user of the phone in case the phone becomes involved in illegal activities. This is not just the USA; Japan, Canada, and the UK are also adding identification requirements. So, your best bet is to go to a company-owned cell phone shops, explain that you're a foreign tourist (have your passport handy) and ask if they will sell you a phone. Pay with a credit card; that serves as excellent identification. Alternatively, if you have a friend in the USA, ask that friend to buy the phone for you and register it in his name. Assuming that you're buying a phone in the USA, I would recommend against the GSM carriers. GSM is primarily an urban service in the USA, and coverage can be spotty or non-existant outside of the large cities. On the other hand, it sounds like that's more or less where you'll be the entire time. I recommend Verizon as having the best overall coverage; they are the largest CDMA network. Try to buy a phone with dual CDMA/analog coverage. Although analog is rapidly becoming less important than it once was, there are still analog-only parts of the USA. You'll find that the topic of which carrier is the best is rather hotly debated. Verizon is more expensive than the others, and has a somewhat stodgy reputation. Verizon certainly has data acces, but you may have to buy a somewhat more expensive phone. AFAIK, Virgin resells SPRINT (Verizon's primary CDMA competitor) service and has good pricing on both phones and service. I don't care for SPRINT as a company, but that's my own prejudice. There are also some companies (e.g. Tracfone) that sell cheap analog-only phones or TDMA phones. For a short-term visit this is a good deal, but both analog and TDMA are on their way out. Forget WAP or any other data access with these. Another reason for going with Verizon is you buy a phone in the USA is that a US GSM 1900 phone is of no use outside of the USA and Canada. A US CDMA phone, on the other hand, *is* useful in a few other countries besides the US, including Korea and China. Verizon does *not* lock their phones (the security code is 000000) so the phone can be reprogrammed and used in other countries. The other carriers lock their phones. I would recommend against rental. Renting is almost always much more expensive then buying a throwaway prepay phone, and the pre-minute rate isn't much less than roaming. By the way, if you ever find yourself visiting Japan, I recommend going with Vodafone. They're the most gaijin-friendly of the Japanese cell phone companies, being a foreign-owned company. Correction to previous message: the two big GSM carriers in the US are T-Mobile and Cingular. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ Date: 16 May 2005 01:34:18 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future > so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use > for cell service and phone/calling cards. > For the US, I'd like to have service in Hawaii, California, New York, > and the New England states. I'll pretty much be sticking to major > cities and the more touristed parts of these states. In the US, you have to get the phone from whoever sells the prepaid service. You'd think you could just buy a SIM if you have a GSM phone, but you can't. The best known is Tracphone which sells its phones at stores like K-Mart and Walmart, but they're kind of pricey. I see that Cingular, one of the big two carriers will sell you a prepaid phone for $30 and either charge you 25 cents/min or $1/day and 10 cents/min. They have a very large coverage area these rates should apply. Verizon also has a prepaid plan called Inpulse with decent rates but all the phones are expensive. Another possibility is Virgin Wireless which resells prepaid Sprint service. In the U.S. you pay for incoming as well as outgoing calls, since unlike in oz the caller doesn't pay extra to call a mobile. For a calling card, poke around on the net and look for one with prices you like. The cards you buy on the net are almost without exception virtual, i.e., rather than sending you a plastic card, they just give you the access 800 number and your account number, so you can buy one before you go. Most cell phones include the whole country in their local calling area, so you only need the calling card for international calls, or if you happen to be near a regular phone and the calling card rate is cheaper. But don't forget the per-call surcharge of about 50 cents that they all charge if you call from a payphone. > For Europe, I'm planning on visiting the continent mainly to EU > states. Oh, that's much easier, since Europe is all GSM 900/1800 just like Australia. Buy yourself an unlocked phone before you go and bring it along. (I got mine on eBay.) When you get to Europe, just buy a prepaid SIM. Any SIM you buy in any European country will work all over Europe, but the rates are higher if you roam into other countries. A typical prepaid SIM costs E40 and comes with E15 of credit, so when you go to another country you'll have to figure out whether it's worth paying the cost for a new SIM to get in-country rates. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies, Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 05:44:00 GMT D. Dude wrote: > Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future > so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use > for cell service and phone/calling cards. You apparently will be coming from Australia. How long are you planning to be in the U.S. and in Europe? In which European countries will you be traveling, and for how long? There are different answers to your questions depending on how long you will be in various places. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: 16 May 2005 05:50:24 -0700 Well, a GSM tri or quad band would work in all instances. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 07:13:40 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 15 May 2005 11:58:23 GMT, D. Dude wrote: > Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future > so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use > for cell service and phone/calling cards. For US and European travel you'll need a GSM carrier. In the US that would be either cingular or T-Mobile. > Pre-paid, since I assume I'm ineligible for credit, but I would > consider allowing a provider to directly bill a credit card number (if > they can be trusted). I don't have a SSN, or permanent US/European > address if that matters. It's likely that you'll be relegated to prepaid if you cannot qualify for US credit or you may be asked to plunk down a hefty deposit. > Services that require a minimum of pre-paid credit or offer wider > coverage would be better. My calls would be a mix of local and > long-distance including international. For the US calling with cingular or T-Mobile prepaid long distance is included. International calling while available is likely not an economical way to call using your mobile phone. > Having the option of toll-free access for the calling card would > probably be useful, if that is not a given for US calling cards (it > is not in Australia but we have larger local call areas). I would > expect that my cell usage would be fairly low, limited mostly to > receiving calls. Toll-free is generally not free with mobile in the US and will use minutes just like regular calls. > For the US, I'd like to have service in Hawaii, California, New York, > and the New England states. I'll pretty much be sticking to major > cities and the more touristed parts of these states. Cingular and T-Mobile would both work in major cities in the places you've named. > I don't have a phone suitable for the US, so your recommendations for > a specific technology (CDMA, GSM etc) and a low cost handset (or > rental) would be welcome. WAP support would be plus if compatible with > the cheapest plans. A phone suitable for an elderly person with poor > eye-sight and dexterity, would be another plus, but not essential. You don't indicate what (if anything) you use for service in your home country. > Offers for loaners or purchase of this phone would also be welcome. Keep in mind that if you are using Cingular or T-Mobile T-Mobile only uses GSM 1900 while cingular uses both GSM 850 and GSM 1900 (depending on where you are in the US.) > For Europe, I'm planning on visiting the continent mainly to EU > states. You can also get prepaid for 5 to 20 Euros including a small amount of calling time. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 18:28:47 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to DevilsPGD : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder how this scheme would work ... > any calls to 911 from a VOIP get intercepted by the broadband ISP > who is handling the connection. The IP address in use (and its > physical address) get transmitted 'like ANI' to the local police. The > 'ANI-like' information passed along (from wherever) to the PSAP > identifies it as a VOIP from address (registered with the ISP for the > IP street address.) Am I correct in my assumption that most stationary > computers with broadband stay in the same place and they are almost > always on the same IP address as well? I know in my instance I have > been 24.xxx.xxx.xxx for however long, here at the same street > address, etc. Can't those two items (IP and street address) often as > not be matched? PAT] IP and street address? -- Only your ISP can match it, and then, only to your billing records which may or may not be accurate. If the user is dialing up, what you need is the ANI information of their dialup, along with the E911 lookup of *that* ANI information. If the user is on a fixed broadband service, you can at least take a stab at pointing an address. However, with most PPPoE broadband networks, you can take your VoIP gear anywhere on that ISP's network and connect up, and the broadband provider won't know the difference. With DHCP, they can probably tell, but most ISPs only note where the lease is given out -- You can actually move to another location and reconnect without renewing your lease and depending on the configuration of the network, it will work. It gets more complex then that, not all "retail" ISPs actually have any equipment, much of the time they lease access from a wholesale provider in the area. This is especially true of dialup, but it happens with broadband too (Think @Home as the best example), which means that there is another layer of obfuscation since the connectivity provider may not know your name or phone number, and depending on the setup, may not even have a physical address (cable networks, for instance, don't need any setup from the cable plant in the area to establish a connection, 100% of the work is done from the end user's location and can be done by a completely different service company.) Lastly, there is the privacy issue -- Once ISPs have the infrastructure to instantly provide a name+address+whatever that matches to an ISP, how long before law enforcement demands access to that database? Without warrants, in the name of fighting Bin Laden or Saddam or whoever is annoying the-powers-that-be today, of course. Next the MPAA+RIAA will be demanding access to this information. Then Microsoft will tuck a note into the EULA that they reserve the right to look up this information when you activate Windows. Next will be collection agencies and repo agents, and we know how good at noticing that a phone number was reassigned they are -- How long before you get a phone number which was reassigned from a deadbeat and a repo man shows up and steals your car thinking it was the previous owner of the phone number? And all of this is assuming that thousands of ISPs cooperate in implementing the system securely and that it never gets compromised. "Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" -- Dennis Miller. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Dialup (56K) generally is too slow to work with VOIP. And if you _were_ using dialup and needed to call police, why wouldn't you just disconnect the modem and make your call to the police instead? And regards all the 'other people' who might wish to get your physical address, if they need to go through the ISP (instead of a regular criss-cross directory which is easier) the ISP would still require the 'other people' to get a court order wouldn't they? And upon getting the court order and returning with it to the ISP, then the ISP would give them the same information as now, matching when possible, traffic records of IP address to real party, etc. PAT] In message hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Mark Peters wrote: >> A big problem is visitors, especially children who have been taught >> to dial 911 in case of an emergency. A device that looks like a >> phone and provides dial tone is expected to behave like a phone >> which includes 911. 911 should not be opt-in or opt-out. 911 should >> be there. E911 is the goal. > It's not just children. > From reading messages in the newgroup, it appears that the > technocrats assume everybody out there is as tech-savy as they are. > The reality is that the vast majority of the people have no clue as to > what VOIP even is, let alone how it works or its limitations. To > expect another person to know the phone isn't 911 equipped is > ludicrous. The goal of 911 is to have a universal help number so a > stranger/outsider can get help quickly in an emergency. Sure, but at least a competent adult will hear and understand the warning that this phone can't dial 911 and will go elsewhere for help. Again, it's better to provide no appearance of help then the appearance of assistance when no help is coming. There is nothing wrong with telling the drowning man you can't save him, but if you tell him you WILL save him and he stops screaming for help (expecting you to save him) and you don't, you're guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Same principle here: If I call 911 and say "Help my house is on fire, I'm trapped in my bedroom with the guy from chainsaw massacre, my wife is giving birth, and 'I've fallen and I can't get up'" and the 911 operator says that someone is on the way, I'll wait for help. Meanwhile, the 911 operator was three states away and just sent the fire department, police, an ambulance, and a guy with a 2x4 to the wrong house and I'm left to burn, get sliced up, get my wife pissed off because I don't know what I'm doing, and left writhing on the floor. On the other hand, if I am immediately informed that no help is coming, I'll know that I either need to use a lifeline and call a friend for help, scream for the audience (neighbours?) to help me, escape myself, or that I AM the weakest link. 911 for everyone, everywhere, is a great idea. However, it's at direct odds with mobile VoIP unless you can force people to enter their current address when they move the device. Vonage's 3-10 business day wait before changes are reflected doesn't help either, but it's still not reasonable that I will update my address twice a day as I carry my VoIP hardware from my house to my office and back again. Something needs to be done, but frankly, I'm not seeing the solution even with a relative infinite amount of money. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 16:54:29 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when PAT wrote: > Am I correct in my assumption that most stationary computers with > broadband stay in the same place. Probably, mostly, but maybe not forever. Don't forget wireless. > and they are almost always on the same IP address as well? That very much depends on the ISP. Mine (DSL) does, but a client's (DSL through a different ISP) changes IP every few days. Many cable systems change IP number periodically. Sometimes getting a fixed IP is an extra-cost option. But you can't count on it as a default. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 05:02:15 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder how this scheme would work ... Executive summary: Not very well. > any calls to 911 from a VOIP get intercepted by the broadband ISP > who is handling the connection. And if there is a VPN/tunnel involved? say, to a head-end halfway across the country. "OOPS!" applies. > The IP address in use (and its physical address) get transmitted > 'like ANI' to the local police. The 'ANI-like' information passed > along (from wherever) to the PSAP identifies it as a VOIP from > address (registered with the ISP for the IP street address.) So now, the local ISP, who is *NOT* the VoIP provider, is responsible for handling the 911 type call? What if they don't have VoIP equipment? Or are you proposing a 'surcharge' on basic ISP service, to pay for the extra cost of having VoIP support there, "just in case" the customer decides to do VoIP at a later date? Or is the ISP just supposed to 'eat' this 'cost of doing business'? Are you proposing that each ISP run a "Carnivore"-type tap on all customer traffic, being prepared to 'transparently' intercept any SIP session set-up that invokes 911? Or that all existing VoIP "phone" software be modified to give 'special' handling to 911 calls? If the latter, how does the phone know _which_ ISP -- as in "what IP address to use" is handling the connection? How does it pick up that information? Especially if it is a 'mobile' device? Do we now have to specify: IP/address, netmask, gateway, *and* '911 VoIP' server when setting up a network connection? > Am I correct in my assumption that most stationary > computers with broadband stay in the same place and they are almost > always on the same IP address as well? No. The last part is an invalid assumption. Some ISPs that forbid servers routinely re-assign DHCP addresses. As in "every few hours", to "every few days". Some even do it based on the amount of inbound traffic. Yes, they can track down "who was using what address, when" at any given point in time in the (relatively recent) past. *NO*, the information is not necessarily readily available in real-time. (Sometimes the latency is days, sometimes it is into the next month.) The info doesn't _have_ to be delayed, It's a matter of how the existing infrastructure is designed. And whether the infrastructure is 'theirs', or 'leased' from an infrastructure provider. Where data is delayed, things could be redesigned so that data was available in real-time. *BUT* there are costs associated with doing that. In some cases, _big_ costs. Which "somebody" has to pay for. Whereupon the question becomes "who pays?" If a provider is *NOT* offering VoIP services, why should *they* incur the costs for supporting VoIP 'emergency call' infrastructure? The "easy" solution is a two-part one. Part 1: The VoIP 'head end' tracks the 'most recently used' IP address for each customer. _EVERY_TIME_ the customer IP address changes, the phone goes *out*of*service* with a notice that the customer must update their "calling location". Possibly with an added hook that if the phone has been 'off line' for some non-trivial period, that when it goes back 'on line', the customer is queried (in an automated fashion) to confirm that they are still at "thus and such location"; where "thus and such" is the previously specified location for the phone. Part 2: The VoIP 'head end' maps the various 'calling locations' to the appropriate PSAP, upon need. Add an option for the customer to intentionally _not_ specify his location, but which also totally disables 911 calling. This protects his 'privacy' at the expense of his safety, but it is the customer's decision. The last part of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer is aware that the "location information" provided is used for "emergency calls" and that deliberately providing FALSE information can (and probably _will_) lead to criminal prosecution if emergency services are directed to an incorrect location as a result of said false information. There is already existing enforcement mechanism for this -- "filing a false police report", etc. > I know in my instance I have been 24.xxx.xxx.xxx for however long, > here at the same street address, etc. Can't those two items (IP and > street address) often as not be matched? PAT] An ISP knows the physical location where _their_service_ is delivered to. They have *NO*WAY* of knowing "if", or "how much" of a network lies behind the point to which they deliver service. For an extreme case, that customer could have a satellite 'uplink' dish, which is down-linked half-way around the world. Now, silly as it sounds, something that "works right" 98% of the time, but "invisibly" does the _wrong_ thing the other 2% of the time is *worse* that something that 'almost never' gets it right. An essential element of a 911 'locator' system it that it either gives a 'right answer', or it gives *NO* answer. "Wrong answers" are simply not acceptable -- wrong answers (a) delay the response to the location where it is needed, *and* (b) tie up resources that may be needed to respond to a 'real' emergency. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well ... regards your first point, of a 'tunnel' to some remote place, do you remember when 'Foreign Exchange Service' (or FX) was quite common? You picked up a phone with FX on it and got dial tone 'locally' from the distant city? There were two reasons people got that service: one, they wanted their customers to have a 'local' (in customer's community) office to deal with for customer's convenience in reaching them. There is a company here in Independence now which has an FX line from Tulsa, OK. When I worked for Amoco in the 1960's, our (admittedly huge) PBX allowed me to dial various three digit codes and get local dial tone from those places. I don't know if telco offers those any longer; they seem to prefer 'virtual' FX now. I know in Amoco's instance, one of the three digit 'tie-line codes' on the PBX produced dialtone from _London, England_ and another tie-line brought back dial tone from somewhere in the middle east, Kuwait I think. The other reason companies used those FX tie lines was because someone had calculated the expense involved in long distance calling to those points, and _despite_ the expenses for 'mileage' and other charges associated with telco running that wire, they calculated it was still _cheaper_ for the company to use them instead of the best laid WATS plans or direct dialing plans. I guess if your business involves calling London or Kuwait a dozen or more times daily, and talking for hours on end, it may make better sense economically to have an FX tie-line, even if the cost of that line is a 'mere' ten-thousand dollars per month or so from telco. So, one day in my office, a masked man breaks in, and waving his gun around, he announces, "I am going to rob all the cashiers and rape all the men". I say, 'oh no you are not!' and rush to my phone to call the police. But in my haste I grab up the FX tie-line phone and dial '911' -- (or as Bonomi would say, ooops) ... -- and wind up lodging my complaint with the police in Kalamazoo and Timbuck also. If a _real man_ does not know where his broadband service is out of, then he has no business calling the police to start with, does he? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #215 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 16 May 2005 19:35:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 216 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (eric.garulay) Re: Verizon FiOS (Robert Bonomi) Re: Verizon FiOS (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Verizon FiOS (Joe Morris) Re: Verizon FiOS (Lisa Hancock) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (John R. Levine) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (Lisa Hancock) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (Michael Sullivan) Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? (Isaiah Beard) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (DevilsPGD) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Dean M.) Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Mark Crispin) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (AES) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Isaiah Beard) Re: Closed Captioning (was How is Weather Channel Data) (Dave Thompson) 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: eric.garulay@pearsoned.com Subject: Book Review: The Essential Guide to Telecommunications, 4th Edition Reply-To: eric.garulay@pearsoned.com Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 17:14:42 EDT NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT The Essential Guide to Telecommunications Fourth Edition--By Annabel Z. Dodd, (ISBN 0131487256) The superior resource on diverse telecommunications technologies! Pub Date 6/26/05 The Essential Guide to Telecommunications is the world's #1 non-technical guide to the telecommunications industry. Writing in plain English, lead ing telecom consultant Annabel Dodd has completely updated this fourth ed ition to reflect the vast changes in the industry. Dodd explores the new competitive forces, critical industry issues and important technologies that impact network security, reliability and the pace of innovation. The fourth edition of this best-selling guide will cover all the major developments which have occurred in the telecom world in the past 3 years. I look forward to speaking with you about excerpts, reviews and author interview opportunities. Please feel free to contact me as necessary. Cheers, Eric Garulay ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 03:47:12 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , William Cousert wrote: > I have a few qestions about Verizon's new FiOS service. It was > recently installed in my neighborhood and I'm thinking about switching > over from Comcast. > 1. Does Verizon offer Usenet access with their accounts? Comcast only > offers a limited amount of bandwidth for Usenet and charges extra if > you exceed it. Did you ask Verizon? What did they say? Do you figure that "somebody else" knows better about their offering than they do? Do you think it's possible that what is available to somebody else, at a different location may be different than what is available at your location? > 2. Can I connect without using MSN? See above. > 3. I have three computers. Will they charge me extra for the > additional IP's? If so, how much? See above. > 4. Can I run a personal server? I'd like to be able to host my own > home page on it, as well as a message board. What about game servers > (quake 3, etc.)? See above. > 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump Comcast > completely. Will they have video on demand? Check your crystal ball. > 6. 15/2 service costs $49.95 per month. 30/5 costs $199.95 per > month. Twice the bandwidth, four times the price. Why such a big jump > in price? Have you ever heard the phrase "what the market will bear" ? The answer to _any_ question on "why do they price it like that?" is always_ "because they think people will pay it." > Can you get two 15/2 packages and join them together > (remember shotgun modems? You could have two 56k modems work as one)? Do you have two fiber lines? (Do you remember running two 56k modems on _one_ phone line)? > 6a. Does the $199.95 package give you the right to run servers? Did you ask Verizon? If not, _why_not_? > Maybe that's the reason for the big increase? Maybe. And maybe not. > 7. Can FiOS handle higher speeds in the future, or will they need to > replace the fiber once again when the next leap in speed comes? Yes. One of the above is definitely true. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 05:04:22 GMT William Cousert wrote: > I have a few qestions about Verizon's new FiOS service. It was > recently installed in my neighborhood and I'm thinking about switching > over from Comcast. > 1. Does Verizon offer Usenet access with their accounts? Comcast only > offers a limited amount of bandwidth for Usenet and charges extra if > you exceed it. Yes, Verizon has very good Usenet access. It was terrible a few years ago, but was upgraded to excellent quality about a year ago. Officially, retention is 6 months for most non-binary groups. There are glitches, inevitably, but I am very pleased with it; I access it via DSL, but the same 30,000+ groups are available from the same servers to FIOS customers. There are no Usenet bandwidth limits and no extra charges, a significant difference from Comcast for some users. Verizon also maintains a closed set of newsgroups (0.verizon.*) accessible only from Verizon residential broadband customers, with a few minor exceptions. These are filled with ranting, trolls, complaints, occasionally appreciative posts, suggestions, etc. (not all that different from elsewhere on Usenet) -- and Verizon's news administrators participate, list newly available groups, etc. Several Verizon Online employees also participate on their own time and provide useful advice. > 2. Can I connect without using MSN? Yes. > 3. I have three computers. Will they charge me extra for the > additional IP's? If so, how much? You can't get additional IPs, if Verizon's DSL practices extend to FIOS. Use a router and you can connect as many computers as you want for personal/family purposes. Verizon will even provide a wireless router, if you want it; otherwise use whatever you want on your own dime. > 4. Can I run a personal server? I'd like to be able to host my own > home page on it, as well as a message board. What about game servers > (quake 3, etc.)? I don't know how the terms of service for FIOS differ from DSL, but the DSL terms of service officially prohibit servers. From what I understand from the Verizon newsgroups, however, this is mainly intended to apply to high-bandwidth and commercial servers. I haven't heard of any action taken against people informally hosting games. As to websites, no. Verizon (in most regions) blocks port 80, which effectively means you can't host a website on your PC, unless you use an alternate port and a dynamic DNS redirection service. Verizon offers customers space for a website on its servers, but the unanimous opinion of users is that the website service sucks raw eggs big time. Get a web hosting account on a shared server for a few bucks a month from any number of companies, register a domain name, and use the webhost as your email provider, too. I use http://www.thehostgroup.com to host my email and web pages for less than $10 per month, and there are many cheaper companies, too. One reason to use an outside service for email is that Verizon's email sucks. They have blocked incoming email from huge swathes of Europe, for example, in a fruitless effort to avoid spam, and Verizon is on some blacklists due to zombie machines sending spam, so it would be wise not to depend on its email service. Verizon does not block outgoing port 25, so you can use your hosting company's smtp server without problems. > 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump Comcast > completely. Will they have video on demand? My understanding is that Verizon plans to offer fiber-based TV service, but it may or may not be available when you get FIOS, because of the regulatory situation. (Verizon either has to get a Cable TV authorization where is provides service or get the FCC to determine that some particular configuration of fiber-based TV doesn't constitute cable TV and is therefore exempt from local CATV regulation.) Verizon's game plan is to allow you to dump Comcast, and I have to assume they will have video on demand. They would be idiots not to (not that that ever stopped a telco ...). > 6. 15/2 service costs $49.95 per month. 30/5 costs $199.95 per > month. Twice the bandwidth, four times the price. Why such a big jump > in price? Can you get two 15/2 packages and join them together > (remember shotgun modems? You could have two 56k modems work as one)? Dunno. > 6a. Does the $199.95 package give you the right to run servers? Maybe > that's the reason for the big increase? Dunno. > 7. Can FiOS handle higher speeds in the future, or will they need to > replace the fiber once again when the next leap in speed comes? An optical fiber can handle almost infinitely higher speeds than 15 or 30 MB/s. I have no doubt that Verizon will increase speeds as the demand for higher speed grows and competitive sources for such speed come into being. My DSL service started as 640K/128K for $59.95 per month in 1999. Using the same wires, I now get 3M/768K for $29.95 per month. As FIOS and digital cable/Internet subscribers use more and more bandwidth to watch multiple simultaneous video channels per household as well as engage in high-bandwidth online activities, I'm sure Verizon will offer speed upgrades. If the DSL example holds, it will double speeds every few years for the same price. > 8. Has anyone in this group made the jump from Comcast to FiOS? What > do you think so far? I haven't had the opportunity yet, although the fiber is in place. The customer's posting on 0.verizon.fios seem to be relatively satisfied. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 12:59:46 UTC Organization: The MITRE Organization William Cousert writes: > I have a few qestions about Verizon's new FiOS service. It was > recently installed in my neighborhood and I'm thinking about switching > over from Comcast. Comments below based on the Verizon DSL service, probably applicable to FIOS as well but no warranties, express or implied [etc] ... > 1. Does Verizon offer Usenet access with their accounts? Comcast only > offers a limited amount of bandwidth for Usenet and charges extra if > you exceed it. Obviously (I hope) not *every* USENET newsgroup is carried, but they seem to carry most of the ngs that aren't blatantly illegal. No limitations on usage. > 2. Can I connect without using MSN? I last connected to MSN while working on the technical beta for Windows 95, and then only as part of the beta...and I have absolutely no intention of ever doing so again. In other words, yes. > 3. I have three computers. Will they charge me extra for the > additional IP's? If so, how much? You get one IP per account, and using only one IP at a time is part of your TOS. You are explicitly permitted to connect any number of machines to Verizon through that single IP address using a NAT device. > 4. Can I run a personal server? I'd like to be able to host my own > home page on it, as well as a message board. What about game servers > (quake 3, etc.)? Gray area. The TOS forbids both business and personal servers, but there seems to be some wiggle room based on interpretations by some of Verizon's comments. I've not needed to look into this so I'm not speaking from experience. > 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump Comcast > completely. Will they have video on demand? Reportedly yes but not at present (other than some possible testbed areas) AFAIK. > 6. 15/2 service costs $49.95 per month. 30/5 costs $199.95 per > month. Twice the bandwidth, four times the price. Why such a big jump > in price? Can you get two 15/2 packages and join them together > (remember shotgun modems? You could have two 56k modems work as one)? The price will be lower if you get it as part of a package with local landline service. My *guess* about the nonlinear price structure is that the provisioning of the residential lines is set up with the assumption that most users won't have any nonbusiness need for anything above 15, so the additional work and equipment required to support a line at 30/5 justifies a premium price. Also, by the time you're using 30 MB/sec it's not unreasonable for VZ to wonder if the customer is trying to run a business interface on a residential circuit. > 6a. Does the $199.95 package give you the right to run servers? Maybe > that's the reason for the big increase? Can't say ... but if the 199.95 figure is for *business* service then I would expect no restriction on running a server. > 7. Can FiOS handle higher speeds in the future, or will they need to > replace the fiber once again when the next leap in speed comes? I don't know what specific fiber they're using, but 15 MB/sec is unlikely to be more than a small fraction of its potential. Joe Morris ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS Date: 16 May 2005 08:04:46 -0700 William Cousert wrote: > I have a few qestions about Verizon's new FiOS service. Could you tell us what Verizon said in response to your questions? > 1. Does Verizon offer Usenet access with their accounts? > 2. Can I connect without using MSN? > 3. I have three computers. Will they charge me extra for the > additional IP's? If so, how much? > 4. Can I run a personal server? I'd like to be able to host my own > home page on it, as well as a message board. What about game servers > (quake 3, etc.)? > 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump Comcast > completely. Will they have video on demand? I had heard they'll send "Direct TV" over it, but aren't sure. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: 15 May 2005 20:28:07 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > What I'm not willing to deal with is the same fallout because somebody > else (with the same name) had one of the above issues happen. > In this respect, a universal ID is a good thing, names simply aren't > unique enough. Gosh, I love people's naive belief in technology. You know the acronym GIGO, which stands for Garbage In, Gospel Out? That's what Real ID is. Mixups will still happen, because the people maintaining the files and databases will be the exact same sloppy error-prone people who maintain them today. The cost of getting a fake Real-ID license will continue to be the price of bribing the most corrupt person in some state's DMV. The difference will be that it'll be far harder to get mistakes fixed, because now everyone will know that licenses are perfect, so if the computer says that you are a crook, it must be right and you're just lying. R's, John ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: 15 May 2005 20:44:22 -0700 DevilsPGD wrote: > Sure -- I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm willing to deal with the > resulting fallout if I get in a fight in a bar or with my landlord or > whatever. I don't know your personal circumstances, but I can't help but wonder if you don't realize the long term import of the situation. If you're young or single, it may not seem like a big deal. But life can surprise us as we get older. Things that were easy and we took for granted can become difficult. We may find ourselves out of job for an extended period of time and in debt, for example -- I've seen it happen to many good people. Anyway, when money and circumstances are tight, the last thing you need is someone throwing up a 10 year old incident in your face. You'll be even more upset if the facts are wrong but you can't challenge them. "Bait and switch" works on prospective employees and vendors, too. You're offered a job. You walk in on your first day and they "discovered" something in your past, which nullifies the employment offer. Oh, but maybe they'll still hire you, but at a lesser title and pay. If you're hard up for a job, you're screwed and have to take what you're given. There are unscrupulus managers and owners out there who will pull that stuff, especially in a lousy economy where job seekers are vulnerable and mgmt is under pressure to keep their budget low. When I entered the job market, I talked to some sleazy employers, but fortunately at that time it was a good job market and I had the capability to turn and walk away. Today the market isn't so good and kids coming out of school are loaded with debt. > What I'm not willing to deal with is the same fallout because somebody > else (with the same name) had one of the above issues happen. > In this respect, a universal ID is a good thing, names simply aren't > unique enough. First off, no matter how responsible we are, EVERYONE of us has some skeleton in our closets. Many times it was not at all our fault, but the skeleton is there just the same. Other times we made a stupid choice or acted irresponsibly. So, it's not a question of "someone else's" troubles haunting us, but our own. Second of all, date of birth, a common identifier, is not unique either. Further, the existing data collection system on adverse information is SLOPPY. There is garbage out there. You may be in default of a credit card you never even had (as happened to me, as a result of an unsolicited mailing many years ago sent to an inaccurate address.) Third, identify theft is a growing problem. If someone intentionally steals your 'essence', you're really screwed. Suddenly, you're "unique ID card" has you down as a criminal. Until relatively recently, the personal-info databases out there focused basically on accounting and credit issues. But cheap computing and e-commerce has enabled them to collect far more information. (ABC News ran a troubling documentary about this recently.) Go to your town hall. There's a guy in the corner entering into a laptop every permit request or citation. It's public record. Again, until recently the stuff remained buried in filing cabinets too hard to dig out and consolidate. No more. It IS collected. The point is that personal information, friendly and adverse, IS being collected about you and being distributed. > Whether the other issues are significant enough to be concerned about > or not is another question altogether, but in my opinion, the benefit > outweighs the risk right now. WHAT benefits? How do you benefit when prospective landlords are told that you had a dispute with a prior landlord? How do you benefit when prospective employers are told you were arrested in a protest demonstration? As to "security", any college kid can show you how to get a passable fake ID card; even high school kids got 'em now. With a little bit of money, a quality ID may be had. I'm sorry to sound so cynical, but I have enough gray hair to have seen the real world and how it works. I know history, too, and know how corporate blacklists ruined people. Pat's take on this issue is correct. If someone familiar with the information industry and today's corporate/political culture can offer a counter argument, I'd like to hear it. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 05:29:37 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is the battery drain _that_ dramatic > between analog and digital (you said 'prefer to have more than a > minute or two of battery life'). PAT] I engaged in hyperbole, to some extent. My Kyocera 7135 (CDMA/Analog phone plus Palm OS PDA) tends to live for about one and a half to two days before needing to be recharged real bad. Very little of that is talk time; the worst drain is when I am in an area with bad coverage (such as an underground garage, where I go to smoke my socially unacceptable pipe when the outdoor environment is uninviting), when the lack of a digital signal causes the phone to transmit re[eated desparate attempts to contact an analog host; that, plus the illuminated message that there is no signal, tends to drain the battery. With the phone permanently turned off, and only occasional use of the Palm features, the battery lasts for weeks. The phone is good for quite a while on digital calls, but analog calls drain it very fast, given that they tend to be at full power, since it only reverts to analog when the digital signals fail to penetrate. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD (USA) (Replace "example.invalid" with "com" in my address.) ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 16:27:52 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Levine wrote: >> Do today's cell phones have any option to do that? > None that I've seen. Typically the A carrier is TDMA or GSM, and the > B carrier is CDMA, Not always true. I know of markets in Texas and New Mexico where the A and B carriers are both CDMA. Nonetheless, carriers nowadays have "preferred roaming agreements" with various carriers in different regions, and often prefer that if you roam, you roam on those carriers. In the case of CDMA, switching to the right band is governed by a "preferred roaming list" (PRL) that is loaded into the phone's firmware. If the phone can't find its home SID, it will scan for other available SIDS based on a "priority list" and lock onto the first one it finds. This ensures that the carrier gets the "cheapest rate" for roaming. GSM has something similar (I forget the name of it), as does Nextel (called a "band map"). Of course, this takes the ability to chose a roaming carrier out of the hands of the end user, but for that sacrifice, you get expanded coverage at "home" rates. None of the large wireless carriers cover every inch of the nationwide network they advertise. A lot of holes are filled by these preferred roaming partners who agree to charge the carrier a discounted rate, who then in turn bills you as if you were on the "home" network. In exchange, the roaming partners are guaranteed a revenue stream from all users of the large wireless carrier that pass through their territory. That's where the PRL comes in (and why end users lost tha ability of manual control). E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Do Cell Phones Still Offer "A" and "B" Carriers? Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 16:31:33 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is the battery drain _that_ dramatic > between analog and digital (you said 'prefer to have more than a > minute or two of battery life'). PAT] Actually, yes. In analog mode, most phones will give you about the same battery life that the old Motorla AMPS phones gave you (6-8 hours standby, 1-2 hours talk time). In digital, you get far more (up to five DAYS standby time, 4-5 hours talk time). ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 18:28:46 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > AES wrote: >> 1) It seems likely that in the not too distant future telephone >> service will be almost entirely provided by (or thru) VOIP. And, >> there seem to be real technical difficulties -- in particular serious >> "caller location identification" difficulties -- associated with >> providing 911 service to VOIP phones. > What time frame do you mean by "not too distant future"? > Why do you think all telephone service will go over VOIP? We're most of the way there already, only the last mile is typically analog. TELUS switched all LD over to VoIP many moons ago. As with all ventures, the last mile is the most expensive and most difficult to implement. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: 16 May 2005 07:57:25 -0700 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Hancock: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would think if it ever got that > critical (where 'everyone' went with VOIP instead of landline) the > VOIP administrators would develop the equivilent of the 'Erlang > tables' in an effort to develop the amount of capacity needed to keep > up with it. .... > Telcos place their bets on the fact that at any typical time of > day/day of week, _maybe_ one or two percent of their subscribers are > actually using the phone. ... > Why do you feel VOIP would be any different? I cannot imagine > the _ratios_ would be much different than they are now. Thanks for your comments. You are quite correct in the 'erlang' calculations and that the system's capacity is based on a small percentage of total subscribers. My response was directed to the person who seemed to feel that VOIP could easily replace POTS over much of the existing network. I don't agree because I feel far more capacity will be needed because: 1) While VOIP in itself isn't a resource hog (I presume), broadband is still broadband and requires resources. They can't fit the same number of broadband subscribers over the same lines as they can traditional voice subscribers. I suspect when a subscriber buys DSL, they are basically getting a more "dedicated" line to the central office than what is given to a POTS subscriber because they need a 'heavier' line to handle high speed traffic than a voice grade line can support. So, just the very use of broadband instead of POTS will require an increase of bandwidth throughout the telephone system. 2) I think broadband will result in more usage. First off, there's tremendous random hacking out there seeking unsecured terminals, so while you're home terminal is supposedly sitting idle, it actually is fending off (or participating in) hacking activity. Secondly, since people won't have to bother dialing up and logging in every time they have a quick question for the 'net, I suspect they'll use it more often. Certainly the erlang concept of idle time will still apply, but I expect they'll have to plan for more use. Kids are hooked on this and today there are capacity issues as all the kids come home from school and Instant Message or play games with each other. 3) Some of the infrastructure of the existing voice telephone system isn't too well suited to high speed data transmission. Old drop lines and neighborhood loops might suffer with crosstalk issues and attenuation with high data speeds. Not all intermediate loop-to-CO lines multiplexors are modern. 4) Another problem is rapid obsolescence. Telephone gear is expensive and intended for a long lifespan. Yes today's gear is "programmable" but perhaps an ESS installed ten years ago might not have the hardware to support what is desired today. Likewise for older fibre systems. ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 20:33:19 GMT I see now that your proposal is: since our communications are being decoupled from the copper wire anyway (or at the very least the low band part of it), we should not remove (on this point, see another posting about Verizon's FiOS offering and copper) or allow it to decay, but use it as dedicated conduit for "utility" services like 911, alarms etc. Anything which is first location dependent and then customer dependent as opposed to the other way around. It's quite interesting so let's disregard any marginal issues. Perhaps someone with a better understanding of the maintenance costs for the copper loop can hazard a guess if these offerings could possibly make enough money so as to sustain themselves (i.e. pay for the service including loop maintenance and extension to new housing) without tax subsidies. It seems to me that this is the central issue if one was to decide such a policy shift. Would it make much sense to continue to pay to subsidise the loop only to provide 911 when we can be fairly certain that the investments made and tax money spent to take us to this future all VoIP (i.e. all broadband) world we are discussing here, can also solve any location problems associated with broadband. In the end, why continue to support a narrowband network, when the issue is not bandwidth but location? If we want to solve the location problem, why not do it in the broadband world? Better yet, why not add GPS chips to every communication device? To safeguard privacy, these would be dormant and would only be activated in order to transmit their location in the event the user dials 911. Can this be more expensive than continuing to maintain a copper loop just for "utility" services? Dean AES wrote in message news:telecom24.212.4@telecom-digest.org: > In article , Dean M. > wrote in response to AES > proposal regarding VOIP and 911 service: >> I'm a little perplexed by your speculation. Why would a move to VoIP >> have anything to do with killing off use of cable/fiber/copper for >> telco services? Are you predicting a move to a completely wireless >> service provision or am I just misunderstanding your comments? And if >> indeed you are predicting a move to an entirely wireless world, why >> are you portraying VoIP as the cause for this? Can you elaborate? >> Dean > Apologies if I'm not making myself clear. > 1) It seems likely that in the not too distant future telephone > service will be almost entirely provided by (or thru) VOIP. And, > there seem to be real technical difficulties -- in particular serious > "caller location identification" difficulties -- associated with > providing 911 service to VOIP phones. > Therefore I'm trying to envision a future situation (admittedly > hypothetical at this point) in which telephone service will no longer > necessarily be directly linked to 911 service, and a telco connection > will no longer be presumed (or legally required) to include 911 > capability -- or alternatively where 911 emergency response to calls > from a given location will no longer necessarily be provided or > connected to emergency providers through the telephone network. > 2) As a prelude to this, I'm noting that I, and many other residences > and businesses, will likely in the near future obtain our telephone > service and also our broadband Internet access either via a cable > connection, or via a neighborhood or municipal wireless service, or > via a cell phone connection, or via a fiber-to-the-premises > connection, rather than via a conventional twisted-pair telephone wire > to our premises. > If (or rather when) that happens I, and many others, will no longer > need those copper telephone wires (twisted pairs) that currently come > directly from a telco central office (CO) into our homes or > businesses. (Of course if our broadband Internet connection happens > to be DSL we will continue to need that telephone twisted pair, though > we won't need classic phone service on that wire any more, unless > we're really backward and still use a modem.) > 3) Nonetheless, all the current telephone twisted pairs between > premises and telco COs will continue to exist, unless they're > deliberately ripped out or allowed to deteriorate. And even for new > homes and buildings ("greenfields construction") there's no technical > reason that similar twisted pairs can't be brought into these new > premises as part of the cable TV connection, or the fiber, or even > just the electrical power wiring. > 4) So, let's think about how we might use these existing and any new > copper twisted pairs, not for telephone any more, but for other > "utility" purposes -- possibly including a new kind of 911 service. > In fact, let's refer to these wires, beginning at that point in time, > not as "telephone wires" but as "utility service wires". > 5) So, here are just some off the cuff thoughts as to useful services > that could be provided over these utility wires, earning income for > some utility service provider in the process: > a) The telco won't be able to get income any more from selling telco > service over it's telephone wires -- pardon me, utility wires -- and > it therefore won't need banks of telephone switches to service those > wires in its CO any more. So, maybe it will sell all this > infrastructure to "utility providers", or maybe it will go into the > "utility" business itself. > b) One utility service could be a variant of 911 service. That is, in > case of an emergency instead of dialing 911 you just push a red alarm > button on a kind of intercom box in your house or office and it > connects you over the utility wires to your "utility CO" (which was > once your telco CO). This utility CO then connects you -- perhaps > automatically -- to the 911 emergency dispatch setup in your town. > c) Or, maybe you still dial 911 on your VOIP phone -- but instead of > treating this as a VOIP call, your PC connects it to the utility > wires, which are still connected into your home LAN. (If you move > your VOIP phone to a new location in another town, and connect it to > the PC in the new location, that PC will still do the right thing for > your VOIP call.) > d) Using add'l hardware and working with the utility service provider, > your local gas, electric and water providers will read your meters, > not by some "dial-in" call on the VOIP network, but by a hard-wired > connection over the utility service wires. > e) Commercial "always on" burglar alarm and security services can be > provided over the utility wires by security services that work with or > are part of the utility service providers. > f) Ditto fire alarm services. > g) The emergency medical pushbutton gadget that your elderly grandma, > who lives alone, wears on her wrist to call for help could communicate > not over her VOIP telephone service, but over the utility service > system. > And so on for lots and lots of other things. (And note that one of > the featured advantages of VOIP telco service is that you can take > your VOIP phone with you and get into the Internet anywhere -- but > these local utility services are inherently local in character, and > are much better hardwired into a *local* structure, with no need for > the Internet.) > 6) Bottom line: I recognize there would be lots of thorny problems > (including major economic and public policy issues) in getting from > the systems we have now to some new scheme like this; and very likely > some downsides and practical problems that I haven't even thought of. > But just maybe, at some point, the very tight connection between > telephone service and 911 emergency service that we're so familiar > with now could evolve so that 911 and telco were more or less > completely de-linked, with both needs met in innovative and more > effective new ways. I'm just trying to do some thinking about how > that might happen. > So, comments welcomed ... ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Microsoft to Offer Anti-Virus Software, Service From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 21:31:13 GMT > I guess it is much more profitable to sell cheese-cloth operating > system software and then sell subscriptions to fix-up software that > deals with the after effects of the security penetrations. Yep. I noticed that part too. This seems an awful lot like a scheme Dogbert would invent :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 14:57:18 -0700 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Sun, 16 May 2005, John Levine wrote: > In the US, you have to get the phone from whoever sells the prepaid > service. You'd think you could just buy a SIM if you have a GSM > phone, but you can't. Both T-Mobile and Cingular say, at least at the local shops where I checked, that they'll sell a prepay SIM card to someone who has a suitable phone. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 15:12:19 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , DevilsPGD wrote: Message snipped for brevity, but I think the primary message is that providing (and maintaining!) universal, standardized, up to date, and effective 911 service on a future primarily VOIP phone service is almost impossibly difficult. On the other hand, every VOIP phone either contains or connects to a computer of some sort, right? So, no matter where the VOIP phone is moved, if it's in a location that also has a "real" phone line with at least local service, then if you just patch a cord from a suitable "911 port" on the side of the VOIP phone (or its computer) into the hard-wired phone line each time you move it, the VOIP phone can easily be smart enough to send the 911 call into that local hardwired line instead of into the Internet -- and the resulting location for the 911 call will always automatically be correct, right? Earlier Mark Peters wrote: >>> A big problem is visitors, especially children who have been taught >>> to dial 911 in case of an emergency. Well, in a very large fraction of the nonresidential locations that I know about (starting with all of Stanford University, and extending to businesses, hotels, some apartment houses, stores, schools, and so on), there is no "911" service: you have to dial "9-911" (sometimes with a suitable pause) or even "1-9-911". There are certainly children routinely in those places; will they know about that? > 911 for everyone, everywhere, is a great idea. However, it's at direct > odds with mobile VoIP unless you can force people to enter their current > address when they move the device. AND force the service providers to actually process the information, accurately -- good luck! > Something needs to be done, but frankly, I'm not seeing the solution > even with a relative infinite amount of money. Agreed -- we should think of other ways to meet the need (such as, perhaps, my recent and more lengthy post). ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 14:40:05 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Steve wrote: > Disgusted in Oklahoma. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think what you will find is the > contract you signed at some point or another expressly gives _them_ > the right to assign your contract. It did not give _you_ any rights > like that however; just AT&T. PAT] That is true. Service contracts for wireless service can be transferred from one carrier to another. In this case, Cingular probably did it because they happened to hold a license and operate a system in the same area as AT&T wireless, and in order for the merger to pass regulatory muster, the combined company had to divest itself of one of those systems and its subscribers. The original poster happened to be unlucky enough to be on the discarded network. I can see where the original poster may have issues. Alltel is a CDMA carrier; AT&T/Cingular operate GSM/TDMA. This will at the very least mean that in time, s/he will have to change handsets to a CDMA-compliant model. However, unless Alltel has acted in bad faith, or clearly cannot live up to the contract's terms (i.e. cannot provide the service level, coverage or plan features as originally agreed upon), then the OP is stuck with the contract through its duration. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Dave Thompson Subject: Re: Closed captioning (was How is Weather Channel Data....) Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 04:35:50 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet On Wed, 04 May 2005 22:37:17 -0500, Neal McLain wrote: > PAT wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards closed caption, since I >> sometimes these days do not hear as well as I would like, I >> frequently leave closed caption turned on (it is an on/off >> option on my television set) even though I am also using sound >> as well (closed caption allows me to keep up with words I miss My hearing is OK (so far) but I also started leaving CC on for some scifi programs especially to get spellings of names that aren't always clear from the sound. And I found some interesting things: >> or do not understand occassionally.) But has anyone else >> noticed how they really _blow it bad_ sometimes, with trash >> symbols instead of the words, etc,... > The "trash symbols" you see are the result of corrupted CC data. In an > NTSC video signal, the CC data is encoded on Line 21 >> ... or sometimes just approximations of the phrases used >> instead of the actual words? > Sometimes this is done intentionally; sometimes not. An ad libbing > speaker often speaks in a hesitant manner, sometimes repeating himself > or inserting extraneous or meaningless words. Also, AIU from my reading, there is a rather low limit on the data rate for line 21, and an even lower limit on the number of lines/words per second average viewers are assumed able to read. When there is rapid complex speech it is usually simplified, sometimes sharply, or less-important prompting or confirmatory lines dropped altogether. And when there is overlapping speech (or speech with significant sound/music) pretty often only the "main" speech is captioned. >> And in the case of VCR or DVD movies, I assume the closed >> caption is just encoded right on the finished product, is that >> correct? VHS definitely, and tapes I record from "air" include it along with the rest of the video. I don't think DVD actually has the syncs and (thus) BIs recorded; I believe caption is a separate data stream that is synthesized into line 21 by the player. I see _very_ low garbles on DVD play, maybe .01/hour, always corrected on replay and hence likely faults in my TV (monitor) compared to usually 1-10/hour for "broadcast" (analog cable) some but far from all of which I find recur on rebroadcast in cases I can and did check -- presumably this is either recorded badly on the master or there are data or video patterns or both especially prone to (self) interference or noise. Older material like old movies must have captioning added. For programs created in the last few years, after the FCC mandates for it became effective, I believe it is mostly done during the final stages of production. In some cases I see captions that are quite different from -- and not just shortened forms of -- the spoken lines, which I suspect were ADRed late but the captioning not changed; and since caption data must be transmitted a second or two in advance in order to appear en-bloc in sync with the video, sometimes I see at the end of a scene a line obviously for a following scene that has been cut. Conversely this is why a line immediately after a commercial break usually isn't captioned. > Yes. It's also true of prerecorded network programming; in fact, it's > true of just about everything you see on television except live or > live-delayed programming. ObSemiTopic: According to my reading much of the realtime captioning is done by telecommuting. And I have indeed a few times seen Hayesisms (NO CARRIER, CONNECT nnn) in the captions. - David.Thompson1 at worldnet.att.net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #216 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 May 2005 02:18:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 217 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Inflection Point (Monty Solomon) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (John Levine) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Mark Crispin) Re: Very Early Modems (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (Dean M.) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (AES) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Charles B. Wilber) Re: Original Definition of 'Class 5' (Kenneth P. Stox) Re: Verizon FiOS (Neal McLain) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 23:41:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Inflection Point This Week Changed the World of High Tech Forever, Though Most of Us Still Don't Know It By Robert X. Cringely It's an expression made popular in Silicon Valley years ago by Andy Grove of Intel: "inflection point." It's that abrupt elbow in a graph of growth or decline when the new technology or paradigm truly kicks in, and suddenly there is no going back. From that moment, the new stuff takes off and the old stuff goes into rapid decline, whether it is a new standard of modem, a new video game, a new microprocessor family, or just a new idea. I think we've just hit such an inflection point and -- though most of us still don't realize it -- the personal computer, video game, and electronic entertainment businesses will never be the same. There are three pieces to this puzzle. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050512.html ------------------------------ Date: 16 May 2005 22:42:36 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > phone (that is, with GSM 900/1800/1900 or GSM 850/900/1800/1900) then > you can use your Australian cell phone in the USA and Europe. All you > need to do is buy a prepaid SIM card in from a cell phone provider in > the country that you are visiting. For the USA, the big two GSM > providers are T-Mobile and GSM. It appears that neither Cingular nor T-Mobile will sell you a prepaid SIM in the US without a phone. If you poke around on their web sites, all the prepaid plans include a phone. I realize there's no technical reason that you couldn't just pop in a new SIM like you can in Europe, but if they won't, they won't. My guess would be that there are so few unlocked GSM phones in the US and even fewer people who understand what they are that it's not worth the hassle of supporting them. A regular subscription phone is no good, since the subscriptions are all for at least a year with a large penalty if you cancel early. > So, your best bet is to go to a company-owned cell phone shops, > explain that you're a foreign tourist (have your passport handy) and > ask if they will sell you a phone. Pay with a credit card; that > serves as excellent identification. Agreed. With a credit card and a passport it shouldn't be a problem. > Assuming that you're buying a phone in the USA, I would recommend > against the GSM carriers. GSM is primarily an urban service in the > USA, and coverage can be spotty or non-existant outside of the large > cities. That used to be true, but Cingular is rapidly switching their whole network to GSM, to the extent that they're selling GSM-only phones now. If you have a GSM phone, particularly if it's both GSM 850/1900, it should work all over the place. > Another reason for going with Verizon is you buy a phone in the USA is > that a US GSM 1900 phone is of no use outside of the USA and Canada. Hey, my US GSM phone worked great in Argentina. The rates weren't great, but that's a separate issue. I looked at the phones that Cingular and T-Mobile sell, and was surprised how many of them, not just the ones sold as world phones, handle 900 or 1800 as well as 850 and 1900. But if you can unlock your Australian phone, you don't care. > I would recommend against rental. Renting is almost always much more > expensive then buying a throwaway prepay phone, and the pre-minute > rate isn't much less than roaming. Agreed. You can buy a used phone for what it costs to rent one for a week. R's, John ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 15:52:11 (PDT) From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Mon, 16 May 2005, John Levine wrote: > It appears that neither Cingular nor T-Mobile will sell you a prepaid > SIM in the US without a phone. Local Cingular and T-Mobile stores here told me that they'd sell just the SIM card. IIRC, it was $25 or $35. >> Assuming that you're buying a phone in the USA, I would recommend >> against the GSM carriers. GSM is primarily an urban service in the >> USA, and coverage can be spotty or non-existant outside of the large >> cities. > That used to be true, but Cingular is rapidly switching their whole > network to GSM, to the extent that they're selling GSM-only phones > now. If you have a GSM phone, particularly if it's both GSM 850/1900, > it should work all over the place. It's still the case in the west coast that that analog, TDMA, and CDMA coverage is quite a bit more thorough than GSM. The GSM network here is getting better, but it's not there yet. In Alaska, a TDMA+analog phone is much more useful than a GSM or CDMA phone. In Canada, most of the analog-only holdouts now have CDMA. GSM still has a way to go. >> Another reason for going with Verizon is you buy a phone in the USA is >> that a US GSM 1900 phone is of no use outside of the USA and Canada. > Hey, my US GSM phone worked great in Argentina. The rates weren't > great, but that's a separate issue. Is your phone GSM 1900 (single band), or is it a tri-band (900/1800/1900) or quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) phone? The cheap phones tend to be GSM 1900 only in North American, and GSM 900/1800 only elsewhere. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 20:30:07 EDT Subject: Re: Very Early Modems In a message dated 16 May 2005 13:14:42 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > In the IBM history series by Pugh et al, they said IBM converted > punched cards to paper tape for transmission in the 1940s. My guess > is that that particular transmission used telegraph TTY lines (not > voice) of either AT&T or Western Union. Recall that AT&T maintained > telegraph long distance lines as part of carrier long distance > circuits. Because of the low bandwidth, a telegraph channel could be > carried on the low end of a carrier channel. Accordingly, no > modulation was required and thus no modem needeed. Telegraph circuits were widely used, both Morse and teletypewriter, well into the 1950s and 1960s by news services, stock brokers, railroads, pipeline companies and no doubt many other users. The use of telegraphy pre-dated carrier systems and while many of the circuits were later converted to carrier, many of them undoubtedly remained copper. There were also the TWX services (Bell) and Telex (Western Union) which were similarly carried on telegraph circuits. Incidentally, in later years Western Union was a big user of Bell telegraph circuits, especially within a city but also many intercity routes where they were either not able to finance their own circuits to accomodate their growth or did not feel the rate of return would be adequate. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 00:45:49 GMT We're playing with words here, but more like Garbage In - Garbage-Out I'd say. Too much information is available as input to decision aiding systems of still evolving (dubious?) design. These systems are then used to make potentially life changing decisions. With almost no quality control on this information and no control of the information by its subject (unless I'm missing something significant), it is a recipe for disaster. In this context, I can't see the upside for Real ID, but neither do I identify it as the main culprit (military personel have unique identifiers, and I am not aware of any proof that they suffer from proportionately more information quality problems than do the rest of us). I think we're putting the cart before the horse with this new law. It seems to me we should have first strengthened our information quality/information use/information liability and privacy laws, and then debated the merits of yet another identifier (we already have state ID, state DLs, passports, Social Security numbers, etc). Dean John R. Levine wrote in message news:telecom24.216.6@telecom-digest.org: >> What I'm not willing to deal with is the same fallout because somebody >> else (with the same name) had one of the above issues happen. >> In this respect, a universal ID is a good thing, names simply aren't >> unique enough. > Gosh, I love people's naive belief in technology. You know the > acronym GIGO, which stands for Garbage In, Gospel Out? That's what > Real ID is. > Mixups will still happen, because the people maintaining the files and > databases will be the exact same sloppy error-prone people who > maintain them today. The cost of getting a fake Real-ID license will > continue to be the price of bribing the most corrupt person in some > state's DMV. The difference will be that it'll be far harder to get > mistakes fixed, because now everyone will know that licenses are > perfect, so if the computer says that you are a crook, it must be > right and you're just lying. > R's, > John ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 18:44:28 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Dean M. wrote: > I see now that your proposal is: since our communications are being > decoupled from the copper wire anyway (or at the very least the low > band part of it), we should not remove (on this point, see another > posting about Verizon's FiOS offering and copper) or allow it to > decay, but use it as dedicated conduit for "utility" services like > 911, alarms etc. Anything which is first location dependent and then > customer dependent as opposed to the other way around. That's a fair enough summary. > It's quite interesting so let's disregard any marginal issues. Perhaps > someone with a better understanding of the maintenance costs for the > copper loop can hazard a guess if these offerings could possibly make > enough money so as to sustain themselves (i.e. pay for the service > including loop maintenance and extension to new housing) without tax > subsidies. It seems to me that this is the central issue if one was to > decide such a policy shift. Also a fair statement -- and the reason I tried to think of multiple services (like home security systems, services for the elderly, remote meter reading) for which people or companies will (and currently do) pay repeated monthly charges. Note that minimal basic telephone service can currently be obtained for something in the range of $10/month, give or take (although I don't know how much subsidy is in that number). Suppose the telco didn't have to provide the telephone service, handle the switching of calls, do the billing, all that stuff -- just provide and maintain a bare wire. Wouldn't take much in the way of services to support that monthly cost. > If we want to solve the location problem, why not do it in the > broadband world? Because it just seems to be intrinsically rather hard and complicated to do it on the broadband packet-based system -- whereas the hardwired approach seems (to me anyway) in many ways simpler, easier, more reliable, and more effective. ------------------------------ Date: 16 May 2005 21:53:45 EDT From: Charles.B.Wilber@Dartmouth.EDU (Charles B. Wilber) Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VOIP? TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would think if it ever got that > critical (where 'everyone' went with VOIP instead of landline) the > VOIP administrators would develop the equivilent of the 'Erlang > tables' in an effort to develop the amount of capacity needed to keep > up with it. .... This tool already exists. It is very useful for PBX administrators who are considering converting systems from TDM to VoIP. Charlie Wilber Dartmouth College ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: Re: Original Definition of 'Class 5' Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 02:27:30 GMT soren.telfer@gmail.com wrote: > Can someone point me to a technical document that 'defines' class 5 > switch functionality? Does one exist? I somewhat understand the > historical development, but I'm interested in some text, preferable > from Bell. > Thanks in advance. Briley, B., Introduction to Telephone Switching, Bell Telephone Laboratories, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1983. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 22:34:42 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Verizon FiOS William Cousert wrote: > I have a few questions about Verizon's new FiOS service. > It was recently installed in my neighborhood and I'm > thinking about switching over from Comcast. A resident of Keller, Texas (screename "ELENgin"), who currently has FiOS, posted a report about it on Broadband Reports on 08-25-04, precipitating a thread that now runs 25 pages. Many of the posts in this thread address questions similar to yours. ELENgin seems to have been quite happy to answer all sorts of questions, so perhaps s/he would be able to respond to yours. http://tinyurl.com/4y9ca As to your question 5: > 5. Will they offer cable tv services? I'd like to dump > Comcast completely. Will they have video on demand? Verizon will definitely offer video services, and they're currently negotiating with program suppliers. But they probably won't call it "cable TV" since they're doing everything they can to convince the feds that their video service won't actually be cable TV; it will just be "competitive to cable TV." Their big problem is legal: telephone companies are regulated under Title II of the Communications Act; Cable TV companies are regulated under Title VI. Under that Act, Cable TV companies must obtain a franchise from the "local franchising authority." Typically, the LFA is a municipal or county government, although in some cases, it's a separate legal entity operating under an interlocal agreement among two or more local governments. Or it might be a state government (case in point: Connecticut's now-defunct statewide franchise to SNET). Verizon does not want to go through the hassle of getting a local franchise from every LFA in its territory (and having spent a lot of time in my cable-TV career dealing with LFAs, I certainly understand with their position). So they want Congress to "adopt a national policy that preempts other levels of government." http://tinyurl.com/4ldyt How much success they'll have remains to be seen. The entrenched entities (LFAs; National League of Cities; National Association of Counties; National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors) will fight it tooth-and-nail. And, as I noted in a previous post on this subject, you can rest assured that the cable industry will oppose it too unless it gets similar relief. http://tinyurl.com/dvk62 Neal McLain ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #217 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 17 May 2005 19:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 218 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Measuring Availability in Service Level Agreements (slasupport) AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (Lisa Hancock) Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (John Schmerold) Survey: Mobile Video Gets Lukewarm Support (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Very Early Modems (Brad Houser) Re: Very Early Modems (Lisa Hancock) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Joseph) Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? (Dean M.) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Robert Bonomi) "Popular Vote" (was Re: FINAL Words on Sodomy Insane) (Carl Moore) 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: slasupport Subject: Measuring Availability in Service Level Agreements Date: 17 May 2005 12:14:46 -0700 Dear All, Availability is one measure of quality used in Service Level Agreement programs by telecommunication providers today. The way availablity is measured by vendors determines the compensation customers receive for service outages and determines how good the guarantee is. The way the measures are done today is via time series, i.e. measure availability over time. This doesn't take into account the network size. The only way to take into account network size is to measure availability across the network. Doing so provides compensation based on the amount of the network that was not available. Please see below for a complete, but concise, summary of what the different availability measures actually guarantee! Thanks Measures of Availability Availability of service is measured today using time series data by all vendors in the telecommunications industry, for all their services. Cross section data is not used today to measure availability. But cross section data is very useful in quantifying a customer's network availability. The difference between the times series data and cross section data is: 1. Times series measures the availability of an individual IP-VPN site, Frame/ATM port or pvc, or Private line circuit over time. 2. Cross section data measures the availability of an IP-VPN Network, Frame/ATM Network or Private Line Network at a point in time. In other words: 1. Time series measures Site Availability, Port Availability, PVC Availability, or Circuit Availability for IP-VPN, Frame/ATM and Private Line service respectively. These measures are used in SLA programs today. 2. Cross section data measures Network Availability for a IP-VPN Network, Frame/ATM Network or Private Line Network. These measures are not used in SLA programs today. (The name "Network Availability" is used to describe availability measures by some vendors in their SLA programs. But the measurement is a time series measure, a measure of availability on a site, port or pvc over time, not a measure across the network.) The cross section approach is a patent pending methodology of L. Swanzer - E2E SLA Support, LLC. Their use requires license be obtained by the telecommunications providers to offer these metrics to their customers. The difference between a time series measure of availability and a cross section measure of availability is shown in the table below (please see www.e2eslasupport.com if you can not read the table. This memo is on our website). The time series approach measures the availability of each IP-VPN Site (it could also be a Frame/ATM port or pvc, or a Private Line circuit) for any given month. So for example, sites 1, 2 and sites 6-10 had 100% availability in January. Sites 3, 4 and 5 had 99.03% availability in January. Sites 3, 4 and 5 had a 7 hour outage, from 2pm-9pm on January 15th, which implies 99.03% availability. Jan Jan Jan Jan Sites 1/1-1/15 1/15 1/15-1/31 Site Avail. %Sites Site 1 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 2 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 3 100% 0% 100% 99.03% 10% Site 4 100% 0% 100% 99.03% 10% Site 5 100% 0% 100% 99.03% 10% Site 6 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 7 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 8 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 9 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Site 10 100% 100% 100% 100% 10% Total 100% 70% 100% 99.71% 100% Percent Time in 48.39% 0.97% 50.64% 100% Range The cross section approach measures availability of the network at various points in time. From January 1st to January 15th, there were no outages on the network. Therefore the network had 100% availability during those first 15 days of the month. On January 15th, from 2pm to 9pm, sites 3, 4 and 5 had 0% availability (these sites were affected by a seven hour outage). Therefore, from 2pm-9pm, on January 15th, the network availability was 70%. Average availability is sometimes used as the SLA metric for availability. The average availability is the same whether the measure of availability is Network Availability or Site Availability. The method used to calculate average availability today is by averaging the individual Site Availabilities. The average availability measures are a weighted average. With Network Availability the weights are the time spent at different ranges of availability, with Site Availability (used today) the weights are the percent of Sites with different levels of availability. The Average Availability, in this case, was 99.71% shown in the bottom right corner. Network Availability, Site Availability and Average Availability all have their own strengths and weaknesses. The weakness with Network Availability is that compensation is capped by the amount of time the network is below the target level of availability. So, if 50% of the network is down for a couple of hours then the most the customer can be credited is the percent of time the network was down. For a 2 hour outage this amounts to .28% (2 hours out of 720 total hours in the month) of the total network charges. Even if the entire network is down, the credit is capped by the percent time the network was down. So if 100% of the network is down for 2 hours the maximum compensation due the customer is .28% of the network charges. On the other hand, Site Availability provides compensation based on the percent of the sites that are down. So if 50% or 100% of the Sites were down for 2 hours Site Availability would compensate a customer up to 50% or 100% of the network charges, respectively. The weakness of Site Availability is that compensation is capped by the percent of sites that are below the target level of availability. For example, if there were a problem, in a given month, where a site had recurring problems that lasted much of the month, the customer's compensation would be capped to be a maximum of the charges on the problem site. For a large network, say a network with 100 sites, this would amount to a 1% of the total network charges are eligible for credit. If, on the other hand, Network Availability were the measure of availability, then the customer would be eligible for up to a maximum of 100% of the network charges, if the site caused the network to be below the target level for the entire month. In general, Site Availability is going to compensate better then Network Availability when outages are of relatively short duration and impact many sites all at the same time. Network Availability will provide more compensation to the customer in months when outages are sporadic, occurring at different points and time during month. Finally, Average Availability is an all or nothing deal. It provides either the best compensation or the worse compensation of the three metrics, depending on the outages. With Average Availability compensation is not limited by the amount of time the network is below the target level of availability nor is it limited by the percent of sites that are below a targeted level of availability. If the Average Availability target is missed the customer is eligible for compensation for all the network charges. The issue with Average Availability is that it won't provide any compensation at all if the target is met, even though there could have been outages on the network that required compensation under Network Availability and/or Site Availability. If the target for Average Availability is 99.99% then a network wide outage that last 4 minutes and 31 seconds would not be eligible for any compensation. Similarly an outage that lasts 72 hours at a single site, on a network with 1000 sites, would not be eligible for any compensation. In both cases, the 4 minute 31second network wide outage and the 72 outage on a single site, would meet a 99.99% average availability target. None of the availability measures protect the customer against all types of outages. For complete coverage against any type of outage you may consider combining Site Availability and Network Availability. For example, include both measures of availability in the Service Level Agreements. The measure that applies in any given month is the metric that provides the most compensation to the customer. Another way of getting the benefit of Site and Network Availability is to multiply the percent of the time of the month a particular outage lasted by the percent of total sites effected. The result would be the total percentage of the network that was affected by the outage: Percent time of the month * Percent of Circuits. Applying the resulting percentage to total network charges would amount to a refund of the customer's charges for the effected circuits, for the time the circuits were down. Of course an additional percent credit would have to be added to compensate the customer for the burden of the outage. This is a very brief summary of today's measures of availability. We have a detailed presentation, which you can view from our website. You can also find out more about our: SLA administration services (tracking, reporting, claim processing), consulting services, presentations, and other services. Please see www.e2eslasupport.com for more information. Network Availability and the variants of it are patent pending business methodologies of L. Swanzer and E2E SLA Support, LLC. Thank you, Larry Swanzer E2E SLA Support, LLC 908-806-4097 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Date: 17 May 2005 07:15:49 -0700 From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed something back to the community. Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge. (Per Ziff-Davis history). I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money from the invention of the transistor. I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions. It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust settlements. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 07:42:27 -0500 From: John Schmerold Subject: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Recently ordered a new Vonage line. The new line does not require a "1" prefix. I was spending $50 per new line for a device that inserted the 1. This is Great news! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since there is no price differential on Vonage in most cases (I still have a 500 minute limited account but most users do not) the '1' is pointless and a waste of time. _Everything_ is ten digits; even locally, and the price is the same no matter what. However, some people do not know that Vonage can also be _seven digits_ with area code (where the box was installed, or 'home area') assumed. Like telco, if nothing is dialed after seven digits, then it sits there for a few seconds to time out, and deals with what it got. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 13:27:27 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Survey: Mobile Video Gets Lukewarm Support Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 17, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21641&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Survey: Mobile video gets lukewarm support BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Yell buys U.S. directories publisher * Some MCI shareholders withhold votes * VoIP companies find acceptance, rejection overseas * Alcatel dumps stake in mobile phone venture USTA SPOTLIGHT * Hear Telecom Crash Course author Steven Shepard at Telecom Engineering Conference @ SUPERCOMM EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Scripps to offer broadband channels REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * SBC, Verizon take TV fight to state legislatures * Los Angeles OKs stricter customer service rules for cable * Vivendi sues Deutsche Telekom over Polish deal Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21641&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: 17 May 2005 13:47:38 -0700 In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local call to a distant business and the business could call its customers for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap. At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted. I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets. I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines obsolete. There was toll free before 800 numbers but it was manual and a local number added a comfort factor. Obviously today a business's 800 number is more convenient for anyone. Further, businesses have outward long distance packages so the cost of paying for an FX trunk (that only worked in a specific city) couldn't be justified. But there is another type of "FX" service that seems not to have gone away even though the need has. Philadelphia has a local city zone and message units for more distant suburban calls. Many suburban businesses had a city phone number for the same reason companies had FX lines. Even some suburban homeowners who made a lot of city calls had a second line with a city number. AFAIK, many suburban businesses still maintain their existing city phone numbers even though today the need isn't as much. (The following is the economic analyis for those interested). The message unit charge has been 7c for at least the last 40 years. Now 7c 40 years ago was like 50c today and say a monthly usage of 100 units comes to some serious money in today's terms (equivalent of $50) while today it's $7 which isn't a big deal. Further, Verizon has increased local calling area sizes and reduced zone charges. My guess is today it probably costs a business far more to maintain the city line than whatever they save in message units, and customers don't give making a suburban call a second thought today. In looking through the yellow pages I noticed many businesses had multiple numbers. However, for some time Verizon offers remote forwarding -- that is you get a local number but it really isn't a line -- it just forwards calls to your actual number. That's more to imply a business has a local presence than to save customers toll charges. I guess that businesses maintaining a distant line never gave it any thought and just pay for it month after month. A few businesses had Enterprise service they kept as well until that was finally discontinued a few years ago (at least such numbers are gone from the city phone books). My own employer used tie lines in distant places to save on toll charges 25 years ago. But now they have more modern bulk purchase toll service arrangements, all done automatically. We once dialed various codes, but now just dial 9+ for all outside calls. ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 12:46:39 -0700 Organization: Intel Corporation Reply-To: bradDOThouser@intel.com On 16 May 2005 13:14:42 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > In the IBM history series by Pugh et al, they said IBM converted > punched cards to paper tape for transmission in the 1940s. My guess > is that that particular transmission used telegraph TTY lines (not > voice) of either AT&T or Western Union. Recall that AT&T maintained > telegraph long distance lines as part of carrier long distance > circuits. Because of the low bandwidth, a telegraph channel could be > carried on the low end of a carrier channel. Accordingly, no > modulation was required and thus no modem needed. > It was also said IBM limited development in this area to avoid > annoying AT&T who was IBM's best customer. > However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without > paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good > advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the > equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with > AT&T. > I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM > (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My > understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out > until the 1960s. > Comments by anyone familiar with pre-1960 data communications would be > greatly appreciated. Here is a picture of a 1958 AT&T modem (not sure if this is the first commercial modem, the Bell 103. If so it was 300 baud): http://www.att.com/history/milestone_1958.html Brad H ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 17 May 2005 07:10:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM > (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My > understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out > until the 1960s. I found some additional information on the above: It appears the modems for the 1950s units were developed and implemented by IBM, not AT&T. They used four signals to take advantage of the 4 Khz range of a voice grade telephone line giving an effective transmission rate of 1200 baud. The information was sent from punched card to punched card. This was an advantage over the prior method of converting it to paper tape and back again for transmission. The data was converted from Hollerith code to a special 8 bit code in which there was always four bits to represent a character. Considerable error checking and control protocols were included -- these were not present in the paper tape method -- and this was considered a major feature of the system. The passage said that AT&T strictly controlled attachments to their lines; the IBM system was used mostly on private lines or leased lines. As we recall, many large organizations, especially railroads, maintained their own privately built and maintained telephone networks and such users could of course attach anything they wanted. Railroads could use this IBM system to send in freight car movements punched at remote locations to a central site. But I wonder if AT&T allowed private attachments to leased private lines it supplied. I wonder if the rules were different for such lines as opposed to the switched network. I also wonder if the independent telephone companies were as strict as AT&T regarding attachments. It was hard to tell from the passage just how many units were out there actually in regular revenue service as opposed to specialty and demonstration units. My guess is that there weren't very many in the 1950s; it was probably cheaper and adequate in those days to mail source documents to central HQ to be keypunched there rather than keypunch them remotely and transmit them. Reproducing cards is a slow process. The early card-to-card systems used modified keypunch machines. Now, around 1960 IBM began to offer a number of "tele-processing" products and I suspect at that point volume did indeed grow. I don't know what AT&T offered as modems in 1960 before their "Dataset" was introduced. Around 1964 IBM introduced commnication systems that used its new Selectric typewriter as a term. My own bank began to use them around 1965. Relatively early on IBM introduced an audio response unit from Touch Tone queries. I remember another bank having a side Touch Tone keypad next to a rotary phone for such inquiries around 1967. Supposedly one customer for this system was AT&T itself to provide automated route-rate information for operators. At the time I thought such systems were a smart idea; of course today seeing how maddening it is to use them I feel a little differently. ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: 17 May 2005 09:01:42 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com In article , wrote: > DevilsPGD wrote: >> Sure -- I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm willing to deal with the >> resulting fallout if I get in a fight in a bar or with my landlord or >> whatever. > I don't know your personal circumstances, but I can't help but wonder > if you don't realize the long term import of the situation. I highly recommend reading the opinions of Bruce Schneier, of Counterpane Internet Security: http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0505.html He has some interesting comments in his most recent newsletter, and in earlier essays and his blog. john- ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 05:18:52 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Mon, 16 May 2005 14:57:18 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote: > On Sun, 16 May 2005, John Levine wrote: >> In the US, you have to get the phone from whoever sells the prepaid >> service. You'd think you could just buy a SIM if you have a GSM >> phone, but you can't. > Both T-Mobile and Cingular say, at least at the local shops where I > checked, that they'll sell a prepay SIM card to someone who has a > suitable phone. True, but you'll also get a better deal on card price and included number of minutes if you look for sales on ebay. ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Will 911 Difficulties Derail VoIP? Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 15:42:52 GMT AES wrote in message news:telecom24.217.6@telecom-digest.org: > In article , Dean M. > wrote: >> I see now that your proposal is: since our communications are being >> decoupled from the copper wire anyway (or at the very least the low >> band part of it), we should not remove (on this point, see another >> posting about Verizon's FiOS offering and copper) or allow it to >> decay, but use it as dedicated conduit for "utility" services like >> 911, alarms etc. Anything which is first location dependent and then >> customer dependent as opposed to the other way around. > That's a fair enough summary. [snip] > Note that minimal basic telephone service can currently be obtained > for something in the range of $10/month, give or take (although I > don't know how much subsidy is in that number). Suppose the telco > didn't have to provide the telephone service, handle the switching of > calls, do the billing, all that stuff -- just provide and maintain a > bare wire. Wouldn't take much in the way of services to support > that monthly cost. That's what SBC charges for bare minimal phone service where I am. But then they tack on all kinds of fees and taxes and it comes to almost twice that! Unfortunately I don't have the bill in front of me so I can't recall how much of those fees is "legitimate" (i.e. government forces them to charge it) and how much is what SBC will call fees but they're not government mandated. Anyway, the point is I cannot shed any light on the question of copper loop maintenance/greenfield expansion costs. Anyone else? Dean ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 18:28:58 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: [[.. munch ..]] > The "easy" solution is a two-part one. > Part 1: The VoIP 'head end' tracks the 'most recently used' IP > address for each customer. _EVERY_TIME_ the customer IP > address changes, the phone goes *out*of*service* with a > notice that the customer must update their "calling > location". > Possibly with an added hook that if the phone has been 'off > line' for some non-trivial period, that when it goes back > 'on line', the customer is queried (in an automated > fashion) to confirm that they are still at "thus and such > location"; where "thus and such" is the previously > specified location for the phone. > Part 2: The VoIP 'head end' maps the various 'calling locations' to the > appropriate PSAP, upon need. > Add an option for the customer to intentionally _not_ specify his > location, but which also totally disables 911 calling. This protects > his 'privacy' at the expense of his safety, but it is the customer's > decision. > The last part of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer is aware > that the "location information" provided is used for "emergency calls" > and that deliberately providing FALSE information can (and probably > _will_) lead to criminal prosecution if emergency services are > directed to an incorrect location as a result of said false > information. There is already existing enforcement mechanism for this > -- "filing a false police report", etc. [[.. munch ..]] > Now, silly as it sounds, something that "works right" 98% of the time, > but "invisibly" does the _wrong_ thing the other 2% of the time is > *worse* that something that 'almost never' gets it right. > An essential element of a 911 'locator' system it that it either gives > a 'right answer', or it gives *NO* answer. "Wrong answers" are simply > not acceptable -- wrong answers (a) delay the response to the location > where it is needed, *and* (b) tie up resources that may be needed to > respond to a 'real' emergency. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well ... regards your first point, of > a 'tunnel' to some remote place, do you remember when 'Foreign Exchange > Service' (or FX) was quite common? It still exists today. Either as actual hard-wire to the remote CO (with a *BIG* one-time install charge, plus a moderate monthly) or, more commonly, as a 'virtualized' service. > So, one day in my office, a masked man breaks in, and waving his > gun around, he announces, "I am going to rob all the cashiers and > rape all the men". I say, 'oh no you are not!' and rush to my phone > to call the police. But in my haste I grab up the FX tie-line phone > and dial '911' -- (or as Bonomi would say, ooops) ... -- and wind > up lodging my complaint with the politce in Kalamazoo and Timbuck also. Funny thing about FX lines, the telco _does_ know where the end of that line is. In your scenario, if you called 911 on that line, while the call _might_ go to the PSAP for locale where the switch is, the *location* *information* given to the police would be accurate. The accurate POTS parallel to the VoIP 'location' problems is the situation where there the telephone company service terminates at a PBX, and there are 'extensions' *BEHIND* the PBX to 'remote' locations. The *telco* _does_not_ _know_ anything about what goes on behind the PBX, and can only report where =their= service terminates. Which leads to the telco providing "wrong answers" to the 911 center. Cell phone systems have the same problem. The point at which a cell-phone call is connected to the PSTN is _not_ necessarily anywhere "close" to the tower which is handling the call. AND, that tower may be in a different 'jurisdiction' than the one where the person _placing_ the call is. A review of actual 911 history will show that *both* of the above scenarios were real problems in the early days of 'enhanced 911'. In the first case, governmental regulations were issued that require PBX owners to keep the PSAP 'location database' updated with the *actual*location* of all extensions that are behind that PBX. The cell-phone problem was considerably thornier -- and went through a number of steps: 1) cell phone links were *blocked* from calling 911 because "wrong data" was being displayed. 2) 911 calling was re-enabled when it became possible to return "no data" for those calls, instead of "wrong data" as to the location. 3) enhanced technology was mandated/deployed _on_the_cell_ network (*NOT* a part of the PSTN) that allowed fairly precise _caller_ location determination 'on the fly'. 4) Where that technology was deployed, "good" (as in valid/accurate) 'location' data was then passed to the PSAP, instead of the prior "no data". Dealing with VoIP involves much 'harder' problems than either of the above. To have the phone itself figure out "where it is" it has to have straight-line inputs from a minimum of two sources that it (a) knows where are, *and* (b) can take directional bearings on, OR a minimum of three sources that it can measure signal timing from. AND it has to be able to reliably derive that information at _any_ location where the phone might be used. Using GPS is not a viable option -- 'indoor' reception is too poor. And the 300 ft accuracy is problematic. That last can be remedied by using DGPS, but that makes for a more expensive receiver. And doesn't do anything for the fundamental reception problems. The only solution for _that_ problem is to replace the transmitters with more powerful ones. Which is *awfully* expensive. LORAN-C might be a possibility, it carries indoors fairly well. BUT, it operates at 100kHz, which requires a non-trivial antenna for decent reception. *AND* it is only accurate to around 1/4 of a mile. "within several blocks" is simply not good enough for emergency-service dispatch. One is left with the possibility of direction-finding on local commercial stations. This could possibly be made to work, but requires access to a fairly massive database of *precise* transmitter locations. The equipment required to get a precision bearing on a transmitter isn't cheap, either. (If you're 10 miles from the transmitter, a _one_degree_ uncertainty in direction makes for +/- nearly a thousand feet in your location.) "Technology" is not the solution for this, "Policy" is. The two-part solution described previously does get the job done. Administratively, not via technology. All the burden (what burden there is) is on the VoIP provider and the actual 'owner' of the phone. And it probably takes 30 days, or _less_, to get it into 'production' status at any/every major VoIP provider. > If a _real man_ does not know where his broadband service is out of, > then he has no business calling the police to start with, does he? PAT] I stand "corrected". PAT _has_ come up with the ultimate solution. With his proposed 'local ISP'-based handling of emergency calls, *NOBODY* but the person who set up the VoIP service -- and knows where it connects through -- is allowed to use the phone in an emergency. "So what" if that person is unconscious on the floor from a heart attack, and the VoIP phone is the only one available, and someone who _doesn't_know_ that it is an IP phone, or where it connects through, cannot call for help. No need to even consider the situation of the person who takes "their" phone to a friends place, because they may have to make some lengthy toll calls, and simply _don't_know_ where _that_ broadband service is out of. After all, that could _never_ happen, could it? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, of course it _could_ happen, but what are the odds? Figure the 'odds' based on these things: the VOIP phone is on the road somewhere, not in its usual place. The subscriber has an incident and needs help. Not only does _he_ not know where he is at (or is not in a position to speak to the police) and the _phone_ does not know where it is at. There is no landline available, and/or the person in trouble not only cannot get to the (landline) phone, or whatever. My personal reaction is _all those factors taken in combin- ation_ are so negligible as to not matter at all. As soon as any one of those conditions does not exist, the problem is dealt with. We do not live in the town of 'Perfect' as the commercial for Walgreens states. And you know what, Robert? Even if magically, every one of those rare obstacles were overcome tonight, magically, _YOU_ would come up with still more obstacles, wouldn't you? And after all, why not? You swear on a stack of tech reference manuals that _nothing_ can be done to tame the 'wild west' lifestyle of the internet. I have never yet seen you ever admit to any possible cure for the nastiness on the internet. It just has to be the way it is, because Robert has all the (non) answers. Why shouldn't any problems with E-911 and VOIP turn out the same way. You don't really want to see any answers to any of those problems, do you? And rather than do _something_ and bring some small amount of relief to the vast majority of users, there will still be some iota-percentage we are unable to help, given our understandings. So better to do nothing at all, right Robert? I thought your thinking was absolutely ludicrous where spam/scam/viri was concerned, but people have seen nothing at all until you explain the 'hassles' (as you see them) with 911 and VOIP. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 17:05:24 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Popular Vote (was Re: FINAL Words on Sodomy Insane) Danny Burstein wrote in March 2003 about the 2002 World Series (in commenting about the U.S. Electoral College, noting that the 2000 presidential winner didn't get the most popular votes): > Giants: total runs: 44 > Angels: total runs: 41 > Of course, the number that COUNTS is the number of individual games that > were won. And there, the score was: > Giants: 3 > Angels: 4 I don't mean to go on a sports tangent, but even more dramatic was the 1960 World Series. The Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the NY Yankees 4 games to 3, but scored only 27 runs compared to NY Yankees' 55 runs! ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the End of TELECOM Digest V24 #218 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 May 2005 00:46:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 219 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FCC Set to Require 911 Dialing For Internet Phones (Jack Decker) Vonage Number Transfer (Nate) Re: Very Early Modems (Chris Kantarjiev) Re: Very Early Modems (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (AES) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Joseph) Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (Scott Kramer) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Steve) 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: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 19:43:37 -0400 Subject: FCC Set to Require 911 Dialing For Internet Phones http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,101796,00.html VoIP phone users reported problems getting emergency help News Story by Jeremy Pelofsky MAY 17, 2005 (REUTERS) - Internet telephone providers may soon have to offer full emergency 911 calling services under an order that U.S. regulators are expected to adopt Thursday in response to incidents of customers having trouble getting help. [Jack Decker COMMENT: If Reuters were reporting this truthfully, they'd probably have to have changed that to, " ... in response to a massive propaganda campaign by the traditional phone companies, their public relations firms, associated astroturf groups, and other assorted minions of Satan." Oops, sorry, got just a little carried away there.] Internet calls, known as voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), are sent over a high-speed Internet connection but don't always provide 911 response centers with the caller's address and are often routed to administrative lines. Under pressure from state law-enforcement agencies and Congress, the Federal Communications Commission plans to require VoIP companies to provide 911 services to customers within 120 days of its order being published, two officials familiar with the FCC plan said. Full story at: http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/story/0,10801,101796,00.html How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Nate Subject: Vonage Number Transfer Date: 17 May 2005 17:38:36 -0700 Well ... it's been 2 1/2 months now waiting on my phone number to transfer to Vonage. I'm not sure who's holding up the transfer but this is ridiculous. Vonage claims it's not their fault (probably isn't) but my question is, who do I complain to? My current carrier (MCI) doesn't want to hear about it and, again, Vonage claims it's not their fault. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well again, like the other day, in this case MCI is _probably not_ the underlying carrier, but probably just a UNI-P operation. Like the guy using AT&T for 'local service' the other day, more than likely MCI in this instance is at the mercy of whomever the 'real' carrier of record in your area is. Southwestern Bell perhaps? When Vonage put in the transfer request to MCI, then MCI in turn had to tell the 'actual carrier' about it. What does Vonage say other than 'not our fault'? Can you get them to audit or trace the transaction for you? You also said 'MCI does not want to hear about it'. Can you be more specific? Does your number actually _belong_ to you? Do you have that part of it under control? Please give us a few more details. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 16:52:14 PDT From: Chris Kantarjiev Subject: Re: Very Early Modems > As we recall, many large organizations, especially railroads, > maintained their own privately built and maintained telephone networks > and such users could of course attach anything they wanted. Railroads > could use this IBM system to send in freight car movements punched at > remote locations to a central site. Don't forget that SPRINT originally stood for "Southern Pacific Railway INTernal communications" ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is what I thought, and still maintain also however some people have said that is not the case. It is true that Southern Pacific RR _was_ the original owner, and the telecommunications company was originally the railroad's telecommuni- cations department up to sometime in the 1960's. The railroad did a major overhaul of their telecom stuff, and the end result was so much excess capacity the railroad decided to sell the excess capacity to business places (but not the general public). Some people have said that when the railroad decided to sell their excess telecom capacity (after the overhaul and remodeling of it, etc) they eventually decided to go public with the stock, treating the new entity as a wholly owned asset of the railroad and that a 'contest; was held to figure out a new name, but that 'Sprint' (as in running fast) was only coincidentaly only an acronym for Southern Pacific Internal Telecom. Now, I dunno. I have heard it both ways and like yourself, prefer the acronymn, coincidental or not. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 20:42:31 EDT Subject: Re: Very Early Modems In a message dated 17 May 2005 07:10:57 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > The passage said that AT&T strictly controlled attachments to their > lines; the IBM system was used mostly on private lines or leased > lines. As we recall, many large organizations, especially railroads, > maintained their own privately built and maintained telephone networks > and such users could of course attach anything they wanted. Railroads > could use this IBM system to send in freight car movements punched at > remote locations to a central site. Railroads (and other "right-of-way" companies) could use their lines as they saw fit, including imterconnecting with Bell lines at their PBX (including dial PBXs). This was true whether the company owned the lines or leased them from Bell. > But I wonder if AT&T allowed private attachments to leased private > lines it supplied. I wonder if the rules were different for such > lines as opposed to the switched network. I also wonder if the > independent telephone companies were as strict as AT&T regarding > attachments. The rules were indeed different on private lines. Generally the customer could hang anything they wanted on leased lines as long as they did not cause interference outside the bandwith. (Leased lines included telegraph, teletypewriter, voice, program channels [audio channels with wider bandwith than voice-grade channels], television channels, and various grades of data channels.) Most independent companies were even more restrictive than Bell in their regulations, both for lines attached to the switched network and for leased lines. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 18:11:54 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the > company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed > something back to the community. > Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was > indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to > its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge. > (Per Ziff-Davis history). > I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money > from the invention of the transistor. > I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I > never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions. > It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM > adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust > settlements. Bell Labs did attempt to exploit the 1958 patent on various laser concepts assigned to it by Columbia Professor and consultant Charles Townes, leading to the lengthy legal battle with independent inventor Gordon Gould described in Nick Taylor's interesting book "LASER: The Inventor, the Nobel Laureate, and the Thirty-Year Patent War," Simon & Schuster, 2000 -- a war which Gould eventually "won", at least in some limited sense. [Cross-posted to misc.int-property since there may be some interest there.] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 19:13:24 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 16 May 2005 22:42:36 -0000, John Levine wrote: > It appears that neither Cingular nor T-Mobile will sell you a prepaid > SIM in the US without a phone. If you poke around on their web sites, > all the prepaid plans include a phone. I realize there's no technical > reason that you couldn't just pop in a new SIM like you can in Europe, > but if they won't, they won't. My guess would be that there are so > few unlocked GSM phones in the US and even fewer people who understand > what they are that it's not worth the hassle of supporting them. Indeed you can get a prepaid SIM kit from corporate T-Mobile stores. I'm not sure what the story is with cingular. It's also possible to get SIM kits on eBay for less than face value (less than $50 which is what the corporate stores charge which includes $30 of talk time.) > A regular subscription phone is no good, since the subscriptions are > all for at least a year with a large penalty if you cancel early. Subscription phones aren't usually available to visitors anyway since most don't have US credit files or if a monthly plan is issued they will charge a hefty deposit up front. ------------------------------ From: Scott Kramer Subject: Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 23:10:31 -0400 "John Schmerold" wrote some stuff in message news:telecom24.218.3@telecom-digest.org: Then PAT added: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since there is no price differential > on Vonage in most cases (I still have a 500 minute limited account > but most users do not) the '1' is pointless and a waste of time. > _Everything_ is ten digits; even locally, and the price is the same > no matter what. However, some people do not know that Vonage can also > be _seven digits_ with area code (where the box was installed, or > 'home area') assumed. Like telco, if nothing is dialed after seven > digits, then it sits there for a few seconds to time out, and deals > with what it got. PAT] Pat, You can also press # (pound) after the 7 digits to make it process immediately! A nice tidbit for those who aren't aware of that! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes you can, but then you are back to eight digits pressed, so why not just press ten? Thet # pound or 'carriage return' as it is officially known is better used where it makes a difference such as on a landline phone when you do 0# to get the operator to time out to a live being instead of the system waiting for collect/third party/overseas dialing strings to follow, etc. By the way, that # pound does not do a thing on landline phones where seven digits (only) is expected, for example on a local call. # pound only works in 7-D _optional_ or zero _optional_ situations. In other words 10-D (but 7 sometimes okay) and strings starting with zero (and sometimes you can stop there). PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: 17 May 2005 20:10:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original writer about whom Steve Sobol later complained, saying: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think what you will find is the >> contract you signed at some point or another expressly gives _them_ >> the right to assign your contract. It did not give _you_ any rights >> like that however; just AT&T. PAT] > Yes, the cell phone contracts generally allow companies to assign > contracts to third parties. Read your original contract. I expected this type of answer. And I'm sure _you_ read through your entire contract letter-by-letter, yes? You miss my point though. I know AT&T had the right to transfer the contract when purchased by Cingular. What I don't like is the regulatory issue that then forced Cingular to divest to some "third party" (in this case, Alltel). What I am expecting is for them to at least continue the options I've had with AT&T. If you compare Alltel's offerings, you will find that Cingular offers much better plans, as did AT&T I believe ... What irks me the most is how Cingular originally lead consumers to believe all AT&T customers were being adopted into the new family. Heck, my phone even still displays "Cingular"! I look forward to the day when consumers have more power of choice and are not locked into long-term contracts. This is not a case where a company is giving its customers what they want. Under THESE circumstances, we should have the RIGHT to change to another company. We did not choose Alltel. The contracts need to be changed industry-wide. Period. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, I did _not_ read through my cellular phone contract totally, but that's because I know the rules of the game: Telcos and other large corporations have rights; you as a customer have the right to pay your bill on time, to shut up and not bellyache so much. I do quite agree with your premise however. Consumers _should_ get a lot more 'rights' than we generally have. Or, as AT&T, Cingular, Southwestern Bell and even Alltel would say, "Why don't you sue us before we can wreck your credit for non-payment?" Take a knife and cut 'it' off before they have a chance to stick it in you ... yeah sure ... Most of us cannot afford to do other than cook our carrots and pee in the same pot (very unsanitary!!) let alone hire some lawyer to look after us. What's the point in reading the contract if you know what it says anyway? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #219 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 May 2005 15:59:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 220 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VOIP in Public-Safety Showdown (Jack Decker) Avaya-Vectors -> Routing Every xth Call (nospamplease) Time Warner Chief Hints at AOL Spinoff (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Travelling From USA to Brazil: Need Cell Phone (Frugal Sam) Re: Very Early Modems (Steven J. Hathaway) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (John R. Levine) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Robert Bonomi) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Robert Bonomi) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (The Kaminsky Family) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Dean M.) Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (Jim Hatfield) 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: Jack Decker Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 08:43:06 -0400 Subject: VOIP in Public-Safety Showdown http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67557,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 By Michael Grebb WASHINGTON -- Internet phone providers are facing static over alleged public-safety failings, with federal regulators poised to unveil new rules that could drive up prices and crimp growth. VOIP providers insist they are not against providing 911 support, but they have balked at requirements that might increase their costs and give rival Bell operating companies a choke point to slow or prevent their entry into themarket. Rich Tehrani, chairman of the Internet Telephony Conference, said that the VOIP industry generally supports the concept of offering 911 capabilities but has urged extreme caution. "I support any initiative that may save lives and keep human beings safe," Tehrani said. "On the other hand, I am concerned that regulation may make it difficult to provide inexpensive VOIP service." Tehrani said the industry is pretty much holding its breath in anticipation of Thursday's action. "Depending on how drastic the FCC rules are, it may be impossible to comply in the short term," he said. "Some providers may not be able to afford to comply." Vonage spokesman Chris Murray said much will hinge on the incumbent local exchange carriers, or LECs, that control access to the 911 switching centers -- known as public-safety answering points, or PSAPs. According to Murray, incumbent LECs have been reluctant to provide PSAP access to VOIP providers voluntarily. Lack of access to PSAPs contributed to the Texas incident and similar cases of people not being able to reach 911 operators, he said. "If we had had that access, we wouldn't have had these incidents," he said. Some consumer advocates, who generally support 911 capabilities for VOIP, have also urged the FCC to link any VOIP 911 requirement to rules that force the incumbent telcos to cooperate. "We don't want to see a requirement on VOIP providers to do 911 but not require it to be implemented quickly by requiring the (local phone monopolies) to work with them," said Janee Briesemeister, senior policy analyst at Consumers Union. Full story at: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,67557,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jens Lykke Brandt Subject: Avaya-Vectors -> Routing Every xth Call Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:04:13 +0200 Organization: TDC Totalloesninger Hi. This should hopefully be an easy question: I have an ACD on an Avaya PBX that receives calls. I'd like to take every 10th call and divert it to somewhere else (ISDN/CAS/etc. - A Dialogic card anyway). Could that be done using vectors? In other PBXs I've used an extra hunting-group "in front" of the real group. The new group then had 9 places forwarding to the real group whilst number 10 pointed to us. But I'm told it is impossible on Avaya because it is too smart. Anyone disagree? Thanks in advance, Jens Brandt ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 13:24:17 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Time Warner Chief Hints at AOL Spinoff Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 18, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21678&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Time Warner chief hints at AOL spinoff BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Vodafone cuts roaming charges in Europe * Fast-growing IP services not yet profitable * Wall Street eyes Comcast, T-Mobile deal for wireless * Wireless renters and the battle to come USTA SPOTLIGHT * Time Warner Cable CEO To Speak At TelecomNEXT EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * SmartVideo announces wireless music video service * The role of speed * Brian Roberts: VOD era is nigh * Mobile phone operators launch Amber Alerts REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC to vote on 911 rules for VoIP * FCC to review ownership limits for cable TV Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21678&l=2017006 ------------------------------ Subject: Travelling From USA to Brazil: Need Cell Phone From: Frugal Sam Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 03:11:38 -0500 Hello, I have a Nokia CDMA phone that I currently use with Verizon in USA. I will be visiting Brazil in the next couple of weeks, and then Thailand in September and would like to have the use of a cell phone while I am in those countries. My understanding is that I need to get hold of an 'unlocked' quad band cell phone and then, when I am in those countries, buy a SIM card from a local provider. Is this correct? If it is, how can I get hold of an unlocked quad band cell phone? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Hathaway Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 23:17:12 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Just a few years ago, I retired my 300 baud modem manufactured by Western Electric. It was grandfathered into the FCC registry. It had pulse-dial and a push-button to activate the data frequencies. It received its power from the battery voltage on the telephone circuit, thus needed no external electrical power. This modem was also my first access to the Internet, and dial-up bulletin board services. Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 17 May 2005 07:10:57 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com > writes: > The passage said that AT&T strictly controlled attachments > to their lines; the IBM system was used mostly on private lines or > leased lines. As we recall, many large organizations, especially > railroads, >>maintained their own privately built and maintained > telephone networks and such users could of course attach anything > they wanted. Railroads could use this IBM system to send in > freight car movements punched at remote locations to a central > site. Railroads (and other "right-of-way" companies) could use > their lines as they saw fit, including imterconnecting with Bell > lines at their PBX (including dial PBXs). This was true whether the > company owned the lines or leased them from Bell. > But I wonder if AT&T allowed private attachments to leased private > lines it supplied. I wonder if the rules were different for such > lines as opposed to the switched network. I also wonder if the > independent telephone companies were as strict as AT&T regarding > attachments. The rules were indeed different on private lines. > Generally the customer could hang anything they wanted on leased > lines as long as they did not cause interference outside the > bandwith. (Leased lines included telegraph, teletypewriter, voice, > program channels [audio channels with wider bandwith than > voice-grade channels], television channels, and various grades of > data channels.) Most independent companies were even more > restrictive than Bell in their regulations, both for lines attached > to the switched network and for leased lines. > Wes Leatherock > wesrock@aol.com I also had several earler modems predating 300 baud. These operated at 110 baud, 75 baud, and 56 baud. The slowest of the modems were used with circuits where data was badot and tty codes. - Steve Hathaway ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: 18 May 2005 09:06:55 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I am expecting is for them to at least continue the options I've had > with AT&T. If you compare Alltel's offerings, you will find that > Cingular offers much better plans, as did AT&T I believe ... But you do have the same options you did. Your existing contract still is what it is. When it's up, if you don't like what Alltel is offering, go across the street, sign up with Cingular, and transfer your number. The reason they sold you to Alltel is that Cingular already operates where you are, and the combination would have been too large a fraction of the market. So Cingular is there if you want them. R's, John ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 13:42:13 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Steve wrote: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to the original writer > about whom Steve Sobol later complained, saying: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think what you will find is the >>> contract you signed at some point or another expressly gives _them_ >>> the right to assign your contract. It did not give _you_ any rights >>> like that however; just AT&T. PAT] >> Yes, the cell phone contracts generally allow companies to assign >> contracts to third parties. Read your original contract. > I expected this type of answer. And I'm sure _you_ read through your > entire contract letter-by-letter, yes? If you do not do it, you have only yourself to blame when something in it bites you 'unexpectedly'. > You miss my point though. I > know AT&T had the right to transfer the contract when purchased by > Cingular. What I don't like is the regulatory issue that then forced > Cingular to divest to some "third party" (in this case, Alltel). What > I am expecting is for them to at least continue the options I've had > with AT&T. For the term of your contract, they _are_ required to provide the services specified in that contract, at the price specified. Unless there is something _in_the_contract_ that allows them to change things. I can't speak for _your_ contract -- you *will* have to actually read all that boring stuff -- but such contracts usually provide that the carrier can change the service offerings, and maybe even the pricing, "whenever they want to", *BUT* if/when they do that, you have an 'escape' window, where you can 'refuse' the new terms. Depending on contract language, if you _do_ refuse the new terms when offered, that either *cancels* the contract, _without_penalty_, or they are obliged to continue the contracted services for the contracted period. Note well that the contracts are written such that if you _do_not_object_ then you are deemed to have agreed to the new terms, and they are binding on you. > I look forward to the day when consumers have more power of choice and > are not locked into long-term contracts. You're not locked into long-term contracts. You *could* have bought service with _no_minimum_term_. Yes, all the major carriers do offer such contracts. If you did that, it would have been considerably more expensive, no "free phone", no free activation, or any other 'freebies'. You pay for it all, one way or another. > This is not a case where a > company is giving its customers what they want. Under THESE > circumstances, we should have the RIGHT to change to another company. You have the right to get _what_you_paid_for_. As long as you are getting the services you contracted for, you have no basis for complaining about _who_ is delivering that service. If you are _not_ getting the services you contracted for, then you _may_ have the basis for complaint. If however, the contract allows them to change the services delivered, and they notified you of the changes, and you did _not_ exercise your rights in a timely manner, you _have_ agreed to those changes, and you do not have recourse against them for your failure to act. Note: this is just one reason why it *is* a good idea to read all those messy little details on the contract -- if not before you sign, at least sometime reasonably soon thereafter -- so you have some idea of what rights (limited though they may be) you *do* have. And so that you _can_ exercise those rights , in a "use it or lose it" situation. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 13:11:55 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were > used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local > call to a distant business and the business could call its customers > for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap. > At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the > switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for > FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted. > I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't > know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets. > I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines > obsolete. The proverbial "yes and no". I seriously looked at FX for my residence a couple of times within the last 10 years or so. The install cost was medium monumental -- hundreds of dollars -- but the monthly recurring was a pittance -- under $2, as I recall. The monthly was that cheap because it wasn't very far -- this was for FX from the next exchange distant. It was a straight per-mile thing, and the 'worst case' distance was under 5 miles (I had them do numbers to three nearby COs, I knew the more distant one had the right kind of gear, wasn't sure what the others had, or how the distance stacked up.) I was looking at ISDN, and wanted features that were only available from certain kinds of switch. Unfortunately the one in 'my' C.O. did -not- support the particular features I wanted. Hence the FX investigation. The poor telco rep -- who had apparently never heard of such a thing -- had to do a _lot_ of digging, get a special services quote on the install costs, etc. and then was utterly _amazed_ at how low the monthly cost was. (I was, too!) The idea of _ISDN_ FX took a lot of the engineering people somewhat by surprise, or so I heard, but it _was_ in the tariffs. > There was toll free before 800 numbers but it was manual > and a local number added a comfort factor. Obviously today a > business's 800 number is more convenient for anyone. Further, > businesses have outward long distance packages so the cost of paying > for an FX trunk (that only worked in a specific city) couldn't be > justified. "In-state" long distance can still be obnoxiously priced. Including in-state 800 service. I know of at least one manufacturing company -- located jut outside of a fairly _small_ town, that maintains a tie-line to the "big city" circa 50 miles away. They have a national 800 number, too. but there's enough call-volume to the city to justify the ongoing cost of the dedicated line. Probably not enough to justify *installing* it, if they had to do it today, but enough to _keep_ it, since the install is a 'sunk cost' -- long sunk, probably 50 years, now. I *really* confused their switchboard one day, when I called "out of the blue" to request a quote on an order. I was calling from two states away, and the call came in on their city tie-line, *not* their 800 number. For which there was a _simple_ explanation, I had family in the city, had called _them_ to get a referral, _and_ the phone number. Oddly enough, the 800 number was _not_ listed in the local phone book _there_. Since my then place-of-work had flat-rate (unmetered) _outgoing_ Long Distance, I didn't bother to check for any other numbers. After I got a salesman, that conversation got sort-of funny. He was reluctant to quote on the order -- stated that he 'almost surely' would not be competitive, "particularly with the cost of shipping figured in", with suppliers around Chicago, where I was. As it turned out, _including_ shipping, his price was almost 1/3 *under* the best price I got locally. My order was comparatively small for a manufacturer, low 4 figures. But, as it turned out, they got a *LOT* of other business from the Chicago area as a result of my purchase -- some _big_ users heard about the pricing I got, and were placing rail-car size orders. For several years they even had a sales office here. > But there is another type of "FX" service that seems not to have gone > away even though the need has. Philadelphia has a local city zone and > message units for more distant suburban calls. Many suburban > businesses had a city phone number for the same reason companies had > FX lines. Even some suburban homeowners who made a lot of city calls > had a second line with a city number. AFAIK, many suburban businesses > still maintain their existing city phone numbers even though today the > need isn't as much. > (The following is the economic analyis for those interested). > The message unit charge has been 7c for at least the last 40 years. > Now 7c 40 years ago was like 50c today and say a monthly usage of 100 > units comes to some serious money in today's terms (equivalent of $50) > while today it's $7 which isn't a big deal. Further, Verizon has > increased local calling area sizes and reduced zone charges. My guess > is today it probably costs a business far more to maintain the city > line than whatever they save in message units, and customers don't > give making a suburban call a second thought today. > In looking through the yellow pages I noticed many businesses had > multiple numbers. However, for some time Verizon offers remote >forwarding -- that is you get a local number but it really isn't a > line -- it just forwards calls to your actual number. That's more to > imply a business has a local presence than to save customers toll > charges. Remote forwarding is relatively *expensive* -- you pay a 'message units' charge for every call. Depending on what the monthly is for for the FX pair, it can be a _lot_ cheaper. Making a WAG about the monthly for an across-town like that FX, The break-even point could easily be only 6-8 calls a day. > I guess that businesses maintaining a distant line never gave it any > thought and just pay for it month after month. "Keeping" it can be relatively inexpensive. Putting it in, in the first place was where the big expense was. ------------------------------ From: The Kaminsky Family Reply-To: kaminsky@kaminsky.org Organization: None Whatsoever Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 06:03:19 GMT hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money > from the invention of the transistor. > I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; > indeed, I never knew of AT&T making money from licensing > its many inventions. It appears patents were more for > freedom of use than profit. IBM adopted a similar policy > in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust settlements. Don't I wish that were true! A company I once worked for got sued by AT&T for patent infringement, and spent a considerable effort in proving that we were not infringing. They came back with something to the effect that, "You don't get it. Here are fifty more patents you are infringing on. We have thousands more once you prove that you're not infringing on these. Just give up and pay us!" I don't know the whole story -- I was not working there at the time -- but as I understand it, the settlement was a yearly fee in a rather significant amount (for a small company). Mark ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Date: 18 May 2005 09:32:03 -0700 > I highly recommend reading the opinions of Bruce Schneier, of > Counterpane Internet Security: > http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0505.html Very good stuff and recommended. Two paragraphs stand out: > "The REAL ID Act requires driver's licenses to include a "common > machine-readable technology." This will, of course, make identity > theft easier. Already some hotels take photocopies of your ID when you > check in, and some bars scan your ID when you try to buy a > drink. Since the U.S. has no data protection law, those businesses are > free to resell that data to data brokers like ChoicePoint and > Acxiom. And they will; it would be bad business not to. It actually > doesn't matter how well the states and federal government protect the > data on driver's licenses, as there will be parallel commercial > databases with the same information. " He is absolutely right. It already is a scam where a restaurant employee secretly copies a credit card and its mag stripe for illegal purposes. Nothing would stop hotel workers and others from doing the same thing. Remember many of these workers tend to be low paid, transitory without much loyalty, and not much love for their customers. The minute the new cards and readers go into service someone will hack and illegally copy them. Beyond that, there is a legitimate sharing of information as described. Note that the "Privacy Policy" booklet we all get says the company will share data with its "business partners" which could mean anyone. (the next paragraph I quote said): > "REAL ID doesn't go into effect until three years after it becomes > law, but I expect things to be much worse by then. One of my fears is > that this new uniform driver's license will bring a new level of "show > me your papers" checks by the government. Already you can't fly > without an ID, even though no one has ever explained how that ID check > makes airplane terrorism any harder. I have previously written about > Secure Flight, another lousy security system that tries to match > airline passengers against terrorist watch lists. I've already heard > rumblings about requiring states to check identities against > "government databases" before issuing driver's licenses. I'm sure > Secure Flight will be used for cruise ships, trains, and possibly even > subways. Combine REAL ID with Secure Flight and you have an > unprecedented system for broad surveillance of the population." We're not gonna wake up one morning and discover we need "our papers" with us at all times. But we are seeing is requiring "our papers" to do more and more things of everyday life. In Boston, they had ID checks during the convention. Some libraries require a real ID for entry (not merely your library card). Young adults must show ID to guy cigarettes or drink. In the interest of "fraud control" and "terrorist security" or "criminal security" we are being ordered to show real ID in more and more places. I like to walk and have been occassion stopped by cops on patrol for neighborhood safety. When I walk around my own neighborhood I don't carry my wallet and have no ID at all on me. I wonder what will happen if I'm stopped then. I have national unlimited phone service. I wonder if despite that, the ESS is keeping a log of every phone call in and out and just storing it someplace. On TV, they imply those logs exist and the cops may get to them. Can anyone defend this new stuff? Are there real benefits I don't see? ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 16:44:10 GMT You are essentially relegating every IP communications device to a 911 caller first and then any other type of communications (and only after the customer jumps through a number of hoops remembering to drop cookie crums so she can find her way back should she need to change something). I agree with you that this solution would probably be a quicker one to implement, but I don't think it would ever be considered satisfactory. Any 911 solution needs to be more transparent to the user than what you describe. Therefore, it probably has to be a technology solution (naturally any technology will be implementing policy!). Your points about GPS and its relatives are well taken. Sadly, even though I consider your suggested solution inadequate, I have nothing better to suggest at this time ... Frankly I think it's too soon to suggest anything in this field, except that users of VoIP should be *warned* that their service doesn't include 911. I would hazard the guess that most anyone who at some point in time needs to dial 911 from a VoIP phone, also has a cell available to do that job. Maybe for now we should only mandate that anyone who dials 911 from a VoIP phone should be given an announement to the effect "use your cell phone to make this call!" Dean Robert Bonomi wrote in message news:telecom24.218.11@telecom-digest.org: > In article , Robert Bonomi > wrote: > [[.. munch ..]] >> The "easy" solution is a two-part one. >> Part 1: The VoIP 'head end' tracks the 'most recently used' IP >> address for each customer. _EVERY_TIME_ the customer IP >> address changes, the phone goes *out*of*service* with a >> notice that the customer must update their "calling >> location". >> Possibly with an added hook that if the phone has been 'off >> line' for some non-trivial period, that when it goes back >> 'on line', the customer is queried (in an automated >> fashion) to confirm that they are still at "thus and such >> location"; where "thus and such" is the previously >> specified location for the phone. >> Part 2: The VoIP 'head end' maps the various 'calling locations' to the >> appropriate PSAP, upon need. >> Add an option for the customer to intentionally _not_ specify his >> location, but which also totally disables 911 calling. This protects >> his 'privacy' at the expense of his safety, but it is the customer's >> decision. >> The last part of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer is aware >> that the "location information" provided is used for "emergency calls" >> and that deliberately providing FALSE information can (and probably >> _will_) lead to criminal prosecution if emergency services are >> directed to an incorrect location as a result of said false >> information. There is already existing enforcement mechanism for this >> -- "filing a false police report", etc. > [[.. munch ..]] >> Now, silly as it sounds, something that "works right" 98% of the time, >> but "invisibly" does the _wrong_ thing the other 2% of the time is >> *worse* that something that 'almost never' gets it right. >> An essential element of a 911 'locator' system it that it either gives >> a 'right answer', or it gives *NO* answer. "Wrong answers" are simply >> not acceptable -- wrong answers (a) delay the response to the location >> where it is needed, *and* (b) tie up resources that may be needed to >> respond to a 'real' emergency. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well ... regards your first point, of >> a 'tunnel' to some remote place, do you remember when 'Foreign Exchange >> Service' (or FX) was quite common? > It still exists today. Either as actual hard-wire to the remote CO (with > a *BIG* one-time install charge, plus a moderate monthly) or, more > commonly, > as a 'virtualized' service. >> So, one day in my office, a masked man breaks in, and waving his >> gun around, he announces, "I am going to rob all the cashiers and >> rape all the men". I say, 'oh no you are not!' and rush to my phone >> to call the police. But in my haste I grab up the FX tie-line phone >> and dial '911' -- (or as Bonomi would say, ooops) ... -- and wind >> up lodging my complaint with the politce in Kalamazoo and Timbuck also. > Funny thing about FX lines, the telco _does_ know where the end of > that line is. In your scenario, if you called 911 on that line, while > the call _might_ go to the PSAP for locale where the switch is, the > *location* *information* given to the police would be accurate. > The accurate POTS parallel to the VoIP 'location' problems is the > situation where there the telephone company service terminates at a > PBX, and there are 'extensions' *BEHIND* the PBX to 'remote' > locations. The *telco* _does_not_ _know_ anything about what goes on > behind the PBX, and can only report where =their= service terminates. > Which leads to the telco providing "wrong answers" to the 911 center. > Cell phone systems have the same problem. The point at which a > cell-phone call is connected to the PSTN is _not_ necessarily anywhere > "close" to the tower which is handling the call. AND, that tower may > be in a different 'jurisdiction' than the one where the person > _placing_ the call is. > A review of actual 911 history will show that *both* of the above > scenarios were real problems in the early days of 'enhanced 911'. In > the first case, governmental regulations were issued that require PBX > owners to keep the PSAP 'location database' updated with the > *actual*location* of all extensions that are behind that PBX. > The cell-phone problem was considerably thornier -- and went through a > number of steps: > 1) cell phone links were *blocked* from calling 911 because "wrong data" > was being displayed. > 2) 911 calling was re-enabled when it became possible to return "no > data" for those calls, instead of "wrong data" as to the location. > 3) enhanced technology was mandated/deployed _on_the_cell_ network > (*NOT* a part of the PSTN) that allowed fairly precise _caller_ > location determination 'on the fly'. > 4) Where that technology was deployed, "good" (as in valid/accurate) > 'location' data was then passed to the PSAP, instead of the prior > "no data". > Dealing with VoIP involves much 'harder' problems than either of the > above. To have the phone itself figure out "where it is" it has to > have straight-line inputs from a minimum of two sources that it (a) > knows where are, *and* (b) can take directional bearings on, OR a > minimum of three sources that it can measure signal timing from. AND > it has to be able to reliably derive that information at _any_ > location where the phone might be used. > Using GPS is not a viable option -- 'indoor' reception is too poor. > And the 300 ft accuracy is problematic. That last can be remedied by > using DGPS, but that makes for a more expensive receiver. And doesn't > do anything for the fundamental reception problems. The only solution > for _that_ problem is to replace the transmitters with more powerful > ones. Which is *awfully* expensive. > LORAN-C might be a possibility, it carries indoors fairly well. BUT, > it operates at 100kHz, which requires a non-trivial antenna for decent > reception. *AND* it is only accurate to around 1/4 of a mile. "within > several blocks" is simply not good enough for emergency-service > dispatch. > One is left with the possibility of direction-finding on local > commercial stations. This could possibly be made to work, but > requires access to a fairly massive database of *precise* transmitter > locations. The equipment required to get a precision bearing on a > transmitter isn't cheap, either. (If you're 10 miles from the > transmitter, a _one_degree_ uncertainty in direction makes for +/- > nearly a thousand feet in your location.) > "Technology" is not the solution for this, "Policy" is. The two-part > solution described previously does get the job done. > Administratively, not via technology. All the burden (what burden > there is) is on the VoIP provider and the actual 'owner' of the phone. > And it probably takes 30 days, or _less_, to get it into 'production' > status at any/every major VoIP provider. >> If a _real man_ does not know where his broadband service is out of, >> then he has no business calling the police to start with, does he? PAT] > I stand "corrected". PAT _has_ come up with the ultimate solution. > With his proposed 'local ISP'-based handling of emergency calls, > *NOBODY* but the person who set up the VoIP service -- and knows where > it connects through -- is allowed to use the phone in an emergency. > "So what" if that person is unconscious on the floor from a heart > attack, and the VoIP phone is the only one available, and someone who > _doesn't_know_ that it is an IP phone, or where it connects through, > cannot call for help. > No need to even consider the situation of the person who takes "their" > phone to a friends place, because they may have to make some lengthy > toll calls, and simply _don't_know_ where _that_ broadband service is > out of. After all, that could _never_ happen, could it? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, of course it _could_ happen, but > what are the odds? Figure the 'odds' based on these things: the VOIP > phone is on the road somewhere, not in its usual place. The subscriber > has an incident and needs help. Not only does _he_ not know where he > is at (or is not in a position to speak to the police) and the _phone_ > does not know where it is at. There is no landline available, and/or > the person in trouble not only cannot get to the (landline) phone, or > whatever. My personal reaction is _all those factors taken in combin- > ation_ are so negligible as to not matter at all. As soon as any > one of those conditions does not exist, the problem is dealt with. We > do not live in the town of 'Perfect' as the commercial for Walgreens > states. And you know what, Robert? Even if magically, every one of > those rare obstacles were overcome tonight, magically, _YOU_ would > come up with still more obstacles, wouldn't you? And after all, why > not? You swear on a stack of tech reference manuals that _nothing_ can > be done to tame the 'wild west' lifestyle of the internet. I have > never yet seen you ever admit to any possible cure for the nastiness > on the internet. It just has to be the way it is, because Robert has > all the (non) answers. Why shouldn't any problems with E-911 and VOIP > turn out the same way. You don't really want to see any answers to > any of those problems, do you? And rather than do _something_ and > bring some small amount of relief to the vast majority of users, there > will still be some iota-percentage we are unable to help, given our > understandings. So better to do nothing at all, right Robert? I > thought your thinking was absolutely ludicrous where spam/scam/viri > was concerned, but people have seen nothing at all until you explain > the 'hassles' (as you see them) with 911 and VOIP. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jim Hatfield Subject: Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 18:05:12 +0100 Organization: Insignia Solutions Reply-To: jim.hatfield@insignia.com On Tue, 17 May 2005 23:10:31 -0400, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Scott Kramer : > eight digits pressed, so why not just press ten? Thet # pound or > 'carriage return' as it is officially known is better used where it I thought it was officially known as an octothorpe? It certainly isn't called a pound in the UK! Jim Hatfield ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #220 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 May 2005 22:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 221 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? (Jack Decker) Earthquake Forecasting (Lisa Minter) Time Warner Cable Settles NY Promotion Dispute (Lisa Minter) Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (billemery) Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (Dean M.) Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (Tony P.) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Isaiah Beard) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Tony P.) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (AES) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (Tony P.) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Steve Sobol) Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You (Tony P.) Re: Very Early Modems (Tony P) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (AES) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Robert Bonomi) Re: Traveling to Brazil; Need Cell Phone(Joseph) Re: AT&T - Cingular Wireless - Alltel; They Broke My Contract (Joseph) 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: Jack Decker Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:11:52 -0400 Subject: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge They're Engineering http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63675 FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge They're Engineering Death of Indie VoIP Written by Karl Bode Tomorrow the FCC will release an order that forces all independent VoIP providers to offer 911 service within 120 days. On the surface the move seems like a simple way of ensuring public safety, but critics believe it's really an incumbent engineered attempt to crush upstart VoIP competitors. There's been a scattered number of deaths blamed on VoIP -- whether or not the VoIP provider was actually culpable http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63372 hasn't mattered to some news outlets. Vonage has also been sued for "failing to inform users they need to activate their 911 service" before it will work; apparently this welcome screen http://www.broadbandreports.com/r0/download/800075~433b0c31ec1520970b77229393b7d713/vonage.png every customer sees was simply too mystical. Such concerns, valid or not, have resulted in a growing cry for action on the federal level. So the FCC issues a ruling that requires upstart VoIP providers to provide 911 service. An honest move to ensure public safety, right? Not according to the TechKnow Times http://www.techknowtimes.com/ : "They (indie VoIP providers) were in the market space first, they have far better offerings, and much better pricing as well. So how to kill them? Simple. Force them to have to buy a service where the traditional telephone companies can set the price. And what is one thing that the traditional phone companies still pretty much have a monopoly on? The provision of 911 service." Jeff Pulver, co-founder of Vonage and the man behind Free-World dial-up, hasn't been optimistic either. An entry http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/002189.html to his blog questioning the FCC move was apparently met with harsh criticism. From a follow up post http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/002209.html : "I have had much internal debate over how to approach what we believe the FCC is doing to the industry this week, and, frankly, I felt compelled to speak up, aware of the potential political consequences. I have deep concerns that the FCC is going to drastically overreach (like swatting a fly with a nuclear bomb) and bring down the VoIP industry." Pulver worries that "2005 may go down in history as the time we saw both the rise and fall of the unaffiliated VoIP service provider." Evident by discussion in our VoIP forum http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13433727 , others are also worried that the move is an opening salvo in the slaughter of indie providers by a well lobbied FCC. Article + reader comments at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63675 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Earthquake Forecasting Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 18:20:43 -0500 LONDON (Reuters) - For Californians, getting the latest earthquake forecast will now be as easy as checking the weather. They simply have to look on the Internet. Scientists have developed a computer model, available on http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/step/, that gives the probability of damaging tremors occurring in California in the next 24 hours. "It is a daily forecast map of earthquakes, updated hourly," said Matthew Gerstenberger, a seismologist at the US Geological Survey in Pasadena, California. The map doesn't predict big earthquakes but calculates whether the region will experience tremors severe enough to break windows or crack plaster. "The probabilities are generally low," said Gerstenberger, who discussed his work in the science journal Nature. Gerstenberger and his colleagues believe their forecasting model will be useful for city managers, people who make decisions about emergency planning, operators of large facilities, as well as members of the public. The model uses knowledge of the behavior of fault lines in California and factors in effects from recent earthquakes in the area. "It is dominated by aftershock information, earthquake clustering information," he said. "It is not an earthquake prediction tool. We are not saying yes, there will be an earthquake or no, there won't be an earthquake. It deals with lower probability events." The map gives details about California but the researchers said it could be used for forecasting in other earthquake-prone areas of the world. "There is no reason it needs to be limited to California. It is purely a statistical model driven by earthquake data -- where, when and how big they are," said Gerstenberger. 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: 18 May 2005 16:33:19 -0700 From: Lisa Minter Subject: Time Warner Cable Settles NY Promotion Dispute Time Warner Cable Settles NY Promotion Dispute http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050518/wr_nm/media_timewarnercable_dc ------------------------------ From: billemery Subject: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 15:06:05 -0500 Used my trusty Nokia as a modem the other day to see if it worked and called my ISP's dialup access number for folks on the road or whatever and found that Sprint had charged me .40 a minute for "wireless web access". What a rip !!! Gonna change to t-mobile or someone (anyone) else. Don't like surprises. ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 20:28:23 GMT I've heard it called "hash". Is that the UK term? Don't tell me they/you say "octothorpe"! Dean Jim Hatfield wrote in message news:telecom24.220.12@telecom-digest.org: > On Tue, 17 May 2005 23:10:31 -0400, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in > response to Scott Kramer : >> eight digits pressed, so why not just press ten? Thet # pound or >> 'carriage return' as it is officially known is better used where it > I thought it was officially known as an octothorpe? It certainly > isn't called a pound in the UK! > Jim Hatfield [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It may be about time to reprint an old item from our archives (!All You Wanted to Know About the #') or look for it at http://telecom-digest.org in the history section. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:40:15 -0400 In article , john@katy.com says: > Recently ordered a new Vonage line. The new line does not require a "1" > prefix. > I was spending $50 per new line for a device that inserted the 1. This > is Great news! > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since there is no price differential > on Vonage in most cases (I still have a 500 minute limited account > but most users do not) the '1' is pointless and a waste of time. > _Everything_ is ten digits; even locally, and the price is the same > no matter what. However, some people do not know that Vonage can also > be _seven digits_ with area code (where the box was installed, or > 'home area') assumed. Like telco, if nothing is dialed after seven > digits, then it sits there for a few seconds to time out, and deals > with what it got. PAT] The problem is that they're transmitting caller ID with a 1, so when you go to re-dial a number from CLID guess what happens. They are having problems, not doubt about it. Today I come home, pick up the phone and get stutter tone. Ok, check voice mail. No connection. Hmm, try dialing my number from my cell and I get "Your call cannot be completed as dialed..." What the hell! It appears to be working now but during this time I could not even access my web account. It looks like a Vonage server took a hit. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 16:55:01 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were > used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local > call to a distant business and the business could call its customers > for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap. > At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the > switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for > FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted. > I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't > know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets. > I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines > obsolete. There was toll free before 800 numbers but it was manual > and a local number added a comfort factor. There is something else too that is going the way of the dodo: tie lines. These were useful for large universities with multiple campuses, as well as businesses with more than one hub operation in distant cities. A tie line is usually part of a PBX system and works like this: instead of getting an outside line, you dial a special code that connects you to the PBX at the distant office. There could be multiple codes, each one connecting you to a different distant location, depending on how big your organization is. You can then call any extension in that distant PBX, OR get an outside line in that distant PBX and make a local call in that area without incurring toll charges. Of course, tie lines, too, are pricey, but in their day they were economical if your organization had a lot of voice traffic going back and forth from each office, and saved some cash making LD calls in certain areas, too. Nowadays, cheaper LD and Voice over IP is making tie lines quite obsolete. I currently work in a large organization that has three major complexes spread out across the state, that are connected to tie lines. All three sites have CENTREX systems, and the tie lines are accessed through it. Recently, one of the three sites migrated to a completely VoIP system, which effectively "broke" the tie line (the other two sites can no longer use the tie line to call site 3, incurring toll charges while site 3 is saving TONS of money ... all of its calles are net-routed now). Ultimately, the only option appears to be that the other two sites have to upgrade as well, but technological inertia here for things as mundane as phones moves glacially slow. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 18:13:29 -0400 In article , bonomi@host122.r- bonomi.com says: > In article , > wrote: >> In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were >> used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local >> call to a distant business and the business could call its customers >> for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap. >> At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the >> switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for >> FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted. >> I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't >> know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets. >> I would guess WATS and long distance packages has made most FX lines >> obsolete. > The proverbial "yes and no". > I seriously looked at FX for my residence a couple of times within the > last 10 years or so. nWhen I was living in the Marieville section of North Providence, RI I got tagged with a Pawtucket (722 to 729) rate center phone number while just a block away, there were Providence (353 and 354) rate center numbers. The install of the FX was about $85 and the monthly service < $40 but it was worth it as I had many friends in the Warwick/EG area and my tolls were getting insane. When I moved two block over I had a Providence rate center number again. So as a "screw you" to then New England Telephone, I had call forwarding set up on the line. You see, folks in the Pawtucket rate center could call my Providence rate center number. I could call the Warwick and EG rate centers without toll. You see where I'm going here. Friend of mine had a major BBS set up in East Greenwich but northern RI users paid tolls to access. What we found out about call forwarding was that the call forwarded and then released the line for other calls. In addition, it would forward even while I was using it. He split the cost of the line with me for that little service. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A memory on this topic ... in the Chicago area, Harlem Avenue and Irving Park Road is the dividing line between part of Chicago proper and various western suburbs. When area 312 was split many years ago with part of it going into a new code 708, there were many customers along Harlem Avenue (on the west side of the street; the suburban side) who had inadvertently earlier gotten assigned a 'Chicago' prefix instead of a 'suburban' prefix. (All the prefixes around that area work out of the Chicago-Newcastle central office regardless of geographic location; once '708' as an area code got started, telco just did programming in the central office.) But the end result was the a few people on the Chicago (eastern) side of Harlem wound up with a 708 number and some on the suburban (western) side of Harlem wound up with a 312 number. It has been several years now, of course, but I seem to remember a restaurant on the Chicago side with its natural 312 business number, but the parking lot in front of it had one payphone with a 708 number. At that time (of the 708 split from 312) a lot of business people around Harlem/Irving were very unhappy about split; even more so when it was discovered a bit later that 'here and there' their neighbor across the street had an incorrectly assigned phone number from long before in the past. PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 14:20:48 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , The Kaminsky Family wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; >> indeed, I never knew of AT&T making money from licensing >> its many inventions. It appears patents were more for >> freedom of use than profit. IBM adopted a similar policy >> in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust settlements. > Don't I wish that were true! A company I once worked for got > sued by AT&T for patent infringement, and spent a considerable > effort in proving that we were not infringing. They came back > with something to the effect that, "You don't get it. Here are > fifty more patents you are infringing on. We have thousands more > once you prove that you're not infringing on these. Just give up > and pay us!" > I don't know the whole story -- I was not working there at the > time -- but as I understand it, the settlement was a yearly fee > in a rather significant amount (for a small company). > Mark Folks at misc.int-property may find this post interesting. U.S. Constitution, Article. I. Section. 8. (1): " . . . promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts" -- how all those legal complexities in the patent system and all those all-too-easily obtained trivial patents are _really_ employed in practice? ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 18:01:04 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the > company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed > something back to the community. > Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was > indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to > its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge. > (Per Ziff-Davis history). > I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money from the > invention of the transistor. > I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I > never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions. > It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM > adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust > settlements. Hmmm ... among other things they pretty much gave away: LASER/MASER Fiber Optics And a host of other inventions, many of which I'm using at the moment as I reply to this. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 14:37:57 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com I said, >>> Yes, the cell phone contracts generally allow companies to assign >>> contracts to third parties. Read your original contract. The OP replied, >> I expected this type of answer. And I'm sure _you_ read through your >> entire contract letter-by-letter, yes? Well, in fact I did :) Sprint PCS actually prints the Terms of Service/Privacy Policy/some other relevant stuff in their user guides. (Unlike other carriers, Sprint phone manuals are printed up either by Sprint or specially for Sprint.) Robert Bonomi said, > If you do not do it, you have only yourself to blame when something in > it bites you 'unexpectedly'. to which the other Steve said, >> I know AT&T had the right to transfer the contract when purchased by >> Cingular. What I don't like is the regulatory issue that then forced >> Cingular to divest to some "third party" (in this case, Alltel). What >> I am expecting is for them to at least continue the options I've had >> with AT&T. a) Someone *complaining* about the DoJ forcing competition? We know the FCC won't do it, it's a good thing that at least Justice tries not to allow the companies to grow so big that their growth stifles competition. Give me a break. b) Exactly what options do you not have with Alltel that you had with AT&T? JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: FAQ: How Real ID Will Affect You Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:53:11 -0400 In article , jmeissen@aracnet.com says: > In article , > wrote: >> DevilsPGD wrote: >>> Sure -- I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm willing to deal with the >>> resulting fallout if I get in a fight in a bar or with my landlord or >>> whatever. >> I don't know your personal circumstances, but I can't help but wonder >> if you don't realize the long term import of the situation. > I highly recommend reading the opinions of Bruce Schneier, of > Counterpane Internet Security: > http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0505.html > He has some interesting comments in his most recent newsletter, and in > earlier essays and his blog. > john- Yep, papiren please. I am opposed to this. Put it this way -- there is already a nationwide network in place to verify drivers licenses. Any police car with an MDT in it is more than likely connected to it. That is all that is necessary. This is nothing but a money grab. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:58:53 -0400 In article , bradDOThouser@intel.com says: > On 16 May 2005 13:14:42 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> In the IBM history series by Pugh et al, they said IBM converted >> punched cards to paper tape for transmission in the 1940s. My guess >> is that that particular transmission used telegraph TTY lines (not >> voice) of either AT&T or Western Union. Recall that AT&T maintained >> telegraph long distance lines as part of carrier long distance >> circuits. Because of the low bandwidth, a telegraph channel could be >> carried on the low end of a carrier channel. Accordingly, no >> modulation was required and thus no modem needed. >> It was also said IBM limited development in this area to avoid >> annoying AT&T who was IBM's best customer. >> However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without >> paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good >> advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the >> equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with >> AT&T. >> I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM >> (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My >> understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out >> until the 1960s. >> Comments by anyone familiar with pre-1960 data communications would be >> greatly appreciated. > Here is a picture of a 1958 AT&T modem (not sure if this is the first > commercial modem, the Bell 103. If so it was 300 baud): > http://www.att.com/history/milestone_1958.html So the carrier was on tape. How interesting. I guess at that point it was hard to stabilize a tube based oscillator. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 14:34:47 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Dean M. wrote: > Maybe for now we should only mandate that anyone who dials 911 from > a VoIP phone [which does not provide 911 service] should be given > an announement to the effect "use your cell phone to make this call!". Not a bad idea ... ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 00:33:15 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Dean M. wrote: > You are essentially relegating every IP communications device to a 911 > caller first and then any other type of communications (and only after > the customer jumps through a number of hoops remembering to drop > cookie crums so she can find her way back should she need to change > something). How do you figure that? In my proposal, *ONLY* the VoIP functionality is ffected by the need to 'drop cookie crumbs". > I agree with you that this solution would probably be a > quicker one to implement, but I don't think it would ever be > considered satisfactory. Any 911 solution needs to be more transparent > to the user than what you describe. Therefore, it probably has to be a > technology solution (naturally any technology will be implementing > policy!). This solution is *exactly* what PBX admins have to do when they move hard-wired phones behind their PBX. It is in real-world use today. It works. If you want to be your own phone service provider, there are responsibilities that go along with that task. Doing VoIP *does* mean that you are the 'last mile' phone service provider -- The VoIP provider is providing the 'port' on the switch, at their premises. It is *your* responsibility to provide the connection to that point. > Your points about GPS and its relatives are well taken. Sadly, even > though I consider your suggested solution inadequate, I have nothing > better to suggest at this time ... Frankly I think it's too soon to > suggest anything in this field, except that users of VoIP should be > *warned* that their service doesn't include 911. I would hazard the > guess that most anyone who at some point in time needs to dial 911 > from a VoIP phone, also has a cell available to do that job. Maybe for > now we should only mandate that anyone who dials 911 from a VoIP phone > should be given an announement to the effect "use your cell phone to > make this call!" > Dean > Robert Bonomi wrote in message > news:telecom24.218.11@telecom-digest.org: >> In article , Robert Bonomi >> wrote: >> [[.. munch ..]] >>> The "easy" solution is a two-part one. >>> Part 1: The VoIP 'head end' tracks the 'most recently used' IP >>> address for each customer. _EVERY_TIME_ the customer IP >>> address changes, the phone goes *out*of*service* with a >>> notice that the customer must update their "calling >>> location". >>> Possibly with an added hook that if the phone has been 'off >>> line' for some non-trivial period, that when it goes back >>> 'on line', the customer is queried (in an automated >>> fashion) to confirm that they are still at "thus and such >>> location"; where "thus and such" is the previously >>> specified location for the phone. >>> Part 2: The VoIP 'head end' maps the various 'calling locations' >>> to the appropriate PSAP, upon need. >>> Add an option for the customer to intentionally _not_ specify his >>> location, but which also totally disables 911 calling. This protects >>> his 'privacy' at the expense of his safety, but it is the customer's >>> decision. >>> The last part of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer is aware >>> that the "location information" provided is used for "emergency calls" >>> and that deliberately providing FALSE information can (and probably >>> _will_) lead to criminal prosecution if emergency services are >>> directed to an incorrect location as a result of said false >>> information. There is already existing enforcement mechanism for this >>> -- "filing a false police report", etc. >> [[.. munch ..]] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Travelling From USA to Brazil: Need Cell Phone Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:45:39 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 18 May 2005 03:11:38 -0500, Frugal Sam wrote: > Hello, > I have a Nokia CDMA phone that I currently use with Verizon in USA. > I will be visiting Brazil in the next couple of weeks, and then > Thailand in September and would like to have the use of a cell phone > while I am in those countries. > My understanding is that I need to get hold of an 'unlocked' quad band > cell phone and then, when I am in those countries, buy a SIM card from > a local provider. If you intend to keep your Verizon service a "quad band" phone will be more than overkill. Brazil uses GSM at 900 Mhz and at 1800 Mhz. If you intend to continue to use your Verizon service back in the US the prudent thing would be to buy a dual band 900/1800 phone such as is marketed in Europe and in Asia. If on the other hand you were to change to another provider such as cingular or T-Mobile a triband or quad band phone would be useful to you as it would be useable in both North American (USA/Canada and some South American countries) and in Europe and Asia as well. If you have no intention of changing US carriers a triband or quad band phone is really an unneeded expense and will be a a waste of your money. A triband phone with 900/1800/1900 would likely work for you as well. A quad band phone is not necessary unless you are going to switch carriers in the US. > Is this correct? > If it is, how can I get hold of an unlocked quad band cell phone? eBay or sometimes you can find them on craigslist. You can pay full retail from places such as expansys.com. For information about prepaid in Brazil go to: http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/brasile.html For Thailand: http://www.orange.co.th/english.index.jsp (just talk) ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 17:49:53 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 18 May 2005 13:42:13 -0000, bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > You're not locked into long-term contracts. You *could* have bought > service with _no_minimum_term_. Yes, all the major carriers do offer > such contracts. If you did that, it would have been considerably more > expensive, no "free phone", no free activation, or any other > 'freebies'. You pay for it all, one way or another. You may *think* that this is true of all the major carriers, but the reality is that for mobile service cingular does not require a contract if you bring your own equipment and do not opt into any special promotions. The other major mobile carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint PCS, Nextel, etc. do not "give you a break" and will require a minimum contract. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #221 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 18 May 2005 23:58:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 222 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Octothorpe (Digest Reprints from 1988 and 1995) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (AES) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Steven Lichter) Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (Steven Lichter) Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (Steve Sobol) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract (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: Patrick Townson Subject: Octothorpe (Digest Reprints from 1988 and 1995) Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:53:45 -0500 We have recently had some casual discussion here about the '#' character and our admittedly informal agreement from 1995 to refer to it as 'pound'. But someone wrote here a couple days ago saying 'pound' as not correct; that is a British currency word. I went back to our archives and checked through the articles on same; I am still at a loss about what the '#' symbol should be called. Maybe by re-reading these 1988 and 1995 articles from the Digest you can reach some decision. If so, then please tell me. To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Subject: Octothorpe source Date: 19 Nov 88 15:25:08 PST (Sat) From: ucla-an!bongo!julian@ee.UCLA.EDU (julian macassey) I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term OCTOTHORPE. An octothorpe is an # , which is what is usually referred to as "the pound sign" or "the hash mark", sometimes as "the number symbol". I know the correct term is octothorpe, I have seen references to it in some Bell docs, I have even seen a news clipping years ago that mentioned it. My problem is that every now and again, some smart Alec asks me where it comes from. I have even been accused of making it up. No dictionary I have seen has ever given me a definition. Yes I have looked it up in the 24 Volume Oxford English Dictionary. I have checked the encyc Brit and alleged Telecommunications Dictionaries. I do know that Octo means eight and Thorpe means beam. So the word has some roots. There is a good term paper here for someone. Yours Julian Macassey Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo voice (213) 653-4495 To: comp-dcom-telecom@ncar.ucar.edu From: aem@ibiza.Miami.Edu (a.e.mossberg) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 21 Nov 88 14:52:27 GMT In , wrote: > An octothorpe is an # , which is what is usually referred to > as "the pound sign" or "the hash mark", sometimes as "the number > symbol". I know the correct term is octothorpe, I have seen > references to it in some Bell docs, I have even seen a news > clipping years ago that mentioned it. Indeed, that's the same place I learned the term, but usually have to revert to 'number sign' or 'pound sign'. > My problem is that every now and again, some smart Alec asks > me where it comes from. I have even been accused of making it > up. No dictionary I have seen has ever given me a definition. Yep, same here. I've never been able to find it in a dictionary, nor have I been able to find the original reference from where I learned it. I was beginning to think I made it up in some frenzied nightmare. Perhaps Bell invented it, and then changed their collective mind. aem a.e.mossberg - aem@mthvax.miami.edu - aem@mthvax.span (3.91) Man is here for the sake of other men. - Albert Einstein Date: Mon, 21 Nov 88 09:19:28 PST From: HECTOR MYERSTON Subject: Octothorpe source To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu Cc: myerston@KL.SRI.COM All my Bell System references call # The Number Sign (or Pound). The only times I see it called an Octothrope is in Northern Telecom Inc publications talking about Digipulse Dialing, "their name" for DTMF. The Japanese routinely call it a "Sharp". Obscure to me, logical to the musically inclined. +HECTOR+ To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu From: westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 24 Nov 88 00:52:41 GMT In article ,(julian macassey) writes: > I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term > OCTOTHORPE. > I do know that Octo means eight and Thorpe means beam. So the > word has some roots. # # # # ####### # # ####### # # # # Can't you see the eight beams here? Dave Levenson Westmark, Inc. The Man in the Mooney Warren, NJ USA {rutgers | att}!westmark!dave TELECOM Digest Tue, 29 Nov 88 0:23:56 EST Volume 8 : Issue 187 Today's Topics: Octothorpe re: Octothorpe source Re: Octothorpe source Cordless Phone Recommendations Re: Building your own phone projects off-hook indicator Converting T1 from #5 ESS to Analog [Moderator's note: It has been a crazy couple of weeks. Jon Solomon has experimented diligently with various versions of sendmail in an effort to see to it that each of you receive one copy -- and one copy only -- of the Digest. Our mailing list was so large the bu-cs send mail apparatus belched everytime I logged on. We broke the large list down into many smaller parts. Then, the sun.arpa > sun.com gateway apparently was out of service for awhile. At least, we audited some copies going to Portal and found they had sat in the gateway que for two days at a time. Some machines are still disconnected from the net as a result of the worm experience, and the end result of all this has been -- I'm almost ashamed to say -- extremely poor and unreliable delivery of the Digest since issue 180 until now. We received conflicting reports of delivery on some issues (like 186), with Mailer-Daemon assuring us the copies had NOT been delivered, only to remail them and find some of you got THREE copies, etc. For any of you where FTP can be used to aquire missing issues, please use that method. FTP bu-cs.bu.edu and ls telecom-archives. Then look at the file called telecom-recent. If you cannot FTP, then let me know, and as time permits I will retransmit individual copies. We -- jsol and I -- keep thinking this long nightmare is almost over. A special program has been written to transmit the Digest beginning with this issue we hope will do the job. Patrick Townson] --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: 8b@cup.portal.com To: telecom-request@xx.lcs.mit.edu Subject: Octothorpe Date: Sat, 26-Nov-88 09:52:20 PST But...a # doesn't have eight beams...only 4...two really if you define beam as being horizontal...just call it a pound sign... which, I suppose, refers to some typewriter which have the British pound sign over the 3...I just call it the number sign...I've also heard it referred to as a ticktacktoe... 8b@cup.portal.com From: minow%thundr.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (Repent! Godot is coming soon! Repent!) Date: 28 Nov 88 14:17 To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu, MINOW%thundr.DEC@decwrl.dec.com Subject: re: Octothorpe source According to legend, "octothorpe" is a name that the Bell people made up for the # on the telephone keypad. I suspect that they couldn't agree as to whether it was a "pound sign", "sharp", or "number sign" and eventually compromised (making everyone equally miserable). Martin Minow minow%thundr.dec@decwrl.dec.com [Moderator's question: I am wondering if our correspondent is related to Newton Minow, well known FCC executive. Just curious. P. Townson] To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu From: Henry Troup Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 22 Nov 88 15:57:48 GMT In article ucla-an!bongo!julian@ee.UCLA.EDU (julian macassey) writes: > I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term > OCTOTHORPE. > Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo voice (213) 653-4495 I believe AT&T named the little beastie. Anyone at AT&T wanted to claim responsibility? Henry Troup utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!hwt%bnr-public | BNR is not Bell-Northern Reseach hwt@bnr (BITNET/NETNORTH) | responsible for Ottawa, Canada (613) 765-2337 (Voice) | my opinions From telecom@bu-cs.BU.EDU Thu Dec 1 21:43:21 1988 Received: by bu-cs.BU.EDU (4.0/4.7) id AA07601; Thu, 1 Dec 88 21:43:21 EST Message-Id: <8812020243.AA07601@bu-cs.BU.EDU> Date: Thu, 1 Dec 88 21:05:28 EST From: The Moderator Reply-To: TELECOM@bu-cs.BU.EDU Subject: TELECOM Digest V8 #190 To: TELECOM@bu-cs.bu.edu TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 Dec 88 21:05:28 EST Volume 8 : Issue 190 Today's Topics: All You Ever Wanted To Know About Octothorpes [Moderator's Note: This is a just-for-fun special issue of the Digest with a random sampling of the mail received pertaining to your favorite touch-pad key and mine, the lowly octothorpe, or #. As is our custom, we have even provided a rebuttal message from someone who says the # is not known as an octothorpe at all.... Now can we get this out of our systems once and for all please? Let's call it quits on the subject of #, by whatever name. P. Townson] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: larryl@nvuxr.UUCP (L Lang) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 22 Nov 88 15:36:53 GMT Organization: Bell Communications Research Lines: 24 In article , ucla-an!bongo!julian@ee.UCLA.EDU (julian macassey) writes: > I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term > OCTOTHORPE. > An octothorpe is an # , which is what is usually referred to > as "the pound sign" or "the hash mark", sometimes as "the number > symbol". I know the correct term is octothorpe, I have seen > ... > I do know that Octo means eight and Thorpe means beam. So the > word has some roots. > ... > Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo voice (213) 653-4495 When I count "thorpes" (the beams or lines), I only see four, two vertical and two horizontal. Perhaps it should be called the QUADROTHORPE. And does that make the * a TRITHORPE? Cheers, Larry Lang To: comp-dcom-telecom@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU From: desnoyer@Apple.COM (Peter Desnoyers) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 30 Nov 88 23:20:40 GMT Just to provide another point of view: from CCITT recommendation E.161 (Arrangement of Figures, Letters and Symbols of Telephones and other Devices that can be used for Gaining Access to a Telephone Network) as revised for the Blue Book: 3.2.2 Symbols ... [drawings, with angle between horiz. and vert. strokes, length of strokes, and length of protruding nubbies labelled alpha, b, and a respectively] in Europe alpha = 90 degrees with a/b = 0.08 (looks funny to a N.A.ican) in North America alpha = 80 deg. with a/b = 0.18 ... The symbol will be known as the square or the most commonly used equivalent term in other languages.* *... alternate term (e.g. "number sign") may be necessary... I suppose it's useful to have a translatable term. That approach worked for "star", but it seems to have failed here. Does anyone refer to '#' as a "square"? Anywhere? Enquiring minds want to know... Peter Desnoyers To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edurom: erik@Morgan.COM (Erik T. Mueller) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 1 Dec 88 19:28:06 GMT The term "octothorpe" appears in issues of the journal -Telesis- from the mid to late 1970's published by Bell Northern Research. (Sorry, I don't have the actual issue numbers handy right now...) I don't know its origin, but vaguely recall reading somewhere that it was a Canadian telephony term. As far as I know, the term is/was never used by AT&T. -Erik To: comp-dcom-telecom@decwrl.dec.com From: avsd!childers (Richard Childers) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 25 Nov 88 21:25:03 GMT In article ucla-an!bongo!julian@ee.UCLA.EDU (julian macassey) writes: > I am looking for an authoritative reference for the term > OCTOTHORPE. ... ( An octothorpe is an # ... ) Well, this isn't authoritative, it's intuitive, but I _think_ it refers to the symbol as used on a complex organ's key, for a particular mode. > Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo voice (213) 653-4495 -- richard * Any excuse will serve a tyrant. -- Aesop * * * * ..{amdahl|decwrl|octopus|pyramid|ucbvax}!avsd.UUCP!childers@tycho * * AMPEX Corporation - Audio-Visual Systems Division, R & D * To: comp-dcom-telecom From: seeger@beach.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) Subject: Re: Octothorpe source Date: 1 Dec 88 15:42:09 GMT In article MYERSTON@KL.SRI.COM (HECTOR MYERSTON) writes: | All my Bell System references call # The Number Sign (or Pound). |The only times I see it called an Octothrope is in Northern Telecom Inc |publications talking about Digipulse Dialing, "their name" for DTMF. | The Japanese routinely call it a "Sharp". Obscure to me, logical |to the musically inclined. I usually refer to as "sharp", but may change to octothorpe -- I sometimes like to tilt at windmills. What are the names of the other ASCII special symbols? For instance, "&" is an ampersand and "*" an asterisk. Are there any fancy (preferrably single word) names for the others? I.e names not of the form "* [sign|mark|symbol]". Does anyone have a reference on these things, probably a typography reference? The terms that I use, about which I'm fairly confident: ~ tilde () [left|right|open|close] parenthesis [] [left|right|open|close] bracket {} [left|right|open|close] brace <> [left|right|open|close] carat ^ circumflex _ underscore . period , comma ; semi-colon : colon What about the following: ? ! @ $ % / \ | + = - ` ' " If I get responses by Email, I'll summarize in a couple of weeks. Also, feel free to suggest a more appropriate newsgroup. -- Charles Seeger 216 Larsen Hall Electrical Engineering University of Florida seeger@iec.ufl.edu Gainesville, FL 32611 [Moderator's inane comment: PUH-LEASE! write direct to Charlie on this; not to me. I do not give an iota what those things are called! And now, here is that rebuttal message...] To: comp-dcom-telecom@rutgers.edu From: ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) Subject: Re: Octothorpe Date: 1 Dec 88 22:15:50 GMT Nope, # is called pound because it is used as a symbol for pounds (weight). I really expect the brits would put the Pound Sterling where the $ is on a typewriter keyboards. -Ron [And there you have it. All the questions you were embarrassed to ask your Mother Company all nicely summarized for you by the Octothorpe Digest people in simple, easy to read format you would not be reluctant to share with your own children when they are old enough to ask the name of that 'funny looking key below the nine.' In issue 191, distributed early Friday morning, news of the increase in network access fees which took effect 12-1-88, and the correspondending decrease in rates by AT&T, Sprint, and MCI.] End of TELECOM Digest ********************* [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Then, after several years, in 1995, someone (Ralph Carlsen) who apparently was a little 'behind in his reading' submitted a rebuttal regards the '#' debate that I had _thought_ was settled several years before. Here is the letter from Ralph Carlsen: From: carlsen@hotair.att.com (Ralph Carlsen) Date: Tue, 28 Nov 1995 16:21:55 -0500 Subject: Octothorpe (The Answer) Pat, The following explains where "octothorpe" really came from. I am sending this to you because, as you will see, there are very few people who could know this story. The reason I am writing at this time is because I volunteered for the AT&T Lay Off package after 34 years of service at Bell Labs so I may not be around much longer. During the past year I have enjoyed reading your news group, and I have used your archives a couple of times (once to get "octothorpe"). Your comments and notes on the postings suggest you and I would agree on lots of things related to our telecom industry. Ralph Carlsen THE REAL SOURCE OF THE WORD "OCTOTHORPE" First, where did the symbols * and # come from? In about 1961 when DTMF dials were still in development, two Bell Labs guys in data communications engineering (Link Rice and Jack Soderberg) toured the USA talking to people who were thinking about telephone access to computers. They asked about possible applications, and what symbols should be used on two keys that would be used exclusively for data applications. The primary result was that the symbols should be something available on all standard typewriter keyboards. The * and # were selected as a result of this study, and people did not expect to use those keys for voice services. The Bell System in those days did not look internationally to see if this was a good choice for foreign countries. Then in the early 1960s Bell Labs developed the 101 ESS which was the first stored program controlled switching system (it was a PBX). One of the first installations was at the Mayo Clinic. This PBX had lots of modern features (Call Forwarding, Speed Calling, Directed Call Pickup, etc.), some of which were activated by using the # sign. A Bell Labs supervisor DON MACPHERSON went to the Mayo Clinic just before cut over to train the doctors and staff on how to use the new features on this state of the art switching system. During one of his lectures he felt the need to come up with a word to describe the # symbol. Don also liked to add humor to his work. His thought process which took place while at the Mayo Clinic doing lectures was as follows: - There are eight points on the symbol so "OCTO" should be part of the name. - We need a few more letters or another syllable to make a noun, so what should that be? (Don MacPherson at this point in his life was active in a group that was trying to get JIM THORPE's Olympic medals returned from Sweden) The phrase THORPE would be unique, and people would not suspect he was making the word up if he called it an "OCTOTHORPE". So Don Macpherson began using the term Octothorpe to describe the # symbol in his lectures. When he returned to Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ, he told us what he had done, and began using the term Octothorpe in memos and letters. The term was picked up by other Bell Labs people and used mostly for the fun of it. Some of the documents which used the term Octothorpe found their way to Bell Operating Companies and other public places. Over the years, Don and I have enjoyed seeing the term Octothorpe appear in documents from many different sources. Don MacPherson retired about eight years ago, and I will be retiring in about six weeks. Ralph Carlsen These are, of course, my remembrances and are not any official statement of AT&T or the subsequent 3 companies. [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1995 Note: Thank you very much for sharing. This is indeed an interesting report. Do you think you could get Don MacPherson to join us here among the Digest readership? PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Should we do this with the '#' sign again ten or twelve years from now? Probably ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 19:49:06 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Tony P. wrote: >> I presume other Bell Labs patents were also available free; indeed, I >> never knew of AT&T making money from licensing its many inventions. >> It appears patents were more for freedom of use than profit. IBM >> adopted a similar policy in the 1950s. Both did so from anti-trust >> settlements. > Hmmm ... among other things they pretty much gave away: > LASER/MASER > Fiber Optics Just for the historical record (no patent rants, not in this msg anyway): * Ammonia maser -- absolute first ever "maser/laser" type device, but pretty much of zero practical use -- was invented and operated by Townes at Columbia around 1951-1954. Patent may have been assigned to Bell Labs, don't recall, but its licensing value would have been minimal at best. * Microwave solid-state maser -- the first maser device which really had some practical uses, and which also stimulated much subsequent laser development -- was invented by Bloembergen at Harvard in 1956. He also got a really good patent on it, which very likely could have been read, justifiably, to cover many later laser devices; but neither Bloembergen nor Harvard were in the patent exploitation business in those early days. * Patent battle between BTL/Townes and Gould over the laser I've referred to in another post -- and of course _the_ first (ruby) laser (which really broke open the whole field) actually came from Maiman at Hughes, and had very little connection with anything that had happened or was happening at Bell. * The really crucial breakthrough in fiber optics, for telecomm apps anyway, was the development of the methods for fabricating truly low-loss fibers that are still used today, and that was at Corning, not Bell, around 1972. Also, diode lasers, the other crucial component, came almost simultaneously from Lincoln Labs, GE Research Labs, and IBM Res Labs in 1962. (Not to say that BTL didn't eventually do an immense amount of research and make many contributions in both lasers and fiber optic telecomm.) ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 02:21:21 GMT With all the calling plans there are most people have so much L/D time, why would you need an Fx? Years ago on my old Apple II BBS I had a line into it that was local to users calling into it from San Bernardino, it was forwarded to my BBS line. I was not that costly, before deregulation, it was a flat fee. I did away with it after a few years since most of the users were just using the regular number. One day I might even put it back up, still have in on the old computer. Aw the old days before The Internet and Spam, and a regulated utility before Joe's Screen door and Telephone Co. -- 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: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 02:24:10 GMT billemery wrote: > Used my trusty Nokia as a modem the other day to see if it worked and > called my ISP's dialup access number for folks on the road or whatever > and found that Sprint had charged me .40 a minute for "wireless web > access". What a rip !!! Gonna change to t-mobile or someone (anyone) > else. Don't like surprises. I used mine a couple of time and did not get charged, but then I have PCS Vision, so that would be included in the contract. Sounds like years ago with Pacific Telephone told me I could not use my voice line with a modem, I said show me where it said I could not, end of threat. -- 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: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 20:25:39 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com billemery wrote: > Used my trusty Nokia as a modem the other day to see if it worked and > called my ISP's dialup access number for folks on the road or whatever > and found that Sprint had charged me .40 a minute for "wireless web > access". What a rip !!! Gonna change to t-mobile or someone (anyone) > else. Don't like surprises. Um... This has never been a secret with Sprint; in fact, if you look in the user manual for any recent phone it will *say* there are charges. It's in the manual for my Samsung VGA-1000... The only per-minute charges are for the old 14.4Kbps slow wireless web access. PCS Vision is billed either flat-rate or per kilobyte transferred depending on which Vision package you have. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 20:23:35 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > You may *think* that this is true of all the major carriers, but the > reality is that for mobile service cingular does not require a > contract if you bring your own equipment and do not opt into any > special promotions. The other major mobile carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint > PCS, Nextel, etc. do not "give you a break" and will require a minimum > contract. Sprint will not require a contract for postpaid service if you pay $10 per month over and above the normal plan fees. You can even switch from being in contract to doing the $10 per month (but you will have to pay the $150 early term fee for that privilege). Of course, they don't charge you extra for month-to-month if you've fulfilled your contractual obligation. Back when my wife got her Sprint phone in late 2000, their in-store local coverage map didn't indicate that our neighborhood was covered -- which is odd, because they have a tower a mile or so from our house -- so we went month-to-month for a couple months until we were satisfied that coverage was what we needed, after which we signed a contract and eliminated the $10 fee. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #222 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 19 May 2005 19:43:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 223 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Syndicating Telecom News (TELECOM Digest Editor) Pulver.com Blasts FCC E911 Order for Discouraging Innovation (J Decker) FCC to VoIP: 'Be Like the Phone Company' (Jack Decker) FCC News Release: Commission Requires Interconnected VoIP (Jack Decker) FCC Gives VoIP 120 Days for E911 (Jack Decker) Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering (T Simon) FCC Approves Stricter 911 Rules For VoIP (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free (Jen Saylor) Re: Vonage Number Transfer (Nate) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Dean M.) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (DevilsPGD) Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ (DevilsPGD) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Syndicating Telecom News Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 16:50:32 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Lisa Minter has begun working on a project to syndicate telecom news around the net using RSS. Unlike Usenet, RSS (or Really Simple Syndication) is a spam/scam free method of circulating news. Ever since the section of our web site called 'Telecom Digest Extra' got started, I have been the recipient of this new method of syndication, as you may have noticed if you read the daily features in http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . You may have noticed the many news items we now have, including NY Times, Reuters, Associated Press, United Press International, Christian Science Monitor, tech news, and many other sources, hundreds of news items from dozens of sources each day, but in our instance, with an emphasis on telecom news. And of course, in the spirit of the net, RSS news feeds are free for the taking and using at your own site. Now the RSS people have asked, 'Why not have TELECOM as one of the features for syndication?' Well, why not? Both Google Groups and Yahoo Groups offer .xml type feeds, and one of my heros and geniuses is working hard to develop an .xml feed for the Digest, but in the interim I am using the Google Groups .xml comp.dcom.telecom feed to get things started (until his work is completed). You can examine this new-style RSS syndication feed at http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html where you can either cut and paste the script to use it in your own RSS reader, or you can go to one of the feed outputs we support to see this spam/scam-free style of reading the news (and of course you can still continue to read news/blogs/etc of interest via our http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news pages as well.) I will continue to send the feed to Usenet comp.dcom.telecom as before, even though it is an older, obsolete and often-times spam-ridden way of circulating the news, and probably I will continue to feed Usenet until the time comes that it dies under the weight of so much spam and obnoxious junk. For now am relying on the usenet group (via Google Groups and Yahoo Groups) to feed the new RSS thing. If you like it, feel free to use it regularly. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 14:29:30 -0400 Subject: Pulver.com Blasts FCC E911 Order for Discouraging Innovation http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-19-2005/0003639488&EDATE= Pulver.com Blasts FCC E911 Order for Discouraging Innovation and Hampering Long-Term Emergency Response Capabilities http://www.pulver.com Leading Industry Thought Leader Urges FCC to Ensure America's Role as the World Leader in Innovation, Communications and the Internet MELVILLE, New York, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The following quotes may be attributed to Jeff Pulver, CEO of pulver.com in response to the FCC's adoption of an order imposing E911 obligations on VoIP providers within 120 days: The FCC Order is, no doubt, motivated by the most noble of goals -- reliable emergency response systems for all Americans. No one wants, or is pushing harder to implement these services, more than the VoIP industry itself. Most PSTN-connected VoIP providers currently provision at least basic 911 emergency services, and typically provision E911 for fixed locations. If the FCC Order, in fact, compels VoIP providers to offer technologically impossible enhanced 911 obligations within 120 days of the Order's effective date, I fear the Order could put more Americans in harms way by denying consumers access to useful VoIP services and, in the process, could have detrimental consequences on the emerging IP-based communications industry, at least the smaller VoIP providers who cannot feasibly provide a nationwide E911 service within 120 days. The FCC had a golden opportunity to take one positive steps to promote IP-based communications. The FCC could have prohibited "port blocking" and compelled direct access to the ILEC-controlled emergency response infrastructure. Instead, the FCC chose to regulate the previously unregulated, and declined to regulate those that it has obvious authority to regulate -- the traditional telecom carriers. As it stands, unaffiliated VoIP providers are left to the mercy or goodwill of their retail rivals -- the telecom carriers that control access to the emergency response network. The FCC has given lip-service to its desire to prohibit port blocking and has been looking for a vehicle to do so. A proceeding fell into its lap, and the FCC abdicated its responsibility on this issue. IP technology could allow for functions far beyond the capabilities of traditional communications networks, but it requires farsighted regulators to look at the technology with a fresh eye and a commitment not to stifle the potential and allow innovators to experiment and push the limits of IP technology. Today, the FCC caved to the shortsighted vision and sacrificed our long-term emergency response capabilities and America's role as a leader in communications, the Internet and innovation. I, by no means, intend to belittle the noble goals behind a ubiquitous E911 solution, just the method by which the regulators intend to drive us there. I am convinced that IP technology will vastly improve emergency response capabilities. We all want the best possible emergency response capabilities to become available to all Americans -- all the world -- as soon as possible. I, however, do not want to see E911 used as an immediate tool to bring down the emerging industry, particularly the most vulnerable start-ups without the deep-pockets, resources, and political connections. Extending immediate E911 obligations on the smallest, most vulnerable, but most innovative IP-based communications providers does no one any good (except for providing a quick political sound bite). In the end, such actions might mean that no one will ever see the emergency response capabilities that IP-based communications working cooperatively with NENA could have produced. What seems most bizarre to me is that the regulators don't even seem willing to give the unaffiliated VoIP providers the minimum set of tools necessary to accomplish their objective for a guaranteed nationwide E911 network that would allow anyone, anywhere to pick up any device, dial 911 and have an emergency responder find that caller. If regulators tell the industry to provide nationwide E911 for nomadic VoIP services, without simultaneously compelling fair access by unaffiliated VoIP providers to selective routers and prohibiting port blocking, how can they expect us to accomplish their mission? Make excessive demands on the never-before-regulated and most-vulnerable new start-ups, but don't dare impose any access obligation on the traditionally regulated entities, the only ones with the essential infrastructure? I don't get it. It makes no sense to stifle the nomadic capability and essentially turn every IP-based communications service into a fixed line, because the added nomadic capability of an IP-based service does not avail itself of an immediate, ubiquitous, localized emergency response solution. Government will have essentially outlawed a valuable service without having evaluated whether having extra communications wherever there is an Internet connection could actually increase the potential that someone's life could be saved in an emergency. Unaffiliated VoIP providers, even if they had the time, staff and economic resources to work towards a nationwide solution would be at the mercy of carriers with whom the VoIP provider would have to partner in order to establish a nationwide E911 service. The bottom line is that a nationwide solution does not exist and will not exist in 120 days. If nomadic VoIP services can operate anywhere there is a broadband connection, it is impossible for a nomadic VoIP service provider to be in compliance with our current understanding of the FCC's likely rule. VoIP, by its very nature, should empower a user to take her service anywhere without having to check with the VoIP provider to verify that the particular remote location has an arrangement with the VoIP provider. It is one thing to compel a primary fixed-line provider, be it VoIP or traditional telephony, to provide E911 capabilities, but what logic would be served from turning off the nomadic capability of IP technology simply because the user cannot access a local emergency response system when she attaches her computer with a softphone program or other IP phone to a broadband connection at a hotel or other remote location? Isn't it possible that a person at a Starbucks who witnesses an armed robbery and shooting might be able to save a life by being able to either dial the police or dial basic 911 using her nomadic VoIP solution rather than preventing any calls because there isn't an E911 capability? Instead of focusing on the US marketplace, the voice over broadband entrepreneurs, may instead decide to focus their business activities in countries that have a more forward looking IP-based communications strategy. Then again, the pending FCC rulemaking may finally be the shot in the arm the VoIP entrepreneurs need to come forward with communication services that are not using VoIP as simple replacement or substitute services, but rather use IP technology to launch new communication services and applications -- something much truer to the vision of what an IP-enabled platform promises and not just copycat products or services. Admittedly, the limited communications network we call the PSTN controls virtually every communications consumer out there. There was once a time when the stagecoach controlled most of the transcontinental traffic. Some day, perhaps now even sooner than some anticipated, the wireline PSTN will be relegated to be little more than a minor, single-lane off-ramp on the IP-based network of networks. About Pulver.com Jeff Pulver is the President and CEO of pulver.com, and one of the true pioneers of the Internet telephony/VoIP industry. Mr. Pulver is a globally renowned thought leader, author and entrepreneur. He is the publisher of The Pulver Report and VON magazine, and creator of the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) conferences. Additionally, Mr. Pulver is the founder of Free World Dialup (FWD), the VON Coalition, LibreTel, WHP Wireless, pulverinnovations, Digisip, and is the co-founder of VoIP provider, Vonage. Last year, the FCC granted Pulver's petition for clarification declaring Free World Dialup as an unregulated information service. The landmark Pulver Order was the first decision made by any major regulatory body on IP communications, and provided important clarification that computer-to-computer VoIP service is not a telecommunications service. For more information, please visit http://www.pulver.com . Contact: Jonathan Askin - 631-961-1049 jaskin@pulver.com SOURCE pulver.com Web Site: http://www.pulver.com How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 11:52:26 -0400 Subject: FCC to VoIP: 'Be Like the Phone Company' http://voxilla.com/voxstory164.html Regulation By CAROLYN SCHUK for VOXILLA.COM The Federal Communications Commission unanimously ruled to require VoIP service providers to offer 911 service similar to that offered by telecom giants such as SBC and Verizon in a mere 120 days. Industry advocates say the action is anti-competitive, will prove costly to consumers and actually stifles the type of innovation that could lead to more robust and efficient emergency calling services. The action marks a clear departure from previous FCC policy to allow VoIP to develop as an emerging technology unfettered by federal and state regulation. This is the first major VoIP-related ruling handed down by the commission since President Bush appointed Kevin Martin to replace VoIP-friendly Michael Powell as FCC chief in March. Saying that 'the situation where [911] callers are not routed to emergency operators is unacceptable,' Martin led the commission in approving the ruling, which places requirements on both VoIP providers and ILECs. First, all VoIP providers must deliver 911 services and deliver 911 calls to 911 emergency operators specifically targeting recent situations where 911 calls were routed to administrative numbers. Second, recognizing the technical limitations inherent in nomadic VoIP services, providers must give customers a way to update their information in emergency calling databases and inform them of any limitations of their 911 service. Third, the item requires ILECs to provide access to their 911 infrastructure to any telephone carrier. Finally, VoIP providers must comply with the order within 120 days and submit a letter detailing their compliance within that time. The FCC's view is clearly that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck. This was expressed most pointedly by Commissioner Michael Copps, "For so many years the commission has engaged in word-parsing and exegesis splitting hairs about what is a phone service and what is an information service that we have endangered public safety. While the FCC presumably is acting in the interest of U.S. consumers, the move could drive prices up and customer choice down by making it more difficult for smaller, more innovative providers to enter and compete in the market. The decision 'has the potential to hasten the move toward the traditional players and cable companies,' says Kevin Mitchell, Infonetics Directing Analyst, Service Provider Voice and Data. Already some providers are talking about curtailing service as a result of the proposed decision. "If we can't provide 911 [in the customer's area] it is our intention not to allow customers to sign up," says Paul Erikson, SunRocket co-founder. Ultimately, the ruling might very well be counterproductive by tying VoIP to an antiquated system. "If they let the industry grow the way it has been," says Ravi Sakaria, VoicePulse CEO, "it's likely we would develop a solution that's better than what we have today." Because VoIP is based on Internet Protocol, it could potentially offer a much richer 911 service. For example, in the case of elderly or disabled people, emergency services could receive information about the person's medical condition before arriving on the scene. Other issues posing a challenge to VoIP providers are cost and timing. "They are going to require in an unreasonable time that providers interface with ILECs," says Ravi Sakaria, VoicePulse CEO. "The cell phone industry has had 15 years to get it together. We're being required to do it in 120 days." But Sakaria continues, "it doesn't require ILECs to offer this at a reasonable price. It's a weapon the ILECs can wield to eliminate competition." There's also a liability issue involved in the order. "VoicePulse has made it abundantly clear to customers that we don't provide this [911 service] to avoid liability," Sakaria says. Under the proposed requirements we'd be forced to provide something that's not true 911 and open ourselves up to liability. Basically, we're being forced to increase our liability without any protection." Canada has already tackled the VoIP 911 problem in a way that might supply an example for the U.S. In April, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) mandated that providers offering fixed VoIP service that can only be used from a specific location offer 911 emergency calling at the same level of 9-1-1 emergency service that is provided by the incumbent telephone companies to their existing customers within 90 days from the date of this decision, according to a CRTC press release. However, the order exempted nomadic VoIP services -- those that can be used from any broadband internet connection -- from this requirement, specifying that these providers must offer an interim solution 'comparable to Basic 9-1-1 service' within 90 days. The CRTC also ruled on May 12 that telecommunications regulations are only applicable to companies that offer fixed service. How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 12:43:26 -0400 Subject: FCC News Release: Commission Requires Interconnected VoIP http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-258818A1.pdf NEWS Federal Communications Commission 445 12th Street, S.W. Washington, D. C. 20554 This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action. Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action. See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974). News Media Information 202 / 418-0500 Internet: http://www.fcc.gov TTY: 1-888-835-5322 NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: Mark Wigfield, 202-418-0253 Email: mark.wigfield@fcc.gov Commission Requires Interconnected VoIP Providers to Provide Enhanced 911 Service Order Ensures VoIP Customers Have Access to Emergency Services Washington, D.C. The Federal Communications Commission today took steps to protect consumers by requiring that certain providers of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone service supply enhanced 911 (E911) emergency calling capabilities to their customers as a mandatory feature of the service. The IP-enabled services marketplace is the latest new frontier of our nation's communications landscape, and the Commission is committed to allowing IP-enabled services to evolve without undue regulation. But E911 service is critical to our nation's ability to respond to a host of crises. The Commission hopes to minimize the likelihood of situations like recent incidents in which users of interconnected VoIP dialed 911 but were not able to reach emergency operators. Today's Order represents a balanced approach that takes into consideration the expectations of consumers, the need to strengthen Americans' ability to access public safety in times of crisis, and the needs of entities offering these innovative services. The Order places obligations on interconnected VoIP service providers that are similar to traditional telephone providers in that they enable customers to receive calls from and terminate calls to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). It does not place obligations on other IPbased service providers, such as those that provide instant messaging or Internet gaming services, because although these services may contain a voice component, customers of these services cannot receive calls from and place calls to the PSTN. The Order adopted today reaches the following conclusions: Interconnected VoIP providers must deliver all 911 calls to the customer's local emergency operator. This must be a standard, rather than optional, feature of the service. Interconnected VoIP providers must provide emergency operators with the call back number and location information of their customers (i.e., E911) where the emergency operator is capable of receiving it. Although the customer must provide the location information, the VoIP provider must provide the customer a means of updating this information, whether he or she is at home or away from home. By the effective date, interconnected VoIP providers must inform their customers, both new and existing, of the E911 capabilities and limitations of their service. The incumbent LECs are required to provide access to their E911 networks to any requesting telecommunications carrier. They must continue to provide access to trunks, selective routers, and E911 databases to competing carriers. The Commission will closely monitor this obligation. Interconnected VoIP providers must comply with these requirements, and submit to the Commission a letter detailing such compliance, no later than 120 days after the effective date of the Order. Finally, the Commission stated its intention to adopt, in a future order, an advanced E911 solution that includes a method for determining the customer's location without the customer having to self report this information. Action by the Commission May 19, 2005, by First Report and Order and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 05-116). Chairman Martin, Commissioners Abernathy, Copps, and Adelstein, Chairman Martin, Commissioners Abernathy, Copps, and Adelstein issuing separate statements. WC Docket Nos. 04-36, 05-196 Wireline Competition Bureau Staff Contact: Christi Shewman, (202) 418-1686. -FCC- News about the Federal Communications Commission can also be found on the Commission's web site http://www.fcc.gov. ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 13:08:30 -0400 Subject: FCC Gives VoIP 120 Days for E911 Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/articles/2005/fcc-voip-911-regulations-120-days.htm By David Sims, TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist As widely expected, the Federal Communications Commission issued a decision today that Voice-over Internet Providers must provide access to E911 service to their customers in 120 days. The decision surprised few observers. According to Reuters, the FCC 'unanimously voted to require carriers to provide emergency call centers the location and telephone number of callers who dial 911 from Internet phones and ensure that callers reach emergency dispatchers instead of nonemergency lines.' In the months leading up to the decision there were lots of sharp words, apocalyptic predictions and political jockeying for position on the issue, as one might expect over the issue of access to the nation's nearly 6,200 "public safety answer points." Some were sure the heavy hand of government would crush the innovative entrepreneurs who created the VoIP industry in the first place, in favor of the fat cats, the lumbering, established telcos who would come in and simply sweep up all the profits made possible by others: "They (indie VoIP providers) were in the market space first, they have far better offerings, and much better pricing as well," wrote TechKnow Times. "So how to kill them? Simple. Force them to have to buy a service where the traditional telephone companies can set the price. And what is one thing that the traditional phone companies still pretty much have a monopoly on? The provision of 911 service." Others argued that 911 is simply something you don't fool around with, no matter how many quick bucks irresponsible upstarts are making at the expense of public safety, what with not telling their customers their 911 calls get routed to administrative offices and don't even work after hours: Full story at: http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/articles/2005/fcc-voip-911-regulations-120-days.htm ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 15:47:04 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , Jack Decker wrote: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63675 > FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? > Critics Charge They're Engineering Death of Indie VoIP > Written by Karl Bode > Tomorrow the FCC will release an order that forces all independent > VoIP providers to offer 911 service within 120 days. On the surface > the move seems like a simple way of ensuring public safety, but > critics believe it's really an incumbent engineered attempt to crush > upstart VoIP competitors. And critics of Jack Decker believe that he's really a paid PR flack with write-only access to comp.dcom.telecom that he uses to post a neverending barrage of "news" stories carefully selected by his puppetmasters to tell their self-serving story about the choice of certain large VoIP providers (but not others, which puts the lie to most of what he says) to avoid the costs associated with 911 service as a means of undercutting the prices of traditional POTS carriers. Now, you may not believe my paragraph above, but you have just as much rational warrant to believe it -- if not significantly more, given that Jack *does* in fact seem to maintain a write-only attitude to this forum -- as you have to believe the text that begins with "critics believe..." in the quoted text. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Jack Decker _primarily_ writes the VOIP newsgroup on Yahoo Groups. Through an earlier agreement between Jack and myself (mainly, because _he_ thought of the idea of a news forum for VOIP before myself), his articles are also distributed here in Telecom Digest. Please recall at one time a few months ago, Jack was discouraged about the content of what _he_ was receiving for _his_ group, and he stated he was going to put the group on hiatus. I very promptly announced that _I_ would snatch it up in a hurry, but Jack thought better of it and he re-instated his 'VOIP News' in a day or two. He is not on any _write only_ basis with me. When his articles come through via email to me, Jack and I have an agreement, that his address will be withheld_on_request, mainly because of the horrible problem with spam that all of us moderators -- who sit out in the open all the time -- must endure. And although I _could_ leave his 'Reply-to: VoIP-News@yahoogroups.com' line intact, I generally do not, perhaps selfishly wishing to see replies to his articles seen via this Digest to come back via this Digest rather than his. No matter, I guess, if replies went to him and were published his Digest, they would come back here anyway when _his_ published articles arrive here usually later the same day, but it gets confusing trying to construct all my '>' marks in a neat way. Jack has stated that he prints _all_ the press releases he gets, no matter how self-serving many of them are. If _I_ printed all the press releases that Lisa Minter sees in a day's time, you'd probably feel the same way about TELECOM Digest. But I have one 'luxury' that neither Jack nor Lisa (as of yet) enjoy: a _huge_ volume of readers and message writers -- writing on their own merit and not just as press release writing puppets -- so I do not have to rely quite as much on 'press releases' as Jack does. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 13:29:04 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: FCC Approves Stricter 911 Rules For VoIP Providers Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 19, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21714&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * FCC approves stricter 911 rules for VoIP providers BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Motorola announces $4B stock buyback * Huawei makes strides in DSLAM equipment market * Verizon's TV system, WealthTV sign carriage deal * Cable adds more phone subscribers USTA SPOTLIGHT * At SUPERCOMM: Register today for the IP Video Conference EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Nokia broadens scope of wireless gaming efforts * Yahoo! Messenger adds VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Report: Federal Wi-Fi networks have security weaknesses Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21714&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 02:45:28 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > In another thread Pat mentioned FX lines. As mentioned, these were > used to save on long distance changes -- customers would make a local > call to a distant business and the business could call its customers > for the cost of a local call. This service was not cheap. > At a resort I visited that had FX lines to a city 75 miles away, the > switchboard had special heavy cord pairs. Extensions authorized for > FX had a second jack underneath in which the heavy cord was inserted. > I heard FX lines used higher voltage thus the heavy cords. I don't > know what kind of special wiring, if any, was in the telephone sets. That does not sound like POTs FX service; rather some kind of tie line set up. True FX service is a nailed interoffice trunk between your c.o. and the distant c.o. The line side of the service; i.e. from your c.o. to your premises, is no different than any local loop and requires no special equipment on your premises. Then, there is "phantom" FX service, still in use in the Los Angeles metro area (and perhaps other areas where SBC rates a particular office code (prefix) as being in downtown LA when, in fact, it is in a c.o. in a nearby town that would otherwise be a toll call to downtown LA. That is simply a billing accounting exercise. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: 19 May 2005 12:28:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Isaiah Beard wrote: > There is something else too that is going the way of the dodo: tie > lines. These were useful for large universities with multiple campuses, > as well as businesses with more than one hub operation in distant cities. They were fairly common in organizations with more than one location. As mentioned, years ago 7c message units could add up to some serious money so even a local tie line between plants within a city was cost justified. (Our hospital had five tie-line trunks to the independent rehab center next door.) Also, many PBXs of the old day limited extensions to in-house dialing only, no outside calls to save money. But tie-lines weren't charge so they were allowable and allowed employees to conduct business. Tie lines usually allowed direct dialing in a PBX at another location. You dialed a special code (often 8 or 8+) and either merely immediately dialed the distant extension or waited for a second dial-tone, then dialed the extension. For larger organizations, the tie-line access codes could be quite large. For Centrex users, tie lines had their own 3 digit code different than the outside code to allow direct inward dialing. Some tie-lines were relayed from PBX to PBX, you kept dialing the access code and tied together a bunch of systems. I don't think that was the preferred way, however. Tie-lines usually allowed dialing in both directions between the two PBXs. I know one switchboard could connect an outside caller through the tie-line to the remote location, but they didn't like to do so as a matter of policy. The tie-line jacks on the switchboard were a little more complicated -- there was a pair for each line, one jack used for answering, one used for calling. Other remote locations may have been served by a simpler extension basis. That is, the home PBX could only reach the remote PBX operator who would have to complete the call to the desired remote extension. I presume this wiring was far simpler than tie-lines due to one-way instead of two-way signalling. > Nowadays, cheaper LD and Voice over IP is making tie lines quite > obsolete. Yes. My employer once had a network of tie lines to our various locations and associated codes for them -- each location having its own code. Our centrex phone numbercards had two lines -- one our regular number, one our tie-line number. Some years ago all that was eliminated. To reach a distant location outside our local PBX or Centrex, we just dial 9+ the external number. The equipment switches it the most economical way available when the call is made. (My employer has a series of LD methods from outward WATS lines down to regular toll network, maybe some tie-lines or FX lines remain but they are hidden to us.) Probably the biggest network is the Federal Govt's "FTS" network and the military's Autovon network. I don't know how they work today. I always thought "Autovon" used special TouchTone phones, but at my father's installation, the Autovon lines came in the PBX just like any other trunk and the phones in his place were plain rotary. They used Autovon for plain business, not "combat" situations as the literature suggests. FWIW, they converted to Centrex from PBX, then closed the whole place down about six months later. It appeared the govt owned, not leased, the PBX switchboard and switchgear--with govt employees doing the maintenance on it, not Bell people, even though it was connected to the Bell System. Of course on the other hand, Centrex is now available to very small businesses with wide locations using regular numbers. (Originally you got a dedicated or near dedicated NNX all to yourself and a huge block of numbers. For some reason, many, though not all, of the oldest Centrex's of the 1960s have received new exchanges; I don't know why.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And don't forget the other close relative in that cluster of service types: the OPX or 'off-premise- extension'. When I worked (back in the late 1950's/early 1960's) at University of Chicago in the phone room, there were a bunch of these that were located all over the Hyde Park neighborhood. You'd see phone booths around the area with both a payphone in them _and_ a University of Chicago OPX. Almost all the dormitories had their own switchboards with outside phone numbers, but two or three OPX numbers terminated on those switchboards as well. Those OPXs were all of the four digit extension type number, and I guess when the most recent form of Centrex was installed a few years ago, all those OPXs took the new number 753-xxxx. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 00:16:20 -0400 From: Jen Saylor Subject: Re: AT&T Licensed the Transistor For Free hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > From time to time critics of the old Bell System gripe that the > company was "guaranted profits" by the regulators and as such, owed > something back to the community. > Aside from the fact that regulation actually limited profits, AT&T was > indeed required to give things back. One of which was the rights to > its invention of the transistor, which were available free of charge. > (Per Ziff-Davis history). > I had always wondered why AT&T never seemed to make any money from the > invention of the transistor. You seem misinformed. Yes, AT&T allowed other companies to "borrow" the transistor invention, but they didn't do this with a smile on their face. It was one of the many concessions made during one the many antitrust concerns. AT&T was kind of in a bind with antitrust concerns due to the technology and markets at the time and were stuck between breaking up the company or continuing to make such deals -- which were short lived. The government had plenty of antitrust actions with AT&T over the years before the last antitrust case which of course ended in 1983. If AT&T had kept the rights to the transister, it would probably be a completely different company today -- that's how big that one invention was. ------------------------------ From: Nate Subject: Re: Vonage Number Transfer Date: 19 May 2005 06:22:42 -0700 Nate wrote: > Well ... it's been 2 1/2 months now waiting on my phone number to > transfer to Vonage. I'm not sure who's holding up the transfer but > this is ridiculous. Vonage claims it's not their fault (probably > isn't) but my question is, who do I complain to? My current carrier > (MCI) doesn't want to hear about it and, again, Vonage claims it's not > their fault. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well again, like the other day, in this > case MCI is _probably not_ the underlying carrier, but probably just > a UNI-P operation. Like the guy using AT&T for 'local service' the > other day, more than likely MCI in this instance is at the mercy of > whomever the 'real' carrier of record in your area is. Southwestern > Bell perhaps? When Vonage put in the transfer request to MCI, then > MCI in turn had to tell the 'actual carrier' about it. What does > Vonage say other than 'not our fault'? Can you get them to audit or > trace the transaction for you? You also said 'MCI does not want to > hear about it'. Can you be more specific? Does your number actually > _belong_ to you? Do you have that part of it under control? Please > give us a few more details. PAT] I called MCI again and they say there is absolutely no reason why the number can't be transferred. Vonage says they have no idea why it's not being transferred so, again, who do I call? I asked MCI if they were the actual carrier or if there was a third party involved and the rep said that MCI was the actual carrier... but the guy didn't sound very sure of himself. My guess is that there is a third party and that's where it's being held up. Not sure what I can do at this point other than wait ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If MCI is telling you there is 'absolutely no reason why the number cannot be transferred' then tell them to please transfer it while you are waiting on the line attempting to audit/trace the procedure. I can assure you that MCI was NOT the 'actual carrier'. When phone numbers and area codes, etc were first assigned, there was no such 'phone company' as MCI. The actual carrier is one of the Bells, no doubt. I assume your Vonage line is working with its own number which is what you wish to have transferred. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dean M. Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 18:27:38 GMT I certainly should have typed "VoIP communications device" not "IP". Funny what a couple of characters can do ... I stand by the rest of my spiel: any emergency services solution needs to be transparent to the user. Among other reasons, VoIP is a personal service more like cell phones than PBX extensions. And we should be making progress, not regressing to old and tedious solutions (even if they work:-). We'll probably be better served by not mandating anything vis-a-vis emergency services and VoIP until we can do it right (at least on a national level). Dean Robert Bonomi wrote in message news:telecom24.221.15@telecom-digest.org: > In article , Dean M. > wrote: >> You are essentially relegating every IP communications device to a 911 >> caller first and then any other type of communications (and only after >> the customer jumps through a number of hoops remembering to drop >> cookie crums so she can find her way back should she need to change >> something). > How do you figure that? In my proposal, *ONLY* the VoIP functionality is > ffected by the need to 'drop cookie crumbs". >> I agree with you that this solution would probably be a >> quicker one to implement, but I don't think it would ever be >> considered satisfactory. Any 911 solution needs to be more transparent >> to the user than what you describe. Therefore, it probably has to be a >> technology solution (naturally any technology will be implementing >> policy!). > This solution is *exactly* what PBX admins have to do when they move > hard-wired phones behind their PBX. It is in real-world use today. > It works. > If you want to be your own phone service provider, there are > responsibilities that go along with that task. > Doing VoIP *does* mean that you are the 'last mile' phone service > provider -- The VoIP provider is providing the 'port' on the switch, > at their premises. It is *your* responsibility to provide the > connection to that point. >> Your points about GPS and its relatives are well taken. Sadly, even >> though I consider your suggested solution inadequate, I have nothing >> better to suggest at this time ... Frankly I think it's too soon to >> suggest anything in this field, except that users of VoIP should be >> *warned* that their service doesn't include 911. I would hazard the >> guess that most anyone who at some point in time needs to dial 911 >> from a VoIP phone, also has a cell available to do that job. Maybe for >> now we should only mandate that anyone who dials 911 from a VoIP phone >> should be given an announement to the effect "use your cell phone to >> make this call!" >> Dean >> Robert Bonomi wrote in message >> news:telecom24.218.11@telecom-digest.org: >>> In article , Robert Bonomi >>> wrote: >>> [[.. munch ..]] >>>> The "easy" solution is a two-part one. >>>> Part 1: The VoIP 'head end' tracks the 'most recently used' IP >>>> address for each customer. _EVERY_TIME_ the customer IP >>>> address changes, the phone goes *out*of*service* with a >>>> notice that the customer must update their "calling >>>> location". >>>> Possibly with an added hook that if the phone has been 'off >>>> line' for some non-trivial period, that when it goes back >>>> 'on line', the customer is queried (in an automated >>>> fashion) to confirm that they are still at "thus and such >>>> location"; where "thus and such" is the previously >>>> specified location for the phone. >>>> Part 2: The VoIP 'head end' maps the various 'calling locations' >>>> to the appropriate PSAP, upon need. >>>> Add an option for the customer to intentionally _not_ specify his >>>> location, but which also totally disables 911 calling. This protects >>>> his 'privacy' at the expense of his safety, but it is the customer's >>>> decision. >>>> The last part of the puzzle is ensuring that the customer is aware >>>> that the "location information" provided is used for "emergency calls" >>>> and that deliberately providing FALSE information can (and probably >>>> _will_) lead to criminal prosecution if emergency services are >>>> directed to an incorrect location as a result of said false >>>> information. There is already existing enforcement mechanism for this >>>> -- "filing a false police report", etc. >>> [[.. munch ..]] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:55:27 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message AES wrote: > In article , Dean > M. wrote: >> Maybe for now we should only mandate that anyone who dials 911 from >> a VoIP phone [which does not provide 911 service] should be given >> an announement to the effect "use your cell phone to make this call!". > Not a bad idea ... Vonage already does this -- If you don't have 911 enabled in your account you get a message that says something like "Stop! You cannot use this phone to dial 911. Please hang up and use another phone" Which isn't technically true, I just did use the phone to dial 911, it just didn't get me through to anybody who can help. In message bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) wrote: > This solution is *exactly* what PBX admins have to do when they move > hard-wired phones behind their PBX. It is in real-world use today. > It works. > If you want to be your own phone service provider, there are > responsibilities that go along with that task. > Doing VoIP *does* mean that you are the 'last mile' phone service > provider -- The VoIP provider is providing the 'port' on the switch, > at their premises. It is *your* responsibility to provide the > connection to that point. And therein lies the problem. People are afraid of taking responsibility for their own actions, and they need someone to blame when life doesn't work out the way they planned. Blaming the VoIP carrier because they forgot to inform the carrier when they moved is a perfect example. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Vonage Improvement: No More Dial 1+ Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:55:28 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Tony P. wrote: > In article , john@katy.com says: >> Recently ordered a new Vonage line. The new line does not require a "1" >> prefix. >> I was spending $50 per new line for a device that inserted the 1. This >> is Great news! >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since there is no price differential >> on Vonage in most cases (I still have a 500 minute limited account >> but most users do not) the '1' is pointless and a waste of time. >> _Everything_ is ten digits; even locally, and the price is the same >> no matter what. However, some people do not know that Vonage can also >> be _seven digits_ with area code (where the box was installed, or >> 'home area') assumed. Like telco, if nothing is dialed after seven >> digits, then it sits there for a few seconds to time out, and deals >> with what it got. PAT] > The problem is that they're transmitting caller ID with a 1, so when you > go to re-dial a number from CLID guess what happens. Your phone dials the number with a 1. So what? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So you don't rely on your caller ID for redial purposes. Use the same feature on your phone instead. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #223 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Fri, 20 May 2005 17:40:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (Julian Thomas) Carrier Needed (sagor2@gmail.com) Schema SAFT NIFE Rectifier SMR 48V/25A (Vitch) Broadcom Sues Qualcomm Over Chip Patents (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Phanton of the Operator - a Film Documentary (Joseph) Telecom Update (Canada) #482 (John Riddell) Call For Papers MACAI Artificial Intelligence 2005 (Alexander Gelbukh) Re: Very Early Modems (Jim Haynes) Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice (Steven M. Scharf) Re: What Happened To Channel 1 (Martin McCormick) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Tony P.) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (bvlmv) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (billemery) Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (Steven J. Sobol) Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering (Margolin) Re: Vonage Number Transfer (Nate) Re: More About E-911 and VOIP (Charles B. Wilber) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Isaiah Beard) Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! (Steven J. 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: Julian Thomas Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 21:18:20 -0400 Subject: Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (as usual, please obscure my email address - tnx) hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote about Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? on 19 May 2005 12:28:37 -0700 I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned the IBM internal telephone network. > Isaiah Beard wrote: >> There is something else too that is going the way of the dodo: tie >> lines. These were useful for large universities with multiple campuses, >> as well as businesses with more than one hub operation in distant cities. > They were fairly common in organizations with more than one location. As > mentioned, years ago 7c message units could add up to some serious money > so even a local tie line between plants within a city was cost justified. > (Our hospital had five tie-line trunks to the independent rehab center > next door.) In the early days of the IBM phone network, this was the case between multiple PBX locations in a large site (I'm familiar with Poughkeepsie; other sites were probably similar). There were a multitude of dialling prefixes to go from one local location to another. > Tie lines usually allowed direct dialing in a PBX at another location. > You dialed a special code (often 8 or 8+) and either merely immediately > dialed the distant extension or waited for a second dial-tone, then > dialed the extension. For larger organizations, the tie-line access > codes could be quite large. For Centrex users, tie lines had their own 3 > digit code different than the outside code to allow direct inward > dialing. Yes. Before a unified "dial 8" IBM internal network, there were a multitude of codes for different locations. Some of them were of the "let your fingers find the way" where you dialled a code for one location, and then its code for an associated location. After the dial 8 network was put in place, you dialed 8 + 3 digits for location + 4 digits extension. > Some tie-lines were relayed from PBX to PBX, you kept dialing the access > code and tied together a bunch of systems. I don't think that was the > preferred way, however. See above - before "dial 8" > Tie-lines usually allowed dialing in both directions between the two > PBXs. I know one switchboard could connect an outside caller through the > tie-line to the remote location, but they didn't like to do so as a > matter of policy. The tie-line jacks on the switchboard were a little > more complicated -- there was a pair for each line, one jack used for > answering, one used for calling. I had a couple of experiences trying to get from an outside call to a remote location, it depended on the whim of the operator. On one occasion, I was able to get a person to agree to call the remote extension and deliver a message. Julian Thomas: jt atsign jt-mj decimalpoint net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them as they fly overhead. -Request for Comments: 1925 IOOF [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Stanotel network of Standard Oil Company was really something in that regard, but the biggest I have ever seen -- with a seven digit dial in number from the 'outside world' and absolutely unprotected; no password required -- was the United Airlines phone system, _Unitel_ based out of the airline's corporate offices in Elk Grove, Illinois. They had eighty or ninety tie lines (all dialed into beginning with '1' followed by two more digits; for example, '147' was the tie line code you would dial to reach the San Francisco airport. Dial 147 (or 176 for Ohare as another example), you then heard another dial tone from the centrex in the distant city. At that point, do what you want, but most of _those_ centrexes also had tie lines of their own going to still smaller airports. You got USA WATS lines (band 6 as I recall) by dialing 181 off of the Elk Grove system. One of the tie lines served the airport in Seattle, WA, but then from that distant centrex there was another three digit code which got you the centrex at Boeing Aircraft, mainly because Boeing was/is a big supplier to United Airlines. Another three digit tie-line code off of the Seattle airport centrex (reached from Elk Grove if I recall correctly with '124') got you _their_ WATS lines from Seattle, still another code (from the Seattle centrex) got you access to Canadian WATS. If you let your fingers do the walking, you discovered all sorts of very interesting three digit (or less) tie-codes and/or outside lines through those distant centrexes, all directly dialable with their own tie-codes out of Elk Grove. This was back in the days when everything in northern Illinois was 312, and subscribers could have an 'unlimited call pak' as they were known for about $25 per month. All reachable and unpassworded on 312-954-xxxx (a call-extender for the use of people working from home rather than the UAL office complex.) The United Airlines 'Unitel' system was a _m a s s i v e_ thing. One of the tie lines even went to the United States Department of Aviation Administration, but when you got to _that_ switchboard you could not get the '9' level or any of its tie-lines or WATS lines, etc. But you sure could get out to other points from most of the connecting switchboards/centrexes, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sagor2@gmail.com Subject: Carrier Information Needed Date: 20 May 2005 09:57:46 -0700 Hello sir, I am writing from Bangladesh (Dhaka). I am starting a new VoIP business and initially interested in call termination of international calls. I am new in this business and would like to know the process of contact with the carriers outside Bangladesh. So I want your help to contact with the carriers. Will you please inform me the billing process for each call how to get the money and is the billing monthly or weekly? Waiting for your nice reply. Sagor [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Good luck with your new business venture. You might also want to check the VOIP-News Digest run by Jack Decker on Yahoo. But many of those readers also read here and I am certain someone will help you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Vitch Subject: Schema SAFT NIFE Rectifier SMR 48V/25A Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 20:22:52 +0200 Organization: les newsgroups par Wanadoo I search schema of Rectifier SAFT SMR 48/25 (48V, 25A), SAFT SMR 9001, SAFT SMR 48/34. Thank you. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It would appear Vitch is not terribly proficient in speaking English. Maybe someone can also help him. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 12:09:41 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Broadcom sues Qualcomm over chip patents Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 20, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21750&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Broadcom sues Qualcomm over chip patents BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Report predicts continued broadband growth * Cablevision CEO says company will listen to offers * Siemens eyes FTTH market * IBM, Nortel team up * Report: Baby boomers will change online services USTA SPOTLIGHT * Newton's Telecom Dictionary -- 21st Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Opinion: IPTV poised to change communications experience VOIP DOWNLOAD * Report: Microsoft keen to enter VoIP market * Vonage mum on wireless VoIP plans * Analysis: VoIP prices hold steady REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC requires emergency 911 for VoIP * Comcast, Time Warner seek FCC approval for Adelphia buy Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21750&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Phanton of the Operator - a Film Documentary Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 09:37:06 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com This is a link to a documentary made by a woman in Canada. http://www.artifactproductions.ca/fantome/en/film/synopsis.htm Includes some QuickTime clips as well. ------------------------------ Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #482 Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 15:42:04 -0400 From: John Riddell ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 482: May 20, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Wireless Powers $34 Billion Year in Telecom ** Task Force Calls for Tough Anti-Spam Laws ** Telecom Policy Review Gets Under Way ** U.S. VoIP Providers Must Provide E911 by Fall ** Vonage Wants 9-1-1 Deadline Extended ** Bell, Shaw Respond to VoIP Challenges ** Ottawa Funds Broadband in Northern Quebec ** Global Digital Divide Narrows ** Nortel, IBM to Open Joint Research Centre ** Aliant Updates Forbearance Application ** Phonetime Buys B.C. LD Assets ** MTS Bundles Include Charity Offer ** TIW Shareholders Approve Wind-Up ** Telecom Coalition to Host Networking Gala WIRELESS POWERS $34 BILLION YEAR IN TELECOM: "A new report from Statistics Canada says the telecom services industry took in $34 billion last year, up 4.1% from 2003. The growth came entirely in wireless, where revenue rose 17.5%, subscribers increased 12.7%, and revenue per subscriber increased 3.0%. ** Wireline still produces two-thirds of industry revenue, but its contribution fell by 0.6%, the third consecutive annual decline. The number of wireline phones in service has been falling for 12 quarters: 4Q 2004 was 1.2% below 4Q 2003. ** At the end of 2004 there were 46.5 mobile phones per 100 inhabitants, up five points from 2003. ** Overall operating profits were $7.2 billion in 2004, compared to $6.2 billion the previous year. Wireless was significantly more profitable than wireline. ** Capital spending, which increased in both wireline and wireless, totaled $5.5 billion in 2004, a 12.2% rise. This was the first increase since capital spending peaked at $7.7 billion in 2001. www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050516/d050516b.htm TASK FORCE CALLS FOR TOUGH ANTI-SPAM LAWS: The final report of the federal Task Force on Spam, released Tuesday, makes 22 recommendations for combating spam, including new, targeted anti-spam legislation, and increased resources for enforcement. (See Telecom Update #433, 461, 470) ** The report calls spam "a significant social and economic issue, a drain on the business and personal productivity of Canadians, and a cloak for criminal activity." Spam now comprises 80% of global email. http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/h_gv00317e.html TELECOM POLICY REVIEW GETS UNDER WAY: The Telecom Policy Review Panel, appointed in April (see Telecom Update #477) plans to publish a discussion paper on June 4, along with a schedule for filing submissions and other steps in the consultation process. To register for further information, go to the panel's website. www.telecomreview.ca/epic/internet/intprp-gecrt.nsf/en/Home U.S. VoIP PROVIDERS MUST PROVIDE E911 BY FALL: By the end of September, all U.S. VoIP phone services that interconnect with the public switched telephone network must include E911 emergency calling capabilities to their customers as a mandatory feature. The Federal Communications Commission order, released yesterday, says that within 120 days: ** VoIP providers must deliver all 9-1-1 calls, along with the customer's phone number and location, to the customer's local emergency operator. ** Incumbent phone companies must provide access to their E911 networks to any requesting telecommunications carrier. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-258818A1.doc VONAGE WANTS CANADIAN 9-1-1 DEADLINE EXTENDED: Vonage has asked the CRTC to give it until November (instead of July 3) to comply with the Commission's order to route all 9-1-1 calls on nomadic VoIP services to the correct emergency centre (see Telecom Update #476). Vonage says that selecting contracting, and training an appropriate call centre will take longer than the time allowed. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8663/v32_200505803.htm BELL, SHAW RESPOND TO VoIP CHALLENGES: As ordered last week by the CRTC (see Telecom Update #481), Bell Canada and Shaw have responded to accusations that their VoIP services violate Commission rules. Both companies say they intend to comply with last week's new VoIP rules as soon as possible, but should not have been expected to comply with rules that hadn't yet been set. OTTAWA FUNDS BROADBAND IN NORTHERN QUEBEC: Industry Canada's Broadband for Rural and Northern Development (BRAND) program, together with other federal agencies, has announced $6.9 million in funding to deploy high-speed Internet to some 51 municipalities in the areas of Abitibi, Abitibi-Ouest, Rouyn- Noranda, Temiscamingue and the Vallee-de-l'Or, including seven Algonquin communities. GLOBAL DIGITAL DIVIDE NARROWS: Marking World Telecommunications Day on May 17, ITU Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi reported significant improvements in access to communications services. The number of telephone subscribers has quadrupled since 1990, from 10% to 40% of the population, and about 80% of the world's inhabitants are now within reach of a mobile signal. NORTEL, IBM TO OPEN JOINT RESEARCH CENTRE: Nortel Networks and IBM have agreed to establish a joint research centre in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The deal is the first step in a broader arrangement to collaborate on the design and development of new products and services. ** Paul Karr, formerly of Bristol-Myers Squibb in New York, has been named Nortel's Controller, replacing interim controller Karen Sledge. ALIANT UPDATES FORBEARANCE APPLICATION: Updating its April 2004 application for local phone service forbearance (see Telecom Update #428), Aliant has told the CRTC that it faces competition not just from EastLink (which the telco claims now serves 29% of local lines in 32 Nova Scotia and PEI exchanges) but also from Primus, Vonage, and Yak. PHONETIME BUYS B.C. LONG DISTANCE ASSETS: Phonetime Inc. has bought 3,000 LD customers, a billing system, and other assets from BeeTel Communications of Surrey, B.C. Phonetime's Call Select, which targets ethnic communities, now has 18,000 subscribers. MTS BUNDLES INCLUDE CHARITY OFFER: Manitoba Telecom offers to donate $3 to one of three charities for every new customer who chooses a bundle of MTS services by June 17. MTS sums up the offer as: "three choices, three bucks, three charities." TIW SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE WIND-UP: Telesystem International Wireless shareholders have voted to approve the sale of TIW's remaining assets to Vodaphone. (See Telecom Update #473) TELECOM COALITION TO HOST NETWORKING GALA: The Coalition for Competitive Telecommunications will host a Business Telecom Networking Gala and Dinner in Toronto on Monday May 30. The event, which features "An evening at the Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean," is part of the 2005 Canadian Telecom Summit. For information and to register, go to http://www.gstconferences.com. HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: Alexander Gelbukh (MICAI) Subject: CFP: MICAI-2005 A I, Springer LNAI: One Week Submission Reminder Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 01:20:39 -0500 Organization: MICAI 4th Mexican International Conference on ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MICAI 2005 November 14-18, 2005 Monterrey, Mexico www.MICAI.org/2005 Proceedings: Springer LNAI. Keynote speakers: John McCarthy, Tom Mitchell, Erick Cantu, Jaime Sichman; more to be announced. Submission: May 22 abstract; then full paper May 29. LAST CALL FOR PAPERS *** KEYNOTE SPEAKERS *** John McCarthy of Stanford is a pioneer of AI, creator of Lisp. Tom Mitchell of CMU is ex-President of AAAI. Erick Cantu of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Jaime Sichman of University of Sao Paulo. More speakers to be announces on webpage. *** PAPER SUBMISSION *** Accepted papers will be published by Springer-Verlag in Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI). Submissions are received through www.MICAI.org/2005; see guidelines there. Title and abstract must be submitted by May 22, then the full paper by May 29. *** IMPORTANT DATES *** May 22: Paper registration deadline (title and abstract). May 29: Paper submission deadline (only papers registered by May 22). July 17: Acceptance notification. August 7: Camera-ready deadline. *** TOPICS *** All areas of Artificial Intelligence, see list on the webpage. *** CONTACT *** General inquiries: micai2005 at MICAI dot org. Inquiries on submission requirements: submission at MICAI dot org. Inquiries on the conference program: program at MICAI dot org. See more contact options on www.MICAI.org/2005. We apology if you receive this CFP more than once. PLEASE CIRCULATE this CFP among your students and colleagues. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 19:17:49 GMT By converting punched cards to 5-level paper tape you could send the data over ordinary telegraph circuits and equipment, including the Bell System TWX service. These circuits might be just wires, or telegraph carrier channels, or they might include regenerative repeaters for the 5-unit code. There were also private systems for transmitting 5-level code within a company or organization - these were supplied by Bell or by Western Union. The Bell System didn't allow any "foreign" (meaning customer-provided equipment) attached to the switched network. They vigorously defended this position until it was overturned by the Carterfone case. If you wanted to use customer-provided equipment you had to lease a private line. You could lease a telegraph-grade line or a voice grade line which cost a lot more. So the IBM card-to-card transceiver came in a DC model that would work slowly over a telegraph line, and in an AC model that would work faster over a voice grade line. And since it did not need the entire bandwidth of a voice-grade line IBM designed the modem with four different frequency bands so that up to four systems could operate simultaneously over a voice-grade line. The earliest modems were not really called that but were the carrier systems installed in telephone and telegraph company offices to allow multiple telegraph transmissions over a single voice-grade circuit. The cusotmer usually didn't know or care whether his leased line was wire from end to end or was transmitted over a telegraph carrier channel. Modems, in the form of carrier channel terminals packaged to be self- contained, were sometimes used in manual TWX service to connect the teletypewriter on the customer's premises to the TWX central office. In the late 1950s the Bell System deployed a message switching system for Delta Airlines. This used the voice telephone switched network to connect stations to each other. A cabinet of equipment about four feet high contained a model and an auto-dialer which went between the telephone line and the very complicated Teletype set used to transmit messages and dial numbers automatically. About the same time Bell provided a voice-grade private line and high speed (1200 baud) modems, called "digital subsets", to the FAA for transmitting weather data around the U.S. on a private leased voice grade line. Also at that time you could buy third-party modems operating to 2400 baud or so to use on private lines. Then in the early 1960s the Bell System opened things up by leasing modems that allowed the customer to connect business machines to the modem and transmit data over the switched network. The EIA RS-232 standard interface soon followed. In the same time frame they converted TWX to a dial service, operating mostly over the voice switched network. Some other services were proposed, including a Wide Area Data Service, but these were shot down by the FCC. -- jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Steven M. Scharf Subject: Re: Traveller Seeks Phone Advice Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 18:20:51 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net D. Dude wrote in message news:telecom24.214.4@telecom-digest.org: > Hi, I'm planning on traveling to the US and Europe in the near future > so I'd appreciate some recommendations on which providers I should use > for cell service and phone/calling cards. See http://nordicgroup.us/prepaid which compares 17 prepaid plans for the United States. It's a great site, as it compares all aspects of each plan, including coverage, minimums, roaming, per-minute charges, daily access fees, per call surcharges, etc.. I'd say that even if it wasn't my site! The short answer is this: For the U.S., get a TDMA service from http://gobeyondwireless.com . They'll sell you a TDMA/AMPS phone, or you can pick up a used phone very cheaply (look at http://craigslist.org for the first city you'll be in in the U.S.). The used phone must have previously been active on AT&T's TDMA network (not Cingular's). There is no charge to activate your own phone, and you can buy time on-line. Don't worry about which area code you get. Minutes do not expire. The other good option in the U.S. is CallPlus TDMA (http://www.callpluswireless.com/). While they have a higher per-minute rate, and a higher minimum, they do include international long distance to many countries at no extra charge (see http://www.locus.net/html/popup_50countries.html. Same deal regarding handsets, they'll sell you one, or you can use an AT&T TDMA handset. What about GSM in the U.S.? --------------------- GSM service in the U.S. is not great, with large areas still having no coverage. SIM cards are quite expensive, as are prepaid minutes. If you go the GSM route, avoid T-Mobile, and go with Cingular, and be certain to get a phone that supports 800 Mhz and 1900 Mhz GSM (800 Mhz is sometimes called 850 Mhz). What about CDMA in the U.S.? ---------------------- Coverage is excellent, but prepaid CDMA is more expensive than prepaid TDMA. Europe ------- For Europe, the best deal is to obtain an unlocked dual band (900/1800 Mhz) GSM phone, and then use Riiing. You didn't say where you are located, you can see the Riiing product at http://www.planet3000.com/SIM_INTL_riiing_DTL.shtml. GSM Phone for Europe and Riiing ------------------ Triband GSM phones (900/1800 & 1900) are very cheap now, because they are not well-suited for the U.S. anymore because most GSM is at 800 Mhz. See http://store.yahoo.com/sentimentalgifts/mott2gsm90mh.html for a good deal on a tri-band GSM phone. For U.S. GSM use you want a dual band 800/1900 Mhz handset, or a quad-band (800/1900 & 900/1800). The quad-band GSM phones are still pretty expensive. ------------------------------ From: martin@hydrogen.cis.okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: What Happened To Channel 1 Date: 20 May 2005 13:30:37 -0500 Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK Net-ops Our Usenet feed went away for several months and I have only recently discovered that it is back. I ran across the thread from this past March about Channel 1 TV and the discussion of the BBC1 405-line service that shut down in 1985. That brought back a bunch of memories. Every eleven years, the Sun spews lots of charged particles in the direction of Earth via Sun spots and Solar flares and these events cause the ionosphere to become more reflective of higher-frequency radio waves at various times. I was too young to have known anything about the grand daddy of all Solar cycles called Cycle19 in the late fifties, but I do remember all the rest from the late sixties to the one that is just now winding down. In November of 1970, I heard BBC1 TV audio in the 41.5 MHZ range for the first time here in the very center of the contiguous 48 United States. When Solar activity began to peak in the late seventies again, the BBC was back during our Fall and Winter months. We would start to hear some of the transmitters begin to fade in around 08:00 or so on a good day. If it was a really good day, the 45-MHZ video buzz would be there, also. The 30-50 MHZ band is used for two-way radios and paging services in North America so the video was _NOT_ amusing to users of that spectrum such as state police agencies. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol which polices primarily traffic regulations on those parts of roads that are not part of some municipality suffered withering jamming for hours at a time by video sidebands off the 45-MHZ center carrier as the Highway Patrol used several frequencies between 44.7 and 45.22 MHZ. The signals usually came and went, sometimes reaching what one might call local quality until about 1 or 2 in the afternoon. By that time, it would be well after dark in England as we are UTC - 6 in the Central Standard time zone. Due to the fact that F2 Layer propagation above 30 MHZ is almost exclusively a daytime-only phenomenon, the reception of BBC1 audio was always a mid-morning to early afternoon experience for us. One could hear programs aimed at children coming home from school and the evening news and weather among other BBC programs. A few other notes are in order. The BBC wasn't the only television service audible during those exciting times. The French also had a Band-I service whose audio was at 41.250 MHZ plus or minus offsets. More often than not, both the British and French television audio were simultaneously receivable so it is good that they weren't on the same exact frequencies. If you consider the distance between Oklahoma in the middle of the continental US and the UK or France, one would expect the propagation to be almost identical, but the path tended to favor the French system. Either their transmitters were run at a higher power level or the angle of propagation for the signals was more favorable to France than to England. Also, various transmitters in the UK would be booming in loud and clear while others were barely audible. Both the French and British television systems made extensive use of offsets to minimize video interference to television sets near enough to receive signals from two transmitters at the same time such as what would happen if someone lived in the countryside between two towns whose Band-I transmitters were on the same channel. On the BBC1 system, the offsets appeared to be about twelve KHZ or so which meant that with a selective AM receiver, one could tune in the London area or the Northern Ireland transmitter. One slightly amusing thing I remember was that one of the BBC transmitters must have had a crystal oven that wasn't too accurate. Its signal would whistle or heterodyne against another BBC transmitter in another part of the country, but the pitch of the note would begin to rise or fall through zero beat within 20 or 30 seconds. A few minutes later, it would shift back the other direction. I am guessing this coincided with the cycling of the thermostat and the heating and cooling of the crystal. The audio, by the way, for both the British and French systems was AM or amplitude modulated. The video for at least the British system was 405 lines at 50 fields per second. A few hobiests in the US actually cobbled together modified monochrome television sets and tuners and were able to get scratchy images. I was told that without modification to the video circuits, the images were reverse polarity because the 405-line system used the opposite signal levels for black and white than do modern PAL or NTSC systems. If one reads the book, The History of RADAR, there is an interesting footnote to the British Band-I system. Since the UK figured that war with Germany was imminent in the late 30's, the decision was made to pump money in to the fledgling television equipment manufacturing industry in England because the manufacture of TV picture tubes and VHF transmitting and receiving equipment fit perfectly in to the still top-secret efforts to develop useful radar systems for defense. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Information Technology Division Network Operations Group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ah yes, the grand old 1970's when we could use our 11-meter (Citizens Band Radio) gear and 'work the skip' all over the world on a good hot summer night, particularly if your antenna was on top of an eight story apartment building and you had a 'little help' downstairs at your base, hahahaha! Truely, from the base on the first floor to the antenna on the ninth floor (the elevator machine room on the roof) the signal did dissipate a little, but the 5/8 wave directional antenna picked up the slack. I talked to guys in England and France also, but more often than not guys on the west coast in California (from my former home in Chicago) in the early morning hours before the sun had come up out there. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 22:07:48 -0400 In article , spamsucks@crazyhat.net says: > And therein lies the problem. People are afraid of taking > responsibility for their own actions, and they need someone to blame > when life doesn't work out the way they planned. > Blaming the VoIP carrier because they forgot to inform the carrier > when they moved is a perfect example. Exactly. But then, you never had to tell the phone company where you were with circuit switched. That being said, when I switched to Vonage I knew about the 911 issues ahead of time. I put in my address, researched their work with RI E-911 and even tested to be sure everything was functional. So now if for example, my service goes out like it did between 5:30PM and 6:00PM yesterday I have a legitimate gripe with Vonage. But if it was my own stupidity there is no one to blame but myself. I smell a major rat in this whole scenario. The incumbent carriers are scared to death of VoIP because it proves that they've been raking us over the coals for many years. In fact it is worse now than it once was. My first phone line cost a grand total of $12.00 a month and I was renting the phone. Now a basic line with message unit service costs $30.00 after all the taxes and fees. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I got still another pitch letter from Southwestern Bell yesterday; this one offers a _full year_ of the e entire package of features for $2.95 (yes, _two dollars, ninety-five cents_) per month. Those people are starting to get itchy I would say. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bvlmv Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: 20 May 2005 06:36:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Could someone put a brief explanation of : OPT- IN OPT -Out Thanks, [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'OPT' means 'optional', and it is the opposite of 'default', or the way 'things would normally happen'. In the context of this thread, Vonage has not been normally providing a working 911 service. To obtain 911 you have to make an effort to get it, by notifying the carrier. That would be 'OPT-IN' or ask to be included in whatever the program is. OPT-OUT (or option-out) is when the 'default' (or the way things normally happen) is to include you, but you do not want the default to happen, you want to option yourself out of the program or event being offered. Again, in the context of this thread, Vonage intends within ninety days -- probably due to recent government fiat -- to change their default (the way things normally happen) to be valid 911 service for everyone. If you do not want what will be the new norm, of emergency phone service, you will have to take action to be excluded (Opt out) rather than before when you had to 'Opt in' to use the emergency program. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 02:04:33 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Isaiah Beard wrote: [[.. munch ..]] > Probably the biggest network is the Federal Govt's "FTS" network and > the military's Autovon network. I don't know how they work today. I > always thought "Autovon" used special TouchTone phones, but at my > father's installation, the Autovon lines came in the PBX just like any > other trunk and the phones in his place were plain rotary. They used > Autovon for plain business, not "combat" situations as the literature > suggests. FWIW, they converted to Centrex from PBX, then closed the > whole place down about six months later. It appeared the govt owned, > not leased, the PBX switchboard and switchgear--with govt employees > doing the maintenance on it, not Bell people, even though it was > connected to the Bell System. Autovon used "standard" Touch-tone phones. Ones with *all* the buttons. including the 4th column of 4. Autovon actually made use of those 4th-column buttons, for things like indicating the 'priority' of the call. If all circuits were busy and you had "priority' traffic, you could push the magic button for that, as part of dialing the number, and some (random) "non-priority" call would get abruptly terminated, to free up the required circuit, so that your call could go through. There were other 'specialty' capabilities as well, specific to a "command and control" operation. The 'enhanced' features (including 'priority') were not necessarily available on -every- Autovon phone -- it took a certain 'class of service' as it were, before one could use them. And, of course, there were very specific 'policy' rules about _when_ one could use them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] ------------------------------ From: billemery Subject: Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 15:41:51 -0500 I also have PCS Vision, that's for using the phone itself as the email device, the wireless web access is when you use it as a modem. That's where the surprise is. Steven Lichter wrote in message news:telecom24.222.4@telecom-digest.org: > billemery wrote: >> Used my trusty Nokia as a modem the other day to see if it worked and >> called my ISP's dialup access number for folks on the road or whatever >> and found that Sprint had charged me .40 a minute for "wireless web >> access". What a rip !!! Gonna change to t-mobile or someone (anyone) >> else. Don't like surprises. > I used mine a couple of time and did not get charged, but then I have > PCS Vision, so that would be included in the contract. > Sounds like years ago with Pacific Telephone told me I could not use > my voice line with a modem, I said show me where it said I could not, > end of threat. > -- > 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: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 20:25:39 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com billemery wrote: > Used my trusty Nokia as a modem the other day to see if it worked and > called my ISP's dialup access number for folks on the road or whatever > and found that Sprint had charged me .40 a minute for "wireless web > access". What a rip !!! Gonna change to t-mobile or someone (anyone) > else. Don't like surprises. Um ... This has never been a secret with Sprint; in fact, if you look in the user manual for any recent phone it will *say* there are charges. It's in the manual for my Samsung VGA-1000... The only per-minute charges are for the old 14.4Kbps slow wireless web access. PCS Vision is billed either flat-rate or per kilobyte transferred depending on which Vision package you have. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering Organization: Symantec Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 23:55:16 -0400 In article , Jack Decker wrote: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63675 > FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? > Critics Charge They're Engineering Death of Indie VoIP > Written by Karl Bode > Tomorrow the FCC will release an order that forces all independent > VoIP providers to offer 911 service within 120 days. On the surface > the move seems like a simple way of ensuring public safety, but > critics believe it's really an incumbent engineered attempt to crush > upstart VoIP competitors. > There's been a scattered number of deaths blamed on VoIP -- whether or > not the VoIP provider was actually culpable > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63372 hasn't mattered to > some news outlets. Vonage has also been sued for "failing to inform > users they need to activate their 911 service" before it will work; > apparently this welcome screen > http://www.broadbandreports.com/r0/download/800075~433b0c31ec1520970b77229393b > 7d713/vonage.png every customer sees was simply too mystical. I believe the issue is that even once you activate it, you wouldn't get connected to real E911 services. The LECs didn't provide them with the proper access to the E911 infrastructure, so Vonage was forwarding 911 to administrative offices rather than 911 operators. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Nate Subject: Re: Vonage Number Transfer Date: 20 May 2005 05:57:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Nate wrote: > Nate wrote: >> Well ... it's been 2 1/2 months now waiting on my phone number to >> transfer to Vonage. I'm not sure who's holding up the transfer but >> this is ridiculous. Vonage claims it's not their fault (probably >> isn't) but my question is, who do I complain to? My current carrier >> (MCI) doesn't want to hear about it and, again, Vonage claims it's not >> their fault. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well again, like the other day, in this >> case MCI is _probably not_ the underlying carrier, but probably just >> a UNI-P operation. Like the guy using AT&T for 'local service' the >> other day, more than likely MCI in this instance is at the mercy of >> whomever the 'real' carrier of record in your area is. Southwestern >> Bell perhaps? When Vonage put in the transfer request to MCI, then >> MCI in turn had to tell the 'actual carrier' about it. What does >> Vonage say other than 'not our fault'? Can you get them to audit or >> trace the transaction for you? You also said 'MCI does not want to >> hear about it'. Can you be more specific? Does your number actually >> _belong_ to you? Do you have that part of it under control? Please >> give us a few more details. PAT] > I called MCI again and they say there is absolutely no reason why the > number can't be transferred. Vonage says they have no idea why it's > not being transferred so, again, who do I call? I asked MCI if they > were the actual carrier or if there was a third party involved and the > rep said that MCI was the actual carrier... but the guy didn't sound > very sure of himself. My guess is that there is a third party and > that's where it's being held up. Not sure what I can do at this point > other than wait ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If MCI is telling you there is > 'absolutely no reason why the number cannot be transferred' then > tell them to please transfer it while you are waiting on the line > attempting to audit/trace the procedure. I can assure you that MCI > was NOT the 'actual carrier'. When phone numbers and area codes, etc > were first assigned, there was no such 'phone company' as MCI. The > actual carrier is one of the Bells, no doubt. I assume your Vonage > line is working with its own number which is what you wish to have > transferred. PAT] Well, my number was transferred yesterday (the same day I called MCI back). Unless it's just a big coincidence, I suspect MCI was the holdup the entire time and they were probably just milking me as long as they could. Anyhow, all better now. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, good, I am happy for you. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles.B.Wilber@Dartmouth.EDU Date: 20 May 2005 09:05:17 EDT Subject: Re: More About E-911 and VOIP --- You wrote: Extending immediate E911 obligations on the smallest, most vulnerable, but most innovative IP-based communications providers does no one any good (except for providing a quick political sound bite). In the end, such actions might mean that no one will ever see the emergency response capabilities that IP- based communications working cooperatively with NENA could have produced. --- end of quote --- The above quote, attributed to Mr. Jeff Pulver, is disingenuous at best and just plain false at worst. As part of their deliberation process, the FCC spoke directly with people already affected by the lack of reliable 911 functionality on their VoIP service. In fact, lives have already been lost because of this shortcoming. Saving those lives in the future would be substantially more than just "a quick political sound bite." If I invented a new kind of engine that promised 100 miles per gallon, most people would agree that would be a good thing. If that engine was unable to meet current federal emission standards, however, I would not be permitted to sell it. I would be able to test it and develop it but I would not be able to sell it to the general public until it did meet those standards. I could complain that the government was "stifling my ability to move forward with this radically new engine, a machine that would change our lives for the better" but I would still be required to meet current emission standards before going to market. My complaints that the Model A Ford had no such restrictions placed on it would not carry much weight. We have a similar situation with VoIP. apparently, lives have already been lost or, at least, imperiled. Regulations exist for a reason. In this case, the reason is the preservation of life and property. We must decide if that is at least as important as the preservation of profit. Charlie Wilber Hanover, New Hampshire ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 12:06:12 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Joseph wrote: > You may *think* that this is true of all the major carriers, but the > reality is that for mobile service cingular does not require a > contract if you bring your own equipment and do not opt into any > special promotions. The other major mobile carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint > PCS, Nextel, etc. do not "give you a break" and will require a minimum > contract. I know for a fact that's not true with Sprint at least. If you buy your phone full price and pay an extra $10 a month, they will be more than happy to give you month-to-month service. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: AT&T - Cingular - Alltel; They Broke MY Contract! Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 20:23:35 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Joseph wrote: > You may *think* that this is true of all the major carriers, but the > reality is that for mobile service cingular does not require a > contract if you bring your own equipment and do not opt into any > special promotions. The other major mobile carriers, T-Mobile, Sprint > PCS, Nextel, etc. do not "give you a break" and will require a minimum > contract. Sprint will not require a contract for postpaid service if you pay $10 per month over and above the normal plan fees. You can even switch from being in contract to doing the $10 per month (but you will have to pay the $150 early term fee for that privilege). Of course, they don't charge you extra for month-to-month if you've fulfilled your contractual obligation. Back when my wife got her Sprint phone in late 2000, their in-store local coverage map didn't indicate that our neighborhood was covered -- which is odd, because they have a tower a mile or so from our house -- so we went month-to-month for a couple months until we were satisfied that coverage was what we needed, after which we signed a contract and eliminated the $10 fee. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #224 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Fri, 20 May 2005 22:53:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 225 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson More Norvergence Settlements (Lisa Minter) Morgan Stanley Learns About Email the Hard Way (Lisa Minter) Homemade News Hits the Road With Moblogs (Lisa Minter) Link to FAQ: How Does The SR Work With Call Id? (Rob Higgins) First Coffee - FCC VoIP E911 Ruling - Cheryl Waller (Jack Decker) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Al Gillis) Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering (HorneTD) Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering (T. Simon) Last Laugh! Ebay Workers Needed Call 866-622-9985 x2067 (Steven Lichter) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: More Norvergence Settlements Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 17:45:18 -0500 GE Capital Agrees to NorVergence Settlement Eight attorneys general have crafted a settlement agreement that could provide millions of dollars in debt forgiveness to small businesses in several states now on the hook for payments to third-party leasing companies after an allegedly fraudulent telecommunications company went bankrupt. The Attorneys General of Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Washington, D.C., have reached an agreement with General Electric Capital Corporation (GE Capital) in connection with its collection agreements on behalf of NorVergence, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, affected consumers may choose to participate or decline to participate. If all affected consumers in the six states and D.C. accept the deal, GE Capital will be writing off more than $2.89 million in debt for 216 small businesses. "Deceptive sales pitches lured hundreds of Illinois small business customers into signing telecommunication service agreements with NorVergence. But when the service suddenly ceased, the collection agency hassles began," Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said. "With this agreement, GE Capital is agreeing to end a nightmare that has haunted many small businesses as they try to regain telecommuni- cations service and overcome the financial hurdles caused by NorVergence." Under the settlement agreement, GE Capital -- which entered into direct contracts with NorVergence customers or, through other third-party companies, bought out lease agreements between NorVergence and its customers -- has agreed to write off or forgive $2,891,699 million it claimed to be owed by 216 NorVergence customers from the states represented in the agreement, many of whom had in the past year 'stalled', or refused to make any payments at all, daring GE Capital to 'sue them', which it did not do. This amount constitutes 85% of the debt owed to GE Capital from the period beginning on July 15, 2004, the approximate date that NorVergence ceased providing any services. Consumers who have made payments to GE Capital since July 15, 2004, will receive credit for those payments toward their remaining balance. While GE Capital denies any wrongdoing, it has agreed to forgive the $2.89 million of the debt it claims consumers owe on rental agreements and provide up to two years for customers to pay any remaining balances. In November 2004, Madigan filed a lawsuit against NorVergence, and Peter Salzano, its president. NorVergence is a telecommunications company based in Newark, New Jersey, that set up a sales office in Oakbrook Terrace. Madigan's lawsuit alleged the company's sales pitch offered small businesses discounted telecommunications services through the use of a "Matrix" box. NorVergence claimed the device was necessary to allow a small business to reap a 30 percent discount on its current telecommunications costs, including long distance, DSL service, and wireless phone service. The total cost of agreements to lease the matrix boxes ranged from approximately $12,000 to $175,000. Under NorVergence's alleged scheme, the company would sell its five-year contracts to leasing companies and walk away with the profit. When NorVergence was forced into bankruptcy in June 2004, its customers were left without service but still responsible for the five-year lease agreement payments to leasing companies. Copyright 2003-2005 ConsumerAffairs.Com 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, ConsumerAffairs.com . For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Morgan Stanley Learns the Hard Way About Email Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 19:53:36 -0500 Morgan Stanley case highlights e-mail perils By Michael Christie The $1.45 billion judgment against Morgan Stanley for deceiving billionaire Ronald Perelman over a business deal has a lesson all companies should learn -- keeping e-mails is now a must, experts say. Banks and broker-dealers are obliged to retain e-mail and instant messaging documents for three years under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules. But similar requirements will apply to all public companies from July 2006 under the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform measures. At the same time, U.S. courts are imposing increasingly harsh punishments on corporations that fail to comply with orders to produce e-mail documents, the experts said. Where judges once were more likely to accept that incompetence or computer problems might be to blame, they are now apt to rule that noncompliance is an indication a company has something to hide. "Morgan Stanley is going to be a harbinger," said Bill Lyons, chief executive officer of AXS-One Inc. (AMEX:AXO - news), a provider of records retention software systems. "I think general counsels around the world are going to look at this as a legal Chernobyl." Wednesday's $1.45 billion verdict against Morgan Stanley in West Palm Beach, Florida, was the product of just such a negative ruling on e-mail retention, which is also expected to form the backbone of the Wall Street firm's appeal. Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Maass, frustrated at Morgan Stanley's repeated failure to provide Perelman's attorneys with e-mails, handed down a pretrial ruling that effectively found the bank had conspired to defraud Perelman when he sold Coleman Co. to appliance maker Sunbeam Corp. in 1998. Morgan Stanley was working for Sunbeam, which entered bankruptcy in 2001, rendering worthless the shares Perelman had received in part payment for Coleman. In a rare step, Maass switched the burden of proof to Morgan Stanley, and instructed the jury solely to decide whether Perelman had relied on Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley says that ruling denied it a fair trial. But Eric Rosenberg, a former litigator with Merrill Lynch and now president of e-mail policy consultants LitigationProofing, said Maass was within her rights to rule as she did and could have even taken a more drastic step of issuing a default judgment on the entire case. Bernie Goulet, regulatory affairs manager for FrontBridge Technologies Inc., agreed while noting judges rarely take such severe measures. Ordering defendants to pay all costs is a more common punishment. Nevertheless, the days when companies could plead incompetence with regard to e-mail retention are gone. "Almost every single recent case of substantial size has been ruled in favor of the plaintiff. The attitude that flew in 1995 does not fly in 2005," Goulet said. DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD Experts said e-mail retention could be a double-edged sword if not accompanied by corresponding training for employees on the legal implications of e-mails they send. When New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer investigated the research divisions of Wall Street firms five years ago, he fined Morgan Stanley a little under $10 million for not having a proper e-mail retention policy in place. Merrill Lynch, however, which did have good backup systems and was able to produce relevant e-mails, had to pay over $100 million because some e-mails contained compromising material. "I guess I would put it as 'no good deed went unpunished'," said former Merrill Lynch counsel Rosenberg. Jay Ritter, a professor of finance at the University of Florida, said a danger was that among millions of legitimate e-mails, investigators might find one flippant comment from a low-level manager and take it as reflecting company policy. "There's a reason why certain people, why lawyers like to talk on the phone rather than have any written record of conversations," Ritter said. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters Limited. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Subject: Homemade News Hits the Road With Moblogs From: Lisa Minter Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 19:55:09 -0500 By Paul Thomasch Cranking out a column after a presidential debate or publishing a prize-worthy photo of the next catastrophe just got a whole lot easier -- no matter where or who you are. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and others have started to offer simple-to-use tools that let anybody with a digital camera or personal computer create blogs and produce homemade news. When twinned with new technology like camera phones and handheld computers, it's now possible to publish pictures or jot notes from anywhere: the street, a beach, a restaurant. Seconds later the information is posted to a Website for the world to read -- and suddenly you've got a mobile web blog, or moblog. "Text messaging and camera phone have put two powerful storytelling tools in the hands of millions of vpotential correspondents around the world," Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review at University of Southern California's journalism school, said in an e-mail exchange. "So it is now inevitable that when something newsworthy happens in public, someone will be there to document that event online instantly." The recent tsunami in South Asia gave evidence of moblogs' power and widespread use. Shortly after it struck, dispatches began appearing on blogs, often beating mainstream media to the unfolding story. One such blog was Waveofdestruction.org, created by Australian Geoffrey Huntley and made up of video and photos taken at the scene. Adam Greenfield, who helped organize the First International Moblogging Conference, is credited with coining the term in 2002. But moblogging -- defined as using a mobile device to publish on the Internet -- dates back to the 1990s. Most believe Steve Mann was the first to put photos on the Web from a mobile device, a bulky computer he carried with him. His first entry is hardly dramatic: "Feb. 22, 1995: most of my day was quite boring, walking to lab, pizza at food trucks etc." But when he later comes across a building on fire, he records the scene in about 45 Internet photos -- in what would now be thought of as moblogging. ADVERTISING DOLLARS Yet it took a decade for moblogging itself to catch fire. Today its popularity largely revolves around photography, thanks to the rise of cheaper and better camera phones. The Internet, of course, had an earlier fling with online photos back before the dot-com bubble burst. That business centered on photo storage and hard copy reprints, which were then stuffed into the family's picture book. These days online picture sharing is all the rage. Kodak's EasyShare Gallery and sites like it are awash with albums of The Smiths at Niagara Falls, Madison's First Birthday or Me at Graduation. But those virtual albums are exclusive; only those invited by the photographer can take a peek. Google (blogger.com), Yahoo (flickr.com) and MSN (spaces.msn.com), among others, are taking it a step further. Take Yahoo's Flickr, a blog site it bought from a husband-and-wife team in Vancouver. A Flickr account can be created so that only friends and family can browse your pictures, but it can also be opened up to a broader audience as a blog, or in many cases, a moblog. The pictures can also be tagged with labels -- making it easy to search for snapshots of everything from the tsunami to Tiger Woods. Though slightly different, Google's blogger.com and MSN's Spaces are based on the same idea: creating a global network of people sharing photos, news and commentary. "Families, friends, and co-workers will form there own social spheres through mobile blogging and so too will citizen journalists," Biz Stone, Blogger Senior Specialist at Google, predicted in an e-mail exchange. "There is more hype around the idea of real-time breaking-news bloggers than there is around a family that shares on-the-scene wedding and baby photos, but they are all the same from our perspective of enabling self-expression and sharing." Like most business battlegrounds, Yahoo, MSN and Google are squaring off over blogging and moblogging because huge money could be at stake. Already, MSN's Spaces is running ads. "The online advertising market is massive and growing faster than any one type of media," OJR's Niles said. "By controlling the publishing tools with which grass-roots reporters and other Web users communicate with each other, these companies control billions of page views through which they can serve the ads they sell." Of course, the popularity of moblogs -- both as a commercial venture and a publishing tool -- is itself a subject for bloggers. One recent posting on www.moblogging.org even touts an upcoming competition for the best cellphone photos -- with a C$500 prize. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters Limited. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Rob Higgins Subject: Link to FAQ - How Does The SR Work With Call Id? Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 18:27:17 -0500 With the SR Series, you can use phone company voice mail and even call forwarding. It works great will all phone company features except it works a little differently with the caller id. Here is what it says in the frequently asked questions section of the online manual: http://faxswitch.com/help/sr/sr_manual/WebHelp/r_manual.htm About call id http://faxswitch.com/help/sr/sr_manual/WebHelp/Commonly_Asked_Questions.html How does the SR pass the call-id signal? The call-id signal passes through very fast since the SR never answers your phone. The SR needs a ringing pattern of at least 1.8 seconds for the call-id information to have enough time to get through to your phones. So what happens is ... the last phone number in the sequence always gets the call id signal but sometimes the other numbers won't get the caller id information depending on the ringing voltage as I just mentioned. There are several ways to get around this: 1.) Be really persistent with the local phone company technicians and convince them to make sure all of your numbers ring longer than 1.8 seconds. Sometimes you can talk the phone company into doing this. We have reports from customers that say they have been successful in getting the phone company to configure the ringer so it passes the cal-id. We have had others who said that the phone company wouldn't do it. Some customers have told us that they even got a choice of six ringing patterns so they just chose the longest ones. We don't want to get you hopes up here though because some phone company installers simply will not make these changes for you. If they will not, please use one of the other solutions which follow (#2-4). 2.) Run a call-id box in front of the SR. Simply plug in you call-id box between your incoming line and the SR. Call-id will always work in front of the SR. Unless you use wireless phones with call id display, this will be your best solution. 3.) Run a wireless phone (with call-id display) in parallel to the first number and turn off the ringer. You hear your other business phone(s) ring, then answer the cordless. This is what I personally do. The only disadvantage is you won't get the barge-in protection on the wireless, which is no big deal as you would never answer the phone unless your phones ring for voice anyway. Incoming faxes automatically go to the fax on the fax number I also personally run a call-id box (#2) in front of the SR to record all call-id information on both numbers. 4.) Have the phone company change around your phone numbers (make you original number you distinctive ring number and your new number your primary number). This way the second number in the series (which always gets the cal-d signal) is your original number (for voice) and the first number is the new number (for fax or something else). This is the way most people get around this problem. The phone company will always do this for you with no extra urging. For most people this works great. The only problem is if you use call forwarding for your voice calls (primary number). # 4 will not work for you with call forwarding since the phone company has only two settings for to set up your call forwarding either (1.) forward all numbers (primary + distinctive ring) or (2.) forward primary number only (not the distinctive ring numbers). If you want to transfer you voice calls only, your primary number must be your voice number and the setting must be set to (2) forward primary number only. Most likely, with one of these work arounds, you will be able to get your call-id information on your voice number(s). To review: the call-id signal always passes through to the last number in the series (either the second number if you have 2 numbers or the third number if you have three numbers on one line). Unless you use call forwarding, this would most likely be the easiest solution. If you use the SR with call forwarding to forward your voice calls to your cell or another phone when you are out and still get your faxes on your fax machine, tell the phone company to set it up to only forward the main number. I do this personally and love it. I can go anywhere in the US and still get my business calls while my fax calls always go to my fax machine. Total freedom! You can also forward your voice number to a cell or other phone when you are on the Internet (the line is busy) thus get your voice calls while your line is tied up with the computer (or another call). With this application (call forwarding) you need to use one of the solutions #1-3 as # 4 will not work as mentioned above. ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 11:05:49 -0400 Subject: First Coffee - FCC VoIP E911 Ruling - Cheryl Waller I can't really do a proper excerpt of this one but when you have a few moments check it out: First Coffee - FCC VoIP E911 Ruling - Cheryl Waller - Vonage's 911 http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/May/1146627.htm How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 14:51:42 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com wrote in message news:telecom24.223.9@telecom-digest.org: > Isaiah Beard wrote: (much snippage...) > Some tie-lines were relayed from PBX to PBX, you kept dialing the > access code and tied together a bunch of systems. I don't think that > was the preferred way, however. Back in the days when I was just a pup I was working in a department store chain that had numerous stores in Oregon and California. One evening (when the boss was away, most likely) I happened into the telephone equipment room and found a store telephone dialing guide. One section contained inter-location dialing codes! After I thought about this listing for a while I guessed I could call from one store to another, to another and to yet another. Finally I was able to make a chain of tie line calls a dozen or so stores away and then loop the chain back on itself and cause another phone in my same room ring! Knowing nothing of how telephones worked I was astounded by this feat of black magic! I also recall that one could hardly hear across this lengthly chain of tie lines -- that is, a radio playing onto the first telephone almost couldn't be heard in the final phone! Al [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some of those tie-lines were absolutely rotten, accoustic-wise. Some of them sounded like you were talking into a barrel; others would snap at you off and on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: HorneTD Subject: Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 22:08:05 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Barry Margolin wrote: > In article , Jack Decker > wrote: >> http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63675 >> FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? >> Critics Charge They're Engineering Death of Indie VoIP >> Written by Karl Bode >> Tomorrow the FCC will release an order that forces all independent >> VOIP providers to offer 911 service within 120 days. On the surface >> the move seems like a simple way of ensuring public safety, but >> critics believe it's really an incumbent engineered attempt to crush >> upstart VoIP competitors. >> There's been a scattered number of deaths blamed on VoIP -- whether or >> not the VoIP provider was actually culpable >> http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63372 hasn't mattered to >> some news outlets. Vonage has also been sued for "failing to inform >> users they need to activate their 911 service" before it will work; >> apparently this welcome screen >> http://www.broadbandreports.com/r0/download/800075~433b0c31ec1520970b77229393b7d713/vonage.png every customer sees was simply too mystical. > I believe the issue is that even once you activate it, you wouldn't > get connected to real E911 services. The LECs didn't provide them > with the proper access to the E911 infrastructure, so Vonage was > forwarding 911 to administrative offices rather than 911 operators. > Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu > Arlington, MA > *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** The LECs didn't provide them with access to the E911 infrastructure at the price they were willing to pay would be a more accurate way of stating the problem. They thought it should be free and the LECs wanted full cost pricing plus return on investment. That's called capitalism. Tom Horne Well we aren't no thin blue heroes and yet we aren't no blackguards to. We're just working men and woman most remarkable like you. ------------------------------ From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon) Subject: Re: FCC's 911 Move a Trojan Horse? Critics Charge Engineering Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 21:27:19 UTC Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: tls@rek.tjls.com In article , Barry Margolin wrote: > I believe the issue is that even once you activate it, you wouldn't > get connected to real E911 services. The LECs didn't provide them > with the proper access to the E911 infrastructure, so Vonage was > forwarding 911 to administrative offices rather than 911 operators. If you read "The LECs didn't provide them with" as "Vonage wasn't willing to pay for, and thus didn't receive", you'd be about right. As has been repeatedly noted here and elsewhere, there are other, more responsible, VoIP carriers -- e.g. the cable companies' in-house telcos, or Packet8 -- who chose the more responsible, if perhaps less satisfying to shareholders, tack of paying their share of the costs of maintaining the E911 infrastructure rather than playing public- relations and political games as Vonage did instead. Thor Lancelot Simon tls@rek.tjls.com "The inconsistency is startling, though admittedly, if consistency is to be abandoned or transcended, there is no problem." - Noam Chomsky ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Last Laugh! Ebay Workers Needed, Call 1-866-622-9985 x2067 Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 22:22:19 GMT Ebay workers needed call 1-866-622-9985 x2067 ---------------- I got the above number as part of the usual junk that comes in each day and dumped into my junk mail box. Might be interesting to give them a call from a payphone and find out about their jobs, bet they want your bank account and SS numbers!! 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I found out just the other day how one of these 'ebay' scams works: I don't know about this one you mention above, but others of them go like this: You find where rummage sales and garage sales are located in your town. If you have trouble finding them, the scammer will gladly supply you a list of a few of them. You go to the garage/rummage sale and pay _your money_ to get a few pieces of the junk they put out on the sidewalk. You then take these items and clean/polish them to make them 'antiques'. Once you have your new collection of 'antiques', you list them on E-Bay and attempt to sell them. Sounds to me to be a red-hot way to make a lot of money quick. Another interesting way to 'make money fast' is by working part time, or full time, as you wish, for the Cash Retrieval Company. This man spams all the time telling you that you can make a 'fortune' by working for the Cash Retrieval Company. All outside work, just 'walking around all day'. The idea is that as you walk around all day, you are to look at the ground or the sidewalk. Whenever you see some money that someone dropped by accident or otherwise lost, you of course pick it up. Then you forward 75 percent of it (money orders preferred) to the Cash Retrieval Company and keep the other 25 percent as your generous commission. A 25 percent commission is a great opportunity for you. By the way, the scammer tells you about the 'Cash Retrieval Company' and its address (his post office box, I imagine) only after you have already paid him a five dollar non-refundable deposit via Pay Pal. There are lots of ways to get rich using the internet. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #225 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 May 2005 01:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 226 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The New Laws of Television (Monty Solomon) Thinking About VOIP (William Cousert) Switch Identification (Mike Cater) An Incident Forty Years Ago at Bell Labs (Lisa Minter) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out (Robert Bonomi) Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" (Steve Sobol) Re: Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (L Hancock) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 23:22:54 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The New Laws of Television Piracy is Good? The New Laws of Television by Mark Pesce There are two principle components of the new value chain of television hyperdistribution: the producer and the advertiser. An advertising agency is likely acting as an intermediary between these two, connecting producers to advertisers, working out the demographic appeal of particular programs, and selling ad payload into those programs; this is a role they already fulfill -- although at present they work with the broadcast networks rather than the producers. There is no role for a broadcaster in this value chain; the audience has abandoned the broadcaster in favor of a direct relationship with the program provider. That said, the broadcasters are uniquely qualified to transform themselves into highly specialized advertising agencies, connecting advertisers to producers; this is something they already excel at. http://www.mindjack.com/feature/newlaws052105.html ------------------------------ From: William Cousert Subject: Thinking About VOIP Date: 21 May 2005 11:03:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. Are any of these good enough to replace a POTS line? I'll be using it over Verizon's new Fios service. Where can I find a comparison of all the available services? I did a quick google search and found nothing. Do any of the services offer a discounted rate for a second or third line? Lingo seems to offer the most for the least amount of money. Are they worth considering? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For myself, I go with Vonage, mainly because of my advertising relationship with them. I do not know if that makes them 'better' or not, just 'cheaper' for me. I still have some Vonage e-coupons good for one month of free service. If anyone wants to test out Vonage, email me and ask for an e-coupon. The deal is, you click on the link in the email I send you; it then walks you through the sign up process of getting a number assigned, shipping out the telephone adapter (quite easy to install), etc. You use a credit card of your choice to pay for the adapter and a month of service. _Then_ the e-coupon kicks in, and whatever service you bought, you get a second month of the same for free. Email me for your coupon: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mike Cater Subject: Switch Identification Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 17:39:42 -0400 Recently I switched service providers for my POTS line. We used to be using a WECo 5ESS, with the older line cards (the better sounding ones!). I switched to a cable provider and obtained a landline through them. It's not VOiP. It is routed through the same switch I used to use but it's not homed from that switch. So obviously this makes finding the CLLI of the switch alot harder. To get to the point, while messing around with the switchhook I got a strange busy signal. It's 1600 Hz on for 0.5 seconds, off for 0.5 seconds. Here's a wav file of it: http://tinyurl.com/4dk34/busy.mp3 If you have any idea of what kind of switch this is, please advise! Thanks. ------------------------------ Subject: An Incident Forty Years Ago at Bell Labs From: Lisa Minter Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 00:45:01 EDT Forty years ago this month, at the Bell Labs offices in New Jersey, the suspected origin of the universe was discovered, quite by accident. They were not looking for that; it sort of just fell into their laps, and later, it got them substantial recognition. You can listen to it on the radio now: "NPR : The Big Bang's Echo" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4655517&sourceCode=RSS ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 06:47:18 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Robert Bonomi: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional > touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact > meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' > service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in > a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was > a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] On the PSTN, it somewhat depended on the switch and programming. 'Reorder' was the very-common switch reaction. There were a few switches that completely 'ignored' those signals. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But did you ever see/hear any that neither ignored nor offered re-order, but instead actually _did something_ ? I never did. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Vonage Changes 911 to Opt-Out Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 07:53:13 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , bvlmv wrote: > Could someone put a brief explanation of : > OPT- IN > OPT -Out > Thanks, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'OPT' means 'optional', and it is the > opposite of 'default', or the way 'things would normally happen'. > In the context of this thread, Vonage has not been normally providing > a working 911 service. To obtain 911 you have to make an effort to > get it, by notifying the carrier. That would be 'OPT-IN' or ask to > be included in whatever the program is. > OPT-OUT (or option-out) is when the 'default' (or the way things normally > happen) is to include you, but you do not want the default to happen, > you want to option yourself out of the program or event being offered. > Again, in the context of this thread, Vonage intends within ninety > days -- probably due to recent government fiat -- to change their > default (the way things normally happen) to be valid 911 service for > everyone. If you do not want what will be the new norm, of emergency > phone service, you will have to take action to be excluded (Opt out) > rather than before when you had to 'Opt in' to use the emergency > program. PAT] Pedantic nit: PAT does have the _usage_ of the terms entirely correct, but the explanation of "opt" falls in the "not exactly" category. "Opt" is a real word, in and of itself. It is a verb, meaning "to make a decision or choice", As in "I opted for peace and quiet, and moved to the country." The word goes all the way back to classical Latin. "Opt" traces from the root form in Latin, while 'option' (and thus 'optional') trace from combining forms of that root. The history of the 'in' and 'out' parts of the phrases _is_ less obvious. Effectively, it comes from the same derivation, as being on the 'inside' of a group, or being on the 'outside' of it. If you 'make a decision or choice' to be part of the group -- to be included in it --, you have 'opted in' to membership in that group. If you 'make a decision or choice' *not* to be part of the group -- to be excluded from it -- you have 'opted out' of membership in that group. When there is a simple 'binary' decision involved -- where there are only two _possible_ outcomes -- if you fail to make a particular decision, you must be 'on the other side of the fence' from where you would be if you'd did make that particular decision. e.g. if you don't "opt in", you are 'on the outside', or, if you don't 'opt out', you are 'on the inside'. Of course, life gets messier, when the decision choice has more options, e.g. choosing a 'default' Long Distance carrier for your telephone service. You don't just 'opt in' or 'opt out' -- you have to 'opt _for_' a particular carrier to be the default carrier, or expressly 'opt _against_ ' having any default carrier. In this _class_ of situation, there is no clear-cut *single* 'other side of the fence', so the 'failure to make a decision' situation does not have a single 'unambiguous' resolution. Thus, there is a need -- for any _specific_instance_ of this class of situation, to specify what happens if one does _not_ 'make any decision'. In the case of the 'default' long-distance carrier, if you do not express any preference, including not specifying 'no default carrier', somebody rolls the dice, and randomly picks one. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Sprint Has a Surprise For "Wireless Web Access" Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 17:43:13 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com billemery wrote: > I also have PCS Vision, that's for using the phone itself as the email > device, the wireless web access is when you use it as a modem. > That's where the surprise is. Ah. *That* explains where the confusion is. I'm a longtime regular poster in alt.cellular.sprintpcs and a Sprint PCS customer since December of 2000. I speak with some experience but no authority (I obviously don't speak for Sprint). PCS Vision phone packages are billed two ways. You can pay $15 per month flat-rate and get unlimited usage with a $10 monthly download credit (which disappears each month if you don't use it) or if you don't want the monthly credit you can pay $10. Or you can pay $0 monthly and pay one cent per kilobyte transferred. I am not sure about the a la carte, per-KB package, but the unlimited flat-rate package is for Vision use from the handset only, and doesn't allow use of a computer plugged into the handset. For that, you would need to buy a wireless data card from Sprint and get a separate plan. It's in black and white on the website. Go to PCSVision.com. That forwards you to Sprint's Vision homepage. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click TERMS & CONDITIONS - you may need to set your popup blocker to allow popups from Sprint's website, if you have a popup blocker running. In the T&C popup window, scroll down to "OTHER SPRINT PCS VISION TERMS", which says, and I quote: Other Sprint PCS Vision Terms. You will not receive voice calls while using Vision. Vision is not available for use with server devices or host computer applications, other systems that drive continuous heavy traffic or data sessions, or as substitutes for private lines or frame relay connections. Unlimited Vision plans/options may not be used with Sprint PCS phones or smart phones being used as a modem in connection with other equipment (e.g., computers, etc.) through use of connection kits or other phone-to-computer/PDA accessories, or Bluetooth or other wireless technology. We may terminate services without notice for any misuse. You may have access to certain games, ringers, screen savers and other items on our Vision site ("Premium Services") that are available for an additional charge. You will be billed for Premium Service purchases on your Sprint PCS invoice based on the charges as specified at purchase. Subject to the terms of the content purchased, we may delete premium and non-premium items downloaded to any storage areas we may provide, including any pictures, games and other content. We may limit the amount of Premium Services you may purchase in a specific timeframe (month, week, day, or other time period). JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: 21 May 2005 20:17:44 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Julian Thomas wrote: > Before a unified "dial 8" IBM internal network, there were a multitude > of codes for different locations. Some of them were of the "let your > fingers find the way" where you dialled a code for one location, and > then its code for an associated location. Many organizations worked this way. For example, a department store chain devoted several pages of its phone directory to how to dial different stores and the main office -- every location had its own code and they were non-symetrical. I suspect as location ons were added or expanded, they were just added to whatever empty slots were on individual store PBXs, which themselves were all unique. > After the dial 8 network was put in place, you dialed 8 + 3 digits for > location + 4 digits extension. As the Bell Telephone network grew more "intelligent" they could do more things. The 8+3+4 network you describe was used by many organi- zations. The last 4 digits were the same that an outside caller used, but the 3 digits were different. Number cards had both sets of 3 digit codes on them. The internal systems usually had some sort of acronym name for them. My own employer had that system but abandoned it in favor of cheap long distance circuits. Previously the dial 8 circuits were often busy or not working that well. Dial 8 calls were not accounted for, but dial 9 calls were and this allowed for better control of calling and reduction of personal calls. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Stanotel network of Standard Oil > Company was really something in that regard, but the biggest I have > ever seen -- with a seven digit dial in number from the 'outside > world' and absolutely unprotected; As mentioned, people could dial into distant PBXs via tie lines and then dial outward on another tie line. Sometimes this was protected and blocked, sometimes not. Indeed, it was allowed to enable outward local calls instead of toll calls to a distant city or relays to distant locations. One fellow, who worked for an outfit that had many remote locations, told me of building a long chain through many towns. He could hear his dial pulses being slowly relayed through. Usually internal phone systems were pretty well isolated, and of course the Centrex's of different organizations isolated. But sometimes there were leaks: Many organizations shared the exchange for their Centrex. That is Org1 would be 222-2000 and -3000, and Org2 would be 222-5000, -6000, and -7000. Obviously the separate organizations had to dial 9-outside to communicate with each and not internally. Well, usually. I happened to work for two different companies that shared the prefix. Attempting to dial the other on Centrex wouldn't work. But, playing around with Org1's tie line did get me into Org 2! I dialed the remote location, then dialed back from that remote location (tie lines didn't protect too often for that) and was able to get directly into Org 2. (For those wondering, my job was incredibly boring and I needed something to make the day go by.) In electro-mechanical days, the cost of maintaining tie lines-- since they transmitted dial pulses and signals in both directions-- must have been substantial. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That same situation is true in Chicago. City of Chicago's centrex system is 312-PIG-4000 and upward. Carson Pirie Scott and Company department store is 312-744-2500 and downward. But they are strictly separate. None of Carson's phones can get into the city's phones or vice versa. City of Chicago had a switchboard on RANdolph-8000 for about sixty years, then they decided to put all the phones on centrex. This was back in the early days of the Viet Nam war, the early 1960's, when people in Chicago (and most places in the USA) were anti-everything-establishment. Illinois Bell had a lot of phreaks and anti-war people working for them at the time, and unlike today, where prefixes and area codes are in relatively short supply and require some diligence in selection, in those days things were so wide-open, zillions of prefixes available, etc. City of Chicago asked for a centrex system; the guys at Bell started working on it, and 'someone' chose 312-744 as the prefix to be used; he and 'others' in the _in-crowd_ winked about it and mutually agreed to keep their mouths shut until it was too late to be changed. The tables at AT&T got updated, new directories got printed for the entire city (it was about the time of year to do that anyway), then that 'someone' let the _Chicago Seed_ in on the joke. The Seed was the original anti-everything newspaper during the 1960s ... the Seed decided as a 'public service' to print a new public directory of the city offices, "so our readers will know how to reach their council person, the mayor, city offices, police officials, etc" . Midst a full page in the Seed giving the new numbers to call, the Seed helpfully noted, "To reach any Pig with whom you have business, under the new phone system you only need to dial PIG and the Pig's four digit extension." Mayor Daley the First was furious about the whole thing; Illinois Bell made sort of feeble apologies and explained that 'AT&T issues the prefixes and codes, not us, and anyway it was all purely coincidental' ... over the next few years, _Illinois Bell_ cleaned up their house quite a lot also. The Seed was the kind of newspaper the office clerks in suits and ties working downtown would read on their way to/from work, glancing around to see who was watching them read it, then snickering at the stories they found therein. Everyone openly condemmed the Seed, but loved to sneak reads from it, including the infamous 'Directory of Pigs' issue. That was also the time when Mayor Daley the First (father of the present guy holding the office) made his rather stupid remark, "Our police officers are not Pigs! They are human beans! And they demand respect, not disrespect!" As the VietNam War progressed, and the two major riots in 1968 demonstrated, not everyone agreed with the Mayor's assessment. Carson's Department Store got moved in on 744 (in the lower group of digits) a few years later. And _that_ is how City of Chicago came to have 312-744 for their phones (but now, in 2005 they have not only 744, but 745, and 747 as well.) PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #226 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 22 May 2005 21:38:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 227 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Our RSS Now Running Full Time (TELECOM Digest Editor) Why Does it Take So Long? (AES) OneSuite (NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Al Gillis) Re: Switch Identification (Howard Eisenhauer) Re: Thinking About VOIP (John Levine) Re: Thinking About VOIP (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: An Incident Forty Years Ago at Bell Labs (AES) Re: 1A2 Help Requested (Don Bowey) Re: PRI Problems (was Re: 1A2 Help Requested) (Don Bowey) Re: Cingular/SMS Ripoff Alert (MVL) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Our RSS Now Running Full Time Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 20:42:40 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) One of our long time readers here at the Digest spent consideable time and effort this past week in getting the TELECOM Digest RSS feed up and running. He knows who he is; he wishes to remain anonymous; but I owe him a very BIG _thank you_ for his work. The intent was to get the feed working directly from Telecom, rather than 'borrowing' a feed from Google Groups or Yahoo. It required a 'hook' through the Hypermail code which you see on our page: http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online/atom.xml or its alias: http://telecom-digest.org/TELECOM_Digest_Online/atom.xml All the test feeds which were used in the past week have been scrapped; now _our_ feed comes back to the Online pages on the web site. So, if you experimented with this early on, you are going to need to go through your source code. Instead of the Google groups code I had been using, please go now to the 'atom.xml' address mentioned above. You can also get TELECOM Digest on your 'My Yahoo' page if you have one, and in a day or so, you will also be able to get the Digest on 'My MSN' as well, and a few other larger web sites. Look at http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html to see examples of how to structure a javascript as desired, and http://telecom-digest.org/TELECOM_Digest_Online/atom.xml for the atual feed itself. PAT and Lisa ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Why Does it Take So Long? Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 10:05:46 -0700 Organization: Stanford University amazon.com routinely gets books delivered to my front door in just a day or two after they're ordered on line (even when the order is actually passed on to one of their affiliated used book sellers). Many other online vendors get physical products to me in the same length of time. But I just ordered a major American magazine subscription, and a major American weekly book review journal subscription through amazon, and been told to be patient: it may take CLOSE TO THREE MONTHS before either of these start arriving. Is there some reason for this bizarre situation? (And is there some other "comp" or other newgroup where people might have answers to this curiousity-driven query?) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The problem may be that amazon.com stocks most of their books and merchandise through their warehouse here in Independence/Coffeyville, and those guys work hard at filling orders each day. They try hard to 'turn around' orders within one or two days of getting the request. But, they are also vendors for a variety of magazine publishers, and Amazon passes those orders along to their publishers who then _do their own thing_ regards filling orders. Amazon cannot help how slow some others are at filling orders, so they give that disclaimer message on those orders they take. PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: OneSuite Date: 21 May 2005 22:35:24 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have been a very happy user of OneSuite for well over a year, maybe close to two. I have the affiliate thingy on two of my www pages and was getting 8-9 referrals a month. I also send a label I printed up with the same offer with all my bill payments for credit cards, cable TV etc. Heck they send me ads I send them some back. Maybe even people at my phone company have signed up for OneSUite. Everything was going OK until and of March when OneSuite changed their software. I got no referral credits for April and none for May so far. Anyone else have that problem? Also, now whenever I got to their web site at https://www.onesuite.com Adobe Acrobat reader boots up, even when I do not click on a .PDF link. Does that happen to anyone else? They seem surprised when I mention these things. Above Email is NOT valid, but private responses may be sent to OneSuite@XmasNYC.Info which I will kill when it starts getting spam. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 07:07:35 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , TELECOM Digest > Editor noted in response to Robert Bonomi: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional >> touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact >> meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' >> service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in >> a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was >> a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] > On the PSTN, it somewhat depended on the switch and programming. > 'Reorder' was the very-common switch reaction. There were a few > switches that completely 'ignored' those signals. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But did you ever see/hear any that > neither ignored nor offered re-order, but instead actually _did > something_ ? I never did. PAT] I knew of a couple of PBXs that used 'em for some call-routing selections. Twas an easy way to make a particular feature 'not available' from most phones, -without- having to get into extended "class of service" restrictions. I never encountered a _telco_ C.O. that implemented any user-accessible functionality on them. I've got a vague recollection of some telco 'test' systems that used em _after_ the call to the test system was connected. Of course, that _wasn't_ the switch doing it. ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 10:31:30 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Robert Bonomi wrote in message news:telecom24.226.5@telecom-digest.org: > In article , TELECOM Digest > Editor noted in response to Robert Bonomi: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional >> touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact >> meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' >> service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in >> a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was >> a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] > On the PSTN, it somewhat depended on the switch and programming. > 'Reorder' was the very-common switch reaction. There were a few > switches that completely 'ignored' those signals. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But did you ever see/hear any that > neither ignored nor offered re-order, but instead actually _did > something_ ? I never did. PAT] I've got a Western Electric 3666-1A key set (Autovon dial). I've tried pressing the A, B, C and D keys while connected to both a Nortel DMS-200 (CO Switch) and a Nortel Meridian-1 (PBX). In both cases I got reorder while listening to dial tone (that is, no call had been established yet) and no effect while an established call was in progress. The Names of the additional keys are: FO (Flash Override) adjacent to the 3 key F (Flash) adjacent to the 6 key I (Immeadiate) adjacent to the 9 key P (Priority) adjacent to the # key (See note) Note: My 3666-1A has a key designated as "A" where the # key is placed on a normal dial pad. I don't know if this is standard for "Autovon" dials. The tone generated by this key (according to a "digit grabber") is that of a # key, however. Another interesting thing is that the Star key (left of 0) is not an asterisk but rather it's a real star! That is, a five pointed star, white lines on the gray background (or is it a grey background?) with a hollow center. Al ------------------------------ From: Howard Eisenhauer Subject: Re: Switch Identification Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 19:35:40 GMT On Sat, 21 May 2005 17:39:42 -0400, Mike Cater wrote: > Recently I switched service providers for my POTS line. We used to be > using a WECo 5ESS, with the older line cards (the better sounding > ones!). I switched to a cable provider and obtained a landline through > them. It's not VOiP. It is routed through the same switch I used to > use but it's not homed from that switch. So obviously this makes > finding the CLLI of the switch alot harder. > To get to the point, while messing around with the switchhook I got a > strange busy signal. It's 1600 Hz on for 0.5 seconds, off for 0.5 > seconds. Here's a wav file of it: http://tinyurl.com/4dk34/busy.mp3 > If you have any idea of what kind of switch this is, > please advise! Thanks. Obviously, while playing with the hook switch you managed to connect to the gate shack at a construction site- that sound is quite definately a '95 Mack 3 ton dump truck in the process of backing up :). H. ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 2005 22:12:17 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services > (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. > Are any of these good enough to replace a POTS line? I'll be using it > over Verizon's new Fios service. I don't think so, but it depends what you expect from a POTS line. None are as reliable as POTS, both because they depend on your ISP, and router all working, and because they all have the occasional flakeout. (Phone companies have spent the past 130 years learning how to make phones reliable, so it's not surprising that it's taking a while for VoIP to catch up.) Other than Packet8, none of them offer real 911, so you'd best have a cell phone for emergencies that you keep charged and working. > Lingo seems to offer the most for the least amount of money. Are they > worth considering? I dumped Vonage in favor of Lingo earlier this year when the call quality became unusable and their customer service turned out to consist of a 24/7 busy signal. Lingo's been OK, call quality and reliability are decent, support is OK. My only complaint so far is that through some screwup, a call to Argentina that I know was about one minute was billed as 3 1/2 hours. They reduced it somewhat, but not as much as I'd like. But since the rate was only 4 cpm, the actual amount at issue was on the order of two bucks. I have a web page at http://net.gurus.com/phone that has an overview of VoIP and some links if you're interested. It's not a formal comparison; the only ones I've tried are Vonage, Lingo, and Net2phone. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 01:27:45 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications I have been a Vonage subscriber for just over two years in my residence for home-office and personal long distance use. I also retained one SBC wireline phone as our residential incoming line. Based on my experience I would not consider replacing my primary wireline service with either VOIP or wireless. The Vonage is good, but it does go down on occasion, whether from Vonage problems or my broadband (cable) provider's problems. And, we have an average of 4-6 commercial power failures a year where I live. Only the wireline service and its robust access to E911 can survive all of that. William Cousert wrote: > I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services > (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. > Are any of these good enough to replace a POTS line? I'll be using it > over Verizon's new Fios service. > Where can I find a comparison of all the available services? I did a > quick google search and found nothing. > Do any of the services offer a discounted rate for a second or third > line? > Lingo seems to offer the most for the least amount of money. Are they > worth considering? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For myself, I go with Vonage, mainly > because of my advertising relationship with them. I do not know if > that makes them 'better' or not, just 'cheaper' for me. I still have > some Vonage e-coupons good for one month of free service. If anyone > wants to test out Vonage, email me and ask for an e-coupon. The deal > is, you click on the link in the email I send you; it then walks you > through the sign up process of getting a number assigned, shipping > out the telephone adapter (quite easy to install), etc. You use a > credit card of your choice to pay for the adapter and a month of > service. _Then_ the e-coupon kicks in, and whatever service you > bought, you get a second month of the same for free. Email me for > your coupon: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: An Incident Forty Years Ago at Bell Labs Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 07:42:57 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > Forty years ago this month, at the Bell Labs offices in New Jersey, > the suspected origin of the universe was discovered, quite by > accident. They were not looking for that; it sort of just fell into > their laps, and later, it got them substantial recognition. > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4655517&sourceCode=RSS If you'd like to see pictures of the hardware and some of the history that goes along with this: http://www.stanford.edu/~siegman/cleo_plenary.pdf (Unfortunately you have to download the whole 2.5 MB PDF presentation; look for the two or three slides on either side of the one that says "A Nobel in the noise . . . ") (Same presentation but with half-size slides and the speaker's notes.) One of the few fundamental physical phenomena the measurement of which was impeded by, among other things, bird poop. This wasn't the first time that someone measuring noise at Bell Labs had made a fundamental physical discovery. Physicists these days, and even electrical engineers, often call it "Nyquist noise": e_n^ 2 = 4 kTRB in the classical limit. But in fact it was a Bell Labs engineer, J. R. Johnson, trying to track down the source of noise in early triode amplifiers, who observed that some of this noise seemed to come from the grid bias resistor. So he performed extensive experiments using all kinds of different resistances (carbon, wire wound, even some liquid-cell resistors, at different temperatures); and concluded that they all seemed to contain a universal noise source e_n^ 2 ‰ 4.0 (+/- 0.07) kTRB After he published a lengthy, total experimental paper on this: [1] J. R. Johnson, "Thermal agitation of electricity in conductors," Phys. Rev., vol. 32, pp. 97--109, 1928. his Bell Labs colleague wrote a brief, remarkably simple quantum derivation of the same result, in its full quantum form. [2] H. Nyquist, "Thermal agitation of electric charge in conductors," Phys. Rev., vol. 32, pp. 110--113, 1928. and laid the basis for pretty much all of our understanding of thermal noise, circuit noise, maser and laser noise, and their connections to thermodynamics and blackbody radiation today. > Forty years ago this month, at the Bell Labs offices in New Jersey, > the suspected origin of the universe was discovered, quite by > accident. They were not looking for that; it sort of just fell into > their laps, and later, it got them substantial recognition. > http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4655517&sourceCode=RSS In my first response I pointed out an earlier, related, and also quite fundamental discovery at Bell Labs made almost eighty years ago; and cited the references [1] J. R. Johnson, "Thermal agitation of electricity in conductors," Phys. Rev., vol. 32, pp. 97--109, 1928. [2] H. Nyquist, "Thermal agitation of electric charge in conductors," Phys. Rev., vol. 32, pp. 110--113, 1928. Just to push this a little further, if you want to read these early Phys Rev papers you can go to the American Physical Society's "PROLA" web site and download copies of these classic early Bell Labs contributions for free. In fact, the _entire_ massive print run of Phys Rev all the way back to Vol. 1, No. 1, in _1893_ is available on line at this site. But suppose you want to read about some of the Bell Labs work which laid the foundations for the forty year ago accomplishment that Lisa Minter has (very justifiably) noted above; two of them are [1] R. W. DeGrasse, E. O. Schulz-DuBois, and H. E. D. Scovil, "The three-level solid state traveling wave maser," Bell Sys. Tech. J., vol. 38, pp. 305--335, 1959. [2] A. B. Crawford, D. C. Hogg, and L. E. Hunt, "Project Echo: A horn antenna for space communication," Bell Sys. Tech. J., pp. 1095--1099, 1961. Well, the Bell System Technical Journal (BSTJ) -- which in its full print run since 1928 has presented not just these papers, but numerous fundamental papers on the invention of waveguides, Shannon's communication theory, North's fundamental noise and signal theory papers, important early papers in quantum theory and chemistry, many fundamental papers on lasers including all the pioneering papers on laser resonators, and many others -- IS NOT AVAILABLE ON LINE, IN SCANNED OR ELECTRONIC FORM, ANYWHERE. Trying to get this situation changed has been one of my pet hobby horses for some time. If any telecom readers and/or Bell Labs alumni have any way to help make it happen, it would be very much worth doing. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are able to make this happen, I'd feel honored to make them part of the Telecom Archives files, as was done with the Western Union Tech Review files. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 16:04:11 -0700 Subject: Re: 1A2 Help Requested From: Don Bowey On 5/10/05 12:06 PM, in article telecom24.207.7@telecom-digest.org, Matt wrote: > Thanks all, for the comments, links etc -- I've gotten several replies > from the people in this group via email. > My KSU should be here tomorrow ... and the phones to follow shortly. > There is a bunch of the 25 pair cable up in the attic of the building I > work in; I even found one with a female connector on one end. > Now I'm shopping for a good punchdown tool. Looks like it's going to be > the most expensive part of this whole endeaveor (Phone: $45. KSU: $55. > Punchdown tool: $65 - 75). I'm reading this a while after you seem to have gotten enough info to get started, but ... I have the full Bell "Key Systems Service Manual" and can provide some help if you run into a wall on your project. It contains wiring configurations for various uses of the Key System, and all the KTU, etc, schematics. Email me if you need something from it. Don ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 16:18:40 -0700 Subject: Re: PRI Problems (was Re: 1A2 Help Requested) From: Don Bowey On 5/11/05 6:03 PM, in article telecom24.210.10@telecom-digest.org, "Justa Lurker" wrote: > Although I suppose a timing/sync problem with clock slippage **might** > be the culprit, it's funny that it only manifests itself twice a day > rather than constantly [for severe uncontrolled slips] or at > evenly-spaced intervals throughout the day & night [for less frequent > slips]. Your entire post is well done, but the above slightly misses the mark. Big IF ... If one terminal is timed from a source traceable to a Stratum 1 clock and the other terminal is clocked from an unsynchronized Stratum 3 clock, it would not be unusual to see the stated trouble pattern due to the long-term frequency drift rate of the Stratum 3 clock. I've fixed a few of these sync problems. Don ------------------------------ From: mvl_groups_user@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert Date: 22 May 2005 17:55:58 -0700 I had the same thing happen (see my post at alt.cellular.verizon). 1) First, I would suggest a complaint to the FCC. Per the FCC's website, the company has 45 days to respond to you. SMS.AC is a California company, so fully under the FCC's jurisdiction. SMS.AC should be fully liable for refunding all charges if you were not properly notified of pricing. 2) Second, there is information on cancelling your account on www.sms.ac. If you didn't set up an account (ie someone else put your number in), there is (under the pricing section) a way to send a "STOP ALL" text to a certain phone number. For all who have had problems with this company, please file an FCC complaint. The FCC has the power to levy severe fines on deceptive marketing practices such as those of SMS.AC, but prioritizes their efforts based on complaint volume. -MVL ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/TELECOM_Digest_Online/atom.xml For syndication examples see http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #227 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 23 May 2005 17:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 228 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ACLU Pizza (Monty Solomon) Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" (GooJa@post.com) Packet 8 DTMF Tones Sound Clipped (slippymississippi) Wireless-Services Growth Slows in Europe, Japan (Telecom dailyLead USTA) Re: Thinking About VOIP (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Thinking About VOIP (Lou Jahn) Re: Thinking About VOIP (Klay Anderson) Re: Switch Identification (Justin Time) Re: Switch Identification (Mike Cater) Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert (Steve Sobol) Re: Why Does it Take So Long? (mc) Re: Forward Fax to Email (Koos van den Hout) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (L Hancock) Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert (NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 23:00:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ACLU Pizza http://www.aclu.org/pizza/ http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf ------------------------------ From: GooJa@post.com Subject: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" Date: 22 May 2005 23:21:07 -0700 Previous post by: Mar 5, 10:53 pm Michael D. Sullivan Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom From: hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com - Find messages by this author Date: 5 Mar 2005 19:53:56 -0800 Local: Sat,Mar 5 2005 10:53 pm Subject: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" As has been done for years, the regular telephone bill mailing contained an advertising insert for premium products and services. On a recent Verizon leaflet, at the bottom was a small line, "Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania". This was curious since that's a very old name that hasn't been used for years. Even in the Bell era, they shortened it to just "Bell of Pennsylvania". After divesture they became "Bell Atlantic", and IIRC they legally changed their name to that. Further, IIRC, their name change to Verizon was a legal name change as well, not just a marketing tool. So, I'm curious as to why they would use an old name on modern sales literature, esp when they're pushing their most modern high tech services. (They changed their name to Verizon specifically to sound high tech and not old fashioned with 'Bell Telephone'). The only thing I could think of is perhaps it's to distinguish this mailing for this state, and former Bell customers (as opposed to GTE customers). hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com Mar 6, 11:51 pm Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom From: Michael D. Sullivan - Find messages by this author Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 04:51:56 GMT Local: Sun,Mar 6 2005 11:51 pm Subject: Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" In article , hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com says: > As has been done for years, the regular telephone bill mailing > contained an advertising insert for premium products and services. > On a recent Verizon leaflet, at the bottom was a small line, > "Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania". > This was curious since that's a very old name that hasn't been used > for years. Even in the Bell era, they shortened it to just "Bell of > Pennsylvania". After divesture they became "Bell Atlantic", and IIRC > they legally changed their name to that. Further, IIRC, their name > change to Verizon was a legal name change as well, not just a > marketing tool. > So, I'm curious as to why they would use an old name on modern sales > literature, esp when they're pushing their most modern high tech > services. (They changed their name to Verizon specifically to sound > high tech and not old fashioned with 'Bell Telephone'). > The only thing I could think of is perhaps it's to distinguish this > mailing for this state, and former Bell customers (as opposed to GTE > customers). The various mergers and corporate name changes that have taken place over the last 20 years among the Bell companies have not, for the most part, changed the legal name of the operating company within each state. All of the Bell Atlantic companies use the Bell Atlantic name to do business, but the state operating companies all have individual names, auch as Bell Telephone Co. of Pa. I think some of them have changed their names, however. Most likely the reason for the old name appearing on the modern literature is a state PUC or statutory requirement that the actual name of the operating company be provided on marketing documents. This would be the name that appears on the tariff, as well. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Replace "example.invalid" with ".com". Gooja@Post.com May 22, 2005 Also since Verizon has a federal trademark on "Bell of Pennsylvania" they are also maintaining the right to use that name. This trademark could expire in 2007 or be cancelled unless they renew it. VERIZON has added the BELL Logo to all its new payphones outside its original market zones. It appears they are making further new use of the BELL name since many of the old Baby Bells have stopped using the name/logo(QUEST/SBC). A federal trademark can be considered abandoned after 2 years of non-use. It looks like VERIZON is being very wise about their use of the old name. Just printing the BELL Telephone name on a new bill does show current usage of the old trademark. And yes, there are still holding companies with the names NYNEX/NY Telephone/New England Telephone/BellAtlantic with current registered trademarks. VERIZON spent millions buying these trademarks --why let them lapse? We now have Pacific/Nevada Bell phones next to VERIZON BELL payphones in some areas of the WEST. These Pacific/Nevada Bell phones are slowly becoming SBC Nevada or SBC Pacific branded phones. I thought SBC would have complained after Verizon started using the old BELL logo on their new phones 3 years ago. SBC other than the SouthWestern BELL logo for telephone accessories does not use the BELL logo anywhere else recently. BELL SOUTH and Cincinnati BELL seem to care about keeping the old names. ------------------------------ From: slippymississippi@yahoo.com Subject: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: 23 May 2005 13:07:02 -0700 I have a service that renders text messaging into speech and forwards the messages to a phone number. The user then navigates the messages like a voice mail, using DTMF tones. One of my customers is using the Packet8 Virtual Office, and when my computer calls him to deliver the messages, he cannot navigate via DTMF. I hooked up a line analyzer and listened to the call, and all I'm hearing on my end is a "blip blip blip" as he repeatedly presses the key to save the message. The DTMF tone basically sounds like it was clipped at just a few milliseconds ... in fact, I really cannot discern if it's still a dual frequency tone or not. If he calls in from the Virtual Office, he can navigate our IVR just fine, it's just when our IVR calls him and asks for input that he experiences these problems. Is this related to the extreme compression that Packet8 uses? If so, why would it affect his inbound calls but not his outbound calls? TIA. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 12:43:18 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Wireless-services growth slows in Europe, Japan Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 23, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21785&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Wireless-services growth slows in Europe, Japan BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Telenor snaps up Swedish, Danish ISPs * Western Wireless fields offers for international assets * Alcatel names 21CN partners * Where does Qwest go from here? * Cablers fight to keep control of set-top boxes, features USTA SPOTLIGHT * See USTA's Small Company Summit Presentations Online -- Free HOT TOPICS * FCC approves stricter 911 rules for VoIP providers * Opinion: IPTV poised to change communications experience * The role of speed * Fast-growing IP services not yet profitable * Wireless renters and the battle to come EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Motorola unveils wireless BPL offering REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Beating spammers in court Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21785&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 03:27:51 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications John Levine wrote: >> I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services >> (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. >> Are any of these good enough to replace a POTS line? I'll be using it >> over Verizon's new Fios service. > I don't think so, but it depends what you expect from a POTS line. > None are as reliable as POTS, both because they depend on your ISP, > and router all working, and because they all have the occasional > flakeout. (Phone companies have spent the past 130 years learning how > to make phones reliable, so it's not surprising that it's taking a > while for VoIP to catch up.) Other than Packet8, none of them offer > real 911, so you'd best have a cell phone for emergencies that you > keep charged and working. Why would you recommend a cell phone for real 911? In California where I live 911 goes to the state highway patrol, which is useless unless you are on a state highway. And, wireless 911 doesn't have forced line hold or delivery of service address. If E911 is important, it seems the only game is wireline, and wireline provided by the primary LEC, not a cable company, or such. ------------------------------ From: Lou Jahn Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 09:22:24 -0400 Organization: Info Partners Corp. William Cousert wrote: > I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services > (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. > Are any of these good enough to replace a POTS line? I'll be using it > over Verizon's new Fios service. > Where can I find a comparison of all the available services? I did a > quick google search and found nothing. > Do any of the services offer a discounted rate for a second or third > line? > Lingo seems to offer the most for the least amount of money. Are they > worth considering? I have been a VoicePulse user for some 9 plus months. One thing I noticed is unlike POTS, which provides duplex communications links (meaning both ends can talk/hear at the same time), my VOIP is simplex. This means if I start talking before the other side has ended their speaking they hear nothing I've said. The biggest disadvantage is noticed when participating in a conference calls, I cannot say anything until ALL other callers are quiet, which is not often. It causes me to carry the discussion back in time to add a point others thought were finished. Secondly, my experience with VoicePluse's tech support is not that good; they often do not fully read an email stating the problem and will respond asking for information already provided. The first time I did not respond immediately since I had already given them the requested information; they then declared the problem fixed even though they took zero action to address it. Overall, VOIP is fair to good, but I see it working only as an supplement to normal POTS. Lou Jahn Info Partners Corp ------------------------------ From: Klay Anderson Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 08:42:01 -0600 Organization: Klay Anderson Audio, Inc. Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP In article , William Cousert wrote: > I'm thinking about subscribing to one of the many VOIP services > (Vonage, Callvantage, etc.) and have a few questions. I switched to Vonage at home over DSL just to save US$ over Qwest. Vonage is not bad, but audio quality suffers slightly if you have a son that games and a daughter that shops iTunes. I am satisfied especially saving over US$40 per month and I am not disappointed with audio quality overall. Note the 911 issues in the press of late, however. Their customer "service" sucks. Plan to spend some time dealing with slow learners to get your account set up and activated. Do not anticipate replies to any emails you send and God forbid, you should get an answer to an actual mailed letter with questions to the CEO. Now I am not high maintanace, but I was looking into getting my 6 business lines changed over. It has been many months with no responses and it is very obvious that Vonage is great at the home level of you-get-what-you-pay-for service. They cannot cope with anthing else at this point. Just don't expect answers to your questions. Could be worse, could be Cingular ... Regards, Klay Anderson http://www.klay.com +801-942-8346 ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Switch Identification Date: 23 May 2005 06:10:53 -0700 Ever thought of asking the cable provider what type of switch they use to provision their voice services? That to me would be the most logical first step. Much easier than attempting to guess what generated a tone. But then asking the provider is just too simple. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but would you get someone who knew what they were talking about? _That_ to me is always the big question when dealing with CSRs. Sounds good, but can you believe them? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mike Cater Subject: Re: Switch Identification Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 22:21:11 -0400 Howard Eisenhauer wrote in message news:telecom24.227.6@telecom-digest.org: > On Sat, 21 May 2005 17:39:42 -0400, Mike Cater > wrote: >> Recently I switched service providers for my POTS line. We used to be >> using a WECo 5ESS, with the older line cards (the better sounding >> ones!). I switched to a cable provider and obtained a landline through >> them. It's not VOiP. It is routed through the same switch I used to >> use but it's not homed from that switch. So obviously this makes >> finding the CLLI of the switch alot harder. >> To get to the point, while messing around with the switchhook I got a >> strange busy signal. It's 1600 Hz on for 0.5 seconds, off for 0.5 >> seconds. Here's a wav file of it: http://tinyurl.com/4dk34/busy.mp3 >> If you have any idea of what kind of switch this is, >> please advise! Thanks. > Obviously, while playing with the hook switch you managed to connect > to the gate shack at a construction site- that sound is quite > definately a '95 Mack 3 ton dump truck in the process of backing up > :). > H. Ha! Hopefully over a DMS 500! Which is what this switch turned out to be, after some mild detective work. When dialing 00 from my carrier (RCN Boston), there is an option to place a call and to pay by credit, calling card, collect or 3rd party. I asked which company they are and they would not tell me. So I called back and asked what type of calling cards do they accept, and she told me Global Crossing. Wow, that was easy! Now, a friend with VoicePulse VOiP asked me about a strange symptom on his Caller ID, that sometimes the numbers do not appear with hyphens. VoicePulse uses Global Crossing, but this same CID phenomenon was happening on our RCN Caller ID. So, now there is one more indication that RCN is reselling Global Crossing. Next, a quick jaunt through http://telcodata.us tells us that all Global Crossing calls in 508 are served out of one DMS500 in Boston. So in other words, the busy is that of a DMS 500. It's probably more of a dialing error tone than an actual busy, but it's still interesting. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 22:35:58 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com mvl_groups_user@yahoo.com wrote: > For all who have had problems with this company, please file an FCC > complaint. The FCC has the power to levy severe fines on deceptive > marketing practices such as those of SMS.AC, but prioritizes their > efforts based on complaint volume. Actually you want the Federal TRADE commission, the FTC; not the FCC. The FCC has no such power. http://www.ftc.gov/ is the website. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Why Does it Take So Long? Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 21:52:33 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) In the magazine industry there is an old and mostly obsolete tradition of starting every subscription at the beginning of a volume (i.e., a year or half-year). Scholarly journals still normally do this. I don't know if that is what happened to you. ------------------------------ From: Koos van den Hout Subject: Re: Forward Fax to Email Date: 23 May 2005 14:16:55 GMT Organization: http://idefix.net/~koos/ Jeremy wrote: > I currently have a fax number that is widely used by my clients. > Problem is that I get a ton of fax "spam" if you will. I am looking > for the BEST solution to have these faxes forwarded to e-mail, while > keeping my existing fax number since that is the one everyone knows > and uses. What I use on my fax number (the number is in my signature even) is a server running linux with the mgetty-sendfax software on a now somewhat aged PC. That software simply works for normal dialup access and for receiving faxes. On receiving a fax it sends the fax as an e-mail with attached images in something most modern software will understand. If anything unix-like is not your thing, there is probably software for windows that does the same. Koos van den Hout, PGP keyid RSA/1024 0xCA845CB5 via keyservers koos@kzdoos.xs4all.nl or DSS/1024 0xF0D7C263 -?) Fax +31-30-2817051 Camp Wireless, wireless Internet access /\\ http://idefix.net/~koos/ at campsites http://www.camp-wireless.org/ _\_V ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: 23 May 2005 07:34:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Robert Bonomi wrote: > Autovon used "standard" Touch-tone phones. Ones with *all* the > buttons, including the 4th column of 4. It wasn't that way at my father's installation, an army arsenal and research center. [BTW, a "standard" Touch-Tone phones does not have the fourth column. Further, plenty of Touch Tone phones introduced in the early years had only 10 buttons, not 12. We had such a set at home.] Anyway, my father's installation was all rotary dial served by a cord switchboard dial (SxS) PBX accomodating several thousand extensions. The Autovon lines came in on trunks that were no different than the city trunks and were handled the same way. There were no special signals for priority calls or ways for priority handling. As mentioned, telephones were plain rotary. To reach Autovon they dialed 8 then the Autovon number. For their purposes, Autovon was merely a switching tie network to other govt installations. All incoming calls went through the PBX where the operators connected it to the desired extension. Because of the high volume of extensions, an extension itself didn't have an appearance, rather a dial trunk did. That is, if you wanted extension 7182, the operator plugged in the 7 row and dialed 182. I've seen other cord switchboards serving very large PBX set up in a similar fashion. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: 23 May 2005 07:55:32 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > And _that_ is how City of Chicago came to have 312-744 for their > phones (but now, in 2005 they have not only 744, but 745, and 747 as > well.) PAT] The City of Philadelphia had a Centrex for as long as I can remember, MUnicipal 6-9700. During the bicennial they changed it to MU 6-1776. IIRC they used the whole MU 6 block. Despite that, not all phones were on Centrex and outsiders had to go through the City Hall operator (a 24 position 608 switchboard split into two sides of 12 positions each). The non-Centrex extensions had five digits and access codes were required to reach between five and four digit extensions. As to city offices in the field, such as libraries, local police stations, playgrounds, etc., some had MU 6 numbers but some had local neighborhood phone numbers. I could never figure out a pattern. In addition, the City had a full separate private PABX (private dial exchange) that was old. It mostly served police and fire stations and street call boxes, and hospital emergency room desks, not so much city offices. Its phones were immediately recognizable -- old AE sets with the nickel ornamentation and a ratty brown fabric coiled cord. That dated from when before radios and police and firemen used street callboxes to call in. (Street callboxes were not extended to newer postwar neighborhoods). I don't know when that system was removed from service -- I've seen in use in the 1970s. For street fire alarms, the city used call boxes. When the lever was pulled, a clockwork would generate a coded signal denoting the firebox. These were removed a few years ago. As kids, we were taught to know where the nearest callbox was to our homes and to wait there to direct the arriving firemen to the fire. They date from a time people didn't have phones or speak English, and lasted a lot longer than they needed to given universal telephone service. The City was slow converting to Touch Tone. In the early 1990s city telephone sets were still classic hardwired 500 sets with a nice printed MUnicipal 6- number card. Finally they went to Touch Tone, but plain 2500 sets. They added 685 as another Centrex to 686. The phone directory lists a lot more prefixes to reach various city offices today; I don't know how it is set up. I've read City Hall (an ancient huge building) originally had DC power and stayed with it until 1954, which was pretty late. In the early days of electric utilities, some places put out DC instead of AC. (There was a debate in the industry which was better and AC won out). Old catalogs of the 1920s and 1930s list products in both AC and DC versions. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago used DC power (rather than AC) -- at least in the downtown area -- until sometime around 1930. That's at least one reason why there were so many WUTCO clocks everywhere, instead of 'regular' wall clocks. Clocks cannot run on direct current; they require alternating current at 60 cycles. The old city hall (Chicago) PBX on RANdolph 6-8000 had a _20_ position switchboard, broken in two parts also -- 10 positions in a rank along one wall, the other 10 positions along another wall. The only bigger switchboard I ever saw was the one at University of Chicago when I was working there, 1958-61 or so. It was 28 positions, but divided into three ranks of 13-13-2, a rank against each wall and the smaller group along a third wall. There were three groups of directory listed numbers; main campus was MIDway-3-0800 (with 2xxxx, 3xxx, and 4xxx extensions), hospitals were MUseum 4-6100 (5xxx, 6xxx) and the Computation Center and Fermi Institute, NORmal-7-4700 (8xxx). From 6 AM to 1 AM next day, they usually had at least 20 operators on duty, but in staggered shifts (a couple came in at 6 AM, a few more at 7 AM, etc.) By 11 PM when I got there, two or three women were left. They had all split by about 1 AM leaving me alone until when the day shift started coming in a few hours later. Volume of traffic was such at that time of night it did not warrant any more help. When something 'buzzed' (buzzers were turned off during the day, [just work from the light blinking at you] but turned on overnight, sort of a loud sound) I just walked over to the rank in question, plugged in my headset and did business. Along the fourth wall were desks for the chief operator and the clerk and the teletype machines and their clerk/caretaker. The teletype machne hardwired direct to the 'Kenwood Bell' central office (so named for the Bell central office at 61st Street and Kenwood Avenue which served our lines) was used for time and chargs coming in for long distance calls. The other one was hardwired to Western Union for incoming messages. Another big board was the one at Sears, Roebuck on State Street downtown (WABash-2-4600) which was a five position board, serving the department store and the credit offices upstairs. That one was busy also, it literally rocked around the clock; our at UC at least slowed down considerably during overnight hours. PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert Date: 23 May 2005 11:50:06 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Big discussion at: http://www.mobiletracker.net/archives/2005/04/03/scam-spam-or-fun-sms.sc Regarding whois look-up below; 575 Eighth Avenue, 11th Floor New York NY 10018 US below would be near 36 Street. That is near where spammer to my wife's account is located, but when you go there, they deny connection. Results for sms.ac: IP Address: 66.240.237.100 Whois results from srv27.icb.co.uk: NIC Whois Server Version 3.5.1 (ICB plc) Domain Details SMS.AC (DOM-18363) SMS Inc. 7770 Regents Road Suite 113-405 San Diego CA 92122 US Created : October 25 2000. Expires : October 25 2009. Last Updated : April 22 2005. Billing Contact: NIC-14053 Admin Contact ============= (NIC-14053) Pousti, Michael SMS Corporation US Technical Contact ================= (NIC-1009) Reg/Billing Register.com 575 Eighth Avenue, 11th Floor New York NY 10018 US Nameservers =========== NS1.ASPADMIN.COM NS2.ASPADMIN.COM NS3.ASPADMIN.COM URL to this Cached Result: http://coolwhois.com/d/sms.ac/20050523133426 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is that the place you mentioned where you went to call on them and they denied any knowledge of anything to do with computers and spamming? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #228 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 May 2005 02:27:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 229 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Talk America to Acquire LDMI Telecommunications (Jack Decker) Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy (Monty Solomon) Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England (Monty Solomon) Mapquest Founder Launches Google Competitor (Jim Elder) Foghorn Sounds (Choreboy) IPTV (ryzinho@yahoo.com) Looking for a Model 15 or 19 (moody1951@aol.com) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Tony P.) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (John C. Fowler) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Robert Bonomi) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (D Gibson) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (mc) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (Robt Bonomi) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (Ken Abrams) Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert (John Levine) Re: Switch Identification (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Why Does it Take So Long? (AES) Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" (Al Gillis) 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: Jack Decker Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 23:24:59 -0400 Subject: Talk America to Acquire LDMI Telecommunications http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050523006013&newsLang=en SOUTHFIELD, Mich. & NEW HOPE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2005--Talk America (NASDAQ:TALK): HIGHLIGHTS: -- Creates leading midwest integrated communications provider (ICP) -- Accelerates Talk America's entry into the business market -- Broad product suite for the residential and business markets -- Combination expected to generate significant operating efficiencies -- VOIP business product rollout in fourth quarter 2005 -- Increased Talk America guidance for 2005 Talk America (NASDAQ:TALK) announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire LDMI Telecommunications, a leading facilities- based communications provider serving business and residential customers primarily in Michigan and Ohio. The acquisition of LDMI, when completed, will provide Talk America with a leadership position in the small and medium sized commercial marketplace and will expand its networking footprint. Ed Meyercord, Chief Executive Officer and President of Talk America, commented, "LDMI is an outstanding company with an excellent reputation in our core market. The LDMI team has developed a highly competitive T-1 product set and built strong distribution and operational capabilities. LDMI is resource rich with a talented and experienced team of telecom professionals who will be instrumental in executing our market expansion strategy. Across the board, this will be a great fit with our company." Pat O'Leary, Chief Executive Officer and President of LDMI, said, "we are delighted to be joining with Talk America, they are executing their networking plan seamlessly and have tremendous back office resources. The combination creates a formidable competitor in the Midwest committed to customer satisfaction." ESTABLISHED PLAYER IN THE BUSINESS MARKET LDMI, a privately held company established in 1992, currently provides service on over 131,000 voice equivalent lines and 27,000 data equivalent lines, primarily in Michigan and Ohio, supported by networking infrastructure in 83 end offices. LDMI purchased networking assets in 2003 and, in anticipation of regulatory changes, transformed itself into a facilities-based ICP. LDMI has over 2,300 T-1 customers and delivers a full suite of voice and data offerings, including specialized services such as virtual private networks, hosted applications and security services. The company has built a loyal customer base which includes "Smart-T" customers who receive integrated voice and data services that are dynamically allocated for efficient bandwidth utilization. The company also serves larger customers, such as AC Delco, a division of General Motors, with more sophisticated service offerings. STRONG FINANCIAL POSITION AND OPERATING EFFICIENCIES The combination of LDMI and Talk America will create a financially strong company with no debt, significant cash flow and a platform for continued market expansion. Talk America's financial flexibility gives it the opportunity to selectively invest in new markets and to grow through future acquisitions. In 2004, LDMI's total revenues were $120.7 million and its EBITDA was $5.9 million. Talk America expects LDMI to generate EBITDA of $8 million in 2005 and $14 million in 2006, including the impact of merger related synergies. The transaction will also bring savings on capital expenditures of at least $4 million through 2006. LDMI currently has approximately 158,000 voice and data equivalent lines of which 118,000 are in Michigan and 40,000 are in Ohio. Mr. Meyercord continued, "LDMI's traffic is driven primarily by business customers, and should yield significant networking efficiencies when combined with our base of primarily residential customers." VOIP BUSINESS PRODUCT ROLLOUT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER 2005 It is expected that, when the acquisition is completed, the combined companies will leverage Talk America's soft switching platform to roll out VOIP business services in the fourth quarter 2005. Talk America will utilize its Metaswitch to broaden LDMI's T-1 product suite and enable the company to expand into new geographic territories and increase its addressable market. TRANSACTION EXPECTED TO CLOSE IN THE THIRD QUARTER 2005 At the closing of the transaction, in exchange for all of the stock of LDMI, Talk America will pay $24 million in cash and issue 1.8 million shares of its common stock, with an estimated value of $16 million based on the closing price as of May 20, 2005. As of April 30, 2005, LDMI had total debt, net of cash, of $8.1 million. The purchase price for LDMI's equity together with LDMI's current debt, net of cash, totals $48 million and represents a 3.4x multiple of LDMI's expected 2006 EBITDA, including the impact of merger related synergies. The cash portion of the purchase price, as well as the repayment of LDMI's debt at closing, will be funded out of cash on hand. The LDMI acquisition transaction has been approved by the board of directors and the stockholders of LDMI and is subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, which both companies expect to receive. The shares of common stock will be issued only to the holders of LDMI's preferred stock and will not be registered under the Securities Act of 1933. Talk America has agreed to file a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission as promptly as reasonably practicable after the closing to permit resales of common stock by such holders. The companies expect that the transaction will close in the third quarter 2005. FINANCIAL GUIDANCE Talk America has increased its financial and operating guidance for the full year 2005 to reflect the strength of its core business operations. Talk America has also provided financial and operating guidance that includes projected results for LDMI, assuming that its acquisition of LDMI is completed as of July 31, 2005. 2005 --------------------------------------------- Metrics Talk Previous Talk Revised Talk and LDMI (3) -------------------------------------- ------------- ----------------- Voice Lines on Network 175k 190k 255k Data Lines on Network -- 40k 70k Total Revenue $380-$390 mm $385-$395 mm $430-$440 mm EBITDA (1) $73-$77 mm $78-$82 mm $83-$87 mm Capital Expenditures (2) $43-$47 mm $43-$47 mm $48-$52 mm (1) Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) is defined as operating income (loss) plus depreciation and amortization. (2) Includes capitalized software. (3) Based on July 31, 2005 closing date. CONFERENCE CALL Talk America and LDMI management will host a conference call to discuss the acquisition of LDMI at 8:30 a.m. ET on May 24, 2005. The call can be accessed by dialing the following: US 800-720-9457, International, 303-957-1279. A replay of the call will be available through 7:00 p.m. ET on May 31, 2005 by dialing the following: US 800-633-8284, International 402-977-9140. The reservation number for the replay is 21248125. ABOUT TALK AMERICA Talk America is a leading competitive communications provider that offers phone services and high speed internet access to both residential and business customers. Talk America delivers value in the form of savings, simplicity and quality service to its customers through its leading edge network and award-winning back office. For further information, visit us online at: http://www.talkamerica.com. Please Note: The statements contained herein regarding the consummation of the acquisition of LDMI, the future results of LDMI and the effects and results of the acquisition on the business and results of operations of Talk America should be, and certain other of the statements contained herein may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such statements are identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases, including, but not limited to, "estimates," "expects," "expected," "anticipates," "anticipated," "forecast," "guidance," and "targets". These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertaintie s and our actual results could differ materially from our expectations. In addition to those factors discussed in the foregoing, important factors that could cause such actual results to differ materially include, among others, the non-completion of the LDMI acquisition or our inability to integrate effectively and as anticipated the business of LDMI upon the completion of the acquisition, dependence on the availability and functionality of local exchange carriers' networks as they relate to the unbundled network element platform, failure to establish and deploy our own local network as we plan to do or to operate it in a profitable manner, increased price competition for long distance and local services, failure of the marketing of the bundle of local and long distance services and long distance services under our direct marketing channels to a smaller marketing footprint, attrition in the number of end users, failure to manage our collection management systems and credit control s for customers, interruption in our network and information systems, failure to provide adequate customer service, and changes in government policy, regulation and enforcement and/or adverse judicial or administrative interpretations and rulings relating to regulations and enforcement, including, but not limited to, the continued availability of the unbundled network element platform of the local exchange carriers network and unbundled network element pricing methodology. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see the discussions contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year-ended December 31, 2004, filed March 16, 2005, as amended by our Form 10-K/A filed March 30, 2005, and any subsequent filings. We undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. Contacts Talk America Jeff Schwartz, 215-862-1097 jschwartz@talk.com How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 00:19:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy By ELLEN SIMON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Stealing Social Security numbers and other sensitive data isn't always a cloak-and-dagger, ultra-sophisticated operation: It's often a low-tech job made easier by carelessness and flimsy safeguards. Plenty of inexpensive measures can protect data from the large-scale theft that big banks, data merchants and other companies have recently disclosed. But "security and privacy, for a lot of large organizations, are an afterthought, not a priority," said Evan Hendricks, who publishes the newsletter "Privacy Times." Consider the latest headache for some large banks: Wachovia Corp., and Bank of America Corp. say they have notified more than 100,000 customers that their accounts and personal information may be at risk after former bank employees allegedly sold account numbers and balances to a man who then sold them to data collection agencies. Nine people have been arrested in New Jersey in the case. Or consider MCI Inc.'s privacy problem: An MCI laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 16,500 current and former MCI Inc. employees was stolen last month from the car of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado. The car was parked in the analyst's home garage. The computer was password-protected; the company would not comment on whether the data was encrypted. Encryption, which is relatively inexpensive, would make all those records all but impossible to access. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49378767 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 01:26:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England Greet Wireless Callers With a Song Instead of a Ring; Numerous Artists and Music Genres Available WOBURN, Mass., May 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the first national carrier to launch Ringback Tones, today announced the arrival of its Ringback Tones service in New England. Verizon Wireless customers throughout the region can now find the perfect Ringback Tone to replace the standard ring callers hear while they wait for their call to be answered. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49371499 ------------------------------ From: Jim Elder Subject: Mapquest Founder Launches Google Competitor Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 17:25:18 -0400 Patrick, Mapquest founder Perry Evans has launched a new company, Local Matters which combines three well-established companies in Internet search and voice-based directory assistance (DA). The new company which was formally launched today has 40 customers worldwide so its already a leading global provider of advanced search and content solutions to existing media publishers and DA service providers. Local Matters has the technology and industry relationships to be a leader in the high-growth markets for Internet local search, enhanced directory assistance and mobile local search. Today local search represents about 25% of all online searches and can be expected to grow significantly. Local Matters will be able to help yellow pages publishers and DA providers offer content-rich and feature-rich local search portals and enhanced DA services to leverage this growth. Perry Evans is available for an interview to provide more information on the company, where he sees the industry going and how Local Matters will help both consumers and local businesses realize more benefit from local search. If you'd like to talk to Perry or get more information on Local Matters, please contact Reid Wegley at 303-494-2636, reid.wegley@104degreeswest.com A press release on the launch is embedded below and also attached to this note. Jim Elder Phone: 203-431-3573 Fax: 203-894-1241 Cellphone: 203-470-8659 e-mail: jim@eldercommunications.com News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information, please contact: Reid Wegley 104 West Partners Tel: 303-494-2636 reid.wegley@104degreeswest.com APTAS, ISx AND YP SOLUTIONS MERGE INTO LOCAL MATTERS TO FOCUS ON LOCAL SEARCH Combined Company Creates Global Leader in Enabling Companies to Augment Local Search, Mobile Search and Enhanced Directory Services DENVER, Colo. May 23, 2005 Aptas, ISx and YP Solutions today announced that the three companies have merged to become, Local Matters, Inc., a new company providing telephone directory publishers, mobile and directory assistance service providers with strategic technology solutions in Local Search. With the merger, Local Matters becomes the largest global provider of advanced search and content solutions to existing media publishers and directory assistance service providers, serving more than 40 companies in 18 countries worldwide. The company will leverage established legacies of technology innovation and content transformation experience to enable publishers to build more productive relationships between local advertisers and consumers through new local search capabilities. "Local Matters is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the high-growth markets for Internet local search, enhanced directory assistance services, and the burgeoning mobile local search opportunity stemming from the convergence of Internet, voice and mobile services," said Perry Evans, CEO and founder of Aptas who will now serve as CEO of Local Matters. "The combined entity offers significantly greater scale and resources to market and strengthen its base of industry innovation centered on leveraging traditional publishing business advantages and developing thriving local marketplace services." In addition to Mr. Evans, who previously founded MapQuest and Jabber, Local Matter s is piloted by a seasoned management team. Don Jones, president of YP Solutions will serve as president of Local Matters, and Ed Downs, CEO of ISx will continue to serve as CEO of ISx, which will operate as a subsidiary of Local Matters. Aptas executives Jeannette McClennan, chief marketing and products officer, and Susan Dalton, senior vice president of Engineering and Operations, will assume similar positions for Local Matters. In addition to local search platforms, content transformation services, and enhanced directory assistance, Local Matters is also embarking on a specialized and highly targeted research program, called Local Matters Lab. The Lab will create a research environment to conduct development projects in conjunction with customers and partners in local search, directory services, content enhancement and applications for mobile devices. This research will be led by a cross-disciplinary team who collaborate with industry experts, business professionals and customers to discover compelling new solutions that work for both consumers and advertisers. About Local Matters: LMI was recently formed through the combination of three leading participants in the local search market: Aptas, Inc. ("Aptas"), Information Services Extended, Inc. ("ISx") and YP Web Partners, LLC ("YP Solutions"). This transaction combined two leading providers of Internet local search solutions with a leading provider of voice-based local search solutions. Local Matters, Inc. (LMI), with more than 40 customers in 18 countries is the largest global provider of advanced search and content solutions to incumbent media publishers and directory assistance service providers. Local Matters is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the high growth markets for Internet local search and enhanced directory assistance services and the burgeoning mobile local search opportunity stemming from the convergence of Internet, voice and mobile services. Local Matters is committed to enabling its customers to offer content and feature-rich local search portals and Enhanced Directory Services that are well differentiated from traditionalInternet search portals. ------------------------------ From: Choreboy Subject: Foghorn Sounds Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 21:44:51 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com I've been trying to call a number on a Qwest exchange. Sometimes it rings and nobody answers. Sometimes I get a busy signal. Most often I get a signal that comes in two pulses like a busy signal, but it's a base tone like a foghorn. What kind of equipment would make a signal like that? ------------------------------ From: ryzinho@yahoo.com Subject: IPTV Date: 23 May 2005 16:21:18 -0700 Does anyone have any experience with IPTV? I'm having some problems with my cable provider and would like another television option. I'm wondering if IPTV still has "wrinkles" to iron out (I hated having to wait to switch channels with satellite), and if it's even available yet. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: moody1951@aol.com Subject: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 Date: 23 May 2005 17:41:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Looking for a Model 15 or 19 in good cosmetic condition and operating order. reg (Mobile, AL ) ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 17:24:04 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Autovon used "standard" Touch-tone phones. Ones with *all* the >> buttons, including the 4th column of 4. > It wasn't that way at my father's installation, an army arsenal > and research center. > [BTW, a "standard" Touch-Tone phones does not have the fourth column. > Further, plenty of Touch Tone phones introduced in the early years had > only 10 buttons, not 12. We had such a set at home.] It was very easy to modify the 12 button phones to use all 16 tones. You just used a push button toggle to swap the 3rd column to 4th column mode. And even those 10 button phones could be made to emit all 16 tones because both the 10 and 12 button pads share the same rows/columns of frequencies. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 15:51:15 PDT From: John C. Fowler Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four > additional touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the > exact meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' > service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in > a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was > a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] Way back in TELECOM Digest Volume 12 Issues 627 and 628 (and a couple of others in the vicinity), several readers commented on what the A/B/C/D tones did on their various telephone lines. The only reason I remember is that I was one of the ones who commented. The general consensus was, it depends on your switch. In my case, a friend and I had found that, on our switch, after activating three-way calling and getting a dial tone, pressing C immediately terminated the second dial tone and bridged the original two parties back together again. Other people reported a few other oddities. Nobody reported anything too mind-blowing (didn't reach anyone who answered the phone, 'Yes, Mister President!' or the like). John C. Fowler, johnfpublic@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if I should hunt down those two issues from the archives (off hand, sounds like 1993 or 1994) and print them again ....? PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:23:47 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> Autovon used "standard" Touch-tone phones. Ones with *all* the >> buttons, including the 4th column of 4. > It wasn't that way at my father's installation, an army arsenal > and research center. > [BTW, a "standard" Touch-Tone phones does not have the fourth column. BTW The Touch-Tone (aka DTMF) _standard_ specifies a grid of four "low" tones, and four "high" tones. AUTOVON phones WERE 'standard' in that they used the frequencies that were in the specification and *only* those things that were in the standard. They were 'unusual' in that they used *all* the dual-tone pairs specified in the standard. There was nothing not compliant with the standard about them. > Further, plenty of Touch Tone phones introduced in the early years had > only 10 buttons, not 12. We had such a set at home.] If you want to get technical about it, the 12 button (and 10 button) phones are, strictly speaking, "subset implementations" of the full standard. The fact that subset implementations are more frequently encountered than the full implementation is irrelevant to the fact that the full implementation *is* a standard implementation. > Anyway, my father's installation was all rotary dial served by a cord > switchboard dial (SxS) PBX accomodating several thousand extensions. > The Autovon lines came in on trunks that were no different than the > city trunks and were handled the same way. There were no special > signals for priority calls or ways for priority handling. Which proves that that facility was not AUTOVON-enabled, since MLPP (via the 4th-column touch-tones) was part of the design spec. of AUTOVON, from "day one". This was possibly the Army's SCAN. predecessor to AUTOVON. Or maybe "limited functionality" tie lines to a 'real' AUTOVON facility. > As mentioned, telephones were plain rotary. > To reach Autovon they dialed 8 then the Autovon number. For their > purposes, Autovon was merely a switching tie network to other govt > installations. The features and capabilities of AUTOVON, as of its activation in late 1963, are well documented in the literature. Specifically including 'command and control' capabilities using (DTMF-based) MLPP classification of calls, automatic call pre-emption based on that 'priority', and DID/DOD. > All incoming calls went through the PBX where the operators connected > it to the desired extension. Because of the high volume of > extensions, an extension itself didn't have an appearance, rather a > dial trunk did. That is, if you wanted extension 7182, the operator > plugged in the 7 row and dialed 182. I've seen other cord > switchboards serving very large PBX set up in a similar fashion. OK, that clarifies things. That base was *not* on AUTOVON, nor it's predecessor SCAN. They had _limited-functionality_ tie-lines to a SCAN or AUTOVON facility. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 16:32:10 -0600 From: Daryl Gibson Reply-To: Daryl Gibson Subject: Re: Tie Lines (was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago used DC power (rather > than AC) -- at least in the downtown area -- until sometime around > 1930. That's at least one reason why there were so many WUTCO clocks > everywhere, instead of 'regular' wall clocks. Clocks cannot run on > direct current; they require alternating current at 60 cycles. I imagine the battery powering most wall clocks used nowadays would be surprised by that statement (if it could think, of course). Clocks may have used the 60 hz cycle as a timing mechanism, of course, where a modern clock may use something else that oscillates, such as a quartz crystal. Daryl [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you see, Daryl, in the little wall clocks with a battery in them, the battery does _not_ drive the escapement in the clock. The battery merely feeds a little motor which _winds up_ the spring which forces the escapement to work, which is how the old Western Union clocks operated as well. If you take the wall clock down from its place, hold it very quietly for a few minutes and listen, typically after every three or four -- maybe in some cases ten minutes, you'll hear a little 'whirring' sound which lasts for a couple seconds as the spring gets re-wound which in turn drives the escapement gear, causing it to repeatedly try to force its way past the two 'fingers' which alternatly jump up and down, trying to resist the pressure. You could as easily remove the battery totally then stand there and every five minutes or so use some tiny little tool to wind the spring by hand. In a _true_ electrical clock, where a motor inside spins continually there is no escapement; no reason to ever so slightly retard the gears. Putting it the other way around, if you removed the battery, then carefully lifed the 'fingers' and the pendulum out of the way, even with the battery gone, you'd see the hands on the clock spin around rapidly until such time as all the tension in the spring was gone. For true electric clocks, they require AC current at 60 cycles, or else they would speed up or slow down eratically as the current fluctuated. The old Western Union clocks would rewind their mainspring hourly; the little more modern clocks currently in use have _much_ smaller mainsprings and escape- ment wheels; the battery has to refresh them as stated above; between 3-5 minutes up to 10 minutes as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 21:41:29 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) > For street fire alarms, the city used call boxes. When the lever was > pulled, a clockwork would generate a coded signal denoting the > firebox. These were removed a few years ago. As kids, we were taught > to know where the nearest callbox was to our homes and to wait there > to direct the arriving firemen to the fire. They date from a time > people didn't have phones or speak English, and lasted a lot longer > than they needed to given universal telephone service. A local firefighter told me Athens, Georgia, removed its call boxes a few years ago because they were getting almost nothing but false alarms. This is probably a nationwide problem. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:52:16 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago used DC power (rather > than AC) -- at least in the downtown area -- until sometime around > 1930. That's at least one reason why there were so many WUTCO clocks > everywhere, instead of 'regular' wall clocks. Clocks cannot run on > direct current; they require alternating current at 60 cycles. I wonder what they did in territory where the generated A.C. power was at 25 cycles. Or how a battery-operated clock works. The design _is_ significantly different, because you don't have the 'frequency standard' of the A.C. power to stabilize the timing, A D.C. powered clock has to employ some other form of a 'regulator' mechanism, rather than relying on the power-line. This is typically a pendulum, or a 'balance wheel', controlling an 'escapement' mechanism. Basically identical to that of a wind-up clock, just using the power-line to keep the mainspring wound up. A.C. powered designs _are_ 'simpler'. And *MUCH* easier to ensure that multiple clocks keep the same 'rate' of time -- they all link back to the same *single* timing source, the power utility. With D.C. clocks, you have to adjust the 'regulation' on each one, independently. Politely described as a pain in the nether portions of the anatomy. :) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will confine my remarks to only your comment on 'how a battery operated clock works' . See my earlier message to Daryl. Wall clocks for example, use the battery to wind the mainspring only. If this were not so, then as the battery ran down, the clock would run slower and slower wouldn't it? Most wall clocks keep on running as long as the battery has the necessary 'juice' to continue winding the spring, and you may note that when the battery begins to get weak, the spring takes a couple seconds longer to wind, but wind it does, and that is what keeps the clock hands moving, _not_ the battery. Truely, when the 'battery runs out' the clock also within a minute or two will stop, but the two events are not connected. You could reach in the back of the battery operated wall clock and rewind the spring by hand. And a true electrical clock does not have to be mounted in a level way; you lay it upside down on the floor for all anyone cared; if plugged in it would continue to run correctly. But try that with a battery/spring wound clock (not having it hung level on a flat surface.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 17:58:50 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com slippymississippi@yahoo.com wrote: > I hooked up a line analyzer and listened to the call, and all > I'm hearing on my end is a "blip blip blip" as he repeatedly presses > the key to save the message. The DTMF tone basically sounds like it > was clipped at just a few milliseconds I seem to recall that the old Bell System spec for tone duration was 20ms, or 1/5th of a second. Some switches allowed you to go as fast as 10ms, which put the speed in speedial. :) Don't know how P8 generates tones, but is it possible they are right at the lower spec limit and your system isn't capable of decoding at that rate? OTOH, since P8 needs to generate the tones, its possible they aren't under certain circumstances. Again, back some years DTMF tones (MF actually) were suppressed in some circumstances as a fraud control measure when inband signalling was used. No one should be doing that now, but ... ------------------------------ From: Ken Abrams Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 01:22:01 GMT wrote > One of my customers is using the Packet8 Virtual Office, and when my > computer calls him to deliver the messages, he cannot navigate via > DTMF. I hooked up a line analyzer and listened to the call, and all > I'm hearing on my end is a "blip blip blip" as he repeatedly presses > the key to save the message. The DTMF tone basically sounds like it > was clipped at just a few milliseconds ... in fact, I really cannot > discern if it's still a dual frequency tone or not. I have no knowledge of Packet8 so this is just a wild guess. Based on your description, it sounds like the DTMF pad (phone) in use is polarity sensitive and the battery to the phone is reversed on an incoming call, thereby disabling the generation of DTMF tones. Simply replacing the phone might solve the problem. The "original" touch-tone phones were all polarity sensitive; AFAIK, none of the modern ones are. ------------------------------ Date: 24 May 2005 01:00:58 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Cingular / sms.ac Ripoff Alert Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Regarding whois look-up below; > 575 Eighth Avenue, 11th Floor New York NY 10018 US below would be near > 36 Street. That is near where spammer to my wife's account is located, > but when you go there, they deny connection. That's register.com, the domain registrar. They're the largest registrar in the world and I doubt they have more than the vaguest idea who or where sms.ac is. > SMS.AC (DOM-18363) > SMS Inc. 7770 Regents Road Suite 113-405 San Diego CA 92122 US Yes, sms.ac is actually in San Diego. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Switch Identification Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 18:11:02 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Justin Time wrote: > Ever thought of asking the cable provider what type of switch they use > to provision their voice services? That to me would be the most > logical first step. Much easier than attempting to guess what > generated a tone. But then asking the provider is just too simple. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but would you get someone who knew > what they were talking about? _That_ to me is always the big question > when dealing with CSRs. Sounds good, but can you believe them? PAT] When I had wireline from my cable provider, and asked them, they refused to provide me with any information about their switch. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Why Does it Take So Long? Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 19:20:58 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , mc wrote: > In the magazine industry there is an old and mostly obsolete tradition > of starting every subscription at the beginning of a volume (i.e., a > year or half-year). Scholarly journals still normally do this. I > don't know if that is what happened to you. Thanks. Don't know if Harpers and NY Review of Books count as scholarly journals, but I'll look at the first arrivals to see. (On the other hand when I ordered a subscription to Couloir a month into their annual subscription period last year and very clearly asked to get the initial issue that had already (just) been distributed, it never happened, and I could never get a response from them about this.) ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 19:57:12 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com wrote in message news:telecom24.228.2@telecom-digest.org: (Much snippage occurs here...) > The various mergers and corporate name changes that have taken place > over the last 20 years among the Bell companies have not, for the most > part, changed the legal name of the operating company within each > state. All of the Bell Atlantic companies use the Bell Atlantic name > to do business, but the state operating companies all have individual > names, auch as Bell Telephone Co. of Pa. I think some of them have > changed their names, however. Most likely the reason for the old name > appearing on the modern literature is a state PUC or statutory > requirement that the actual name of the operating company be provided > on marketing documents. This would be the name that appears on the > tariff, as well. On a slow day a few years ago I was looking at some US West (now Qwest) tariffs at the Oregon PUC. Most of the documents had wording that went something like "...Pacifc Northwest Bell, dba US West...", with dba standing for "doing business as". I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing changing the name of a big company might be really expensive but using another name for the business might be as easy as filing a form with a state's corporation commission. This same syndrome afflicts many railroads; One road buys another, paints new logos all over everything but retains the old name on deeds to properties, operating authorities and the like. In addition to being expensive this tactic might shield the new owner from misdeeds of the former company. Who knows? Al ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24_#229 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 May 2005 15:55:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 230 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson More News on our RSS Syndication (TELECOM Digest Editor) Virus Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage (Lisa Minter) Banks Notify Customers of Data Theft (Lisa Minter) Congress Passes Law Banning Computer Spyware (Lisa Minter) Publishers Protest Google Library Project (Lisa Minter) Spammers Cannot Hide Behind Affiliates (Lisa Minter) Television Reloaded (Monty Solomon) Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand (Jack Decker) Vonage's Jeffrey Citron on E911 and SBC's Reluctance (Jack Decker) Re: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England (Joseph) Re: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England (Danny Burstein) Re: Very Early Modems (Scott Dorsey) Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" (Steve Sobol) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (PrinceGunter) Re: ACLU Pizza (William Warren) Re: Why Does it Take So Long? (John R. Levine) Re: Very Early Modems (Scott Dorsey) Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 (Kenneth P. Stox) Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (Customer Service) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: More News on our RSS Syndication Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 13:28:31 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) I mentioned here the other day that Telecom Digest/comp.dcom.telecom is now syndicated. This means we now have an RSS feed in addition to the more standard and somewhat obsolete methods of newsgroup distribution we have enjoyed for many years, including NNTP for Usenet. RSS is a method by which many publications share syndicated news and other articles. We started using RSS a few months ago, with 'modules' from other sources sprinkled through our web site, http://telecom-digest.org and now Telecom Digest is also available as a 'module' for use on other people's web sites as well. For instance, if you happen to like reading news mainly from a single source such as Yahoo or MSN News, our module each day is now displayed on those web sites as well. In both cases, the Telecom Digest / c.d.t. newsgroup module is an optional addition. In both cases, it is not automatically displayed on their web sites; you have to 'subscribe to the module' to have it included. Where some readers like going around the net from one URL to another to check for news of interest, other readers prefer to see as many headlines as they can at one single location. I do that here, for example, by providing NY Times, NPR news, Christian Science Monitor, AP News, Reuters and other news reports in the section of our daily Telecom Digest called http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra. The intent is if you wish to make telecom-digest.org your 'home page' or starting point on your computer each day -- and I hope you would -- you will find news and features from _many different sources_ each day. But just as some of you wish to start out _here_ and use the 'modules' other sites have provided, there are some readers who prefer to start, for example, with Yahoo or MSN and do the same kind of thing, and get their Telecom Digest news in the form of a 'module' on that _other_ site. I of course stress telecommunications news first, with the other modules optional for whoever wants them. Every URL on the net stresses its own area of interest _first_ then allows for optional modules, as called for by readers, to other modules, including, as requested, TELECOM Digest. Really, its your choice. http://telecom-digest.org/TELECOM_Digest_Online/atom.xml is where you will find our RSS feed, for use in your own RSS reader. http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html is where you will find a javascript interpretation of our feed, to place Telecom Digest headlines on your own site. (No reason you have to come here to the Digest each day; we can come to you also in this manner.) http://telecom-digest.org/archives/back.issues/recent.single.issues/latest-issue.html is where you go to not only read the latest issue but where you can also go to 'subscribe' (or place the telecom news module) on your 'My Yahoo' or 'My MSN' home pages if you wish to go that way. As other sites come on line with home pages readers themselves construct, telecom will be available to read there also. I hope you are as enthusiastic about this new delivery method for news as I am. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Virus Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:11:27 -0500 Web Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer 11 minutes ago Computer users already anxious about viruses and identity theft have new reason to worry: Hackers have found a way to lock up the electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the Internet to get them back. Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. uncovered the unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not identify fell victim to the infection, which encrypted files that included documents, photographs and spreadsheets. A ransom note left behind included an e-mail address, and the attacker using the address later demanded $200 for the digital keys to unlock the files. "This is equivalent to someone coming into your home, putting your valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," said Oliver Friedrichs, a security manager for Symantec Corp. The FBI said the scheme, which appears isolated, was unlike other Internet extortion crimes. Leading security and antivirus firms this week were updating protective software for companies and consumers to guard against this type of attack, which experts dubbed "ransom-ware." "This seems fully malicious," said Joe Stewart, a researcher at Chicago-based Lurqh Corp. who studied the attack software. Stewart managed to unlock the infected computer files without paying the extortion, but he worries that improved versions might be more difficult to overcome. Internet attacks commonly become more effective as they evolve over time as hackers learn to avoid the mistakes of earlier infections. "You would have to pay the guy, or law enforcement would have to get his key to unencrypt the files," Stewart said. The latest danger adds to the risks facing beleaguered Internet users, who must increasingly deal with categories of threats that include spyware, viruses, worms, phishing e-mail fraud and denial of service attacks. In the recent case, computer users could be infected by viewing a vandalized Web site with vulnerable Internet browser software. The infection locked up at least 15 types of data files and left behind a note with instructions to send e-mail to a particular address to purchase unlocking keys. In an e-mail reply, the hacker demanded $200 be wired to an Internet banking account. "I send programm to your email," the hacker wrote. There was no reply to e-mails sent to that address Monday by The Associated Press. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said more familiar Internet extortion schemes involve hackers demanding tens of thousands of dollars and threatening to attack commercial Web sites, interfering with sales or stealing customer data. Experts said there were no widespread reports the new threat was spreading, and the Web site was already shut down where the infection originally spread. They also said the hacker's demand for payment might be his weakness, since bank transactions can be traced easily. "The problem is getting away with it - you've got to send the money somewhere," Stewart said. "If it involves some sort of monetary transaction, it's far easier to trace than an e-mail account." Details: http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/alerts/alert.php?AlertID194 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, as some of our Bright young readers would explain, "on internet there is no consensus on what is, and is not malicious." Or as another reader would explain, "there is no such thing as an internet; just a collection of sites, and we cannot tell another site how to operate." And the Bright young reader concurs, "nor does anyone on the net want things any different". PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Banks Notify Customers of Data Theft Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:17:46 -0500 By PAUL NOWELL, AP Business WriterMon May 23,11:06 PM ET More than 100,000 customers of Wachovia Corp. and Bank of America Corp. have been notified that their financial records may have been stolen by bank employees and sold to collection agencies. In all, nearly 700,000 customers of four banks may be affected, according to police in Hackensack, N.J., where the investigation was centered. So far, Bank of America has alerted about 60,000 customers whose names were included on computer disks discovered by police, bank spokeswoman Alex Liftman said Monday. "We are trying to communicate with our customers as promptly as possible," she said. "So far, we have no evidence that any of our customer information has been used for account fraud or identity theft." Wachovia said it has identified 48,000 current and former account holders whose accounts may have been breached. "The numbers have increased as we continue to receive additional names from police," Wachovia spokeswoman Christy Phillips said Monday. Both banks are providing the affected customers with free credit reporting services. In a separate case with the potential for identity theft, a laptop containing the names and Social Security numbers of 16,500 current and former MCI Inc. employees was stolen last month from the car of an MCI financial analyst in Colorado, said company spokeswoman Linda Laughlin. The car was parked in the analyst's home garage and the computer was password-protected, she said. MCI would not comment on whether the data was encrypted. The bank record theft was exposed April 28 when police in Hackensack charged nine people, including seven bank workers, in an alleged plot to steal financial records of thousands of bank customers. The bank employees accessed records for customers of Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce Bank, PNC Bank of Pittsburgh, and Charlotte-based banks Wachovia and Bank of America, according to Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. Repeated calls seeking comment were not returned by Commerce Bank officials, while PNC officials declined to estimate how many of their customers' accounts may have been breached. "We have no evidence that any of these accounts have been compromised at all. We continue to work with law enforcement officials," said Pat McMahon, a spokesman for PNC. New Jersey authorities found 12 names and Social Security numbers belonging to PNC customers but the bank found no suspicious activity in the accounts, he said. Collection agent Orazio Lembo Jr., 35, of Hackensack made millions of dollars through the scheme, Zisa has said. Authorities said they discovered the plot after they executed a search warrant at Lembo's apartment in February as part of a separate investigation. They seized 13 computers which contained details about the plan, Zisa said. Lembo received lists of people sought for debt collection and turned that information over to the seven bank workers, who would compare those names to their client lists. The bank workers were paid $10 for each account they turned over to Lembo, Zisa said. In New Jersey, continued scrutiny of computer discs seized from Lembo's offices was yielding more names. Investigators have now identified nearly 700,000 potential victims, Hackensack police Capt. Frank Lomia said Monday. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Geeze, I can remember back in the 1970's when the worst thing you had to worry about with the banks was when one of them (First National Bank of Chicago comes to mind) would commit _postal fraud_ by riffling through mail not addressed to themselves, open the mail and pocket any cash money they found. I was forced to file a Small Claims case against First National Bank in Chicago when this _snot_ of a customer service lady refused to return money to me their mailroom employees had pilfered. (circa 1974- 1975). If you want more details, just ask. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Congress Votes to Outlaw Computer Spyware Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:23:53 -0500 By Andy Sullivan The U.S. House of Representatives on Monday voted to establish new penalties for purveyors of Internet "spyware" that disables users' computers and secretly monitors their activities. By overwhelming majorities, the House passed two bills that stiffen jail sentences and establish multimillion-dollar fines for those who use secret surveillance programs to steal credit-card numbers, sell software or commit other crimes. Spyware has emerged as a major headache for computer users over the last several years. It can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. Scam artists use spyware to capture passwords, account numbers and other sensitive data. Spyware can end up on users' computers through a virus or when they download games or other free programs off the Internet. "Consumers have a right to know and have a right to decide who has access to their highly personal information that spyware can collect," said California Republican Rep. Mary Bono (news, bio, voting record), who sponsored one of the bills. The bills prohibit a number of practices often associated with spyware, such as reprograming the start page on a user's Web browser, logging keystrokes to capture passwords and other sensitive data, or launching pop-up ads that can't be closed without shutting down the computer. The practice known as "phishing" -- in which scam artists pose as banks or other businesses in an attempt to trick consumers into divulging account information -- would also be outlawed. The House voted 395 to 1 to impose jail sentences of up to 2 years. Violators could face fines up to $3 million per incident. Those who use spyware to commit other crimes, such as identity theft, could have an additional 5 years tacked on to their sentences. Both bills passed the House last year but the Senate adjourned before taking action. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate this year. Most spyware practices are already illegal under deceptive-business laws but federal and state law enforcers have only sued two spyware purveyors so far, one expert said. "We know that there are literally hundreds of these cases out there. Unless nthere's a push for enforcement, passing a new law is really only going to help after the fact," said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a consumer-advocacy group. The bill gives the Justice Department an additional $10 million per year through 2009 to fight spyware. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Publishers Protest Google Library Project Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 02:15:33 -0500 By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer A group of academic publishers called Google Inc.'s plan to scan millions of library books into its Internet search engine index a troubling financial threat to its membership. The Association of American University Presses said in a letter that was to be sent to Google on Monday that the online search engine's library project "appears to involve systematic infringement of copyright on a massive scale." The association, which represents 125 nonprofit publishers of academic journals and scholarly books, asked Google to respond to a list of 16 questions seeking more information about how the company plans to protect copyrights. Two unidentified publishers already asked Google to withhold its copyrighted material from the scanners, but the company hasn't complied with the requests, Peter Givler, the executive director for the New York-based trade group, wrote in the letter. Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., did not return phone and e-mail messages left Monday. The association of nonprofit publishers is upset because Google has indicated it will scan copyright-protected books from three university libraries -- Harvard, Michigan and Stanford. Those three universities also operate publishing arms represented by the group complaining about Google's 5-month-old "Libraries for Print" project. That means the chances of the association suing Google are "extremely remote," Givler said in an interview Monday. Still, Givler said the association is very worried about Google's scanning project. "The more we talked about it with our lawyers, the more questions bubbled up," he said. "And so far Google hasn't provided us with any good answers." Google also is scanning books stored in the New York Public Library and Oxford in England, but those two libraries so far are only providing Google with "public domain" works -- material no longer protected by copyrights because of its age, or its author's intentions. Federal law considers the free distribution of some copyrighted material to be permissible "fair use." The company has told the nonprofit publishers that its library program meets this criteria. Some for-profit publishers also are taking a closer look at Google's library-scanning project. "We are exploring issues and opportunities with Google, including the potential impact of this program on our authors, our customers and our business," said John Wiley & Sons Inc. spokeswoman Susan Spilka. Copyright concerns aren't the only issue casting a cloud over Google's library-scanning project. The project also has drawn criticism in Europe for placing too much emphasis on material from the United States. One of Google's most popular features -- a section that compiles news stories posted on thousands of Web sites -- already has triggered claims of copyright infringement. Agence France-Presse, a French news agency, is suing for damages of at least $17.5 million, alleging "Google News" is illegally capitalizing on its copyrighted material. The latest complaints about Google are being driven by university- backed publishers who fear there will be little reason to buy their books if Google succeeds in its effort to create a virtual reading room. The university presses depend on books sales and other licensing agreements for most of their revenue, making copyright protections essential to their survival. Google has turned its search engine into a moneymaking machine, generating a $369 million profit during the first three months of this year alone. The company is counting on its library scanning project to attract even more visitors to its site so it can display more ads and potentially boost its earnings even more. Investors already adore Google. The company's shares surged $13.84, or 5.7 percent, to close Monday at $255.45 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Earlier in the session, the shares traded as high as $258.10 - a new peak since the company went public nine months ago at $85. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Spammers Cannot Hide Behind Affiliates Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 23:39:58 -0500 Originally published on O'Reilly Network http://www.oreillynet.com/ http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/04/29/spamkings.html Spammers Can't Hide Behind Affiliates by Brian McWilliams, author of Spam Kings In a case that tests a key provision of the U.S. CAN-SPAM law, Microsoft has scored a legal victory against a Washington man alleged to be one of the top ten spammers in the world. A King County (Washington) superior court judge ruled that Robert Soloway, operator of Newport Internet Marketing (NIM), was in default on the spam lawsuit originally filed by Microsoft on December 18, 2003, against NIM and 20 "John Doe" defendants. Soloway, 25, is ranked the world's eighth largest spammer by the Spamhaus spam tracking and blocking service. Soloway and NIM have been listed on the Spamhaus Register of Known Spam Operations (ROKSO) since the list's inception in October 2000. Soloway had argued that NIM's subcontractors -- otherwise known as spam affiliates -- and not his company, were responsible for waves of illegal spam cited in Microsoft's complaint. The messages included "from" lines forged to make the messages appear as though they were sent via Microsoft's MSN and Hotmail services. Besides asserting that he was unaware that the subcontractors were operating illegally, Soloway also claimed he didn't know their actual identities, since his dealings with affiliates were conducted exclusively over the ICQ chat service. Microsoft filed a request for a default judgment against Soloway on March 31, 2005, complaining that Soloway was playing "a shell game" during the protracted, 15-month discovery process. Microsoft said Soloway had failed to produce documents and other information regarding NIM's dealings with subcontractors. Soloway turned over a list of 67 ICQ numbers used by his affiliates, but he provided no names, addresses, phones, or email addresses, according to Microsoft. "The evidence withheld by defendants ... goes to the heart of Microsoft's case ... the only witnesses who can corroborate or contradict Soloway's testimony are the subcontractors," stated Microsoft in its filing. Also read: Spam Kings The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements By Brian McWilliams Table of Contents Sample Chapter Under the rules of civil procedure, a court can order a default judgment against a party who fails to appear in court or to respond to charges against him. Judge William Downing agreed to Microsoft's request on April 8. "The only issue that remains is the amount of damages Plaintiff Microsoft is entitled to," stated the default judgment. Microsoft's head anti-spam attorney, Aaron Kornblum, said Tuesday that Microsoft is "finalizing our pleadings to include the damages amount." But in an online interview this week, Soloway brushed off Microsoft's apparent courtroom win. "The fact is, they have no case, and I can honestly say with the utmost confidence that there will not be a monetary damage awarded," said Soloway. He declined to elaborate on why he was so confident of his position versus Microsoft. Soloway claimed that he has always removed any MSN.com and Hotmail.com addresses from his mailing lists and that he instructed affiliates to do the same. "One of my subcontractors ... clearly did not do what I hired them to do. They broke the rules, and violated my policy," said Soloway. "Should I be responsible for the actions of someone that didn't follow the rules I gave to my advertisers?" he asked. Under both federal and Washington State anti-spam statutes, the answer apparently is _yes_; companies are liable for illegal spam sent on their behalf by third parties. In the case of CAN-SPAM, a firm is responsible if it "procured the transmission" of the unlawful email. Under Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act, companies are liable if they "assist the transmission" of the illegal messages. Many large spam operations rely heavily on affiliates, who are typically paid a commission for any sales leads or purchases they generate on behalf of the "sponsor." Soloway testified to Microsoft that he has fired all his subcontractors and now sends email himself using the Dark Mailer spam program and proxies. Soloway declined to comment on a recent bout of spam from his firm that offered, "we email your web site to 2,500,000 opt-in email addresses for free." A disclaimer in the spams stated, "the above emailing is only free if you are a nonprofit organization that aids child abuse victims." Soloway disputed Spamhaus' appraisal of NIM as a top source of spam, and he noted that Spamhaus director Steve Linford has publicly admitted to assisting Microsoft in its litigation. "Steve is making plenty of money from certain large corporations in relation to PR," asserted Soloway, "so Microsoft could go 'look, we've won a judgment against the top [spammer].'" ---- In October 2004, O'Reilly Media, Inc., released Spam Kings. a.. Sample chapter 1, "Birth of a Spam King" (PDF), is available free online. b.. You can also look at the Table of Contents (PDF) and the full description of the book. c.. For more information, or to order the book, go to our site. Brian McWilliams is the author of Spam Kings and is an investigative journalist who has covered business and technology for web magazines including Wired News and Salon, as well as the Washington Post and PC World, Computerworld, and Inc. magazines. Copyright 2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 07:39:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Television Reloaded It's a transformation as significant as when we went from black-and-white to color-and it's already underway. The promise is that you'll be able to watch anything you want, anywhere-on a huge high-def screen or on your phone. By Steven Levy Newsweek Updated: 6:25 a.m. ET May 23, 2005 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7935915/site/newsweek/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 09:58:32 -0400 Subject: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Alone By JOHN C. ROPER Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle A growing number of U.S. consumers are cutting the cord on traditional home telephone service, choosing instead to exclusively use cell phones. But many of these consumers have found ditching their land-line phone service, and its accompanying cost, isn't possible if they want speedy DSL, or digital subscriber line, Internet service in their homes. Providers such as SBC Communications require customers to buy residential phone service to have access to their broadband lines, a tactic consumer advocacy groups say is unfair. Full story at: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think I read somewhere -- maybe here in the Digest -- where SBC was going to bite the bullet also and begin offering 'naked DSL'. Fact or fiction? Personally, I would say that _whenever possible_ people just ditch telco and go with cable internet. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 11:37:01 -0400 Subject: Vonage's Jeffrey Citron on E911 and SBC's Reluctance to Help http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040044246/ The Engadget Interview: Jeffrey Citron, chairman and CEO of Vonage Posted by Peter Rojas We recently sat down with Jeffrey Citron, the chairman and CEO of Vonage, to talk about the future of Voice over IP, whether or not Skype is their number one competitor, Vonage's wireless strategy, and how they’re responding to the recent controversy over VoIP and E911 calling. Oh, and for all the Treo fans out there, we also asked them how much longer we're going to have to wait until we see a version of Vonage's softphone client for the Palm OS. [Regarding E911:] It's the Baby Bells that generally control that infrastructure? They control about 90% or 80% of it. Are they reluctant to grant Vonage access? Do they say it's a cost issue and that they want you to share the cost with them? No, no. It's interesting. Every Bell will make a different excuse. Verizon is the one that is to be most commended. Verizon says, "Let's put all this crap to the side and let's figure out a way to make this work." And Verizon actually has multiple solutions, depending on the market. And they work really well, and our goal is now to roll it out territory-wide. Verizon makes available to us the same things it makes available to a combination of wireline entities and wireless entities. So we've gone to the other RBOCs and said we want these same things. With Qwest we have an agreement in principle, but we're still working on details. Bell South and SBC have been very reluctant for every reason under the sun. Bell South's made some progress and they're starting to come around, but still not there yet. SBC keeps issuing press release after press release of how they're going to offer this, but they don't offer us the complete solution to do all the pieces like the wireless guys have so we can do it all real and right. SBC finds that E911 is a competitive advantage over Vonage and they want to extort that competitive advantage. I've got to tell you, the last thing anyone should be doing in this country is using E911 as a competitive advantage and risking people's lives. It's not the right thing to do. Remember, these Bells were given 911 as a public trust. Originally given by Congress to AT&T and then by AT&T through divestiture to the Baby Bells. And they should really honor their public trust commitment. Verizon has. We're very pleased about that. Full story at: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040044246/ How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 05:26:22 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 24 May 2005 01:26:15 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > WOBURN, Mass., May 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the first > national carrier to launch Ringback Tones, today announced the arrival > of its Ringback Tones service in New England. Verizon Wireless > customers throughout the region can now find the perfect Ringback Tone > to replace the standard ring callers hear while they wait for their > call to be answered. The only trouble with this story is that it's not true. T-Mobile USA launched this service many months before Verizon in the USA after launching the same service in the UK several months prior to that. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless Ringback Tones Reach New England Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 06:13:24 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Monty Solomon writes: > Greet Wireless Callers With a Song Instead of a Ring; Numerous Artists > and Music Genres Available > WOBURN, Mass., May 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the first > national carrier to launch Ringback Tones, today announced the arrival > of its Ringback Tones service in New England. [ snip ] T-Mobile has had this quite a bit longer. No doubt Verizon will use the "national carrier" line to claim the distinction ... That being said, an obvious question comes to mind (which, alas, I'm not in a position to check on) : Since the ringback is specially generated, does the call get "supervised" as soon as the caller first hears the ringing? Similarly, what happens if the recipient doesn't answer but just lets the ringing continue (most specifically _not_ counting a kickover to voice-mail). Anyone know? I don't have any friends who've signed up for this sillines so can't check things myself. Thanks. ( minor disclosure: shareholder in Omnipoint) _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 24 May 2005 11:47:58 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Brad Houser wrote: > Here is a picture of a 1958 AT&T modem (not sure if this is the first > commercial modem, the Bell 103. If so it was 300 baud): > http://www.att.com/history/milestone_1958.html No, the Bell 103 is a little plastic box only a little bit larger than a Hayes external modem. This appears to be a photograph of an encrypted data system using a carrier key tape. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 23:56:03 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Al Gillis wrote: > On a slow day a few years ago I was looking at some US West (now > Qwest) tariffs at the Oregon PUC. Most of the documents had wording > that went something like "...Pacifc Northwest Bell, dba US West...", > with dba standing for "doing business as". I don't know this for > sure, but I'm guessing changing the name of a big company might be > really expensive but using another name for the business might be as > easy as filing a form with a state's corporation commission. This > same syndrome afflicts many railroads; One road buys another, paints > new logos all over everything but retains the old name on deeds to > properties, operating authorities and the like. In addition to being > expensive this tactic might shield the new owner from misdeeds of the > former company. Who knows? Not just a railroad and telecom issue, either. Look how many companies Clear Channel bought, and a ton of them still have the original licensee's name on the license, like Clear Channel Victor Valley, which owns most of our local radio outlets that are still licensed to Capstar ... Capstar sold out to Clear Channel long before I moved here. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: PrinceGunter Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: 24 May 2005 06:41:47 -0700 > I seem to recall that the old Bell System spec for tone duration was > 20ms, or 1/5th of a second. Some switches allowed you to go as fast as > 10ms, which put the speed in speedial. :) > Don't know how P8 generates tones, but is it possible they are right > at the lower spec limit and your system isn't capable of decoding at > that rate? I had a T-Berd on the line, and it didn't recognize any DTMF either. But after another couple of tests, I think I can definitely state that there is no difference in tone between keypresses ... for some reason his device or Packet8 is translating those keypresses to a monotone "blip" on inbound calls. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 11:03:33 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: ACLU Pizza Monty Solomon wrote: > http://www.aclu.org/pizza/ > http://www.aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf Interesting, but they left out a few things: 1. The change in your life insurance; 2. The notice sent to your boss; 3. The reevaluation of your children's sat scores in light of the new profile information. William ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Why Does it Take So Long? Date: 24 May 2005 11:12:59 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > But I just ordered a major American magazine subscription, and a > major American weekly book review journal subscription through > amazon, and been told to be patient: it may take CLOSE TO THREE > MONTHS before either of these start arriving. For some reason, magazines print up their mailing labels way in advance, and it sounds like they'll add you to the next list they print. They probably also batch up their subscription updates, so it might be a couple of weeks until they add your name to the list. If the magazine is a monthly, you get up to one month of delay if you happen to subscribe the day after the current issue comes out, then another month for the label nonsense, and the third month for the leisurely process of printing and mailing. I'll be interested to hear if the weekly takes as long to start up, since their cycle is presumably a week rather than a month. Remember that Amazon say three months to everyone, for every magazine, so that's the worst case number. R's, John ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 24 May 2005 11:49:49 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Tony P. wrote: >> http://www.att.com/history/milestone_1958.html > So the carrier was on tape. How interesting. > I guess at that point it was hard to stabilize a tube based > oscillator. It is much easier to stabilize a tube oscillator than it is to stabilize a mechanical device like a tape machine. The old HP 200CD bench oscillator from the fifties is nearly as stable as the modern bench gadgets once it warms up. The tape in this device is almost certainly being used to store a varying carrier, for encryption purposes. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:22:09 GMT moody1951@aol.com wrote: > Looking for a Model 15 or 19 in good cosmetic condition and operating > order. Teletype?? ------------------------------ From: Customer Service Subject: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 12:16:48 -0400 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fished (or do you say 'phished') out of my ever-full, always overflowing spam bucket this morning, on my way to put out this issue of the Digest. As we can see by a cursory glance through the binary code below, it is a spam-thingy. PAT] MThlIE1vcnRnYWelIFF1b3RlIE5ldHdvcmsNCkEgUGVyc29uYWwgQXBwcm9hY2ggdG8gT25saW5l IEJvcnJvd2luZw0KDQpHZXQgYSBGcmVlIE1vcnRnYWdlIFF1b3RlIQ0KaHR0cDovL3d3dy5tb3J0 (and several _hundred_ more lines like the above). I bashed the rest of it, and altered the above just enough to cause it to lose its punch so none of _you_ would possibly 'inherit' it in your travels around the net today. That's how I say 'Thank you for visiting our web site today'; I spam you and perchance hand you a virus 'souvenier' to take home and show or give to your friends. Of course many netters would contend it is impossible to define 'offensive' or 'malicious' and still others would contend the 'internet does not exist; it is only a collection of sites, etc'. But my observation is this: Note the original subject line, 'Your House at P.O. Box 4621'. I would like you to know (a) 'Box 4621' in Skokie, Illinois is a very old snail- mail address I used when I lived in Skokie (metro Chicago area) about _ten years ago_; that is the age and quality of the mailing lists these spammers often times use. I'll bet whoever he bought the mailing list from told him 'a new, fresh list with x-gazillion email names and addresses' on it. From what I can gather, its another of those 'you have qualified to receive a mortgage loan' things. My second observation, (b) is the guy does not seem to be very bright. He could not or did not even think it through and use an _actual house address_ (such as 'Your House on Niles Center Road') or something similar to at least try to make it a message worth reading. I hope that at least occassionally, some of these spammers who sincerely bought their lists, etc thinking there was money to be made on the internet grow discouraged, and give up their efforts voluntarily and find other uses for their computers. Or is that too much to ask? PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #230 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 24 May 2005 19:40:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 231 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FTC Asks For Help Against Spam Zombies (Lisa Minter) Apple Intends to Support Podcasts (Lisa Minter) Robot Soldiers (Lisa Minter) JDS Buys Acterna (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" (Lisa Hancock) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (Dave Garland) Re: Very Early Modems (Scott Dorsey) Re: Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy (Lisa Hancock) Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 (Jim Haynes) Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 (moody1951) Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (Lisa Hancock) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: FTC Asks For Help Against Spam Zombies Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:17:44 -0500 By Andy Sullivan Home computer users who unwittingly send out spam e-mail should be disconnected from the Internet until their machines are fixed, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday. The FTC said it would ask 3,000 Internet providers around the globe to make sure that their customers' computers haven't been hijacked by spammers who want to cover their tracks and pass bandwidth costs on to others. Online viruses like "SoBig" turn infected computers into spam-spewing "zombies" that send out millions of unwanted messages without the owner's knowledge. Zombie networks are responsible for 50 percent to 80 percent of all spam, according to various estimates. Because many home users lack the technical smarts to fight the problem on their own, the FTC hopes their Internet providers will help, although they are not required to do so. Internet providers should identify computers on their networks that are sending out large amounts of e-mail and quarantine them if they are found to be zombies, the FTC said. They should also help customers clean their machines and tell them how to keep them safe in the first place, the FTC said. The FTC said Internet providers should route all customer e-mail through their own servers, which could upset more than technically proficient users who run their own e-mail servers. The FTC also said it plans to identify specific zombie computers and notify their Internet providers. Law enforcers in 25 other countries, from Bulgaria to Peru, are also participating in the campaign, the FTC said. Absent from the list of cooperating countries was China, where experts say rapid growth and a relative lack of technical sophistication have led to a large number of zombie computers. Most U.S. Internet providers already have taken the steps outlined in the FTC's letter but they must take care not to squelch legitimate mail in the process, said Dave McClure, president of the U.S. Internet Industry Association. "It's sometimes very difficult to tell the difference between spam coming across your network and your local charitable organization sending out its monthly newsletter," said McClure, who added that U.S. law prevents Internet providers from reading customer e-mail. The FTC's campaign follows on earlier efforts to shut down "open relays" and other poorly configured computers that have been exploited by spammers. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This would be great, if it happened. But as you know, there are so many netters who would quarrel about _anything_ done to actually eliminate (not just filter out) spam. To their way of thinking, any effort to block access to the internet (oops, there I go again, mentioning that non-existent thing!) by these zombies is to be condemmed, since 'no one on the net wants to see any changes' that may possibly impose on anyone else, and there is no agreement on what is considered offensive and malicious, etc, yada, yada, adnauseum etc. If you cannot be man enough to protect your own computer while the cesspool fills up, swarms around you and overflows, then, they would tell you, 'maybe you would be better off just not doing any networking.' How selfish they are in feeling that way! PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Steve Jobs Says Apple Will Support Podcasts Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:20:30 -0500 Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL - news) will support and organize podcasts in the next version of its iTunes and iPod software, the company said on Monday. Podcasts, which are sound files and audio content such as radio shows, have surged in popularity and do not require an iPod to listen to them on the go. Any digital MP3 player will work. "With the next version of iTunes, due within 60 days, there will now be an easy way for everyone to find and subscribe to" podcasts, the company said in a statement. Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive demonstrated on Sunday evening how Apple's podcasting organization and downloading process would work at a Wall Street Journal technology conference, said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at market research firm Creative Strategy. "From the demo, we saw you could put podcasts under categories," Bajarin said. "It makes it much easier to have, access, organize and sync podcasts to an iPod." The updated digital music jukebox software, which Bajarin said Jobs said was version 4.9, "organizes the podcasts within the iTunes store." 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Robot Soldiers Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 16:31:47 -0500 from the May 19, 2005 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0519/p14s02-stct.html When 'I Robot' becomes 'We Robot' By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor It sounds like classic sci-fi: Robots, linked by a common network, roam the land. When one unit discovers something, they all know it instantly. They use artificial intelligence to carry out their mission. Soon, such marching orders will be real, carried out by robot groups known as "swarms" or "hives." For example: . Last month, South Korea's Defense Ministry announced that it was planning to spend up to $1.9 billion to deploy robots along its border with North Korea. The robots would be used mainly for surveillance, although some could be armed. The effort might allow South Korea to remove some of its troops from along the 150-mile-long demilitarized zone (DMZ), one of the most heavily guarded borders in the world, a defense ministry representative told the Associated Press. . iRobot, a Burlington, Mass., company that makes military robots along with its popular domestic robot, the Roomba vacuum cleaner, operates perhaps the largest robot swarm in the world. About 100 experimental units operate as a team and have taught at least one important lesson: Real-life robots need to be reminded to recharge themselves. That's led to just such a feature on the Roomba, which now returns to its charging base when its battery fades. . The United States Army is developing a Future Combat System (FCS) that includes a close network of troops and ground and aerial unmanned robots. The robots would communicate with one another and coordinate their activities based on the mission assigned to them. "We're very interested" in hive or "swarm" technology, said Dennis Muilenburg, FCS program manager at Boeing, which is being paid $21 billion by the Army to oversee hundreds of contractors working on the FCS program. The FCS family of ground and aerial robots now under development would include a 25-pound "flying fan" that could be carried in a soldier's backpack, Mr. Muilenburg explained at a robotics conference in Cambridge, Mass., last week. When launched, it would survey the battlefield by hovering overhead or perching on a rooftop. A combat unit of the near future, he said, might consist of 3,000 soldiers, 900 vehicles, and "hundreds of robots" -- some of them armed -- all closely networked. The US military will deploy networked robots "within five years," predicts Helen Greiner, cofounder and chairman of iRobot. Frontline Robotics, in Ottawa, is working with a South Korean firm, DoDAAM Systems Ltd., in a bid to supply robots for the DMZ defense project. The Canadian company plans to offer a line of security robots that possess a significant level of individual autonomy and "hive" intelligence, says Richard Lepack, president and chief executive officer of Frontline, which merged last week with White Box Robotics in Pittsburgh. In a test last month, two of the company's robots were able to decide for themselves which should enter a narrow passageway first. That's something that may be easy for people, he says, but has been hard for robots to master. Frontline makes a robotic vehicle that looks like a small Jeep and others that could be cousins of R2D2, one of the robots in the "Star Wars" movies. A proprietary Robot Control System on each unit employs mathematical formulas, or algorithms, that give it some basic movements such as following the leader, avoiding obstacles, or wandering in an area. The robots also can work as teams, with each having a leader. The teams talk among themselves, and the leaders talk with one another. If a leader is disabled, another robot automatically takes over. "What one robot sees is shared among all the other team members in real time," Mr. Lepack says. So what Robot A senses is immediately known to Robots B, C, D, and so on. Birds and bees, part II Robotmakers find inspiration for their programs in nature: the behavior of bee, ant, and wasp colonies, as well as of flocks of birds and schools of fish. Ants, for example, communicate by leaving pheromone trails that other ants can follow to food. Ants also work as teams to distribute their workload, such as finding the most efficient paths for foraging or deciding who will haul bits of leaves back to the nest, without needing any directions from a leader. In simulations on a computer at Frontline, teams of up to 200,000 robots were shown to be able to coordinate their activities smoothly. But computer simulations can only do so much, says Ms. Greiner of iRobot. Software can't account for the unexpected, she says. "Whatever you don't put in [to the simulation] will come back and bite you." 'True swarms' The development of "true swarms," thousands or tens of thousands of mobile robots working together, is many years off and "depends on some things that haven't been invented yet," Greiner says, including miniaturization of components and better power sources and sensors. Military deployment of networked robots will come first, she says. For example, "searching for mines is inherently a parallel task," since you don't want "to put all your eggs in one basket" if a single robot gets blown up. Swarms will be an effective tool for reconnaissance, too. In the foreseeable future, a soldier might take a handful of tiny robots out of his pocket and send them into a building to check it out, she says. And in an imaginable future, swarms might do much of the routine housework, Greiner says. They'd understand that the dusting robots should come out before the vacuuming robots, which should do their job before the mopping robots. The lawn-mowing robots would scurry around before the raking robots cleaned up. Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, the Christian Science Publishing Society. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 12:29:16 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: JDS Buys Acterna Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 24, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21825&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * JDS buys Acterna BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Report: WLAN shipments jump in Q1 * MSOs see gold in commercial services * GPON piques RBOCs' interest * Vodafone reports earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * Announcing USTA's New Webinar Series: Marketing Strategies for ILECs EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * BitTorrent creator launches search engine * A primer for podcasts REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Former Qwest executive settles with SEC Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21825&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Corporate Identify -- Verizon vs. "Bell Telephone" Date: 24 May 2005 09:54:45 -0700 Al Gillis wrote: > I don't know this for > sure, but I'm guessing changing the name of a big company might be > really expensive but using another name for the business might be as > easy as filing a form with a state's corporation commission. That is true. But in the case of Verizon, I'm reasonably sure they did indeed legally change their name (IIRC, the newspapers said it was voted on a the Annual Meeting of the stockholders); and that included changing the local units' names. > This same syndrome afflicts many railroads; One road buys another, > paints new logos all over everything but retains the old name on > deeds to properties, operating authorities and the like. Railroads often don't directly own all the tracks and routes. Some are on long term leases where the owner gets rent check every year. Others are wholly owned but under a separate name. (AT&T had a "195 Corporation" which just dealt with its HQ bldg). In the case of Verizon and prior Bell names, I suspect the other poster who said it was for trademark protection was correct. I notice black Verizon pay phones have the Bell logo on the side. One other possibility of printing a legacy name on ads is to distinguish the Bell side from the GTE side. I suspect former GTE customers will use legacy GTE services and plans for quite some time to come. (Any former GTE customers now on Verizon want to comment on this issue?) The holder of the Pennsylvania Railroad trademark apparently let it lapse. Some smart private guy quickly snapped it up, then demanded royalties from all the model makers and publishers who use the PRR logo. It got kind of messy and I don't know the details, but the original holder (a corporate descendent) got the rights back. Other railroads are a little more careful with their logos. They don't usually charge modelers for their use, but they don't let them lapse either. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The same thing happened with the internet-history.org URL. It accidentally got away and the person who cybersquats on it now are demanding big ransom for its return. He'll have to wait a bit longer before I give him anything. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 11:39:22 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: > I seem to recall that the old Bell System spec for tone duration was > 20ms, or 1/5th of a second. That would be 1/50 of a second. Maybe it was 200ms? ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 24 May 2005 11:47:58 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Brad Houser wrote: > Here is a picture of a 1958 AT&T modem (not sure if this is the first > commercial modem, the Bell 103. If so it was 300 baud): > http://www.att.com/history/milestone_1958.html No, the Bell 103 is a little plastic box only a little bit larger than a Hayes external modem. This appears to be a photograph of an encrypted data system using a carrier key tape. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy Date: 24 May 2005 08:52:23 -0700 Monty Solomon wrote: > Wachovia Corp., and Bank of America Corp. say they have notified > more th an 100,000 customers that their accounts and personal > information may be at risk after former bank employees allegedly > sold account numbers and balances to a man who then sold them to > data collection agencies. Nine people have been arrested in New > Jersey in the case. At one time bank employees were held to be pillars of the community. They were treated as professionals and acted as professionals. It was rare to have one go bad. Even big city banks tended to be community oriented operations. Most employees intermixed in person with the customers they served. Further, banks had elaborate systems of accounting and auditing controls. Unfortunately, today many accounting controls are gone. The people who loaded up an ATM every day kept whatever cash was left over because no one bothered to audit it, for example. Also, banks today are huge anonymous empires. Many employees work in "boiler rooms", under pressure to sell profitable new banking products like stocks and insurance yet meet a tough quota of customers served per day. The computer watches every transaction and break. These modern employees, often dealing with disgruntled customers over the phone, have little incentive to be loyal. Thus, there is greater temptation, esp when the theft is of non-cash items. (Most of us would not pry open a vending machine to steal a candy bar, but if the vending machine malfunctioned and served it for free, nobody would pay for it. The man who services the machines where I work found that out the hard way.) Cash and money can be audited and controlled. Secret information like personal records can be lifted easily. I don't think much of these 'boiler room' customer service operations. As a customer, I find them maddeningly frustrating to deal with. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 19:46:24 GMT In article , wrote: > Looking for a Model 15 or 19 in good cosmetic condition and operating > order. You need to get on the mailing list greenkeys on qth.net. Archives are searchable on www.qth.net. Also try ebay, being aware that asking prices are often unrealistic. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Reggie Subject: Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 Date: 24 May 2005 13:14:01 -0700 Yes, the old black boxes. Had some years ago. Donated them to a museum. Wished I had one for display and operation with a HAL 6000 interface. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: 24 May 2005 13:52:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor, commenting on the spam from Customer Service wrote: > ... that is the age and quality of the mailing lists these spammers > often times use. Not only spammers. My father died many years. I occassionally today get junk mail addressed to him -- at my present address. He never lived there and at the time he died I was still living at home with him. The databanks do a mix 'n match in hopes of making a connection. The City of Phila Parking Authority got into hot water recently for mailing dunning notices for unpaid parking tickets 15 years old. The recipients were people who never were in Phila nor owned the car. The collection agency did a match search on names nationally. Obviously a lot of errors came up. This made the newspapers and didn't help the poor reputation of the Parking Authority. Sure, one could fight the dunning letter but at considerable cost in time and money. I know one victim is just sending in a check. This kind of database matching is scary. Can anybody out there defend this sort of thing? [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lisa, I am wondering if City of Phila Parking Authority are as full of snot as the people who run the various 'Authorities' (we used to call them 'Atocities' in Chicago; i.e. the Chicago Transit Atrocity, the Chicago Housing Atrocity, etc.)? I do know the people who handle the parking meters in Chicago (when they are not busy ripping them off for the handful of loot inside then they are hassling the people whose license numbers they purportedly copied down [oftentimes incorrectly] to pay fines, etc) can be down- right vicious in their ignorance. Letters from City of Chicago will show up in the mail hundreds of miles away to people who have never been in Chicago in their lives, telling them to pay a one hundred dollar fine for a parking meter violation. The people insist they have never been in Chicago, no one had permission to drive their car in Chicago, and they do not know how they came to be associated with a parking ticket from Chicago. The parking people sass at them, warning them 'if you force us to take this to court the present $100 fine will triple and if you do not show up in court on X day at X hour, your car will be listed on a national registry to get impounded.' 'Just make it easy on yourself [read as lazy us] and send in your check and don't get any smart ideas about stopping payment on the check.' Lisa, those people are truly vicious. What about where you live? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #231 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 May 2005 17:54:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 232 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Take Your Phone Along (Eric Friedebach) Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either (Jack Decker) Vtech Caller ID Not Working (Harlan Messinger) Qwest Ends Pursuit of MCI (Telecom dailyLead From USTA) VOIP Provider Search (Fred Atkinson) First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (usenet@outshine.com) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (Robert Bonomi) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (David Clayton) Re: Very Early Modems (Scott Dorsey) Re: Very Early Modems (Lisa Hancock) Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand (Steven Lichter) Re: Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy (founder@dinkumid.com) Re: ACLU Pizza (founder@dinkumid.com) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (The Kaminsky Family) Re: Virus Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage (Robert Bonomi) Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (John Hines) Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (Steven Lichter) Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (Lisa Hancock) Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 (davidesan@gmail.com) Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 (Lisa Hancock) 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: Eric Friedebach Subject: Take Your Phone Along Date: 25 May 2005 10:20:27 -0700 David M. Ewalt, 05.24.05, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Internet telephone services have been slowly catching on as consumers get hip to the promise of cheap phone calls and having the same phone number anywhere you can plug in a computer. But the services on the market from companies including phone carriers such as Verizon Communications, cable providers such as Comcast and Internet voice vendors such as Packet8 and Vonage aren't particularly portable, often requiring special hardware and making it difficult to access your phone account on a public terminal. Most voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems install on a home computer and require a special modem. They can't be easily set up on multiple machines, and you certainly wouldn't be able to access your phone account on a public terminal. Atlanta-based phone company i2 Telecom has changed that with the VoiceStick, a software-based VoIP phone that is loaded on a flash-based USB thumb drive, the same bit of hardware that's become popular for transferring files between PCs. http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2005/05/24/cx_de_0524voicestick.html Eric Friedebach /And now it's time for: Jaromir Weather/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 13:47:48 -0400 Subject: Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either Quick, somebody let Mike Cox (our Michigan Attorney General) know about this, so he can threaten a real phone company with a lawsuit instead of picking on VoIP companies ... http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63909 Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either Some think VoIP carriers are getting a bad rap. While the impression is there's been a rash of deaths thanks to bad VoIP 911 connectivity, the truth is many of the "baby death" cases (like this one http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63372 ) are more rhetoric than substance. An interesting discussion in our VoIP forum http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13491142 , on how traditional 911 systems often fail (see Boston Herald http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=84679 without so much as a peep from the FCC or Congress, who've jumped all over VoIP. Article + reader comments at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63909 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Harlan Messinger Subject: Vtech Caller ID Not Working Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 21:06:43 -0400 I have a Vtech 20-2481 2.4 GHz Gigaphone two-line base unit with three handsets. Until a few days ago, I had a two-line cord (RJ-45?) running into the base unit's Line 1 + Line 2 jack. Last year I got rid of the phone number that had been coming in on Line 1, but Line 2 continued to work just fine. The other day I replaced the phone cord with a one-line cord (RJ-11?) running into the Line 2 jack. I pushed a splitter into the wall jack and plugged the other end of the cord into the splitter's Line 2 output. Everything is fine now *except* that the Caller ID function has quit. The caller is no longer identified, and no record is kept in the call history. I switched back to the earlier configuration and the Caller ID came back. Then I returned to the one-line cord, and Caller ID vanished again. The same is true when I plug the cord into the Line 1 jack on the base unit instead of the Line 2 jack. The reason I switched to a one-line cord is that I want to use the Line 1 input for my new VoIP connection. That doesn't have anything to do with the problem, though, because it occurs whether or not I have the VoIP plugged into the base unit. Any ideas on a solution? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the original (working correctly) configuration but try disconnecting it at the wall box. You obviously do not want to blow up the VOIP adapter box, but yet there seems to be something about the way caller-ID gets delivered. On a one line jack, usually the two 'middle' pins (pins 3-4 of six pins or pins 2-3 of a four pin thing) delivers the 'first' line; the 'outer' pins (usually pins 1 and 4 in a four pin plug or pins 2 and 5 of six pins) bring in the 'second' line. It may well be that 'line 1' should have been the one you kept while 'line 2' was disconnected when you took a line out. Or if you can find a 'dummy' modular head (plastic head with pins but no wire protruding) try sticking that dummy head in the line one space. I know Radio Shack sells the little dummy heads, mostly they are for guys who are building their own wiring setups, but you don't need the wire, just the little pins to make contact in the phone. That's jusy my 'try it next' idea. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 12:49:17 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead From USTA Subject: Qwest Ends Pursuit of MCI Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 25, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21869&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Qwest ends pursuit of MCI BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nokia announces Wi-Fi device * JDS-Acterna deal will boost both companies * Adelphia to close long-distance service * Cisco finds software flaw in IP phone * Cable broadband hot in 2004 USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA Webinar Series: Marketing Strategies for ILECs Begins Thurs., May 26, 1:00 p.m. ET EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Nextel rolls out mobile e-mail REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Skype repositions itself after VoIP 911 ruling Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21869&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 10:08:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Atkinson Subject: VOIP Provider Search Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com I am trying to find a VOIP residential provider that can give me a local number in a little town called Cullowhee, North Carolina. It doesn't have to be in the immediate area as long as anyone in Cullowhee can call it without having to incur a toll charge. I am pulling my hair out by the roots looking around for a provider. I can't yet confirm whether Cullowhee is local to Asheville, NC or not. A number in the Cullowhee area is (828) 227-XXXX if that helps anyone. Vonage has been no help. They don't cover Asheville and though they have three other locations in the 828 area code, I can't get them to give me enough information to determine if one of those locations is local to Cullowhee. They denied they covered three locations and would only give me one voicemail access number in the 828 area. Hasn't someone set up a search site yet where you can enter an area code and prefix to find out which companies offer local residential VOIP numbers in that area? If so, can someone give me the URL to it? Failing that, does anyone know an economical VOIP provider that can help me with this? Regards, Fred ------------------------------ From: usenet@outshine.com Subject: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: 25 May 2005 10:54:30 -0700 Has anyone recently received an unsolicited call from someone representing "First Place?" They apparently make a Web promotion product. Any information at all would be helpful. Today I received an unsolicited call from them. The agent asked if I owned outshine.com and then told me he had a product that would help my site to make a lot of money. He asked me to open up a Web browser. Unfortunately, I didn't give him a chance to give me a URL. I told him to put me on his do not call list. He REFUSED. I asked for his name. He refused. I told him he was violating at least US law, and he needed to respond. He simply repeated, "don't you want to make money with your site?" The call came in "Unknown ID" so all I have is the moment he called, his company name, and the very curious fact that he was able to associate my private cell phone number with my public web site (the domain name and the number are not publicly listed together, so I think GoDaddy or Verisign sold my private account info). If anyone got a call from "First Place," please reply to this post or email me. Thanks. -Tony ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 18:30:06 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Dave Garland wrote: > That would be 1/50 of a second. Maybe it was 200ms? Ah ... See how quickly those Hayes modem setup strings fade from the memory? :) I found a reference that said the minimum was 40ms, but I do recall certain switches could work with a faster timing. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 05:48:43 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Dave Garland wrote: > It was a dark and stormy night when Clark W. Griswold, Jr. > wrote: >> I seem to recall that the old Bell System spec for tone duration was >> 20ms, or 1/5th of a second. > That would be 1/50 of a second. Maybe it was 200ms? Switch spec called for 35ms. Original Hayes Smartmodems defaulted to 70ms of tone, with 70ms space between digits. Some C.O. equip would detect reliably on bursts as short at 25 ms. I never ran into a switch that would accept dialing at 20ms. ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 12:02:13 +1000 On Mon, 23 May 2005 17:58:50 -0600, Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote: > slippymississippi@yahoo.com wrote: >> I hooked up a line analyzer and listened to the call, and all I'm >> hearing on my end is a "blip blip blip" as he repeatedly presses the key >> to save the message. The DTMF tone basically sounds like it was clipped >> at just a few milliseconds > I seem to recall that the old Bell System spec for tone duration was 20ms, > or 1/5th of a second. Some switches allowed you to go as fast as 10ms, > which put the speed in speedial. :) The biggest problem with "short" DTMF tones - along with short gaps between tones - was determining when two identical digits were in fact two separate ones and not a single tone burst split by some line interruption etc. I once worked on a voice mail system with DTMF in-band signalling to the PBX for Message Waiting indication, and there were intermittent complaints from some users that they had messages but were not always notified. After many, many months (actually a couple of years) it was finally determined that the gap between the DTMF tones coming out of the Voice Mail wasn't long enough for the PBX to reliably detect two identical digits following one another. The gap was fine for different digits, but when the combination of Message Waiting prefix and extension number had a pair of digits somewhere, and the PBX CPU just happened to be busy at that moment (we thought), the Message Waiting wasn't received correctly. So to sum up, fast DTMF can cause issues ... Regards David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a measure of how many questions you have. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 24 May 2005 11:46:07 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) wrote: > In the IBM history series by Pugh et al, they said IBM converted > punched cards to paper tape for transmission in the 1940s. My guess > is that that particular transmission used telegraph TTY lines (not > voice) of either AT&T or Western Union. Recall that AT&T maintained > telegraph long distance lines as part of carrier long distance > circuits. Because of the low bandwidth, a telegraph channel could be > carried on the low end of a carrier channel. Accordingly, no > modulation was required and thus no modem needed. > It was also said IBM limited development in this area to avoid > annoying AT&T who was IBM's best customer. This makes sense. The Western union systems were basically designed to take baudot paper tape, 5 bits across, with certain headers at the beginning and ends of messages. Messages would often be punched on paper tape at a switching office and batched up for later transmission, basically the first store-and-forward systems. > However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without > paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good > advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the > equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with > AT&T. This was the IBM "Card-to-card" transceiver. I don't know when they first came out, but the Army started implementing them in a nationwide network in September of 1956. > I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM > (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My > understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out > until the 1960s. > Comments by anyone familiar with pre-1960 data communications would be > greatly appreciated. I believe they used 4-wire leased lines, with data access arrangement boxes provided by Ma Bell. So the signals going into the big grey box next to the reader/punch were analogue. I don't recall what the transmission rate was, but they sent EBCDIC directly without any translation to a 5-channel code and no added headers. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 25 May 2005 11:01:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jim Haynes wrote: > The Bell System didn't allow any "foreign" (meaning > customer-provided equipment) attached to the switched network. They > vigorously defended this position until it was overturned by the > Carterfone case. Our school system originally used Teletypes rented from Bell with the built in modem and dial equipment. IIRC they ran about $100 a month. Then they bought or leased Teletypes from private vendors. The modems were supposed to go through the Bell "DAA" box (the protection* unit) but often that was forgotten. Although the phone system was still mostly hard wired in those days (excepting the 4-prong home jacks), we got around that by using a special transmitter cup that had a tiny jack for our modem to connect into. *Some said the "protection" was really to protect Bell System revenues, not the network. However, see the garbage people sometimes hook up today, despite supposedly being certified, and knowing the shortcuts we took back then, I'm think having that protection wasn't such a bad idea after all. Recall that Bell was responsible for everything in those days so if an illegal attachment hurt something Bell was still stuck to fix it. (Most illegal users knew to hide their gear before calling Bell in.) > And since it did not need the entire bandwidth of a voice-grade line > IBM designed the modem with four different frequency bands so that > up to four systems could operate simultaneously over a voice-grade > line. The IBM book says they used the four frequency bands to get an effective 1200 baud rate, which seems good for the 1950s. > The earliest modems were not really called that but were the carrier > systems installed in telephone and telegraph company offices to > allow multiple telegraph transmissions over a single voice-grade > circuit. The Bell history says that telegraph signals could be carried on the low end of a voice grade circuit--apparently this was done even in the 1930s with simple electronics. I believe pre-WW II Bell carrier systems were pretty limited in deployment and capacity; it wasn't until postwar microwave and widespread coaxial cable could they get high volume. Coax did exist before WW II, but I suspect it was quite limited. > Then in the early 1960s the Bell System opened things up by leasing > modems that allowed the customer to connect business machines to the > modem and transmit data over the switched network. The Western Union history describes advanced switching and communications networks for telegraph traffic, including special networks for govt and business. It looked to be state of the art for its day (1960s). I'm still hazy on how Western Union missed the boat on data communication which was after all their specialty. Some say WU had a very limited transmission network and depended on Bell for that "final mile" although in cities WU had quite a broad network. Or, their Telex wasn't as good as AT&T's TWX. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 22:53:21 GMT Jack Decker wrote: > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 > Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Alone > By JOHN C. ROPER > Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle > A growing number of U.S. consumers are cutting the cord on traditional > home telephone service, choosing instead to exclusively use cell > phones. > But many of these consumers have found ditching their land-line phone > service, and its accompanying cost, isn't possible if they want speedy > DSL, or digital subscriber line, Internet service in their homes. > Providers such as SBC Communications require customers to buy > residential phone service to have access to their broadband lines, a > tactic consumer advocacy groups say is unfair. > Full story at: > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 > How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: > http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html > If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think I read somewhere -- maybe here > in the Digest -- where SBC was going to bite the bullet also and > begin offering 'naked DSL'. Fact or fiction? Personally, I would say > that _whenever possible_ people just ditch telco and go with cable > internet. PAT] They have as well as Verizon, the others will follow. I believe either the FCC or PUC here in California ordered it. 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: founder@dinkumid.com Subject: Re: Common Sense Moves Could Protect Privacy Date: 25 May 2005 02:16:15 -0700 The subject should read: Common Sense Moves Could NOT Protect Privacy. This latest ID Theft incident show that nothing could stop or prevent ID Theft at this moment in time. Even the highest level of encryption or multi-level authentication process could not stop those ID thieves. We read everyday about ID Thefts and the so-called security solutions such as credit reprot monitoring, paper shredders, encryption, biometrics etc and if you examine everyone of those so-called security solutions -- nothing works in this instance not at ChoicePoint or Lexis Nexis. I think all the so-called advice and tips to secure IDs are giving a false sense of security to the average citizen. ------------------------------ From: founder@dinkumid.com Subject: Re: ACLU Pizza Date: 25 May 2005 02:27:58 -0700 So what are we going to do about it? Stop eating pizza? Lobby the politicians? Fight against big money and big corporations? When Big Corporations want to achieve their goals they implement technologies. When is the collective citizen going to group together to implement technologies to achieve their goals? Power is in the hands of those who own the technology! As a founder of DINKUMID we are initiating something at http://www.dinkumid.com/ which can totall secure every citizen's ID and give big governments and big corporations less reasons to be big brother. ------------------------------ From: The Kaminsky Family Reply-To: kaminsky@kaminsky.org Organization: None Whatsoever Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 09:39:13 GMT Al Gillis wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote in message > news:telecom24.226.5@telecom-digest.org: >> In article , TELECOM Digest >> Editor noted in response to Robert Bonomi: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional >>> touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact >>> meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' >>> service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in >>> a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was >>> a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] >> On the PSTN, it somewhat depended on the switch and programming. >> 'Reorder' was the very-common switch reaction. There were a few >> switches that completely 'ignored' those signals. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But did you ever see/hear any that >> neither ignored nor offered re-order, but instead actually _did >> something_ ? I never did. PAT] > I've got a Western Electric 3666-1A key set (Autovon dial). I've > tried pressing the A, B, C and D keys while connected to both a > Nortel DMS-200 (CO Switch) and a Nortel Meridian-1 (PBX). In both > cases I got reorder while listening to dial tone (that is, no call > had been established yet) and no effect while an established call > was in progress. > The Names of the additional keys are: > FO (Flash Override) adjacent to the 3 key > F (Flash) adjacent to the 6 key > I (Immeadiate) adjacent to the 9 key > P (Priority) adjacent to the # key (See note) > Note: My 3666-1A has a key designated as "A" where the # key is placed > on a normal dial pad. I don't know if this is standard for "Autovon" > dials. The tone generated by this key (according to a "digit > grabber") is that of a # key, however. Another interesting thing is > that the Star key (left of 0) is not an asterisk but rather it's a > real star! That is, a five pointed star, white lines on the gray > background (or is it a grey background?) with a hollow center. > Al It has been at least ten years since I worked on this stuff, so if any of it matters to you, please do not rely on my memories. When I was working for a voice messaging vendor, we were part of an industry initiative to develop a protocol for passing messages between messaging systems from different vendors. The relevant specification was for the AMIS Analog protocol (and I've forgotten what the acronym AMIS stands for). Basically, the protocol allowed a user of one voice messaging system to address a message to a user of another voice messaging system (the user interface was left unspecified -- that was a matter for the individual vendors to handle), in such a way that the voice messaging system could then dial the recipient system, do some handshaking, and then deliver the message in a way that allowed the recipient system to deliver the message to the intended voice mailbox. The protocol relied on use of two fourth-column tones (C and D, as I recall) to screen out nearly all accidental calls to the incoming AMIS Analog phone number (I forget if the specification required it, but we came up with a canned message to play if that phone number received an incoming call that did not send the correct tone -- just to be polite). It was quite a change from our usual workday (writing documents or code, and testing code) when we got to test with other vendors. We actually got to talk to engineers working for our competitors, and send each other messages (mostly we sent protocol errors, actually, to verify that the error handling on both sides was working properly - it does not take very many correct messages to verify that things work properly). I still remember one of our competitors (who really should have known better) who had the wrong country code for the US - but otherwise, there were not many problems getting things to work. Security was an issue -- once the testing period was over, our management refused to allow an incoming telephone number - so other members of the AMIS committee could not send us AMIS Analog messages (rather frustrating, but out of my control). I had a four column analog phone on my desk for a few years while I worked on this system (the fourth column, if I remember correctly, was to the right of the normal three columns, with the rows 1-2-3-A, 4-5-6-B, 7-8-9-C, and *-0-#-D). When I was doing it often, I was able to manually imitate a voice messaging system, computing checksums as needed in my head (there were not very many of them, and only two were variable, if memory serves). The protocol had to be designed to handle some slow systems, so I could dial fairly slowly when I was adding the checksums. Mark ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Virus Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 07:04:46 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > Web Infection Holds Computer Files Hostage > By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer 11 minutes ago > Computer users already anxious about viruses and identity theft have > new reason to worry: Hackers have found a way to lock up the > electronic documents on your computer and then demand $200 over the > Internet to get them back. > Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. uncovered the > unusual extortion plot when a corporate customer they would not > identify fell victim to the infection, which encrypted files that > included documents, photographs and spreadsheets. > A ransom note left behind included an e-mail address, and the attacker > using the address later demanded $200 for the digital keys to unlock > the files. > "This is equivalent to someone coming into your home, putting your > valuables in a safe and not telling you the combination," said Oliver > Friedrichs, a security manager for Symantec Corp. > The FBI said the scheme, which appears isolated, was unlike other > Internet extortion crimes. Leading security and antivirus firms this > week were updating protective software for companies and consumers to > guard against this type of attack, which experts dubbed "ransom-ware." > "This seems fully malicious," said Joe Stewart, a researcher at > Chicago-based Lurqh Corp. who studied the attack software. Stewart > managed to unlock the infected computer files without paying the > extortion, but he worries that improved versions might be more > difficult to overcome. Internet attacks commonly become more effective > as they evolve over time as hackers learn to avoid the mistakes of > earlier infections. > "You would have to pay the guy, or law enforcement would have to get > his key to unencrypt the files," Stewart said. > The latest danger adds to the risks facing beleaguered Internet users, > who must increasingly deal with categories of threats that include > spyware, viruses, worms, phishing e-mail fraud and denial of service > attacks. > In the recent case, computer users could be infected by viewing a > vandalized Web site with vulnerable Internet browser software. The > infection locked up at least 15 types of data files and left behind a > note with instructions to send e-mail to a particular address to > purchase unlocking keys. In an e-mail reply, the hacker demanded $200 > be wired to an Internet banking account. "I send programm to your > email," the hacker wrote. > There was no reply to e-mails sent to that address Monday by The > Associated Press. > FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said more familiar Internet extortion > schemes involve hackers demanding tens of thousands of dollars and > threatening to attack commercial Web sites, interfering with sales or > stealing customer data. > Experts said there were no widespread reports the new threat was > spreading, and the Web site was already shut down where the infection > originally spread. They also said the hacker's demand for payment > might be his weakness, since bank transactions can be traced easily. > "The problem is getting away with it - you've got to send the money > somewhere," Stewart said. "If it involves some sort of monetary > transaction, it's far easier to trace than an e-mail account." > Details: http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/alerts/alert.php?AlertID194 > 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. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But, as some of our Bright young > readers would explain, "on internet there is no consensus on what > is, and is not malicious." Oh my, I see I've been "promoted" to a "bright young reader", by the esteemed moderator. I'm not exactly young, but he gets credit for getting things 50% right. I will point out, yet again, that that remark was in regards to a proposal for a law that banned quote malicious activity unquote on the Internet. The point being was that that term is too broad and too vague to be _legally_ _enforceable_. To get a law that would pass judicial review, one would have to specify the _particular_kinds_ of acts that are to be proscribed. Note: *all* computer viruses, 'zombie' infectors, etc. most 'spyware', and virtually all the 'browser hijacker' type stuff are *ALREADY*ILLEGAL* in the United States, under 18 USC 1030. Available on-line at: http:/www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html *But* the enforcement of that law is lax-to-nonexistent. A "new law" won't do diddly-squat about the problem without active enforcement. And, if you _have_ active enforcement, you _don't_need_ any new laws. Recommended reading: The FTC's "Report to Congress" on the practicality (or lack thereof) of a national "Do Not E-mail" registry, similar to the Do Not Call registry. Available on-line at: While I disagree with a number of their conclusions regarding the viability of a Do Not Email registry -- there _are_ ways to do it that address the drawbacks they identify -- the really _interesting_ meat in the report has to do with the difficulty of prosecution of violators of existing law. See "C. Obstacles to Enforcement" starting on Page 23 of the report. In 2003, Earthlink got over 45 million pieces of spam to the 'honeypot' addresses they run. They were able to link about 5% of those messages to an identifiable source. Barely 1/3 of the identifications were good enough that they could send a cease-and-desist warning letter. That is what *over* _twelve_thousand_ man-hours of effort 'bought'. Call it half-a-million dollars worth of effort. Another ISP reports over ONE THOUSAND man-hours expended in _preparing_ a lawsuit against *one* spammer. Government prosecutions from the States of WA, and VA show similarly high costs: "A prosecutor in Washington State spent four months and sent out 14 pre-suit civil investigative demands (CIDs) just to identify the spammer in one lawsuit. Likewise, in another case, it took the Virginia Attorney General, over the course of four months, multiple subpoenas to domain registrars, credit card companies, and Internet providers, and the execution of a search warrant, before having enough information to file a case against a spammer." > Or as another reader would explain, "there > is no such thing as an internet; just a collection of sites, and > we cannot tell another site how to operate." What they do on _their_ own private property *IS* their prerogative. Their 'right' to do so does not extend to coming onto _my_ private property to do it. > And the Bright young > reader concurs, "nor does anyone on the net want things any > different". PAT] Show the 'bright young reader' that people are demanding that restrictions be put on _their_own_ activities -- as distinct from demands that limits be imposed on the actions of 'other people' -- and he will willingly change that to 'practically anyone'. The situation is exactly like that with various kinds of 'morals' laws -- try to find _anyone_ who supports an anti-prostitution statute on the basis that "it will discourage _me_ from hiring prostitutes". In many areas of the country, "pan-handling", and/or other forms of "spare change?" solicitation, on the streets is disallowed by law. Should equivalent pleas be allowed on the Internet, or not? ------------------------------ From: John Hines Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 18:44:24 -0500 Organization: www.jhines.org Reply-To: john@jhines.org Customer Service wrote: > I hope that at least occassionally, some of these spammers who > sincerely bought their lists, etc thinking there was money to be made > on the internet grow discouraged, and give up their efforts voluntarily > and find other uses for their computers. Or is that too much to ask? I still get snail mail advertisements, addressed to the previous owners, even though I've lived here for 10 years. Advertisers don't clean their mailing lists even when they have to _pay_ real money (printing and postage) for the privilege. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 23:01:44 GMT Customer Service wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fished (or do you say 'phished') out of > my ever-full, always overflowing spam bucket this morning, on my way > to put out this issue of the Digest. As we can see by a cursory glance > through the binary code below, it is a spam-thingy. PAT] > MThlIE1vcnRnYWelIFF1b3RlIE5ldHdvcmsNCkEgUGVyc29uYWwgQXBwcm9hY2ggdG8gT25saW > 5l > IEJvcnJvd2luZw0KDQpHZXQgYSBGcmVlIE1vcnRnYWdlIFF1b3RlIQ0KaHR0cDovL3d3dy5tb3 > J0 (and several _hundred_ more lines like the above). > I bashed the rest of it, and altered the above just enough to cause it > to lose its punch so none of _you_ would possibly 'inherit' it in your > travels around the net today. That's how I say 'Thank you for visiting > our web site today'; I spam you and perchance hand you a virus 'souvenier' > to take home and show or give to your friends. Of course many netters > would contend it is impossible to define 'offensive' or 'malicious' > and still others would contend the 'internet does not exist; it is > only a collection of sites, etc'. > But my observation is this: Note the original subject line, 'Your > House at P.O. Box 4621'. I would like you to know (a) 'Box 4621' in > Skokie, Illinois is a very old snail- mail address I used when I lived > in Skokie (metro Chicago area) about _ten years ago_; that is the age > and quality of the mailing lists these spammers often times use. I'll > bet whoever he bought the mailing list from told him 'a new, fresh > list with x-gazillion email names and addresses' on it. From what I > can gather, its another of those 'you have qualified to receive a > mortgage loan' things. My second observation, (b) is the guy does not > seem to be very bright. He could not or did not even think it through > and use an _actual house address_ (such as 'Your House on Niles Center > Road') or something similar to at least try to make it a message worth > reading. > I hope that at least occassionally, some of these spammers who > sincerely bought their lists, etc thinking there was money to be made > on the internet grow discouraged, and give up their efforts voluntarily > and find other uses for their computers. Or is that too much to ask? > PAT Some of those offers clearly came from people who don't have any education at all; spelling of simple words are wrong, and some are not competent at English speaking as the sentences make very little sense. I filled out a few of the applications with bogus info and gave phone numbers of the FBI and Attorney General fraud numbers, if they are called, it should make and interesting conversation as they hangup when they hear who they reached. 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: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: 25 May 2005 07:31:04 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lisa, I am wondering if City of Phila > Parking Authority are as full of snot as the people who run the > various 'Authorities' (we used to call them 'Atocities' in Chicago... Yes, the Parking Authority is very tough and arrogant. But there are two sides to the story. Before the Parking Authority got reorganized into becoming a tough agency, parking was a big problem in the city. Phila has narrow streets and illegally parked cars badly foul up downtown traffic. People who paid $$$ to park legally in lots resented motorists who parked illegally and got away with it. Phila is on the border with NJ and NJ motorists got away with parking violations since they didn't follow up out of state. First, they gave the PA computers to check for scofflaws. If someone had a long list of unpaid violations, their car was 'booted' and they had to pay up. They also agressively began towing illegally parked cars that blocked traffic and collecting fines from ticketed cars. People were brought in who owed thousands of dollars of unpaid fines. All these efforts improved traffic flow and citizen morale. This recent problem has them going too far. I have no problem aggressively collecting fines -- if it's done so promptly after the ticket is issued and regular notices are ignored. But to try to make up for 15 years of neglect using very fuzzy data base matches is wrong. More importantly, this use of database matching to search out people or flag people is frightening. Is it fair for a completely innocent person to be denied credit, housing, or a job because some SECRET computer says he might be a deadbeat? I still wonder if anyone can defend this sort of thing. I'm glad ABC News did an expose of the business, but I think that fell on deaf ears. > i.e. the Chicago Transit Atrocity, the Chicago Housing Atrocity, > etc.)? The quality of other govt Authorities varies by unit and also over time. We had one agency, the Delaware River Port Authority, that was well run. They built an excellent rapid transit line, PATCO-Lindenwold. That was the first automated trainsit line (before BART) and was well designed and very reliable. The designers knew automation wasn't perfect and put it full manual backup capability* as well as a strong organization and operation. Unfortunately, in recent years some local politicians got involved and turned the DRPA into a patronage machine. *FWIW, PATCO was not high-tech or cutting edge. The designers just used proven off-the-shelf designs and put them all together. To save money, some components were actually second-hand. For instance, their internal telephone system was a used SxS. Every station had a Call-For-Aid telephone at the fare gates. If a passenger's ticket was short, the passenger would put coins directly into the phone -- they used 2nd hand pay phones as part of their network. Very cheap but workable solution still in use today. The train signal system used an old railroad 100Hz (that's one-hundred not one-thousand) code, not some fancy thing that other systems took years to debug. Pat, you may remember the auto faregates the Illinois Central commuter railroad used; PATCO copied those. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, I do remember the Illinois Central fare gates; one hassle (nothing major) was that the doors coming in to them from the tracks outside were used in common by passengers from the Illinois Central trains and the Chicago, South Shore and South Bend Railroad (hereinafter, the "South Shore" trains.) South Shore trains were also electrified, and run east across northern Indiana through Hammond/Gary on the southern shore of Lake Michigan over to South Bend, Indiana, splitting off from the Illinois Central 'mainline' tracks at 115th Street, onto their own tracks. North of that point, going into downtown Chicago, South Shore was a tenant, renting right of way on the Illinois Central tracks and at 'stations in common' which are/were Van Buren Street, Roosevelt Road, 57th Street, 63rd Street. Once they reached 115th Street they are on their own as their track cuts off and runs eastward. South Shore does not, or did not, use the automated fare collection system. You pay for your little stub ticket from an agent, board the train, and hand over your little stub when the conductor comes through the car. The hassle with that was Randolph Street where the automatic gates are located. The gates work both ways, to come out of the train area and to go into the train area. Illinois Central passengers use their little ticket slipped into the card reader on the gates. When a South Shore train pulled in, the clerks at the station level would see the mob of passengers coming; one of them would say 'on the gate' and by clicking on a wall switch, all the little turnstyles would go unlocked and stay unlocked for the three or five minutes required for the passengers to all be disengorged. Then to show that hands can be quicker than the eye, when the last passenger got through the gates, the clerk would hit the switch and cause the gates to go back in service again. Where they had problems however was when two trains -- one a South Shore, the other an Illinois Central -- both pulled in at _exactly_ the same minute and the disembarking passengers from both trains were pushing and shoving each other as they marched toward the gates. When that happened, as it usually did at least once per day in the morning rush hour, the clerk had to simply open the gates and wound up writing off the uncollected mag stripe card deductions the railroad was due on the Illinois Central passengers. But as long as there was at least 45 seconds or a minute between incoming trains from one railroad or the other, as there usually was, those clerks at the gates were pretty fast and effecient at opening the gates only as needed for the minute or so required to let the South Shore people get through. At the 'stations in common' the agents sold tickets for both railroads. There was a period of 2-3 days when the clerks union for Illinois Central went on strike for some reason, and they all walked off the job, all that is, except for the clerks on duty at the stations in common who were told by the union to stay on duty only to handle South Shore duties. Every other station was devoid of any workers those days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: davidesan@gmail.com Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 Date: 25 May 2005 07:35:50 -0700 I have often filled out forms with a throwaway email address (something that I delete the entire mailbox once a month) and give a street address of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Washington, DC. Imagine my amusement when I started getting emails at the thowaway address telling of the great rates I could get on the mortgage at my home at 1600 PA Ave. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's really ignorant, isn't it? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Looking for a Model 15 or 19 Date: 25 May 2005 08:15:37 -0700 Reggie wrote: > Yes, the old black boxes. Had some years ago. Donated them to a > museum. Wished I had one for display and operation with a HAL 6000 > interface. One of the telephone collector groups, TCI or ATCA, might help you. There's a big outfit in Wisconsin (I wish I could remember the name -- I think it's "Ron's phones") that has a big inventory of old stuff. (Maybe someone else could post the correct name?) I don't know what a HAL 6000 interface is. But keep in mind the older machines use Baudot which is not only a different code, but requires an extra control character to shift between letters and numbers. Being mechanical and complex, the machines will need servicing. If they hadn't been used for a while, they made new repair/adjustment to work again. (We had some fans stored in the garage for a number of years. When we tried them, they were just dead. Trying to twirl the blade didn't help.) Also, old machines had shellac or fabric insulation on wires which can rot out. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe my brain has shellac or fabric insulation. Lord knows it has been rotted out now for a few years, ever since the hospital got done with me. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #232 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Wed, 25 May 2005 19:40:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 233 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Police Raid Bit Torrent Site; Shut it Down; Take Away Computers (Minter) Heir Apparent at Microsoft (Lisa Minter) Calling Card Call Blocked by Caller-ID ?!? (trevor_a47@hotmail.com) More on Verizon Fiber/FiOS (Lee Sweet) Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand (William Warren) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (Steve Sobol) Re: Very Early Modems (Julian Thomas) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Police Raid Bit Torrent Site; Shut it Down; Take Away Computers Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 17:43:14 -0500 Government shuts down Web site used to steal "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith." Federal agents and movers busy all day Wednesday hauling away computer equipment, servers, other files. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Federal agents launched a crackdown Wednesday on users of a popular new technology used to steal the latest "Star Wars" movie and other large data files, according to immigration officials. The campaign was described by government officials as the first-ever criminal action against operators of the file-sharing program known as BitTorrent. BitTorrent, described as Hollywood's version of the Napster scourge that rocked the music industry several years ago, has been used by Internet users to download massive files, such as movies and video games, quickly and far more easily than they could in the past. BitTorrent captured headlines last week when it was revealed that "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" was available for free online. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in a statement a crackdown against top members of a file-sharing network that is based on BitTorrent and calls itself Elite Torrents. Government agents said the onslaught included 10 search warrants and the shut down of a central Web site used to coordinate all file-sharing activity on the Elite Torrents network. That Web site, Elitetorrents.org, had a selection of copyrighted works that government officials described as "virtually unlimited." The sixth and final installment of the "Star Wars" franchise was available for downloading on Elitetorrents.org more than six hours before it was released on theaters Thursday after midnight, according to the government statement. Within 24 hours, more than 10,000 copies of the "Star Wars" film had been swiped. Find this article at: http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/25/technology/piracy/index.htm 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, CNN/Money. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: An Heir Apparent at Microsoft? Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 17:46:19 -0500 Report: Server unit boss Eric Rudder, 38, seen as early leader in race to one day lead company. NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A published report said that the head of Microsoft's server business could be an early front-runner to eventually run the world's No. 1 software company, although current leadership has given no indication they are anywhere close to leaving the company. The New York Times reported Wednesday that Eric Rudder, 38, a senior vice president at the software company, is being seen as a leading candidate among Microsoft executives. Microsoft Chairman and co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer are both only 49 and not likely to leave the company any time soon, the newspaper said. Rudder's group has grown at 15 to 20 percent annually for the last few years, reaching $10 billion a year in sales. He's also seen as a leader in making an outreach effort to Microsoft customers, moving away from the company's corporate headquarters near Seattle to its office in Paris to be closer to its full range of global customers. Before he took over the server business two years ago, Rudder served as Gates' technical assistant for four years, which the newspaper reports was seen as a sign he was being groomed. That tenure is the longest that anyone has served in that position. The newspaper lists some other top executives who could also be candidates to eventually succeed Gates and Ballmer. They include Steven Sinofsky, a senior vice president leading the Office business; Chris Jones, a vice president guiding Windows development; Yusuf Mehdi, a senior vice president in charge of MSN; and J Allard, a vice president who heads the Xbox team. Find this article at: http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/25/technology/microsoft_successor/index.htm 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, CNN/Money. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: trevor_a47@hotmail.com Subject: Calling Card Call Blocked by Caller-IS ?!? Date: 25 May 2005 14:05:21 -0700 I tried to use a calling card today (IDT is the provider, off the shelf, no activation required), I entered the pin and then dialed the number as prompted, and then I got a message that blocked calls are blocked, and to press *(whatever) to unblock my number before dialing. (This wasn't a calling card message, it was the standard one you get.) This has never happened before. I thought the calling card company's outgoing number was shown. I call this person fairly often, and he's does have blocked calls blocked. Now I have to go buy a different card. Anyone ever heard of this? Calls from calling cards being blocked? ------------------------------ From: Lee Sweet Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 17:45:01 -0400 Subject: More on Verizon Fiber/FiOS (PAT, I think the Digest is burping again.. got several of 230 and several more of 231, and some of the 231 content was the same as 230...) Catching up on back reading, and here is some more info on Verizon network/telco fiber, something I know a bit about, since my development is being *100%* converted to FiOS this summer! I've had several back and forth conversations with our Telecom committee folks, who are talking with Verizon about several points I and others have raised including these: 1. We don't have a choice. The copper is being disconnected, and fiber installed. If you have DSL, you will be replaced with the lowest FiOS tier. It's not been said if this will cost more than the current special pricing for DSL in the future or not. We have been told that people that signed up for the special '1 year commitment of DSL' will *not* be penalized for that term, anyway. But, we will be all fiber by the end of the summer. 2. The internal copper telco wiring in your home will be connected to the new OND (Optical Network Device? I forget) demarc, and your telephone lines will be converted at that time. Network connectivity is via a Cat5e or better cable to be connected to the OND and then to a new router that you 'have' to use since it has some special troubleshooting 'stuff' in it. I intend to put my Vonage box behind that, and then my other router and switches behind that, as is the case now. (Good thing I know networking... :-) ) The network connection can be an issue in many cases, since most people don't have their current router near the demarc (but in some convenient room where telco copper lines went), and it's unclear how much inside network cabling Verizon will do as part of this installation. :-) 3. With 15 down/2 up, there's no reason VoIP shouldn't work very well. I currently use Vonage over a cable modem (4 down/768k up, theoretically, and it's fine). I've read the terms of service for FiOS (see http://www.verizon.com/fios ) and as far as I can see, all/most of the DSL terms of service still apply). 4. And, as was stated, all the future features/issues of video-on- demand, satellite-equivalent channels (what they *really* want the fiber in place for) is up in the air. Note that the current Verizon DirecTV arrangement is for new customers only, and is merely a billing discount; there's no delivery of DirecTV signals over Verizon lines at this time, either copper or fiber, that I'm aware of! Hope that's useful! Lee Sweet lee@datatel.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 18:17:44 -0400 From: William Warren Subject: Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Jack Decker wrote: > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 > Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Alone > By JOHN C. ROPER > Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle > A growing number of U.S. consumers are cutting the cord on traditional > home telephone service, choosing instead to exclusively use cell > phones. > But many of these consumers have found ditching their land-line phone > service, and its accompanying cost, isn't possible if they want speedy > DSL, or digital subscriber line, Internet service in their homes. > Providers such as SBC Communications require customers to buy > residential phone service to have access to their broadband lines, a > tactic consumer advocacy groups say is unfair. The independents, such as Covad, have had to order and use separate loops since they started in business. Cross-subsidy and competition issues aside, the Bells are certainly _able_ to offer the service on a technical level. William ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 15:22:00 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com usenet@outshine.com wrote: > Has anyone recently received an unsolicited call from someone > representing "First Place?" They apparently make a Web promotion > product. Any information at all would be helpful. Yeah, feh ... can't remember which product First Place Software publishes ... WebPosition Gold, maybe? ... No, it looks like WPG was bought by WebTrends. Heh, but when I do a search on First Place Software, a sponsored link to WPG comes up, so I guess I was right! > Today I received an unsolicited call from them. The agent asked if I > owned outshine.com and then told me he had a product that would help > my site to make a lot of money. He asked me to open up a Web browser. > Unfortunately, I didn't give him a chance to give me a URL. > I told him to put me on his do not call list. He REFUSED. I asked > for his name. He refused. I told him he was violating at least US > law, and he needed to respond. He simply repeated, "don't you want to > make money with your site?" Idiots. Yup, WebTrends was the company that had a buggy log analysis product and couldn't help me fix the many bugs I had over a period of about eighteen months, and started sending me nastygrams about trademark infringement when I registered WebTrendsSucks.com even though I had just registered it, and never used it for email or a web site. WebTrends is at 851 SW 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97204. If you were on the federal DNC list, the FTC can fine them for the violation. If not, you may be able to sue them yourself under the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act. I would not advise doing anything, however, unless you call a lawyer (except if you're going to file the DNC violation with the FTC). JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 19:02:25 -0400 Subject: Re: Very Early Modems In <20050525215416.33CD91505B@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 05/25/05 was typed: >> However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without >> paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good >> advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the >> equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with >> AT&T. > This was the IBM "Card-to-card" transceiver. I don't know when they > first came out, but the Army started implementing them in a nationwide > network in September of 1956. I saw one in operation between the GE Lynn Mass facility and somewhere else in 1960 or 61, in the same room as the 704. > I believe they used 4-wire leased lines, with data access arrangement > boxes provided by Ma Bell. So the signals going into the big grey box > next to the reader/punch were analogue. I don't recall what the > transmission rate was, but they sent EBCDIC directly without any > translation to a 5-channel code and no added headers. No, it would NOT have been EBCDIC, which didn't emerge until System/360 around 1965. Try BCD or maybe some 2 out of 12 code. Julian Thomas: ID=jt domain=jt-mj period net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #233 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 May 2005 02:35:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 234 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google and Privacy (Lisa Minter) The Dirty Tricks SBC and Comcast Play to Sink Muni Broadband (J Decker) Fatal Failure Halts Installation of 911 Caller-ID System (Monty Solomon) Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand (Don Bowey) Re: VOIP Provider Search (John R. Levine) Re: Thinking About VOIP (Sagor) Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Jailed on 911 Complaint (Patrick Townson) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Google and Privacy Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 19:22:03 -0500 Biting the Hand That Feeds IT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The above sentence _could_ apply to me, since monthly Google advertising payments are a principal source of my very limited income these days, but oh well ... PAT] The Register 'Internet and Law' Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/13/asymmetric_privacy/ Google values its own privacy. How does it value yours? By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski at theregister.co.uk) Analysis: It's absurd to suggest that Google doesn't appreciate the value of privacy. When it comes to its own privacy, the company takes it very seriously indeed. Let's recap some of the ways. Sometimes Google is so obsessively private that it gets into trouble when it shouldn't. The company's finances are formally a black hole, although great hopes rest on the imminent IPO reviving the tech sector. The company also sets new standards of secrecy when it comes to publishing research. Google is a paradise for researchers in every way but one. Staff are allowed twenty per cent of their time for "self-directed research" - which gives them plenty of hours in the week to make ships in bottles, if they so wish. It's one of the least product-orientated policies in Silicon Valley, and explains why Google continues to recruit top grade talent from its Valley neighbors. But there's one catch: Google doesn't publish any of its research, giving it the reputation of a lousy corporate citizen. Instead Google publishes lists of PhDs, but this isn't the same thing. So Google's R&D department is a black hole, too. It does however allow staff to publish the daily Googleplex menu (http://googlemenus.blogspot.com/). On this day last year you could have chosen between Joaquin's Potato Salad -- steamed fingerling potatoes, with red onion, English peas, basil, parsley and a lemon aioli -- and Portabella Mushroom Pizza -- Roasted portabella mushrooms topped with a roasted tomato sauce, kalamata olives, pepperonchinis and parmesan. All quite delicious, but it's hard to see how it advances the field of computer science. Because nothing gets published, peer review works only if the peers are other Google employees: a disturbing trend which could lead to a company monoculture. In one example well known to Register readers, Google refused to publish a formal inclusion policy for its News site. Google News is the fifth largest web destination in the world, and can be considered as one of the largest disseminators of News on the planet. Although it privately informs news outlets why they have been rejected, it won't publish a policy. As a consequence, when Google began to include corporate and lobby group press releases on the site, it led to some agonizing contortions. Take this remarkable statement: (http://www.ojr.org/ojr/kramer/1064449044.php) by Google News creator Krishna Bharat and see if you can work out whether or not Google includes press releases as news (emphasis added):- "Press releases we don't consider to be a news source, that's for sure. I don't want to go and police all the news out there. I've seen lots of articles where the press release appears verbatim. Do we wait for that to show up hours late, or do we allow people to use it and act on it -- especially when it's a business item? "There are no press releases on the browsable pages or news pages. We have a higher editorial responsibility on those because we're telling you where you should look. On the news pages, we do not intend to use press releases. Making a press release available as part of the search results gives the full facts that were available to the reporter when they wrote it." Confused? Let's translate: "Google News doesn't consider press releases to be news. We don't want to be selective. But we are selective, and we consider press releases to be news, especially when it represents a commercial interest. In any case, we have news pages where we don't want to use press releases. Except there we do, because it's good for you." Perhaps confusion was the intention. We only quote this at length here because that exchange six months ago was echoed with the confused reaction to the privacy outcry last week. How to boil a frog: 'I keep asking for a product called Serendipity,' said Eric Schmidt recently. USA Today reported that "this product would have access to everything ever written or recorded, know everything the user ever worked on and saved to his or her personal hard drive, and know a whole lot about the user's tastes, friends and predilections." Google is already close to this goal, and if it isn't Google itself that attempts to introduce such a product, we can be sure that someone else will think it's a good idea. Privacy is a lot more subtle than it's often portrayed. But it comes down to trust, and an organization is as good as it is trustworthy. The events of the past week are alarming not so much for Gmail itself, but Google's reaction to the controversy. And that tells us a lot. Google sees privacy asymmetrically: privacy is good for Google, but it can't understand why anyone else would be concerned. Schmidt's Serendipity, along with Larry Page's recent boob about wishing to have a Google brain implant, show that Google's technical ambitions far outpace its sense of social responsibility. The flippant April 1 Gmail press release was ill-advised, and signaled that the company didn't expect any controversy. In waded Larry Page who refused to rule out cross-linking personal searches and email, in reports published on April 2: "Larry Page wouldn't say whether Google planned to link Gmail users to their Web search queries. 'It might be really useful for us to know that information" to make search results better, he said. 'I'd hate to rule anything like that out,'" reported the Los Angeles Times. Four days later, with Larry wisely hidden out of harm's way under the stairs, Google VP of Engineering Wayne Rosing faced the fire. "Rosing said there will be an information firewall separating Google's search engine from Gmail," AP reported on April 6. "'We don't use the data collected on one service, ' he said, 'to enhance another,'". Two days later in the New York Times Rosing was less emphatic: "We have no immediate plans to do so in the future," he said. So Google had four statements on whether or not it cross-linked search queries and email in a week. Unlike the News controversy, this time people noticed. On April 8 the company also clarified its data retention policy in its privacy statement, making clear that mail may be retained on backups, removing the implication that you couldn't remove your mail files from a closed account even if you wanted to. Much of the controversy was therefore avoidable. As a measure of how much damage the episode has done to Google, the final firebreak has been reached in defense of the email service. This is the classic libertarian argument that shoppers need not use it if they so wish, or as we call it here, "The Shrug". But this fatalistic line of argument vacates any moral responsibility, throwing it instead onto the "market", which can be relied on to deliver the best of all possible worlds, as we all know. A more honest answer would be simply to profess not to care about privacy. The erosion of privacy and the intrusion of commercial spam in our lives is subtle. Like boiling a frog alive, we rarely notice how much we've lost until its too late. Unless we draw a line now, reminding companies like Google - which exhibit a kind of corporate Asperger's Syndrome when it comes to privacy - of exactly what we value, then in ten years time it will be too late. "It's ironic," writes one reader, "for a company that says Do No Evil -- they don't know the definition." After Gmail, what price Serendipity? Copyright 2005, the register.co.uk ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 22:58:00 -0400 Subject: The Dirty Tricks SBC and Comcast Play to Sink Municipal Broadband This is a long article but one that is well worth reading -- if you have ever wondered what sort of dirty tricks companies like SBC and Comcast are willing to play to sink municipal broadband, this is a real eye-opener. http://www.theind.com/cover.asp Tri-Cities Trials: A municipal fiber plan in Illinois' Tri-Cities failed twice. The region's leaders and residents offer cautionary tales as Lafayette heads toward its July 16 fiber-to-the-home referendum. By Kristi H. Dempsey, R. Reese Fuller, Scott Jordan and Nathan Stubbs | 5/25/2005 After first being introduced to the public more than a year ago, Lafayette Utilities System's fiber-to-the-home initiative is headed for a public referendum on July 16 for bond approval. Its the home stretch for the contentious battle between Lafayette Consolidated Government and incumbent telecom providers BellSouth and Cox Communications, and no one knows what unexpected twists the next seven weeks will bring. Only the dueling storylines are set in stone: LCG wants to build its fiber network for economic development, while BellSouth and Cox say government should not compete with private business. For the Tri-Cities' area of Illinois, Lafayette's baptism-by-fire education on fiber is old hat. Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles, Ill. are located 45 miles outside of Chicago and have a combined population of approximately 80,000 people; Tri-Cities government has been trying to offer its own fiber program since 2003. Telecom providers Comcast and SBC have vehemently opposed the Tri-Cities' plan; the two companies mounted fierce opposition campaigns that doomed cities' fiber network twice at the polls. A Comcast representative declined to answer questions about Tri-Cities from The Independent Weekly, issuing only a one-sentence statement: "By voting down the idea of launching municipal broadband twice in 19 months, residents sent a clear message that they do not support a municipally owned broadband utility." SBC spokesman Marty Richter echoed that sentiment, saying, "[Voters] looked at both sides of the issue, and didn't favor the cities plunging into this very risky business, especially when they're already very well served by the private sector, such as SBC." Tri-Cities officials and residents paint a different picture. And the image that emerges is David being crushed by Goliath or in this case, a pair of Goliaths determined to maintain their market dominance with a variety of tactics. Full story at: http://www.theind.com/cover.asp How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You may wish to read this report; it sort of explains what happened in a couple of small towns in Kansas thought about starting such ventures; SBC even is quite opposed to the concept of municipal WiFi. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 00:31:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Fatal Failure Halts Installation of 911 Caller-ID System By David Abel, Globe Staff | May 25, 2005 A Hopkinton mother who lived about three blocks from a fire station died last week after a glitch in a new 911 caller-identification system that is being installed statewide failed to find her home, state officials and local police said yesterday. The death of the 49-year-old woman who dialed 911 and then apparently stopped breathing, officials said, has led the Massachusetts Statewide Emergency Telecommunications Board to suspend all planned installations of the 911 equipment. Board officials said similar problems have been found in other communities with the system. Verizon has a state contract to install the Vesta equipment, which is designed to allow 911 operators to better locate cellphone callers, in every community throughout the state at a cost of about $75 million, said Paul J. Fahey, executive director of the state's telecommunications board. So far, he said, 16 communities in Massachusetts have received the system since installations began last fall. Hopkinton was the third. State officials are working with Verizon to determine why the system failed, Fahey said, and the phone company has supplied 911 operators with ways to trace future calls that cannot be located. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/05/25/fatal_failure_halts_installation_of_911_caller_id_system/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 17:14:49 -0700 Subject: Re: Tangled up Over DSL - Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand From: Don Bowey On 5/25/05 3:17 PM, in article telecom24.233.5@telecom-digest.org, William Warren wrote: > Jack Decker wrote: >> http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3195270 >> Some Cell Phone Users Demand to Stand Alone >> By JOHN C. ROPER >> Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle >> A growing number of U.S. consumers are cutting the cord on traditional >> home telephone service, choosing instead to exclusively use cell >> phones. >> But many of these consumers have found ditching their land-line phone >> service, and its accompanying cost, isn't possible if they want speedy >> DSL, or digital subscriber line, Internet service in their homes. >> Providers such as SBC Communications require customers to buy >> residential phone service to have access to their broadband lines, a >> tactic consumer advocacy groups say is unfair. I'm sure the DSL price is based on there being a POTS line at the premises, on which the DSL can be added. If the premises has no LEC service, then the DSL price would need to be raised to include a loop. Are you certain that SBC won't offer DSL under those conditions? Don > The independents, such as Covad, have had to order and use separate > loops since they started in business. > Cross-subsidy and competition issues aside, the Bells are certainly > _able_ to offer the service on a technical level. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, SBC claimed to me that naked DSL was _not_ something they offered (as of a couple years ago.) Our local ISP TerraWorld is permitted to resell SBC DSL, but the presumption is the purchaser has SBC service. TerraWorld also is the local phone company Prairie Stream, but they are _not_ allowed to resell DSL to Prairie Stream customers. Duane (Prairie Stream and TerraWorld owner) said he doesn't care. If he has to choose, he says, he would rather have the customer on the Prairie Stream side anyway. He told me. "I just tell customers to turn off the DSL (in order to use Prairie Stream) and get Mike Flood (general manager of CableOne here locally) to turn on their cable internet. They get better and faster service than with DSL anyway, and Southwestern Bell turns out to be the loser, not Cable One nor myself and Prairie Stream." He must have a good point ... Bell has lost _a lot_ of business here in Independence in recent months. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: VOIP Provider Search Date: 25 May 2005 22:53:38 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I am pulling my hair out by the roots looking around for a provider. > I can't yet confirm whether Cullowhee is local to Asheville, NC or > not. A number in the Cullowhee area is (828) 227-XXXX if that helps > anyone. The wonderful local calling guide at http://members.dandy.net/~czg/lca_index.php says that Cullowhee can only make local calls to Cashiers and Sylva. > Vonage has been no help. My experience with Vonage was that they're never any help. > Failing that, does anyone know an economical VOIP provider that can > help me with this? A little poking around reveals that Broadvoice offers numbers in both Cashiers and Sylva. Packet8 offers numbers in Sylva. Take your pick. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And SBC only allows local calling in Independence to other Independence numbers. SBC subscribers cannot call Coffeyville, Cherryvale, Parsons, Neodesha or anywhere else without a toll charge. I know we are a rural area, but still ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: sagor Subject: Re: Thinking About VOIP Date: 25 May 2005 22:11:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Pleasew let me know the name list for the best carriers of VoIP for Bangladesh and any other details about the setup of VoIP. This will help me a lot. Thank you, Sagor ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 19:09:15 -0500 Woman Calls 911 With Pizza Complaint An 86-year-old woman was jailed after police said she called 911 dispatchers 20 times in a little more than a half-hour -- all to complain that a pizza parlor wouldn't deliver. Dorothy Densmore was charged with misusing the 911 system, a jail spokeswoman said. She told dispatchers Sunday that a local pizza shop refused to deliver a pie to her south Charlotte apartment, said Officer Mandy Giannini. She also complained that someone at the shop called her a "crazy old coot," Giannini said. Densmore wanted them arrested. Instead, police came to arrest her, and she resisted, Giannini said. It's unusual for someone to face charges for nonemergency calls, Giannini said. But on Sunday, Densmore kept calling 911, even after she was told to stop, Giannini said. When an officer arrived at her apartment, the 5-foot-tall, 98-pound woman attacked him, Giannini said. Densmore scratched him, kicked and bit his hand, she said. Densmore also is charged with resisting a public officer and two counts of misusing the 911 system, jail records show. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Poor, brave, courageous police officer. I sure hope he was not hurt when this 86 year old woman 'assaulted' him. On the other hand, the old lady should have made her calls to police on a VOIP line. If she had, chances are the police would still be looking for her, in order to arrest the 'crazy old coot'. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #234 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 26 May 2005 15:06:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 235 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson War Games on the Internet (Lisa Minter) More Details on the BitTorrents Raid Wednesday (Lisa Minter) Spam and How to Spel it Rite (Lee Sweet) Cell Phone Users Want Media Services (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (Robert Bonomi) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (NOTvalid@XmasNYC) Re: Very Early Modems (Joe Morris) Re: VOIP Provider Search (Fred Atkinson) 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: War Game on Internet Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 01:47:05 -0500 CIA Overseeing 3-Day War Game on Internet By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer The CIA is conducting a secretive war game, dubbed "Silent Horizon," this week to practice defending against an electronic assault on the same scale as the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. The three-day exercise, ending Thursday, was meant to test the ability of government and industry to respond to escalating Internet disruptions over many months, according to participants. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the CIA asked them not to disclose details of the sensitive exercise taking place in Charlottesville, Va., about two hours southwest of Washington. The simulated attacks were carried out five years in the future by a fictional alliance of anti-American organizations, including anti-globalization hackers. The most serious damage was expected to be inflicted in the war game's closing hours. The national security simulation was significant because its premise -- a devastating cyberattack that affects government and parts of the economy with the same magnitude as the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide hijackings -- contravenes assurances by U.S. counterterrorism experts that such far-reaching effects from a cyberattack are highly unlikely. Previous government simulations have modeled damage from cyberattacks more narrowly. "You hear less and less about the digital Pearl Harbor," said Dennis McGrath, who helped run three similar war games for the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College. "What people call cyberterrorism, it's just not at the top of the list." The CIA's little-known Information Operations Center, which evaluates threats to U.S. computer systems from foreign governments, criminal organizations and hackers, was running the war game. About 75 people, mostly from the CIA, gathered in conference rooms and reacted to signs of mock computer attacks. The government remains most concerned about terrorists using explosions, radiation and biological threats. FBI Director Robert Mueller warned earlier this year that terrorists increasingly are recruiting computer scientists but said most hackers "do not have the resources or motivation to attack the U.S. critical information infrastructures." The government's most recent intelligence assessment of future threats through the year 2020 said cyberattacks are expected, but terrorists "will continue to primarily employ conventional weapons." Authorities have expressed concerns about terrorists combining physical attacks, such as bombings, with hacker attacks to disrupt communications or rescue efforts. "One of the things the intelligence community was accused of was a lack of imagination," said Dorothy Denning of the Naval Postgraduate School, an expert on Internet threats who was invited by the CIA to participate but declined. "You want to think about not just what you think may affect you but about scenarios that might seem unlikely." "Livewire," an earlier cyberterrorism exercise for the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies, concluded there were serious questions about government's role during a cyberattack, depending on who was identified as the culprit -- terrorists, a foreign government or bored teenagers. It also questioned whether the U.S. government would be able to detect the early stages of such an attack without significant help from private technology companies. 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: Lisa Minter <lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com> Subject: More About WebTorrent's Raid on Wednesday Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 13:02:02 -0500 U.S. shuts down network that leaked 'Star Wars' U.S. law enforcers said on Wednesday that they have shut down a computer network that distributed illegal copies of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" before it appeared in movie theaters. Federal agents executed 10 search warrants and seized the main server computer in a network that allowed people to download nearly 18,000 movies and software programs, including many current releases, the FBI and Homeland Security Department said. The Elite Torrents network, found online at http://www.elitetorrents.org relied on a technology called BitTorrent that allows users to quickly download digital movies and other large files by copying them from many computers at once. The network signed up 133,000 members who collectively downloaded 2.1 million files, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department. Visitors to http://www/elitetorrents.org on Wednesday saw a notice that read, "This site has been permanently shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." It further warned that anyone lingering or attempting to use the software (with authorities later removed) would themselves come under investigation and possible arrest. The raid targeted administrators of the network and those who provided movies and other copyrighted material. Similar cases in the past have found that such "first providers" are typically entertainment-industry insiders, rather than outside hackers. Agents executed search warrants in Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kansas, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. No arrests have been made, but the investigation continues, ICE spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback said, and 'more arrests/seizures may be going on as you read this'. Elite Torrents offered a "virtually unlimited" selection of materi al, ICE said. The latest Star Wars movie was available on the network more than six hours before it was first shown in theaters, and within 24 hours it was copied more than 10,000 times. The Motion Picture Association, an industry group, helped with the investigation, ICE said. Movie studios are trying to avoid the fate of the music industry, which claims it has lost hundreds of millions of dollars worth of sales due to online file sharing. Digital movies are about 50 times larger than music files, which makes them more cumbersome to download. New technologies like BitTorrent, however, and increased high-speed Internet use are closing the gap. The MPAA has managed to raid and shut down at least five BitTorrent networks through lawsuits and has also sued individuals who use them. BitTorrent networks have caused headaches for software makers as well. Apple Computer Inc has sued three men for posting the latest version of its OS X operating system on a BitTorrent site six months before it was commercially released. 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: Lee Sweet <lee@datatel.com> Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 09:12:56 -0400 Subject: Spam and How to Spel it Rite Note that one reason spammers use crappy English is to get around spam filters (of course, they may be totally without English comprehension, also!). I won't use some examples here so that this Digest won't get caught in spam traps, but you all have seen the many 'creative' spellings of certain drugs, with variable caps, spacings, punctuation, etc.! I also thought that they were just ignorant of good English for many years, until I was told on an (anti-)spam email list that the point was to avoid filters. Hm, good point. After all, how can you filter all the millions of ways to misspell all the common drug names? :-) > 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: Last Laugh! Your House at P.O. Box 4621 > Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 23:01:44 GMT <snip> > Customer Service wrote: > Some of those offers clearly came from people who don't have any > education at all; spelling of simple words are wrong, and some are not > competent at English speaking as the sentences make very little sense. I > filled out a few of the applications with bogus info and gave phone > numbers of the FBI and Attorney General fraud numbers, if they are called, > it should make and interesting conversation as they hangup when they hear > who they reached. > 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. Lee Sweet lee@datatel.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 13:06:47 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA <usta@dailylead.com> Subject: Cell Phone Users Want Media Services Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 26, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21909&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cell phone users want media services BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon may open FiOS network to ISPs * Mobile phone sales up in Q1 * EarthLink woos new subscribers with personalized portal * Telus invests in Brix Networks * UTStarcom buys Pedestal USTA SPOTLIGHT * At SUPERCOMM: Register today for the IP Video Conference EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Startup develops integrated chip for fiber-optic gear * 20th Century announces cell phone TV unit REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Feds get revenge on alleged Sith pirates * Mobile providers adopt industry guidelines Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21909&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 11:42:13 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article <telecom24.233.6@telecom-digest.org>, Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> wrote: > usenet@outshine.com wrote: >> Has anyone recently received an unsolicited call from someone >> representing "First Place?" They apparently make a Web promotion >> product. Any information at all would be helpful. > Yeah, feh ... can't remember which product First Place Software > publishes ... WebPosition Gold, maybe? > ... No, it looks like WPG was bought by WebTrends. > Heh, but when I do a search on First Place Software, a sponsored link > to WPG comes up, so I guess I was right! >> Today I received an unsolicited call from them. The agent asked if I >> owned outshine.com and then told me he had a product that would help >> my site to make a lot of money. He asked me to open up a Web browser. >> Unfortunately, I didn't give him a chance to give me a URL. >> I told him to put me on his do not call list. He REFUSED. I asked >> for his name. He refused. I told him he was violating at least US >> law, and he needed to respond. He simply repeated, "don't you want to >> make money with your site?" > Idiots. Yup, WebTrends was the company that had a buggy log analysis > product and couldn't help me fix the many bugs I had over a period of > about eighteen months, and started sending me nastygrams about trademark > infringement when I registered WebTrendsSucks.com even though I had just > registered it, and never used it for email or a web site. > WebTrends is at 851 SW 6th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97204. If you were > on the federal DNC list, the FTC can fine them for the violation. If > not, you may be able to sue them yourself under the 1991 Telephone > Consumer Protection Act. I would not advise doing anything, however, > unless you call a lawyer (except if you're going to file the DNC > violation with the FTC). If the marketing call came to his _cell_ phone, as he implies, then it is a prosecutable violation _whether_or_not_ he is on the federal DNC list. 47 USC 227 expressly forbids marketing calls to _any_ "telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call" The failure to provide Caller-ID info is also an express violation of the FTC "Telemarketing Sales Order". The refusal to add one, when requested, to their _internally-maintained_ DNC l is an express violation of the TSR also. As is the caller's refusal to identify himself -- and the company he is calling for -- when requested. Complaints to the FCC _and_ the FTC are both in order. The FTC _can_ assess an immediate $11,000/violation (and you have three separate violations to report) penalty. The FCC has to issue a cease-and-desist order first, and then catch them in subsequent violations before they can assess the same $11,000/violation. A private lawsuit (small-claims) for the 47 USC 227 violation is also practical. $500 minimum, as 'statutory' damages. 'Deliberate and wilful' violation allows the judge to treble that amount. ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: 26 May 2005 06:30:00 -0700 usenet@outshine.com wrote: > The call came in "Unknown ID" so all I have is the moment he called, > his company name, and the very curious fact that he was able to > associate my private cell phone number with my public web site (the > domain name and the number are not publicly listed together, so I > think GoDaddy or Verisign sold my private account info). I recently got an Email offering a varient of one of my domain names which I registered thru GoDaddy. It was sent to an addy that I ONLY use for Godaddy and is only shown on my registrations thru GoDaddy. I own many domain names and I only got Email re one domain name. Someone is obviously trolling WHOIS. I will give the company a call at the 800 number they provided, from a payphone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Either 'someone' is trolling WHOIS or maybe that someone has a good friend working for GoDaddy, or maybe both. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris <jcmorris@mitre.org> Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 12:42:20 UTC Organization: The MITRE Organization kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) writes: > <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote: >> However, in the 1950s, IBM developed card-to-card directly without >> paper tape and "over AT&T lines". Modems were developed to take good >> advtg of the available bandwidth (about 1200 baud). Undoubtedly the >> equipment and implementation was developed in close cooperation with >> AT&T. > This was the IBM "Card-to-card" transceiver. I don't know when they > first came out, but the Army started implementing them in a nationwide > network in September of 1956. H'mmm ... was this implemented with an 026 (or something that looked a lot like an 026), with a narrow cabinet bolted on the right side? I never worked with one, but I have a recollection of seeing such a beastie in the Atlanta datacenter in the late 1960s when the sysprogs from my PPOE went there in preparation for the installation of some big IBM boxes at our shop. >> I was wondering if the modems in that application were supplied by IBM >> (who appears to have developed the technology) or by AT&T. My >> understanding that AT&T's "Dataset" modem-telephones didn't come out >> until the 1960s. c /Dataset/DataPhone (tm)/ >> Comments by anyone familiar with pre-1960 data communications would be >> greatly appreciated. > I believe they used 4-wire leased lines, with data access arrangement > boxes provided by Ma Bell. So the signals going into the big grey box > next to the reader/punch were analogue. I don't recall what the > transmission rate was, but they sent EBCDIC directly without any > translation to a 5-channel code and no added headers. The only "data access arrangement" I know of was the stupid box that the FCC mandated had to be used to attach non-Bell modems to the dial network for a (thankfully brief) time post-Carterphone. Users who used a leased circuit could (within limits) attach just about anything they pleased. The circuits you're referring to were probably 1009 (direct copper) assuming that my memory hasn't had too much bitrot since then. I do recall sometimes having to play games with the tariffs and (for reasons I can't remember) sometimes having to get a 3002 circuit instead, then go around and disconnect the conditioning boxes so that the line would act like a 1009. Joe Morris ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson <fatkinson@mishmash.com> Subject: Re: VOIP Provider Search Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 09:28:34 -0400 > A little poking around reveals that Broadvoice offers numbers in both > Cashiers and Sylva. Packet8 offers numbers in Sylva. Take your pick. I checked with both of them. Packet8 does indeed offer service in Sylva, which is local to Cullowhee. Broadvoice kept me on hold for ages, but (when they finally picked me up) they denied that they offered service anywhere in NC. While listening to Broadvoice's pretty music, I got on the BBB site and checked both of them out. Neither one has a very good reputation with the BBB. I thought I'd compare Vonage and found that while Vonage has had complaints, they've worked to resolve those complaints. Unless someone knows a better company that offers service in that area, I guess I am going to try Packet8 as there doesn't appear to be an alternative. Verizon is the local company. I called them to arrange to get a phone book for that area. At first, they told me that because I didn't have a Verizon account, I couldn't get one. But when I mentioned $$$$, they agreed to ship me one for thirty dollars. I thought that was high, but it's better than not getting one. Regards, Fred ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #235 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 May 2005 16:39:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 236 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Lisa Minter) Internet Item Allegedly Caused Indonesian Embassy Closing (Lisa Minter) Homeland Security Report on Internet: Little We Can Do (Lisa Minter) Telecom Update #483 (John Riddell) NTT Do/Co/Mo To Sell Nokia Phone (Telecom DailyLead by USTA) ARRL Enthused About New Motorola Technology (Jack Decker) Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox Announces Settlements (Jack Decker) Re: Very Early Modems (Jim Haynes) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (Steve Sobol) Re: Vtech Caller ID Not Working (LB@notmine.com) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (PrinceGunter) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (NOTvalid@XmasNYC) Re: Earlier Mention of WUTCO Clocks (Harry Joseph) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 00:00:13 -0500 Phone outage costs Toenges A Fort Wayne orthopedic shoestore lost telephone service for 2 1/2 days this week, costing the store thousands of dollars in sales, according to a member of the family that owns the business. Fred Toenges Shoes & Pedorthics, 2415 Hobson Road, at the corner of State Boulevard, had its main phone line mistakenly disconnected Monday, Ross Toenges said. The phone line started working again Wednesday afternoon. The problem started after the business asked Vonage to disconnect one of its secondary phone numbers, Toenges said. That number was disconnected last week, but the main number also was taken out of service Monday. The store's main number is a Verizon telephone line. Verizon spokeswoman Jane Howard said the company received a request to disconnect the store's main number on April 23 from U.S. Exchange, another telephone company. Spokesmen for Vonage and Choice One Communications, which owns U.S. Exchange, could not explain how the problem happened Wednesday. Vonage is temporarily providing the store service on its main telephone line, but the rest of the store's seven phone lines aren't working, Toenges said. Federal regulations protecting consumers who switch telephone companies prevent Verizon from taking back the phone number immediately, Howard said. As a result of the confusion, the store sold 50 fewer pairs of shoes Monday and Tuesday than it did on the same days a year earlier, Toenges said. A pair of shoes from the store costs about $85 on average, he said. Copyright 2005 Fort Fayne Journal Gazette and wire service sources. http://www.fortwayne.com 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The gentleman who passed this item along to Lisa and the Digest said, in effect, "here is another example of Vonage screwing up." I dunno, it seems more like Verizon screwing up to me. Vonage said to Verizon, or (rather to Choice One Communications, which owns U.S. Exchange) to disconnect _ONE_ line. The end result was Verizon disconnected _ALL_ lines. Then, Verizon says "as a consumer protection we are not allowed to restore service on those lines for X period of time", which may normally be correct, but Verizon certainly would be excused in this instance if they did not wait X period of time as required by law _under normal conditions_. But someone has to be blamed, why not Vonage? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Website Tied to U.S. Indonesia Embassy Closing Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 11:29:50 -0500 By Jerry Norton Website tips on the best ways to attack the United States embassy and movements by suspected members of violent Islamic groups were factors in the closure of U.S. diplomatic facilities in Indonesia, experts said on Friday. When the closures were announced on Thursday, an embassy statement referred to terrorist threats without offering details. An embassy spokesman has declined to elaborate, but the facilities will be closed until further notice. A New York Times report attributed the closings to the appearance on a militant Web Site of a diagram of the embassy, showing the location of the ambassador's office and other sites, and advising, in the Indonesian language, on the most effective means to attack the sprawling low-rise complex. The Web Site posting "obviously caused the embassy enough concern to justify them closing," a Western security expert based in Indonesia told Reuters. Jakarta police spokesman Tjiptono said the closure "was because we had received information on the movement of Azahari (bin Husin) and Noordin M. Top ... and the movement of their men in the capital." Police say Azahari and Top, both Malaysians, are among the masterminds behind a spate of bombings in Indonesia and are key members of Jemaah Islamiah, a group seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda. Attacks against Western targets in Indonesia blamed on Jemaah Islamiah include blasts at Bali nightclubs in October 2002 that killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, and one last September outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta that killed 10. National police chief Da'i Bachtiar linked the Jemaah Islamiah fugitives with the embassy diagram. "Our investigation on the Azahari group ... prompts an analysis that there has been communication among this group as a preparation to conduct another attack. From that analysis, there is information or a picture that refers to a map of the U.S. embassy in Jakarta. Probably, this is what the U.S. authorities thought as a plan to attack the embassy," he told reporters. But he also suggested the development could be a diversion. "This can be a trick. Why attack a target so openly like that and create concern?" A second Western security expert suggested the U.S. facility closures, which included consulates in Bali and Surabaya and an office in Medan, reflected several factors. "It looks like there's sort of a whole string of things ... converging at the same time," said Ken Conboy, country manager at Risk Management Advisory in Indonesia. Aside from the Jemaah Islamiah movements and diagram, which he considered "rather amateurish," he cited the recent Newsweek magazine article alleging U.S. military abuse of the Koran. The article, subsequently retracted, "did generate an awful lot of tension. It got people out in the streets." A visit to Washington this week by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and reports Indonesians trained in violent tactics by Muslim militants in the Philippines had returned were other concerns, Conboy said. In addition, he added "there's the fact that Jemaah Islamiah averages about a strike a year, and it's been about eight months since the last one, so that's more than enough time for them to plan another." The other Western security expert expressed similar sentiments, saying it is likely "a matter of when rather than if" another attack will come. (With additional reporting by Telly Nathalia) 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lisa also reports, elsewhere in this issue that Homeland Security is quite ineffectual -- almost useless -- at dealing with the cyber attack to end all cyber attacks, coming soon to an ISP near you. Read on ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Homeland Security Helpless Where Internet Attacks Concerned Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 23:54:21 -0500 Homeland Security can't stop online threats - GAO Department of Homeland Security staffing problems and a lack of authority are hampering its efforts to protect the country from Internet-based attacks, according to a congressional report released on Thursday. The department's National Cyber Security Division has not yet developed a blueprint for recovering from a large Internet attack, nor has it assessed the state of online threats and vulnerabilities, the Government Accountability Office found. "Until it overcomes the many challenges it faces and completes critical activities, DHS cannot effectively function as the cyber security focal point intended by law and national policy," the report said, echoing the complaints of private-sector security experts. The division has also had a hard time developing partnerships with the private businesses that control 85 percent of the Internet's infrastructure, the GAO said. The division has, however, overseen a rapid-response team that can quickly get the word out when new online threats arise, and it has also set up forums that allow U.S. security officials to share threat information with law enforcers. But the GAO found that overall the Homeland Security Department has not completely addressed any of its 13 key computer-security responsibilities. The GAO said the department should set milestones to measure its progress, but noted that the fixes it recommended in an earlier report had not been adopted. In a response, the Homeland Security Department said it did not need to set new milestones as they are already contained in its original plan, and did not agree that there are any "valid" recommendations from the previous report that have yet to be addressed. 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: Fri, 27 May 2005 12:08:18 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #483, May 27, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 483: May 27, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Rogers Combines Cable and Wireless ** Carriers Intro Wi-Fi Hotspot Roaming ** Telesat Launches Two-Way Satellite Broadband ** Cities Challenge Bell 3-1-1 Tariff ** Shaw to Offer Phone Service in Manitoba ** 40,000 Use MTS TV ** Satellite Net Links Nunavut Communities ** Videotron Phones Come to West Island ** ITU Completes VDSL2 Standard ** Call-Net Gets OK for Vote on Rogers Deal ** Telus Offers Managed Wireless Data ** Quebec ISPs Oppose Naked DSL Surcharge ** Canadian Firm Offers VoIP E911 ** Aliant Adds Features to Prepaid Wireless ** Terry Mosey Retires ** Statscan Profiles Canadian Call Centres ============================================================ ROGERS COMBINES CABLE AND WIRELESS: Rogers Communications Inc. has combined its cable and wireless companies into a new Communications division, to be headed by former Wireless President Nadir Mohamed. Edward Rogers will continue as President of Rogers Cable, and Robert Bruce has been promoted from EVP to President of Rogers Wireless. ** Mohamed, who is considered by some to be a candidate for the CEO position when Ted Rogers retires, has been named to the company's Board of Directors. CARRIERS INTRO WI-FI HOTSPOT ROAMING: Canada's major cellcos have launched inter-carrier roaming between 500 (soon to be 1,000) Wi-Fi hotspots across Canada. Subscribers can be invoiced on their cellphone bill. Any Wi-Fi provider can join the roaming alliance. (See Telecom Update #423) TELESAT LAUNCHES TWO-WAY SATELLITE BROADBAND: Telesat has begun offering two-way satellite broadband service on the Ka-band using the Anik F2 satellite. The service, available through various distributors, provides download speeds up to 2 Mbps and uploads up to 500 Kbps. CITIES CHALLENGE BELL 3-1-1 TARIFF: CRTC Telecom Order 2005-177 gave interim approval to Bell's tariff for 3-1-1 service to municipalities (see Telecom Update #456) and laid out a schedule for further discussion of the terms and rates. ** In a joint submission, Toronto, Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Gatineau, and Halton say Bell's charges are so high as to "effectively prevent many municipalities from providing this service." They want Bell to reveal its costs for the service, but Bell says that, as long as its rates cover costs, "there is no required dependency between cost levels and either the rate structure or the rate levels." www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/b2_6866.htm SHAW TO OFFER PHONE SERVICE IN MANITOBA: CEO Jim Shaw says Shaw Communications will offer IP-based local phone service in Winnipeg within a few weeks. 40,000 USE MTS TV: Manitoba Tel says it now has 40,000 customers for its digital television distribution service, MTS TV, and will soon add a Video on Demand option. SATELLITE NET LINKS NUNAVUT COMMUNITIES: The Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation this week launched what it calls the "largest, coolest hotspot" in the world. Qiniq, a satellite-based backbone network, provides broadband connectivity to the 30,000 people living in Nunavut's 25 communities, spread over two million square miles, one-fifth of Canada's land mass. ** This is the first project to receive federal funding under the National Satellite Initiative (see Telecom Update #402). NSI is providing $7.8 million over eight years, and the Broadband for Rural and Northern Development (BRAND) program is providing $3.9 million. VIDEOTRON PHONES COME TO WEST ISLAND: Videotron's cable telephone service, introduced earlier this year on Montreal's south shore and Laval, will be rolled out in 12 communities on West Island, beginning Monday, May 30. (See Telecom Update #466) ITU COMPLETES VDSL2 STANDARD: The International Telecommunication Union says it has finalized technical specifications for VDSL2, a standard that supports data speeds up to 100 Mbps, both up and downstream, over standard copper telephone cable. CALL-NET GETS OK FOR VOTE ON ROGERS DEAL: Call-Net Enterprises has received an interim court order permitting a special meeting of shareholders to vote on its proposed acquisition by Rogers Communications. The meeting will be held June 29. (See Telecom Update #481) TELUS OFFERS MANAGED WIRELESS DATA: Telus says its Multi- Network Data Access Solution allows users to roam across PCS, Mike, Wi-Fi, and other wireless networks with full security and without dropped connections, using IBM WebSphere Everyplace technology. ** Another new Telus product, End Point Enforcement, uses Telus's Angel technology to provide anti-virus security for laptops and other workstations before they log on to corporate networks. QUEBEC ISPs OPPOSE NAKED DSL SURCHARGE: A group of 15 Quebec- based Internet Service providers objects to Bell imposing a $10/month surcharge on Sympatico DSL Lite customers who cancel their local phone service. ** The group says the CRTC should encourage telcos and cablecos to wholesale their services "in a manner and at a rate that allow resellers to remain competitive," and should regulate cablecos in the same way as it regulates telcos. CANADIAN FIRM OFFERS VoIP E911: Sudbury-based Northern Communications says it can provide E911 for providers of fixed, nomadic, and foreign exchange VoIP telephone service that meets or exceeds the CRTC's recently announced regulations. www.northern911.com/ ALIANT ADDS FEATURES TO PREPAID WIRELESS: Aliant has moved its prepaid cellular service to a new platform from Alcatel, which provides an enhanced set of features and roaming outside of Atlantic Canada. Aliant now offers prepaid nights/evenings airtime at five cents/minute. TERRY MOSEY RETIRES: Bell Executive Vice President Terry Mosey is retiring, effective May 31. During his 33 years with the company he held many positions, including serving as president of Bell Ontario from 2000 to 2003. Among his many accomplishments was the extension of single-line phone service and Internet access to rural and remote areas of the province. STATSCAN PROFILES CANADIAN CALL CENTRES: A Statscan report, released May 25, reveals that employees in the business support services sector, most of whom work in call centres, are well-educated, young, mostly women, and receive considerably less than average wages. ** In 2004, workers in the industry earned an average of $12.45 an hour, about two-thirds of the average in the service sector and the economy as a whole. www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050525/d050525c.htm ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 12:23:54 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: NTT DoCoMo to Sell Nokia Phone Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 27, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21945&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * NTT DoCoMo to sell Nokia phone BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * MobiTV goes across the pond * Nokia: We're Linux-friendly * Study: Air travelers prefer limits on cell phone use * Philly's Wi-Fi network faces hurdles USTA SPOTLIGHT * Hear Telecom Crash Course author Steven Shepard at Telecom Engineering Conference @ SUPERCOMM EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Wi-Fi off to races at Indy 500 * CableLabs new standard would boost broadband VOIP DOWNLOAD * VoIP in Europe catches regulators' eye * Skype CEO envisions world of free phone calls * Italtel makes big strides in VoIP market REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * South Korea's trade regulator fines three telcos EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published on Monday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21945&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 12:22:40 -0400 Subject: ARRL Enthused About New Motorola BPL Technology For those who have been waiting for your power company to offer broadband service, this might be the way the power companies SHOULD implement it. http://mrtmag.com/news/arrl_motorola_bpl_052605/ ARRL enthused about new Motorola BPL technology May 26, 2005 11:10 AM By Donny Jackson ARRL, the national association for amateur radio, expressed optimism that a broadband-over-power-line (BPL) system announced this week by Motorola will not generate harmful interference with amateur-radio operations. Dubbed Powerline LV, the solution represents Motorola’s first product in the BPL space. Whereas most BPL systems require the broadband traffic to travel solely through the electric grid, Powerline LV uses Motorola’s high-speed wireless Canopy system for backhaul to the electricity pole or pad-mounted transformer, from which the signal is sent to the house via the electrical wiring, said Dick Illman, a member the advanced wireless team in Motorola special markets division of engineering. This architecture design removes the need for the broadband signal to travel over the medium-voltage (MV) wires that link substations to transformers. Radiation from BPL-enabled MV wires is the primary source of interference for amateur-radio operators, said ARRL spokesman Allen Pitts. Low-voltage (LV) wires used to serve homes from electrical poles do not create as much interference as MV wires, and Motorola has taken other steps to mitigate interference, including the use of Homeplug home-networking technology and a device that blocks signals from entering amateur-radio frequencies, Pitts said. "We're not ready to endorse it yet, but we are absolutely very encouraged by it," Pitts said. "Amateur radio operators were never against any technology; we're against interference. If there's no interference, we're all for it [BPL]." Full story at: http://mrtmag.com/news/arrl_motorola_bpl_052605/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 11:43:19 -0400 Subject: Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox Announces Settlements http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-26-2005/0003692052&STORY&EDATE= Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox Announces Settlements With Finance Companies Over NorVergence Telecommunications Fraud Claims http://www.michigan.gov/ag LANSING, Mich., May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorney General Mike Cox announced today that he and the Attorneys General from 19 other states and the District of Columbia have reached settlements with three financing companies in connection with a widespread telecommunications fraud involving NorVergence, Inc., a bankrupt New Jersey-based telephone equipment and service company. In the settlements, CIT Group/Equipment Financing, Inc. (CIT), Lyon Financial Services d/b/a U.S. Bancorp Business Equipment Finance Group (USB), and Wells Fargo Financial Leasing, Inc. (WFFL) will collectively refund or not collect more than $24 million in rental payments from consumers according to the following formula: CIT: $8.83 million not collected, 496 contracts affected, 10 states. USB: $7.9 million not collected, 366 contracts affected, 18 states. WFFL: $7.3 million not collected, 261 contracts affected, 20 states. "Many Michigan small business owners were victimized by NorVergence's bogus promises, and then suffered again when financing companies tried to collect for services that were not being received," said Cox. "I am pleased that CIT, USB, and WFFL have agreed to forgive the bulk of the outstanding balances on their NorVergence contracts. These settlements will offer resolution to affected small businesses that were struggling to meet dead-end obligations, including some that were sued for payment in courts in Minnesota and Iowa." CIT, USB, and WFFL are three of approximately 40 financing companies involved with the financing of telecommunication services through the rental of data routers that NorVergence called the Matrix box. NorVergence enticed small business customers to enter into rental agreements for a Matrix box that purported to provide telecommunications services by false claims of dramatic savings. While the rental agreements were typically for three to five years with payments of $500 - $2,000 per month, the market price of the Matrix box was no more than $1,500. After securing contracts with businesses, NorVergence sold the rental agreements to different finance companies, including CIT, USB, and WFFL. When NorVergence was forced into bankruptcy in June 2004, its customers were left without service but the finance companies, including CIT, USB, and WFFL, maintained that customers were still responsible for the five-year rental agreement payments. Customers who did not pay faced being sued or threatened with suits by USB and WFFL in the states in which they have their corporate headquarters, in most cases, a distant and inconvenient forum for the NorVergence customers. All consumers who signed agreements with NorVergence that were bought by CIT, USB, or WFFL or signed NorVergence agreements directly with CIT, USB, or WFFL, will receive a notice in the mail regarding the opportunity to participate in the settlement. To accept the settlement offer, consumers must follow instructions contained in the notice. Also, any consumer that previously settled with the three companies regarding NorVergence service can opt to receive the same or substantially the same terms of this settlement, if they choose. During 2003 and 2004, the Consumer Protection Division collected more than $600 million on behalf of Michigan. In 2004, the Division stopped more than $400 million in utility rate increases and responded to more than 102,000 consumer complaints. A copy of the settlements with CIT, USB, and WFFL can be viewed at the Attorney General's Web site: http://www.michigan.gov/ag under the Consumer Protection link. SOURCE Michigan Attorney General Web Site: http://www.michigan.gov/ag How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 01:42:29 GMT In article , wrote: > The Western Union history describes advanced switching and > communications networks for telegraph traffic, including special > networks for govt and business. It looked to be state of the art for > its day (1960s). I'm still hazy on how Western Union missed the boat > on data communication which was after all their specialty. Some say > WU had a very limited transmission network and depended on Bell for > that "final mile" although in cities WU had quite a broad network. > Or, their Telex wasn't as good as AT&T's TWX. We could have a very long discussion of why Western Union went under. The business press would say it was simply a matter that they had money going out a lot faster than it was coming in, and no prospects for reversing that situation. As an engineer I would say they did a lot of dumb things in the engineering and marketing end of the business. And it seems to have been government policy to keep W.U. with exactly one foot in the grave at all times. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 19:57:19 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Robert Bonomi wrote: > If the marketing call came to his _cell_ phone, as he implies, then it is > a prosecutable violation _whether_or_not_ he is on the federal DNC list. Under the TCPA, that is only true for sure if the call is autodialed. I'm not sure about personally-placed teleslime calls. The only wording that is certain in the TCPA is that autodialed calls to recipient-pays devices are actionable. (b) Restrictions on use of automated telephone equipment (1) Prohibitions It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States: (A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice; [snip] (iii) to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call; Note the prerecord requirement. > 47 USC 227 expressly forbids marketing calls to _any_ "telephone > number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, > specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier > service, or any service for which the called party is charged for > the call" You didn't read that entire section. Start at the point you quoted, go up a handful of lines and you'll see the prerecord clause. I did, however, notice: (B) to initiate any telephone call to any residential telephone line using an artificial or prerecorded voice to deliver a message without the prior express consent of the called party, unless the call is initiated for emergency purposes or is exempted by rule or order by the Commission under paragraph (2)(B); Which is pretty cool, as it outlaws ANY prerecord for ANY reason. I hadn't noticed that before. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: Vtech Caller ID Not Working Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 08:54:21 -0400 Organization: Optimum Online Harlan Messinger wrote: > I have a Vtech 20-2481 2.4 GHz Gigaphone two-line base unit with three > handsets. Until a few days ago, I had a two-line cord (RJ-45?) running > into the base unit's Line 1 + Line 2 jack. Last year I got rid of the > phone number that had been coming in on Line 1, but Line 2 continued > to work just fine. > The other day I replaced the phone cord with a one-line cord (RJ-11?) > running into the Line 2 jack. I pushed a splitter into the wall jack > and plugged the other end of the cord into the splitter's Line 2 > output. Everything is fine now *except* that the Caller ID function > has quit. The caller is no longer identified, and no record is kept > in the call history. > I switched back to the earlier configuration and the Caller ID came > back. Then I returned to the one-line cord, and Caller ID vanished > again. The same is true when I plug the cord into the Line 1 jack on > the base unit instead of the Line 2 jack. > The reason I switched to a one-line cord is that I want to use the > Line 1 input for my new VoIP connection. That doesn't have anything to > do with the problem, though, because it occurs whether or not I have > the VoIP plugged into the base unit. > Any ideas on a solution? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Try the original (working correctly) > configuration but try disconnecting it at the wall box. You obviously > do not want to blow up the VOIP adapter box, but yet there seems to be > something about the way caller-ID gets delivered. On a one line jack, > usually the two 'middle' pins (pins 3-4 of six pins or pins 2-3 of a > four pin thing) delivers the 'first' line; the 'outer' pins (usually > pins 1 and 4 in a four pin plug or pins 2 and 5 of six pins) bring in > the 'second' line. It may well be that 'line 1' should have been the > one you kept while 'line 2' was disconnected when you took a line > out. Or if you can find a 'dummy' modular head (plastic head with pins > but no wire protruding) try sticking that dummy head in the line one > space. I know Radio Shack sells the little dummy heads, mostly they > are for guys who are building their own wiring setups, but you don't > need the wire, just the little pins to make contact in the > phone. That's jusy my 'try it next' idea. PAT] Tried calling Vtech?? LB ------------------------------ From: PrinceGunter Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: 27 May 2005 07:53:10 -0700 Correction ... it appears that the customer didn't mention a piece of the puzzle. He has two locations, one is served by Vonage and one is served by Packet8. When we spoke, he was on a phone connected to Packet8 but the number I dialed to reach him was forwarded through his Vonage service. It appears the DTMF munging is being done when he forwards his Vonage service to any other location. Is there any way to correct this? Thanks for all your help! ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? Date: 27 May 2005 08:10:14 -0700 > maybe that someone has a good friend working for GoDaddy, or maybe > both. PAT] I own over fifty domain names thru GoDaddy and it only happened with one. For the record, GoDaddy will terminate people's account if it can be proven that they are spammers. They have an interesting streaming radio talk show every Wednesday evening which comes in nicely on my dial-up connection. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 20:59:39 -0400 From: Harry Joseph Subject: Earlier Mention of WUTCO Clocks Patrick, Here's my understanding how the WUTCO clocks worked, at least the one we had at radio stations in the Southwest in 1966-68. Our WU clock was big enough to contain an old-fashioned 1.5-volt dry cell, the cylindrical kind about 3 inches in diameter by 10-12 inches high, with knurled brass nuts on the threaded terminals. Every so often you'd hear whirr-whirr as the battery wound the spring motor or whatever; in the two years I was there I don't remember the battery ever being replaced, which makes sense since both its duty cycle and load were quite small, a nice bit of early-20th C. design, IMHO. What made it a WU clock was the telegraph pair leading, presumably, to the local WU CO. The clock would always lose a few seconds per hour, no more than five or ten, and exactly on the hour, every hour, a voltage pulse (unknown voltage) would come down that pair and activate a solenoid, which would literally pull the second hand to the vertical position, with a metallic 'thunk,' to start each hour right on the money. This was a mixed blessing for broadcasters, since the clock was accurate just when you needed it to be accurate, just before the hour, when every network affiliate rejoined its net after the hourly break, which lasted generally from :59:00 to :00:00. The upshot was that every station I ever saw with a WU clock also had an AC-powered (synchronous motor) Telechron clock on the wall next to it. The Telechron with its sweep-second hand was used to meet the network; the WU clock was useful only after a power outage, the possibility of which made it worth the few bucks a month charged by WU. Or at least that's how I remember it. Harry Joseph NYC Outside of a dog a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. --Groucho [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had several WUTCO clocks many years ago before they all got liberated. :( Instead of the two very large 'telephone battery' type things in each clock (1.5 volts time 2 wired in parallel) I had a single 'battery eliminator' wired in series (then parallel) to each clock. And it was _not_ true that they 'always lost a few seconds every hour'. By very careful calculation, I had mine adjusted to the point of a variance of twenty or thirty seconds per _month_ usually. That required using a leveling device for both the backboard they were on (as well as the platform they stood on) and a _very careful_ tweaking of the pendulum set screw. To explain the importance of careful adjustment, a variance of merely one second per minute gives an aggragate variance of one minute per hour, or 24 minutes per day ... totally unacceptable. The pendulum has to be exactly the right length and totally free-floating except for the 'fingers' where they resist the escapement. I do not know the math all that well these days (diseased brains can really fu-- with your abilities at times) but the idea is the swing the pendulum makes is an 'arc' (in the larger scheme of things) a 'circle' and the circumfer- ence, or distance 'around the entire circle' (or circumference) is very important. How long it would take in theory for the radius of the circle (let's refer to it as the 'pendelum stick' to make one trip around depends of course on the length of the radius (or pendelum stick). Ditto for fractions of a trip around the circle (the arc). From one side of the arc to the other you want the pendulum to take exactly one-quarter second to free-fall from its starting point to the center, and three- quarters second for the finger to in effect 'climb back up' the arc to the other side, or one-quarter second for the finger to get out of the way of the escapement and three-quarters second for it to 'resist and push the escapment back into place'. So after you have made absolutely certain with a t-square and level that everything is level (as best your eyes can see) and you have made a gross adjustment on the pendulum stick, then you continue your adjustments by _listening to the beat. You want to hear it go 'tick ... tock ... tick ... tock, _not_ tick-tock, tick-tock ...... tick-tock, tick-tock ... you want to hear an even (again, as best as your ears can deal with it) cadence. If the cadence is irregular, then check the leveling again, both vertical and horizonal. Now you are at the point the clock _appears_ to the naked eye to be level and it _appears_ to the naked ear to have the proper cadence. But naked eyes and ears are just that; only partially reliable human instruments. In actual practice, the tick is not a second away from the tock, but only .95 of a second away. And the wall is not exactly level, it is maybe a hundredth of an inch 'out of level'. What do you do next? Well, you are not going to rebuild your house, so we are going to make compensation via the set screw on the pendulum. Recall, we earlier gave the pendulum a gross adjustment (which is all some of them ever had, depending on the installer's interest in the matter) so now we are going to as needed give the pendulum the required fine tuning. Using an independent time source, we adjust the hands on the clock manually (_never_ turn them backward, just forward) so that the minute hand sets exactly on the minute of the hour and start the pendulum swinging. Watch the clock for about five minutes, and see, in five minutes with your naked eye if the minute hand is exactly where it should now be. If not, tweak the set screw just a tiny bit. (One complete turn of the set screw usually made a variance in time keeping of two minutes per day.) If after five minutes you can see a noticable difference consider another gross adjustment. If you don't see any difference, then good ... come back in 10-15 minutes and look again. Then do you see any difference? Remember, even if your eyes do not see any variance from the clock to the other time source, or your ears do not hear any irregular cadence, there are still wee tiny variances present. But we did not see any (by this point it is unlikely you will hear any), so we go away, and come back in one hour. Now see any problems? Check again in three hours, then in twelve hours, and finally after a full day, tweaking the set screw (which is the length of the pendulum, which in turn affects how 'fast' or 'slow' the stick [or radius] of the circumference will be traversed [or some fractional part thereof] which is the arc. Since gravity is constant, the only variables will be the geometry involved. Check the clock again in a week or two against the independent time source. My clocks were at the point even breathing on the set screw would put them out of whack, I got to where I never had to touch the set screw eventually. Even WUTCO was not that picky, so they allowed for a single gross adjustment once per hour in the form of the incoming wire from the central office which would periodically put a 'load' on the line and retard the pendulum for the second or so needed if the clock was too 'fast' or push the hand up a little if the clock was too 'slow'. There were a few other minor variables to consider also, such as humidity in the air, pollutants in the air which would stick to the fingers or the escapement, and regards pollutants, these necessitated a single **tiny** drop of 'clock oil' (A-1 worked fine, or something from a jeweler) typically once a year. Just a wee squirt of oil on the works inside; let that wee squirt do its own thing, working its way through all the gears by itself, which it will do in the next several hours. Do not drench the gears in oil, a tiny drop or two tiny drops is all it needs. Of my three working clocks (at one point I had a couple dozen of various makes and models, but I gave them all to friends except for the three I held out for my own use), I gave them a very ocassional 'gross adjustment' maybe once a month or so. As long as the WUTCO clocks were within two minutes (either side of the '12') in accuracy and they nearly always were (WUTCO expected that much of the installers in the field), just a little tap on the source of the load would jerk the minute hand forward or backward as needed to place it squarely on the '12' without the clock losing a single beat, and it would just go on as if nothing had happened. My 'load' was in the form of a nine-volt DC battery taped to the underside of my desk, with a doorbell wired to one side of the line in series then run off to the various clocks. I had an old Apple ][ computer and eventually 'automated' the process by having a modem dial into (what later became 'tick.navobs.mil' but in those days it was) 900-410-TIME or 202-762-1401 and when the pulse came through the modem, the Apple computer heard it, and a program I had sent a pulse through the computer's parallel port to the clocks. In 1963, when WUTCO discontinued their 'clock service' the old Western Union headquarters building, 410 South LaSalle Street had dozens of clocks in that building alone; every office had one, the public message office on the first floor had one, etc. The day after the clock service was discontinued, _every damn clock_ in the WUTCO headquarters building was gone! All had been replaced with cheezy looking wall clocks. I thought to myself, some executive(s) at WUTCO were smart, and I decided I would be smart also. So I went around to the places I frequented in those days, and tried to 'be helpful and replace that old WUTCO clock with a new, modern style wall clock'. Some people listened to/accepted my thinly-veiled BS; other folks would not. Those who accepted my 'generous offer' to get them a new modern clock (and don't worry about the old WUTCO clock; I will remove it and dispose of it) did get a new clock; I took down the old clocks and took them away. At Chicago Symphony, the building manager of Orchestra Hall gave me two clocks, both in mint condition, although they were fifty years old. From Chicago Public Library I got a clock from the employee's lunchroom, and also one from the cafeteria in the old Board of Edu- cation Building on North LaSalle Street. I was about to raid the Chicago Temple Building (which had six clocks in various areas of the building) -- and did get one -- but when I went back the next day to get one or two more, the building manager had changed his mind on the deal. I had gotten the one out of the lobby area the day before with the manager's blessings; when I went back, I had to find a ladder to get one out of the organ pipe chambers area; I was setting about my work when I 'bumped into' the building manager. He said (as best as I can recall to quote him) "I have to call the deal off; last night the Board of Trustees had their monthly meeting; one of them asked me about the 'clock in the lobby' and I told them; they gave me hell and said don't do that anymore." So now it appears others were getting smart as well as just me and the WUTCO executives. Besides in their second-floor offices, Temple Building also had a very elegant grandfather style clock (with Western Union works in it) in the third floor library. Now that I think about it, I am sorry I did not get that one first, while the manager was not on to me, but I recall thinking at the time I would never have the nerve to ask him to part with that one in its elegance. The clock I _did_ get however had a typewritten note inside the case saying 'put in service (some date) in 1923' and like all my WUTCO clocks from that era, they were all keeping almost perfect time seventy years later, despite a few moves in location and rehangs, and resets later. I wish I could find a WUTCO clock now! I understand I would not get one for the 'price' I paid in 1963 (nothing, except a wall clock trade). Someone stole the three I had held onto in 1999. After my brain aneuyrsm I could not find them around anywhere. :( PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #236 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Fri, 27 May 2005 23:57:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 237 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson White House Wants Search Limits on ISPs Overturned (Lisa Minter) Microsoft Severs Ties With Ralph Reed (Lisa Minter) The Indy 500 Goes Wireless (Eric Friedebach) Corton Pay Phone??? (Michael Muderick) Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Lisa Hancock) Re: Very Early Modems (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (DevilsPGD) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? (Tim) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: White House Wants Search Limits Overturned Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 21:04:13 -0500 By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to restore its ability to compel Internet service providers to turn over information about their customers or subscribers as part of its fight against terrorism. The legal filing with the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York comes amid a debate in Congress over renewal of the Patriot Act and whether to expand the FBI's power to seek records without the approval of a judge or grand jury. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero of New York last year blocked the government from conducting secret searches of communications records, saying the law that authorized them wrongly barred legal challenges and imposed a gag order on affected businesses. The ruling came in a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and an Internet access firm that received a national security letter from the FBI demanding records. The identity of the firm remains secret. The government was authorized to pursue communications records as part of a 1986 law. Its powers were enhanced by the Patriot Act in 2001. The administration said the judge's ruling was off the mark because the company did mount a legal challenge to the demand for records. "Yet in this very case, the recipient of the NSL did precisely what the NSLs supposedly prevent recipients from doing," the filing said. The law's ban on disclosing that such a letter has been received also is appropriate because of legitimate security concerns, the government said. But ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer said the law does not contain a provision to challenge the FBI's demand for documents. The ACLU and the firm filed the lawsuit to challenge the law's constitutionality on the grounds that it doesn't contain such a provision, he said. "Most people who get NSLs don't know they can bring a challenge in court because the statute doesn't say they can," he said. "No one has filed a motion to quash in 20 years." The ban on disclosure is so broad that the ACLU initially filed the suit under seal and negotiated for weeks on a version that could be released to the public. Previously censored material released several months after Marrero's ruling included innocuous material the government wanted withheld, the ACLU said, including the phrase "national security" and this sentence from a statement by an FBI agent: "I am a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation." 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft Severs Ties With Ralph Reed Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 20:45:18 -0500 By Elizabeth M. Gillespie Associated Press Writer SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. said Friday it has severed ties with Ralph Reed, a Republican lobbyist who once headed the Christian Coalition and who is running for lieutenant governor in Georgia. "Ralph Reed is no longer on retainer with Microsoft," company spokeswoman Ginny Terzano told The Associated Press. The move came a month after liberal activists urged Microsoft to quit using Reed as a political consultant, upset that the software company had pulled its support for a gay rights bill it had backed in the past. The company has since said it will support such legislation in the future. "Microsoft has a wide range of consultants on retainer, both Democrats and Republicans, and they are brought on based on need and for various reasons, but it's not our policy to discuss specifics about their retainers," Terzano said. She noted that Century Strategies, a public relations and lobbying firm Reed founded in 1997, lobbied for Microsoft on international trade and competition, not social issues. While she wouldn't comment on Reed's candidacy for lieutenant governor, Terzano said: "It would not be appropriate to have a consultant on retainer that is seeking elective office at the same time." Century Strategies did not immediately return a call for comment. Reed was executive director of the Christian Coalition from 1989 to 1997. He was credited with being the major force behind the organization's fund-raising success. Last year, he was the southeast regional chairman of President Bush's re-election campaign. In the waning days of this year's legislative session in Olympia, gay rights groups criticized Microsoft for backing away from its past support of a bill that would have made it illegal to discriminate against gays in housing, employment and insurance. The bill died by a single vote in the state Senate on April 21. Liberal bloggers called Microsoft a corporate coward, accusing the company of caving to a boycott threat from an evangelical minister. Microsoft, one of the first companies to extend domestic partner benefits to gay couples, insisted it had decided to take a neutral stance on the bill before the legislative session began. Two weeks ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told employees the company had decided to support the bill in future years, saying it was important for the company to back legislation promoting diversity and nondiscrimination policies. Equal Rights Washington, a Seattle-based group that had lobbied for the gay rights bill, called on Microsoft to fire Reed. Asked if that influenced the company's decision fire Reed's firm, Terzano declined to comment, saying: "Microsoft retains and lets consultants go throughout the course of the year based on the company's needs. And that was the case here." On the Net: Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/ Century Strategies: http://www.censtrat.com/ This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJIO2X89E.html 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: Eric Friedebach Subject: The Indy 500 Goes Wireless Date: 27 May 2005 16:05:16 -0700 David M. Ewalt, 05.27.05, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Auto racing goes wireless on Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Professional motor sports have never been a solo pursuit. Drivers may be alone in their vehicles, but they're backed up by huge teams of mechanics and experts who watch and analyze their every move. The best racers know they can push their car to the limit because the guys in the pits are keeping it in perfect shape. That relationship moves to a new level on Sunday, when two cars from the Red Bull Cheever Racing team compete in the Indianapolis 500, armed with a cutting-edge Internet Protocol-based wireless system that gives the entire team access to a wealth of real-time information and communications during the race. http://www.forbes.com/2005/05/27/cx_de_0527nascar.html Eric Friedebach /And now it's time for: Jaromir Weather/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 20:39:09 -0400 From: Michael Muderick Subject: Corton Pay Phone??? I have come across 1/2 dozen Corton Communications payphones, WP 1000, hearing aid compatible, brand new-boxed with keys. I can't find anything about the company -- they were in Yonkers NY. If anyone has any info on them (they don't come packed with any data sheets), please contact me at Michael@muderick.com. Inside there is an RJ-11 jack and connections for L1,L2 andG. I assume that's for some sort of power connection -- there is an LCD display on the front. The board that these connections are on doesn't look like it's for 110VAC- But I have no clue as to what voltage, AC or DC it would require. I'll appreciate any info on them. And, I'd be happy to sell them as well. mm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If these are what I am thinking, they are 'smart' COCOTS. 'Smart' in the sense they can be set for whatever money value is desired to be collected (25 cents for three minutes on a 'local call' and four quarters or one dollar for three minutes on a 'long distance domestic' call.) The LED shows what the person dialed, the amount of money due on the call (as you choose to program it) and when no call is in progress it displays the time and some ribbon message promoting the service. The phone does not ring on incoming calls, but only chirps a couple times then answers itself with a recorded message on a chip saying 'Operator! This is a pay phone with no collect/third party charges allowed!' Then it disconnects itself unless you, the proprietor punch in a security code which allows you to program the rate remotely. I am not certain _and will not guarentee_ that they run on a 12 volt battery eliminator with a good size amperage, around a thousand MA. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: 27 May 2005 14:28:04 -0700 TELECOM Digest Editor noted as a preface to a message from Lisa Minter: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The gentleman who passed this item > along to Lisa and the Digest said, in effect, "here is another > example of Vonage screwing up." I dunno, it seems more like Verizon > screwing up to me. Vonage said to Verizon, or (rather to Choice One > Communications, which owns U.S. Exchange) to disconnect _ONE_ line. I'm not sure Verizon was at fault here, but I would agree it certainly isn't clear that Vonage was at fault either. Accidental disconnects have always happened. The sharing of phone numbers and allowance of multiple carriers does indeed increase the risk of confusion and service interupts. If I order a new car but tell the dealer to have someone else install the audio system (as many motorists do), I've increased the chance of confusion between the car dealer and audio dealer and risk of finger pointing. I do want to share the experience of friend who repeatedly switched his phone service but had no disconnect troubles: He tried a different company that advertised lower rates, but got upset when they added on a bunch of fees, so he switched back to Verizon. Then he decided the other was still a better deal so he switched back. Then he moved and wanted the same number serving both locations until things settled. The other company wouldn't do that, but Verizon did, so he switched back to Verizon, and had service in two locations under the same number for a month. I think he's still wtih Verizon. All of this happened in a short time without problem. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 27 May 2005 14:34:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jim Haynes wrote: > We could have a very long discussion of why Western Union went under. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts. > The business press would say it was simply a matter that they had > money going out a lot faster than it was coming in, and no prospects > for reversing that situation. As an engineer I would say they did a > lot of dumb things in the engineering and marketing end of the > business. And it seems to have been government policy to keep > W.U. with exactly one foot in the grave at all times. The Oslin WU history is very critical of government policy -- he says WU was forced to absorb at great cost the Postal Telegraph system and constantly favored AT&T over WU. By the late 1970s WU had recognized the classic Telegram was obsolete and their business was focused on money transfer, which is still a big business today. I can understand needing AT&T for the "last mile" but for money transfers I would think they could've used mostly their own network. Supposedly they built microwaves and satellites in the earlier years unless that was public relations exaggeration. I heard they used AT&T for their processes and it was costly. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 19:24:12 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message PrinceGunter wrote: > Correction ... it appears that the customer didn't mention a piece of > the puzzle. He has two locations, one is served by Vonage and one is > served by Packet8. When we spoke, he was on a phone connected to > Packet8 but the number I dialed to reach him was forwarded through his > Vonage service. It appears the DTMF munging is being done when he > forwards his Vonage service to any other location. > Is there any way to correct this? Thanks for all your help! I regularly forward my Vonage service to my cell phone, and from there my cell phone transfers the call invoice voicemail. Callers can enter their phone numbers to get a call back, this function works fine. I also check my own voicemail through the forwarding loop sometimes (If I'm traveling in Texas I can dial my Texas virtual number as a local call, rather then calling long distance to my cellphone's number in Calgary.) So in short, I think it's just you -- You might want to try contacting Vonage's tech support though, they might be able to do something. If you do, make sure to followup in July (once Vonage gets back to you) and let us know if you find anything interesting :) ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 19:12:14 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago used DC power (rather >> than AC) -- at least in the downtown area -- until sometime around >> 1930. That's at least one reason why there were so many WUTCO clocks >> everywhere, instead of 'regular' wall clocks. Clocks cannot run on >> direct current; they require alternating current at 60 cycles. > I wonder what they did in territory where the generated A.C. power was > at 25 cycles. When did they deliver AC at 25 cycles? I do recall some 50 cycle companies around that had to change after the end of WWII. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #237 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Sun, 29 May 2005 18:16:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 238 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Monty Solomon) For Police, Word From the Wise is Sufficient (Monty Solomon) Paris Hilton Hack Started With Old-Fashioned Con (Monty Solomon) Sales of Cell Phones Totally Off the Hook/180 Million Units (M Solomon) Lawyers, Others, Question Radio TIVO-Like Devices (Lisa Minter) Internet Radio is Gaining, But Problems Remain (Lisa Minter) D. Telekom US Unit Sees Growth in 2007 (Lisa Minter) Adtran T1 CSU ACE Available (telcom) Re: Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either (Tony P.) Re: Corton Pay Phone??? (Tony P.) Re: Phone Outage Causes Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Mary) Re: Very Early Modems (Jim Haynes) Re: Vtech Caller ID Not Working (Harlan Messinger) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use (Robt Bonomi) Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail (Tim@Backhome.org) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 00:45:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff Boston Public School officials, who recently banned cellphone use during the school day, are angering students with a new prohibition: no checking or sending e-mail from Yahoo, Hotmail, or other personal Web-based accounts from school. With little warning, the school system this spring started banning access to personal e-mail accounts in all schools because some students recently used school computers to e-mail threats, hit lists, and pornography to other students and teachers, school officials say. There were four incidents during the past four months, but school officials would not provide further details. Boston's move follows the lead of an increasing number of school systems around the country, including Worcester, that have been cracking down on the use of Web-based e-mail services at school. Incidents of students using e-mail in school to bully one another have led to many of the bans, partly because school officials worry about being held liable if something happens. Boston school officials estimate that only a third of the system's students have Internet access at home, and Boston students say the new policy eliminates an essential form of communication for them. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/28/schools_prohibit_personal_e_mail_sites/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 01:12:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For Police, Word From the Wise is Sufficient By Kennan Knudson, Globe Correspondent Starting tomorrow, Brookline police will be among the first in the Northeast to use sophisticated voice recognition and response software that will allow officers in cruisers to get information quickly while keeping their eyes on the road. Officers will be able to simply hold a button and read the license plate number of a suspicious vehicle into their laptops while driving. The computer then 'reads' back information on the car and driver. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/05/22/for_police_word_from_the_wise_is_sufficient/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 03:14:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Paris Hilton Hack Started With Old-Fashioned Con Source Says Hacker Posed as T-Mobile Employee to Get Access to Information By Brian Krebs washingtonpost.com Staff Writer The caper had all the necessary ingredients to spark a media firestorm -- a beautiful socialite-turned-reality TV star, embarrassing photographs and messages, and the personal contact information of several young music and Hollywood celebrities. When hotel heiress Paris Hilton found out in February that her high-tech wireless phone had been taken over by hackers, many assumed that only a technical mastermind could have pulled off such a feat. But as it turns out, a hacker involved in the privacy breach said, the Hilton saga began on a decidedly low-tech note -- with a simple phone call. Computer security flaws played a role in the attack, which exploited a programming glitch in the Web site of Hilton's cell phone provider, Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile International. But one young hacker who claimed to have been involved in the data theft said the crime only succeeded after one member of a small group of hackers tricked a T-Mobile employee into divulging information that only employees are supposed to know. The young hacker described the exploit during online text conversations with a washingtonpost.com reporter and provided other evidence supporting his account, including screen shots of what he said were internal T-Mobile computer network pages. Washingtonpost.com is not revealing the hacker's identity because he is a juvenile crime suspect and because he communicated with the reporter on the condition that he not be identified either directly or through his online alias. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900711.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 03:42:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sales of Cell Phones Totally Off the Hook / 180.6 Million Units Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer Mobile-phone sales continued at a torrid pace in the first quarter as consumers worldwide latched on to camera phones and cheap deals, according to a new report. The industry reported that 180.6 million units were sold in the first quarter of this year, a 17 percent increase from the same period a year ago. That continued a buying boom that began two years ago and really took hold last year, according to market research firm Gartner Inc. The new figures prompted Gartner to revise its mobile-phone sales estimates up to 750 million units from 720 million for 2005. Still, industry analysts predict a cooling-off trend as some of the emerging markets in China and elsewhere stabilize while existing mature markets in North America and Europe slow down after a recent frenzy in phone replacement sales. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/28/BUGV4CVUVP1.DTL ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Lawyers, Others Question Radio TIVO-like Devices Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 01:17:58 -0500 By Sue ZeidlerFri May 27, 5:45 PM ET It's like Tivo for radio, but is it legal? Various devices that enable listeners to record Internet radio streams and then convert them into MP3 files are catching on and making Web radio and streaming services more appealing to the general public. But some legal experts say the recording software may violate digital copyright laws and does little more than promote piracy. "Obviously if people can use the TIVO-like unit to download a recording from Web radio and pre-program it to search digital radio to find tracks that you want, it's going to beg a big question with the record industry," said Jay Cooper, an veteran entertainment lawyer. "The thing to ask is if it is a violation and does it need to be examined. Technology's way ahead of the law." Cooper said that, under the Digital Copyright Millenium Act, users have no right to duplicate copyrighted material from a computer hard drive, only from a digital or analog recording device and then only for personal use and not for redistribution. Webcasters similarly are restricted from promoting the recording of their content. But with products such as San Francisco-based Applian Technologies' Replay Radio, users can split, chop, trim and edit their recorded MP3 files from streamed music services. The company's Web site says the product "works like a TiVo for Internet Radio" and can turn streaming music into perfectly tagged MP3 song files. "There's certainly a lawsuit waiting to happen because they're basically enabling consumers to record and the recordings are not authorized," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association. But Tom Mayes, co-owner of Applian, defended the practice. "We've been doing this for a long time," he said, noting other software recording programs were offering similar functions. "I think its too late for these (record) companies to try to put a stranglehold (on technology)." On its Web sites, the company said its products are not intended for use in circumventing copy protection or making illegal copies of coyprighted content. But at least two Webcasters have raised a red flag about Replay Radio. RealNetworks Inc.'s (Nasdaq:RNWK - news) Rhapsody sent Applian a letter requesting it take Rhapsody's name off a Web page at (www.replay-music.com) that lists streaming music services that work with the software. "Using software like Replay Radio to record Rhapsody subscription streams violates our terms of service," said Matt Graves, a spokesman for Rhapsody. Yahoo Inc.'s (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) MusicMatch concurred. On Replay Radio's Web site, the company has partially obscured the reference to Rhapsody and MusicMatch, by inserting hyphens for parts of the spellings. "Rhapsody sent us a note from their legal department telling us not to use their name on our Web site and I said OK," said Mayes. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Internet Radio is Gaining, But Problems Remain Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 01:19:26 -0500 By Sue Zeidler LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Like a sleeping giant, Internet radio is quietly attracting more and more listeners and advertising dollars, leading some experts to predict that some day soon it will eclipse the popularity of satellite radio and iPods. Already, ratings company Arbitron Inc. says, some 37 million Americans tune into Internet radio at least once a month, up from 11 million four years ago. With its growing audience, it could start to take a bigger bite of the $11 billion spent annually on online advertising. Nevertheless, But Internet radio faces hurdles, say proponents, because digital copyright laws make it less viable than rivals. "The growth potential is huge but there are significant challenges. The record industry is doing their best to keep Internet radio in a box," said Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association. Instead, he said, the music producers "should be working on ways to enable it" to capture a paid audience for recording artists. Potter's group has been pressing Congress for years to update copyright laws that require Web radio companies to pay royalties to record labels. But restrictions continue to hinder the growth of the medium. Webcasters can only play four songs by any single artist in a three-hour period and are restricted from promoting the recording of their content, unlike, satellite operators which are free to do so. "We need to clarify and simplify Internet radio laws to promote the growth of these services," said Potter, whose group represents small and large Webcasters like Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:TWX - news) AOL, Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and RealNetworks (Nasdaq:RNWK - news). Potter says most Webcasts are still operated at a loss. Steve Marks, general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, says record companies have embraced Internet radio by offering an easy way to get licenses to use its content. But he said the trade group was disappointed that some Web radio companies have failed to respect the rights of artists. "Internet radio companies should stop facilitating piracy and adopt secure streaming formats today," he said. Still, entrepreneurs have found legitimate ways to overcome the barriers, and are now moving Web radio forward, fueled by views that wireless broadband will turn it into a "killer application." They are set to put it onto cellphones, MP3 players and other devices beginning as soon as late 2005. "Once Internet radio's available everywhere and you'll have 'Internet walkmen', it will be a watershed moment," said Bryan Miller, general manager for alternative Cincinnati station (www.woxy.com), which aired for 20 years as a traditional radio station before turning Web-only about 9 months ago. Some Web radio operators, like Mercora, an aggregator of 500,000 individual Internet stations, have already found ways around Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) restrictions. "The DMCA puts a lot of restrictions on the industry. But when you have as much content as we have, these things don't stop you," said Srivats Sampath, chief executive officer of Mercora, which enables listeners to "timeshift" or record streamed programming so they can play it back later, which is prohibited on U.S. Webcasts. "DMCA prohibits timeshifting of DMCA webcasts in the U.S., but you can timeshift everything you hear from our Canadian networks, which are registered in Canada where rules don't prevent listeners from timeshifting," said Mercora. Other companies are helping Internet operators generate cash for their Webcasts. "We're good at offering alternative revenue models to advertising for Internet radio stations," said Kurt Huang, co-founder of Bitpass Inc., a Web-based payment service that helps online content providers bundle, promote and sell content and collects payments for them. Ando Media provides a product called Webcast Metrics, which tracks Web radio usage across 500 independent stations including (www.accuradio.com), (www.airAmericaradio.com) and (www.radioio.com) and then sells that data to advertisers. "Internet radio represents one of the biggest untapped audiences -- daytime primetime," said Jordan Mendell, chief technology officer for Ando, noting that most Web radio listening occurs during the workday at offices. "It's almost like a puzzle piece. Internet radio fills in the gap between drop-off and the drive home," he said. Mendell said his company's data has translated into ad buys and has helped stations develop credibility. "We're seeing major ad buyers like Toyota and Napster putting major campaigns on our stations," he said. Eileen Wolbert, director of advertising for Live365, a portal of 10,000 Web radio stations, also cited a huge upswing in advertising interest this year. As the medium gains traction, terrestrial broadcasters are embracing it after pulling the plug on streamcasts a few years ago. Viacom Inc's Infinity recently began streaming news/talk outlets and launched a couple of Web-only stations, while Clear Channel Communications Inc recently launched a new Web strategy. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In our Telecom Digest Extra pages, we have various streaming audio programs of interest, including all news (AP, BBC, CNN), classical music, NASA television and others. You go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra and select from whatever you wish to hear, if any. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter (lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com) Subject: D.Telekom U.S. Unit Sees Growth in 2007 Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 16:03:34 -0500 By Nikola Rotscheroth T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom's U.S. mobile arm, sees its growth of around 1 million new customers per quarter continuing at this pace in 2005 and is preparing new "third-generation" mobile services for 2007. As there are many more Americans who have not used a mobile phone than there are Europeans or Japanese, T-Mobile USA, the country's smallest national operator, believes there is still plenty of room for it to expand, its head told journalists. "I believe we can keep up this speed of growth," said T-Mobile USA Chief Executive Robert Dotson. T-Mobile USA won 957,000 new subscribers in the first quarter of 2005, to reach 18.3 million. "We are a growth machine. We have to grow, grow, grow," Dotson said. The main source of this growth, the operator believes, is people using their mobiles instead of the fixed-line network to make calls, or giving up their fixed-line phone entirely -- as 10 to 15 percent of T-Mobile USA's customers already have. Since Deutsche Telekom bought the unit, then called VoiceStream Wireless and a small startup, for a breathtaking $40 billion in 2001, it has become its main growth engine -- and overtook the domestic German mobile arm in terms of revenues last year, with 9.3 billion euros ($11.7 billion). According to a 10-year business plan it published this year, Deutsche Telekom expects T-Mobile USA to bring in 43 percent of its mobile revenue -- more than any other mobile unit including Germany, Britain, and other European countries. T-Mobile International CEO Rene Obermann told reporters he was not worried by the mergers in the United States, which have reduced to four the number of national mobile operators, leaving T-Mobile USA the fourth rank by far. "The fourth rank is a good position," Obermann said, adding that T-Mobile USA, as part of T-Mobile International with 75 million subscribers, had bigger purchasing power than any other U.S. operator. Cingular, a joint venture of Baby Bells SBC and BellSouth, took over AT&T Wireless last year to become the largest operator, and Sprint bought Nextel to become the third largest. No. 2 in the market is Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and the world's biggest mobile operator, Vodafone. 3G LAUNCH IN 2007 T-Mobile USA is preparing the launch of new third-generation (3G) mobile phone services -- which allow video phone calls and music downloads over mobiles -- in 2007, even though it has yet to make a formal decision to bid for the necessary spectrum. "We plan to begin the 3G rollout in the second half of next year and the first services shall launch in 2007," said Chief Development Officer Cole Brodman. T-Mobile International's Obermann cautioned, however, that the supervisory boards of T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom still had to approve the group's bidding for the service in an spectrum auction upcoming in the second quarter of 2006. Obermann declined to say how much he was ready to spend for the spectrum -- all over Europe, operators spent around 100 billion euros for 3G spectrum -- but said license prices had come down in the United States since the number of national operators has dropped to four from six. Dotson ruled out T-Mobile USA buying a regional U.S. mobile operator to expand into areas where it did not have its own presence yet. The group, which has earmarked 2.2 billion euros to build its network in the United States this year, would rather spend on its own network assets in regions it had identified as interesting, he said. 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: telcom Subject: Adtran T1 CSU ACE Available Date: 28 May 2005 04:03:12 -0700 Recent upgrade of our CSUs to shelf type has made available FOR SALE several Adtran T1 CSU ACE wint P/N 1200022L2. These are very reliable units. They are in excellent condition. Very clean and no markings. Some used equipment companies sell them between $185-$300 each. I have two (2) lots of 5 units/lot. I am looking to get $600.00 per lot. BTW, these units have no accessories/manual with them. If you are familiar with these units they can be powered thru an external 48V source and sometimes from carrier line. If you're interested and want to know more, please email me. Thanks, F.L. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 10:37:11 -0400 In article , jack- yahoogroups@withheld_on_request says: > Quick, somebody let Mike Cox (our Michigan Attorney General) know > about this, so he can threaten a real phone company with a lawsuit > instead of picking on VoIP companies ... > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63909 > Psst: Traditional 911 Doesn't Always Work, Either Some think VoIP > carriers are getting a bad rap. > While the impression is there's been a rash of deaths thanks to bad > VoIP 911 connectivity, the truth is many of the "baby death" cases > (like this one http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63372 ) are > more rhetoric than substance. An interesting discussion in our VoIP > forum http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13491142 , on how > traditional 911 systems often fail (see Boston Herald > http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=84679 > without so much as a peep from the FCC or Congress, who've jumped all > over VoIP. > Article + reader comments at: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/63909 > How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: > http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html > If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ The Boston Herald story was interesting. But in that case it was probably Intrado that dropped the ball, not Verizon. In any case, this all demonstrates that E-911 is a complex system, and complex systems fail all the time. But the general consensus is that the incumbent carriers are trying to do one of two things. Either they're trying to throw off the yoke of what little regulation still exists, or they're trying to kill VoIP providers. I'd bet on the latter. Right now the incumbent carriers are playing all sort of games because their revenue streams are being threatened. Just look at the efforts they've thrown in to killing government owned metropolitan 802.11 networks. Instead of lowering prices and investing in research and development, the incumbents would rather rake everyone over the coals in search of profit. It isn't that profit is a bad, just that excessive profit rankles, particularly when used as the reason for a corporation to behave in an abhorrent manner. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Corton Pay Phone??? Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 10:42:55 -0400 In article , michael.muderick@verizon.net says: > I have come across 1/2 dozen Corton Communications payphones, WP 1000, > hearing aid compatible, brand new-boxed with keys. I can't find > anything about the company -- they were in Yonkers NY. If anyone has > any info on them (they don't come packed with any data sheets), > please contact me at Michael@muderick.com. Inside there is an RJ-11 > jack and connections for L1,L2 and G. I assume that's for some sort of > power connection -- there is an LCD display on the front. The board > that these connections are on doesn't look like it's for 110VAC- But I > have no clue as to what voltage, AC or DC it would require. I'll > appreciate any info on them. And, I'd be happy to sell them as well. T, R and G are Tip, Ring and Ground respectively. > mm > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If these are what I am thinking, they > are 'smart' COCOTS. 'Smart' in the sense they can be set for whatever > money value is desired to be collected (25 cents for three minutes on > a 'local call' and four quarters or one dollar for three minutes on a > 'long distance domestic' call.) The LED shows what the person dialed, > the amount of money due on the call (as you choose to program it) and > when no call is in progress it displays the time and some ribbon > message promoting the service. The phone does not ring on incoming > calls, but only chirps a couple times then answers itself with a > recorded message on a chip saying 'Operator! This is a pay phone with > no collect/third party charges allowed!' Then it disconnects itself > unless you, the proprietor punch in a security code which allows you > to program the rate remotely. I am not certain _and will not > guarentee_ that they run on a 12 volt battery eliminator with a good > size amperage, around a thousand MA. PAT] Usually COCOT phones are powered by -48VDC. There probably is a small lithium battery in the phone to keep the translations active during line outages but other than that, you just hook em' up. ------------------------------ From: Mary Subject: Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 12:15:19 -0400 Organization: Bell Sympatico That's an interesting concept -- the same number in two locations? How does it work? Does it ring in two locations and first to answer gets the call? Do you have to pay for two lines and one number? Thanks wrote in message news:telecom24.237.5@telecom-digest.org: > TELECOM Digest Editor noted as a preface to a message from > Lisa Minter: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The gentleman who passed this item >> along to Lisa and the Digest said, in effect, "here is another >> example of Vonage screwing up." I dunno, it seems more like Verizon >> screwing up to me. Vonage said to Verizon, or (rather to Choice One >> Communications, which owns U.S. Exchange) to disconnect _ONE_ line. (Then Lisa Hancock continued): > I'm not sure Verizon was at fault here, but I would agree it > certainly isn't clear that Vonage was at fault either. Accidental > disconnects have always happened. > The sharing of phone numbers and allowance of multiple carriers > does indeed increase the risk of confusion and service interupts. > If I order a new car but tell the dealer to have someone else > install the audio system (as many motorists do), I've increased > the chance of confusion between the car dealer and audio dealer > and risk of finger pointing. > I do want to share the experience of friend who repeatedly switched > his phone service but had no disconnect troubles: > He tried a different company that advertised lower rates, but got > upset when they added on a bunch of fees, so he switched back to > Verizon. Then he decided the other was still a better deal so he > switched back. Then he moved and wanted the same number serving both > locations until things settled. The other company wouldn't do that, > but Verizon did, so he switched back to Verizon, and had service in > two locations under the same number for a month. I think he's still > wtih Verizon. All of this happened in a short time without problem. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Once, when I was moving from one house to another house in the same central office in Chicago, I had this same arrangement for a short time. I was keeping the same phone number in both houses (both in same central office) but over the two or three day period when I was moving thing from one house to the other, there was a good chance I might miss an important call, if the phone had been connected _only_ at one place and I was moving things around at the other place. Telco just turned the number on at both places and said to advise them when I no longer needed the service. They billed me just the cost of an 'extension' phone, a few dollars. Now had it been in a different central office or a different city, the rep said to me it would have been handled as an OPX (off premise extension) and a differnet rate would have applied. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 19:26:03 GMT One of the problems with the modems circa 1960 was that AT&T felt they should operate over nearly any dialed-up connection between any two points. With the state of the telephone plant in the early 1960s this was a tall order. There is a paper (which I can't readily reference) where Bell Labs did a bunch of test calls all over the U.S. to assess the ability of their modems to communicate with acceptably low error rates. This would be a requirement for TWX, offering nationwide service, and for higher-speed modems. At higher speeds typically a corporation would make calls all over the U.S. to collect data from its local offices. The makers of acoustic couplers and would-be makers of third-party modems realized that for the bulk of the market - computer time sharing terminals -- most connections would be local or nearly so and they could get by with a much lower-performance modem. Meanwhile the telephone plant was rapidly improving and the probability of getting an unusable connection was steadily going down. So the Bell modems were overdesigned and consequently overpriced for the kind of service that much of the market needed. -- jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Harlan Messinger Subject: Re: Vtech Caller ID Not Working Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 11:46:51 -0400 LB@notmine.com wrote: > Harlan Messinger wrote: [inquiry and suggested troubleshooting approach snipped] > Tried calling Vtech?? Heh, yeah, I wrote to them at the same time that I posted my query here. I hate to rely solely on customer service for responses, especially by e-mail or web forms, since the first response, other than the autoresponse, tends to be a questionnaire seeking all the information that I, as a technically oriented consumer, already knew to provide in the first place. Anyway, Vtech wasted two days before responding, "Please send us your phone number so we can set up a profile for you," and then took another day to tell me that they'd set up my profile, and now could I please *call* them to troubleshoot the problem. I guess there was no point in using the web form in the first place. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 09:37:57 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > Robert Bonomi wrote: >> In article , >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago used DC power (rather >>> than AC) -- at least in the downtown area -- until sometime around >>> 1930. That's at least one reason why there were so many WUTCO clocks >>> everywhere, instead of 'regular' wall clocks. Clocks cannot run on >>> direct current; they require alternating current at 60 cycles. >> I wonder what they did in territory where the generated A.C. power was >> at 25 cycles. > When did they deliver AC at 25 cycles? I do recall some 50 cycle > companies around that had to change after the end of WWII. I don't know when the last 25-cycle power was phased out. Keokuk, Iowa, had a 25-cycle hydroelectric plant -- driven by the Mississippi River, As of the early 1960s, the hydro plant there was dark, although equipment was still in place. Power distribution to users was 60-cycle at that time. I'm _guessing_ conversion was late '40s, early '50s. "Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company" was running their own electric generators at 25 cycles at least through the mid '40s -- in '43 they installed a 'mercury-pool' frequency conversion system that let them feed their power into a 60-cycle public utility power distribution network. One of the down-sides to 25-cycle power was that _transformers_ had to be built heavier for the lower line frequency. Stuff that was build with the existence of lower frequency power worked just fine when connected to a higher-frequency source. Unfortunately, when you took something that had been designed to be 'just adequate' on 60-cycle power, and plugged it into a 25-cycle source, a frequent result was 'letting the magic smoke' out of the transformer. A *RUDE* surprise for someone who moved into one of those 25-cycle 'islands' from the mainstream of power distribution. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 04:55:25 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Sounds a bit like Nazi Germany. Patrick Townson wrote: > Woman Calls 911 With Pizza Complaint > An 86-year-old woman was jailed after police said she called 911 > dispatchers 20 times in a little more than a half-hour -- all to > complain that a pizza parlor wouldn't deliver. > Dorothy Densmore was charged with misusing the 911 system, a jail > spokeswoman said. > She told dispatchers Sunday that a local pizza shop refused to deliver > a pie to her south Charlotte apartment, said Officer Mandy > Giannini. She also complained that someone at the shop called her a > "crazy old coot," Giannini said. > Densmore wanted them arrested. Instead, police came to arrest her, and > she resisted, Giannini said. > It's unusual for someone to face charges for nonemergency calls, > Giannini said. But on Sunday, Densmore kept calling 911, even after > she was told to stop, Giannini said. > When an officer arrived at her apartment, the 5-foot-tall, 98-pound > woman attacked him, Giannini said. Densmore scratched him, kicked and > bit his hand, she said. > Densmore also is charged with resisting a public officer and two > counts of misusing the 911 system, jail records show. > Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Poor, brave, courageous police officer. > I sure hope he was not hurt when this 86 year old woman 'assaulted' > him. On the other hand, the old lady should have made her calls to > police on a VOIP line. If she had, chances are the police would still > be looking for her, in order to arrest the 'crazy old coot'. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So many things about USA law enforcement these days have a sort of tinge or a smell of Nazi-Germany to them, don't they ... PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #238 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Mon, 30 May 2005 16:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 239 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Computer Break-in/Corporate Spy Charges ... in Israel (Danny Burstein) Here is My Sad Story With Lingo (John Avina) How is Your Holiday; Mine Sort of Bittersweet (TELECOM Digest Editor) 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (D Burstein) Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines; Foreign Exchange Lines (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? (Julian Thomas) Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Still in Use? (Al Gillis) Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Robert Bonomi) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (mc) Re: Corton Payphone??? (Michael Muderick) Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail; 911 Call (DevilsPGD) Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail; 911 Call (John McHarry) Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail; 911 Call (Isaiah Beard) 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: Danny Burstein Subject: Computer Break-in/Corporate Spy Charges ... in Israel Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 00:44:34 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "The Israeli business community was reeling from shock Sunday as the country's largest-ever industrial espionage case was unveiled, and the accused companies sought to do damage control after the arrests of some of the telecommunications, motor and food industries' elite. "Senior managers from five leading companies, including Bezeq subsidiaries Yes and Pelephone and competing telecommunications giant Cellcom, were arrested for obtaining classified information from their competitors through a computer virus known as a Trojan horse. The other companies accused were Meyer Car Imports (importers of Volvo and Honda) and Tami-4 (mineral water retailers). In total, 18 people were arrested, including 11 private investigators ... rest at (among other places) : http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1117420058158 _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: John Avina - Abraxas Energy Consulting" Subject: Here is My Sad Story With Lingo Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 11:33:03 -0700 Organization: Abraxas Energy Consulting About a year ago, I called their sales department and asked if Lingo could work over sattelite. They said yes, and signed me up. I got the equipment, and tried for a couple of months (I had to buy all sorts of adapters) to make it work, and called tech support, and they said, no, it will not work. I tried to cancel, and get a refund, since their sales department mislead me. They would not give me a refund, and twice, when I asked to speak to a manager, they said the manager was too busy and would call me back, but the manager never did. After cancelling, they put a $40 cancellation fee on my credit card, and not only that, this month I got a $22 charge on my credit card. I have never been involved with such a crooked dishonest company before. I would advise all people to avoid Lingo. They have no ethics, apparently, and charge poor suckers like me for nothing. Never give them your credit card. Kind Regards, John Avina johnavina@yahoo.com ------------------------------ Subject: How is Your Holiday? Mine Sort of Bittersweet Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 15:15:59 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) To the USA readers, how goes your Memorial Day weekend holiday? You may recall here I mentioned a couple weeks ago about the relevance and pertinence for many of us in the 'Amber Alert' program. That really hit home for me about a week ago regards my younger sister when we _finally_ after some intensive searching discovered she was _still_ in Orlando, Florida where she wound up after having left home at the age of 16 almost thirty years ago. We got a phone call from her (now 23 year old) son about a week ago. It seems she had died -- on the street, the usual 'home' for homeless people -- she had been cremated and the ashes given to her son, as 'next of kin' on March 5, 2005, in other words about three months ago. Her son -- also a street person by choice, had not been easily located by authorities in Orlando, but in a sort of unceremonious way, when they finally _did_ locate him, the authorities handed him a little plastic baggy with ashes and said "here is your mother". I asked Justin (her son) to please either bring the ashes here _or_ ship them in the mail mainly so that _my_ mother (his grandmother) could see some closure in the matter. I had hoped the ashes and/or Justin would have been here over the holiday, but no such luck. Now I am told the ashes are en-route from Orlando, but we shall see about that. Meanwhile, _my_ brother Dan, along with his wife and his son came into town for this non-occasion Friday night, and are going back to their home in Chicago either tonight or in the morning. To 'celebrate' this non-arrival of the ashes and/or nephew Justin, my brother Dan insisted we all go over to Austin's (the local 'rowdy young guys, hard-rock, semi-gay bar' here in town; the equivilent of Dalton House down in Coffeyville.) I _hate_ the place, being far too noisy, far too full of cigarette smoke, drunks and assorted characters. The last time I was at Austin's was when Lisa Minter and two of her boy friends forced me to go there with them last July 3. If you recall when I wrote about that last summer, eight or ten blocks of West Main Street was totally torn up for sewer repairs/rebuilding, Austin's parking lot was inaccessible (as a result of the work on Main Street) and everyone was entering/exiting the place off of Maple Street, the next block south. None the less, the place was very crowded; standing room only. I knew before we left that this year would be the same way, being a holiday weekend and the night before the holiday. I hated it last year, I hated it again last night, particularly the police cars and sheriff cars roaming slowly through the (now functioning since Main Street repaired) parking lot; every one of the officers looking hateful as if they were saying, "oh, please, won't some one please screw up, so we can crack open some heads for fun and relaxation. We want to have fun also." Like last year, this time Dan took me out of here screaming and kicking; I would have been perfectly happy sitting in my parlor with a book and the computer; we stayed at Austin's until closing time (2 AM) and like last year when Lisa and her friends took me there, this weekend's bunch kept putting more and more and more drinks in front of 'uncle Pat' (I guess they consider me the family patriarch or something) while they all kept running around doing whatever it is that kids do in places 'like that'. All I remember is they got me back home a little after 2 AM, I fell asleep immediatly and woke up today feeling _terrible_. So how was your holiday weekend? PAT ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 21:58:31 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) writes: > I don't know when the last 25-cycle power was phased out. Keokuk, Iowa, > had a 25-cycle hydroelectric plant -- driven by the Mississippi River, 25 cycle/second power was still in use for portions of the NYC area transit facilities until about a decade ago. While the subway trains ran, and run, on 600VDC "third rail" power (until very recently there were big advantages to operating large motors off DC), some of the commuter railroads had legacy stuff. (The newest subway motor controllers actually take that DC from the third rail and transform it to 3-phase AC before feeding it to the motors.) Parts of some passenger stations tapped into this 25 cycle grid for use by the incandescent lamps. This led to quite noticable flickering whenever the temperature dropped ... (All primary lighting is now courtesy of the regular 120/208/240v utility grid feeding fluorescent fixtures. There's a modest amount of incandescent stuff around for small areas. Also, some emergency, backup, and area-work circuits feed a "five pack" of 120V incandescents off the 600VDC third rail.) _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 20:01:48 EDT Subject: Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines In a message dated Sat, 28 May 2005 09:37:57 -0000, bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) writes: >> When did they deliver AC at 25 cycles? I do recall some 50 cycle >> companies around that had to change after the end of WWII. > I don't know when the last 25-cycle power was phased out. Keokuk, Iowa, > had a 25-cycle hydroelectric plant -- driven by the Mississippi River, Doesn't Amtrak still have some 25 Hz power plants from its predecessor lines in the Northeast Corridor? Some locations have been converted to commercial power, some of them still owned and operated by Amtrak still provide 25 Hz. Their electric locomovies are designed to run on either frequency and within a certain range of voltages (24,000 and higher) to accomodate the variations in the power supplied by commerical power in different sections and also those sections served by their legacy power plants. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 21:15:29 -0400 Subject: Re: First Place, Web Promotion, Unsolicited Calls? In <20050526190543.0ADF61502E@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 05/26/05 at 03:05 PM, a resonse to my inquiry was: > It was sent to an addy that I ONLY use for Godaddy and is only shown on > my registrations thru GoDaddy. > I own many domain names and I only got Email re one domain name. > Someone is obviously trolling WHOIS. Yes. I use a unique email address for dns registrations, and I do get occasional spam to that address. Julian Thomas: jt - at - jt-mj period net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. - Vint Cerf ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 20:02:39 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Robert Bonomi wrote in message news:telecom24.238.14@telecom-digest.org: (Much Snippage ... about power line frequencies not at 60 Hertz (or Cycles per Second) > One of the down-sides to 25-cycle power was that _transformers_ had to > be built heavier for the lower line frequency. Stuff that was build > with the existence of lower frequency power worked just fine when > connected to a higher-frequency source. Unfortunately, when you took > something that had been designed to be 'just adequate' on 60-cycle > power, and plugged it into a 25-cycle source, a frequent result was > 'letting the magic smoke' out of the transformer. A *RUDE* surprise > for someone who moved into one of those 25-cycle 'islands' from the > mainstream of power distribution. Transformer weight is one of the big reasons much aircraft AC power operates at 400 Hertz. MUCH smaller transformer cores = less weight = greater payload or smaller engines. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 15:40:41 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Mary wrote: > That's an interesting concept -- the same number in two locations? > How does it work? Does it ring in two locations and first to answer > gets the call? Yup. *and* if the other location picks up, they're on the call too. > Do you have to pay for two lines and one number? Typically it is something that the telco does on a 'temporary' basis when one is moving between locations, and keeping the same number. In the 'old days', it was done by simply running a physical jumper wire between the terminations of the pairs from the two different locations, in the frame room. Depending on the telco, and depending on the length of time you needed 'overlapping' service, there may, or may *not* have been a charge for it. ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 21:35:59 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory (http://www.speedfactory.net) Sad. The school my daughter attends (admittedly a private one) *provides* personal e-mail service. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So do the Independence Public Schools. In addition, each teacher has a 'mailing list' with the names of all students and their parents/guardians, for the purpose of giving out homework assignments, teacher/parent conferences, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 22:06:57 -0400 From: Michael Muderick Subject: Re: Corton Payphone??? The designations in the phone are L1, L2, and G, not T, R, and G. So I am assuming they are for power, but at what polarity, voltage, etc. I don't want to blow it out. Michael@muderick.com ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Sun, 29 May 2005 17:14:36 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > Sounds a bit like Nazi Germany. > Patrick Townson wrote: >> Woman Calls 911 With Pizza Complaint >> An 86-year-old woman was jailed after police said she called 911 >> dispatchers 20 times in a little more than a half-hour -- all to >> complain that a pizza parlor wouldn't deliver. >> Dorothy Densmore was charged with misusing the 911 system, a jail >> spokeswoman said. >> She told dispatchers Sunday that a local pizza shop refused to deliver >> a pie to her south Charlotte apartment, said Officer Mandy >> Giannini. She also complained that someone at the shop called her a >> "crazy old coot," Giannini said. >> Densmore wanted them arrested. Instead, police came to arrest her, and >> she resisted, Giannini said. >> It's unusual for someone to face charges for nonemergency calls, >> Giannini said. But on Sunday, Densmore kept calling 911, even after >> she was told to stop, Giannini said. >> When an officer arrived at her apartment, the 5-foot-tall, 98-pound >> woman attacked him, Giannini said. Densmore scratched him, kicked and >> bit his hand, she said. >> Densmore also is charged with resisting a public officer and two >> counts of misusing the 911 system, jail records show. >> Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Poor, brave, courageous police officer. >> I sure hope he was not hurt when this 86 year old woman 'assaulted' >> him. On the other hand, the old lady should have made her calls to >> police on a VOIP line. If she had, chances are the police would still >> be looking for her, in order to arrest the 'crazy old coot'. PAT] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So many things about USA law > enforcement these days have a sort of tinge or a smell of Nazi-Germany > to them, don't they ... PAT] How do you figure? Who would be held responsible if one of her 20 calls caused a caller with a real emergency to be put on hold? It sounds to me like she should have been charged with assaulting a police officer too, which would raise the stakes from a "resisting a public officer" charge. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 02:35:10 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Sun, 29 May 2005 04:55:25 -0700, Tim wrote: > Sounds a bit like Nazi Germany. > Patrick Townson wrote: >> Woman Calls 911 With Pizza Complaint >> An 86-year-old woman was jailed after police said she called 911 >> dispatchers 20 times in a little more than a half-hour -- all to >> complain that a pizza parlor wouldn't deliver. >> Dorothy X was charged with misusing the 911 system, a jail >> spokeswoman said. Well, some 911 protocols require a response to each call. This sort of thing burns resources and can endanger others, or even the caller herself, if they finally ignore her. I had a relative who took to doing about the same thing. The sheriff put up with it for a time, then finally grabbed him, for something else actually, but he got the care he needed. What I find offensive about the whole story is that the news media thought it a fine thing to spray her name all over the country. For all I know, she may have been a pillar of the community until she made the understandable mistake of trying to live too long on her own. It is a shame to humiliate her so. That is assuming, of course, that they find, by now have found, a proper placement for her and drop the charges. I hope she also got her pizza. ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 12:29:05 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > Sounds a bit like Nazi Germany. Yes it is quite the Nazi thing to do "report" someone for something as mundane as refusing to deliver a pizza. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #239 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 31 May 2005 02:30:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 240 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Other Phones? (rockstarr0105) Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS! (pierreberto@yahoo.fr) Re: Octothorpe (Digest Reprints from 1988 and 1995)] (Paul Coxwell) Re: What Happened to Channel 1 (Paul Coxwell) Re: 25 cps Power was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (AES) Re: 25 cps Power was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Wesrock) Re: 25 cps Power was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Levine) Re: 25 cps Power was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Coxwell) Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use?] (Paul Coxwell) Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Greenberg) Re: Corton Payphone??? (Tony P.) Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 (S Sobol) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (DevilsPGD) 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: rockstarr0105@gmail.com Subject: Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Another Brand of Phone? Date: 30 May 2005 18:33:20 -0700 I Dropped my Cingular Motorola V220 in water ... OOps! Will the Cingular sim card work in a Nokia or other type of Motorola? Please Help!!! And what are the cheapest phones that are cingular and SIM compatible, THANKS!! ------------------------------ From: pierreberto@yahoo.fr Subject: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Date: 30 May 2005 13:14:02 -0700 I went to the same company-owned store I bought my Sanyo 7400 from a couple of months ago, starting a new two-year contract. The earpiece got progressively worse in sound-quality, as for me to hardly understand the conversation. I asked for a replacement or repair. After they looked at it, they said no, as there was "nothing wrong with the phone." There sure was, with the sound quality absolutely terrible. While waiting for my phone, I tested other Sanyo phones in the store. Many sounded bad too, my mine sounded the worst. The phone in its present condition is worthless to me. So I call up Sprint directly. They said they couldn't help me. So I said fine, just cancel the account, refund the purchase price for my phone after the $150 rebate they sent me (I offered to send the phone back to them), and don't charge me a $150 early termination fee, since they're not honoring their warranty or conditions to my contract, since I have a phone I can't call from and can't do a thing with. They refused, even after talking to two supervisors. I've been a customer of them for four years, but it took four years for me to suddenly figure out what an unethical company Sprint is. They're awful. Avoid them at all costs! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 22:35:52 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Octothorpe (Digest Reprints from 1988 and 1995)] > from CCITT recommendation E.161 (Arrangement of Figures, Letters and > Symbols of Telephones and other Devices that can be used for Gaining > Access to a Telephone Network) as revised for the Blue Book: > 3.2.2 Symbols > ... > [drawings, with angle between horiz. and vert. strokes, length of > strokes, and length of protruding nubbies labelled alpha, b, and a > respectively] > in Europe alpha = 90 degrees with a/b = 0.08 (looks funny to a > N.A.ican) > in North America alpha = 80 deg. with a/b = 0.18 The symbol will be known as the square or the most commonly used > equivalent term in other languages.* > *... alternate term (e.g. "number sign") may be necessary... > I suppose it's useful to have a translatable term. That approach > worked for "star", but it seems to have failed here. Does anyone refer > to '#' as a "square"? Anywhere? Enquiring minds want to know... British Telecom likes to call it "square," and uses the term in many system prompts, e.g. "Dial the telephone number followed by square." They do use hash as well. For example when calling into BT's U.K. direct service or using the euivalent card service from within Britain you'll hear the prompt "Dial your card number and PIN followed by the hash key." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 22:35:08 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Fwd: Re: What Happened to Channel 1 > In November of 1970, I heard BBC1 TV audio in the 41.5 MHZ range for > the first time here in the very center of the contiguous 48 United > States. > A few other notes are in order. The BBC wasn't the only television > service audible during those exciting times. The French also had a > Band-I service whose audio was at 41.250 MHZ plus or minus offsets. > More often than not, both the British and French television audio were > simultaneously receivable so it is good that they weren't on the same > exact frequencies. > If you consider the distance between Oklahoma in the middle of the > continental US and the UK or France, one would expect the propagation > to be almost identical, but the path tended to favor the French > system. Either their transmitters were run at a higher power level or > the angle of propagation for the signals was more favorable to France > than to England. Also, various transmitters in the UK would be > booming in loud and clear while others were barely audible. I have no idea about the power levels of the French transmitters on these frequencies, but the Crystal Palace (London) BBC transmitter ran with a vision ERP of around 200kW, and Divis (Northern Ireland) was listed for 35kW ERP. If I recall correctly, the sound transmitters were generally run about 10dB below vision, so you would have been looking at about 20kW ERP from London and 3.5kW from N. Ireland on the 41.5MHz frequency. Crystal Palace also used vertical polarization while Divis used vertical. There were several other BBC transmitters on ch. 1, although at much lower power levels. Mike Brown's transmitters webpage has a full list of the old VHF/405-line British transmitters: http://tx.mb21.co.uk/info/index.asp > The audio, by the way, for both the British and French systems was AM > or amplitude modulated. The video for at least the British system was > 405 lines at 50 fields per second. A few hobiests in the US actually > cobbled together modified monochrome television sets and tuners and > were able to get scratchy images. I was told that without modification > to the video circuits, the images were reverse polarity because the > 405-line system used the opposite signal levels for black and white > than do modern PAL or NTSC systems. The 405-line system did indeed use positive video modulation. The French at that time still had their 819-line system, with very wide channel bandwidths. In fact the French channels had a degree of overlap to fit them all in the band, with alternate channels having the sound carrier above and below the video carrier. They used positive vision modulation too, as indeed they still do with their modern 625-line system. Paul Coxwell Eccles on Sea Norfolk, England. ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 15:36:08 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Danny Burstein wrote: > (All primary lighting is now courtesy of the regular 120/208/240v > utility grid feeding fluorescent fixtures. There's a modest amount of > incandescent stuff around for small areas. Is it true that some subway 110V incandescent light fixtures used left-hand threads to deter bulb snatchers? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that in Chicago long ago, all the station lighting and platform lighting they did left hand threads to inhibit people from stealing the bulbs if they needed them at their own houseand also the voltage was sufficiently different the bulbs generally would not work in your home electrical outlets anyway. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 20:26:52 EDT Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines In a message dated Sun, 29 May 2005 21:58:31 UTC, Danny Burstein dannyb@panix.com> writes: > Parts of some passenger stations tapped into this 25 cycle grid for > use by the incandescent lamps. This led to quite noticable flickering > whenever the temperature dropped ... As a teenager, in the 1940s, I stayed with my folks at the Fred Harvey Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico. I pondered about why the flickering (more noticeable from the corner of your eye than looking directly at it, then realized the power supply was no doubt from the Santa Fe Railroad facilities adjacent, probably installed years before Gallup had commercial power. I'm not sure about the relationship to temperature. This was in the middle of summer and there was certainly no drop in the temperature. (Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad were associated from some time in the late 1800s.) Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Remember also the "Harvey Girls" who were like 'stewardesses' on the Santa Fe trains and the 1940's movie about the Harvey Girls, and they were always singing that song about the railroad ... how did it go? Something about " ... my day, and the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ..." It was a very famous movie in the 1940's and a very popular song. PAT]n ------------------------------ Date: 30 May 2005 21:10:20 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Doesn't Amtrak still have some 25 Hz power plants from its predecessor > lines in the Northeast Corridor? Not any more. I believe the last 25 Hz area was in Connecticut, powered by the ancient Cos Cob power plant which shut down in about 1970. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 22:28:48 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines I raised the issue of non-60Hz power in North America in another forum just a couple of months ago. It was after I acquired a book dating from 1959 (3rd edition, the 1st being 1950) which stated that 25Hz power was still in use in parts of upstate NY, and that many West Coast cities had 50Hz power. I know from previous discussions we've had that the Los Angeles area used 50Hz at one time, and converted over to 60Hz during the 1930s. Apparently there was a city-wide program to help everybody replace synchronous clocks. Somebody else recalled that when his grandfather worked as an electrician in the West Virginia mines in the early 1950s that they had 25Hz power. We also came up with the following link to an interesting article about frequency converters. This seems to confirm that 25Hz power was indeed generated in the Niagara/Buffalo region of New York, as well as elsewhere. http://services3.ieee.org/organizations/pes/public/2003/sep/peshistory.html It would be interesting to know just how widespead the use of 50Hz was in California in earlier times. Here in England, 25Hz was used on some electrified railroads in the npast, although the high-voltage lines now in use take their power from our regular 50Hz power grid. - Paul. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of my earliest terminal monitors was the H-19 from Heathkit (also known as Z-19 if you bought it already put together from Zenith. There as a little switch on the back which allowed you to 'default into' 50/60 cps, and you could also switch between 50/60 cps mode using keystrokes. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 22:36:32 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: Foreign Exchange (FX) Lines Still in Use? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As Robert knows, those four additional >> touch tone keys were known as A,B,C, and D. I forget the exact >> meaning of each, but my question is, did anyone with 'regular' >> service but with an Autovon phone ever try pressing those keys in >> a regular call? I did a couple times, and the immediate result was >> a 'fast busy' signal; the call would not complete. PAT] Modern BT exchanges here in England reject them and go to the standard (and irritating) "The number you have dialed has not been recognized" recording. It's not always an immediate dump to the recording; it depends upon the position. > I never encountered a _telco_ C.O. that implemented any > user-accessible functionality on them. I've got a vague recollection > of some telco 'test' systems that used em _after_ the call to the test > system was connected. Of course, that _wasn't_ the switch doing it. The BT automated dial/keypad test has an option for them here (for UK readers, this is the line tester reached by dialing 175). After the line test and ringback when the system prompts you to "Dial next test," the normal method for checking a DTMF keypad is to dial a 1, then when you get "Start test" followed by a dialtone, you dial 123456789*0#. If, however, at the "dial next test" prompt you dial A, you will get the same "Start test" folowed by a dialtone, but the tester then expects to receive just the four extra TouchTone digits ABCD in sequence. Paul Coxwell Eccles on Sea Norfolk, England. ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 20:54:20 UTC Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > Depending on the telco, and depending on the length of time you needed > 'overlapping' service, there may, or may *not* have been a charge for > it. I did this a few years in Bellsouth territory. The first 30 days were no extra charge, but I used it for longer (slow move) and there was a charge which I don't recall the amount of. Relatively small ISTR. Rich Greenberg Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time. N6LRT I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Corton Payphone??? Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 18:40:18 -0400 In article , michael.muderick@verizon.net says: > The designations in the phone are L1, L2, and G, not T, R, and G. So > I am assuming they are for power, but at what polarity, voltage, etc. > I don't want to blow it out. Someone correct me on this but I believe L1 = T, L2 = R and G = G. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Last Laugh! 86 Year Old Woman Taken to Jail Account of 911 Call Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 13:30:03 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com DevilsPGD wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So many things about USA law >> enforcement these days have a sort of tinge or a smell of Nazi-Germany >> to them, don't they ... PAT] > How do you figure? Who would be held responsible if one of her 20 calls > caused a caller with a real emergency to be put on hold? > It sounds to me like she should have been charged with assaulting a > police officer too, which would raise the stakes from a "resisting a > public officer" charge. But EVERYONE should be allowed to call 911 to complain about a pizza place, just like Pat says. :P I think the US is becoming more of a police state -- there's no question. However, the woman who repeatedly called about pizza needs to be disciplined. The story makes me wonder if the pizza place didn't have a good reason to not deliver to her in the first place. Kinda wonder what kinda of calls she made to them ... JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 23:25:00 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message mc wrote: > Sad. The school my daughter attends (admittedly a private one) > *provides* personal e-mail service. Sure and many schools limit access to from within the school, and/or allow teachers and administration to read the email. Personally, I consider both to be unacceptable solutions. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #240 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Tue, 31 May 2005 17:50:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 241 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ray Pelletier Appointed as IETF Administrative Director (Peter Godwin) Ericsson Looks to Revive Fixed Line Business (Telecom Daily Lead - USTA) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (AES) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Lisa H) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Morris) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (AES) Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (R Bonomi) Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (H Wharton) Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (L Hancock) Re: Here is My Sad Story With Lingo (DevilsPGD) Re: Here is My Sad Story With Lingo (Henry) Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business (Lisa Hancock) Re: Very Early Modems (Lisa Hancock) Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info) Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (PrinceGunter) Re: Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Another Brand of Phone? (J Levine) Re: How is Your Holiday? Mine Sort of Bittersweet (Lisa Hancock) 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: Peter Godwin Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 15:17:43 +0200 Organization: Internet Society Subject: Ray Pelletier Appointed as IETF Administrative Director Reston, Reston, VA - 31st May 2005 - The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is delighted to announce the appointment of Ray Pelletier as its first IETF Administrative Director (IAD). This appointment marks a key step in the IETF's progress in building a coordinated administrative platform that supports the collected needs of its community. Over the course of the coming months, this will include reorganization of the IETF's global budget and establishment or review of contracts with key support organizations. Pelletier will take charge of a number of activities that the IETF depends on for smooth operation, including oversight of its global budget, meeting planning, secretariat, document publication, and parameter assignment. Most of these activities are carried out for the IETF by other organizations under various forms of agreement; Pelletier will be responsible for reviewing and establishing those agreements and for future bidding processes. Pelletier has extensive leadership and management experience across the breadth of public, private, for-profit, non-profit, and volunteer organizations. As Director of Information Systems for the Navy JAG Corps he was responsible for managing a $10 million worldwide automation program. In his role as Executive Director for the Northern Virginia Technology Council he successfully managed the organizational development and operational support of a fast growing membership association. Brian Carpenter, Chair of the IETF, said, "We're delighted to have Ray on board. His experience suits the IETF perfectly - he's dealt both with contractors and with open, consensus driven volunteer communities, and we need someone who can slip easily between those two worlds and make sure they remain in sync. I'm eagerly looking forward to working with him." Pelletier's appointment was made by the recently constituted IETF Administrative Oversight Committee (IAOC), chaired by Lucy Lynch (University of Oregon). Lynch said, "I'm eager to dig into the next phase of the reorganization and I welcome Ray's expertise and insight." As part of a joint IETF-Internet Society agreement to support this administrative activity, Pelletier will be hosted by the Internet Society in Reston, Virginia. The IETF is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual. The Internet Society (ISOC) is a non-governmental international organization for global cooperation and coordination for the Internet and its internetworking technologies and applications. Members comprise commercial companies, governmental agencies, foundations, and individuals. ISOC has 82 Chapters in over 60 countries around the world. FOR FURTHER DETAILS: Peter Godwin Communications Manager, Internet Society E-mail: godwin@isoc.org 4, rue des Falaises 1205 Geneva Switzerland ------------------------------ From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Ericsson Looks to Revive Fixed-Line Business Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 15:00:00 CDT Telecom dailyLead from USTA May 31, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21959&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Ercisson looks to revive fixed-line business BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Cingular to sell Good Technology e-mail directly * Ring tone tops British music charts * Alcatel goes GPON, plans wireless networking rollout * RBOCs edge cable in Q1 broadband growth USTA SPOTLIGHT * In the Telecom Bookstore: Phone Facts Plus 2005 HOT TOPICS * Qwest ends pursuit of MCI * Skype repositions itself after VoIP 911 ruling * Nokia announces Wi-Fi device * GPON piques RBOCs' interest * Cell phone users want media services EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Startup tests long-range Wi-Fi * ITU greenlights VDSL2 standard REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Texas lawmakers fail to act on TV bill Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=21959&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 08:35:04 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Paul Coxwell wrote: > We also came up with the following link to an interesting article > about frequency converters. This seems to confirm that 25Hz power was > indeed generated in the Niagara/Buffalo region of New York, as well as > elsewhere. On a couple of nonstrop auto trips in 1949-1952 back and forth between home in Detroit and college in Boston we took the straight-line route thru Canada, N of Lake Erie, and I believe the power the part of Canada we went through was 25 cycle at the time -- flickering lights in late-nite restaurants, etc. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: 31 May 2005 09:22:31 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Paul Coxwell wrote: > Somebody else recalled that when his grandfather worked as an > electrician in the West Virginia mines in the early 1950s that they > had 25Hz power. For some reason, when AC was to be used (needed for transmission efficiency), 25Hz was required for electric motors back in the 1920s and 1930s. It was widely used in railroads. The electric trains from New Haven to Washington DC, west to Harrisburg, and on numerous branches serving commuters, was all 25 Hz, and much of it remains 25 Hz to this day. Subways used 600 V DC, but purchased or generated 25Hz power and sent that out to the substations for rectification and voltage transformation. Because of the above, for years certain commercial power stations continued to generate 25 Hz for their railway customers. I think now they finally are able to use solid-state converters instead of the big rotary machines. As mentioned, some railroads (but not all) switched to 60Hz. ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 13:10:19 +0000 (UTC) Organization: The MITRE Organization Wesrock@aol.com writes: > Danny Burstein writes: > (Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad were associated from some time > in the late 1800s.) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Remember also the "Harvey Girls" who > were like 'stewardesses' on the Santa Fe trains and the 1940's movie > about the Harvey Girls, and they were always singing that song about > the railroad ... how did it go? Something about " ... my day, and the > Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ..." Tying this (barely) into the thread currently running about WU clocks, part of the lyrics went: See the old smoke risin' 'round the bend, I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend, Folks around these parts get the time of day, From the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe. Joe Morris [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Right you are, I do not have any prize for you, however. The AT&SF railroad _originally_ ran between Atichson, Kansas, through Topeka, Kansas and southwestward on to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Then, as Chicago became the railroad capitol of America (start of 20th century) the AT&SF continued pushing eastward, making its new terminus at Dearborn Station in Chicago, and relocating its headquarters in the 'Santa Fe Building' at Jackson Blvd. and Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I hear your question now: ... ... *what was/is 'Dearborn Station'?* Well, along with Union Station (Canal Street and Madison) which still exists and is now the terminus for most intercity railroad traffic, there were Dearborn Station (Dearborn and Harrison Streets), Grand Central Station, (Baltimore & Ohio RR, Chesapeake RR's and others at Harrison and Wells Streets), Central Station (Illinois Central RR at Michigan and Roosevelt Road), LaSalle Street Station (various lines, LaSalle and Van Buren Streets) Northwestern Station (Canal and Randolph Streets) and others. All are gone, except for Northwestern Station and Union Station, and the various railroads still offering passenger service all merged their depots/terminals into one of those two locations. Now a question for the readers: Why do you suppose almost every single national political convention in US history from sometime in the middle 1800's through the middle 1900's was held in Chicago, as often as not at (the old) Chicago Stadium, or the International Ampitheatre, or as late as 1968 at the Stockyards convention hall? As often as not, the Republicans first, then a month later the Democrats, at the Chicago Stadium? Answer: because there were no airplanes to speak of, certainly no commercial and commonplace air travel. _Everyone_, politicans included, traveled by rail. And the most convenient place to meet for convention (which after all, means to 'convene') was in Chicago, where all the passenger railroads had their terminals. So the conference delegates, senators, governors, whoever all came to meet in _Chicago_ for their conventions. The railroads were one, maybe the principal reason Chicago grew from a population of a few thousand people in the 1850's to over a million people by the 1890's, and two million people in the early 1900's. _The railroads_ which may as well not even exist today. One summer when I had just gotten out of high school, I had a part time job selling train tickets for the B&O Railroad out of the (long since torn down) Grand Central Station in Chicago. It was intended as only a 'summer job' until the travel season was over. It was my privilege to meet Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess, who were traveling to Washington, DC for some event from their home in Independence, MO. They naturally took the Santa Fe to Chicago, where they switched trains (but of course) to the B&O train to go on to Washington, DC. PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 08:35:04 -0700 Organization: Stanford University In article , Paul Coxwell wrote: > We also came up with the following link to an interesting article > about frequency converters. This seems to confirm that 25Hz power was > indeed generated in the Niagara/Buffalo region of New York, as well as > elsewhere. On a couple of nonstrop auto trips in 1949-1952 back and forth between home in Detroit and college in Boston we took the straight-line route thru Canada, N of Lake Erie, and I believe the power the part of Canada we went through was 25 cycle at the time -- flickering lights in late-nite restaurants, etc. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 09:35:12 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , wrote: > In a message dated Sat, 28 May 2005 09:37:57 -0000, > bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) writes: >>> When did they deliver AC at 25 cycles? I do recall some 50 cycle >>> companies around that had to change after the end of WWII. >> I don't know when the last 25-cycle power was phased out. Keokuk, Iowa, >> had a 25-cycle hydroelectric plant -- driven by the Mississippi River, > Doesn't Amtrak still have some 25 Hz power plants from its predecessor > lines in the Northeast Corridor? Some locations have been converted > to commercial power, some of them still owned and operated by Amtrak > still provide 25 Hz. Correct And there are some other private installations using 25-cycle as well. I was referring to _public_ power distribution at 25-cycle. Where that was what you found at the outlet in your house, or office. Reasonably common through the 1930s, at least. Best data I can find, so far, *seems* to put end of public 25-cycle distribution somewhere post-WWII to mid-1950s. ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: 25 Hz Power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 11:14:22 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo Amtrak's Northeast Corridor including their line from Philly to Harrisburg (former PRR , ex-PC) still runs 11000VAC 25 cycles in their catenary. The former NY Connecting RR (Hell Gate bridge route) including the former New Haven RR"s Harlem River branch also using 11000VAC 25 cycle power in the cat. The change over to higher voltage and 60 cycles is before New Rochelle Jct where the branch meets the former NH (now Metro-North ) main from GCT. Metro-North as well as Amtrak's main from New Haven to Boston is 60 cycles. I believe the power lines from the falls crossing over from Canada to the US by the Peace Bridge is still 25 cycles. Who in Buffalo is still using it, I don't know. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: 31 May 2005 09:30:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > Doesn't Amtrak still have some 25 Hz power plants from its predecessor > lines in the Northeast Corridor? Some locations have been converted > to commercial power, some of them still owned and operated by Amtrak > still provide 25 Hz. AFAIK, no railroad generates its own power anymore. Indeed, the great 1930s Pennsylvania RR electrification used commercial power right from the start. Amtrak, SEPTA, and NJ Transit still have considerable routes that use the original 25Hz 11,000V. The New Haven to Boston line uses modern power as does some NJT routes. > Their electric locomovies are designed to run on either frequency and > within a certain range of voltages (24,000 and higher) to accomodate > the variations in the power supplied by commerical power in different > sections and also those sections served by their legacy power plants. The locomotives can switch power on the fly, but many of the commuter cars require shop work to make the conversion to a different power source. AFAIK, today there is nothing wrong with continuing with 25Hz and a lot of expense and disruption to convert, so it probably will remain in service for a long time. AFAIK, the substations that convert the frequency are solid-state now. A more pressing problem is the poor shape of the catenary (overhead wires to the trains). It is mostly 75 years old (or more) and time has caught up. Looking at it, especially at complex junctions, one can't help but marvel at the genuis of the engineers who designed it in the 1930s -- its durability is incredible. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still recall how Chicago Transit Authority used to switch between 'third rail' and overhead (catenary) wires north of Howard Street on the Evanston line and the Skokie line. Train would pull out of the station (using third rail), get a short distance up the track, coast to a stop and while they were in the process of hoisting the catenary pole into place, one or more of the clerks would walk through the cars like the proverbial train bandits of old times, telling the passengers "five cents more to continue your ride, please". People would get in their purses to find a nickel to hand over, but thoughtful passengers who made the trip each day and knew what to expect had already paid their five cent surcharge at the station where they boarded the train and instead of a nickle for the clerk would produce a a scrap of paper instead which I think was entitled 'proof of payment' and hand that over to the clerks instead. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Here is My Sad Story With Lingo Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 23:25:01 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message John Avina - Abraxas Energy Consulting" wrote: > About a year ago, I called their sales department and asked if Lingo > could work over sattelite. They said yes, and signed me up. > I got the equipment, and tried for a couple of months (I had to buy > all sorts of adapters) to make it work, and called tech support, and > they said, no, it will not work. > I tried to cancel, and get a refund, since their sales department > mislead me. They would not give me a refund, and twice, when I asked > to speak to a manager, they said the manager was too busy and would > call me back, but the manager never did. > After cancelling, they put a $40 cancellation fee on my credit card, > and not only that, this month I got a $22 charge on my credit card. > I have never been involved with such a crooked dishonest company > before. I would advise all people to avoid Lingo. They have no > ethics, apparently, and charge poor suckers like me for nothing. > Never give them your credit card. No: The solution is to give them your credit card, but no other way to collect money from you. Your next step is to call your credit card company and have all the charges reversed. ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Re: Here is My Sad Story With Lingo Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 09:27:00 +0300 Organization: Elisa Internet customer wrote: > About a year ago, I called their sales department and asked if Lingo > could work over sattelite. They said yes, and signed me up. > ...no, it will not work. > I tried to cancel, and get a refund, since their sales department > mislead me. Here is what I have done several times in similar situations (_not_ with Lingo, however). After discussing the matter with a phone rep, I will write a brief summary of the conversation, including all the details about what will (and, if relevant, what will not) work. I then e-mail it to them and ask that they print it off on their letterhead, have it signed by someone of manager level and fax it back to me. When I've got the fax in my hand, I give them my credit card number and an authorization to proceed with the order. If they won't do that for you, you probably don't want to deal with them. Cheers, Henry ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Phone Outage Costs Fort Wayne Store to Lose Business Date: 31 May 2005 09:41:54 -0700 Robert Bonomi wrote: > Depending on the telco, and depending on the length of time you needed > =>'overlapping'<= service, there may, or may ****NOT!*** have been > a charge for it. They do charge you for regular service to the second location; after all, they are providing you with two separate service lines. But there isn't a special charge for the overlap itself. This is limited to approx one month. I knew someone who had two houses in the same exchange territory and he wanted this arrangement on a permanent basis. The phoneco wouldn't do it. I was told that this arrangement is not very efficient and problem-prone. Businesses can get it but for a fee and more work is required. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: 31 May 2005 09:57:38 -0700 Jim Haynes wrote: > One of the problems with the modems circa 1960 was that AT&T felt they > should operate over nearly any dialed-up connection between any two > points. With the state of the telephone plant in the early 1960s this > was a tall order. I am far more sensitive to minute power outages and "blinks" because my electronic gear gets wacky. Newer gear has internal battery backup, but usually the clock is off by a minute or two and some settings are lost. Other gear (like my microwave) goes to blink. One of my clocks takes a 9V battery as backup, but chews them up. Anyway, the phone system as of 1960 was similar. It was fine for us to talk over and an occassional click or pop or slight crosstalk was ignored by humans. But sending data at 2400 is another story. One little click disrupts a whole stream and requires a re-transmission. The older switches could be 'noisy'. > This would be a requirement for TWX, offering nationwide > service, and for higher-speed modems. TWX was low speed and more tolerant of errors, though obviously undesirable. I understand modern Teletypes could be equipped with parity detection, but that needed ASCII and IIRC TWX was still Baudot. From the little I've seen reprinted in books and actual use, I believe some errors were expected and critical fields like money amounts were spelled out. In 1974 my employer had a TTY and using it was supposedly a pain. > Meanwhile the telephone plant was rapidly improving and the > probability of getting an unusable connection was steadily going > down. So the Bell modems were overdesigned and consequently > overpriced for the kind of service that much of the market needed. Yes the Bell System was constantly improving its physical plant, but it was also expanding very rapidly. In 1960 plenty of calls were still handled over open wire through SxS offices and it would take years to upgrade that. Given the criticality of data transmission, I suspect overdesign was prudent and valuable. In the 1970s my employer was always switching between AT&T and IBM modems seeking one that provided the highest reliability. Private leased lines has mixed reliability and digital lines looked promising (although a digital line was either fully working or broken and a bad analog line still got some data through.) BTW, divesture hurt us badly because suddenly our lines were arbitrarily split between the local and long distance carriers and immediately finger pointing began. We take effortless data communication for granted today, but not long ago it wasn't so easy. ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Date: 31 May 2005 06:10:37 -0700 Sue them in small claims court for breach of contract. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 07:12:37 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications You could very well have the same, or similar, experience with any of the wireless carriers. The contract is really for service, not the phone. Sometimes we have to accept that, as consumers, we make bad choices as to the equipment we decide to buy. You could replace the phone with one that works, stay on the account, and sue them in small claims court over the defective equipment (as opposed to the wireless service). pierreberto@yahoo.fr wrote: > I went to the same company-owned store I bought my Sanyo 7400 from a > couple of months ago, starting a new two-year contract. The earpiece > got progressively worse in sound-quality, as for me to hardly > understand the conversation. I asked for a replacement or repair. > After they looked at it, they said no, as there was "nothing wrong > with the phone." There sure was, with the sound quality absolutely > terrible. While waiting for my phone, I tested other Sanyo phones in > the store. Many sounded bad too, my mine sounded the worst. The > phone in its present condition is worthless to me. So I call up > Sprint directly. They said they couldn't help me. So I said fine, > just cancel the account, refund the purchase price for my phone after > the $150 rebate they sent me (I offered to send the phone back to > them), and don't charge me a $150 early termination fee, since they're > not honoring their warranty or conditions to my contract, since I have > a phone I can't call from and can't do a thing with. They refused, > even after talking to two supervisors. I've been a customer of them > for four years, but it took four years for me to suddenly figure out > what an unethical company Sprint is. They're awful. Avoid them at > all costs! ------------------------------ From: PrinceGunter Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: 31 May 2005 07:29:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com > I regularly forward my Vonage service to my cell phone, and from there > my cell phone transfers the call invoice voicemail. Callers can enter > their phone numbers to get a call back, this function works fine. > I also check my own voicemail through the forwarding loop sometimes > (If I'm traveling in Texas I can dial my Texas virtual number as a > local call, rather then calling long distance to my cellphone's number > in Calgary.) Both of these instances have the DTMF travelling in the opposite direction than the situation I'm dealing with. I'm placing an inbound call to a Vonage number that's been forwarded, and expecting DTMF back from the recipient. As the caller, however, I can generate DTMF to the recipient just fine. ------------------------------ Date: 31 May 2005 06:11:24 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Another Brand of Phone? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I Dropped my Cingular Motorola V220 in water ... OOps! Will the > Cingular sim card work in a Nokia or other type of Motorola? A SIM is a SIM. It'll work in any GSM phone that's either locked to Cingular or unlocked. I can report that SIMs are quite durable -- I left one phone in my pants pocket and ran it through the laundry, after which the phone was never the same but the SIM still works fine. > !! And what are the cheapest phones that are cingular and SIM > compatible, THANKS!! Look on ebay. For use in the US, any 850/1900 phone will do the trick. You may see some phones that do 1900 but not 850, which I would avoid since Cingular has a lot more GSM 850 networks than 1900. Many GSM phones also handle 900 or 1800 which aren't used in the US, so they won't help either. R's, John ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: How is Your Holiday? Mine Sort of Bittersweet Date: 31 May 2005 10:20:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > To the USA readers, how goes your Memorial Day weekend holiday? You > may recall here I mentioned a couple weeks ago about the relevance and > pertinence for many of us in the 'Amber Alert' program. That really > hit home for me about a week ago regards my younger sister when we > _finally_ after some intensive searching discovered she was _still_ in > Orlando, Florida where she wound up after having left home at the age > of 16 almost thirty years ago. We got a phone call from her (now 23 > year old) son about a week ago. It seems she had died -- on the > street, the usual 'home' for homeless people -- she had been cremated > and the ashes given to her son, as 'next of kin' on March 5, 2005, in > other words about three months ago. I'm sure all of your readers extend their condolences for the loss of your sister. Our best wishes for the best kind of closure possible under the circumstances. > So how was your holiday weekend? Our town has a Memorial Day parade every year. It concludes in front of my complex where a gunsalute is fired, prayers are recited, and a speech made thanking the veterans for their service. The band plays taps then the Star Spangled Banner. I find it moving because it was the sacrifice of veterans of the past and today that makes things like this newsgroup possible -- where we can speak our minds freely and be as critical as we want of anything we want. Contrary to the hysterics, they do not come and take any of us away for what we say. Last year we had a town councilman who was upset over the Iraq war. During the Pledge of Allegiance, he remained seated, back to the flag, arms folded defiantly across his chest. Boy did that anger a lot of people! But that's the beauty of our country! The councilman is free to sit if he so chooses. And the voters are free to turn him out of office or retain him however they so choose. We must never forget that. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks very much for your kind words about my sister, Katherine Eleanor Townson Jones. That girl had a very rough life, so radically different than my own. If/when her ashes arrive here from Orlando, I think my mother wants to have some sort of memorial service. (We were hoping that would have happened over the holiday weekend when my brother and his wife were in town, but no such luck.) Katherine's son, 23-year old Justin Jones -- himself a street person -- (after all, like mother, like son I guess) was convinced in his last phone call to me a couple days ago to deliver the ashes to 'a good friend of his' who promised they would be sent in the post here, ASAP. Supposedly, Justin is coming to visit also, if he can raise the money for a Greyhound Bus ticket. We will see what happens, but I am not going to have a brass marching band waiting for this new 'guest of honor' -- if he shows up, that is. Our hope had been the ashes would have shown up sometime last week whether Justin did (show up) or not. We were disillusioned, to say the least. My brother, the relatively rich self-employed commercial artist from Chicago has already indicated that if Justin does get sick and tired of the drug, prostitution, homeless lifestyle in Florida he lives in and decides on a fresh start, Uncle Pat (hey! that's me!) should give him the Eliza Doolittle and Professor treatment here and "By George, I think he's got it!" routine in the hopes the child will grow up amounting to something. More news if anything significant to report. Here in Independence there was also a Memorial Day commemoration. But my brother, his wife and kid and myself took mother down to the cemetery in Coffeyville where dad is at, and we got in on the final portion of the VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) commemoration at the cemetery there. It was a lot like the one you saw, and the reasons, etc were about the same. Thanks again for your kind words. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #241 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 1 01:52:29 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8F74914FD5; Wed, 1 Jun 2005 01:52:28 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #242 Message-Id: <20050601055228.8F74914FD5@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 01:52:28 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.4 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,NO_QS_ASKED autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 1 Jun 2005 01:52:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 242 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Neat New Satellite Map Program (TELECOM Digest Editor) Octothorpe (Julian Thomas) RSS Feed (K&S OBrien) Fiserv Buys MyCOOP Continuity Planning Software (distribution@eworld) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Line (Coxwell) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Line (Wesrock) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Line (Bonomi) Re: 25 Hz Power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines (Ben Bass) Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! (Steven Lichter) Re: What Happened to Channel 1 (Paul Coxwell) Re: Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Another Brand of Phone? (I Beard) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Thomas A. Horsley) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Neat New Satellite Map Program Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 00:38:02 EDT From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) I have been using Google Maps when I wanted to locate places, etc but when my brother was here over the holiday weekend he turned me on to a _really neat_ service from a company called 'Keyhole', which I have been told is being / has been acquired by Google. It consists of streaming realtime video captured by satellites as they fly around everywhere. I did not have the luck yet with it my brother had, but get this: he put in his home address and zip code; we see the 'satellite' flying through the sky, closing in on _your house_ (or whatever address you choose) and by changing the camera's 'zoom' and its 'tilt' I actually saw a close up of his front door and a car on the street in front of his house. I am still learning how to set the focus, zoom and tilt controls, so I did not as of yet have a lot of luck with my house, but I did do pretty well focusing in on the Arco Building downtown; the tallest building in our town is six stories. You want to go to a different location, anywhere in the world ... no problem; just tell the program the zip or post code desired, addresses as known, and we see the 'satellite' zoom off a few miles into space. with camera still running; when it reaches the new destination, the focus/zoom/tilt changes to the default values and you work on it from there. Two caveats: You have to load the software you get on line from 'Keyhole', the software is specific to your _Windows_ 9x or XP machine, and you must have certain Direct X drivers installed. Also, you have to set the screen size to at least 1024x768 I think. The installation got a little bit technical for me, and I am not sure yet I have the best versions of Direct X installed. It also helps if you have a very fast internet connection. Well, you can look up 'Keyhole' on Google, and read through the detailed instructions for installation and operation. The instructions say if you do not have the right Direct X or the proper size and resolution you will only get 'black objects' on your screen (where the house or whatever should be). Another caveat: _its not free_ . The version called Keyhole PRO costs several hundred dollars, but the more limited version for home use is about forty or fifty dollars, and you don't own it, you 'license' it, but anyone can have a 'license' who has a credit card and enough credit to pay out the forty or fifty dollars. I accidentally downloaded the 'Keyhole PRO' version first; it scolded me and said "this is the version for use in companies, etc _do you really want that much_?" So I backed out of the installation and chose 'Keyhole LT' instead. You get a free trial period but during that time, a message is stamped across the .jpg image output saying 'trial demo version' or something to that effect. These are just one time fees, not recurring or anything like that. There is also a nag screen each time you log in, asking 'do you want to buy it now?' I just click 'continue' and go on with my testing of addresses, etc. I would really recommend you try it first, some of the camera controls get very tricky and take very nimble fingers to correctly operate; there are 'pan' and 'tilt' and 'focus', and arrows to drag around on the screen image, which move your view to wherever. But it seems quite an improvement over the satellite images Google has been using for their 'maps' feature, being able to see the front door of your house and your car on the street in front of the house. The 'pan/zoom' control for example allows you to be twenty or so miles out in space and close in to as little as 35 feet away from the object under scrutiny if you wish (as long as you know how to properly focus the camera, etc.) They also have a BBS for questions and answers from the experts who know about those thing better than I. If you decide to try it (either for the free trial period or you actually spring for the forty or fifty dollars to buy your 'license' to ride in the satellite with your camera, let me know how you like it. I am finding it very interesting, although difficult for a diseased brain to comprehend. I have to stick to looking at giant skycrapers in Chicago right now. Oh, and any image you find that you like, you can 'bookmark' it and go back to it without having to always re-adjust the camera controls. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 22:01:52 -0400 Subject: Octothorpe In <20050531063359.8A8A014FF2@massis.lcs.mit.edu>, on 05/31/05 at 02:33 AM, editor@telecom-digest.org typed: > The symbol will be known as the square or the most commonly used > > equivalent term in other languages.* >> *... alternate term (e.g. "number sign") may be necessary... >> I suppose it's useful to have a translatable term. That approach >> worked for "star", but it seems to have failed here. Does anyone refer >> to '#' as a "square"? Anywhere? Enquiring minds want to know ... > British Telecom likes to call it "square," and uses the term in many > system prompts, e.g. "Dial the telephone number followed by > square." IBM card punch codes (commercial set) had a character that was a square (with somewhat squashed sides) that evolved, IIRC into the current # code, so there is some precedent for this. Julian Thomas: jt@jt-mj.net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Warpstock 2005: Hershey, Pa. October 6-9, 2005 - http://www.warpstock.org Why is it that those who drive slower than you are idiots and those that drive faster are maniacs? --George Carlin ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 12:46:45 -0600 From: K&S OBrien Subject: RSS Feed Pat: I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the "atom.xml" RSS feed. I am using it with Mozilla Thunderbird, and it really works well. Thanks to you and all those who worked on it. Regards, Steve O'Brien Denver, CO [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, the bright idea came from Lisa Minter who found a lot of them as she goes around the net to news sites. Then a group of good netizens who are always putting out free samples on the net for people to use said "since telecom is using so many RSS feeds on its 'td-extra' pages, how about supplying your feed for others to use?" So I thought about that and one of my technical helpers in Canada whipped it up using perl and whatever. So, you are quite welcome. Anyone who has not yet tried it may like to check it out at http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html . Take the feed supplied there for your own RSS reader, or use one of the syndicated sites with web-style readers (I give two examples on that page.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: distribution@eworldwire.com Date: 31 May 2005 16:48:41 -0400 Subject: Fiserv Buys MyCOOP Continuity Planning Software Fiserv Buys MyCOOP Continuity Planning Software RESTON, Va./EWORLDWIRE/May 31, 2005 --- COOP Systems today announced that myCOOP(TM), its ground-breaking continuity planning software, was recently installed successfully at Fiserv Technology Services, a business unit of the largest provider of information technology services to the U.S. financial services industry. "Fiserv Technology Services is our most prestigious financial services customer to date. After its extensive investigation of alternative olutions, we are gratified that such a large and sophisticated company selected myCOOP," said Chris Alvord, CEO of COOP Systems. "This implementation supports that our vision of easy-to-use, low cost, Web-enabled continuity planning software works for any size and complexity of organization." "We are very pleased with our decision," said Mary Lou Michael of Fiserv Technology Services. "As expected, myCOOP(TM) has very powerful tools to deploy rapidly, to quickly use work already done and to be easily used by our continuity planners and contributors. We look forward to expanding the use of myCOOP(TM) throughout the Fiserv enterprise." ABOUT COOP SYSTEMS - - Web-Based Continuity Planning(TM) COOP Systems (www.coop-systems.com), headquartered in Herndon, Va., is an exciting new provider of continuity planning software. With a special focus on large clients with distributed planning needs, increasing numbers of innovative private and public sector clients are deciding for myCOOP(TM). ABOUT FISERV Fiserv, Inc. (Nasdaq:FISV) provides information management systems and services to the financial and health benefits industries, including transaction processing, outsourcing, business process outsourcing and software and systems solutions. The company serves more than 16,000 clients worldwide, including banks, credit unions, financial planners/investment advisers, insurance companies and agents, self-insured employers, and lenders and savings institutions. Headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., Fiserv reported $3.4 billion in processing and services revenues for 2004. Fiserv was ranked the largest provider of information technology services to the U.S. financial services industry in the 2004 FinTech 100 survey by the American Banker newspaper and the Financial Insights research firm. Fiserv can be found on the Internet at www.fiserv.com. HTML: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/wr/053105/12068.htm PDF: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/pdf/053105/12068.pdf ONLINE NEWSROOM: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/1038.htm LOGO: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/1038.htm CONTACT: Vicki Alvord COOP Systems 607 Herndon Parkway Suite 108 Reston, VA 20170 PHONE. 703-464-8700 FAX. 703-464-9683 EMAIL: inquiry@coop-systems.com http://www.coop-systems.com Copyright 2004 Eworldwire, All rights reserved. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 20:00:28 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of my earliest terminal monitors > was the H-19 from Heathkit (also known as Z-19 if you bought it > already put together from Zenith. There as a little switch on the > back which allowed you to 'default into' 50/60 cps, and you could also > switch between 50/60 cps mode using keystrokes. PAT] I have a couple of H-89/90 CP/M systems stashed away in a cupboard. If I recall correctly, the terminal section within these is identical to the H/Z-19. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 20:19:29 EDT Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines In a message dated Tue, 31 May 2005 13:10:19 UTC, Pat writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Right you are, I do not have any prize > for you, however. The AT&SF railroad _originally_ ran between > Atichson, Kansas, through Topeka, Kansas and southwestward on to Santa > Fe, New Mexico. Then, as Chicago became the railroad capitol of > America (start of 20th century) the AT&SF continued pushing eastward, > making its new terminus at Dearborn Station in Chicago, and relocating > its headquarters in the 'Santa Fe Building' at Jackson Blvd. and > Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I hear your question now: ... Many of the headquarters functions remained in Topeka. The Ottawa cut-off took Topeka off the main line. Even before that, the line from Atchison to Topeka was of much reduced importance, and the railroad had been extended to Kansas City. The Santa Fe, originally a Kansas promotion, did not terminate in Santa Fe and but built on to Albuquerque and Los Angeles. Santa Fe was served by a branch line. The reason the Santa Fe's line between Kansas City and Chicago is the lowest-mileage route and the most nearly direct is because it was built as a line to connect Kansas City and the rest of the system with Chicago, not especially to serve local points between. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 02:06:56 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Joe Morris wrote: > Wesrock@aol.com writes: >> Danny Burstein writes: >> (Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad were associated from some time >> in the late 1800s.) >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Remember also the "Harvey Girls" who >> were like 'stewardesses' on the Santa Fe trains and the 1940's movie >> about the Harvey Girls, and they were always singing that song about >> the railroad ... how did it go? Something about " ... my day, and the >> Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ..." > Tying this (barely) into the thread currently running about WU clocks, > part of the lyrics went: > See the old smoke risin' 'round the bend, > I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend, > Folks around these parts get the time of day, > From the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe. > Joe Morris > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Right you are, I do not have any prize > for you, however. The AT&SF railroad _originally_ ran between > Atichson, Kansas, through Topeka, Kansas and southwestward on to Santa > Fe, New Mexico. Then, as Chicago became the railroad capitol of > America (start of 20th century) the AT&SF continued pushing eastward, > making its new terminus at Dearborn Station in Chicago, and relocating > its headquarters in the 'Santa Fe Building' at Jackson Blvd. and > Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I hear your question now: ... > ... *what was/is 'Dearborn Station'?* Well, along with Union Station > (Canal Street and Madison) which still exists and is now the terminus > for most intercity railroad traffic, there were Dearborn Station > (Dearborn and Harrison Streets), Grand Central Station, (Baltimore & > Ohio RR, Chesapeake RR's and others at Harrison and Wells Streets), > Central Station (Illinois Central RR at Michigan and Roosevelt Road), > LaSalle Street Station (various lines, LaSalle and Van Buren Streets) > Northwestern Station (Canal and Randolph Streets) and others. All are > gone, except for Northwestern Station and Union Station, and the > various railroads still offering passenger service all merged their > depots/terminals into one of those two locations. "Not exactly" applies. La Salle station (as the name at least), a rebuilt, greatly reduced facility, still exists, and has commuter service (only) running out of it. Tracks terminate a bit south of Congress Ave. 'Central Station' also nominally still exists; in use by electrified inter-urban (Illinois & South Shore Rwy) to Gary-Hammond. All long-distance passenger rail (AMTRAK) is out of Union station, With commuter rail out of Union and Northwestern stations, as well as the aforementioned La Salle and Central stations. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Begging pardon, sir. I was talking about _inter-city_ rail traffic, not a commuter line. Furthermore, the physical platform approximatly at Roosevelt and Michigan Avenue is known by the suburban trains -- the only ones going through there now -- as 'Roosevelt Road', not as 'Central Station'. The Central Station building was torn down several years ago. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ben Bass Subject: Re: 25 Hz Power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Organization: Bass Electronics Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:37:08 GMT Howard S. Wharton wrote: > I believe the power lines from the falls crossing over from Canada to > the US by the Peace Bridge is still 25 cycles. Who in Buffalo is still > using it, I don't know. Niagara Mohawk ceased production of 25 cycle when the Schoellkopf Power Station, predecessor to the Niagara Power project, literally fell into the Niagara gorge. That was June 7,1956. Three - 70,000 horsepower and three - 32,500 horsepower generators, mostly 25 cycle were dumped into the Niagara River. It was more cost-effective, due to the relatively low demand, to buy 25 Hz from Canadian Niagara than to build facilities to produce it. As of five years ago, Niagara Mohawk was still buying 25 Hz power from Canada and maintained a distribution grid in Buffalo. The NY Public Service Commission was allowing them to phase out the offering of 25 Hz. They were allowed to divide any costs associated with offering and maintaining 25 Hz service among the handful of remaining users. This was to be a disincentive to continued use of 25 cycle. They were also offering incentives for the users to retrofit their equipment to operate on 60 Hz. I was working for a company that still had 25 Hz elevators and an ancient meter and panel. I was attending meetings with Niagara Mohawk to negotiate incentives to change to 60 Hz. Again, this is 5 years ago. At the time there were a couple of scrap dealers, several businesses with 25 Hz elevators, a large frozen food facility, and a major producer of cereal products still using 25 Hz. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 23:33:49 GMT Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > You could very well have the same, or similar, experience with any of > the wireless carriers. The contract is really for service, not the > phone. Sometimes we have to accept that, as consumers, we make bad > choices as to the equipment we decide to buy. You could replace the > phone with one that works, stay on the account, and sue them in small > claims court over the defective equipment (as opposed to the wireless > service). > pierreberto@yahoo.fr wrote: >> I went to the same company-owned store I bought my Sanyo 7400 from a >> couple of months ago, starting a new two-year contract. The earpiece >> got progressively worse in sound-quality, as for me to hardly >> understand the conversation. I asked for a replacement or repair. >> After they looked at it, they said no, as there was "nothing wrong >> with the phone." There sure was, with the sound quality absolutely >> terrible. While waiting for my phone, I tested other Sanyo phones in >> the store. Many sounded bad too, my mine sounded the worst. The >> phone in its present condition is worthless to me. So I call up >> Sprint directly. They said they couldn't help me. So I said fine, >> just cancel the account, refund the purchase price for my phone after >> the $150 rebate they sent me (I offered to send the phone back to >> them), and don't charge me a $150 early termination fee, since they're >> not honoring their warranty or conditions to my contract, since I have >> a phone I can't call from and can't do a thing with. They refused, >> even after talking to two supervisors. I've been a customer of them >> for four years, but it took four years for me to suddenly figure out >> what an unethical company Sprint is. They're awful. Avoid them at >> all costs! Last month my ear piece jack went out, the phone was less then a year old and I do carry the replacement insurance on it, but in my case it made no difference. They replaced my phone no questions asked, the tech reprogrammed my phone directory; which they do, but he also moved all my ring tones and other stuff from the phones browser. I had little trouble with them when the phones went bad, but moved when the merger went through because I had had major problems with GTE Moblenet, and at the time I was with GTE California. I got so made at them, I told the rep I was talking to, I wanted to speak to the President of the company, what was strange is they transfered me and was talking to him. I told him my problem and he fixed it, but I still dumped the service. 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. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 19:52:01 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell Subject: Re: What Happened to Channel 1 > Crystal Palace also used vertical polarization while Divis used > vertical. Oops! I meant to say that Divis used HORIZONTAL polarization. - Paul ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Will My Cingular SIM Card Work in Another Brand of Phone? Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 16:44:06 -0400 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com rockstarr0105@gmail.com wrote: > I Dropped my Cingular Motorola V220 in water ... OOps! Will the > Cingular sim card work in a Nokia or other type of Motorola? Please > Help!!! Any unlocked GSM phone (or Cingular-locked GSM phone for that matter) should work with your SIM. By "locked," I mean that most US cellular companies sell phones that are configured to work ONLY on their network. The reason is that often, they have sold the phone to the customer at a loss, and to recoup that loss, they lock the phone to guarantee that they get all the revenue from using that phone. An "unlocked" GSM phone doesn't have this restriction, and will work with any GSM network, with any valid SIM. But generally, they're not cheap. Hopefully your SIM wasn't water damaged! E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 22:28:00 GMT > With little warning, the school system this spring started banning > access to personal e-mail accounts in all schools because some > students recently used school computers to e-mail threats, hit lists, > and pornography to other students and teachers, school officials say. Gee. Shouldn't they also ban all other forms of communication? I'd think any media could be used for the same offensive stuff and trigger the same lawsuits. Perhaps they should just seal up all the students in barrels until they are old enough to graduate :-). >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #242 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jun 1 17:24:33 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 3A87714F6C; Wed, 1 Jun 2005 17:24:33 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #243 Message-Id: <20050601212433.3A87714F6C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 17:24:33 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, NO_QS_ASKED autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: R TELECOM Digest Wed, 1 Jun 2005 17:25:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 243 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month (Lisa Minter) EU Executive Wants Phone Logs For One Year (Lisa Minter) Judge Allows Enron Broadband Trial to Continue (Lisa Minter) SBC Trims Price for DSL Service (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (H Leighton) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (Lisa Hancock) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (Mike Riddle) Re: 25 hz Power, was: Tie Lines (Lisa Hancock) Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! (Steve Sobol) Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program (Brad Houser) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 14:17:42 -0500 SBC Communications Inc. , the second-largest U.S. telecommunications company, plans to slash its price for high-speed Internet service by 25 percent, upping the ante in its rivalry with cable competitors. SBC said on Wednesday it would offer broadband service for $14.95 per month to new customers who sign up online, $5 less than its previous lowest price. The deal, which requires a one-year contract, makes SBC competitive with many dial-up Internet services and is among the lowest prices for broadband in the United States. Executives at SBC say they have a two- to three-year window to add as many digital subscriber lines as possible, before cable companies complete their rollout of telephone services and pursue SBC customers with voice, video and data packages. "It's about market share," said SBC Chairman and Chief Executive Edward Whitacre in an interview last Thursday with Reuters. "The sooner we get there and the bigger piece of market we get, the better off we are. It's essentially us and the cable companies vying for that." SBC added 504,000 DSL lines in the first quarter of this year, a record increase for the company, but Whitacre had asked executives if it was possible to add 1 million a quarter, a level he says is probably not realistic today. While its first-quarter growth was a record, SBC's 5.6 million DSL lines are equal to about 11 percent of its total phone lines. "What we find is if you sell DSL, the customer just doesn't churn," said SBC Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson in an interview last week, referring to the rate of customer turnover. "Once you get them, you've got them," Stephenson added. "It's very important to us to get out ahead of the game and get broadband deployed to every household we can get it deployed in." Cable companies hold about 59 percent of the U.S. broadband market, due to an earlier start in launching high-speed Internet services to consumers. But telephone companies have been closing the gap over the past year, using lower prices and bundled discounts to add more broadband customers. Most U.S. cable broadband services cost at least $30 per month, but are usually sold with three- or six-month introductory offers of $20 per month. Those cable lines typically offer higher download rates than competing DSL service. "While we do not expect this pricing strategy to be implemented across the industry, SBC's move may force the cable (companies) to get more aggressive," UBS analyst John Hodulik said in a research note. SBC offers DSL service to about 80 percent of the homes in its territory, and Stephenson said the company would try to reach 90 percent within the next 12 to 18 months. SBC executives said the sales push would not necessarily compress margins on DSL service, as handling orders online lowers costs. Banc of America analyst David Barden said SBC has been the most aggressive of the Baby Bells in pricing, targeting market share gains at the expense of some short-term profits. "The strategy has led SBC to generate faster (long distance) and DSL sub gains, and faster revenue growth than peers, but at the cost of the lowest margins in the sector," Barden said in a note. Shares of SBC fell 8 cents to $23.30 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This suggestion by SBC that they may lower their DSL rates is all well and good, but can they be trusted to actually hold to the new rates and not do some gimmicks with a few months of lower prices then dramatic increases a few months later? My past experiences with SBC have not been at all favorable. They give you a lot of double-talk and their bills are _very_ confusing with all the added fees they put in. I'll probably just stick with cable which has always worked out very well. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: EU Executive Wants Phone Logs for One Year Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 14:19:04 -0500 A bill for mandatory logging of emails, phone calls and other electronic communications to combat terrorism and fraud will limit data storage to a year at most, the European Commission said on Wednesday. Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, said a similar proposal put forward by four member states in 2004 wanted data to be stored for three to four years, which she said would impose a costly burden on phone and internet companies. France, Ireland, the UK and Sweden made their proposal in April last year in the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings, which killed 191 people. The seizure of phone records was credited with helping police make quick arrests. Under the member states' proposal, the actual content of conversations, text messages or emails would not be kept. Records are currently kept for three months by telephone companies for billing purposes. "It will certainly not be three to four years but a maximum of one year and I hope even less," Reding told reporters. Reding said legal advisers for the member states have concluded that such a bill should be proposed by the Commission rather than member states. For bills proposed by the Commission, joint agreement between member states and the European Parliament is needed for it to become law, a process that would be more transparent and consider issues wider than fighting terrorism, Reding said. "We have to balance the security issue and the issue of privacy and commercial considerations," Reding said. "That is why it's essential to start with a solid impact assessment before the Commission will put the proposal on the table," Reding said. On Tuesday, EU diplomats said justice and interior ministers may agree their own proposal when they meet in Luxembourg this week if they agree on some outstanding issues such as how long data should be stored. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Judge Allows Enron Broadband Trial to Continue Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 14:20:35 -0500 A federal judge on Wednesday allowed a majority of the case to continue against five former Enron Corp. Internet executives, ruling that prosecutors have done enough to prove their case at trial. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore dropped one wire fraud charge against two former Enron Broadband Services (EBS) finance executives, Kevin Howard and Michael Krautz. She also considered dropping two money laundering charges against two other defendants. "I will certainly take a look at that some more and figure out if there is any basis in granting those (dismissals) at some later point in time," Gilmore said outside of the jury's presence Wednesday morning. The rest of the government's case -- including the underlying conspiracy charge -- remained intact as the defense began calling witnesses on Wednesday. The trial had been estimated to end by late June but could drag into July. All five are charged with fraud in addition to conspiracy. Former EBS co-Chief Executive Joe Hirko and ex-technology executives Rex Shelby and Scott Yeager also face money laundering and insider trading charges. The government has said Enron lied to analysts at a meeting in January 2000 by falsely claiming the company's software could control broadband Internet traffic on its network. The defense has contended the executives had high hopes for the unit and honestly believed it would become the next big thing for the Internet, although ultimately it lost hundreds of millions of dollars before collapsing in the summer of 2001. Enron Corp. declared bankruptcy in December 2001 as a crushing wave of accounting scandals decimated the Houston company. Former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling is scheduled to face criminal trial in January 2006 alongside former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay and former Chief Accounting Officer Richard Causey. 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: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 12:58:14 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: SBC Trims Price For DSL Service Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 1, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22007&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * SBC trims price for DSL service BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * T-Mobile USA sees more growth on horizon * Vonage focuses on 1M subscriber milestone * ESPN plans branded mobile phone service * Nortel reports earnings USTA SPOTLIGHT * Discounts for USTA's SUPERCOMM Conferences End Today EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Samsung to use new Wi-Fi chips in laptops * Two Way TV Australia bets on mobile phone gambling * Netflix's Hastings sees future in Web TV REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * SBC to move ahead with video plans Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22007&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 10:27:54 -0600 From: hudsonl@skypoint.com (Hudson Leighton) Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines In article , Paul Coxwell responded to TELECOM Digest Editor: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of my earliest terminal monitors >> was the H-19 from Heathkit (also known as Z-19 if you bought it >> already put together from Zenith. There as a little switch on the >> back which allowed you to 'default into' 50/60 cps, and you could also >> switch between 50/60 cps mode using keystrokes. PAT] > I have a couple of H-89/90 CP/M systems stashed away in a cupboard. > If I recall correctly, the terminal section within these is identical > to the H/Z-19. And the story was that the H/Z-89s came with green phosphor screens so that the Zenith suits could tell the difference between a computer and a monitor. -Hudson [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually I had two Z-19's; one had a green phosphor screen, the other one was an amber phosphor screen. The green one came first; by the time I got the amber one, Zenith and Heathkit had added a wee bit of intelligence to the units, such as the time/date function, and a couple 'pages' of history and a few 'pages' for current work, etc. Or maybe those chips making all that possible came from outside vendors. I just do not remember. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: 1 Jun 2005 08:41:35 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Answer: because there were no > airplanes to speak of, certainly no commercial and commonplace air > travel. _Everyone_, politicans included, traveled by rail. In the 1940s, Philadelphia was a popular place for political conventions. It's Conventional Hall was located somewhat close to the city's main intercity railroad station known as "30th Street". The construction of a downtown railroad tunnel allowed room to build a new Convention Center. The politics involved in who gets to run it and the terms of the union workers who staff it would put Chicago politics to shame. The former Reading Terminal was rebuilt as an grand entrance hall to the center and it came out nice. Ironically, when Phila hosted the 2000 Repub convention, much of it took place in the city's sports arena. I think nowadays there are more press reporters than actual delegates in the past, yet today the conventions are a done deal. The classic Convention Hall, a beautiful building, is no longer needed and is being torn down. Medical research from the nearby university will take its place. Ironically, after the closure, they finally built a railroad station (for commuters) just behind the site. It would've been very helpful to have such a station in the heydey years. > It was my privilege to meet Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess, who > were traveling to Washington, DC for some event from their home in > Independence, MO. They naturally took the Santa Fe to Chicago, > where they switched trains (but of course) to the B&O train to go on > to Washington, DC. PAT] Ironically, now you're living near Truman's old home in Independence. Truman liked to travel. While very fond of the train, he also liked to drive. One of his earliest political accomplishments was building a good county road system. Unfortunately, the ever-increasing demands of the automobile became a hardship for Truman. Traffic past his home grew and the noise became a nuisance. Every morning he had to get up (in his 80s now) and clean up litter from cars thrown in his yard. (My elderly mother had to do the same thing in her house). The automobile encouraged the flight of commerce from downtown -- where Truman loved to walk and meet and greet people -- to the suburbs where walking wasn't so easy. BTW, in our era of very well paid politicians, the Trumans never had much money. While Truman got a nice salarly for being president, at that time he was personally responsible for a great many of the White House expenses so his net take home pay was very little*. He had no pension and he had to pay all his post-presidency office expenses. After writing his memoirs he did get money for that, but it was heavilly taxed. *The White House switchboard tracked toll calls and people had to pay for them (per Grace Tully's book on FDR). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You stand corrected on one important thing: President Truman lived in Independence, _Missouri_, one of the Missouri suburbs around Cupcake Land -- err -- Kansas City, MO. I live in Independence, _Kansas_, about 300 miles south and west. No connection between the two, other than the similar name. The Missouri version is beginning to see the crime and gangs and drugs which have become more prevalent in Cupcake Land, which have not hit us yet. Down here, the police complain that 'meth' is the big thing. The Missouri version is also home/headquarters to the Reorganized LDS. The rather degragatory term 'Cupcake Land' generally applies to the Kansas suburbs of the KCMO area; places like Mission Hills, Overland Park, etc, very wealthy communities with strange ideas on everything. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mike Riddle Organization: Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish & Short Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Robert Bonomi wrote: > La Salle station (as the name at least), a rebuilt, greatly reduced > facility, still exists, and has commuter service (only) running out of > it. Tracks terminate a bit south of Congress Ave. > 'Central Station' also nominally still exists; in use by electrified > inter-urban (Illinois & South Shore Rwy) to Gary-Hammond. > All long-distance passenger rail (AMTRAK) is out of Union station, > With commuter rail out of Union and Northwestern stations, as well as > the aforementioned La Salle and Central stations. And what about Dearborn Station? (I remember when there used to be a subway exit-only almost in front of the station, but IIRC it was closed more than 20 years ago because without an attendant of some sort in residence it apparently became too dangerous to use.) ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: 25 Hz power Re: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: 1 Jun 2005 13:46:47 -0700 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still recall how Chicago Transit > Authority used to switch between 'third rail' and overhead (catenary) > wires north of Howard Street on the Evanston line and the Skokie > line. Train would pull out of the station (using third rail), get a > short distance up the track, coast to a stop and while they were in > the process of hoisting the catenary pole into place, one or more of > the clerks would walk through the cars like the proverbial train > bandits of old times, telling the passengers "five cents more to > continue your ride, please". People would get in their purses to find > a nickel to hand over, but thoughtful passengers who made the trip > each day and knew what to expect had already paid their five cent > surcharge at the station where they boarded the train and instead of > a nickle for the clerk would produce a a scrap of paper instead which > I think was entitled 'proof of payment' and hand that over to the > clerks instead. PAT] I got burned with that. I was joyriding the Evanston Line to the end and decided to stay in the station to avoid paying another fare to get back in. The train left and stopped as you said. The conductor had this heavy belt with a series of fare registers (counters) for various fare types. I ended up paying a full fare anyway. If I had paid at Evanston that cashier would've given me a reciept for the conductor. Apparently the little stations in between are unmanned. If I knew that operation I would've gotten off and checked out the ancient station and surroundings and got a few pics. The Evanston Line is 3rd rail all the way but AFAIK the manual fare collection continues. I've heard the Skokie Swift line will convert to all 3rd rail. That had an automated home-made pantograph conversion. BTW, the NYC subway has a light line in Staten Island ("SIRT") where they did away with most fare collection. Most passengers are riding to the ferry terminal at St. George. At St. George one must pay a fare to leave or enter the SIRT line, but no fares are collected anywhere else on the line. So, if you are travelling between any station except St. George you ride free. Some psgrs get off one station early before St. George and walk about a mile to avoid the fare. Since fare collection was all manual, they saved two crewmen for each train who didn't have to swing through collecting cash or tickets. At one time SIRT had a nice bucolic flavor to it but now it seems like any other subway, just with a lot less people. A recent station rebuilding replaced quaint wood shelters and platforms with heavy steel and concrete. More durable but not as attractive. SIRT was originally a branch of the B&O RR. www.mta.info (go to NYC Transit and Staten Island Rapid Transit). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Evanston is now third-rail entirely, but many years ago it was catenary for most of its distance. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Do Not do Business With Sprint PCS ! Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 23:40:05 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Steven Lichter wrote: > Last month my ear piece jack went out, the phone was less then a year > old and I do carry the replacement insurance on it, but in my case it > made no difference. They replaced my phone no questions asked, the > tech reprogrammed my phone directory; which they do, but he also moved > all my ring tones and other stuff from the phones browser. I had > little trouble with them when the phones went bad, but moved when the > merger went through because I had had major problems with GTE > Moblenet, and at the time I was with GTE California. I got so made at > them, I told the rep I was talking to, I wanted to speak to the > President of the company, what was strange is they transfered me and > was talking to him. Which company? GTE (which is now Verizon) or Sprint? And what makes you think you were talking to *the* President? At best you were talking to a regional president. But I don't believe you were talking to someone that high up at all. > I told him my problem and he fixed it, but I still dumped the service. Dumped which service? Your post isn't exactly clear. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Brad Houser Subject: Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 09:45:15 -0700 Organization: Intel Corporation Reply-To: bradDOThouser@intel.com On Wed, 1 Jun 2005 00:38:02 EDT, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > I have been using Google Maps when I wanted to locate places, etc but > when my brother was here over the holiday weekend he turned me on to > a _really neat_ service from a company called 'Keyhole', which I have > been told is being / has been acquired by Google. I have been using Keyhole for about a year. Google did acquire them and when you use Google maps, you can click on a link that is the latest satellite view in their database. They are renaming the product Google Earth, and it will include the ability to show restaurants, hotels, and other points of interest on the image. > It consists of streaming realtime video captured by satellites as they > fly around everywhere. Not exactly, Pat. The images are not live (try looking at night or on a cloudy day and you will get the same image). You are getting them from their server, so it is not limited by what can be stored on a CD or DVD. You can look on the Keyhole.com site for the date and resolution of the images. Most are within the last 2 years. > I did not have the luck yet with it my brother had, but get this: he > put in his home address and zip code; we see the 'satellite' flying > through the sky, closing in on _your house_ (or whatever address you > choose) and by changing the camera's 'zoom' and its 'tilt' I > actually saw a close up of his front door and a car on the street in > front of his house. The cool thing about Tilt is you can turn on "Terrain" and it will adjust the 3D views so hills and valleys look very realistic. Unfotunately, only the ground elevations work, so buildings, trees, bridges, etc. are flat. Brad Houser [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I found that out today also, that the images are stored away. But I have to wonder how many hundreds of thousands of images do they have stored away considering the multiple ways you can angle/tilt/zoom in with the 'camera' you are using. I also found out the price is $29.95 _per year_ to use the poor man's version of the program. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #243 ****************************** TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Jun 2005 02:19:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 244 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Microsoft to Include .xml in Future Products (Lisa Minter) Retailers Tailor Prices to Web Users (Lisa Minter) Verizon, SBC Find TV Venture a Tough Go (Monty Solomon) Kabel Deutschland Launches Digital Telephony Over Cable (Monty Solomon) Nortel Reports Results for the First Quarter 2005; Financial (M Solomon) Verizon INPulse (Prepay) Billing Errors (Ed Fortmiller) Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange (Robt Bonomi) Re: SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month (Gordon Hlavenka) Re: SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month (Tim@Backhome) Re: Very Early Modems (Joe Morris) Last Laugh! Another Spammer With an 800 Number (Withheld on request) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Microsoft to Include .xml in Future Products Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 23:42:06 -0500 Microsoft to adopt XML for next Office version SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, said on Wednesday that it will make XML, a data format increasingly used by businesses, standard in the next version of its Office program due out next year. XML, or extensible markup language, is used to transfer data back and forth between different programs, computers and organizations. The upcoming Office upgrade -- code-named "Office 12" -- will have new default XML file formats for the Word wordprocessing, the Excel spreadsheet and Powerpoint presentations programs, Microsoft said. Last month, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said that Office 12 would make it easier for workers to "focus, prioritize and apply their expertise, visualize and understand key data, and reduce the amount of time they spend dealing with the complexity of an information-rich environment." Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, as well as other major software companies, have been building XML capabilities into their products over the last few years. OpenOffice, a free software suite with document, spreadsheet and presentation programs, as well as StarOffice, an $80 version developed by Sun Microsystems Inc., both are XML-based as well. Microsoft's current Office version retails for between $150 and $400, depending upon the edition. Betsy Frost, Microsoft's a senior marketing director in the Microsoft business group that includes Office, said that the XML capabilities will mainly benefit companies and corporate workers who need to tap into a variety of different databases. Microsoft said it would begin discussing details about the new XML file format at TechEd, Microsoft's annual meeting for information technology managers and developers in Orlando, Florida, next week. The new default formats for Word, Excel and Powerpoint will change, respectively, from ."doc," ".xls" and ".ppt" to ".docx," ".xlsx" and ".pptx," Microsoft said. 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Retailers Tailor Prices to Personal Web Data -- Study Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 23:43:19 -0500 By Jon Hurdle PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers may be paying different prices for the same goods because of information gleaned from the Internet about individual buying habits, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Internet shoppers in particular are vulnerable to "behavioral targeting," in which retailers collect information about what they shop for and how often they do it, and adjust their prices accordingly, said the survey from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Retailers often use the data to reward frequent buyers with lower prices, a practice of which many consumers are unaware. Online stores identify individuals by inviting them to sign in with a password and requiring information such as birth date and ZIP code, said the report, titled "Open to Exploitation." Online retailers can watch and record what products a shopper looks at and whether they started to buy something but did not complete the purchase. "The study's findings suggest ... most Internet-using adult American shoppers are open to financial exploitation by retailers," according to authors Joseph Turow, Lauren Feldman and Kimberly Meltzer. They warned the trend could become more common as retailers gather more information about consumers' habits. "Database-driven price distinctions could spread as growing numbers of retailers use information consumers never knew they revealed to draw detailed conclusions about their buying patterns that they would never have wanted," the report said. Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said the practice was just good business. "In today's competitive environment retailers are going to do whatever they can to keep their loyal customers," he said, adding, "There will be better pricing" for repeat customers. The Annenberg study found that almost two-thirds of the national sample of 1,500 participants did not know online stores can legally charge different people different prices. A higher proportion - 71 percent -- did not know that traditional retailers are also entitled to do the same thing. Consumers also were largely unaware of how their names were shared, the study found. More than 7 out of 10 did not know charities are allowed to sell consumers' names to other charities without permission, and some two-thirds were unaware that supermarkets are allowed to sell information about what they buy to other companies. Three-quarters believed, incorrectly, that a Web site's privacy policy prevents it from sharing information. The report recommended schools integrate consumer education and media literacy to make young people aware of such practices and it called on government to require retailers to disclose what information they collect and how they use it. 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: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 21:15:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon, SBC Find TV Venture a Tough Go By DAVID KOENIG AP Business Writer DALLAS (AP) -- Verizon and SBC believe they can break cable's powerful grip and get consumers to switch to the enhanced TV services they're cooking up, but they are having a tough time getting state legislators to help. The two telecommunications powers lost a key battle over the weekend when Texas lawmakers failed to act on a bill that would have let phone companies obtain a statewide TV franchise instead of having to negotiate franchises with every individual city and town. Verizon Communications Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. had hoped Texas would serve as a model for the nation, speeding their ability to sell TV service in many other states. Instead, it joined Virginia in frustrating the regional Bell companies. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49534734 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 21:17:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Kabel Deutschland Launches Digital Telephony Over Cable Kabel Deutschland Launches Digital Telephony Over Cable With Cisco IP Next Generation Network Technology MUNICH, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2005--Cisco Systems(R) (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that Kabel Deutschland (KDG), Europe's largest cable operator, has implemented Cisco Internet Protocol Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) solution to deliver converged voice, video and data, or "Triple Play," services over its cable broadband network serving the city of Leipzig. The new converged IP NGN infrastructure is supporting the launch of KDG's "Kabel Phone" service, giving customers access to digital telephony services in addition to television, radio and Internet services over the same cable broadband connection. KDG customers participating in the Leipzig pilot project have been able to make digital telephone calls over a cable connection instead of the normal telephone connection since April 1 this year. The KDG "Kabel Phone" service is scheduled to be available in up to fifteen more cities, including Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Dresden and Koblenz, by the fourth quarter this year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49541043 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 21:21:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nortel Reports Results for the First Quarter 2005 Nortel Reports Results for the First Quarter 2005; Financial Reporting is Now Current; Nortel Provides Status Update TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2005--Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE:NT) (TSX:NT): -- Q1 2005 revenues of $2.54 billion, up year over year 4 percent -- Q1 2005 net loss of $49 million, ($0.01) per common share on a diluted basis -- Q1 2005 cash balance of $3.43 billion Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE:NT) (TSX:NT) today reported results for the first quarter 2005 prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States in U.S. dollars. As previously reported, commencing with the first quarter 2005 results Nortel's new reporting segments are GSM and UMTS Networks, Carrier Packet Networks, Enterprise Networks and CDMA Networks. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49550946 ------------------------------ From: Ed Fortmiller Subject: Verizon INPulse (Prepay) Billing Errors Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 16:58:47 -0400 We signed up with a Verizon INPulse (prepay) plan back in March. Since then they have incorrectly billed us on well over a dozen "IN Calls". Initially they were blaming it on such things as the other person was maybe under a bridge, in a building, had caller ID turned off, etc, etc. Well a couple of weeks ago they finally admitted they have a "bug" causing this. Just last week we got nailed again. Each time they have issued a credit but we are tired of wasting time getting the credit. Warning: So if you are a Verizon INPulse customer I strongly suggest you go over all the Call Detail and make sure you are not being mischarged. I would be willing to bet that when they eventually get this "bug" fixed that they will not go back and automatically credit everyones account. Ed Fortmiller | RUBBISHef25u@fortmiller.us | Hudson MA * To avoid getting a lot of SPAM junk mail, I have altered my REPLY-TO * address. PLEASE remove the leading "RUBBISH" from my REPLY address. * Any Email sent to the address without removing "RUBBISH" will * automatically be discarded without me even seeing it. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: 25 cps Power, was: Tie Lines was Re: Foreign Exchange Lines Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 21:00:38 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , Joe Morris > wrote: >> Wesrock@aol.com writes: >>> Danny Burstein writes: >>> (Fred Harvey and the Santa Fe Railroad were associated from some time >>> in the late 1800s.) >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Remember also the "Harvey Girls" who >>> were like 'stewardesses' on the Santa Fe trains and the 1940's movie >>> about the Harvey Girls, and they were always singing that song about >>> the railroad ... how did it go? Something about " ... my day, and the >>> Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe ..." >> Tying this (barely) into the thread currently running about WU clocks, >> part of the lyrics went: >> See the old smoke risin' 'round the bend, >> I reckon that she knows she's gonna meet a friend, >> Folks around these parts get the time of day, >> From the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe. >> Joe Morris >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Right you are, I do not have any prize >> for you, however. The AT&SF railroad _originally_ ran between >> Atichson, Kansas, through Topeka, Kansas and southwestward on to Santa >> Fe, New Mexico. Then, as Chicago became the railroad capitol of >> America (start of 20th century) the AT&SF continued pushing eastward, >> making its new terminus at Dearborn Station in Chicago, and relocating >> its headquarters in the 'Santa Fe Building' at Jackson Blvd. and >> Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. I hear your question now: ... >> ... *what was/is 'Dearborn Station'?* Well, along with Union Station >> (Canal Street and Madison) which still exists and is now the terminus >> for most intercity railroad traffic, there were Dearborn Station >> (Dearborn and Harrison Streets), Grand Central Station, (Baltimore & >> Ohio RR, Chesapeake RR's and others at Harrison and Wells Streets), >> Central Station (Illinois Central RR at Michigan and Roosevelt Road), >> LaSalle Street Station (various lines, LaSalle and Van Buren Streets) >> Northwestern Station (Canal and Randolph Streets) and others. All are >> gone, except for Northwestern Station and Union Station, and the >> various railroads still offering passenger service all merged their >> depots/terminals into one of those two locations. > "Not exactly" applies. > La Salle station (as the name at least), a rebuilt, greatly reduced > facility, still exists, and has commuter service (only) running out of > it. Tracks terminate a bit south of Congress Ave. > 'Central Station' also nominally still exists; in use by electrified > inter-urban (Illinois & South Shore Rwy) to Gary-Hammond. > All long-distance passenger rail (AMTRAK) is out of Union station, > With commuter rail out of Union and Northwestern stations, as well as > the aforementioned La Salle and Central stations. >[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Begging pardon, sir. I was talking >about _inter-city_ rail traffic, not a commuter line. OK, what inter-city traffic has run out of Northwestern Station after 1973? In article , wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I still recall how Chicago Transit >> Authority used to switch between 'third rail' and overhead (catenary) >> wires north of Howard Street on the Evanston line and the Skokie >> line. Train would pull out of the station (using third rail), get a >> short distance up the track, coast to a stop and while they were in >> the process of hoisting the catenary pole into place, one or more of >> the clerks would walk through the cars like the proverbial train >> bandits of old times, telling the passengers "five cents more to >> continue your ride, please". People would get in their purses to find >> a nickel to hand over, but thoughtful passengers who made the trip >> each day and knew what to expect had already paid their five cent >> surcharge at the station where they boarded the train and instead of >> a nickle for the clerk would produce a a scrap of paper instead which >> I think was entitled 'proof of payment' and hand that over to the >> clerks instead. PAT] > I got burned with that. > I was joyriding the Evanston Line to the end and decided to stay in > the station to avoid paying another fare to get back in. The train > left and stopped as you said. The conductor had this heavy belt with > a series of fare registers (counters) for various fare types. I ended > up paying a full fare anyway. If I had paid at Evanston that cashier > would've given me a reciept for the conductor. Apparently the little > stations in between are unmanned. Depended on day, and time-of-day. At peak times, all stations were manned, and no on-board collection was done. (Except for the Chicago 'surcharge' collected for folks riding South of 'South Boulevard', that is. During peak times, a separate fare collector would board at South Blvd, and collect fares before Howard St. The train would hold short of the station, until he got all the fares collected.) At off-peak times, the station turnstiles were bypassed, and a "pay on train" sign was lit at trackside. And the conductor doubled as fare collector. Late nite, they had one-man operation, with the old 6000 series cars. with a farebox at the motorman's booth. > If I knew that operation I would've gotten off and checked out the > ancient station and surroundings and got a few pics. > The Evanston Line is 3rd rail all the way but AFAIK the manual > fare collection continues. A reduced fare for Evanston only service, and/or a 'surcharge' for continuing into Chicago have been gone for 15-20 years. The only on-train fare collection after that was evening and late night hours. circa 7PM to 7AM.weekdays, and most,if not all, of the week-ends. Any form of manual fare collection on the Evanston line went away when fare cards were introduced system-wide. September, 1997. Definitely _not_ a labor-saving change on the Evanston run -- although the trains were reduced to single-person operation, every station now had to be manned. For evening hours, this meant 2-4 less train crew, and 6-7 additional station staff. > I've heard the Skokie Swift line will convert to all 3rd rail. > That had an automated home-made pantograph conversion. Done. Sept, 2004. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Evanston is now third-rail entirely, > but many years ago it was catenary for most of its distance. PAT] Converted to all 3rd rail in 1973. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I was speaking about the 1950-60's era. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 19:01:10 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashele.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month > "What we find is if you sell DSL, the customer just doesn't churn," > said SBC Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson in an interview > last week, referring to the rate of customer turnover. > "Once you get them, you've got them," Stephenson added. >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My past experiences with SBC have not >> been at all favorable. They give you a lot of double-talk and their >> bills are _very_confusing...] I had SBC/Yahoo DSL for $27/mo. The way they did it was to bill me $49/mo or something like that, with a "promotional credit". After a year, my bill suddenly jumped -- the rate didn't "change", but that promo credit went away. So I called up and asked what I had to do to get the promo rate for another year. I couldn't, they said -- that promotion was for new customers only, and only if they signed up online. So, I went online and signed up as a "new" customer on my second phone line :-) Got the promo rate for another year, and as soon as it was up and running I canceled the old one. I only had one month without the promo discount. Of course the new account included a starter kit with a set of filters, new Cisco router, etc. Since I already had all that stuff I sold the second kit on eBay for almost $100. This year they were a bit smarter: They sent me an email that basically said "Click here to extend for a year at your existing rate" and so I did that. I suppose I could have "churned" again, back to the first line, and gotten another starter kit to sell on eBay ... Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Tragically, as many as 9625 out of every 10,000 individuals may be neurotypical ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: SBC to Cut High Speed Internet to $14.95 per Month Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 18:37:26 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This suggestion by SBC that they may > lower their DSL rates is all well and good, but can they be trusted > to actually hold to the new rates and not do some gimmicks with a > few months of lower prices then dramatic increases a few months > later? My past experiences with SBC have not been at all favorable. > They give you a lot of double-talk and their bills are _very_ > confusing with all the added fees they put in. I'll probably just > stick with cable which has always worked out very well. PAT] You may very well be right Pat. Also, SBC offers minimum bandwith for the minimum price. I am in an SBC area in California also served by Cox Cable. Sure, Cox charges $35 a month for broadband cable, but for bandwith that SBC probably can't even deliver to most residential customers via DSL. And, where facilities will permit that kind of bandwidth with DSL, the price would be far higher than $35. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Plus which, when I first went to cable instead of SBC DSL, I had it turned on and running in 20 minutes. It took me five minutes to get to the CableOne office downtown in a cab, five minutes of talking to the lady (she typed on her computer and turned on my internet; I already have their cable TV) and five to ten minutes waiting for the cab to pick me up and get back home. I assumed it would take a few days or whatever, but the lady in the office said 'internet will be up and active when you get back home', and it was. There was a time we here in Independence got the same service from Southwestern Bell. At the central office on the corner of 6th and Maple, on the first floor there were two cashiers plus a service rep on duty; you could walk in to talk to them, pay your bill, and get whatever changes you needed on your line. You told the rep what you wanted to do, she _actually understood what you wanted_ and would call upstairs to the guy in the frames and have the work done. Then one day, the rep disappeared and was replaced by a speed dial phone and a little counter to stand at while you were talking on the phone to Fort Worth or wherever. Then a couple months after that, the cashiers also disappeared and a note on the door said to use the phone located there to call customer service. Then one day, that phone was taken away also. If that's how they wish to run things, that's their business, but I like at least some modicum of personal service, which I recieve from Prairie Stream and CableOne, both of whom have a presence right here in town, easy to walk to and deal with. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joe Morris Subject: Re: Very Early Modems Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 22:07:26 UTC Organization: The MITRE Organization hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > Anyway, the phone system as of 1960 was similar. It was fine for us > to talk over and an occassional click or pop or slight crosstalk was > ignored by humans. > But sending data at 2400 is another story. One little click disrupts > a whole stream and requires a re-transmission. The older switches > could be 'noisy'. You don't have to get up to the "fast" speeds like 2400 bps to have problems with some switches. My PPOE (an Enormous State University) installed a new SxS exchange in the mid-1960s. Just as the new switch went into service the Computer Center (where I worked) took delivery of some IBM 2740 terminals and obtained WECo DataPhone 103A2 boxes to connect them to the switched net. The noise, presumably from the new, unburnished wipers, was so bad that we couldn't get reliable communications between a pair of the 2740s linked back-to-back through the switch. The speed was that of just about all of the Selectric-based termials: 134.5 baud. After a few months of service the noise subsided, but I suspect that we put more duty time on the error light than the IBM designers had planned for. (And just as the noise levels dropped, we had to send all of the time-sharing equipment back to IBM because the computer center's budget was chopped to free up money for the football team's new artificial grass ... but that's another story) Joe Morris ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Jun 2005 18:44:04 MDT From: Withheld on request Subject: Last Laugh! Another Spammer With an 800 Number Well, it looks like this lot is so eager for us to call they've provided an 800 number and 888 number. Tried them while I was out, forgot my mobile, so I had to call from a payphone. 800 didn't work but the 888 did, and it's definitely them. The message claims you can make $1000/day, maybe that's how they afford the toll free number? Anyway, I couldn't make out the girls name at the beginning of the message so I had to keep calling back, and after about 6-8 calls from the same pay phone it gave a fast busy (some type of toll throttling/control?). Maybe you can post it to your list and someone who lives in big city with a lot of phones on each street corner can get in enough calls to figure out what the beginning of the voice mail announcement says! Anyway, if you feel like re-posting this to the digest go ahead, but please remove my name from it. Thanks! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 01 Jun 2005 03:38:39 -0200 From: Kenneth Subject: Offer Expires: June 10th-2005 Information on increasing your cash flow; This email is only intended for (net readers who see it). If you are interested in earning income by working out of you home then please contact us. Our program will allow you to earn as little or as much income as u desire. This is not a gimmick, and selling is NOT required. Give us a call and leave us a message. We will respond within 1 hour of your call. 1-888-676-4491 Kenneth Mcclendon Back On Top Corp. Phone: 1-800-513-3859 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #244 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 2 17:37:56 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id C98E115028; Thu, 2 Jun 2005 17:37:55 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #245 Message-Id: <20050602213755.C98E115028@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 17:37:55 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: R TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Jun 2005 17:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 245 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson McAfee Buys WiFi Firm Wireless Security Corp. (Lisa Minter) GSM and Roaming (Eric) Forwarding SMS Messages (Chris Holst) Can You Disable Text Messaging? (John Mayson) Sony Offers Video Calling (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" (DevilsPGD) Known Spam Sites (Steven Lichter) Apparent Junk Mail (Carl Moore) Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program (Charles Cryderman) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal Email Sites (Lisa Hancock) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Mcafee Buys WiFi Firm Wireless Security Corp. Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 14:25:53 -0500 By Spencer Swartz SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - McAfee Inc., the world's second-biggest maker of security software that protects personal computers from Internet viruses, on Thursday said it has bought software maker Wireless Security Corp. and continues to look for other acquisitions. McAfee did not disclose how much it paid for Wireless Security, which gives McAfee its first foothold in securing popular short-range WiFi networks used by consumers and business travelers in airports and coffee shops. McAfee bought all the outstanding stock, technologies and assets of Palo Alto, California-based Wireless Security Corp., with which McAfee already has a partnership. McAfee's stock traded down about 1 percent in New York. George Samenuk, McAfee chairman and chief executive officer, told analysts and investors in New York that McAfee, which has about $1 billion in cash, continues to search for acquisitions of both publicly traded and privately held companies. "We're looking at both .... We met for several hours last night (to talk about) what other directions we should go down," he said. Samenuk said consolidation in the security software industry would continue and said there was still "tremendous opportunity" from customers looking to buy products to secure their networks from Internet menaces like spyware, which can secretly monitor a computer user's activity. SECURITY CONSOLIDATION AND WIFI The U.S. House of Representatives in late May voted to establish new penalties for purveyors of spyware. Samenuk also said it is "staggering" how many calls McAfee gets from privately held firms about wanting to sell themselves. Investors in these companies are coming to realize they should sell the firms now due to unpromising future growth prospects, Samenuk said. Many analysts have expected consolidation as companies opt to buy security products from fewer vendors to lower costs and the complexity of integrating the products they buy. All of Wireless Security's software developers will join McAfee, said McAfee executive vice president Bill Kerrigan. He declined in an interview to say how many employees Wireless Security has. Kerrigan said he did not expect McAfee, based in Santa Clara, California, to make other acquisitions in the WiFi security area in 2005. WiFi connections have grown increasingly popular in recent years, especially among business travelers who use the networks to connect to the Internet and into their company's internal networks. But such connections have also become more prone to hackers trying to intercept personal information, like passwords and credit card data, over the wireless signals. Products from the acquisition will include a downloadable offering for consumers and a version for small businesses that will be part of a bigger suite of several computer security products McAfee offers, Kerrigan said. 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: Eric Subject: GSM and Roaming Date: 1 Jun 2005 23:33:03 -0700 Hi, Anyone know of commercial or other solution to implement call hunting between sim cards / lines? Only solution I know of is HP's opencall framework. Thanks for any suggestions. Eric Smith ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 09:34:39 EDT Subject: Forwarding SMS Messages From: Chris Holst In considering wiring a new office, some interesting technical ideas have been bounced around, and I'd like to get some feedback about feasibility of implementing them. Input from the wise folk who read the Digest would be most appreciated. Most users will be mobile, i.e. not at the end of physical extensions in the office much of the time. -- This means we'd like a system we can program forwarding of numbers into, such that folks can point their desk phone at their cell phone. This is possbile in PBXs like Asterisk, right? We'd like a rationally planned numbering scheme for departments and specialties and such. Again, internal PBX programming, right, associating the DID lines with extensions? We'd like to have our people have only one number on their card ... so is it possible to program a PBX to process and forward SMS data sent on to the associated cell phone? This appears to the sticking point. SMS is useful, and we'd not like to miss out on it to implement this system if we don't have to. Chris [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Chris, just a non-telecom, non-technical question if I may: Are you, or your family related in some way to the classical music composer, Gustav Holst? For me, just a curiosity. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 10:52:01 -0500 From: John Mayson Subject: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Organization: Nyx Net, The Spirit of the Night I might have a definitive answer by the time this runs, but I'll ask anyway. My wife and I switched to T-Mobile this week. With our particular plan all incoming text messages are charged at 5 cents per message. I receive about a $1 worth of spam per day. I called T-Mobile, but they won't even acknowledge my account exists because I'm not the "primary account holder" as my wife actually bought the phones. She's been sort of busy and hasn't called them herself. Does anyone have any experience with T-Mobile? Can they disable text messaging? I don't want to have to pay $20 to $30 per month for incoming spam. We left our previous company because they didn't give a rat's behind about our on-going service problems until it came time to renew the contract, then we were their best friends. I hope T-Mobile isn't the same. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 14:01:52 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Sony Offers Video Calling Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 2, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22048&l=2017006 NEWS OF THE DAY * Sony offers video calling BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nokia unveils new inexpensive handsets * Citrix buys NetScaler * Qualcomm, EA strike video game pact * Analysis: SBC's low-price broadband a boon for Yahoo! * Comcast CEO promises big things for digital phone service * All-wireless movement slower than expected * AOL launches DSL USTA SPOTLIGHT * Still Time to Register for SUPERCOMM, June 6-9, Chicago EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * CNET rolls out TV Web site REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Nacchio wants fraud charges dropped * Congress likely battleground over telecom TV franchises Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22048&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Packet8 DTMF Tones Sound "Clipped" Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:34:43 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message PrinceGunter wrote: >> I regularly forward my Vonage service to my cell phone, and from there >> my cell phone transfers the call invoice voicemail. Callers can enter >> their phone numbers to get a call back, this function works fine. >> I also check my own voicemail through the forwarding loop sometimes >> (If I'm traveling in Texas I can dial my Texas virtual number as a >> local call, rather then calling long distance to my cellphone's number >> in Calgary.) > Both of these instances have the DTMF travelling in the opposite > direction than the situation I'm dealing with. > I'm placing an inbound call to a Vonage number that's been forwarded, > and expecting DTMF back from the recipient. As the caller, however, I > can generate DTMF to the recipient just fine. Ahh okay, that makes sense. I haven't actually tested that scenario, although if I get bored I could ... ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Known Spam Sites Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 13:54:31 GMT Over the last month I have noticed that over 60% of the Spam e-mail I have received has come from e-mail addresses and sites that are registered to Godaddy. Has anything been done or being done to shut this company down? All of what is being sent out appears to be fraud related, plus they must be ripping these newbies selling them these new targeted lists. The big one now is the $400,000 loan that they called you on last night and the Universal Studios, Orlando, where they want your credit card number. 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. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 10:37:01 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Apparent Junk Mail Notice the original message has telecom23.354.10@telecom-digest.org in the To header, so perhaps someone at your end could check to see who would have gotten the original message. Also enclosed in the mailing you are reading are my remarks to the Secret Service. The usual case in "419" mail: 1. it's OK to see how I would respond to this (because there are no contents other than "frank" here, all that's possible here is an email to the address in the From header) 2. NO response by me to this (not even to correct grammar or to ask that I be removed from the sender's list)(and it's understood that we don't touch whatever list the following was sent to) ----- Forwarded message # 1: Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 From: Carl Moore To: 419.fcd@usss.treas.gov cc: uce@ftc.gov, spam@uce.gov Subject: no financial loss -- for your database Sorry, but this is all I got. I do receive the Telecom digest, thus apparently explaining the To header. The other system names look familiar because they appear in other mail I have forwarded to you in the "419" category. ----- Forwarded message # 1: Received: from arl.mil by VIP.ARL.ARMY.MIL id aa389032; 2 Jun 2005 08:50 EDT Received: by admii.arl.army.mil (Postfix) id C957673CB5; Thu, 2 Jun 2005 08:50:20 -0400 (EDT) Delivered-To: cmoore@arl.army.mil Received: from mail02.infosat.net (mailout06.infosat.net [66.18.69.6]) by admii.arl.army.mil (Postfix) with ESMTP id E52DA73CB5 for ; Thu, 2 Jun 2005 08:50:08 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [196.38.110.16] (HELO mail01.infosat.net) by mail02.infosat.net (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.1.8) with ESMTP id 259487930; Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:50:06 +0200 Received: from [80.88.128.12] (account frankonline@mighty.co.za) by mail01.infosat.net (CommuniGate Pro WebUser 4.1.8) with HTTP id 774438285; Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:50:06 +0200 From: "frank govery" Subject: URGENT To: telecom23.354.10@telecom-digest.org X-Mailer: CommuniGate Pro WebUser Interface v.4.1.8 Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:50:06 +0200 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" X-ARL-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the helpdesk for more information X-ARL-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-ARL-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=3.366, required 5, RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET 1.22, RCVD_IN_SBL 2.11, RCVD_IN_SORBS_HTTP 0.04) X-ARL-MailScanner-SpamScore: sss X-ARL-MailScanner-From: frankonline@mighty.co.za Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable frank ----- End of forwarded messages ----- End of forwarded messages [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Carl we know that the apparent 'email address' of 'telecom23.354.10@telecom-digest.org' is in fact not an email address at all, but a Usenet message ID/serial number, and volume 23, issue 354, message 10 was from July 23 a year ago. It was dealing with 'blogs and bloggers and blogging' and had absolutely nothing to do with the spam _you_ got in email from 'Frank'. Since true email addresses and Usenet newsgroup serial or identification numbers are constucted exactly the same way and easily mistaken, one for the other by an inexperienced spammer, so all we really know is that the Mighty Frank from somewher in South Africa probably bought a useless mailing list from someone. If anyone else wishes to parse through the remainder of the header and make something else of it, be my guest, and I imagine I speak for Carl as well. Does anyone actually give a rat's behind about what happens any longer on Usenet? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 15:03:56 -0400 From: Charles Cryderman In TD V24 #243 Brad quoted our esteem moderator: >> It consists of streaming realtime video captured by satellites as they >> fly around everywhere." Then stated: > Not exactly, Pat. The images are not live (try looking at night or on a > cloudy day and you will get the same image). You are getting them from > their server, so it is not limited by what can be stored on a CD or DVD. > You can look on the Keyhole.com site for the date and resolution of the > images. Most are within the last 2 years. I don't think the last two years are even correct on how recent these images are. The view of my home in White Lake Township, Michigan is much older then that and is the exact same view I got when Map Quest provided free satellite photos. In it I see my 1964 Dodge Dart parked in front of the house when it has been parked on the side for years now (no extra cash or time to get it ready for the road again). Also my son's high school is still under construction, yet it has been open for three years. Chip Cryderman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A very good point! I have to wonder why they are charging for views like that? And the PRO version of the software is even more expensive. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 2 Jun 2005 13:41:46 -0700 Monty Solomon wrote: > By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff > Boston Public School officials, who recently banned cellphone use > during the school day, are angering students with a new prohibition: > no checking or sending e-mail from Yahoo, Hotmail, or other personal > Web-based accounts from school. I don't see why this is a big deal. It's the school's computers and they should be able to regulate them any way they choose. It's no different from the workplace where an employer dictates what can and cannot be done on his computers. FWIW, back in junior high, we were forbidden to use even the payphones without a note from a parents. I thought that was a bit tough and never understood that rule. In HS they didn't care except when we snuck a call on a school telephone. Except in very special situations, kids shouldn't be using their cellphones during school hours in the school building. Thomas A. Horsley wrote: > Gee. Shouldn't they also ban all other forms of communication? I'd > think any media could be used for the same offensive stuff and trigger > the same lawsuits. Perhaps they should just seal up all the students > in barrels until they are old enough to graduate :-). Sorry, but that's not how it works today. Like it or not, the schools (as does businesses) have a very legitimate concern. If their facilities are used utilized adversely, they could be held liable. As such, they must protect themselves. There was a newspaper article reporting that schools are a lot quicker to suspend kids (a serious punishment) than in years past. It's not that kids behave worse, but rather schools are afraid of a lawsuit from an aggrieved parent if they fail to aggressively punish a wrong-doer. Also, some schools are merely returning to discipline standards they held in the past, but relaxed in more recent years. In some ways, I think schools acting to prevent harassment/ bullying between students is not such a bad idea. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #245 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jun 2 20:37:01 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id D600414F70; Thu, 2 Jun 2005 20:36:59 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #246 Message-Id: <20050603003659.D600414F70@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 20:36:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,DOMAIN_BODY, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: R TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Jun 2005 20:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 246 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Porn Sites Get Own Domain Name, '.xxx' (Lisa Minter) Police Officer Misbehaves in Internet Children's Chat Room (Lisa Minter) Internet Chat Room 'Sex Offender' Family Reacts, Explains (Lisa Minter) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Steve Sobol) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Mark Crispin) Re: Forwarding SMS Messages (B.M. Wright Re: Known Spam Sites (Steve Sobol) Re: Apparent Junk Mail (John Levine) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (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: Lisa Minter Subject: Porn Sites Get Own Domain Name, '.xxx' Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 16:57:49 -0500 By Andy Sullivan Sex sites will soon be able to sign up for Web addresses in the .xxx Internet domain, but a virtual red light district won't guarantee that people can avoid pornography online, Internet experts said on Thursday. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said late Wednesday it would move ahead with plans to set up a separate .xxx Internet domain for sexually explicit material. Sex sites won't be required to sign up for .xxx addresses. But the new domain will enable porn sites to label themselves clearly and help filtering software keep underage users away, according to ICM Registry Inc., the company that will oversee the domain. "This is a voluntary initiative," said Robert Corn-Revere, a Washington lawyer who helped ICM develop its proposal. "We're not trying to put it forward as the ultimate solution for everything." Child-safety advocate Donna Rice Hughes said .xxx won't help people avoid online porn because sex sites will still be able to hold on to their old .com domain names. "It's a nice little red-light district for the pornographers, but I don't think it's going to do anything to protect kids," said Hughes, president of the group Enough is Enough. "It's not going to make filters work any better." A spokeswoman for Playboy Enterprises Inc. said the adult entertainment company had no plans to move any of its Web sites to the new domain. Pornography accounts for more than 10 percent of online traffic and there are more than 1 million porn Web sites currently online, according to ICM. Efforts to ban or segregate online pornography have failed for years. The U.S. Congress in 1996 prohibited the "knowing transmission" of obscene or indecent messages to anyone under 18 years old, but the Supreme Court struck that law down a year later on the grounds that it was too broad. A narrower 1998 attempt has never enforced due to a court challenge. ICANN, a US-based, international nonprofit body, has in the past fought efforts by internet users and congress to set up a domain for sex sites on the grounds that it doesn't "want to regulate online content, or judge what should be allowed on the net". That's not an issue with the .xxx domain because it will be run by the private sector, ICANN spokesman Kieran Baker said. "As a technical coordinator, we don't pass judgment over content on the various sites," Baker said. ICANN usually takes six to nine months to wrap up the approval process, he said. After that it will be up to ICM to get the domain up and running. ICANN has approved a number of other new domains to complement stalwarts like .com and .org. In April ICANN approved the .jobs domain for Web sites offering employment information and .travel for the travel industry. A company called New.net already sells .xxx addresses, but most Web browsers are not configured to view them. 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although ICANN could and did approve of such spam hives as .biz .info and .jobs , they would not approve of '.xxx' because, as Vint Cerf would explain it, "no one should dictate how another site operates." Gee, where have we heard that line before? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Police Officer Misbehaves in Chat Room for Children Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 18:13:10 -0500 Police Say a Popular Officer Sought Boys in Children's Chat Rooms by Robert T DeMarco Michael Costello, 39, a popular youth officer was arrested Friday night on charges that he used his computer to solicit sex from people he believed to be 14-year-old boys. They were, in fact, detectives conducting a sting, the police said. He would log onto an AOL chat room named Queensnymfm using a sexually suggestive screen name, they said, and begin trolling the Internet for local teenage boys. According to the authorities, he would send those boys lurid come-ons and then try to arrange meetings for oral sex. Michael Costello, 39, a popular youth officer in the 114th Precinct in Astoria, Queens, seemed like a model of community policing. As supervising officer of the precinct's Law Enforcement Explorer unit, he helped teenagers do volunteer work and learn about law enforcement, community leaders said. With the Police Explorer Scouting program, he taught them responsibility and helped troubled young people with problems. He was the smiling man working the grill at community barbecues and the dedicated coordinator of youth basketball games. But according to the authorities, once Officer Costello got home to his apartment in Bayside and sat at his computer, his commitment to youth took on a much darker side. He would log onto an AOL chat room named Queensnymfm using a sexually suggestive screen name, they said, and begin trolling the Internet for local teenage boys. According to the authorities, he would send those boys lurid come-ons and then try to arrange meetings for oral sex. Officer Costello, a 14-year veteran of the force, was arrested Friday night on charges that he used his computer to solicit sex from people he believed to be 14-year-old boys. They were, in fact, detectives conducting a sting, the police said. He was arraigned yesterday in Queens Criminal Court on charges of attempted use of a child in a sexual performance and several other charges, which carry a maximum sentence of seven years in jail, according to Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney. Stewart London, a Manhattan lawyer who prosecutors said was representing Officer Costello, did not respond to phone messages left with his answering service yesterday. A spokesman for Mr. Brown said that a different lawyer argued at the arraignment that Officer Costello had never had criminal problems before. Investigators first learned of Officer Costello's computer activity three weeks ago during a routine investigation into online crime, investigators said. According to a criminal complaint, during four computer sessions last week, he logged on to the chat room and wrote flirtatious comments to investigators using screen names linked to profiles of 14- and 15-year-old boys. According to the complaint, he wrote online, "I'm not much into talking. I'm into meeting and doing. Tell me when U can go out and we will meet then." Investigators contacted AOL officials, who identified the holder of the suggestive screen name as Officer Costello. Investigators obtained photographs that he had sent to other screen names. The authorities said the photographs were of Officer Costello. In correspondences with one screen name carrying a profile of a 14-year-old boy, Officer Costello arranged a meeting at a Starbucks on Queens Boulevard at 8 on Friday night, prosecutors said. When he arrived at the Starbucks, detectives arrested him, prosecutors said, adding that he possessed lubricant and condoms. Officer Costello has been suspended from duty, police officials said. Investigators said there was no evidence that he had actually abused any minors. Nancy DiMeglio, 74, vice president of the 114th Precinct's community council, described Officer Costello as a popular officer and said she was "in dead shock" to hear the charges. "I never saw any inkling of what they say he's done," she said. "I never heard him speak out of line or anything, never any foul language. Everyone considered him a straight-A guy." 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Watch Right.com For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Family Reacts to Internet Sex Chat Conviction Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 18:08:18 -0500 by Robert T DeMarco A Tulsa family says it's time their side of the story is heard. Their son, Michael Williams pleaded guilty this week to luring a 14 year old girl over the Internet to have sex. Michael's parents say FBI agents and prosecutors have painted their son as a violent sex offender who's a danger to the community. They say that's not true. They say their 30 year old son chatted with lots of people online and one of them was a 14 year old girl. Once the girl's mother found out, the FBI assumed the girl's online identity and kept chatting. The conversations were sometimes sexually graphic and the two decided to meet. He was then arrested and now faces up to 14 years in prison. Michael's mom Lynn Williams: "When something like this happens, this person is someone's son, brother, uncle, grandfather and it affects not just him, but, everyone in the whole family." The Williams' believe the punishment does not fit the crime. It's Michael's first arrest and he never touched or even saw the girl involved. 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. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Watch Right.com For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:28:35 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com John Mayson wrote: > I might have a definitive answer by the time this runs, but I'll > ask anyway. > My wife and I switched to T-Mobile this week. With our particular > plan all incoming text messages are charged at 5 cents per message. I > receive about a $1 worth of spam per day. I called T-Mobile, but they > won't even acknowledge my account exists because I'm not the "primary > account holder" as my wife actually bought the phones. She's been > sort of busy and hasn't called them herself. > Does anyone have any experience with T-Mobile? Can they disable text > messaging? I don't want to have to pay $20 to $30 per month for > incoming spam. They should be able to. I've had both Sprint and Verizon do it. > We left our previous company because they didn't give a rat's behind > about our on-going service problems until it came time to renew the > contract, then we were their best friends. I hope T-Mobile isn't the > same. You should have your wife authorize you to deal with T-Mobile. She calls in and says "John Mayson is going to call you from time to time about my account; he's allowed to talk to you and to make changes." I have never dealt with T-Mobile, but this is based on my experience with dozens of other large companies with whom I do business. TM should be no different. It's an account security issue; you DO NOT want just anyone to be able to call in about your account. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 14:35:28 -0700 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing If you don't want to pay for SMS spam, then don't pay it! Make a note of each illegitimate SMS (or the legitimate ones and subtract) and deduct the total cost from the bill. Include a letter to the effect that you are disputing the bill for this reason, and you want them to block SMS spam. You may want to cc your state regulators as well. I don't know about T-Mobile's policy, but Verizon is very aggressive about protecting their customers from SMS spam. AT&T Wireless was also that way, since they didn't charge for incoming SMS; I don't know what their policy is now that it's Cingular. Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: B.M. Wright Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2005 22:33:41 UTC Organization: XMission Internet http://www.xmission.com Subject: Re: Forwarding SMS Messages Chris Holst wrote: > We'd like to have our people have only one number on their card ... so > is it possible to program a PBX to process and forward SMS data sent > on to the associated cell phone? This appears to the sticking point. > SMS is useful, and we'd not like to miss out on it to implement this > system if we don't have to. Germany (almost entirely ISDN now) is the only place that I have heard of which has landlines that can receive SMS. It's unfortunate, there are many times when I've wanted the same thing, haven't ever found it. I believe the SMS routing in the US is extra convoluted, and less than reliable, compared to most countries which have been on GSM for years. Maybe someone familiar with how it's done can elaborate. One thing I've wondered is how, since our mobile numbers can not be differentiated by prefix, they determine the number can receive the SMS. It may be a database lookup somewhere, but, then again maybe they just attempt to send it regardless of whether or not it is a mobile? ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:30:31 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Steven Lichter wrote: > Over the last month I have noticed that over 60% of the Spam e-mail I > have received has come from e-mail addresses and sites that are > registered to Godaddy. Has anything been done or being done to shut > this company down? Have you complained to abuse@godaddy with the relevant information? > All of what is being sent out appears to be fraud related, plus they > must be ripping these newbies selling them these new targeted lists. > The big one now is the $400,000 loan that they called you on last > night and the Universal Studios, Orlando, where they want your > credit card number. GD is actually better than a lot of registrars about nuking domain names registered by spammers; many registrars refuse to do it even after you notify them of the abuses. GD does get more spammers than some other registrars due to their low prices. Try filing some abuse reports first, before you talk about getting them shut down. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ Date: 2 Jun 2005 21:19:22 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Apparent Junk Mail Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Notice the original message has telecom23.354.10@telecom-digest.org > in the To header, so perhaps someone at your end could check to see > who would have gotten the original message. As Pat noted, that was a Usenet message ID scraped off the net many years ago. Those addresses get a fair amount of spam, and since they're easy to recognize they go into my spamtrap where they're logged and if it's from a source the spamtrap can figure out, it sends off a complaint. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 14:26:11 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Lisa Hancock wrote: > I don't see why this is a big deal. It's the school's computers and > they should be able to regulate them any way they choose. It's no > different from the workplace where an employer dictates what can and > cannot be done on his computers. Not completely true. Private employers don't have to worry about First Amendment issues; public school districts do. However, there are probably ways to avoid those issues. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #246 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 3 18:52:45 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5F04114FE9; Fri, 3 Jun 2005 18:52:44 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #247 Message-Id: <20050603225244.5F04114FE9@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 18:52:44 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.6 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,HOME_EMPLOYMENT, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT,NO_EXPERIENCE autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: * Status: R TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 Jun 2005 18:53:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 247 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update #484, June 3, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) McAfee Targets Wi-Fi Security (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Wireless Networks on Verge of Makeover (Monty Solomon) Google's Long Memory (Lisa Minter) ADSL in Britain (istan@interia.pl) Porting an 800 Number (Fred Atkinson) Prepaid SIM Cards - Are They Any Good? (gavin@interprom.com) Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? (gaikokujinkyofusho@gmail.com) SEX.COM Owner Arrested For Child Molestation, Heroin (Nancy Howard) Re: Police Officer Misbehaves in Chat Room for Children (Lisa Hancock) Re: Porn Sites Get Own Domain Name, '.xxx' (Robert Bonomi) Bennett LeBow ? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-Mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (mc) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Robert Bonomi) Re: GSM and Roaming (Robert Bonomi) Re: Known Spam Sites (Steven Lichter) Re: Apparent Junk Mail (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 11:46:43 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #484, June 3, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 484: June 3, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telus Plans In-Territory VoIP ** Is Bell Exiting Rural Phone Business? ** Telecom Policy Discussion Paper Due Monday ** Telecom Hall of Fame Launched ** OneConnect Complies With 9-1-1 Order ** AOL Rolls Out National VoIP ** Nortel Results Finally Current ** CRTC Updates Service Withdrawal Rules ** CRTC Urged to Set VoIP Compliance Deadlines for Bell, Shaw ** Hydro One, WilTel Offer Cross-Border Ethernet ** CIRA Sets Board Election ** New President at Telehop ** Virgin Launches Service in Maritimes ** Bell Offers Wireless Tracking for Small Business ** CATA Launches "Women In Technology" Forum ** CRTC Names New Communications Director ** Telemanagement Live Expands ============================================================ TELUS PLANS IN-TERRITORY VoIP: On Wednesday, Telus CEO Darren Entwistle told reporters that his company will offer residential IP-based local phone service in Alberta, British Columbia, and eastern Quebec later this year. IS BELL EXITING RURAL PHONE BUSINESS? There's no official comment from Bell Canada, but published reports say the telco is hoping to raise $3 billion by selling 850,000 local telephone lines in rural Ontario and Quebec. Rumoured buyers include Bell Nordiq (a Bell subsidiary) and independent telco Amtelecom. TELECOM POLICY DISCUSSION PAPER DUE MONDAY: The Telecom Policy Review Panel plans to release its consultation paper on Monday, June 6, outlining focus areas and inviting submissions. To read the paper or register, go to the panel's website. www.telecomreview.ca/ TELECOM HALL OF FAME LAUNCHED: This week, Lorne Abugov, a partner at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, announced the formation of Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame, to honour pioneers and leaders of the industry. The first laureates will be announced during the TeleManagement Live conference in October. The interim selection committee includes Abugov and: ** Stuart MacPherson: Principal, MacPherson Telecom Consulting; Former CRTC Executive Director Telecom. ** Lis Angus: Executive Vice-President, Angus TeleManagement Group Inc.; co-editor, Telecom Update. ** Wes Scott: Corporate Director; former BCE Chief Corporate Officer. ** Carol Stephenson: Dean, Richard Ivey School of Business, University of Western Ontario. www.telecomhall.ca ONECONNECT COMPLIES WITH 9-1-1 ORDER: Hosted IP telephony provider OneConnect says that by June 24 specialized call centres will intercept its subscribers' 9-1-1 calls and route them to the proper 911 dispatch points. The CRTC has ordered VoIP providers to offer basic 9-1-1 service by July 3. (See Telecom Update #476) AOL ROLLS OUT NATIONAL VoIP: AOL Canada's IP telephony service, TotalTalk, is now available across Canada. Introduced in Toronto earlier this year, TotalTalk is offered in two packages, depending on the amount of North American LD included: $19.95/month with 60 minutes of LD, $29.95/month with 1,000 minutes. Both plans include unlimited calling to other TotalTalk subscribers. ** AOL's website says the service includes 9-1-1, "if your telephone number and the 9-1-1 address that you supply to us during registration correspond to a TotalTalk serving area exchange." NORTEL RESULTS FINALLY CURRENT: At last, Nortel Networks financial reporting is back on schedule. First quarter results show revenue of US$2.54 billion, up 4% from a year ago and down 2% from the previous quarter. Net loss: $49 million. Nortel's order backlog increased 10% to $4.5 billion. ** CEO Bill Owens says Nortel is taking "aggressive actions" to lower its cost structure and may close some of its 30 R&D sites. CRTC UPDATES SERVICE WITHDRAWAL RULES: Responding to a January 2005 application from Bell Canada (see Telecom Update #463), the CRTC has outlined new procedures to deal with telco applications to destandardize or withdraw tariffed services. The new process provides timelines and criteria to be relied on by customers and carriers when service withdrawals are proposed, but does not allow for automatic approval as proposed by Bell. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Circulars/2005/ct2005-7.htm CRTC URGED TO SET VoIP COMPLIANCE DEADLINES FOR BELL, SHAW: Industry players want the CRTC to set firm deadlines for Bell Canada and Shaw Communications to comply with the new VoIP rules: ** Cogeco, Quebecor, and the CCTA say Bell should be required to file a tariff for its "Digital Voice" VoIP service without delay, and should not be allowed to offer the service to any new customers until the tariff is approved. ** Telus says Shaw should not be permitted to expand its telephone service to new communities until it is in compliance with all CLEC obligations. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/c6_200503997.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/q15_200504151.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/c13_200504028.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8622/t66_200503418.htm HYDRO ONE, WILTEL OFFER CROSS-BORDER ETHERNET: Hydro One Telecom now offers wide-area Ethernet service into the United States, in partnership with Tulsa-based WilTel Communications. CIRA SETS BOARD ELECTION: Elections for the Board of Directors of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority will be held online and by fax, from June 16 to June 22. Everyone who holds a dot.ca domain name is eligible to join CIRA and participate in the election. www.cira.ca/en/election_2005/election-2005.html NEW PRESIDENT AT TELEHOP: Ruth Bartholomeusz, who has been Chief Operating Officer of Telehop Communications since 2000, has been named president of the company. Former president Hersh Spiegelman continues as Chairman of the Board. VIRGIN LAUNCHES SERVICE IN MARITIMES: On May 31, Virgin Mobile expanded its prepaid wireless service to the Atlantic Provinces. (See Telecom Update #471) BELL OFFERS WIRELESS TRACKING FOR SMALL BUSINESS: Bell Mobility's new GoTrax service provides "affordable wireless tracking for small and medium-sized businesses," using a combination of handset-based GPS and cellular technology. CATA LAUNCHES "WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY" FORUM: The Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance has launched the Women In Technology Forum, which aims to "boost women's participation and progress in a very challenging sector." The WIT Forum plans to offer online resources, a mentoring network, educational programs, and a book, "Leadership Success for Women," to be launched this autumn. www.cata.ca/Media_and_Events/Press_Releases/cata_pr05310501.html CRTC NAMES NEW COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: On June 2, Claudine Renauld joined the CRTC as Director General Communications, replacing Denis Carmel, who will work with her during a transition period. (see Telecom Update #477). TELEMANAGEMENT LIVE EXPANDS: Telemanagement Live, Canada's premier user-focused conference and exhibit on business telecom and networking, has doubled the size of its educational program this year. The initial sponsors for the event, to be held October 17-19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, are Allstream, Avaya, Bell Canada, Cisco Systems and Telus. www.telemanagementlive.com ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 12:58:34 EDT From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: McAfee Targets Wi-Fi Security Telecom dailyLead from USTA June 3, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22084&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * McAfee targets Wi-Fi security BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Satellite ISPs seek to overcome hurdles * Analysis: SBC's low-cost DSL may pressure other broadband providers * O2 signs up to use Intel chip * Motorola: Low handset prices not only key to 3G's success USTA SPOTLIGHT * Register Onsite for USTA Conferences at SUPERCOMM Starting Monday EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * BT, Virgin to launch mobile TV trial VOIP DOWNLOAD * AOL Canada expands VoIP service * CIOs offer tips on VoIP implementation REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Former Qwest CFO to plead guilty Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=22084&l=2017006 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 07:16:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wireless Networks on Verge of Makeover By MATTHEW FORDAHL AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The technology behind wireless data networks in homes and businesses is on the verge of a makeover that promises to fix long-standing complaints of spotty coverage, flaky connections and inconsistent speeds. The next generation of Wi-Fi will be so powerful that it's expected to be capable of carrying everything from Internet phone calls and music to high-definition television streams over the airwaves without a hiccup. Problem is, the standard technically known as 802.11n does not yet exist. Not even a draft has been approved. In fact, the final 802.11n specifications aren't expected to receive an official nod until late next year at the earliest. But that has not stopped the makers of access points, networking cards and other wireless gear from launching a parade of products that claim the benefits and even the underlying technologies of the still-to-be-defined 802.11n. The situation is setting a new standard for market confusion _ even in an industry that plasters its boxes with claims of unobtainable speeds, fuzzy math and a dizzying collection of acronyms. Some products are labeled "Pre N," which some believe might lead consumers to think the equipment is upgradeable to actual 802.11n. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49601956 ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Google's Long Memory Stirs Privacy Concerns Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 10:15:12 -0500 By Andy Sullivan When Google Inc.'s 19 million daily users look up a long-lost classmate, send e-mail or bounce around the Web more quickly with its new Web Accelerator, records of that activity don't go away. In an era of increased government surveillance, privacy watchdogs worry that Google's vast archive of Internet activity could prove a tempting target for abuse. Like many other online businesses, Google (Nasdaq:GOOG - news) tracks how its search engine and other services are used, and who uses them. Unlike many other businesses, Google holds onto that information for years. Some privacy experts who otherwise give Google high marks say the company's records could become a handy data bank for government investigators who rely on business records to circumvent Watergate-era laws that limit their own ability to track U.S. residents. At a time when libraries delete lending records as soon as a book is returned, Google should purge its records after a certain point to protect users, they say. "What if someone comes up to them and says, 'We want to know whenever this key word comes up'? All the capability is there and it becomes a one-stop shopping center for all these kinds of things," said Lauren Weinstein, an engineer who co-founded People for Internet Responsibility, a forum for online issues. Google officials say their extensive log files help them improve service, fight fraud and develop new products, and unlike many other online companies, it seems willing to pay for the enormous storage capacity needed to save the data. "If it's useful, we'll hold on to it," said Nicole Wong, a Google associate general counsel. Google complies with law-enforcement investigations, Wong said. She declined to comment on the frequency or scope of those requests. From the ground up, Google designs its offerings to minimally impact user privacy, Wong said. Google doesn't share the information it collects from visitors with outside marketers. Employees must get executive approval before they examine traffic data, she said. Google logs the numerical IP address of each computer that visits many of its sites, and deposits small bits of code known as "cookies" on users' machines to automatically remember preferences like which language they use, she said. Users can reject cookies if they wish, but some services like Gmail, Google's e-mail, will not work without them. It's difficult to tie cookies and IP addresses to a particular person, Wong said. The IP address of a computer can change every time it signs on to the Internet, and different services use different cookies so the company doesn't know, for example, that a particular Gmail user has visited the Web site of an abortion providers. POLICIES COULD CHANGE But absent regulation, there's nothing to prevent Google from linking together those cookies in the future, said Chris Hoofnagle, who heads the West Coast office of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Events can change corporate culture, and those who use the Google service may experience a shift in the definition of 'evil,"' Hoofnagle said, referring to the company's "Don't be evil" motto. Rivals like Yahoo Inc. and Internet service providers such as Time Warner Inc.'s America Online also track user activity. But ISPs generally don't hold onto such information for more than a month because storage costs and privacy concerns can mount quickly, said Stewart Baker, a Washington lawyer who has represented ISPs in law-enforcement matters. "If you don't have a reason to keep a bunch of data around, it's probably prudent to get rid of it," he said. Yahoo declined to say how long it holds on to its log files. Google's generous mail service creates risks as well. While AOL purges customer e-mail from its servers after 28 days unless users specify otherwise, Gmail encourages users to hold onto their messages indefinitely. Most people don't know that a 1986 law gives less protection from government searches to messages more than six months old, said Ari Schwartz, an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "That doesn't mean that Google needs to change its technology, but they do need to do some consumer education," he said. Even when a user deletes a message it may remain on company servers, according to the Gmail privacy policy. Some don't see Google's long memory as a bad thing. "You wouldn't want them to throw away all the queries that have been done -- that's like throwing away history," said Danny Sullivan, editor of the trade publication Search Engine Watch. Weinstein doesn't think so. "There's really no good reason to hold onto that information for more than a few months," he said. "They seem to think that because their motives are pure that everything is OK and they can operate on a trust basis. History tells us that is not the case." 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. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lauren Weinstein, quoted in the Reuters news item above has been a long time netter. He was a founding, or charter subsriber to Telecom Digest back in 1981. Although many times he makes good sense in what he says, there have been times I felt he was unduly concerned with some obscure privacy issues. I have read some of his postings here, also in RISKS and elsewhere and wondered if he really felt some of the concerns expressed were realistic or not. His things make good reading, to be sure, but how _real_ are a lot of his concerns? PAT] ------------------------------ From: istan@interia.pl Subject: ADSL in Britain Date: 3 Jun 2005 03:40:59 -0700 Hi, Couple weeks ago I saw on TV a BBC's documentary film about ADSL access to the Internet. There was some information about BT and their plans in the future. There were also interviews with customer who shared their experience with using the Internet, Skype, VoIP. They complained about BT as well :). They didn't agree with policy of BT to charge a landline and an ADSL access to the Internet in the same time without giving a choose to resign of a landline. I'd like to ask about a copy of this document or information where can I find it. The film is very interesting for me and useful in my work. Regard, Paul ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Porting an 800 Number Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 07:53:04 -0400 I've accepted a position that is relocating me to the Cullowhee, NC area. There are about three VOIP providers that provide telephone numbers for nearby Sylva, NC. Vonage is *not* one of them. So, I have to change VOIP providers when I move. Of the three, one has a bad reputation with the BBB. The other two check out with a good reputation. On the recommendation of someone with professional judgement that I trust, I've decided which one to go with. When I got Vonage service, they wouldn't retarget my personal 800 numbers to my Vonage phone, though they told me I was welcome to use a toll-free provider to report my number to my Vonage number (Vonage will provide you with a new 800 number, but they won't retarget one that you already have). This company says they will accept your existing 800 numbers and add them to your service. But, you have to arrange to have them retargeted to their facitilies yourself. So, can anyone tell me [or provide me with a link to the instructions on] how to do this? I'm also trying to find out if I can get my local Columbia area Vonage number retargeted to my new provider as a virtual number. I've sent them an email asking them about that. I gave them the area code and the exchange. Verizon is the local provider in that area. I've already corresponded with them about getting a foreign listing for my new residential VOIP number. They say absolutely yes and they charge about half of what Bellsouth charged me for the same thing. I have the name of a person who is in the know about this and I can contact them once I get my new number. After all the trouble I had getting my number listed with Bellsouth (I had to call the PSC in SC to get it done), it'll be interesting to see how this goes. Regards, Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fred, I may be missing something here, but regards the redirection of your personal 800 number, why wouldn't you just do that yourself (to wherever you like) rather than pointing it at still another 800 number from Vonage, so you will now get twice the fees for your inbound calls? PAT] ------------------------------ From: gavin@interprom.com Subject: Prepaid SIM Cards - Are They Any Good? Date: 2 Jun 2005 21:21:19 -0700 I travel to the US a lot and refuse to pay the inflated roaming charges that Rogers Wireless, and I'm sure ALL cariers charge. I was wondering if services such as www.interlinkwireless.ca who provide prepaid SIM cards that you can refill are on the up and up? BTW - I have an unlocked phone :) ------------------------------ From: gaikokujinkyofusho@gmail.com Subject: Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? Date: 2 Jun 2005 19:52:08 -0700 Hi, I got a Nokia 3310 (GSM) while i was in Italy but will be in the US for a few months and don't want to bother getting a new phone or locked in monthly phone service. Can the 3310 be used in the US and if so what prepaid options are there? Any help would be *greatly* appreciated! Cheers -Gaiko ------------------------------ From: nancyhoward2@gmail.com Subject: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Possession of Heroin Date: 2 Jun 2005 20:23:14 -0700 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I take this opportunity to remind all our readers that criminal allegations are just that -- allegations -- and not 'proof' of anything. Proof can only be detirmined by a judge in a court of law. Police do not make those decisions, neither do netters. I've never spoken to Ms. Howard, and cannot give any credibilty to what she says, either way. PAT] BY NANCY HOWARD SEX.COM owner arrested for Child molestation and possession of heroin. Gary Kremen the owner of the infamous web site Sex.com has been arrested and release on bail for "Child Molestation" of 13 year old boy, possession of heroin and possession of hypodermic needles. A police source familiar with the incident stated that Kremen is a well known user of drugs such as speed and heroin and has admitted to being bisxual during a police interview. Dr. Adrian Copeland, a psychiatrist who works with sexual offenders at the Peters Institute in Philadelphia, said that, from his experience, pedophiles tend to be homosexual and "40% to 45%" of child molesters have had "significant homosexual experiences." Police are currently investigating other unspecified criminal charges against Kremen. Kremen who became famous for his court victory against Stephen Cohen over the sex.com domain name has had his problems according to the police source since winning back the sex.com domain name. The sex.com web site produces a small amount of money for Kremen who has been forced to endure large continuing legal expenses because of Kremen's failure to collect from Cohen. Kremen's prior attorney Charles Carreon was forced to sue Kremen over proceeds from the victorious lawsuit to win back the domain sex.com. Carreon claimed Kremen promised him 15% ownership in Sex.com. Kremen denied any such deal. Kremen settled his obligation to Carreon for an undisclosed amount of money. Last year Kremen for unknown reasons settled his action with VeriSign for $150,000.00 according to a VeriSign public filing with the Security Exchange Commission. In phone interview with Kremen today he stated he was not a child molester and the charges are false. Kremen admitted that he does have a problem with drugs and that he does supported groups that protect the rights of children. Mandy Howard of "Parents United Against Child Sexual Abuse" stated that people like Gary Kremen should be incarcerated for life since there is no cure for these people. We should start to think about protecting the rights of our children over the rights of child predators like Kremen. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if 'Mandy Howard' of Parents United is any relation to 'Nancy Howard' who submitted this article? I would also like to point out that in this somewhat offensive article (to me, at least), neither of the Misses Howard's is entitled to use absolute terms like 'predator' or 'should be incarcerated for life', certainly without _an adjudication in a court_. My first reaction was to pitch the article out unused, but with the possibility there is some smidgen of truth herein, i.e. Kremen _was_ arrested on the allegations named, and his known legal problems with the 'sex.com' domain, etc I decided to use the article. However I could have done without the blurring/blending of sexual lifestyle choices and pedophilia. I did not need opinions from any Philadelphia 'expert' nor any pronouncements from Mandy Howard about 'what should be done'; whether the item is true or false, I do not need that. I would point out also to Mandy Howard that kids have been known to _lie_ on this topic and 'life incarceration' is a bit steep under the circumstances. That's not to say he is or is not guilty; I have no idea. So Ms. Nancy Howard, if you wish to write to us further on this topic or any other which is bound to stir controversy, please write only with the facts as they are known at that moment. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Police Officer Misbehaves in Chat Room for Children Date: 3 Jun 2005 09:22:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lisa Minter wrote: > Police Say a Popular Officer Sought Boys in Children's Chat Rooms > Michael Costello, 39, a popular youth officer in the 114th Precinct in > Astoria, Queens, seemed like a model of community policing. > Nancy DiMeglio, 74, vice president of the 114th Precinct's community > council, described Officer Costello as a popular officer and said she > was "in dead shock" to hear the charges. Is it possible this was the result of a malicious frame-up or technical error in identification? Could the messages have been forged? These are very serious charges and are reported on from time to time. But is the technical computer basis absolutely solidly accurate to identify the sender and content? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All those things are possible, except that 'someone' who produced a picture of Costello also somehow arranged for Costello to go to the Starbucks at the appointed meeting time and that same 'someone' arranged for Costello to have items in his possession of a sexual nature. Certainly not illegal, but when taken in the context of the other known things in the case, rather peculiar to say the least. This is _precisely_ or quite nearly the same as the Kremen's matter which Ms. Howard wrote about in the other message in this issue, but unlike the third-party bystanders in Ms. Howard's report (an 'expert' discussing any possible relationship between pedophilia/homosexuality/ bisexualty and conveniently getting it all blurred together; an aggrieved parent organization with suggestions [albiet they are premature] of how to administer punishment, etc; and an alleged 'confession' of bisexuality to police officers), the only third-party bystander in Lisa Minter's report, was the 74 year old lady in the community organization who said she was 'shocked' by the report. And a news source (Watch Right.com) I have had experience with versus a news source (Howard) with whom I have no experience. The above Editor's Note brought to you as a public service for the readers who wonder why transgressions of the cop _as reported_ were fair game but transgressions by the proprietor of sex.com _as reported_ were looked at somewhat askance. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Porn Sites Get Own Domain Name, '.xxx' Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:55:14 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Lisa Minter wrote: > By Andy Sullivan > Sex sites will soon be able to sign up for Web addresses in the .xxx > Internet domain, but a virtual red light district won't guarantee that > people can avoid pornography online, Internet experts said on > Thursday. > The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said late > Wednesday it would move ahead with plans to set up a separate .xxx > Internet domain for sexually explicit material. It's a *damn* shame ICANN couldn't be bothered to read RFC 3675. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: All that RFC business is so quaint since ICANN took over the Internet a few years ago. ICANN seems to take the position RFCs-be-damned! They'll do as they please, thank you just the same. And did you notice how all along, ICANN was sticking to the 'we do not want to judge or determine content' line regards '.xxx' all the while they were churning out and giving blessings and imprimateur to '.info' and '.biz', two big spam hives? Then a lawyer comes along with his ICM Registry and for some odd reason ICANN no longer has their objections to '.xxx'. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? By any chance has Vint Cerf and his buddy Esther Dyson and the gang managed to collect enough money for their next overseas vacation trip yet? PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Bennett LeBow? Date: 3 Jun 2005 13:49:27 -0700 I was wondering about the background of this fellow. He is a wealthy businessman who has donated a great deal of money to colleges that have named stuff for him. According to Google, we had a post mentioning him in the bankruptcy proceedings of Western Union some years ago, and he was involved in that somehow. I get the impression he was kind of an aggressive corporate takeover artist. I was wondering if readers here had any opinions of him beyond the official history. Thanks. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 3 Jun 2005 14:08:06 -0700 Steve Sobol wrote: > Not completely true. Private employers don't have to worry about First > Amendment issues; public school districts do. However, there are > probably ways to avoid those issues. The rights of free speech and assembly does not say the govt has to provide you the platform or medium for your activities. For that you're on your own. A student on his own home computer on his private (not school issued) email or web account could do pretty much anything he/she wants, subject to standard law that everybody has to obey. Likewise, any student may stand at the entrance of his school and hand out leaflets to students. That's all classic stuff. But when the student uses school-owned facilities for personal expression, it's another story. Students do not have a right of free speech in the school newspaper -- the publisher (the school) has the ultimate say, just as the publisher of any newspaper has the ultimate say in what goes in. Likewise for electronic transmissions -- the hosts of web sites, chat rooms, email networks, etc., have ultimate control. It is important to remember that publishers and electronic host s are ultimately legally responsible and liable for stuff they 'publish'. This is particularly important when dealing with kids because (1) the original kid who put out something bad may be immune to suit on account of being a minor and (2) the victim of something bad may be a minor and as such have additional rights of law. In other words, if some kids snaps a cellphone photo of another kid naked and then publishes it on the school's media, the school would in a heck of a lot of trouble. This has happened and school officials were in a big mess for failing to protect and control their networks from such actions. The courts have issued varied rulings on this. Sometimes schools are between in a rock and a hard place -- sometimes they are forced by the courts to let kids publish crap and then they're the ones who get sued over it. Schools have to play all sorts of games to cover themselves. Accordingly, we see rules like this -- banning some student activity -- so the school can protect itself. Given out litigous world and the fact some kids can be incredibly cruel -- I don't blame the school. This isn't anything actually new. Even in my day there were a lot of stupid school rules for legal reasons. For instance, we were forbidden to leave school grounds during lunch and the school aggressively enforced it -- even having the cops raid local lunch stops. The thing was, during the school day if a kid got into any kind of trouble (ie hit by a car) the school was liable. Also, teachers/staff were forbidden to transport students in their personal cars (ie give a kid a ride home in a rainstorm) due to liability risk. When I was in elementary school and learning weights and measures, we had to bring in sample ads from the newspapers as examples. It turned out most of us found liquor ads. The teacher was very upset. It wasn't of course our fault, but the teacher was worried -- realistically -- of having an elemetary school classroom full of liquor ads. ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 01:37:18 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory ( http://www.speedfactory.net ) Steve Sobol wrote in message news:telecom24.246.9@telecom-digest.org: > Lisa Hancock wrote: >> I don't see why this is a big deal. It's the school's computers and >> they should be able to regulate them any way they choose. It's no >> different from the workplace where an employer dictates what can and >> cannot be done on his computers. > Not completely true. Private employers don't have to worry about First > Amendment issues; public school districts do. However, there are > probably ways to avoid those issues. That is another advantage of private schools. Everybody is there voluntarily. I'm not sure education is really *possible* in a government institution that is compelled to be neutral on every moral and political controversy. It is certainly often an odd experience, as this story shows. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:39:59 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Steve Sobol wrote: > Lisa Hancock wrote: >> I don't see why this is a big deal. It's the school's computers and >> they should be able to regulate them any way they choose. It's no >> different from the workplace where an employer dictates what can and >> cannot be done on his computers. > Not completely true. Private employers don't have to worry about First > Amendment issues; public school districts do. However, there are > probably ways to avoid those issues. Yuppers. First Amendment means that, as a government agency, you cannot monitor/filter/block/etc what students _say_ in outgoing email. (It's even a seriously sticky situation in government agencies with their employees.) On the other hand, you _can_ ban individuals from using the equipment _at_all_, if you have a rational reason for doing so. Like they've been using it abusively. Silly as it seems on the face of it, restricting them from 'saying anything' it not the First Amendment problem that restricting them from 'saying *specific* things' is. BTW, this is _nothing_ new. 50-70 years ago -- _couldn't_ restrict the *politician's* sound trucks going around trying to drum up votes, at election time. *COULD* ban *all* sound trucks, _all_ the time.. Similarly, a government operation can restrict "what functions" the multiple-purpose box known as an 'Internet-connected computer' is used for, without running afoul of First Amendment. The critical difference, from a legal viewpoint, is that when you merely restrict the 'use' of the government's equipment, people are free to go use _other_ equipment for the same purpose, and not be encumbered by those restrictions. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Same thing in Chicago at the Daley Plaza downtown. City said if you want to use loudspeakers or musical instruments we will allow only one set of same each day, generally first come, first served. Otherwise the Democrats on one side of the plaza with their loudspeakers will be drowning out the Republicans on the other side of the plaze with their sound equipment, and the resulting cacophony will keep the public servants working in their offices upstairs distracted. Now you had a legitimate government concern. 'Administrative Convenience' nearly always trumps the First Amendment. PAT] ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: GSM and Roaming Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 01:11:11 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Eric wrote: > Hi, > Anyone know of commercial or other solution to implement call hunting > between sim cards / lines? > Only solution I know of is HP's opencall framework. > Thanks for any suggestions. Grossly "insufficient data" for an intelligent answer. But that won't stop me. Your question is unclear -- are you a cell phone service *PROVIDER* looking to offer this capability as an option to your customers, and are seeking to add the requisite functionality to your switches? Or are you a cell-phone *user* wanting hunting between several cell phones? In the first scenario, talk to your switch equipment vendor. In the second scenario, ASK YOUR CELL-PHONE PROVIDER. If they offer a re-direct to voice-mail when your phone is _in_use_, they should have the physical capabilities in their switches to 'call forward on busy' to a different number. Whether or not they *choose* to offer that functionality to customers is a whole nuther story. Good luck. ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 02:30:52 GMT I'll give that a try. It seemed to have slowed down a a bit the last few days. I posted one message here when I first set up my reader, but had not fixed my address, and I get one or two a day here, but my e-mail client seems to know that they are junk and deletes them before they get to my HD. Steve Sobol wrote: > Steven Lichter wrote: >> Over the last month I have noticed that over 60% of the Spam e-mail I >> have received has come from e-mail addresses and sites that are >> registered to Godaddy. Has anything been done or being done to shut >> this company down? > Have you complained to abuse@godaddy with the relevant information? >> All of what is being sent out appears to be fraud related, plus they >> must be ripping these newbies selling them these new targeted lists. >> The big one now is the $400,000 loan that they called you on last >> night and the Universal Studios, Orlando, where they want your >> credit card number. > GD is actually better than a lot of registrars about nuking domain > names registered by spammers; many registrars refuse to do it even > after you notify them of the abuses. GD does get more spammers than > some other registrars due to their low prices. Try filing some abuse > reports first, before you talk about getting them shut down. > JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) > Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED > "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" > --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" 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. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Apparent Junk Mail From: wolfgang+gnus20050602T200108@dailyplanet.dontspam.wsrcc.com Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 03:17:39 GMT John Levine writes: >> Notice the original message has telecom23.354.10@telecom-digest.org > As Pat noted, that was a Usenet message ID scraped off the net many > years ago. Quite a few years ago I noticed that just about anything that appeared in a header and looked faintly like an email address would eventually find its way into a "spam-me" CD of "A million suckers wanting to hear your latest email scam." That's also the Achilles tendon one needs to attack. If one's messages have a bit of header fluff that points to a spamtrap account on their machine one can often block spamming sites before they get much spam through to real people. Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #247 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jun 3 23:42:17 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 95212150B9; Fri, 3 Jun 2005 23:42:16 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #248 Message-Id: <20050604034216.95212150B9@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 23:42:16 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,DOMAIN_BODY, MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 Jun 2005 23:42:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 248 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Not Much to do in Kid's Online Domain (Lisa Minter) Virus Doesn't Fool Many Guys (Lisa Minter) Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program (John Smith) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Dean M.) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (DevilsPGD) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Fred Atkinson) Re: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Heroin (mc) Re: Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? (John Levine) Re: Porting an 800 Number (Fred Atkinson) Re: Known Spam Sites (Gary Novosielski) 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: Lisa Minter Subject: Not Much to do in Kid's Online Domain Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 21:13:21 -0500 PluggedIn: Not much to do in kids' online domain By Andy Sullivan There's not much for kids to do in the "online playground" set up by the U.S. government more than two years ago. They can go bowling with SpongeBob Squarepants at www.nick.kids.us, plunk a piano keyboard at www.music.kids.us, and learn about mummies at www.mummies.kids.us. There are fun facts about the solar system at www.space.kids.us and motorcycles at www.knex.kids.us. Beyond that there's only 16 more Web sites in the ".kids.us" Internet domain, a letdown to those who had hoped that it would host enough material so that kids wouldn't have to navigate the unprotected wilds of the Internet at large. "It's disappointing, I wish it was fully deployed," said Illinois Republican Rep. John Shimkus, who sponsored the bill that set up the domain in 2002. But while Congress and administrator NeuStar Inc. set plenty of restrictions to keep online predators and inappropriate content out of the .kids.us domain, they didn't provide many incentives to bring Web sites in, Internet experts say. "You're dealing with a commercial venture in some instances, and with nonprofits that might not have the extra money," said Donna Rice Hughes, president of the online child safety group Enough is Enough. Congress turned to the idea of a special Internet domain for children under 13 after several attempts to ban or segregate online pornography failed in court in the late 1990s. Lawmakers decided it would be easier to set up a .kids domain within the United States' own .us domain rather than work through the international nonprofit body that oversees top-level domains like .com and .org. In theory, parents could adjust their childrens' Web browser so they could only view Web sites within the .kids.us domain, making it easy to avoid objectionable content. Web sites with a .kids.us address can't contain pornography, violence, or references to drugs and alcohol. Message boards, chat services and other interactive features are also prohibited from setting up shop unless the operators can promise that kids won't be exposed to inappropriate material. All material must pass a content review before it is posted, and .kids.us sites can't link to sites outside the domain. The online real estate doesn't come cheap. Users must pay an annual fee of roughly $150 to register the name, and the content review costs an additional $250 per year. Those looking for a .com name, by contrast, can pay as little as $7 per year. These restrictions are compounded by a 1998 privacy law that prevents Web sites from collecting personal information about children without their parents' consent. "Why would any kids' site pay $300 to register in a place that has nothing really driving anyone to it and special liability for the sites themselves?" said Parry Aftab, a New York lawyer and activist who works on online child-safety issues. More than 1,700 .kids.us names were reserved after the domain was opened for registration in June 2003, but two years later only 21 Web sites are up and running. "I don't think we're disappointed, certainly the kids.us space is serving a valuable need," said Keith Drazek, NeuStar's manager for industrial and government relations. Drazek said the registration fee is set by retail domain-name sellers, and he declined to say what NeuStar charges as a wholesale price. The content-review process takes time and effort as well, he said. Only six Web sites or so have been rejected because of inappropriate content, said Bob Dahstrom, chief executive of Kidsnet Inc., the company that handles the content review. "We'd be happy to review more," he said. John Marshall University law professor David Sorkin, whose law.kids.us site was rejected because it contained a Supreme Court opinion that contained profanity, said the lack of content in the domain has stymied its growth. "It's sort of a chicken-and-egg problem, I suppose," he said. Lackluster promotion hasn't helped either, Aftab and Rice Hughes said. NeuStar should lower its prices and give away domain names to nonprofit groups to encourage more content, they said. NeuStar has produced an informational brochure and participated in a public forum last July, Drazek said, and the company can't give away domain names on its own. Shimkus said he's still trying to raise awareness about the domain but he can understand why the response has been tepid. "I never want to make enemies of people who may see the light, and I don't think (the restrictions) are onerous. But what I do think it does is that if they have a similar dot-com site where they can market goods, they'd rather be there," he said. 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. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Latest Virus Didn't Fool Many Guys Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 21:14:55 -0500 Virus claiming Bin Laden arrest fools few on Web A new computer virus in e-mails claiming that Osama Bin Laden has been arrested has failed to lure many users to open dangerous attachments, despite its high-profile headline, security software makers said on Friday. The virus began circulating in the past day and is one of several Bin Laden-type viruses that have been distributed on the Internet since May 2004. The current virus has a subject line claiming Bin Laden has been arrested. The U.S. government has been hunting Bin Laden since 2001, and holds him responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. He has not yet been found. To become infected, a user has to click onto an attachment inside the e-mail to activate malicious code which allows a computer hacker to later use the infected computer to send spam and other nuisances on the Web. Oliver Friedrichs, a senior manager at the security response team at Symantec Corp., the world's biggest maker of security software, said only 10 of several thousand customers had alerted the company on Friday about the virus. Symantec rates the virus a "2" on a scale of "5," which is the most threatening. McAfee Inc., the second-biggest security software maker, said it had seen few infections caused by the e-mail virus. 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: John Smith Subject: Re: Neat New Satellite Map Program Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:19:04 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A very good point! I have to wonder > why they are charging for views like that? And the PRO version of the > software is even more expensive. PAT] One of the easiest to use free satpix sites is . Pull up any map, and then click on the "Satellite" link in the upper right corner. It's something they've added recently, and still listed as "beta". ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites From: Dean M. Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:24:28 GMT On Fri, 03 Jun 2005 14:08:06 -0700, wrote: > Steve Sobol wrote: >> Not completely true. Private employers don't have to worry about First >> Amendment issues; public school districts do. However, there are >> probably ways to avoid those issues. > The rights of free speech and assembly does not say the govt has > to provide you the platform or medium for your activities. For > that you're on your own. > A student on his own home computer on his private (not school issued) > email or web account could do pretty much anything he/she wants, > subject to standard law that everybody has to obey. Likewise, any > student may stand at the entrance of his school and hand out leaflets > to students. That's all classic stuff. > But when the student uses school-owned facilities for personal > expression, it's another story. Students do not have a right of free > speech in the school newspaper -- the publisher (the school) has the > ultimate say, just as the publisher of any newspaper has the ultimate > say in what goes in. Likewise for electronic transmissions -- the > hosts of web sites, chat rooms, email networks, etc., have ultimate > control. > It is important to remember that publishers and electronic hosts are > ultimately legally responsible and liable for stuff they 'publish'. > This is particularly important when dealing with kids because (1) the > original kid who put out something bad may be immune to suit on > account of being a minor and (2) the victim of something bad may be a > minor and as such have additional rights of law. In other words, if > some kids snaps a cellphone photo of another kid naked and then > publishes it on the school's media, the school would in a heck of a > lot of trouble. This has happened and school officials were in a big > mess for failing to protect and control their networks from such > actions. > The courts have issued varied rulings on this. Sometimes schools are > between in a rock and a hard place -- sometimes they are forced by the > courts to let kids publish crap and then they're the ones who get sued > over it. Schools have to play all sorts of games to cover themselves. > Accordingly, we see rules like this -- banning some student activity -- > so the school can protect itself. Given out litigous world and the > fact some kids can be incredibly cruel -- I don't blame the school. > This isn't anything actually new. Even in my day there were a lot of > stupid school rules for legal reasons. For instance, we were > forbidden to leave school grounds during lunch and the school > aggressively enforced it -- even having the cops raid local lunch > stops. The thing was, during the school day if a kid got into any > kind of trouble (ie hit by a car) the school was liable. Also, > teachers/staff were forbidden to transport students in their personal > cars (ie give a kid a ride home in a rainstorm) due to liability risk. > When I was in elementary school and learning weights and measures, we > had to bring in sample ads from the newspapers as examples. It turned > out most of us found liquor ads. The teacher was very upset. It > wasn't of course our fault, but the teacher was worried -- > realistically -- of having an elemetary school classroom full of > liquor ads. Forgive my ignorance, but if this whole exercise on the part of public schools is simply aimed at reducing their liablility exposure, how do the private schools others mentioned get around that issue? As you point out, we do inhabit a litigious society so I can't imagine private schools don't care about lawsuits. And I'm sure kids attending private school can be just as cruel. What gives? Do private schools reduce their liability by monitoring whereas public schools are not allowed to monitor email? Seems to me that if they're blocking sites, they're already monitoring, no? I don't get it. Why take away a valuable tool from all the kids for the possible stupidity of a few? It would be like cutting school sports entirely because some students may get hurt playing. Or does that happen too? -Dean ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:41:44 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff >> Boston Public School officials, who recently banned cellphone use >> during the school day, are angering students with a new prohibition: >> no checking or sending e-mail from Yahoo, Hotmail, or other personal >> Web-based accounts from school. > I don't see why this is a big deal. It's the school's computers and > they should be able to regulate them any way they choose. It's no > different from the workplace where an employer dictates what can and > cannot be done on his computers. There is a critical difference: The schools are publicly funded. > In some ways, I think schools acting to prevent harassment/ bullying > between students is not such a bad idea. It's not a bad idea, but denying access to Hotmail won't do squat. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 21:10:03 -0400 A couple of years ago, I was teaching special college courses for the local technical college here in the area. The courses were part of an alliance between our college and the county school system. We were offering the students a chance to get college credit while they were still in high school. And we taught it at the county career center rather than the college campus. The students had to pass our college entrance exam to be eligible, of course. I was teaching them 'PC Maintenance and Repair' and 'Computer Networking'. For those kids who were willing to work, it was a great opportunity to get a headstart on college. Some of them did quite well, too. Of course, there are always the students who show up thinking that you are just going to pass them for showing up and taking the tests. About three or four of them did not complete both courses. I told them up front it wasn't going to be a free ride. I was an adjunct at the college and I wasn't a staff member of the county school system. Therefore, I did not have an email account from either one of them. I do have Web access to my email account on my domain 'mishmash.com'. I would pull up a browser at the school to view my messages with some of them from the college, some of them from folks at the school district, and some of them my own messages for different things I was involved in. One day (after I'd been teaching there for about a month and a half), I tried to pull up the Web access for my mail server and got the school district message saying that the site had been blocked. I called and asked why. I was told it was because students were not allowed to access their personal email from school district computers. I pointed out that there was only one email account on that site, that it was my account, and that I had no other email address to use for college and school correspondence. I assured them that I was not going to give students email accounts on my mail server. It took a couple of weeks, a written justification, and a few phone calls and emails to the right people, but finally they lifted the block. On another note, I later discovered that they had QSL Net blocked as an 'inappropriate site' (I know the ham radio operators on TD will be quite shocked by this). I wrote up a justification for unblocking it and made a few phone calls and emails. But before the end of the semester, I convinced them that there was no justification for blocking it. It took a good fight and I got a lady ham radio operator at the school district headquarters involved. But we got it done. Sadly, they do these things without looking at how it adversely affects faculty and staff and what it may deprive the kids of. On the latter, ham radio is a very educational hobby and they shouldn't be denying the kids access to information about it. Regards, Fred, WB4AEJ ------------------------------ From: mc Subject: Re: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Heroin Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 19:15:45 -0400 Organization: Speed Factory ( http://www.speedfactory.net ) > Mandy Howard of "Parents United Against Child Sexual Abuse" stated > that people like Gary Kremen should be incarcerated for life since > there is no cure for these people. We should start to think about > protecting the rights of our children over the rights of child > predators like Kremen. That could well be the result of a journalist asking a person a rather different question ("What should be done with sexual predators?") and then inserting the response into a context that applies it to Mr. Kremen. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I've aleady had a problem with Ms. Howard since the previous issue of the Digest was released. About an hour ago I got another message from her (to be posted here) asking parents 'whose boy children had been approached by Mr. Kamen to please call the San Francisco Police Department'. I pitched it. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 4 Jun 2005 00:36:51 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Hi, I got a Nokia 3310 (GSM) while i was in Italy but will be in the > US for a few months and don't want to bother getting a new phone or > locked in monthly phone service. Can the 3310 be used in the US and > if so what prepaid options are there? That's a GSM 900/1800 phone. North America is GSM 800/1900 so your phone won't work at all here. There's a nice comparison of US prepaid plans at http://nordicgroup.us/prepaid/. You might want to buy a used TDMA handset on ebay before you go. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Porting an 800 Number Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 20:42:04 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fred, I may be missing something here, > but regards the redirection of your personal 800 number, why wouldn't > you just do that yourself (to wherever you like) rather than pointing > it at still another 800 number from Vonage, so you will now get twice > the fees for your inbound calls? PAT] You did miss something, PAT. A personal (or business) 800 number can be pointed at whatever carrier that will take it and route your call. My first personal 800 was gotten for me by the folks at Sprint. When I moved on to another carrier, the new carrier arranged to repoint the number from Sprint to their service. And I moved a couple of more times. Each time, the new carrier repointed the number to go to them when I moved my service. I never had to do it myself. This carrier says I have to arrange for it to be pointed at them. But once it is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to be sent to my local phone number that they provide me. Vonage offers toll-free numbers (I say 800 because both of my toll-free numbers happen to be 800 numbers). But, they won't accept a toll-free number that you already have. They will get you a new one, but they won't transfer an existing toll-free number. I spoke to several people at Vonage (including those who do the number portability stuff) and they all said the same thing. They did say that if you wanted to use another carrier and point it at your Vonage number that you were free to do so. So, when you dial my personal 800 number, it currently gets routed to Power Net Global who routes it to my Vonage number. Double whammy. But this new carrier says they will allow you to move the toll-free number to their service. The only hitch (as I previously mentioned) is that you have to get the 800 number pointed at them. because they don't do it for you. Unfortunately [as I never had to arrange to move my number from one carrier to another myself], I don't know how to arrange for that to happen. Once the number is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to ring your phone. In this manner, you don't have to use two carriers to make it work. Did I explain it better this time? Regards, Fred [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, you did. Let's see if anyone can provide any answers. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 02:06:55 GMT Steven Lichter wrote: > Over the last month I have noticed that over 60% of the Spam e-mail I > have received has come from e-mail addresses and sites that are > registered to Godaddy. Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a spamhaus. What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #248 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jun 4 18:51:43 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 857FB14F51; Sat, 4 Jun 2005 18:51:43 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #249 Message-Id: <20050604225143.857FB14F51@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 18:51:43 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.8 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, PORN_4 autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Jun 2005 18:52:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 249 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EFFector 18.15: Federal Court Scraps Broadcast Flag! (Monty Solomon) EFFector 18.16: Give the Broadcast Flag a TKO! (Monty Solomon) MSN Site Hacking Went Undetected for Days (Monty Solomon) MSN Site Hacking More Details (Lisa Minter) Re: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Heroin (John Smith) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Anony Mouse) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Barry Margolin) Re: Known Spam Sites (Steven Lichter) History of Standard Oil and Bell System (Digest Archives Reprint) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 13:32:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.15: Federal Court Scraps Broadcast Flag! EFFector Vol. 18, No. 15 May 13, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 331st Issue of EFFector: * Federal Appeals Court Scraps FCC's Broadcast Flag Mandate * Celebrate Victory Over the Broadcast Flag - Liberate Your TV on May 21! * EFF Gets Top Marks from Charity Navigator * MiniLinks (12): Hilary Rosen Laments Apple's DRM Strategy * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/15.php ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 13:48:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 18.16: Give the Broadcast Flag a TKO! EFFector Vol. 18, No. 16 May 20, 2005 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 332nd Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: Give the Broadcast Flag a TKO! * EFF Obtains Draft PATRIOT Bill * California Debates Bill to Keep RFIDs Out of IDs * Can Florida's Election Officials Ignore the Law? * Cambridge Researchers Analyze Tor Security at IEEE Symposium * MiniLinks (12): Attack of the Recursive End-User License Agreements * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/18/16.php ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 14:00:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MSN Site Hacking Went Undetected for Days By TED BRIDIS AP Technology Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Password-stealing software planted by hackers was active on Microsoft's popular MSN Web site in South Korea for days before the world's largest software company learned about the break-in and removed the computer code. Police investigators and Microsoft specialists are continuing to search for clues to the culprits behind this week's high-profile computer break-in. More details emerged Friday about the hacking, which targeted subscribers of an online game called "Lineage" that is popular in Asia. Microsoft Corp. said it had cleaned the Web site, www.msn.co.kr, and removed the software code that had been planted on its news page. It said another company that operates the MSN Korea site apparently ailed to apply necessary software patches, leaving its server computers vulnerable. Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. discovered the break-in late Sunday during routine scans it makes against more than 250 million Web sites each week looking for sources of viruses and other infections. A previous inspection by Websense of the MSN Korea site the evening of May 27 did not detect the dangerous software. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=49637472 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I asked Lisa Minter to get the full story on this and she has the complete report as it appeared in the Associated Press on Friday elsewhere in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: MSN Site Hacking - More Details Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 23:44:33 -0500 MSN Site Hacking Went Undetected for Days By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer Fri Jun 3, 9:06 PM ET Password-stealing software planted by hackers was active on Microsoft's popular MSN Web site in South Korea for days before the world's largest software company learned about the break-in and removed the computer code. Police investigators and Microsoft specialists are continuing to search for clues to the culprits behind this week's high-profile computer break-in. More details emerged Friday about the hacking, which targeted subscribers of an online game called "Lineage" that is popular in Asia. Microsoft Corp. said it had cleaned the Web site, www.msn.co.kr, and removed the software code that had been planted on its news page. It said another company that operates the MSN Korea site apparently failed to apply necessary software patches, leaving its server computers vulnerable. Security researchers at San Diego-based Websense Inc. discovered the break-in late Sunday during routine scans it makes against more than 250 million Web sites each week looking for sources of viruses and other infections. A previous inspection by Websense of the MSN Korea site the evening of May 27 did not detect the dangerous software. "Our alarms went off (Sunday). We noticed it was infected," said Dan Hubbard, its senior security director. Hubbard said Websense researchers investigated further and quickly updated protective software to keep its own corporate customers safe. It did not successfully reach Microsoft officials to warn them about the break-in until midday Tuesday, a day after the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Microsoft said it removed the password-stealing software from the MSN site hours later. The chronology suggests the hackers could have harvested stolen passwords from visitors to the MSN site for up to three days. But their target -- passwords to game accounts -- lessened the significance of the break-in since the hacker software appeared not to collect any network or banking passwords. The Lineage game and its successor boast more than 4 million subscribers, mostly in Asia, who pay about $15 each month, said Mike Crouch, a spokesman for the U.S. subsidiary of South Korea-based NCSoft Corp. Crouch said he was unaware of any significant increase in complaints by subscribers about stolen passwords tied to the Microsoft break-in. South Korea is a leader in high-speed Internet users worldwide. Microsoft's MSN Web properties -- which offer news, financial advice, car- and home-buying information and more -- are among the most popular across the Web. A Microsoft spokesman, Adam Sohn, said the company was confident its English-language Web sites were not vulnerable to the same type of attack. Microsoft shares fell 36 cents to close at $25.43 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. They have traded in a range of $23.82 to $30.70 over the past 52 weeks. 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: John Smith Subject: Re: SEX.COM Owner Arrested for Child Molestation; Heroin Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 05:07:01 GMT > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if 'Mandy Howard' of Parents > United is any relation to 'Nancy Howard' who submitted this article? > I would also like to point out that in this somewhat offensive article > (to me, at least), neither of the Misses Howard's is entitled to use > absolute terms like 'predator' or 'should be incarcerated for life', > certainly without _an adjudication in a court_. My first reaction was > to pitch the article out unused, but with the possibility there is > some smidgen of truth herein, i.e. Kremen _was_ arrested on the > allegations named, and his known legal problems with the 'sex.com' > domain, etc I decided to use the article. ....PAT] No reputable psychotherapist would blur the distinction between gays and pedophiles, much less try to make an outright connection. This is just hate-group propaganda, piggybacking on what might otherwise be an actual news story. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for saying that ... out of curiosity, I went to look at the http://sex.com site last night for the first time in my life, to see what apparently makes it such a famous and popular site, and to find out what would make it worth fighting over, as Kremen did with that fellow who apparently tried to cybersquat on it (remember the fellow who snatched the name, got sued, and the registrar wound up getting sued also, and the lawyer who was going to get a piece of the action as his fee in the case?) I _thought_ I was going to see something really amazing, etc. Well, all I wound up seeing was a sort of poorly designed web site with a jillion links to other sites on it, all of which wanted your credit card number, etc. Over all, it was sort of boring, with slow responding links, etc. (Of course my computer is not the fastest, and to be charitable, maybe the links were so slow loading because of the millions of web users trying to get in and supply their credit card numbers, etc, but I don't think so. Of course, I did not feel very well last either, but it is hard for me to imagine some lawyer agreeing to settle for _fifteen percent_ of the action on that site in exchange for his fee, then suing the client to get that little dab of (what appeared to me to be) nothing special. I understand the registrar who got sued in that thing settled for $150 thousand. Damn! Is _any_ web site worth that kind of money? How and why? Would someone like to hijack http://telecom-digest.org from me? I'd be glad to let you do it, if there was any possibility I could 'settle out of court -- or in court, for that matter -- for $150 thousand from the transgressor. Geeze ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: Anony Mouse Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 00:24:49 -0400 Pat, If you publish this, I'd ask that you remove my name and email from it. I'd rather this be anonymous. Regular Reader > Forgive my ignorance, but if this whole exercise on the part of public > schools is simply aimed at reducing their liablility exposure, how do > the private schools others mentioned get around that issue? As you > point out, we do inhabit a litigious society so I can't imagine > private schools don't care about lawsuits. And I'm sure kids attending > private school can be just as cruel. What gives? Do private schools > reduce their liability by monitoring whereas public schools are not > allowed to monitor email? Seems to me that if they're blocking sites, > they're already monitoring, no? I don't get it. Why take away a > valuable tool from all the kids for the possible stupidity of a few? > It would be like cutting school sports entirely because some students > may get hurt playing. Or does that happen too? > -Dean You're right. Our society has inflicted so much legal influence on our schools that it is the courts that are defining the rules as to how our children are educated, not the educators. And they are also defining limits by which they protect our children. When I was in high school, I was a school bus driver (at that time, the students drove the buses in the state I lived in and there were a number of other states that then practiced this, too). While I was the driver of a school bus, I was attacked by three students on my bus. There were enormous bruises all over my body and my father went ballistic when he saw them. My father went down to the school and told the principal and the vice principals that he'd swear out a warrant for the arrest of those students if they laid another hand on me. All they did was warn the students that my father would have them arrested if they touched me again. They told both of us that they wouldn't take any action against those boys because they were afraid of the Civil Liberties Union (they actually told us that the ACLU would intervene if they even took those boys off the bus route). Fortunately, my father's warning scared those students enough that they never caused me another problem. And it so frightened them that they all apologized to me, like their apology made things all right for them). But, I didn't drive that route any more because the school was afraid for my safety (but I continued to ride that bus daily because it was the only one going to where I needed to go). I was allowed to drive all other routes, however, and I did so regurlarly. And those boys never even served detention. Maybe our courts need to think about this a little bit before they intervene in school actions. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Organization: Symantec Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 00:39:11 -0400 In article , Fred Atkinson wrote: > Sadly, they do these things without looking at how it adversely > affects faculty and staff and what it may deprive the kids of. On the > latter, ham radio is a very educational hobby and they shouldn't be > denying the kids access to information about it. Who do they need to use school equipment to pursue these hobbies? You do school work on school equipment, you go home and work on your hobbies. Unfortunately, recent activities and community attituted have forced schools to attack problems with very broad strokes. They institute "zero tolerance" policies against drugs (which causes problems for diabetics -- many schools prohibit them from carrying insulin), sexual harassment (resulting in kindergarteners being suspended for kissing), etc. because they don't have the resources to make case-by-case decisions. It's hard to demand safety at the same time as public school budgets are being cut. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Known Spam Sites Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 03:19:54 GMT Gary Novosielski wrote: > Steven Lichter wrote: >> Over the last month I have noticed that over 60% of the Spam e-mail I >> have received has come from e-mail addresses and sites that are >> registered to Godaddy. > Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered > with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a > spamhaus. > What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? What led me to that was 40 uce's that I got over a 3 day period all came from sites that listed Godaddy. Plus most of the web sits that were linked from these spams were also theirs. They're maybe reputable, but they are not policing the Use Policy. 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. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 09:06:52 -0700 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Mark Cuccia prepared an interesting history of Standard Oil and some very relevant comparisons to the history of the 'Bell System'. I hope you will find this as interesting as I did. This first appeared in the Digest about nine years ago, the summer of 1996. PAT Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 15:58:18 -0700 From: Mark J. Cuccia Subject: Some History of Standard Oil (and Bell) The following is some of the history of the Standard Oil Trust and the continued history of the separated Standard Oil companies (plural), after the Trust was dissolved by the US Supreme Court in 1911. In many ways Standard and Bell have similar histories, so I have prepared the following, and compare some of Standard Oil and its later divested companies with that of The Bell System, and AT&T and the divested Bell companies. -------------------------------------------------------- Recently, (in 1996) Pat mentioned some of the different marketing names of service stations used in various areas, as these different names were used to differentiate marketing territory of the different Standard Oil companies, in "Re: What does A/B Carrier Mean?", regarding cellular service. Many years back, the oil company service stations used to give out *FREE* road maps with their logos and other advertisement on them, as a marketing tool and a courtesy to the motoring public. These maps usually werent printed by the oil companies themselves, but by Rand McNally, Gousha, Donnelly, and others, using ad-copy provided by the oil companies or service station companies. Back in the 1960's and 70's, I used to collect these free road maps, and I always wondered why many service station chains used different marketing names in various states, or why the name "Standard" was used in some states by one service station chain and by a different group of service stations in other states. When folded closed, the back of many of these maps would mention something like to look for these other names/logos/signs of service stations when travelling in other states, to gas-up or to purchase other products for your car. And sometimes, a credit card issued by one oil company would be honored by the service stations of another oil company, but not necessarily in every state of the card-honoring oil company. All of these inconsistancies date back to the days of the dissolution of the old Standard Oil Trust and the subsequent relationships of the different separated Standard Oil companies. There are also many similarities between the corporate histories and legal structures of the Standard Oil companies, and that of the Bell System -- AT&T and the local Bell telephone companies. What follows is not intended to be a complete history of Standard Oil, but rather to give some historical highlights, and show some similarities with the telephone industry. In 1870, John D. Rockafeller and others incorporated the Standard Oil Company, in Cleveland Ohio. (In 1869, Gray and Barton started what became Western Electric in Cleveland, although it was moved to Chicago shortly after the partnership began.) In 1882, the New Jersey branch of Standard Oil was started. A trust was formed as Standard Oil began to buy out or took control of other smaller "independent" oil companies. A reorganization of the trust in 1889 made Standard Oil of New Jersey the holding or parent company of the entire Standard Oil organization. (For decades, Bell Labs has had several locations in New Jersey. Most of AT&T's main offices have been in that state since the 1980's. Bellcore also maintains most of their offices in New Jersey.) Throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, Standard was constantly involved in legal and regulatory matters, both state and federal, regarding monopolization of the oil industry. Also, the public mood was against monopolies. While Standard may have owned or controlled other oil companies, these "afflilate" companies frequently retained their original names. Sometimes the name "Standard Oil (of a particular state)" was used, usually by affiliates *created* by Standard of New Jersey. Some of these companies were made actual divisions of Standard of New Jersey, others were wholly-owned subsidiaries, while others were majority owned, even if "Jersey Standard" owned only 50% plus one share. The legal matters which had been occurring over the years culminated in the U.S. Supreme Court decision of 15 May 1911, which dissolved the old Standard Oil Trust. Thirty-three subsidiaries of "Jersey Standard" were now legally separated from their parent company. The now separated "Jersey Standard" still was by far larger than the other thirty-three companies, and it continued to hold many subsidiaries and divisions, including Standard Oil of Louisiana. (Two years later, in 1913, AT&T vice-president Nathan Kingsbury signed the agreement known as the Kingsbury Commitment, regarding a change in AT&T's relationship with the independent telcos, and which included the sale of AT&T's stock in the Western Union Telegraph Company. There had been increasing governmental pressure on AT&T in the years prior to "Kingsbury". In early 1982, when AT&T agreed to the divestiture to take effect in 1984, to end the ten year old DOJ suit filed against them in 1974, news reports frequently mentioned that the "breakup of Bell" was the largest "trust-bust" in America since the 1911 Supreme Court decision dissolving the old Standard Oil Trust. Even after AT&T and the BOC's were then legally separated companies, AT&T still held on to Western Electric and Bell Labs.) The private motorcar or automobile was becoming quite popular after the first World War, in the late "teens" and into the 1920's. Many paved highways suitable for automobile travel were being constructed during this period. Also during this time, the various oil companies were starting to market their gasoline and other products for the motoring public, including through service stations using their brand names. However, some of the various separated Standard Oil companies were using the brand name "Standard" or a derivative of the word Standard, in their respective marketing territories. In the early 1920's, this didn't seem to matter much, as none of the different Standard companies were yet nationwide in scope when it came to marketing their brands and products via service stations. It would be a problem later on. The pre-1911 Standard Oil Trust was both a vertically and horizontally integrated operation, similar to the former Bell System. Through its subsidiaries, the old Standard Oil Trust was involved in almost every aspect of the oil and petroleum industry, such as exploration, drilling, research and development, refining, transportation and pipelines, commercial marketing, etc. When the Standard Trust was dissolved in 1911, each of the thirty-three former subsidiary companies were still involved in various aspects of the industry, but none as a complete single unit. These now separated companies still maintained relationships with each other, but now as individual distinct corporate entities. (Since 1984, the Bell companies have relations with each other, AT&T, and now other carriers, but not as part of a single "Bell system".) In addition to Standard of New Jersey, the following nine companies of the thirty-three separated former subsidiaries entered into marketing their products to the motoring public through service stations: Atlantic Refining Company Standard Oil of California Continental Oil Company Standard Oil of Indiana Ohio Oil Company Standard Oil of Kentucky Vacuum Oil Company Standard Oil of New York Standard Oil of Ohio Since 1911, some of these former Standard Oil subsidiaries have bought out other independent oil companies or have merged with each other. Many of the former Standard Trust subsidiaries have entered into joint venture arrangements with each other and with other independent oil companies for exploration and drilling in overseas and international locations. The Justice Department frequently reviewed such mergers, take-overs, and joint-ventures. There were times when the DOJ turned down such proposals or requests. (Judge Greene, the DOJ, and the FCC have frequently reviewed such mergers, take-overs, and joint-ventures between the Bells and AT&T and other carriers, and have approved or denied them on a case-by-case basis.) In 1931, Standard of New York and the Vacuum Oil Company merged. Standard of New York had Socony service stations in the northeast, while Vacuum Oil had their Vacuum Service stations with a winged flying red Pegasus horse logo in the midwest. This logo was adopted by the new merged Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, which in 1955 became Socony-Mobil (Mobilgas service stations), and in 1966 the Socony name was dropped altogather to simply become Mobil. Socony was formed in 1882 as a part of the old Standard Trust; Vacuum Oil began in 1866 (probably before just about any other oil company in existence today or which can trace its history back to the 1800's), and became a part of the Standard Trust in 1879. Standard Oil of New Jersey introduced the "Esso" brand name in the early 1920's. "Esso" is a pronunciation of the letters "S.O." for Standard Oil. Initially, the Esso name was confined only to "Jersey Standard's" stations in their merketing territory, which included the Jersey-held Standard of Louisiana. In the late 1930's, Jersey Standard attempted to market using the Esso brand in parts of the midwest. However, this was the traditional marketing territory of now separated Indiana Standard, who jealously guarded their "exclusive" use of the "Standard" name in their marketing territory. Indiana Standard sued Jersey Standard over the use of Esso, and they won. Standard Oil of New York (SOCONY) didn't want Jersey Standard using the Esso name in New York state or in the northeast, neither. In the 1930's, as radio broadcasting became a popular advertising and marketing tool, both locally and nationally through a network hook-up, the oil companies wanted to expand and market nationwide, and advertise through network radio. However there were difficulties in advertising a "Standard" name or derivative on nationwide network radio. The same thing happened after WW-II as people became even more mobile than in the depression years of the 1930's, and television became a new marketing medium. The different Standard Oil companies had difficulties in sponsoring a nationwide radio or TV program. A popular live network news broadcast on both radio and TV in the 1950's was called "Your Esso Reporter". However, it couldn't be aired in the midwest nor out on the west coast, as Indiana Standard and Standard of California objected to the Esso name being used "on their turf". It really woudn't have mattered anyway, as Jersey Standard had no Esso stations in those states anyhow; but also Jersey wouldn't want to be buying advertising airtime for markets they didn't serve anyway. Where Jersey Standard couldn't use the Esso brand, they used other names in different parts of the country, such as Humble (Jersey bought the majority of Humble Oil in Texas around 1920), Carter, Pate, Oklahoma, and Penola. In 1959, Jersey Standard still wasn't completely national, even using different names, but they wanted to become national *and* reduce the number of various brands used. Also around 1960, Jersey bought the remaining outstanding shares of Humble Oil. A new brand name was introduced by Jersey/Humble, namely Enco, which stood for "The Energy Company". Some Jersey officials agreed to changing most of the various service station names to Enco, while others wanted to retain Esso and even attempt to force its use nationwide. The Humble Oil name was also adopted as an alternative brand to be used nationally. In some states (Ohio and Texas), Humble was used as the "exclusive" name of the service stations, and continued to remain so in Ohio. Service stations in Texas continued to use the Humble alternative name, but the actual name of the stations was changed to Enco. And throughout the 1960's, Enco was introduced in new states where Esso hadn't been used. In 1961, Standard of California bought Standard of Kentucky, which had Kyso service stations in five southeastern states. Jersey Standard, through its subsidiary Louisiana Standard, supplied commercial products to Kentucky Standard prior to 1961. Jersey/Humble and its other subsidiaries agreed not to market directly to the motoring public in the five southeastern Kyso states. With California Standard's purchase of Kyso, Jersey Standard lost its supply contract with Kyso to California Standard. So Jersey/Humble decided to open Esso stations in those five southeastern states. California Standard and Kyso sued Jersey/Humble for infringement on its exclusive use of the "Standard" name or derivative in the old Kyso territory, and they won. So by the mid to late 1960's, all of the recently opened Esso stations in the five southeastern states were renamed Enco. All of these various brand names and frequent changes of names was a major marketing and advertising headache for Jersey Standard and the other former subsidiaries which continued to have the name "Standard". Around 1970, Jersey/Humble had closed-door meetings on choosing a single brand name to be used. There were various memory and sound tests done, and by the Spring of 1972, they announced that all Esso, Enco and Humble stations nationwide would *all* be changing to Exxon. Even the corporate name of Standard Oil of New Jersey would officially change to Exxon. The new Exxon name was even introduced overseas to some Esso stations in Europe, however the Esso name wasn't really a problem internationally, as the *other* Standard Oil companies didn't use the name Standard or a derivative for marketing purposes outside of the US. In Canada, Esso continues to be used as a brand name today, through Exxon's Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Oil. And I think that Enco has been used in some other foreign countries (Mexico?), but I don't know if Enco continues to be used outside of the US today, or if it has been changed to Exxon or maybe even Esso. Some of the reasons that Jersey/Humble didn't change the Esso (and Enco) name to Exxon everywhere outside of the US was that they didn't always own the majority of their international holdings, and that they would have had to go through legal trademark name changes in *every* country where the name Exxon would be used in place of Esso (and Enco). Standard Oil of California was founded in 1879 as the Pacific Coast Oil Company. It was acquired by the Standard Oil Trust in 1900, and became known as Standard of California. It became a separate company in 1911 as being separated from the Jersey Standard Trust. The separated Standard of California began to market its products through service stations on the west coast in the 1920's and 30's known as "SoCal", "Standard" and later "Chevron". For the most part, California Standard didn't begin to market or open up stations in other Standard's regions. There was an incident in the 1950's where they tried to open up SoCal stations in Texas, but Jersey Standard and Humble objected. California Standard also bought the Signal Oil Company's (of California) service stations in 1947, and later sold them to Jersey/Humble in 1967. In the 1960's, California Standard began to expand its marketing territory under the Chevron name, which eventually became the name used nationwide, as well as its corporate name in 1984. Also in 1984, Chevron purchased the Gulf Oil Company and most of its Gulf stations, but not all of them. Gulf was founded in 1901 by the Mellon family. Gulf had its own complex marketing situation of brand names. I think that most of this was cross-marketing, supply contracts, and credit card honoring among other independent oil companies and service stations, such as Union 76 of California, Skelly, Wilshire and others. Standard Oil of Indiana was organized in 1889 by Standard Oil of New Jersey. Indiana Standard became separated from Jersey Standard in the "trust bust" of 1911. They marketed their products using the Standard name in a fifteen state territory in the midwest. Through mergers with other companies, they were able to market under the names Pan-Am, American and Amoco by the early 1920's. In 1956, Indiana Standard bought Utah Oil and began marketing out west under the name Utoco, using the same red-white-blue shield with torch and flame. By 1960 or so, they changed all Pan-Am and Utoco stations to either American or Amoco. By the early 1970's, all American stations were changed to Amoco. They didn't drop the use of Standard as a name at that time. I don't know if the red-white-blue oval shield with torch and flame logo still carries the name "Standard" in the mid-west. (Pat?) Standard Oil of Ohio was the original Standard, incorporated by Rockafeller, in Cleveland in 1870. It too became separated from Jersey Standard in 1911. The Sohio brand name was used on its stations in Ohio and other states where there were no other "Standard" conflicts. Where there could be a conflict with other "Standard" brand names, the name Boron was used. I had also seen the name Fleet-Wing associated with Sohio and Boron stations. In 1987, BP (British Petroleum) purchased Ohio Standard. The Ohio Oil Company was founded in 1887 and was taken over by the Standard Trust in 1889. It was separated from the Trust in 1911. In 1962, Ohio Oil acquired Plymouth Oil and changed its name to Marathon, which it had been using for marketing purposes since the late 1930's. The Atlantic Refining Company was founded in 1866 in Pennsylvania as the Atlantic Petroleum Storage Company. In 1870 it was renamed Atlantic Refining. It became an affiliate of the Standard Oil Trust in 1874, and was separated from the Trust in 1911. In 1966, Atlantic purchased the independent Richfield Oil Company (California), founded as the Rio Grande Oil Company in 1905. After Atlantic's purchase of Richfield, many stations of both companies were renamed Arco, over several years. In 1969, Atlantic-Richfield purchased Sinclair Oil, founded in 1916 by Henry F. Sinclair. I don't think that every Sinclair station became an Arco station, as I've seen the Sinclair dinosaur logo throughout the 1970's and 80's. The Continental Oil Company marketed in the mountain states area out west. It was founded as the Continental Oil and Transportation Company of California in 1877. It became a Standard Oil "affiliate" in 1884, and was separated with the 1911 dissolution of the Trust. Conoco's logo was a minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental merged with Marland Oil, which had the red triangle logo, and the new merged company used the Conoco name and the Marland triangle logo. As I mentioned earlier in this report, there had been complex arrangements through the 1970's regarding one oil company or service station chain honoring the credit cards issued by another service station chain. Some of the mutual card-honoring agreements between different former Standard companies were only in certain states, but not others. Most every oil company issued their own credit cards in the 1920's and even through the 1970's. Today, "generic" non-industry-specific credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, etc. have become more popular than the need for multiple oil company cards. But the complex arrangement of card-issuance and card-honoring, and non-acceptance or cancellation of mutual arrangements is happening today, in the *telephone* industry's calling cards, between AT&T and the various LEC's, and the confusion when calling from a payphone or motel system and billing to a particular card. Over the past twenty or thirty years, the "Standard" name or a derivative seems to have disappeared from most service station chains of the former Standard Oil Trust subsidiaries. And only BellSouth, SBC (Southwestern Bell) and Bell Atlantic have continued to retain the old Bell name as well as logo. I think that NYNEX still uses the bell logo when it comes to the local operating company providing POTS, even though they don't have the Bell name as part of their corporate name. I'm not sure if US West or Ameritech has the Bell logo with their corporate name, as a local service provider. Pacific Telesis uses the touchtone star ('*') as its corporate logo. Prior to divestiture, the California operating company was called Pacific Telephone (and Telegraph), but used the Bell logo. After divestiture, it was renamed Pacific Bell, but took its parent's new corporate logo of the touchtone star. Nevada's operating company has always been known as Nevada Bell (or Bell of Nevada), and kept the Bell name at divestiture, but dropped the logo in favor of its parent's new corporate touchtone star logo as well. So maybe the "Bell" name is going the way of the "Standard Oil" name, just a footnote in history. And even though AT&T chose the name "Lucent" (?!?) for WECO, they *did* keep the name *BELL* Labs which will be a part of Lucent. MARK J. CUCCIA PHONE/WRITE/WIRE: HOME: (USA) Tel: CHestnut 1-2497 WORK: mcuccia@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu |4710 Wright Road| (+1-504-241-2497) Tel:UNiversity 5-5954(+1-504-865-5954)|New Orleans 28 |fwds on no-answr to Fax:UNiversity 5-5917(+1-504-865-5917)|Louisiana(70128)|cellular/voicemail [TELECOM Digest Editor's 1996 Note: Thanks very much for your well-researched and very interesting report. This file will have a permanent home in the Telecom Archives 'history' collection. Remember please, that your subscrtiptions and sponsorships of the Digest and Archives help me continue to present the special reports I have sent out to you over this weekend. Your letters and gifts are very important to me and I encourage all of you to stay in touch. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sinclair Oil Company (and its more recent name Arco) always played a large and important role here in Independence, and Standard Oil (under its recent name Amoco) played a large role in the town of Neodesha (pronounced Nee-Odah-Shay), Kansas although Amoco and Arco have been gone from this area now for many years. Harry Sinclair lived in the large, very glamorous and (still) well-maintained house at 5th Street and Maple. Two of his neighbors in those long ago times were Vivian Vance ('Ethel' of 'I Love Lucy') and Bill Kurtis (of 'A&E Network' on cable television as well as CBS.) One of the Rockefeller clan (I do not know which one by name) lived here but superintended the Standard Oil Refinery at Neodesha, which is about ten miles north of Independence. We also had prominent writers/playrights living here in our town including William Inge. Their presence is still felt here: The Independence Community College has a large theatre given to them several years ago by the family of William Inge (also they do a series of plays each year via his endowement), Bill Kurtis owns our radio station (KIND and KIND-FM as well as endowing the broadcasting department at the college) and of course there is the Arco Building, downtown at 9th and Laurel Streets. When Arco moved what remained of their corporate offices to Texas several years ago, they said to the City of Independence, "Harry (Sinclair) said you should have it" and they left the _entire_ building to our city, and thus the 'Arco Corporate Offices' became the 'Independence Corporate Offices' and although City Hall did not move there, they mostly rent out the space to various state agencies such as SRS (Social and Rehabilitative Services, i.e. 'Welfare') and the Driver's License Bureau and the local Parole/Probation offices. Terra World is located there, plus (gasp!) some large telemarketing operation.) People around town just refer to it as 'the Arco Building'. Kurtis and Vivian Vance both do a lot for Independence High School also, and our Memorial Hall (municipal auditorium downtown) was given by a consortium of business men years ago including Harry Sinclair and the Rockefeller-person who superintended the Refinery at Neodesha. So oil was _big business_ around here many years ago. Both my father (who died in 1991) and my maternal grandfather (died in 1961) were in the oil industry. Dad retired in 1978 and decided to 'come back home' to here in Independence, and I decided to do the same, albiet my retirement was a bit premature and earlier than I expected due to the brain aneurysm. And I do love living here on the southeast side of town ('original Independence') in my mother's old house and just three or four blocks away from the mansions which were once occupied by Harry Sinclair and Vivian Vance (1930's) and Bill Kurtis (1950's). PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #249 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jun 5 17:04:48 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id AAA1614ED6; Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:04:47 -0400 (EDT) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #250 Message-Id: <20050605210447.AAA1614ED6@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:04:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-1.7 required=2.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Jun 2005 17:05:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 250 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Tests Show Voter Fraud Possible(Lisa Minter) Kids Going Online at Very Early Age (Lisa Minter) Wireless Carriers' Veto Over How Phones Work Hampers Innovation (Monty) New Anonymous Surfing Site (Free): anonycat.com (Tom Cervenka) Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy (Chris Farrar) Another Norvergence Debacle on the Way, Possibly (Ken Lyle) Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites (Lisa Hancock) Re: Porting an 800 Number (DevilsPGD) Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? (Joseph) Re: Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? (Joseph) Re: Prepaid SIM Cards - Are They Any Good? (Joseph) Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell (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: Lisa Minter Subject: Tests Show Voter Fraud Possible Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 19:37:30 -0500 In view of the election results in 2000 and 2004, and various comments attributed to officials from Diebold which appeared on the net, this report from the Tallahassee, Florida Democrat Newspaper seems important reading. Lisa. ------------------------------------- Machines are vulnerable to manipulation By Tony Bridges DEMOCRAT (Newspaper) STAFF WRITER All it takes is the right access. Get that, and an election worker could manipulate voting results in the computers that read paper ballots -- without leaving any digital fingerprints. That was the verdict after Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho invited a team of researchers to look for holes in election software. The group wasn't able to crack the Diebold system from outside the office. But, at the computer itself, they changed vote tallies, completely unrecorded. Sancho said it illustrates the need for tight physical security, as well as a paper trail that can verify results, which the Legislature has rejected. Black Box Voting, the non-profit that ran the test and published a report on the Internet, pointed to the findings as proof of an elections system clearly vulnerable to corruption. But state officials in charge of overseeing elections pooh-poohed the test process and dismissed the group's report. "Information on a web site is not viable or credible," said Jenny Nash, a spokeswoman for the Department of State. "Who are you going to believe, trusted government officials or a bunch of liars on various computer web sites? These so-called test results were just rigged up to make trouble for the government and the Diebold Company." It went like this: Sancho figured Leon County's security could withstand just about any sort of probing and wanted to prove it. He went to one of the most skeptical -- and vocal -- watchdogs of election procedures. Bev Harris, founder of Black Box Voting, had experience with voting machines across the country. She recruited two computer-security experts and made the trip to Tallahassee from her home in Washington state three times between February and late May. Leon County is one of 30 counties in Florida that use Diebold optical scanners. Voters darken bubbles on a sheet of paper, sort of like filling in the answers on the SAT, and the scanners read them and add up the numbers. So the task was simple. Get in, tamper with vote numbers, and come out clean. They made their first attempts from outside the building. No success. Then, they sat down at the vote-counting computers, the sort of access to the machines an employee might have. For the crackers, security protocols were no problem, passwords unnecessary. They simply went around themm as a computer 'hacker' might do. After that, the security experts accomplished two things that should not have been possible. They made 65,000 votes disappear simply by changing the real memory card -- which stores the numbers -- for one that had been altered. And, while the software is supposed to create a record whenever someone makes changes to data stored in the system, it showed no evidence they'd managed to access and change information. When they were done, they printed the poll tapes. Those are paper records, like cash register tape, that show the official numbers on the memory cards. Two tapes, with different results. And the only way to tell the fake one? At the bottom, it read, "Is this real? Or is it Memorex?" "That was troubling," Sancho said. Leon County more secure? A disaster? Not exactly. In Leon County, access to the machines is strictly controlled, limited to a single employee. The memory cards are kept locked away, and they're tracked by serial number. Those precautions help prevent any tampering. "You've got to have security over the individual who's accessing the system," Sancho said. In fact, "you've got to have good security and control over every step of this process." The trouble is, not every county is as closely run. In Volusia County, her group has found what they think was memory-card tampering during the 2000 election. More than 16,000 votes for Al Gore vanished. Harris said her research turned up memos -- obtained from the elections supervisor's office -- that blamed the failure on an extra memory card that showed up, and disappeared, without explanation. She believes that was an attempt to change the outcome of the election, but one carried out clumsily. The test in Leon County proved it was possible, if done by more experienced computer programmers, she said. So what does the Department of State say? Nash, the spokeswoman, said that the Diebold systems were designed to be used in secure settings, and that, by giving the testers direct access to the computers, Sancho had basically allowed them to bypass security. In other words, not much of a test. Except that the security experts were given only as much opportunity as any other election worker would have. Less so, considering that Sancho did not provide them with passwords or any other way to actually get into the programming. As for the exact vulnerabilities that Harris reported -- and Sancho confirmed -- Nash said no one from the state could comment, since they hadn't been present at the test. She added later that Sancho could request help from state certifiers if he had concerns, but had not asked yet. Nash repeated her allegations of 'people from web sites making trouble for the government, and not to believe their lies' but had nothing else to say. To read the entire report, visit http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org . Ion Sancho, supervisor of elections, will post a summary of the test results this weekend at www.leonfl.org/elect/ Copyright 2005 Tallahassee Democrat and other wire service sources. http://www.tallahassee.com 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: Lisa Minter Subject: More Nursery School Children Going Online Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 19:40:34 -0500 By BEN FELLER, AP Education Writer Before they can even read, almost one in four children in nursery school is learning a skill that even some adults have yet to master: using the Internet. Some 23 percent of children in nursery school -- kids age 3, 4 or 5 -- have gone online, according to the Education Department. By kindergarten, 32 percent have used the Internet, typically under adult supervision. The numbers underscore a trend in which the largest group of new users of the Internet are kids 2 to 5. At school and home, children are viewing Web sites with interactive stories and animated lessons that teach letters, numbers and rhymes. "Young students don't differentiate between the face-to-face world and the Internet world," said Susan Patrick, who oversees technology for the department. "They were born into the age of the Internet. They see it as part of the continuum of the way life is today." At a preschool age, children need some grown-up help to get online, said Francie Alexander, chief academic officer for children's book publisher Scholastic Inc. One of their favorite computer activities is writing an e-mail to a grandparent, said Alexander, author of a children's guide to the Internet. "It's great for letter recognition," she said. "Everybody likes to get mail and little kids don't have great tolerance for waiting. So the whole idea that they can write grandma and get an e-mail back a half-hour later saying, 'I got your note' -- they love that, and are thrilled that 'grandma' saw what they had done. Scholastic has a section of its Web site that is intended just for children, who go online to read, write and play with "Clifford the Big Red Dog." PBS Kids Online has more than a dozen educational Web sites for preschool children, including "Sesame Street" and "Barney and Friends." Overall computer use, too, is becoming more common among the youngest learners. Department figures show that two-thirds of nursery school children and 80 percent of kindergartners have used computers. At the Arnold & Porter Children's Center in Washington, 4- and 5-year-olds have the option to spend time on a computer, working in small teams. They learn basic problem-solving and hand-eye coordin- ation, but the social component of working with classmates on computer exercises is just as important, said Sally D'Italia, director of the center, which a law firm offers for its employees. "It helps them become more relaxed, more adventurous, and more willing to take risks as they learn," she said. "With adults, we're still afraid that we're going to blow up the computer. You never know if you're going to push the wrong button and lose all your data." Virtually all U.S. schools are connected to the Internet, with about one computer for every five students, the government reports. Many older students are often far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy and they know their younger siblings are gaining on them. As one high school student told Patrick recently: "You grew up with music in your blood. Well, we have technology in our blood." Educators say such access needs scrutiny. Beyond blocking inappropriate content, schools must be certain the lessons they choose are based on research and geared to the developmental stage of the children, experts say. "Kids have a tremendous ability to expand their learning, and a computer is just one tool," said Mark Ginsberg, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The potential danger, he said, is putting 3- and 4-year-olds in front of a computer lesson that demands graphic skills or word-recognition knowledge for which they are not ready. Still, Ginsberg said, more educators are using technology creatively -- and appropriately. On the Net: Education Department report: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid2005111 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. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 23:57:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wireless Carriers' Veto Over How Phones Work Hampers Innovation By WALTER S. MOSSBERG One reason the American high-tech industry has been able to create so many innovative products is that it was able to maintain a close, direct relationship with the individuals and companies that used its products. High-tech companies could quickly determine whether their software, hardware and online services were meeting user needs, and they could revise and improve these products rapidly and continuously. This direct feedback loop between the high-tech industry and its user base became even better and faster in the past decade because of the Internet. The Net created both an electronic-commerce system where products could be directly purchased, and electronic forums where user comments and complaints could be better heard. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has called this Internet-aided feedback loop "frictionless" because it minimizes the distorting and masking effects of the middleman. It is one of the purest examples in history of the benefits of free-market capitalism. But in recent years, as the high-tech industry has begun to offer wireless-phone products, this connection between technology producers and users has been blocked by huge, powerful middlemen. In the U.S., the wireless phone carriers have used their ownership of networks to sharply restrict what technologies can actually reach users. I call these cellphone companies the new Soviet ministries, because they are reminiscent of the Communist bureaucracies in Russia that stood athwart the free market for decades. Like the real Soviet ministries, these technology middlemen too often believe they can decide better than the market what goods consumers need. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050602.html ------------------------------ From: tom.cervenka@gmail.com Subject: New Anonymous Surfing Site (Free): anonycat.com Date: 4 Jun 2005 22:05:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com There is a new (free) web-based proxy for anonymous surfing at http://anonycat.com It's much better than the other web proxies, like anonymizer.com, and it doesn't require registration. -Tom ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 20:22:59 -0400 From: Chris Farrar Subject: Why There Are Questions About GoDaddy > Godaddy is a reputable registrar. I have three domains registered > with them. The don't sell spam address lists or function as a > spamhaus. > What led you to jump to this particular conclusion? Over the last several days Spamcop has blocked a considerable number of emails to me, which all generated reports to Godaddy as the site orginating them. Other major spammers to my inbox seem to be kornet.com, hanaro.com, comcast.net ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 5 Jun 2005 11:14:30 PDT From: Ken Lyle Subject: Another Norvergence Debacle on the Way, Possibly Hello, I worked with Dan (Smith?) last year, and became a member of your organization's email publication. I was one of the first companies to start posting on your site about the Norvergence debacle. I've referred over 50 companies, to different legal resources after they contacted me from my postings on your site. To date, I believe we are the only company that was able to successfully cancel the signed lease agreement with them, and paid nothing out of pocket. I wish all the 11,000 other companies the best of luck in the class action suit. Anyway, now I am looking at possibly doing business with ACN, out of Michigan. I've looked through your threads and have not been able to find many complaints about them. I'm trying to do as much research as possible before I get myself into something I'd regret again. I've already checked the BBB and they called the company satisfactory. I also have not found many complaints on the web, or anything negative about the company President/CEO. Is there any info you may be able to point me to that may be useful? Thank you very much, Ken Lyle Controller B.S. Cable, Co. Inc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know about any Dan Smith(?) but you worked with me; my name is Patrick Townson, and I do remember you. You were not the only one to get out of the Norvergence scam totally unscathed financially, but there were several who had made at least two or three payments, which is not as good as 'nothing' but is still better than Norvergence planned it originally. Various of the state attorney generals have turned the screws on the banks and other lenders involved. As a result, many of the fast talking salesmen who brought Norvergence accounts into the house thinking they were going to get a raise and a good filet mignon dinner from their bosses for the 'good business they brought the (bank or financial company)' wound up getting fired when the Attorney General in that state forced the house to write off all that paper. Some banks and lenders took _huge_ losses on it and are still trying to get the ear of the bankruptcy judge. To my way of thinking, better that the greedy banks and other financial operations were obliged to eat it all instead of the little business people who had been tricked by Solzano. There were many readers here who just 'knew for certain' all the debtors (the small business people) were going to get sued -- severely -- if they followed my advice and stalled on making any further payments. And they all presented me with the 'holder in due course' argument, but apparently many attornies general felt somehow the financial houses may have been at least a bit complicit in the fraud, or at least they should have investigated before taking that worthless paper. One fat cow wrote to really bawl me out good, telling me she knew 'for a fact' that 'your advice has caused many debtors to get sued' and that most debtors were making payments as agreed, but I retorted by asking her what collection agency _she_ worked for. Now regards your latest inquiry, I know nothing about 'ACN out of Michigan'. Jack Decker is our reader/writer from Michigan, so maybe he will know something. Jack, are you reading this? Does any reader know about 'ACN out of Michigan'? Regards BBB, I have been told any company who is a member of BBB is therefore in 'good standing' with that bunch. If you are a member of BBB you are in good standing with them, if not a member, then you are not in good standing. Good luck with your inquiry, Mr. Lyle. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Schools Prohibit Personal E-mail Sites Date: 4 Jun 2005 19:37:43 -0700 Robert Bonomi wrote: > Yuppers. First Amendment means that, as a government agency, you > cannot monitor/filter/block/etc what students _say_ in outgoing > email. (It's even a seriously sticky situation in government agencies > with their employees.) Sorry, but I know too many government agencies that have strict rules on what their employees may say using any government equipment, and AFAIK these rules are perfectly legal and upheld. Employees have been terminated over violations and their unions were unable to do anything. Shop stewards have been fired and union activists convicted of trespassing for exceeding the boundaries of these rules. A government agency may secretly monitor employees' phone calls and computer use without any warning or notice. I assure you the unions would've fought this stuff if they could've. Further, agencies have rules regarding public statements, such as that external questions have to be forwarded to the designated public affairs officer. Just because something is publicly funded does not change every rule or policy. I think what you folks are confusing is the right of students and goverment employees to freely speak outside of school or work. That is protected speech. But inside the building, especially on government owned facilities -- computers, phones, bulletin boards*, etc., you do not have that protection. > On the other hand, you _can_ ban individuals from using the equipment > _at_all_, if you have a rational reason for doing so. Equipment may be assigned or not assigned to individuals as the administration sees fit in school or in industry. > Silly as it seems on the face of it, restricting them from 'saying > anything' it not the First Amendment problem that restricting them > from 'saying *specific* things' is. Sorry, but rules do exist prohibiting "specific things" in government and in schools. My local library requires a signature observing their rules on using their public computers. Just because someone is publicly funded does not mean the individual using it has unlimited rights over it. When you drive a car on a public road or visit a public park you must obey the law on usage. There is no such thing as unlimited free speech. Try screaming a tirade at your neighbor and you'll get a summons for disorderly conduct. There are many examples. Indeed, lately many people have objected toward the expression of religion in public schools and some courts have upheld restrictions on that. For example, a school choir was forbidden by the courts to sing black spirtual gospel songs even as an all-volunteer after school activity. As Pat said, administrative convenience is important or schools and government would grind to a halt mired in bureaucracy. Yes, different states and municipalities do vary, but this is the way it is. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is also important to remember the difference between someone who is _governed by the government_ versus someone who is _employed by the government_ (except as the government employee happens to coincidentally also be a citizen). Things like the First Amendment theoretically serve as protection for those who are being governed. While it is grossly inconvenient for most of us to choose some other governor, on the other hand we have no automatic right to _employment_ by the government. Because of the inconvenience or impossibility for us to change governors, we therefore get the protection of things like the Bill of Right, which do not have to be given to a 'mere' employee, of the government or otherwise. And administrative convenience is given much weight in the courts. The goverment says 'it is more convenient for us to have person X do our speaking for us, and for persons Y and Z to keep quiet.' And the courts have occassionally ruled that this is _not_ a violation of persons Y and Z 'free speech rights'. Certainly any person being governed can speak _about_ the government, but they cannot speak _for_ the government nor mislead any reasonable person to think that is what they are doing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Porting an 800 Number Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:12:15 -0600 Organization: Disorganized In message Fred Atkinson wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Fred, I may be missing something here, >> but regards the redirection of your personal 800 number, why wouldn't >> you just do that yourself (to wherever you like) rather than pointing >> it at still another 800 number from Vonage, so you will now get twice >> the fees for your inbound calls? PAT] > You did miss something, PAT. > A personal (or business) 800 number can be pointed at whatever carrier > that will take it and route your call. My first personal 800 was > gotten for me by the folks at Sprint. When I moved on to another > carrier, the new carrier arranged to repoint the number from Sprint to > their service. And I moved a couple of more times. Each time, the > new carrier repointed the number to go to them when I moved my > service. I never had to do it myself. > This carrier says I have to arrange for it to be pointed at them. But > once it is pointed at them, they will arrange for it to be sent to my > local phone number that they provide me. > Vonage offers toll-free numbers (I say 800 because both of my > toll-free numbers happen to be 800 numbers). But, they won't accept a > toll-free number that you already have. They will get you a new one, > but they won't transfer an existing toll-free number. I spoke to > several people at Vonage (including those who do the number > portability stuff) and they all said the same thing. They did say > that if you wanted to use another carrier and point it at your Vonage > number that you were free to do so. So, when you dial my personal 800 > number, it currently gets routed to Power Net Global who routes it to > my Vonage number. Double whammy. Unless I'm missing something obvious, there is only one whammy -- On Vonage, inbound calls to a non-tollfree number are free calls. The only thing you're paying for is to have your 800 number routed to Vonage. I'm among those with a personal tollfree number (It happens to match my cellphone, but 888 instead of 403) -- I just pay my 5.9c/minute to my tollfree provider to terminate the calls, no other fees involved. Even if Vonage would let you transfer tollfree numbers, I wouldn't do it, Vonage's monthly fee for the included minutes is more then I'm spending now. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Can You Disable Text Messaging? Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:39:26 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 02 Jun 2005 10:52:01 -0500, John Mayson wrote: > Does anyone have any experience with T-Mobile? Can they disable text > messaging? I don't want to have to pay $20 to $30 per month for > incoming spam. T-Mobile can remove "email" text messaging where someone would send a message to 3115552368@tmomail.net (where your phone is (310) 555-2368 ..) They cannot however cancel text messaging phone to phone e.g. someone sends a text message (SMS) to +13115552368. Text messaging is also used to deliver an alert to your phone if someone has left a message in your voicemail box. So, yes they can remove email text messaging to your phone. They cannot and will not remove phone to phone text messaging from your account. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Nokia 3310 (GSM) and Prepaid in the US? Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:41:46 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 2 Jun 2005 19:52:08 -0700, gaikokujinkyofusho@gmail.com wrote: > Hi, I got a Nokia 3310 (GSM) while i was in Italy but will be in the > US for a few months and don't want to bother getting a new phone or > locked in monthly phone service. Can the 3310 be used in the US and > if so what prepaid options are there? Any help would be *greatly* > appreciated! A Nokia 3310 absolutely will not work at all in North America. It is a phone meant to work on 900 or 1800 Mhz. To work in North America it has to at least have 1900 Mhz reception capability. The equivalent phone for use in North America would be the Nokia 3390. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Prepaid SIM Cards - Are They Any Good? Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:43:05 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 2 Jun 2005 21:21:19 -0700, gavin@interprom.com wrote: > I travel to the US a lot and refuse to pay the inflated roaming > charges that Rogers Wireless, and I'm sure ALL cariers charge. I was > wondering if services such as www.interlinkwireless.ca who provide > prepaid SIM cards that you can refill are on the up and up? You can purchase prepaid SIM packs from both T-Mobile and cingular. It's cheaper to get them through eBay auctions than at dealers however. ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: From our Archives: History of Standard Oil and Bell System Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2005 21:18:58 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Mark Cuccia wrote: > Standard Oil of Ohio Owned the Sohio and Boron brands in Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. BP eventually rebranded the Sohio stations as BP stations, in April 1991, at the culmination of a process that apparently started in the late 1960s. Mark doesn't say much about it, but apparently there was some special arrangement between Standard and BP at that time that led to BP buying Sohio. I worked at a BP station in Cleveland for a couple years starting in December 1991. Boy, were people *fuming* about the purchase of Sohio, a local refiner, by a British company. It was a fun time to be a BP employee. OK, perhaps not fun, but definitely interesting. Sohio, incidentally, was the only company allowed to use the Standard Oil name after the breakup, and right up until BP started rebranding Sohio stations, there were a ton of gas stations that said "Standard Oil" on one side and "Sohio" on the other... > Standard Oil of Indiana was organized in 1889 by Standard Oil of New > Jersey. Indiana Standard became separated from Jersey Standard in the > "trust bust" of 1911. They marketed their products using the Standard > name in a fifteen state territory in the midwest. Through mergers with > other companies, they were able to market under the names Pan-Am, > American and Amoco by the early 1920's. In 1956, Indiana Standard > bought Utah Oil and began marketing out west under the name Utoco, > using the same red-white-blue shield with torch and flame. By 1960 or > so, they changed all Pan-Am and Utoco stations to either American or > Amoco. By the early 1970's, all American stations were changed to > Amoco. They didn't drop the use of Standard as a name at that time. I > don't know if the red-white-blue oval shield with torch and flame logo > still carries the name "Standard" in the mid-west. (Pat?) I was in various places in the Midwest throughout the 90s, and lived in Northeast Ohio, where Amoco had a large presence -- and I don't think I recall seeing any stations with the Standard logo. > The Ohio Oil Company was founded in 1887 and was taken over by the > Standard Trust in 1889. It was separated from the Trust in 1911. In > 1962, Ohio Oil acquired Plymouth Oil and changed its name to Marathon, > which it had been using for marketing purposes since the late 1930's. > Trust. Conoco's logo was a minuteman soldier. In 1929, Continental > merged with Marland Oil, which had the red triangle logo, and the new > merged company used the Conoco name and the Marland triangle logo. Wow. I never realized Marathon and Conoco were originally Standard spinoffs. Marathon is now Marathon-Ashland Petroleum, and owns the Marathon, Ashland and Speedway brands. ConocoPhillips owns Conoco, Phillips 66, 76 (the old Unocal brand), and the Circle K convenience store chain. > name. I'm not sure if US West or Ameritech has the Bell logo with > their corporate name, as a local service provider. Ameritech used to put the Bell logo on their phonebooks. SBC doesn't. JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638) Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED "The wisdom of a fool won't set you free" --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle" [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In much of the midwest area now, Amoco does business as 'The Standard Oil Division of Amoco Oil Company'. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedroll.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/telecom ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #250 ******************************