33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2014 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Oct 27, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 190 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Lured by Verizon into giving up cellphone privacy (Bill Horne)
Re: Handful of Virginia police agencies sharing seized phone data (Bob Goudreau)
Verizon finds a way to increase rates (Bill Horne)
Re: How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 (Bill Horne)
Re: How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 [nfp] (Fred Goldstein)

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.  - William McKinley

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Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 21:59:47 -0400 From: bill@horneQRM.net (Bill Horne) To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Lured by Verizon into giving up cellphone privacy Message-ID: <20141027015947.GA29070@telecom.csail.mit.edu> by David Lazarus Eric Purtell, who has been a Verizon Wireless customer for nearly a decade, had every reason to think the company was rewarding his loyalty. A recent email told Purtell that he'd already accumulated almost 41,000 rewards points simply by using his cellphone. If he signed up for Verizon Smart Rewards, Purtell was informed, he could use those points "to plan the perfect night out" and "save big on restaurants, entertainment and other local deals." http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20141024-column.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) Running to me a-cryin', on your own again. You've got that pure feel, Such good responses, But the picture has a mustache. - Brown/Bruce
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:21:58 -0400 From: "Bob Goudreau" <BobGoudreau@remove-this.nc.rr.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Handful of Virginia police agencies sharing seized phone data Message-ID: <003b01cff16b$42067d70$c6137850$@nc.rr.com> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/handful-of-virginia-police-agenci es-sharing-seized-phone-data/ > > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > As I understand it, the rule is that evidence admitted in any > court is valid in any other. Any lawyers care to comment? I am not a lawyer, but where does the article say anything about evidence being admitted in any court? There are references to court orders allowing metadata to be collected in pursuit of criminal investigations, but nothing about it being admitted into evidence for any trial. The authorities who are collecting the metadata, and the other bodies with which they are sharing that information, are not courts, but law enforcement agencies (i.e., part of the executive branch of the federal or state governments in question). Bob Goudreau Cary, NC
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 21:50:27 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Verizon finds a way to increase rates Message-ID: <20141027015027.GA29046@telecom.csail.mit.edu> by Daniel Kline Verizon has found a subtle way to alter one of its core rate plans which will result in customers paying more. It's a change that new customers may not even notice that's small enough that existing subscribers may ignore it when it comes time to renew their plan. Still, it's yet another example of the old way of doing business in the mobile phone industry which category leaders Verizon and AT&T seem eager to cling to while upstarts T-Mobile and Sprint look to shake things up. http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/10/25/verizon-found-a-sneaky-new-way-to-make-cell-phone.aspx -or- http://goo.gl/v6oISu -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly) Talkin' 'bout a girl that looks quite like you. She didn't have the time to wait in the queue. She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle. - Clapton/Harrison
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 10:10:53 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 Message-ID: <m2ivd6$479$1@dont-email.me> [This message was guest-moderated by Fred Goldstein] On 10/25/2014 2:20 PM, Bill Horne wrote: > How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 > > By Brian Fung > > Who ever thinks that their call to 911 would go unanswered? But in a > terrifying incident this spring, thousands of Americans found > themselves in need of help - and got none. The actual FCC report gives a lot more detail on the outage, and I'm tempted to label this post "Rant" and to go on a mission to point out what I think is a serious lapse in both public oversight and in private ownership of the 911 network and its components. But, I will restrain myself, and say only that there is something fundamentally wrong here. The very notion that "911" could be routed via VoIP is anathema to me; a symptom of a political system so cynical and bankrupt that human lives are just line items in a spreadsheet that represents the calculus of bureaucratic convenience. I suggest that readers go through the FCC report, which is available in several different formats, including plain text. The report is at http://www.fcc.gov/document/april-2014-multistate-911-outage-report -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Sun, 26 Oct 2014 12:33:05 -0400 From: Fred Goldstein <fgoldstein@remove-this.ionary.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 [nfp] Message-ID: <544D2241.4080401@ionary.com> > On 10/25/2014 2:20 PM, Bill Horne wrote: >> How a dumb software glitch kept thousands from reaching 911 >> >> By Brian Fung >> >> Who ever thinks that their call to 911 would go unanswered? But in a >> terrifying incident this spring, thousands of Americans found >> themselves in need of help - and got none. > > The actual FCC report gives a lot more detail on the outage, and I'm > tempted to label this post "Rant" and to go on a mission to point > out what I think is a serious lapse in both public oversight and in > private ownership of the 911 network and its components. > > But, I will restrain myself, and say only that there is something > fundamentally wrong here. The very notion that "911" could be > routed via VoIP is anathema to me; a symptom of a political system > so cynical and bankrupt that human lives are just line items in a > spreadsheet that represents the calculus of bureaucratic > convenience. > > I suggest that readers go through the FCC report, which is available > in several different formats, including plain text. > > The report is at > > http://www.fcc.gov/document/april-2014-multistate-911-outage-report > It's not that 911 can't be routed through "VoIP". E911 is a service, and different technologies can be used to deliver it. But the FCC doesn't know what "VoIP" is, uses the term loosely, and doesn't want to deal with the difficult questions about the nature of the network and the nature of their rules that it raises. The ILECs, especially ATT, use 911 as a competitive weapon, configuring it in such a manner that other carriers need to jump through expensive ATT hoops to meet the requirements. Companies like Intrado perform a useful service by simplifying access. Software bugs happen; E911 systems however should be built to a standard of reliability that we rarely see nowadays. -- Fred R. Goldstein k1io fred "at" interisle.net Interisle Consulting Group +1 617 795 2701

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