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

The Telecom Digest for Mar 24, 2015
Volume 34 : Issue 56 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
911's deadly flaw: Lack of location data (Monty Solomon)
Re: CenturyLink may exclude service to minorities, critics say (Scott Dorsey)

There ought to be limits to freedom.  - George W. Bush

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Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2015 07:53:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: 911's deadly flaw: Lack of location data Message-ID: <FD7E9730-B77B-4882-B0DE-FCD700B68D05@roscom.com> 911's deadly flaw: Lack of location data http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/02/22/cellphone-911-lack-location-data/23570499/ -or- http://goo.gl/jMG0NC ***** Moderator's Note ***** I used to handle E911 in New England, and the issue of cell-phone location data is one of the thorniest and least tractable. Cell phone users aren't really afraid that their movements will be tracked: they're afraid that their boss and/or their spouse will know where they are or have been. Politicians are scared (a lot, in fact) that voters will find out how little time they actually spend legislating and how much they spend glad-handing. Big-data brokers crave information they can sell to all comers. * Their boss will ask why they're at a bar when they're supposed to be visiting clients, or working at "Site A" when they're supposed to have gone on to "Site B" already. Of course, commercial vehicles have had "tattlers" on them for years, but in time honored American fashion, the owners of those vehicles want to externalize the cost onto their employees. * Their spouse will ask why they weren't at work when they said they were working late. Jealous spouses want to know if their mate has a seven-year itch. * The voters might ask just how much productive work we get for our tax dollars when those we elect are mostly at Rotary and Kiwanis meetings, or playing golf with donors, or chatting up union bosses, or jetting off to Cancun for the weekend at the expense of some mega-corp. Politicians want voters to know only what they put in their press releases. * Insurance companies crave location data, since they love "outs". Company executives want to deny claims, and the fact that a "non-smoker" was parked at a tobacco store, or that someone injured on-the-job visited a church when they were supposedly laid up at home, can mean millions on their bottom lines. * Busybodies of all sorts want awkward truths that they can use to shame anyone whom doesn't agree with their view of the world. The E911 dispatchers just want to find out exactly where to send help. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: 22 Mar 2015 09:13:03 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: telecomdigestsubmissions.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: CenturyLink may exclude service to minorities, critics say Message-ID: <memf4v$g7a$1@panix2.panix.com> HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote: > >We must remember a BIG reason we got rid of the old Bell System business model >was to eliminate the cross-subsidization that Bell was doing. Yes, but.... in the end this has resulted in poorer service for many customers and I believe many people are waking up to the fact that this cross-subsidization was a very good thing for the system in general. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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