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The Telecom Digest for Tue, 08 Jan 2019
Volume 38 : Issue 8 : "text" format

Table of contents
T-Mobile roasts AT&T for updating phones with a fake 5G logo Bill Horne
Editorial: Telecom giants need to answer this wake-up call Bill Horne
Re: CenturyLink's 911 Outage + One Bad Network Card? HAncock4
Callers may experience issues calling 911 in Collier County FL Bill Horne
Residents in Craig, Colorado experience intermittent internet outages on Monday, Jan. 7Bill Horne
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20190108041657.GA31096@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 23:16:58 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: T-Mobile roasts AT&T for updating phones with a fake 5G logo "5G E" may as well be a sticker By Jacob Kastrenakes We don't usually pay much attention to T-Mobile's Twitter antics, but earlier today the carrier had a solid retort to some nonsense from AT&T. In response to AT&T updating a few different phones to show a "5G E" connectivity logo - despite being completely incapable of connecting to a 5G network - T-Mobile tweeted a short video of someone putting a sticky note reading "9G" on top of their iPhone's LTE icon. It's a simple and dumb stunt. And it's a completely fair metaphor for what AT&T is doing. https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/7/18173215/tmobile-att-fake-5g-network-troll-9g-iphone -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190108040923.GA31044@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 23:09:23 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Editorial: Telecom giants need to answer this wake-up call By the Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board Albuquerque, NM Imagine your flight is canceled because of a winter storm. You try to use the app on your cellphone to summon an Uber or a Lyft, but there's no internet. Ditto for trying to call, text or email someone to pick you up or to let someone at your destination know you will be a no-show. Imagine trying to pay for dinner or return that sweater you had the bad luck of receiving on Christmas Day. With no internet or phone line, there's no way to process your purchase or refund. https://www.abqjournal.com/1265205/telecom-giants-need-to-answer-this-wakeup-call.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <5ac00abf-fcb8-44fd-ad2a-c6a9aeef5cd8@googlegroups.com> Date: 7 Jan 2019 13:23:33 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: CenturyLink's 911 Outage + One Bad Network Card? On Sunday, January 6, 2019 at 3:24:59 PM UTC-5, Bill Horne wrote: > Is it really that simple? If so, the dependency is evident as a single > source of failure. > > BY Eric Holdeman > > Redundancy is key in emergency communications. It one of the basic > premises we try to follow. As an example, when we built out the King > County Emergency Coordination Center (ECC) we made sure that there > were multiple cable routes coming onto the property and into the > building to avoid an errant backhoe taking out all our > terrestrial-based communications. > > Fast-forward to last week and the CenturyLink phone outages scattered > throughout the United States, and the cause is being attributed to: > CenturyLink Let One Bad Networking Card Disrupt 911 Services in > Multiple States <https://www.tomshardware.com/news/centurylink-outage-caused-bad-networking-card,38306.html>. > > http://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/disaster-zone/centurylinks-911-outage--one-bad-network-card.html When the Bell System introduced automation 100 years ago, reliability was a key issue. Dial equipment included a full set of testing facilities and alarms. When ESS was introduced 50 years ago, again reliability was an issue. The CPU was duplicated and the backup CPU was always ready in case the first failed. Further, a good deal of the software that controlled the ESS contained testing and diagnostic instructions so that circuit failures could be quickly identified, isolated, and repaired. Failures happen. They always will. The question for CenturyLink isn't that something failed, but rather why did a failure propagate through its network and why did it take so long to be identified and resolved. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190108041055.GA31079@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 23:10:55 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Callers may experience issues calling 911 in Collier County FL COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. -- There may be issues calling 911 in Collier County. The Collier County Sheriff's Office said a CenturyLink problem is affecting several counties in Southwest Florida Sunday. https://www.fox4now.com/news/local-news/callers-may-experience-issues-calling-911-in-collier-county -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190108040227.GA31012@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2019 23:02:27 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: Residents in Craig, Colorado experience intermittent internet outages on Monday, Jan. 7 By Sasha Nelson CRAIG - Like a bad rendition of "I'm Henry the VIII, I Am" - "second verse, same as the first" - customers of both CenturyLink and Spectrum experienced intermittent outages again Monday, Jan. 7. "CenturyLink is having issues since 12:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time," according to information posted on downdetector.com/status/centurylink. https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/craig-residents-experience-intermittent-internet-outages-monday-jan-7/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Tue, 08 Jan 2019

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