Infozech -- Software for Telecom Service Providers Fax: 91-11- 6411455, Tel: 91-11-6414784; 91-11-6414785 in US Contact: 408-490-2840, 2090 Hillsdale Circle, Boulder, CO-80303 Microsoft Certified Solution Provider Visit us at http://www.infozech.com **************************** Telcomine: A Telecom & Technology Newsletter http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.html *************************************************** Telcomine (http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.html), a monthly newsletter from Infozech. Telcomine brings you the latest trends and developments in frontline IT Technologies. To subscribe send a mail to nl@infozech.com To Advertise in Telcomine: Send a mail to sales@infozech.com ************************************************** *****TELCOMINE************ Wealth of Information about Telecommunications Volume 2,No 4, April 1999 IN THIS ISSUE 1. INTERNET AS MASTER SPY IN WAR IN YUGOSLAVIA For the first time in history Internet proves to be a powerful, if surreptitious, war weapon to both sides in the NATO-Yugoslav War. 2. LANDMARK REPORT FOR SERVICE PROVIDERS:WHO'S WHO OF COST SAVING BILLING SYSTEMS In a most updated survey of Telecom billing systems which help service providers and other bulk users of telephone lines save huge amounts, Billing World comes out with the "1999 Telecom Billing System Functionality Report" detailing the top 40 billing systems worldwide. 3. INFOZECH AMONG CHOSEN 40 Infozech is among the companies covered in the prestigious "1999 Telecom Billing System Functionality Report". 4. COMPUTERIZED VOICES EXPRESS EMOTIONS A unique computerized voice synthesizer package called 'GALE' developed by a research student at University of Florida injects emotion into robotic sounding computer voices and makes them speak in four moods - sad, happy, fearful and angry. 5. COMPUTERS READ THOUGHT TO HELP PARALYTICS TRANSMIT MESSAGES In a breakthrough discovery some German Scientists have developed a computer system which enables completely paralyzed people to communicate by "reading" their brainwaves. The system depends on an individual's ability to direct his thoughts and thus control these brainwaves. 6. INTERNET TECHNOLOGY TO MONITOR PATIENTS FROM AFAR A new Internet technology that allows doctors to keep track of chronically ill patients, 24 hour a day, from anywhere, is promising to fundamentally change the way long-term patients are treated and monitored in the next century. 7. UK COURT PUNISHES ISP FOR TRANSMITTING LIBELLOUS MESSAGE Demon Internet, Britain's largest dial-up Internet Service Provider has been hauled up by a British High Court for transmitting defamatory messages posted on its electronic bulletin board even after warnings from the victim. 8. EUROPEAN MOBILE USERS OVERCHARGED 300% ON PHONE BILLS: STUDY A new study on Roaming by the European branch of the International Telecommunications Group (INTUG) has revealed that mobile business users in Europe are being overcharged 300% on their mobile phone bills. 9. FREE INTERNET ACCESS SERVICE SIGNS HALF A MILLION SUBSCRIBERS Netzero- A Free Internet Access Service launched only last October is already claiming to have passed the half a million subscriber mark and estimates that it will have a full million by mid-year. 10. OUR MAILBOX See How Telcomine Saved a reader 45% in Phone Costs ****************************************** If you have found Telcomine useful, please consider telling somebody else about it. Executive Editor: Seema Dhawan E-mail: Telcomine@infozech.com Internet: http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.html Fax: 408-490-2840; Voice Mail: 408-490-2842 Please visit us at http://www.infozech.com ******************************************** Internet As Master Spy In War In Yugoslavia ******************************************** Are we living science fiction now? For the first time in history Internet is proving to be a powerful, if surreptitious, war weapon to both sides in the NATO-Yugoslav War. Years of preparation have gone behind it. To mention one example, there is ECHELON, perhaps the most important Internet intelligence gathering "Spy System" jointly owned by five powers: USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The ECHELON - created by the NSA (National Security Agency) of America allows spy agencies to intercept Telephone, fax, Email, Telex and satellite communications. The intercepted communications are scanned with "dictionary" programs for certain keywords. If the intercepted message contains a matching keyword, it is immediately passed on to the headquarters of the agency concerned. SECRET POWER Political borders have not hindered the surveillance capabilities of NSA. Former New Zealand intelligence agent Nicky Hager's book "SECRET POWER" reveals that through the top secret US ECHELON Dictionary System and with the help of the British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Governments, the NSA has established this global communication surveillance network that is capable of monitoring most of the world's electronic communication. But there are always two sides to the same coin. If the big can target the small, the small too can use the same tool - the Internet - to hit the mighty. Recently, the website belonging to the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) - which is an important source of information during the air strikes on Serbia -- faced what officials have been calling as "ping bombardment" from "hacker-type computer experts in Belgrade." This essentially means that the hackers have sent NATO's computers thousands of empty data packages over the Internet, effectively blocking access to other users. NATO Spokesman Jamie Shea said NATO was receiving more than 2,000 e-mails a day from a Belgrade computer, freezing the organization's e-mail capacities, and slowing down its systems. REVEALING PRIVATE MESSAGES For those not sated by 24-hour cable news coverage or if telephone is not a reliable way to connect with loved ones in the region, email, Internet chat-rooms and bulletin boards are providing an eye-witness account of life under the bombs in Yugoslavia. The experience of Milinovich- a law student studying on the other side of the border is a case in point. Milinovich had tried calling his grandfather's house in the tiny Montenegran coastal village of Moring unsuccessfully for days. A cousin in New York had heard the town barracks was hit in the first NATO airstrikes. Consumed with fear, the law student posted a question in the chat room at Montecafe.com. He got an instant answer. Dragan, a 20-year-old college student, was tapping away in Risen, a town just four miles down the road from the Milinovich family. Dragon told him that the nearest bombing was across the bay and no civilian targets had been struck. He talked to Milinovich's family and got back to assure him that they were fine and had shelter if the bombing got too close. BANNED RADIO PUT ON WEB Inside Yugoslavia, CNN and other all-news television stations are available via satellite, but the government has shut down B92, the main independent radio station broadcasting from Belgrade. Real Networks, a Seattle-based company that specializes in distributing broadcasts over the Web, has since put the station online. Mall Hark, a general manager for the firm, said the site gets about 30,000 to 40,000 hits daily. Though efforts are on to clamp down on the regions daily newspapers, news is coming out of the area. Kosova Press ( http://www.kosovapress.com) publishes uncensored reports all day, focussed on the location and severity of the latest Serbian military operations. Another news site, Kosovo Info (http://www.kosovainfo.com/ENGLISH.htm) has eyewitness reports of Serbian shellings and NATO attacks among the sites highlights. The Internet's Anonymiser service has introduced an emergency service to give Kosovans, Serbs, and others reporting on the situation anonymous email and anonymous access to information and discussion groups. The site can be visited at http://info.anonymizer.com/kosovo.shtml ************************************************* Landmark Report For Service Providers: Who's Who of Cost Saving Billing Systems *********************************************** In a most updated survey of Telecom billing systems which help service providers and other bulk users of telephone lines save huge amounts, 'Billing World' - a distinguished Billing and Customer Care magazine for the Telephone, Wireless, Cable TV and Electronic Commerce industries - has studied 40 companies worldwide to come out with a comprehensive "1999 Telecom Billing System Functionality Report". The attractive and glossy 177 page magazine size report is designed to help telecom executives shorten the time necessary to evaluate a system. It can also help billing executives determine if the functionality present in their current systems has been eclipsed by newer products. The report is characterized by an active participation of the editors in a hands -on user interface demonstrations for each system. It has become next to impossible for those in the market for a telecom billing system to perform due diligence on all possible systems within the ever-squeezing frames competition creates. This is one of the main purposes of the 1999 Telecom Billing System Functionality Report. Billing System providers often say they view themselves more as partners than vendors for their service provider customers. This report is designed to give background on who this partner was, is and may become beyond the current marketing slicks. **************************** Infozech Among Chosen Top 40 **************************** Infozech is among the companies covered in the prestigious "1999 Telecom Billing System Functionality Report" - which covers the top 40 billing companies worldwide. In order to be included, a company had to have a live installation of its billing system somewhere in the world. Infozech was represented by Mr Ankur Lal, CEO of the company, in a hands on user-interface demonstration in Washington of the eBill billing and customer care solution to the editors of the report. "We are honored to be included in this report " said Mr Lal. "eBill is a versatile and flexible product to withstand the dynamic changes in the industry. I would like to congratulate all the people associated with the report for having done a wonderful job of bringing these billing solutions on one plane." eBill, Infozech's flagship product, is a billing and customer care system for Internet, toll free, fax, calling card and callback services. The solution is targeted to CLECs and IP telephony providers with 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers using local, long distance and Internet services. Details on eBill can be found at http://www.infozech.com/solution.html The Billing Systems functionality report can be found at telestrategies.com/bsfreport.htm **************************************** Computerized Voices Express Emotions **************************************** Even the most well spoken computers tend to sound rather bored, and their endless droning can irritate human listeners. But not for long now. Voice synthesis packages can now find amidst themselves a new emotive voice synthesis program that can speak any sentence in one of four moods - sad, happy, fearful or angry. The expression of emotion depends on a subtle combination of variables that determine a person's pitch, volume and speed of delivery. D'Arcy Haskins Truluck, a research student at the University of Florida has drawn up a set of rules to describe how these and other variables differ in sad, happy, fearful and angry speech and has come up with a package called GALE - that can speak any sentence in any one of these four moods. To test the system , she compiled a list of 60 deliberately ambiguous sentences ( "I can't believe you have 30 credit cards," "where are we going to go?", "I made a 75 percent on my Math test"). Volunteers listened to a computer saying each of these sentences in each of the four moods or the speech synthesizer's "neutral" voice. Then they tried to identify the mood of each sentence. The most easily recognized emotion was sadness, which was correctly identified 80% of the time. It was followed by fear and anger which were identified in around 45% of cases. The ability to make a computerized voice that can express emotions could have broad implications. Studies show that people pay more attention to automated warnings if they are delivered in an urgent tone of voice. As speech synthesizers start to appear in aircraft, cars and lifts, emotional could enable the tone of warning messages to match the urgency of the situation, becoming more insistent as the situation becomes more dangerous. ******************************************* Computers Read Thoughts To Help Paralytics Transmit Messages ******************************************* In a break-through discovery some German Scientists have developed a computer system which enables completely paralyzed people to communicate by "reading" their brainwaves. The system depends on an individual's ability to direct his thoughts and thus control his brainwaves. Two electrodes, the size of contact lenses, are taped on to the paralytic's head. This allows an electroencephalogram to detect brain signals, which can be passed to a computer. By using the power of thought alone, patients can then drive a cursor on a video screen that selects letters of the alphabet. "It comprises slow changes in the excitation level of the brain. Patients learning to control this see their own brain activity on a computer screen in the form of a trace that moves up and down - so they can observe it continuously. "Then the computer or a therapist asks the patient to control the shape of the trace and to use it to move a cursor on the screen. "The computer helps by saying 'That's good, that's perfect', and so on." Patients can write on the screen at a rate of one letter every six seconds, and by using letters to represent key words that rate can be speeded up enormously. It can be used to control household appliances such as television sets as well. It will benefit people who suffer from a progressive nervous disease called Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), in which the nerve cells controlling movement, so-called motor neurons, progressively die off with the result that patients lose all control over their bodies. ************************************************** Internet Technology To Monitor Patients From Afar ************************************************** A new Internet technology that allows doctors to keep track of chronically ill patients, 24 hour a day, from anywhere, is promising to fundamentally change the way long-term patients are treated and monitored in the next century. It is believed by the doctors that the future use of the Internet and smart devices will give chronically ill patients the independence they desire with the monitoring they need - and that too at a fraction of the cost. Patients can be reconnected with their doctors with a pager-like device called Health Buddy. Created by the Health Hero Network, a 10- year-old- company based in Mountain View, California, the device connects patients and doctors remotely. The base of the wireless unit connects with normal telephone lines. On the other end, the physician accesses a special Web site on his or her own desktop computer. Health care providers can then send messages and questions to patients whenever they want, asking how they feel or if they've remembered to take their medication and monitor their answers. The questions and answers show up on the LCD screen of the Health Buddy, and the patient chooses one of four possible responses to each question. For example, a prompt asking the patient how he or she is feeling may offer responses such as good, fair or very poor. Additionally, the Health Buddy can also be hooked to other "smart" devices that can measure a patient's blood pressure, temperature, etc. ****************************************** UK Court Punishes ISP For Transmitting Libellous Message ****************************************** Demon Internet, Britain's largest dial-up Internet Service Provider has been hauled up by a British High Court for transmitting defamatory messages posted on its electronic bulletin board even after warnings from the victim. This has raised a controversy whether ISPs would be responsible only for defamatory items on which it previous warning or for all communications transmitted through their channels. In the present case, Demon had been warned by the complainant. Laurence Godfrey, a university lecturer, has alleged that defamatory remarks were made about him in a posting on a newsgroup, that he notified Demon about it but nothing was done. Godrey argued that since he informed Demon of the message in question, the ISP cannot use the "innocent distribution defense" clause of the 1996 Defamation Act. In Britain, a defense of "innocent dissemination" is available to bookshops, printers and others unaware their wares are defamatory. Demon is set to appeal against the decision, a process which can take up to two months, said a spokeswoman for Demon. An Internet newsgroup (electronic bulletin board) is essentially a "chat" forum in cyberspace and it is impossible to expect an ISP to vet every article complained about. In this it will be supported by the Internet Service Providers Association U.K. which is of the opinion that "ISPs cannot be held responsible to monitor all newsgroups even if it is given a notice by an individual". However legal observers say that if Demon does lose the case, ISPs could effectively be required to monitor every message and transaction stored on their servers. ********************************************* European Mobile Users Overcharged 300% on Phone Bills: Study ********************************************** A new study on Roaming by the European branch of the International Telecommunications Group (INTUG) has revealed that mobile business users in Europe are being overcharged on their phone bills. Where Mobile phone users should be paying about E1 for a typical call lasting two-and-a-quarter minutes, the study found roaming business subscribers in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom paying as much as E3 for a call that long. The study - a first of a comparative review of mobile phone charges across Europe - compares the price a visiting mobile user pays to roam across a local operator's network with the charge the operator levies on its own domestic subscribers for making international calls from a mobile phone. Even though this study has collected data from operators in six countries, INTUG is claiming it already shows that mobile operators are charging too much. "All the operators in this study are overcharging roaming guests," according to Allan Fischer Madsen, consultant at Fischer & Lorenz, "many are also overcharging their own domestic subscribers (for international calls)". INTUG has been highly successful in bringing down tariffs for fixed line in the past. Now, with mobile growing rapidly as a proportion of total telecom costs, the user group is stressing on the need for putting pressure on the operators for reducing rates. ***************************************** Free Internet Access Service Signs Half A Million Subscribers ****************************************** The best things in life are free at least that is what is becoming evident by the rapid success of Netzero (http://www.netzero.com) - a free Internet access service launched only last October. Already it is claiming to have passed the half a million subscriber mark and estimates it will have a full million by mid-year. The company has leveraged its philosophy that access to the Internet and information should be free, tapping into a market of thousands who agree and are possibly tired of paying up to $21.95 a month for busy signals and poor service. Many of the customers signing up are abandoning other fee-based Internet services because they were dissatisfied, said Janet Daily, the company's vice President. Netzero, like other companies that offer free services, relies on fees from advertisers to pay the rent. In exchange for the free access, subscribers must be willing to fill out a survey detailing demographic information and their likes and dislikes. They also have to put up with a small window, which can't be closed, but can be moved around that rotates several ads. The ads are tailored to individual users based on the information they provided in the survey. FREE ACCESS KICKS OFF TARIFF WAR IN INDIA Close on the heels of "Free Internet Access Companies" like Netzero, Dishnet Limited, a company promoted by the Chennai (India) based Sterling Group has kicked off a fierce battle in Internet Access charges in India by offering to provide a tariff as low as Rs 10 per hour and free Net access at least in Tamil Nadu within the next two years. Dishnet announcement came after Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) slashed account renewal rates on March 12. As per the new rates by VSNL, customers who renew all categories of TCP/IP accounts are eligible for 20 percent discount over the existing rates. ************ Our Mailbox ************ HOW TELCOMINE SAVED ME 45% IN PHONE BILLS Recently I typed "long distance" in my search engine and Telcomine cropped up. Using the link "http://www.callcomapre.com" you gave me. I was shocked to discover that I was paying 45% more on my phone bills than I should be paying. I switched to the company ecommended by CallCompare immediately. This was by far, the best and most helpful experience that I have ever had on the Internet.. Thank you for your CallComapre work. - Kelly Jills, USA Thank you Kelly. Readers can help each other by sending similar leads to us. - Editor What does it cost? - Tackle William's How do you handle editorial? How can I get my company covered in your publication? I would like to offer you experts to interview for upcoming articles or about submitting article ideas or articles themselves - Lisa Dicksteen, USA Telcomine is distributed free. All contributions are voluntary. - Editor Keep up the good work! Your summaries at the top of the newsletter are great! And, of course, so is the rest of the newsletter too. - Sanjay Anand, USA ****************************************** If you have found Telcomine useful, please consider telling somebody else about it. Executive Editor: Seema Dhawan E-mail: Telcomine@infozech.com Internet: http://www.infozech.com/telcomine.html Fax: 408-490-2840; Voice Mail: 408-490-2842 Please visit us at http://www.infozech.com ------=_NextPart_000_0001_01BEA776.308ED880--