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The Telecom Digest for October 14, 2013
Volume 32 : Issue 214 : "text" Format
====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
|
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and
the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other
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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, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 09:25:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: T-Mobile's Disruption Shows AT&T Merger Skepticism Was Warranted
Message-ID: <1381595123.56046.YahooMailNeo@web121406.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>
Two years ago I was busy debunking AT&T's claims that eliminating
T-Mobile from the market would somehow magically improve competition.
The deal was blocked, and now T-Mobile is successfully disrupting the
wireless industry on numerous fronts, from their new Jump device
payment plans (very quickly copied by their three competitors) to this
week's interesting decision to offer free international data roaming.
Ryan Chittum at the Columbia Journalism Review argues that T-Mobile's
recent successes (they're now taking two customers from AT&T for every
one customer AT&T takes from them) highlight why antitrust enforcement
remains important in an age where there's an endless drum beat for
weaker regulators and deregulation:
Full article:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/TMobiles-Disruption-Shows-ATT-Merger-Skepticism-Was-Warranted-126182
-or-
http://goo.gl/9EO3tL
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 17:32:03 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: T-Mobile's Disruption Shows AT&T Merger Skepticism Was Warranted
Message-ID: <MPG.2cc4db5c17e6025e989eec@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <1381595123.56046.YahooMailNeo@web121406.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>,
joeofseattle@yahoo.com says...
>
> Two years ago I was busy debunking AT&T's claims that eliminating
> T-Mobile from the market would somehow magically improve competition.
> The deal was blocked, and now T-Mobile is successfully disrupting the
> wireless industry on numerous fronts, from their new Jump device
> payment plans (very quickly copied by their three competitors) to this
> week's interesting decision to offer free international data roaming.
>
> Ryan Chittum at the Columbia Journalism Review argues that T-Mobile's
> recent successes (they're now taking two customers from AT&T for every
> one customer AT&T takes from them) highlight why antitrust enforcement
> remains important in an age where there's an endless drum beat for
> weaker regulators and deregulation:
>
> Full article:
>
>
>
> http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/TMobiles-Disruption-Shows-ATT-Merger-Skepticism-Was-Warranted-126182
>
>
> -or-
>
>
> http://goo.gl/9EO3tL
>
I guess right now I'm technically a T-Mobile(Mobil) customer being that
they bought MetroPCS.
And ever since Metro has been making upgrades to their networks,
upgrades that knock out voice or network service for days at a time. I
have resorted to the tactic of filing FCC complaints against them BEFORE
I call their customer service people. That way it lights a major fire
under their ass.
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 12:05:29 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Wireless Fatcats AT&T and Verizon Had Better Not Miss the Internet of Things
Message-ID: <20131013160529.GA21039@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
Wireless Fatcats AT&T and Verizon Had Better Not Miss the Internet of Things
By Joshua Brustein
October 10, 2013
It's been quite a wireless party over the past five years, with
Verizon (VZ) bringing in $319 billion (via Verizon Wireless) and AT&T
(T) taking $291 billion. But the end of the telecom giants'
money-printing era may be in sight.
The frightening thing for wireless providers is that the world is
running out of fresh consumers to pay for service. A report published
on Thursday by technology market-research firm Ovum predicts that
mobile industry revenue will decline for the first time ever in
2018. New connections will have slowed to about 4 percent annually by
then, while wireless revenue will grow at less than half that rate,
the study maintains.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-10/wireless-fatcats-at-and-t-and-verizon-better-not-miss-the-internet-of-things
-or-
http://goo.gl/LBEoKS
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
See the geese in chevron flight
Flapping and racing on before the snow
They've got the urge for going
They've got the wings to go
- Tom Rush
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 11:55:39 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A few feet from failure: why Verizon FiOS in New York is a sad joke
Message-ID: <20131013155539.GA19500@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
The company is technically on track to meet its obligations, but that
contract now looks hollow
By Adrianne Jeffries on October 10, 2013
Brooklyn coder and entrepreneur Mike Caprio has been trying to get
Verizon's high-speed FiOS fiber internet service since 2009, but the
company repeatedly told him it wasn't available in his Williamsburg
apartment. He finally got hooked up this week - but only because a
Verizon press rep heard him complaining on the radio.
"Apparently the best thing to do was to make a stink on public media,"
says Caprio, who was amazed to see four crews show up Monday to run
the long-awaited fiber from the first floor of his building to his
apartment. "It just seems to underscore the fact that no one is
getting service. It's extremely arbitrary if the actions of just one
guy made all this happen for me."
Rest at:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/10/4819790/verizon-fios-contract-new-york-city-deadline-nears-cant-get-internet
-or-
http://goo.gl/hxKe3T
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
They say that all good things must end someday
Autumn leaves must fall
But don't you know that it hurts me so
To say goodbye to you
- Chad and Jeremy
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 17:33:15 -0400
From: T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: A few feet from failure: why Verizon FiOS in New York is a sad joke
Message-ID: <MPG.2cc4dbab457013d6989eed@news.eternal-september.org>
In article <20131013155539.GA19500@telecom.csail.mit.edu>,
bill@horneQRM.net says...
>
> The company is technically on track to meet its obligations, but that
> contract now looks hollow
>
> By Adrianne Jeffries on October 10, 2013
>
> Brooklyn coder and entrepreneur Mike Caprio has been trying to get
> Verizon's high-speed FiOS fiber internet service since 2009, but the
> company repeatedly told him it wasn't available in his Williamsburg
> apartment. He finally got hooked up this week - but only because a
> Verizon press rep heard him complaining on the radio.
>
> "Apparently the best thing to do was to make a stink on public media,"
> says Caprio, who was amazed to see four crews show up Monday to run
> the long-awaited fiber from the first floor of his building to his
> apartment. "It just seems to underscore the fact that no one is
> getting service. It's extremely arbitrary if the actions of just one
> guy made all this happen for me."
>
> Rest at:
>
> http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/10/4819790/verizon-fios-contract-new-york-city-deadline-nears-cant-get-internet
>
> -or-
>
> http://goo.gl/hxKe3T
>
Considering all they do is run everything in via coaxial I'm surprised
it took this long.
At least that's what they did here in Providence. They used the existing
Cox coax in the house to sling their video and data services.
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 11:44:40 -0400
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: The Evolution of Verizon's Higher Bid for Its Wireless Unit
Message-ID: <20131013154440.GA18942@telecom.csail.mit.edu>
by David Gelles
It was never a secret that Verizon Communications wanted to buy back
Vodafone's 45 percent stake in their enormous wireless joint venture.
But just how badly Verizon wanted full ownership was disclosed in its
preliminary proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission on Wednesday.
Rest at:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/10/09/the-evolution-of-verizons-higher-bid-to-vodafone/?_r=0
--
Bill Horne
(Remvoe QRM from my address to write to me directly)
From yellow leaves a blue jay calls
Grandmothers walk out in their shawls
And chipmunks run the old stone walls
When fall comes to New England
- Cheryl Wheeler
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:10:42 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Privacy Fears as Surveillance Grows in Cities
Message-ID: <p06240814ce81110d910b@[10.0.1.10]>
Privacy Fears as Surveillance Grows in Cities
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
October 13, 2013
OAKLAND, Calif. - Federal grants of $7 million awarded to this city
were meant largely to help thwart terror attacks at its bustling
port. But instead, the money is going to a police initiative that
will collect and analyze reams of surveillance data from around town
- from gunshot-detection sensors in the barrios of East Oakland to
license plate readers mounted on police cars patrolling the city's
upscale hills.
The new system, scheduled to begin next summer, is the latest example
of how cities are compiling and processing large amounts of
information, known as big data, for routine law enforcement. And the
system underscores how technology has enabled the tracking of people
in many aspects of life.
The police can monitor a fire hose of social media posts to look for
evidence of criminal activities; transportation agencies can track
commuters' toll payments when drivers use an electronic pass; and the
National Security Agency, as news reports this summer revealed,
scooped up telephone records of millions of cellphone customers in
the United States.
Like the Oakland effort, other pushes to use new surveillance tools
in law enforcement are supported with federal dollars. The New York
Police Department, aided by federal financing, has a big data system
that links 3,000 surveillance cameras with license plate readers,
radiation sensors, criminal databases and terror suspect lists.
Police in Massachusetts have used federal money to buy automated
license plate scanners. And police in Texas have bought a drone with
homeland security money, something that Alameda County, which Oakland
is part of, also tried but shelved after public protest.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/technology/privacy-fears-as-surveillance-grows-in-cities.html
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:09:25 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A Senator Raises Privacy Questions About Cross-Device Tracking
Message-ID: <p06240812ce811087718f@[10.0.1.10]>
A Senator Raises Privacy Questions About Cross-Device Tracking
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
OCTOBER 10, 2013
A lawmaker has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate
online ad companies that track consumers across devices, like showing
them ads on their phones based on Web sites they visit on a computer.
The letter, sent on Thursday by Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of
Massachusetts, to Edith Ramirez, the commission's chairwoman, cited a
New York Times article that ran on Sunday detailing the new ways that
mobile advertisers are tracking consumers, including across devices.
...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/10/a-senator-raises-privacy-questions-about-cross-device-tracking/
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/technology/Letter-Cross-Platform-Tracking-FTC.pdf
***** Moderator's Note *****
The letter, sent by a new member in the world's most exclusive club,
will be filed and forgotten in less time than it takes for me to type
this sentence. The Senator is fishing for free online ink, and I'd
like to see how many letters he sends to the FTC asking them to find
out which companies are violating the DNC list.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:09:11 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers
Message-ID: <p06240813ce8110bd7e30@[10.0.1.10]>
Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER and SOMINI SENGUPTA
October 5, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO - Once, only hairdressers and bartenders knew people's secrets.
Now, smartphones know everything - where people go, what they search
for, what they buy, what they do for fun and when they go to bed.
That is why advertisers, and tech companies like Google and Facebook,
are finding new, sophisticated ways to track people on their phones
and reach them with individualized, hypertargeted ads. And they are
doing it without cookies, those tiny bits of code that follow users
around the Internet, because cookies don't work on mobile devices.
Privacy advocates fear that consumers do not realize just how much of
their private information is on their phones and how much is made
vulnerable simply by downloading and using apps, searching the mobile
Web or even just going about daily life with a phone in your pocket.
And this new focus on tracking users through their devices and online
habits comes against the backdrop of a spirited public debate on
privacy and government surveillance.
On Wednesday, the National Security Agency confirmed it had collected
data from cellphone towers in 2010 and 2011 to locate Americans'
cellphones, though it said it never used the information.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/technology/selling-secrets-of-phone-users-to-advertisers.html
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 23:05:58 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Group Presses for Safeguards on the Personal Data of Schoolchildren
Message-ID: <p06240811ce810fd24708@[10.0.1.10]>
Group Presses for Safeguards on the Personal Data of Schoolchildren
By NATASHA SINGER
October 13, 2013
A leading children's advocacy group is challenging the educational
technology software industry, an estimated $8 billion market, to
develop national safeguards for the personal data collected about
students from kindergarten through high school.
In a letter sent last week to 16 educational technology vendors -
including Google Apps for Education, Samsung School, Scholastic and
Pearson Schoolnet - Common Sense Media, an advocacy group in San
Francisco that rates children's videos and apps for age
appropriateness, urged the industry to use student data only for
educational purposes, and not for marketing products to children or
their families.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/technology/concerns-arise-over-privacy-of-schoolchildrens-data.html
Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2013 22:59:52 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow
Message-ID: <p0624080dce810e8cfaa3@[10.0.1.10]>
As DVRs Shift TV Habits, Ratings Calculations Follow
By BRIAN STELTER
October 6, 2013
One day after Fox introduced the Headless Horseman drama "Sleepy
Hollow" last month, the television world was impressed by its
overnight rating, a 3.4 among adults age 18 to 49. Fox knew it would
grow: based on last season's viewing trends, Fox figured the premiere
episode would finish between a 5.1 and a 5.4 rating once seven days
of digital video recorder playback were added.
Evidently, even the network's rosiest outlook wasn't rosy enough.
When the seven-day data came in on Sunday, it showed that the
premiere episode scored a 5.8 rating, a gain of fully two-thirds from
its starting point.
That's what live television is these days - just a starting point.
On-demand viewing behaviors, which have been reshaping television
since the first TiVo DVR was shipped in 1999, are becoming more
pronounced with each passing year, sometimes to the benefit of
networks and advertisers and other times to their detriment.
What is notable about the start of the new fall TV season, according
to network executives, is a surge in not just delayed viewing, but
very-delayed viewing. Some people who might have previously
time-shifted the new NBC drama "The Blacklist" by one day, for
example, are now waiting longer to watch, partly because of the sheer
number of shows on their mental to-watch lists.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/business/media/dvrs-shift-tv-habits-and-ratings.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
DVR's are going to shift network programming in more ways than that:
they will, IMNSHO, be both the death and salvation of mass
entertainment.
Those whom use DVR's to "binge view" a TV series soon realize that
they are incredibly insipid morality plays, with little but a passing
nod to any notion of art or complexity. Ergo, viewers soon realize
that it's ALL the same: all the actresses wear tight sweaters, all
the men are studly, vacuous fools, and the Tall White Guy (TM) makes
all the decisions. This leads, of course to viewers hitting "Off" in
ever-greater numbers, and when enough of them do it, the
tried-and-trite twelve stories Hollywood has recycled for decades will
be replaced by new kinds of entertainment that actually challenge the
viewers' minds as well as their trigger fingers.
Bill Horne
Moderator
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom-
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