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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 200 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Terminating phone service at a multiple unit building (was: AT&T U-verse)
Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Re: When Texting Is Wrong
Re: Walter's Telephones
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: One Example of Cell Phone Domination
Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Re: 911 service center troubles
Re: 911 service center troubles
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Walter's Telephones
Re: Walter's Telephones
Re: 911 service center troubles
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Re: Home and small office VoIP services
US Agency Blocked Cellphone Driving Safety Study
Apple Reports Third Quarter Results / Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
Apple Q209 Form 10-Q and amendment
====== 27 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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===========================
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:43:59 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <4A652B6F.1020301@thadlabs.com>
On 7/20/2009 6:35 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
> [...]
> According to dslreports, Video Ready Access Device, which terminates
> FTTN (fiber to the node)
> [...]
> Uh, yeah, when U-Verse comes to your part of town, there are a hell of a
> lot of them.
>
> Here's a lot of images of them: http://images.google.com/images?q=vrad
Holy Mackerel! Even a picture of one that exploded and burned.
It doesn't appear ANY effort has been made to camouflage and/or prettify
the things; they're large/ugly (in a residential neighborhood) and some
of those pictures show VRADs (apparently) obscuring sidewalks and almost
blocking views of traffic signs.
I wonder about the incidence of accidental vehicular destruction of them
given how close to the roads most/all of them seem to be. Here in Calif.
if it's on the ground it's gonna get hit -- you can take that to the bank.
Does FiOS require such large above-ground vaults?
Around here (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, etc.) even cell towers
have to be hidden and out of sight; many are disguised as trees, some are
hidden within church steeples, etc.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:44:11 -0700
From: Steven Lichter <diespammers@killspammers.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <h44nod$f9t$1@news.eternal-september.org>
Thad Floryan wrote:
> On 7/20/2009 6:35 PM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:
>> [...]
>> According to dslreports, Video Ready Access Device, which terminates
>> FTTN (fiber to the node)
>> [...]
>> Uh, yeah, when U-Verse comes to your part of town, there are a hell of a
>> lot of them.
>>
>> Here's a lot of images of them: http://images.google.com/images?q=vrad
>
> Holy Mackerel! Even a picture of one that exploded and burned.
>
> It doesn't appear ANY effort has been made to camouflage and/or prettify
> the things; they're large/ugly (in a residential neighborhood) and some
> of those pictures show VRADs (apparently) obscuring sidewalks and almost
> blocking views of traffic signs.
>
> I wonder about the incidence of accidental vehicular destruction of them
> given how close to the roads most/all of them seem to be. Here in Calif.
> if it's on the ground it's gonna get hit -- you can take that to the bank.
>
> Does FiOS require such large above-ground vaults?
>
> Around here (Palo Alto, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, etc.) even cell towers
> have to be hidden and out of sight; many are disguised as trees, some are
> hidden within church steeples, etc.
>
They are not much bigger then traffic signal and telephone
cabinets. As to FIOS, since it is underground for the most they system
are located in Environmental vaults. I have seen cabinets; regular
cable type; they may got bent up but held up pretty good.
--
The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today?
(c) 2009 I Kill Spammers, inc, A Rot in Hell. Co.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:55:29 GMT
From: "wdag" <wgeary@verizon.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <Rzs9m.684$MA3.323@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>
"Thad Floryan" <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote in message
news:4A652B6F.1020301@thadlabs.com...
> Does FiOS require such large above-ground vaults?
FIOS has only passive equipment (the equivalent of SAIs) in its
distribution. FIOS either terminates at the CO or (when they couldn't
physically run the extra fiber) at advanced DLCs. In downstate New
York, these FIOS "SAIs" are (about) 2'W x 2'D x 3'H, have no AC power
and, like SAIs, are mounted either on ground pedestals or up on poles
near the distribution fibers and wires. On Long Island, this amounts
to mostly on poles.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:56:05 -0500
From: Neal McLain <nmclain@annsgarden.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <4A664785.9000401@annsgarden.com>
hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:
> Further, many cable [TV] offerings seem to be significantly going up
> in price. Some deals are a cheap introfuctory rate that goes up after
> six months or a year, which might not make it so attractive.
"introfuctory"? Gee, Lisa, is that a typo or an editorial comment?
Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote:
> Do cable prices EVER go down? :-)
Not until the "Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act
of 1992" is repealed. When you let the broadcast industry write the
"consumer protection" rules for their main competitor, whose interests
do you think they'll protect -- consumers or their own?
Neal McLain
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:56:08 -0500
From: gordonb.tth5q@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Message-ID: <-cudnSc_s_PFofjXnZ2dnUVZ_oWdnZ2d@posted.internetamerica>
>> Why would I want to read it in e-book form, which may evaporate at
>> any time (This Means You, Amazon)? I don't see that as being worth
>> 9.99 microcents, including "shipping" and tax.
>
>This has happened one time, so you've decided the entire technology is
>worthless? [This is a way to] blow something out of proportion.
It was designed in deliberately, and activated deliberately, and I
consider the licensing technology used to be a form of fraud. Taking
any particular e-book as an example, how many corporations (and
list them) can cause that e-book to become unreadable by their
bankruptcy? Amazon, probably. Microsoft probably has its fingers
in there somewhere, too. And certain combinations of telcos and
internet service providers. And maybe the individual publishers.
That needs to be disclosed to customers *in an unspoofable manner*,
and the publisher shouldn't be allowed to change it after the sale.
And the e-book should be usable at least until the longer of the
actual copyright expiration and the scheduled copyright expiration
at the time the book is purchased. (In the current environment of
constantly extending copyright, that means it has to be readable
*FOREVER*).
This is not the first time DRM'd material has become unusable in
the hands of honest buyers: there were some recordings put out by
Major League Baseball, and Microsoft's old DRM scheme(scam) and
probably others. Those did not offer refunds.
Books published in such a way that they can be/are continually
modified cannot be cited reliably, and as I understand it, there's
no way to freeze a copy as of a particular time. That makes them
worth a lot less. While continual updates might be useful for
telephone books, it's not good for anything that is the subject of
research papers.
>You can also lose books, but I doubt that stopped you from buying them.
If the publisher could remotely cause the book to catch fire, I
sure would. As it stands, if I lose books, it's probably my fault,
and I'd probably be able to obtain/borrow another copy. I can take
my own precautions against them being stolen or destroyed by fire or
flood.
>And if that happens, you don't get your money back, like it did with the
>deleted Kindle e-books.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:42:55 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Terminating phone service at a multiple unit building (was: AT&T U-verse)
Message-ID: <h449ju$uju$1@news.albasani.net>
T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> wrote:
>ahk@chinet.com says...
>>With video, it's nothing like cable. No television channel is sent to
>>the viewer until he tunes in a channel. It's comparable to cable's Video
>>On Demand services, but entirely different technology. For residential
>>services, there is one main set-top box installed (which incorporates a
>>DVR) plus receivers for other tvs and recording devices. There can be up
>>to four television streams per residence (no matter how many receivers),
>>only one or two of which can be HD, and all four can be recorded on the
>>single DVR. The receivers at the other devices can tune in a channel or
>>recorded program on DVR.
>This explains that while the FiOS adapter seems to have provisions for a
>bunch of phone lines, net connections, etc. they put multiple boxes on
>apartment buildings.
Huh? I wasn't commenting on that.
Those grey plastic boxes with the network interface are meant for single
family homes, but the phone company puts them on the outside of
apartment buildings for new subscribers rather than making a decision to
install a single large modern box to terminate all the inside wire in
the apartment complex. If they had such a box in an area getting FTTB
(fiber to the building) installed, it would certainly make sense to
bring the fiber into this box for ease of interface, allowing a long
period of transition in which some subscribers will continue to be on
copper pairs to the building.
I once lived in a six-unit apartment building in 1928. Telephone service was
originally provisioned with a large piece of wood in half of the basement
under three units with screw-down connections for a dozen lines or so. I
was working out of the house and required three lines. When he was
working, I didn't notice that the installer wasn't preparing to extend
the new drop into the basement but terminate it at a grey box he was
about to install. I was annoyed as I considered these grey boxes to be
invitations for theft of service but he wasn't cooperative. I stuck a
padlock on the box. My landlady was extremely annoyed as I hadn't sought
her permission to have the phone company install an outside box.
A week later, I noticed that the lock had been drilled. I think it was
the telephone company techinician I saw at the building the day before,
who had trouble finding the line he was sent out to repair and clueless
about the function of those grey boxes, as the lock I put on does
nothing more than secure the cover over the jack that bypasses inside
wire the subscriber would use for testing the line by plugging in a
telephone set. The entire cover can be removed by removing the single
screw, which is what the technician is supposed to do.
I made a police report of vandalism, which was sufficient to gain the
phone company's cooperation to terminate the lines inside the basement
and not outside the building.
So multiple boxes on the outside of a building just mean that the
building's owner and phone company haven't made an agreement to install
a modern point of interface of sufficient size to terminate all
telephone service and inside wire. And I suspect that even with an
agreement, you're always going to get a tech who won't use it.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:46:27 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Message-ID: <pan.2009.07.21.07.46.26.582641@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:42:32 -0400, David Lesher wrote: .......
> The REAL gotcha is "returns" -- a wholesaler can and would order dozens
> of copies of a title, and return however many were unsold. Mass-market
> titles [say Harry Potter] could easily have 75% returns, and were 'sold'
> 4-5 times. No distributor grants volume discounts on a title because if
> they did; wholesalers and stores would overbuy to get a lower price, and
> return most...
Return rights directly affect the price a book store/seller pays for
particular stock. Some publishers allow an overall return percentage for a
period, with penalties for stock over that quota.
The whole (physical) book publishing industry worldwide is essentially
corrupt, with ancient "Regional rights" creating virtual monopoly markets
that protect the industry.
The new e-book paradigm will eventually dismantle the 19th century way
things are still done in the publishing industry. Even Internet sales have
dented the geographic control the publishing industry clings to.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:39:28 -0500 (CDT)
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: When Texting Is Wrong
Message-ID: <alpine.LN8.2.00.0907202236060.1433@tintin.mayson.us>
I once worked with a guy who had very, very vivid dreams and would often
share said dreams with his co-workers. I emailed Scott this and received
a quick "Thanks". A few months later Alice was in the meeting room
telling everyone her dreams. "But these were no ordinary grapes, these
were seedless."
Coincidence? Probably. But I've always wondered.
BTW, that dreaming co-worker? Me. As I got older I learned some things
are better left unsaid.
John
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:39:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: "harold@hallikainen.com" <harold@hallikainen.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Walter's Telephones
Message-ID: <aa92f732-ede3-4d9a-bb8c-841327f4132b@l5g2000pra.googlegroups.com>
A couple comments on the thread...
When I started working in radio stations, we had Teletype model 15
printers for AP and UPI. They had a demodulator made by Lenkurt, or
something like that. I think there were several wire services on a
single voice grade pair. The demod chose which service to give us.
These printers were all Baudot 5 bit code. The first dot matrix
printer I ever saw was a new wire service printer brought in to one
station. It was an Extel printer.
The school newspaper had a printer that LOOKED like a model 15, but it
used a 6 bit code so it could have upper and lower case characters.
They had a printer and a paper tape punch going all the time. Each
story started with a line of garbage on the printer. The line of
garbage showed up as a readable story number punched into the paper
tape. So, you could quickly scan through the tape to find the story
you wanted, tear off that portion of the tape, go across the hall and
put it in the tape reader on the LinoType.
Finally, on the mechanical engineering broadcast on British
television, anyone remember "Sunrise Semester?" I remember seeing it
as a kid on TV before the cartoons came on early in the morning.
Harold
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:51:51 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <pan.2009.07.21.07.51.50.588221@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:29:34 -0400, hancock4 wrote:
.......
> For a low-use business or residential customer who does not have computer
> broadband, VOIP would cost them _more_ (as I understand it). VOIP requires
> several things a great many people do not have, such as a full service
> UPS and adapter equipment. Accordingly, I'm not sure 'widespread'
> acceptance is accurate.
.......
Why does VoIP in a business environment require an UPS?
If the power is out you cannot receive faxes, run a computer or do
virtually any business function required these days, so not having a phone
service for the period of no power is hardly of much substance.
While it may have been handy in the past to have landline service in the
event of a major power outage, in these days of ubiquitous cell phones it
is basically redundant as far as most "emergency" situations go and little
use otherwise.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Ah, but you need a reliable phone service so that you can call the
disaster recovery service bureau, repoint your DNS, remote-forward
your fax line, and plan you vacation. ;-)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:45:56 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <8ff9m.30662$FP2.9244@newsfe05.iad>
Thad Floryan wrote:
>
>
> I don't know. AFAIK, FIOS is unavailble in California, or it might be
> available in certain service areas. Weekly fliers I receive from PacBell
> are still "pushing" 768Kbps DSL for what seems the same price I'm paying
> for 30x faster cable.
>
Both Verizon and AT&T have it already going in California in the areas
that are newer and easy to upgrade.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:53:49 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstar@myrealbox.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: One Example of Cell Phone Domination
Message-ID: <pan.2009.07.21.07.53.48.406503@myrealbox.com>
On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:43:06 -0400, Tim Shoppa wrote:
........
> The apocryphal story is told of a psychology researcher who ran IQ tests
> on those in prisons. His conclusion was that criminals have a markedly
> lower IQ than the general population. When he submitted his study to an
> academic journal for publishing, the editor simply returned it, noting
> that the study did not show that criminals have a lower IQ; it only showed
> that those who were caught and imprisoned had a lower IQ.
>
Maybe he should have gone to parliament/congress (insert your local
government reference here) to test the criminals that are smart enough to
avoid jail? ;-)
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Gentlemen, please confine your remarks to the telecom world.
An remember, those who were smart engou to avoid jail are called
"Statesmen". ;-)
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:17:17 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: A New World: Scheduling E-Books
Message-ID: <op.uxeuq3pdo63xbg@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:38:54 -0400, <Wesrock@aol.com> asked:
> In a message dated 7/19/2009 9:58:12 PM Central Daylight Time, Bill wrot in
> a moderator's note to a post by _monty@roscom.com_
> (mailto:monty@roscom.com) :
>
> ... [snip] ...
>
> Also how much does it cost for marketing it on Amazon, and how much of
> that goes to the publisher?
For a book we've listed on Amazon, Amazon collects from the buyer
our asking price plus a standardized amount for postage, and then
sends us the postage amount and what's left from our asking price
after deducting 15% of the asking price and another (roughly) $2.50.
Order fulfillment is our responsibility. I guess their 15% + $2.50
goes to cover their web-server costs and related "marketing" expenses
on their end (including payment collection and disbursement, dispute
resolution, and who-knows-what-all-else).
Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:03:45 +0000 (UTC)
From: "Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <h44ar1$d9$1@news.albasani.net>
Richard <rng@richbonnie.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 16 Jul 2009 01:03:28 -0400 (EDT), jsw <jsw@ivgate.omahug.org> wrote:
>>>In the mid 1960s NYC oganized all police dispatch (let's not talk
>>>about fire...) into one office, using a single seven digit phone
>>>number.
>>>(Ok, you old timers, dust off those memory cells.)
>>{dusting off old rusty memory cells and showing my real age}
>>440-1234. ;-)
>When I was growing up in suburban Boston circa 1955, I noticed that
>the police departments in the area had -1234 as the last four digits
>of their phone numbers.
When I was a kid, only the city of Chicago had modern emergency call
center staffed with police dispatchers who also handled fire/rescue/
ambulance calls, routing them to fire dispatchers. This was one of O.W.
Wilson's modernizations.
The suburbs typically had separate numbers to call for police and
fire dispatch. Often, it was NNX-1212 for police and NNX-2323 for
fire/rescue/ambulance. I don't recall any combined call centers. Even
after a few suburbs got 911, there was no intelligent routing of calls
to the correct dispatch center based on political jurisdications. More
often than not, every subscriber was routed to the same call center for
the entire NNX despite the prefix including more than one jurisdiction.
A lot of suburbs were served by fire districts whose boundaries didn't
follow municipal lines, so still another jurisdictional complication.
And a number of suburbs had part time police coverage, with the
sheriff's police providing overnight coverage.
It's too bad there was never an attempt to reserve line numbers
nationwide for police and fire emergency calls based only on the last
four digits of the line number. 911 is fine, but sometimes the built in
assumptions will route the call to the wrong police or fire jurisdiction
in an emergency if the emergency is in one jurisdiction and the caller
reporting the emergeny uses a phone assumed to be in another
jurisdiction. I like the idea of being able to choose the correct
dispatcher to call, reducing errors.
With 911 implementation, a lot of the old emergency numbers were simply
eliminated. It would be a rather good idea to have maintained both.
In my area, before cellular 911, the toll highway authority implemented
*999 from cell phones. You call their dispatcher and tell them what
jurisdication you want, or the tollway dispatcher would figure it out
based on the location the caller describes. They were generally familiar
with all major local highways and were quite good at figuring it out
from the motorist's description. Cell phones never had a concept of a
lcoal operator, not than many still existed in the '70's and '80's.
I still use this today, rather suspicious of cellular 911 routing.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:22:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <9abbd8d4-65b8-4ff9-bcf0-8a9663b3a16b@b14g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 21, 10:37 am, "Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:
> I still use this today, rather suspicious of cellular 911 routing.
In one area that straddles a state border, cell phone 911 calls often
end up to the wrong state. But the 911 dispatchers simply quickly
'transfers' the call to the proper center, so it's not a problem. I
don't know if all 911 centers can do this call transfer, but with
cellphones I assume it's quite easy for a distant tower in another
jurisdiction to handle the call.
I wonder how many 911 centers are properly equipped to handle GPS.
Unfortunately, their operation is considered 'security' and details
are not forthcoming.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:49:25 -0700
From: Sam Spade <sam@coldmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <Vzk9m.27092$ZN.10606@newsfe23.iad>
Thad Floryan wrote:
>
> Interesting point, but looking right now at the front pages of my local
> AT&T phone book, there are absolutely NO guarantees of service level or
> even dial tone. They give a number to call for repair, but if the phone
> and/or line isn't functioning, ... d'Oh! :-)
>
I don't know about today, but as recently as a few years ago the
California PUC had some service standards and a government/industry
committee that met periodically.
We all know about busy hour issues and grade of service with wireline
carriers. I suspect wireless is much worse. VoIP, I have no idea.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:14:16 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <4A664BC8.2050903@thadlabs.com>
On 7/21/2009 8:35 AM, Sam Spade wrote:
> Thad Floryan wrote:
>> [...]
>> Interesting point, but looking right now at the front pages of my local
>> AT&T phone book, there are absolutely NO guarantees of service level or
>> even dial tone. They give a number to call for repair, but if the phone
>> and/or line isn't functioning, ... d'Oh! :-)
>
> I don't know about today, but as recently as a few years ago the
> California PUC had some service standards and a government/industry
> committee that met periodically.
>
> We all know about busy hour issues and grade of service with wireline
> carriers. I suspect wireless is much worse. VoIP, I have no idea.
Googling "California PUC telephone requirements" finds the CPUC's
home page: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc/
Then this with nothing germane I could see:
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/Telco/Information+for+providing+service/VOIP+Providers.htm
Using CPUC's search box on "telephone service level" found this:
http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/Published/Graphics/48920.PDF
indicating the CPUC is massively pushing VoIP. And then there's this:
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/documents/codelawspolicies.htm
where I seem unable to find anything defining landline, wireless, and
VoIP requirements, service levels, etc.
Even Wikipedia's page about the CPUC focuses on broadband (in the
Telecommunications section):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Public_Utilities_Commission
Perhaps phone service (landline, wireless and VoIP) is defined by law
and not the PUC? Just guessing; anyone know?
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:12:37 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Walter's Telephones
Message-ID: <59f8b9bd-3b19-4a8a-9335-85f56c7c831f@d4g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 20, 10:09 pm, Wesr...@aol.com wrote:
> Radio stations and most TV newsrooms got their news the same
> way--from receive only Teletypes receivng the news reports put out by
> the wire services' bureaus such as the one I worked in in Dallas.
> Each service had a number of different wires, general news, sports,
> radio, local or other state news, financial reports.
Those old green Baudot (5 bit) Teletypes remained in service well into
the 1980s before retirement. Many organizations subscribed to news or
weather services for various reasons. For example, the lobby of a
strock broker's office had a general news machine.
> The Teletype background noise was used on many radio and TV news
> shows.
Long after the actual machines were retired a recording of the sound
was used to play in the background. More modern machines were either
silent CRTs or ugly-noise dot matrix printers.
> I don't remember headsets being used very much...most people
> propped their phone on their shoulder while they were taking
> dictation. . . .
At one major newspaper all the desks had 'spacesaver' (also known as
'pharmacist') phones, with a headset hanging on the hookswitch instead
of handset.
> I could cynically suggest the it was not public taste but the
> stations' search for ratings that let to the graphics and glitz. I
> still remember fondly the weatherman with a chalk or crayon board and
> a stick, often making the weather more clear then they do now with
> their electronic gadgets.
The Philadelphia TV news show on Channel 6*, WPVI, for years resisted
the electronic glitz of other stations yet had the highest ratings by
far. But they gradually evolved into radar, etc.
* A quirk in frequencies allowed the audio portion of Channel 6 to be
heard at 87.7 FM. Turned out many people listened to the station that
way, and when the station went digital that audio was lost.
Apparently to broadcast the audio now would require mountains of red
tape and FCC approval, even though it had been done for years and the
87.7 frequency is physically empty and not usable for anything else.
On another newsgroup I was disappointed that correspondents strongly
supported the _bureaucratic_ reasons "it can't be done", even though
_physically/technically_ it certainly can be done. Anyway, America
need not worry, we have plenty of bureaucrats eager to say NO! why
something can't be done. Too bad they fail to realize progress was
made by people thinking outside the box.
***** Moderator's Note *****
Being able to hear Channel Six on 87.7 wasn't a quirk: Channel Six's
assignment was from 82 to 88 MHz, and the audio carrier for the "old"
TV system was always 250 KHz below the top edge of the channel. Since
the audio was sent as FM, it could be heard of FM receivers tuned to
87.7, which was close enough to "capture" the signal.
The FCC won't allow the audio to stay on 87.75 because the entire
range from 54 to 88 MHz (The old channels 2 through 6) is being
reassigned to other services.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:12:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Walter's Telephones
Message-ID: <99ac3ab9-bf9d-496b-85f3-faf6abbe403b@24g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 20, 2:52 pm, "Al Gillis" <al.1...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Did you notice some of the unusual, or at least infrequently seen,
> Bell System equipment?
I was curious about the background equipment. A variety of
typewriters, from manual to various kinds of IBM electrics. A variety
of phones, including Call Directors in later years. I thought I saw a
non-dial keyset.
> ***** Moderator's Note *****
> As to the telephones shown on Cronkite's set and offices, they were
> actually instruments, and actually in use: Cronkite had been a war
> correspondent and a press reporter, so he was an old hand at making
> effective use of telephones (or radiotelephones, when he was in
> Europe). Of course, they could have been hidden out of sight, but the
> networks found that the public liked to have an image of an informal
> setting where actual work could be done, because it made viewers feel
> they were receiving more recent reports instead of a staged
> presentation.
It's entirely possible, even from day one (or especially from day
one), that much of what we saw in the background were props, not real
equipment. In the early days I strongly doubt they broadcast from the
working newsroom, the camera equipment and lights would get in the way
of people actually working. You don't want people stepping (or
tripping) on the cables interconnecting the equipment. During the
broadcast there needs to be room for the cameras and crew running
around.
Obviously they can't risk a telephone going off in the middle of the
broadcast.
***** Moderator's Note *****
OK, I should have said "capable of being used". The instruments were
real, AFAIK, but I agree they would have silenced the ringers.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:17:00 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 911 service center troubles
Message-ID: <3b5dd7ac-4af1-4037-826f-7ada2a34c0e9@h18g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 20, 9:33 pm, Richard <r...@richbonnie.com> wrote:
> When I was growing up in suburban Boston circa 1955, I noticed that
> the police departments in the area had -1234 as the last four digits
> of their phone numbers.
Before 911, Philadelphia used 231-3131 as the police number. After
911 came in, they said 911 was to be used for critical emergencies
while the 231-3131 number would stay for more routine police
business. But eventually the 231- number was discontinued.
There are non-"life threatening" calls that the police must handle,
but 911 operators seem very annoyed at receiving them. For example,
it's 10 pm and a traffic signal is dark at a busy intersection causing
problems. Or 'fender bender' car crashes or nuisance issues like loud
parties.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 16:02:15 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <TradnTgtu7EmsfvXnZ2dnUVZ_r2dnZ2d@posted.visi>
Thad Floryan wrote:
> Interesting point, but looking right now at the front pages of my local
> AT&T phone book, there are absolutely NO guarantees of service level or
> even dial tone. They give a number to call for repair, but if the phone
> and/or line isn't functioning, ... d'Oh! :-)
If they _tell_ you about mandated guarantees, you're just going to
call and whine and complain and expect refunds and send letters to the
PUC when things go wrong. If they don't tell you, you probably won't
know. Why in the world would you expect that they'd choose to tell you?
(Mind you, I have no idea whether there are such guarantees, it
probably depends on your jurisdiction.)
Dave
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:35:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: Home and small office VoIP services
Message-ID: <08ca5508-ed90-4c14-a330-c96e273efb79@26g2000yqk.googlegroups.com>
On Jul 20, 9:31 pm, Thad Floryan <t...@thadlabs.com> wrote:
> > One thing about VOIP I forget to mention: What happens if everybody
> > decides to drop the traditonal landline and go VOIP. So there's a
> > bunch of COs with dead No 5 ESS boxes. But will there be enough VOIP
> > 'capacity' in whatever it takes to collect calls from individual homes
> > and businesses, switch them, and route them to destinations? Will the
> > lines and switches become overcrowded with an unmanaged network?
>
> The same question could be asked of conventional TelCos.
Remember, this question deals with growth, not emergency events.
Not really. It appears traditional telco growth will be slow and as
such they have plenty of capacity to handle today's and future needs.
If demand grows, they'll have time to respond to it. That "question"
hit traditonal telcos back in the 1960s/1970s when high demand and
exploding change orders (household moves/ number changes) overwhelmed
COs.
Basically, if VOIP providers face unanticpated demand for new
services, will their network be able to handle it? Unlike the old
Bell System with its unified network management, VOIP is decentralized
with many independent players involved.
> From memory, and the warnings in newspapers and on radio/TV when we
> have an "event" (e.g., earthquake, fire, etc.) here, they say stay
> off the phone because the system's capacity is a small percentage of
> all installed phone instruments. The number 5% comes to mind and I
> don't recall where I first heard that decades ago along with AT&T's
> alleged army of statisticians who conjured up that number after
> examining calling patterns.
>
> A broadband Internet connection is basically always on.
>
> With POTS, one does not always receive dial tone (especially during
> "events").
We must remember that the huge decline in the cost of electronics has
allowed traditional telco switching gear and carrier systems to be
much more liberally engineered these days than in the past. A major
disaster could overwhelm the traditional telco, especially if its
physically facilities are damaged.
However, my home and office through several extreme storms and floods
over the years and we always had good dial tone. During those events
we were never told not to use the phone, indeed, emergency phone
numbers were broadcast for people to use.
After power was restored, cable TV took a long time to come back. I
sure hope cable phone systems continue working without any interuption
if commercial power fails, and intermediate junction and repeater
stations have power backup.
I suspect there is far more capacity available for emergencies than
there was in the past.
> My cellphone service has been generally reliable over the 17 years
> I've had it so far (same account: Cellular One -> Cingular -> AT&T).
Cellphone frequencies are finite, as are cellphone tower switching
capacity. During the Inaugural some carriers could not meet demand.
(I'm told Verizon did, but AT&T did not.)
> > Regularly while being on line sometimes there's a momentary pause
> > in response. While playing on Usenet it's no big deal. While
> > talking on the phone such a pause would be intolerable.
>
> The question is: do such pauses occur in the real world? I've setup a
> number of business VoIP systems and voice quality is comparable to POTS.
The pauses definitely occur. The question is do they disrupt VOIP
service?
> > If someone is b/s-sing with a friend and the calls are dropped, no
> > one really cares too much. But if business people are discussing
> > important stuff, or someone is talking to their doctor, those
> > .9999s of landline reliability BETTER be there with VOIP.
> Does such a level ".9999" exist? In my experience, it doesn't. One
> client who was located in Cupertino CA would lose power and phones
> at what seemed a weekly basis due to a (drunken?) backhoe operator
> severing undergrounded wires. The company finally abandoned
> Cupertino and moved to San Jose CA. True, that problem was not
> caused by PacBell -- they're subject to the whims of Mother Nature
> and other people like any entity.
I know of one company that regularly loses power due to nearby power
poles being knocked down by errant motorists. But the telephone wires
apparently are underground because phone service is not disrupted.
Obviously some telephone lines are carried on poles and at risk for
knock down, but a great many trunks are underground.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:28:44 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: US Agency Blocked Cellphone Driving Safety Study
Message-ID: <4A665D3C.5060803@thadlabs.com>
The following appeared on Slashdot yesterday, July 20:
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/09/07/21/013200/US-Agency-Blocked-Cellphone--Driving-Safety-Study
" By now you've probably seen the NY Times's long piece on distracted
" driving:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html
" about how most drivers and most legislators willfully ignore the
" evidence of the dangers of talking on a cellphone, texting, and
" other electronic distractions while behind the wheel. According
" to this article, cellphone use while driving causes over 1,000
" fatalities a year in the US. Another shoe has now dropped: it
" seems that the US National Highway Safety Administration blocked
" a proposed definitive study of the risks:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/21distracted.html
" The NHSA now cites concerns about angering Congress. Two consumer
" safety groups had filed a FOIA request for documents about the
" aborted study, and the Times has now made the documents public:
http://documents.nytimes.com/documents-from-the-u-s-department-of-transportation-s-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration
" including the research behind the request for a study of
" 10,000 drivers.
The PDF copy of the document is here (266 pages, 7.9MB):
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/nytint/docs/documents-from-the-u-s-department-of-transportation-s-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration/original.pdf
Sorry for the long URLs, but I don't like tinyurl and similar due
to their masking the original URL and not knowing whether one is
being directed to an IFRAME-infected site or not.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:31:39 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Apple Reports Third Quarter Results / Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
Message-ID: <p06240852c68c1c32ff26@[10.0.1.3]>
Apple Reports Third Quarter Results
Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History
CUPERTINO, California-July 21, 2009-Apple today announced financial
results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009. The
Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of
$1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. These results compare to
revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or
$1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was
36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter.
International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.
In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by
GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone
and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales
and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting,
the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $9.74 billion
of "Adjusted Sales" and $1.94 billion of "Adjusted Net Income."
...
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html
http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q309data_sum.pdf
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:37:52 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Apple Q209 Form 10-Q and amendment
Message-ID: <p06240854c68c1d6847cd@[10.0.1.3]>
Q209 Form 10-Q and amendment
Apple has filed with the SEC its Form 10-Q for the quarterly period
ended March 28, 2009 and an amendment to correct the reporting of
voting results for shareholder-submitted proposals.
View the 10-Q
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MzA4OHxDaGlsZElEPS0xfFR5cGU9Mw==&t=1
View the amendment
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/External.File?item=UGFyZW50SUQ9MzI4OXxDaGlsZElEPS0xfFR5cGU9Mw==&t=1
------------------------------
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