33 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2015 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Jul 8, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 128 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Robocalls - the next level (HAncock4)
Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children (Monty Solomon)
Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists (Monty Solomon)
Re: Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists (Garrett Wollman)
Mediacom petitions FCC for retrans blackout reform (Neal McLain)
Judge awards $229,500 compensation for robocalls (Bill Horne)
Centurylin to lay off employees in Missouri (Bill Horne)
Frontier discloses transition plan for Verizon holdings (Bill Horne)
Verizon and the NY State PUC (Bill Horne)

The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings.
Theodore Roosevelt

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details.

Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 17:43:01 -0700 (PDT) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Robocalls - the next level Message-ID: <4b7339ef-0469-47fd-9593-3e76020c135e@googlegroups.com> On Saturday, July 4, 2015 at 4:15:25 PM UTC-4, Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote: > I repeat: the telephone as we grew up with and knew it has lost its > utility. We can't win the arms race. Therefore, it's time to > acknowledge that, perhaps mourn it, but regardless move on to other, > different forms of personal communication. Moving on to other forms of communication is not a solitary decision. Everyone you deal with must be willing to move on as well, and in the real world, we often don't have a choice. As mentioned, when there is an illness in the household, there are frequent calls from various health care providers (e.g. doctors, nurses, labs, pharmacy, hospital, health insurance, etc). These must be answered, otherwise, important information may be significantly delayed or lost. (One might argue to get different health care providers, but often we don't have a choice about that.)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 08:38:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children Message-ID: <0B564D35-40A5-4575-9B9D-F0B37E486193@roscom.com> Screen Addiction Is Taking a Toll on Children American youths are plugged in and tuned out of the real world for many more hours of the day than experts consider healthy for normal development. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/screen-addiction-is-taking-a-toll-on-children/
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 08:37:14 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists Message-ID: <07ED69FC-D163-4389-9523-74A77B224BDC@roscom.com> Hotel guests, used to receiving free Wi-Fi nearly everywhere, are becoming less willing to pay the fees high-end flagship hotels charge for the service. http://goo.gl/02eIR5
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 17:24:34 +0000 (UTC) From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman) To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Free Hotel Wi-Fi is increasingly on Travelers' Must-Have Lists Message-ID: <mnh20i$13cj$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu> In article <07ED69FC-D163-4389-9523-74A77B224BDC@roscom.com>, Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> wrote: >Hotel guests, used to receiving free Wi-Fi nearly everywhere, are >becoming less willing to pay the fees high-end flagship hotels charge >for the service. Good. It always pissed me off that when I travel for personal reasons, and stay at budget hotels, I get "free" network included with the $90 room rate, whereas when I travel for business and stay at a Marriott or a Sheraton, they ding me for $15 a day on top of the already outrageous room rates. At least USENIX is now including wireless in their hotel contracts for conferences. So long as I stay at the overpriced conference hotel, anyway.... -GAWollman ***** Moderator's Note ***** Well, it does cost something to provide the service, and whatever a hotel charges for it, the cost pales in comparison to the value of your time. Maybe we all need to ask how we got the idea that only those whom are glued to a computer are productive? Bill Horne Moderator --
Garrett A. Wollman
wollman@bimajority.org
Opinions not shared by
my employers.
What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
repeated, than the story of a large research program
that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 12:48:47 -0700 (PDT) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Mediacom petitions FCC for retrans blackout reform Message-ID: <10a6b73e-a4f1-4ace-8513-478850720886@googlegroups.com> By Ben Munson, Editor, CED, 07/07/2015 Mediacom CEO Rocco Commisso wants the FCC to do something about rising retransmission fees and the blackouts local broadcasters use to keep the costs going up. In a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Commisso lamented the Commission's inaction as retransmission fees inflate, including another $3 billion per year increase during Wheeler's tenure as chairman. "PayTV costs are significantly higher in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world largely because the average monthly wholesale programming costs paid by most MVPDs have grown to over $45 per subscriber. To put these wholesale programming costs in their proper perspective, $45 is roughly the monthly retail price ISPs charge for their flagship broadband product," Commisso wrote. http://www.cedmagazine.com/news/2015/07/mediacom-petitions-fcc-for-retrans-blackout-reform?et_cid=4662985&et_rid=652835436&type=cta -or- http://tinyurl.com/odkm7vc Assuming of course that the FCC has legal authority to do anything about retrans fees. As the FCC notes in its webpage "Cable Carriage of Broadcast Stations": Q: What can the FCC do if a broadcaster and a cable operator fail to reach a retransmission consent agreement? A: Generally, the FCC is not authorized to participate in discussions between television stations and cable systems regarding retransmission consent agreements. https://www.fcc.gov/guides/cable-carriage-broadcast-stations Only Congress can do anything about retrans fees. Congress doesn't appear interested. Neal McLain
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 21:55:36 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Judge awards $229,500 compensation for robocalls Message-ID: <mnhvs3$uhd$1@dont-email.me> Judge awards nearly $230,000 to woman who got 153 robocalls By LARRY NEUMEISTER NEW YORK (AP) - It wasn't a robocall, but a federal judge left a message anyway for companies Tuesday when he awarded nearly $230,000 to a Texas woman, finding that a cable company crossed the line when it harassed her with 153 robocalls even after she complained about the wrong numbers. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan ordered Time Warner Cable Inc. to make the $229,500 payment to Araceli King of Irving, Texas, citing the New York-based company's "particularly egregious" behavior as it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. http://goo.gl/qwIu0D -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2015 22:49:32 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Centurylin to lay off employees in Missouri Message-ID: <mni318$evc$1@dont-email.me> Forty CenturyLink employees found out Friday that the company is closing its regional dispatch operation in downtown Columbia (Missouri). The elimination of the center means 40 union employees at the 625 Cherry St. location, who dispatch technicians in 11 states, will lose their jobs Jan. 15. About 150 employees will remain at the Cherry Street office doing other jobs. The rest of CenturyLink's Columbia employees report to a location on LeMone Industrial Boulevard. http://goo.gl/eber7I -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 23:24:18 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Frontier discloses transition plan for Verizon holdings Message-ID: <20150708032418.GA7477@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Frontier enacts two-part OSS, customer transition plan for Verizon wireline acquisition by Sean Buckley Frontier told the FCC in a filing that it has devised a cutover strategy with Verizon for its purchase of the ILEC's wireline properties in California, Florida and Texas, one that it says will ensure there will be no service disruptions to its retail and wholesale customers. The cutover plan consists of two elements: functional cutover plans and a deliverable schedule for both Verizon and Frontier. http://goo.gl/i58Vdn -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2015 23:19:29 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Verizon and the NY State PUC Message-ID: <20150708031929.GA7452@telecom.csail.mit.edu> by Bruce Kushnik Verizon and the NY State Public Service ('Captured') Commission "Regulatory Capture" is when an industry takes over the regulatory agency that is supposed to be doing oversight of the companies' business practices and is supposed to be protecting the Public Interest. The newly released report by the NY State Public Service Commission (NYPSC) "Staff Assessment of Telecommunications Services", (June, 2015) is a model of how a corrupted government agency helped Verizon (and Time Warner) get continuous rate increases, allows for egregious communications bills and deceptive marketing to be 'business as usual', covers over Verizon's failure to deliver on the commitment for 'massive deployment of fiber optics' (but charged customers over $750.00 and counting) and then claims that competition truly exists. And to top it off, the State report claims that there has not been any major telecommunications proceedings for over a decade! (NOTE: There appears to be another name used, "The Department of Public Service", for the report.) http://goo.gl/Jxkubp -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

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