From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jan 1 17:06:58 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j01M6wT25549; Sat, 1 Jan 2005 17:06:58 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 17:06:58 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501012206.j01M6wT25549@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #1 TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 Jan 2005 17:06:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 1 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Joseph) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Tony P.) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Geoffrey Welsh) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (HorneTD) Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (Isaiah Beard) Re: VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine (Clark W. Griswold) Re: Apple iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players (borisep90@hotmail) Re: That's All Folks (Anthony Bellanga) Western Electric: What is This Device? (David B. Horvath, CCP) Vonage Outage (lost message report) (TELECOM Digest Editor) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joseph Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 16:47:09 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:00:17 -0800, Tim@Backhome.org wrote: > One good piece of advice they do give is that none of the wireless > carriers give a squat about their customers. This just is not true. If I've had problems and I occasionally do I'll get in touch with the corporate office and so far they've been able to fix any problems I've had at a 100% rate. It may take getting someone higher up than the person who answers your customer care concerns at 611 but it can be done. > The fact that service contracts are not pro-rated, at least in the > latter stages, is one good example. And how many contractual obligations do you know of that permit you to reneg on terms that you agreed to? Buy a leather couch from Macy's on terms and then decide 90% of the way through that you don't want to pay any longer and see what their reaction would be! If you don't want to be obligated to contractual terms then don't sign a contract. It's that simple. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:00:39 -0500 In article , falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk says: > At 01:22 AM 12/31/04, Joseph > responded to Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers: >> On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 07:09:56 -0500, LB@notmine.com wrote: >>> The new Consumer Reports magazine has a large story on cell phone >>> providers and cell phones. You can get better info in this group, but >>> the mag has lots of info. Will be very handy for those times when a >>> "friend" is looking for info. I think the mag should be on newsstands >>> now. >> Take what Consumer Reports magazine has to say about cell phones with >> a grain of salt. In past "cellular" issues they poo-pooh'd some >> carriers basically T-Mobile (then VoiceStream) because they didn't >> have fallback to older first generation analog technology. Guess >> what?! Lots of phones now being offered by *all* the carriers and >> don't have analog. They out and out refused to even look at >> VoiceStream/T-Mobile because they are luddites and couldn't see what >> was coming down the pike. If you want good recommendations or >> information about cellular service look at what they have to say, but >> take it with a grain of salt. They do much better testing washing >> machines, riding lawn mowers or crash worthiness of automobiles. > Depends on what you want to use the phone for and where. Coverage of > T-Mobile is still a bit spotty, even on interstates. But digital > coverage has improved for all networks. For emergency calls you best > carry an inactivated bag phone in the trunk (I still do), which will > let you call 911 almost anywhere. T-Mobile throughout the northeast is rock solid as that's where they put all their towers is along interstates and state highways. It is after all the Omnipoint network. ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 18:21:29 -0000 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray Marcus Didius Falco wrote: "There's also the issue of how much roaming the carrier will permit. In England, using Virgin, I had trouble in Port Isaac, but friends using Orange had no trouble at all." Works differently here in the UK. Each of the four GSM licensees (O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone) has a national, UK-wide, licence, with obligations to provide coverage to virtually all the population (98% or thereabouts) as a condition of the licence. If you're an Orange UK customer, in the UK your phone just works on the Orange network, and won't roam to any of the other three, except only for emergency calls using the 999 or 112 codes (similar to North America's 911). Outside the UK your phone will roam onto whichever network is strongest when you switch it on at the airport, and normally stay there unless you lose signal and then your phone scans for another. That means operators are very keen to build base stations covering airports, as they can win the business from international tourists and businesspeople: airport operators extract an appropriate amount of revenue, I think. It also means that an Orange UK phone won't necessarily roam to Orange France, though phones sold by Orange, Vodafone etc are usually programmed with a preference list of international operators. Virgin Mobile UK, as in the US, is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO): here it uses T-Mobile infrastructure, so will only use T-Mobile base stations in the UK, but will select whatever's available outside the UK. Virgin in the US uses Sprint, and in Australia it's Optus I think. So in Port Isaac, Orange clearly has a well sited base station; T-Mobile does not. Incidentally, that's not untypical of T-Mobile: we're a BT Mobile customer, also an MVNO using T-Mobile infrastructure, and coverage inside my home is poor. We also have a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go phone for the children, but that doesn't help any as it's on the same network. However BT is planning to port its service to Vodafone later this year: I will look forward to that. Alan Burkitt-Gray alan@burkitt-gray.com mobile 079 6202 1330 international +44 79 6202 1330 ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 12:30:44 -0500 Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > The real question is whether there are two plates colliding under the > Atlantic: if there aren't, then major Tsunamis are unlikely. In fact, there are two plates _diverging_ right down the center of the north Atlantic; Iceland, which you mentioned, is the result of the constant flow of lava out of the 'mid-Atlantic rift'. However, since the plates are moving apart, the seismic activity is constant and fairly smooth, so pressure doesn't build up to earthquakes. Geoffrey Welsh [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What what about the 'more traditional and conventional place' for earthquakes in the USA, in California? A seismologist on television last Monday (just after the disturbance in Asia) suggested such a thing was 'much more likely' along the southern California coastline; not that it was predicted or expected, just that there was 'no reason it could not happen', given the way the earth is always rumbling around out there. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 18:28:03 -0000 Organization: Alan Burkitt-Gray Marcus Didius Falco wrote: "At a guess, a 20 foot wave would sweep most coastal cities in the eastern US. Luckily, most of the Atlantic is not seismically active." Yes, but it's not just earthquakes you have to worry about. There is a large chunk of land on Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, in mid-Atlantic, which is liable to plunge into the Atlantic if the volcano on the island erupts. "Scientists have estimated that the wave from the collapse of Las Palmas will be over 650 metres high and its 'crest' will stretch from 30 to 40 kilometres from front to rear, or more. The huge wall of water will annihilate every single coastline city on the Eastern Shore of the United States and could cause similar destruction for up to 20 miles or more inland. The Bahamas will be devastated and Florida could be submerged." - from http://www.newsmedianews.com/tsunami.htm Sorry to be gloomy. Alan Burkitt-Gray alan@burkitt-gray.com mobile 079 6202 1330 international +44 79 6202 1330 ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:00:49 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Although there are known dead spots close to the White House and CIA > headquarters in Langley where wireless signals are blocked for > security reasons Now that's interesting. First time I've seen a public reference to the US Government intentially blocking/jamming a licensed communications service within the US. Would be interesting to see the procedure they used to get that approved, since it directly violates US law. ------------------------------ From: HorneTD Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 14:30:36 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Take a look down near the bottom on Cingular's giving special access codes > for big-wigs. > http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=3Dstory&cid=3D1804&u=3D/washpost/20041229/tc > _washpost/a32469_2004dec28&printer=3D1=20 > By Yuki Noguchi, Washington Post Staff Writer > Preparing wireless networks for an event like next month's > presidential inauguration has become as critical as erecting the > barricades and ordering the party platters. > Several hundred thousand VIPs, protesters, police officers and > onlookers are expected to make cellular calls on Jan. 20 from along > the parade route, convention halls and hotel lobbies in and around the > District. They'll also be sending pictures, messages and e-mail -- all > of which create a heavy volume of wireless traffic that eats up > network capacity. > To make sure everyone gets a share of the wireless signal, cell phone > companies -- like seasoned caterers -- must estimate attendance and > make sure there's enough to go around. When necessary, they're > ordering backup. > For Greg Meacham of Nextel Communications Inc., preparations for such > events begin at least six months beforehand, when the U.S. Secret > Service calls to tell him about a pending "national security special > event." Over the past year in various cities, those included the two > major national political conventions and the Group of Eight summit in > June. > "First, we evaluate the area for network coverage" and bolster the > network in high-traffic zones, said Meacham, vice president of federal > programs and homeland security for the Reston company. > For the inaugural events, Nextel will install temporary or permanent > equipment to boost coverage in such buildings as the MCI Center, Union > Station, the Convention Center and a number of big hotels to make sure > that subscribers will be able to complete calls or send their wireless > e-mails, he said. In case it needs emergency backup, Nextel also will > have three trucks with satellite-based temporary cell towers mounted > on them on standby in Dulles, he said. > Washington often hosts events that draw big crowds, so companies say > they've already built networks to handle spikes in traffic. > The Fourth of July typically draws 300,000 people to the National > Mall, according to Verizon Wireless's estimates. The dedication of the > National World War II Memorial in May drew about 250,000. And then > there are protest marches, the cherry blossoms and major traffic > accidents, all of which tend to dramatically increase calling. > The predictability of such events as the inauguration makes them > easier to plan for, said Tim Dykstra, Verizon Wireless's director of > system performance for the Washington-Baltimore area. Verizon Wireless > keeps usage logs of past events such as former president Ronald Reagan > (news - web sites)'s funeral, then it makes adjustments after each big > event, so it already has enough capacity to handle most events, he > said. > Cingular Wireless LLC, which recently acquired AT&T Wireless Services > Inc., should be in good shape for the inauguration because it now has > double its previous network capacity and plenty of room for spillover > traffic, said Frank T. Iovino, the company's vice president and > general manager for the Washington-Baltimore area. > "They've got Washington pretty well covered," Frank Dzubeck, president > of Washington-based telecom consultancy Communications Network > Architects Inc., said of the cellular phone companies. Although there > are known dead spots close to the White House and CIA (news - web > sites) headquarters in Langley where wireless signals are blocked for > security reasons, he said, most callers even in the busiest areas > shouldn't have problems. > Dzubeck added that pressure on cellular systems in downtown Washington > should be eased because Inauguration Day will be a holiday for federal > workers. > In case of unexpected problems or emergencies, Cingular said it offers > some politicians and emergency workers wireless priority access -- > they can dial secret codes that ensure their calls get priority even > when a network is jammed. > Nextel, which has a big customer base among police and emergency > workers, anticipates a quadrupling of traffic from such workers during > the inauguration, Meacham said. To support them, Nextel will also keep > some workers at the multi-agency police command center to coordinate > public safety communications in case of an emergency. > Often what happens at the command center is more mundane, he said: > Public safety personnel need help figuring out how to use their > BlackBerry devices, or they want extra phone batteries. > Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report. > Copyright 2004 The Washington Post Company. > Copyright 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. > NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily > media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at > http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. > *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the > use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright > owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without > profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in > receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the > understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic > issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I > believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material > as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish > to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go > beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright > owner, in this instance Washington Post Company and Yahoo News. > For more information go to: > http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml The big wigs you refer to include command officers of the emergency services. Whenever an emergency occurs the press types will dial up their office as soon as they can and just keep the line open. This ties up the cell tower capacity available. By using the government access codes the incident command post can preempt one or more of the circuits for use in mitigating the incident. I realize that such a service can be abused but I see it as essential for public officials to be able to get through. On one incident I pulled a genuine carbon arc light bulb out of it's storage place on the mobile CP unit, broadcast the warning for communications disruption, and turned it on. As expected it knocked all the press types off line and enabled us to get the circuits we needed without paying the very stiff fees that the cellular providers levy for using the emergency preemption codes. Tom H ------------------------------ From: Isaiah Beard Subject: Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:41:35 -0500 Joseph wrote: > Pull out antenna is more of a requirement with CDMA phones rather than > just "preference." It's not about whether it's a CDMA phone, it's about what frequencies the phone is designed for. If it's a 1900Mhz phone, then a stub antenna actually might be all you need. If it's a dual band, then often times the antenna is designed to favor 800Mhz, and a pull out is more desirable. Steven Fleckenstein wrote: > In article , pfschoeng@yahoo.com > says: > I have an old Qualcom QCP-820 on VZW. It is kind of bulky by todays > standards, doesn;t have any of the frills, but when my wife compares > it to her 4 month old Kyocera or my daughter uses it instead of her > Motorola V60s they can't believe how much better the audio sounds to > them compared to their units. It does the basics well and with a pull > out antenna picks up the signal where others with stubs don't. Actually, with the QCP-820, the difference isn't the antenna, it's the codec being used. The 820 uses a 13kbps QCELP vocoder to encode and decode speech. Current model phones, on the other hand, use an 8kbps EVRC codec. Technical talk aside: the basics are that modern cell phones are designed to squeeze speech into a smaller space, and to make do with less bandwidth. The result is that your voice doesn't sound as great coming out the other end, and likewise the people talking to you don't sound so hot either. Older phones require and make use of of higher bitrates, and the result is a sound that is far better than any modern cell phone can produce. E-mail fudged to thwart spammers. Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:04:50 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Jack Decker wrote: > VoicePulse's ease of installation, sound quality and free features > pushed the service provider to the top against competing services > including Vonage and AT&T's CallVantage. According to Craig Ellison, > PC Magazine's New Product Test Director, "VoicePulse does try to > differentiate itself from the other players in the field, specifically > with the amount of features offered in its plans." I would certainly agree. Of all the VOIP providers I tried, Voicepulse had the best sound quality and most useful features. Now, if they would just offer local numbers in my area ... ------------------------------ From: borisep90@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players Date: 31 Dec 2004 16:45:33 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hey- Check out this great site that is giving away totally FREE iPods! I've joined and I think you should as well. It's a completely legitimate offer, and this company has already given away $4 million in FREE stuff! All you have to do is join, complete an online offer, and refer friends to do the same. That's it! Here is my referral link. To help me get my iPod, click this exact link to join, or copy and paste it into a browser: http://www.freeiPods.com/?r=12703712 Monty Solomon wrote: > Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players > By WALTER S. MOSSBERG > Apple Computer's iPod portable digital music player has become the > gold standard for digital music fans. No other player has been able > to match its combination of elegant design, small size and high > capacity. > But other companies are feverishly working on iPod clones. So, in an > effort to stay ahead, Apple this week released a totally redesigned > version of the iPod, which is even thinner and lighter than the > original version, yet packs in more songs. There are also many other > new features, including a new desktop dock to hold the iPod. > Like the prior models, these new iPods will work on Windows PCs in > addition to Apple's own Macintosh computers. But now, they are > compatible with many more Windows computers than the old iPods. > The new iPods also work closely and well with Apple's new online > music store, the first really good legal music downloading service. > (See my review of the service.) > They play the new music-file format Apple uses at its store, but can > still handle regular MP3 files from any source. > I've been testing the new iPod for several days, using a wide variety > of music from different sources. I find it to be even better designed > and easier to use than the original model. I can still recommend it > highly, as I did the first version. > http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20030501.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 19:17:17 -0700 From: Anthony Bellanga Subject: Re: That's All Folks To try to reduce spam, do NOT display my email address, in either the "from" line nor in the "reply to" line. Pat closed out 2004 with: > Borowing a line from the old Looney Tunes cartoons of Warner > Brothers, and sounding like a stuttering rabbit, who pops his > head out of the curtain at the end of the show, I bring to an > end the messages in Volume 23, for year 2004 of this Digest. Pat, it was not Bugs Bunny who closed out the Looney Tunes series of WB cartoons, but rather Porky Pig, who first pops out of a "toy drum", and stutters while making a slow wave of his hand, and finally saying ... "That's All Folks!". By the way, Mary Tyler Moore once closed out an episode of her 1970s show with this same line! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:23:17 -0500 From: David B. Horvath, CCP Subject: Western Electric: What is This Device? My brother moved into a new house and I was helping him with some wiring and plumbing. Attached to one wall was a Western Electric device that was really weird. It consisted of a square box with an old style house fuse (round, with the box marked 0.3 AMP) that had a regular AC plug on one side and an electric motor on the other. The motor is marked: Made for Western Electric Holtzer - Cabot Division of First Industrial Corporation BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS - U.S.A TYPE RWC SIZE 3712 HP VOLTS 105/125 AMPS .23 CYCLES 60 PHASE 1 RPM 3530 KS 5472O1 L 13 NO. 1673967 The motor drives a box marked: MAGNETIC GENERATOR MADE FOR Western Electric Co. BY HOLTZER-CABOT DIVISION OF FIRST INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION BOSTON * U.S.A. * CHICAGO TYPE- H.F. 1 VOLTS - 13.8-18.6 M.A. 23-31 CYCLES 1000 The output of the generator is connected to a series of resisters and some components on the back that I can't figure out. The wiring all ends up at a connector block of sorts. The backer is plain grey metal marked: SDG J94002A-6 The power plug was not in nor were any other wires connected to the unit. So I have no way of knowing how this unit was used. I did not see any obvious dates. Can anyone help? - David [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think it is a power supply/ringing generator unit. Its purpose is to make the little bulbs flash in one of the older style 6-button, 5-line with hold button phones. When ringing voltage comes on the line, a relay is tripped which sets that box off doing its thing with a reduced voltage, among other things. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 15:55:08 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Vonage Outage Reports Lost item report: This item was sent into the Digest Saturday morning, but it got mangled in processing. The person who wrote said he had recently experienced a Vonage outage, and he wrote about that and some other details he wanted. Perhaps he will write us again and restate his questions/comments. Sorry about the lost message, but that's what happens when you have an imbicile in charge of the editing, using 1980's software with 2005 levels of spam flowing in. The Village Idiot ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #1 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jan 2 00:24:57 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j025Oug28328; Sun, 2 Jan 2005 00:24:57 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 00:24:57 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501020524.j025Oug28328@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #2 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Jan 2005 00:24:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 2 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Voice (Rudy Valencia) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (John Levine) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (David Clayton) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Provider (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Ted Klugman) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Jeffrey Mattox) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Dave VanHorn) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players (Joseph) Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? (Joseph) Re: VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine (Sara Garland) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rudy Valencia Subject: AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Person? Date: 1 Jan 2005 20:59:34 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I am wanting to know if this AT&T voice is real or synthesized, please listen and respond. http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/attflood.ram http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/atthur.ram (Both recordings feature the same voice, but two different phrases) Thank you, Rudy Valencia (rudyvalencia@gmail.com) ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jan 2005 22:23:34 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> The fact that service contracts are not pro-rated, at least in the >> latter stages, is one good example. Except that's not true, either. My Cingular contract has a $240 fee prorated over the 24 months of the contract. If I were to cancel six months from the end, I'd owe them $60. ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 13:13:31 +1100 Alan Burkitt-Gray contributed the following: ... > Virgin in the US uses Sprint, and in Australia it's > Optus I think. ... Correct, in Australia Virgin Mobile uses the Optus (now owned by Singtel) infrastructure. Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:09:32 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Provider Tony P. wrote about Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers on Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:00:39: > In article , > falco_marcus_didius@yahoo.co.uk says: >> Depends on what you want to use the phone for and where. Coverage of >> T-Mobile is still a bit spotty, even on interstates. But digital >> coverage has improved for all networks. For emergency calls you best >> carry an inactivated bag phone in the trunk (I still do), which will >> let you call 911 almost anywhere. > T-Mobile throughout the northeast is rock solid as that's where they > put all their towers is along interstates and state highways. > It is after all the Omnipoint network. Try I-68 west of Cumberland MD. That's an improvement. It used to die just after Hancock (that's where I-70 turns north to join the Penna turnpike and the continuation to Wheeling WV is called I-68 [ex-US 40]). Also on the route from Washington to the Delaware beaches, though it's OK to Ocean City. Of course, coming down from Canada through the northeast kingdom of Vermont, even though we were on interstates, we got the occasional weak signal but nothing worked. Given the car problems we were having, it's a good thing the Iridium was in the trunk! I've got T-mobile for my wife because I needed an international cell phone (we swap when I have to travel). But I got Verizon with analog for my daughter. The difference is that when my wife goes to rural areas I'm usually with her. No such luck with the daughter. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:25:33 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote about Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth on Fri, 31 Dec 2004 17:00:49: > Marcus Didius Falco wrote: >> Although there are known dead spots close to the White House and CIA >> headquarters in Langley where wireless signals are blocked for >> security reasons > Now that's interesting. First time I've seen a public reference to the > US Government intentially blocking/jamming a licensed communications > service within the US. Would be interesting to see the procedure they > used to get that approved, since it directly violates US law. Secret exemption from the rules provided by the FCC? Anyhow, the FCC does not control US government use of the spectrum: that's controlled by the Department of Commerce. ------------------------------ From: Ted Klugman Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 22:11:31 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 02:41:08 -0500, Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Take a look down near the bottom on Cingular's giving special access codes > for big-wigs. > In case of unexpected problems or emergencies, Cingular said it offers > some politicians and emergency workers wireless priority access -- > they can dial secret codes that ensure their calls get priority even > when a network is jammed. Sounds a lot like GETS -- http://gets.ncs.gov/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 19:58:08 -0600 From: Jeffrey Mattox Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! [Please withhold my email address for spam avoidance.] > Luckily, most of the Atlantic is not seismically active. You don't need an earthquake to wipe out the Eastern US. Here are more details about the coming mega-tsunami that was posted as a followup to the original article. "Likely death toll, if there is no mass evacuation beforehand? A hundred million people, give or take fifty million." The Coming Atlantic Mega-Tsunami Unstoppable Gee-Gees http://tinyurl.com/44e29 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 21:21:14 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Alan Burkitt-Gray wrote on Sat, 1 Jan 2005 18:28:03: > Marcus Didius Falco wrote: "At a > guess, a 20 foot wave would sweep most coastal cities in the eastern > US. Luckily, most of the Atlantic is not seismically active." > Yes, but it's not just earthquakes you have to worry about. There is a > large chunk of land on Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, in > mid-Atlantic, which is liable to plunge into the Atlantic if the > volcano on the island erupts. > "Scientists have estimated that the wave from the collapse of Las > Palmas will be over 650 metres high and its 'crest' will stretch from > 30 to 40 kilometres from front to rear, or more. The huge wall of > water will annihilate every single coastline city on the Eastern Shore > of the United States and could cause similar destruction for up to 20 > miles or more inland. The Bahamas will be devastated and Florida could > be submerged." - from http://www.newsmedianews.com/tsunami.htm > Sorry to be gloomy. I'd like to see some careful modelling. Waves break when they hit "shallow" water, shallow being a function of the height of the wave. Thus, the Grand Banks, Georges Bank, and so forth, which are only about 120 feet deep, would likely cause the wave to break for the first time miles offshore. The barrier islands that characterize the east coast (Hatteras, the Delmarva peninsula, etc) would break the wave a second time. Thus, it's quite possible that Cape Cod would be swept but Boston survive. Similarly, Brooklyn and Sandy Hook NJ might be swept, but Manhattan survive. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dave VanHorn From: Dave VanHorn Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 23:16:22 -0500 The big island of Hawaii is splitting in two as well. Every year, the rift valley gets wider. The estimates I've seen are that noting but bare rock will be left in the islands when it happens, and similar effects on the Pacific rim. I'm not far from the New Madrid fault either. :) ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 19:57:32 EST Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! In a message dated Sat, 01 Jan 2005 12:30:44 -0500, Geoffrey Welsh < writes: > In fact, there are two plates _diverging_ right down the center of the > north Atlantic; Iceland, which you mentioned, is the result of the > constant flow of lava out of the 'mid-Atlantic rift'. However, since > the plates are moving apart, the seismic activity is constant and > fairly smooth, so pressure doesn't build up to earthquakes. > Geoffrey Welsh > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What what about the 'more traditional > and conventional place' for earthquakes in the USA, in California? > A seismologist on television last Monday (just after the disturbance > in Asia) suggested such a thing was 'much more likely' along the > southern California coastline; not that it was predicted or expected, > just that there was 'no reason it could not happen', given the way the > earth is always rumbling around out there. PAT] That's why there is a warning system along the Pacific Coast (continguous U.S.A. west coast, west coast of Canada, Alaska and Hawaii). Tsunamis have occured in Hawaii and Alaska. Isn't the San Andreas fault the boundary of two plates slipping past each other from time to time? There is no similar likely source of tsunamis in the Atlantic. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:05:17 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 31 Dec 2004 16:45:33 -0800, borisep90@hotmail.com wrote: > Hey- > Check out this great site that is giving away totally FREE iPods! Is Pat asleep? Why did this crap get into the digest? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There had been an article by Monty Solomon about Apple iPod and it was intended as a followup to that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Which is the Best Cellphone You Ever Used? Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:18:14 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:41:35 -0500, Isaiah Beard wrote: >> Pull out antenna is more of a requirement with CDMA phones rather than >> just "preference." > It's not about whether it's a CDMA phone, it's about what frequencies > the phone is designed for. > If it's a 1900Mhz phone, then a stub antenna actually might be all you > need. If it's a dual band, then often times the antenna is designed > to favor 800Mhz, and a pull out is more desirable. Well, real world conditions say otherwise. There are no commonly available handsets for either TDMA (IS-136) or GSM that have pull out antennas and they either have stub antennas or internal antennas. TDMA and GSM handsets both use cellular 800 Mhz and PCS 1900 Mhz and they work fine. Similar models from the same manufacturer that are meant for CDMA will have pull out antennas where the GSM and TDMA equivalent handsets do not. The handset manufacturers know what works with their handsets and design antennas accordingly. Believe it or not the reason for the development of internal antennas for mobile phones was not just an aesthetic one. The most common complaint handset manufacturers get is that the antennas break off too easily. A properly designed internal antenna will give equal or better performance to a stub antenna. Internal antennas are hardly ever used for CDMA handsets. Such is not the case with TDMA and GSM. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: VoicePulse Named Best of the Year by PC Magazine From: no_email_address@hotmail.com (Sara Garland) Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 01:30:03 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Jack Decker wrote: > VoicePulse Inc. announced it > has been named Best of the Year by PC Magazine > "PC Magazine's review and testing process is the most rigorous I've > seen so far," says Ravi Sakaria, President and CEO of VoicePulse, Did anyone expect him to say any different? Can't the press releases just be posted to the still-active comp.dcom.voice-over-ip group? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #2 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jan 2 20:33:04 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j031X4F06006; Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:33:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:33:04 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501030133.j031X4F06006@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #3 TELECOM Digest Sun, 2 Jan 2005 20:33:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 3 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Provider (John Levine) Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers (Stanley Cline) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Stanley Cline) Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players (Gary Novosielski) Re: AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Person? (Diamond Dave) Long Distance From Next Door (Fred Atkinson) Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? (John McHarry) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Lisa Hancock) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Geoffrey Welsh) Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! (Herb Stein) Re: VoIP Problem: No Incoming Calls! (Rick Merrill) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 2 Jan 2005 06:29:31 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Provider Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Of course, coming down from Canada through the northeast kingdom of > Vermont, even though we were on interstates, we got the occasional > weak signal but nothing worked. Given the car problems we were > having, it's a good thing the Iridium was in the trunk! It's true, there's no 1900 MHz service at all in northeastern Vermont other than what leaks from Canada, so you're out of luck with GSM. The Wireless Travel Guide doesn't show any GSM north of Wells River. On the other hand, Rural Cellular has 800 MHz TDMA and Verizon has 800 MHz CDMA that work OK, particularly if you stop at the top of a hill. I'm not giving up my Cingular AMPS/TDMA/GSM phone any time soon. ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Consumer Reports Story on Cell Phone Providers Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 01:44:34 -0500 Organization: Roamer1 Communications Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On 1 Jan 2005 22:23:34 -0000, John Levine wrote: > Except that's not true, either. My Cingular contract has a $240 fee > prorated over the 24 months of the contract. If I were to cancel > six months from the end, I'd owe them $60. Cingular has the same policy here in Atlanta. AFAIK, Cingular a) is the only carrier of any significance that does this and b) doesn't do it in all markets. Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org "it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 02:07:37 -0500, Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Orange had no trouble at all. In Washington, if you're not on Verizon, > when you're in the Metro you're roaming. Sprint is the only other CDMA It's the total reverse here in Atlanta -- on the main underground part of the MARTA rail system, there is T-Mobile GSM and Cingular AMPS and TDMA (but no GSM -- AIUI, MARTA has a moratorium on installation of wireless gear in the stations, a direct result of Nextel interfering with public safety radio, that has prevented Cingular from upgrading their old sites to GSM), but no CDMA service and (needless to say) no iDEN service. Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org "it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 01:47:30 -0500 Organization: Roamer1 Communications Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On Sat, 01 Jan 2005 22:11:31 -0500, Ted Klugman wrote: > Sounds a lot like GETS -- http://gets.ncs.gov/ The Wireless Priority service is run by the same people as GETS ... http://wps.ncs.gov/ Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org "it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 09:27:52 GMT Joseph wrote: > Is Pat asleep? Why did this crap get into the digest? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There had been an article by Monty > Solomon about Apple iPod and it was intended as a followup to > that. PAT] Except it wasn't a follow up, it was spam for one of those ponzi prize scheme web sites, and not the first time, either. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I generally do not have the time nor resources to investigate every web site which is presented here. *If* an article comes in with a 'Re: recent previous subject' title which was presented here within a day or two prior, I generally accept the article for publication. If the same article had shown up without the 'Re: previously published article' it would have been scrutinized more closely as I always do. This is not 1980 or 1985, the volume of mail -- and spam blended with legitimate mail -- is horrendous. So now and then I miss one, sorry. What, Mr. Novosielski, would you have me to do? Read and personally investigate every followup message? After Joseph first wrote with his complaint, I did go back and review the message, I doubt I would run it again, as it was, IMO very marginal at best. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Person? Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 08:57:08 -0500 On 1 Jan 2005 20:59:34 -0800, Rudy Valencia wrote: > Hi, > I am wanting to know if this AT&T voice is real or synthesized, please > listen and respond. > http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/attflood.ram > http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/atthur.ram > (Both recordings feature the same voice, but two different phrases) Considering I operate the website where you found these, I feel that I should respond. As far as I know, all AT&T recordings are real people and are not synthesized. In times past, most of these were recorded by the late Jane Barbe or Pat Trumbull (Trumble?), now recently remarried and goes by the name Pat Fleet. However, I don't know the name of the person who made those recordings, nor most of the ones you find on the AT&T network these days. In addition, recordings from the older 4ESS tandems are stored in analog, while I think that the more modern 4ESS tandems have their recordings in digital format. Hope this helps. Dave Perrusel Webmaster - Telephone World http://www.dmine.com/phworld ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Long Distance From Next Door Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:19:01 -0500 My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have an exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to the Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 exchange. I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why this retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the Columbia calling area. Have been punching around the Internet trying to find out where this number is housed. So far, no luck. Anybody got any ideas on this weird arrangement? My father used to call my Vonage phone from Chapin on his old Bellsouth line. My phone is also on Vonage's 233 exchange. He did not have to dial long distance to do it. Regards, Fred ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 17:20:11 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 21:23:17 -0500, David B. Horvath, CCP wrote: > My brother moved into a new house and I was helping him with some > wiring and plumbing. Attached to one wall was a Western Electric > device that was really weird. It consisted of a square box with an > old style house fuse (round, with the box marked 0.3 AMP) that had a > regular AC plug on one side and an electric motor on the other. > The motor is marked: > Made for Western Electric > Holtzer - Cabot > Division of First Industrial Corporation > BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS - U.S.A > TYPE RWC SIZE 3712 HP > VOLTS 105/125 AMPS .23 > CYCLES 60 PHASE 1 RPM 3530 > KS 5472O1 L 13 NO. 1673967 > The motor drives a box marked: > MAGNETIC > GENERATOR > MADE FOR > Western Electric Co. > BY > HOLTZER-CABOT > DIVISION OF FIRST > INDUSTRIAL CORPORATION > BOSTON * U.S.A. * CHICAGO > TYPE- H.F. 1 > VOLTS - 13.8-18.6 > M.A. 23-31 > CYCLES 1000 > The output of the generator is connected to a series of resisters and some connector block of sorts. > The backer is plain grey metal marked: > SDG > J94002A-6 > The power plug was not in nor were any other wires connected to the > unit. So I have no way of knowing how this unit was used. I did not > see any obvious dates. > Can anyone help? > - David > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think it is a power supply/ringing > generator unit. Its purpose is to make the little bulbs flash in > one of the older style 6-button, 5-line with hold button phones. When > ringing voltage comes on the line, a relay is tripped which sets that > box off doing its thing with a reduced voltage, among other > things. PAT] Sorry to copy the whole article, but most of it is relevant. I don't know what it is, but I doubt it is a ringing generator. Ringy-dingy is nominally 86v 20Hz. Also, 1kHz is a particularly nasty thing to run around a telephone system to power lamps -- it is right in the middle of the audio passband. It has to have been intended to be heard, either by a person or by a receiver somewhere on the line. It might have been an alerting tone for some sort of intercom. I seem to recall some old ones that would beep rather than ring, probably to distinguish it from an incoming phone call. It is pretty low power, less than .5w. Using a motor-generator to supply that would make it pretty old, as would the units of cycles rather than Hz. I would guess it is at least 50 years old, probably older. One would also be led to guess that the house was not always a residence, or not exclusively a residence. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Many of the older 6 button/5 line phones had a small 'buzzer' inside them also and the incoming ringing voltage rang *one* of the phones; the other phones in the group would 'buzz'. Also sometimes one of the line appearances was a dial intercom to call the other phones in the group; the phones, on an intercom call would 'buzz' with a certain cadence rather than 'ring' (with a certain cadence) as they did for outside calls. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: 2 Jan 2005 11:08:10 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Preparing wireless networks for an event like next month's > presidential inauguration has become as critical as erecting the > barricades and ordering the party platters. This is the same sort of thing the former Bell System would always do for special events -- install extra cabling, switchgear, etc. I'm kind of curious as to exactly what all the cellphone talkers will be saying. Along the parade route nothing much really happens except at some point the president drives by. Carter and his wife strolled up holding hands, Nixon was pelted by demonstrators at his first inaugration. To me, the most significant inaugural speech was FDR's first time, when he spoke about his intentions to fight the depression as a national emergency same as war. FDR had an excellent radio voice and knew how to use it; this ability was critical to calming the nation's fears of the time. Hoover actually took unprecedented measures to fight the depression, including pumping lots of money into the economy to keep in afloat, but Hoover was a public relations disaster. FDR was a p/r genius. Anyway, FDR's speech is well preserved and available on video tapes and often re-broadcast on TV today. Somehow they managed it to capture it with the crude sound technology of the day. ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 15:06:14 -0500 DISCLAIMER: I am not a geologist (IANAG?!?) Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > Isn't the San Andreas fault the boundary of two plates slipping past > each other from time to time? I believe that this is true, though I am somewhat confused when I recall that the area is called a "subduction zone" (where one plate is being pushed under the other, resulting in mountain ranges -- can you say "the Rockies"? -- and volcanic activity -- can you say "Mount St. Helen's" -- on the plate that slid up). Nonetheless, the San Andreas fault is indeed where two plates slide horizontally against each other, pressure building up until it overcomes the friction and is released in the form of an earthquake. I've seen dramatic photographs of roads broken by movement along that fault: more or less intact on either side but split like a cut ribbon glued together out of alignment. > There is no similar likely source of tsunamis in the Atlantic. As far as my limited knowledge goes, this is also correct, though it may be worth pointing out that there are older, smaller fault lines parallel to the U.S. east coast, primarily under the eastern mountain ranges. Here where I live in southern Ontario, I hear stories on the news from time to time about earthquakes, but only once have I ever known that I was feeling an earthquake under my feet. Geoffrey Welsh ------------------------------ From: Herb Stein Subject: Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe! Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2005 14:32:04 -0600 Dave VanHorn wrote in message news:telecom24.2.9@telecom-digest.org: > The big island of Hawaii is splitting in two as well. Every year, the > rift valley gets wider. > The estimates I've seen are that nothing but bare rock will be left in > the islands when it happens, and similar effects on the Pacific rim. Being in St. Louis, I'd welcome any incite in the next big New Madrid "letgo." Herb herb@herbstein.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 18:36:37 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: VoIP Problem: No Incoming Calls! Rick Merrill wrote: > My AttCallvantage VoIP places calls, but calls from outside the ATT > system cannot reach us. .... net > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your first paragraph gives a clue to > follow up on: 'Calls from outside the AT&T system cannot reach us.' > What does this mean exactly? Have you experienced this at all, that > is known calls you make do not get back to you on your VOIP. Is > 'outside the AT&T system' referring to other (non-AT&T) voip lines > or other landline phones or? Yes. [I'm unused to responding to my own posts:-] > The person(s) who try to call you, are they getting an intercept > message saying call cannot be completed, Yes. > or a re-order (fast busy) tone? Or is it ringing 'open', No. > that is the > call 'gets through' to your local phone switch but does not actually > reach your phone, or ? No. The support people have tested this by calling (a) on an outside line (intercept msg) and (b) from inside and I hear the "call waiting" signal and can switch over to that other call! > If the caller is getting intercepted either by > a message or reorder tone and they are outside your LATA THAT is where the problem is. > it may be that AT&T (in the process of opening a new exchange for > their VOIP phones) failed to get it correctly listed in the 'tables' > that other carriers use indicating your VOIP exchange is a working > exchange. It WAS working fine for 2 months! > I experienced this once. Tried to reach a lady in northern Wisconsin > using my land line (defaulted to MCI for long distance). Every > attempt, I got an intercept recording 'not in service.' On a hunch, I > tried dialing 10288 *first*, forcing the call over AT&T, and then it > went through okay. No response to that whatsoever. > Same central office both times, but MCI did not > have it in their routing tables as a valid exchange, thus, refused to > pass the call along. I tried explaining it to repair and the business > office, but go nowhere. Finally I spoke to a lady who said "I sort of > think I know what you are talking about; give me a number to reach you > at, I am going to have someone call you back." About 30 minutes later > I got a call from a man who identified himself as a 'network technican > for AT&T', in of all places, Denver, CO. He said he knew *exactly* what > the problem was ... (I said) "yeah but can you get MCI to make the > changes required." Oh yeah, he said, they will listen to me, they > will do as I say. I will call you back in 30 minutes or so. Sure > enough, it got fixed. > As he explained it to me, Illinois Bell (local central office) handled > 'translations' for AT&T and got it correct. In theory, whenever a new > central office opens, word of same is supposed to travel around the > network so that other phone companies can 'turn it on' also in their > switches. Sometimes one or another of them fail to do so, or do it > incorrectly. He told me, "MCI tried to turn it on also, but got a > comma or white space or something wrong in their file, so as far as > their switch was concerned, that exchange did not exist." When I forced > the call (via 10288) Illinois Bell, AT&T and Wisconsin Telephone all > got it correct. When I did one plus default through MCI (Illinois Bell > to MCI), it bounced. > When I *finally* reached the lady I was calling in Wisconsin all she > knew was 'many times, my friends in Chicago cannot reach me, but > others get through okay' (the ones using Sprint or AT&T). > So ask your family/friends/whoever that is 'not on AT&T system' to > try calling your VOIP. No one has gotten through since the 25th -- this is reflected in the call log. Only the trouble shooters "inside" the VoIP network can get through. > If *they* (or some of them) get through just > fine, try and isolate the number they used and the telco they used. > Also, I assume you have used your own landline phone or cell phone > to try calling the VOIP and see if you get through to yourself or > not. Let us know how your experiments and tests work out. This may > not be the fault of CallVantage at all, but rather some telco (even > AT&T!) failing to install that phone number/exchange in the 'tables' > for others to see. Yes. That is what the 'level 3' group now say. > And please explain what you mean by 'cannot get through to me on > VOIP phone'. *At what point* does their call bounce back? PAT] Thanks for listening!-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are welcome for the listening! The 'level 3 group' seems to be a bit more concerned than most customer service reps. They (or you) may need to trace this a bit further by finding out *how* the calls from your relatives/friends, etc are getting routed from them to you, i.e. which central office do they start out in, which long distance carrier to they default to when calling you, etc. What happens if they use some other carrier other than their normal one? Try ten-ten plus and a few different carriers, etc. Keep us posted on your progress. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #3 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jan 3 17:00:29 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j03M0TZ13639; Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:00:29 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:00:29 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501032200.j03M0TZ13639@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #4 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:00:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 4 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear (Monty Solomon) TiVoToGo Service Enhancement (Monty Solomon) TiVo Unveils Portable Transfer Service (Monty Solomon) Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing (Monty Solomon) Coming in '05: AT&T Mobile (Via Sprint) (Monty Solomon) Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human (Monty Solomon) Gentlemen, Start Your TV Sets (Monty Solomon) Streamlined Cable TV in a Card (Monty Solomon) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (desafinado) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Stanley Cline) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Fred Goldstein) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Linc Madison) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Carl Navarro) Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? (Scott Dorsey) Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth (Scott Dorsey) Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players (Barry Margolin) Re: AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Person? (Rudy Valencia) Analysis: Big Changes Lie Ahead for Telecom Sector (Telecom dailyLead) Man Charged in UK Tsunami Death Email Probe (Lisa Minter) Tsunami Treatment by US Consulate of Arriving Passengers (M Mustermann) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:24:42 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear COLUMN ONE Global positioning technology on mobile phones and other devices can track errant workers, teens or even pets. The price is privacy. By David Colker Times Staff Writer As her daughter enjoyed a weekend road trip, Donna Butler sat back home 120 miles away at her personal computer and watched a blue dot tick slowly across the screen. But not slowly enough. "They were going 85 on the interstate where the speed limit is 70," said Butler, who interrupted 17-year-old Danielle's getaway to let her know, " 'I will personally come up there and drive you home.' " It would have been easy to find her. Whenever Danielle is away from her central Florida home, her mobile phone uses a global positioning system to transmit her precise location, which her mother can track online. Developed originally as a military tool, GPS is used widely by drivers, hikers and boaters to figure out where they are. A new generation of relatively cheap GPS-equipped devices can tell others too -- allowing people for the first time to keep constant tabs on their rebellious teens, wandering spouses or loafing employees. That prospect comforts mothers like Butler, but it concerns some who see ever more powerful and invasive technology eroding a sense of personal privacy. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gps27dec27.story ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:33:52 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVoToGo Service Enhancement TiVo(R) Goes Mobile; Delivers Groundbreaking TiVoToGo(TM) Service Enhancement - Jan 3, 2005 05:00 AM (PR Newswire) TiVoToGo(TM) Service Enhancement Allows Subscribers to Enjoy Their Favorite Shows Anytime, Anywhere ALVISO, Calif., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) announced today its new TiVoToGo(TM) service enhancement is now available and has begun to roll out the software update to standalone TiVo(R) Series2(TM) boxes. The TiVoToGo service enhancement allows subscribers to transfer programs from their TiVo box to a laptop to enjoy their favorite shows anywhere, anytime. The TiVoToGo service enhancement is available at no extra charge as part of the TiVo service. TiVoToGo adds to a growing list of exclusive features found only on the TiVo service and not available on generic cable or satellite DVR. These include, Online Scheduling, Season Pass(TM) recordings, WishList(TM) searches, and home networked music and photos. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45953241 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:33:13 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Unveils Portable Transfer Service By MAY WONG AP Technology Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- TiVo Inc. pioneered digital video recording as a new way of watching television _ when you want it. Now it could be TV where you want it, too. The long-awaited service feature called TiVoToGo, set to launch Monday, will give users their first taste of TiVo untethered. No longer confined to TiVo digital video recorders in the living room or bedroom, subscribers will be able to transfer their recorded shows to PCs or laptops and take them on the road _ as long as the shows are not specially tagged with copy restrictions. That's also the case for pay-per-view or on-demand movies, and some premium paid programming. Users also will be able to copy shows onto a DVD _ soon after but not immediately at the service launch, company officials said. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45952209 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:43:30 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Use Said to Cut Into TV Viewing and Socializing By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 29 - The average Internet user in the United States spends three hours a day online, with much of that time devoted to work and more than half of it to communications, according to a survey conducted by a group of political scientists. The survey found that use of the Internet has displaced television watching and a range of other activities. Internet users watch television for one hour and 42 minutes a day, compared with the national average of two hours, said Norman H. Nie, director of the Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, a research group that has been exploring the social consequences of the Internet. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/30internet.html?ex=1262408400&en=5c26db6b02b40db5&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:41:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Coming in '05: AT&T Mobile (Via Sprint) By KEN BELSON AT&T is expected to announce as soon as next week details about how it plans to offer mobile phone service using Sprint's cellular network, according to executives close to the companies. Sprint, which said earlier this year that it would work with AT&T to offer cellphone service to AT&T's business customers, is fast solidifying its position as the top reseller of telecommunications services. Because it is not affiliated with the regional Bell companies, it has been able to build a strong business as a wholesaler of network capacity to the Bells' rivals. AT&T plans to start marketing Sprint's cellphone service as its own in the first half of 2005, after it wins back the rights to use the AT&T Wireless brand from Cingular Wireless, which acquired AT&T Wireless in October. Some of the particulars of how it will handle billing and operations for the new mobile service will be spelled out next week, the executives said. AT&T is not expected to announce pricing for its plans yet. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/30phone.html?ex=1262408400&en=18de07b7f5d21239&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:45:44 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human By KATIE HAFNER TRY to reach customer service at Amazon.com to fix a problem with an order and you will encounter one of the most prominent and frustrating aspects of the Internet era: a world devoid of humans. Not only is there no telephone number on Amazon's Web site, but the company makes a point of not including one. Instead, customers are asked to fill out an online form and wait for a response. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/circuits/30serv.html?ex=1262408400&en=b148bc2e844b6599&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:49:51 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Gentlemen, Start Your TV Sets By CHARLES McGRATH AS cable channels continue to proliferate and to generate more and more specialty programming, the television landscape has increasingly come to resemble the family house. There's a vestibule, where if you let them in, unnaturally cheerful people will try to sell you knickknacks and costume jewelry. There's a den, where old movies play day and night, and a rec room where partly clad young people never weary of singing and dancing to hip-hop music. There's a yard, for sports; a kitchen, for cooking demonstrations; a basement, for woodshop projects. And now there's a garage, where tattooed guys in T-shirts come and work on cars and motorcycles. Garage shows are the newest addition to the House of TV, and they are growing in popularity, especially on the Discovery and Learning Channels and on testosterone-juiced Spike TV, which among them devote several hours a week to automotive programming. Most of these shows are set in the spacious and well-lighted workplaces -- so clean they resemble operating rooms -- of high-end car and motorcycle customizers, and they feature a lot of welding, grinding and sheet-metal bending. But except for a couple of highly practical shows like the long-running "Trucks!" (Saturday afternoons on Spike), where you can learn how to install a fuel pump or a brake line, these are not how-to programs in the style of "This Old House" or "The New Yankee Workshop." You won't learn, say, how to fix the defroster on your '98 Taurus wagon. Instead you watch, transfixed, as that old wagon, veteran of the car pool, the grocery run and countless after-school pickups, is morphed into what car people call a "truly sick ride." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/31/arts/television/31whee.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 08:53:13 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Streamlined Cable TV in a Card By DAVID POGUE WHAT if I told you about a new product that could improve your TV picture, eliminate one of your remote controls, simplify your home-theater setup and save you money every month? And then what if I told you that your local distributor wished, in its heart of hearts, that nobody even knew about it? The brilliant invention really exists. It's the CableCard, a small metal card (a so-called PC card, actually, like the ones designed for laptops) that slides into a slot on the back of many new high-definition TV sets from nearly every manufacturer. The CableCard's simple mission is to eliminate your cable box. The card stores all the account information that used to be monitored by the box, like descramblers for your movie channels -- a bit of circuitry miniaturization that's about 15 years overdue. Life without a cable box is blissfully simple. The cable-TV cable from the wall plugs directly into the TV. You change channels using the TV's own remote control. (Both the box and its remote go back to the mother ship. Incidentally, getting rid of the box makes an especially big difference when it comes to smaller screens, like kitchen-counter TV's.) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/circuits/30stat.html?ex=1262408400&en=a106f9952bf3cddb&ei=5090 ------------------------------ From: desafinado Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Date: 3 Jan 2005 02:21:38 GMT Organization: sin nombre Fred Atkinson on 1/2/2005 in comp.dcom.telecom wrote: > My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his > telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have an > exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to the > Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. > Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed > his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the > area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number > as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the > Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 exchange. > I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin > number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why this > retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the > Columbia calling area. > Have been punching around the Internet trying to find out where this > number is housed. So far, no luck. > Anybody got any ideas on this weird arrangement? > My father used to call my Vonage phone from Chapin on his old Bellsouth > line. My phone is also on Vonage's 233 exchange. He did not have to dial > long distance to do it. > Regards, > Fred 'Lookup Area Codes in a Radius' http://www.melissadata.com/lookups/PhoneRadius.asp You'll find these assignments within 10 miles of 803-945 Area Code - Prefix City 803-345 CHAPIN 803-407 COLUMBIA 803-732 COLUMBIA 803-749 COLUMBIA 803-781 COLUMBIA 803-932 CHAPIN 803-941 CHAPIN 803-945 CHAPIN 803-948 CHAPIN You can click the npa-nxx column links for additional information about each exchange. Your father's Vonage 233 number is in Richland county while the Chapin 945 exchange is in Lexington county. Apparently calling from 945 to 233 crosses a LATA boundary. ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 21:24:27 -0500 Organization: Roamer1 Communications Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:19:01 -0500, Fred Atkinson wrote: > My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his > telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have an > exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to the > Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. > Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed > his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the > area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number > as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the > Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 exchange. Not all Chapin numbers are local to Columbia! I checked BellSouth's tariffs and it turns out there is both a Chapin/Little Mountain South rate center and a Chapin/Little Mountain North rate center, and that only the C/LM South rate center is local to Columbia. 803-945, unfortunately, is in the C/LM North rate center and is not local to Columbia; it's local only to the two C/LM rate centers, Newberry, and Prosperity, without an optional calling plan anyway. 803-345 = C/LM South (BellSouth) 803-932 = C/LM South (BellSouth) 803-945 = C/LM North (BellSouth) 803-233 = Columbia (KMC Telecom) Maybe your father's house is right on the border and in C/LM South (did he have a 345 or 932 number?) and the neighbors are in C/LM North, or he had an optional calling plan with BellSouth that the neighbors don't? FWIW, Vonage doesn't have numbers in either C/LM rate center -- but competitor VoicePulse has numbers in both C/LM North and C/LM South. (VP often has numbers in places in the Southeast where no one else does. The underlying CLEC for those numbers is almost certainly ITC DeltaCom; VP is known to provide numbers out of ITCD NPA-NXXs in other areas, including Atlanta and east Tennessee, and ITCD has NPA-NXXs in both C/LM North and C/LM South...) 803-941 = C/LM South (ITCD) 803-948 = C/LM North (ITCD) Stanley Cline // Telco Boi // sc1 at roamer1 dot org // www.roamer1.org "it seems like all you ever buy is Abercrombie and cell phones" --a friend ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 23:26:24 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:19:01 -0500, Fred Atkinson wrote, > My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his > telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have an > exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to the > Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. > Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed > his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the > area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number > as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the > Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 exchange. 803-233 is a Columbia prefix, belonging to KMC Telecom, so they're probably the underlying CLEC selling interconnection to Vonage (unless it's a shared prefix or the number was ported). 803-945, however, is a different story. > I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin > number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why this > retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the > Columbia calling area. 945 is a Chapin number, sort of. But here's the catch. You've fallen into the trap of the nasty old rate center system that still plagues local telephony, where lots and lots of little rate centers are created for the express purpose of making more calls into toll routes. There is no "Chapin" rate center. There is a Chapin central office. But there are two rate centers served by that central office. BellSouth's 345, 932 and 941 prefices are in the "Chapin-Little Mountain South" rate center. That is a local call to Columbia. But the 457, 945 and 948 prefices are in the Chapin-Little Mountain North rate center. That's local to Newberry and Prosperity (which are toll routes to CLM-South), but it's a toll call to Columbia. I don't know where the border is between the two rate centers, or if for some odd reason they overlap (i.e., some customers can call Newberry, others Columbia, but nobody gets both). But that's how Chapin's divided. Maybe it's along the county line? There's a county line running between Chapin proper (Lexington County) and Little Mountain (Newberry County), and some of "Chapin", including one Atkinson's address, is in Richland County. What county is your father actually in? Is he near the line? Just how far apart are his neighbors? What was his old BellSouth prefix? > Have been punching around the Internet trying to find out where this > number is housed. So far, no luck. The LERG is not public, but a local calling database at http://members.dandy.net/~czg/search.html is. The prefix code database at NANPA.COM is also freely downloadable. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 22:09:39 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Fred Atkinson wrote: > My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his > telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have > an exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to > the Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. > Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed > his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the > area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number > as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the > Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 > exchange. > I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin > number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why > this retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the > Columbia calling area. If Vonage told you that 803-945 is not a Chapin, SC, exchange, then Vonage lied to you. The 803-945 exchange defaults to BellSouth, and is listed as CHPNLTLMTN (Chapin/Little Mountain, I would assume), the exact same rate center as 803-345 and 803-932 (BellSouth), and 803-457, 803-941, and 803-948 (CLECs). The 803-233 exchange is indeed rated as Columbia. If Columbia and Chapin are supposed to be local calls, then the BellSouth switch CHAPSCCLRS1 needs to be updated to reflect the 803-233 exchange as local. See what happens from the neighbors phone if you try to dial a number in the: 210, 212, 213, 214, 216, 231, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 264, 296, 312, 333, 343, 344, 354, 373, 376, 382, 400, 401, 407, 419, 434, 462, 540, 544, 545, 551, 561, 576, 612, 647, 691, 695, 699, 714, 731, 732, 733, 734, 735, 736, 737, 738, 739, 741, 742, 743, 748, 749, 750, 754, 755, 758, 763, 765, 771, 772, 776, 777, 779, 781, 782, 783, 786, 787, 788, 790, 791, 794, 796, 798, 799, 806, 822, 865, 896, 898, 926, 929, 931, 933, 935, 936, 939, 955, 975, or 988 prefix (all belonging to BellSouth), or to the 234 or 381 prefixes (others belonging to the same CLEC as 803-233). (Obviously, you don't need to try every single prefix on that list. Any one or two known valid numbers from among those prefixes will suffice.) If your neighbors can call the BellSouth prefixes in Columbia as listed above, and especially if they can call the other two CLEC prefixes, 234 and 381, then they should be able to dial 803-233 as a local 7D call, and the problem is entirely with BellSouth. The neighbors should call the repair service (or better yet, you should call repair service from the neighbors' phone) and report a problem with the translation tables in CHAPSCCLRS1. On the other hand, if the neighbors get the "dial 1+" recording when calling the BellSouth prefixes in Columbia, then obviously they are on a calling plan that doesn't rate Columbia as local. If the neighbors can call BellSouth exchanges in Columbia, but not the Vonage exchanges in Columbia -- or also try CLECs like ITC DeltaCom, Alltel, or AT&T -- then you should file a complaint against BellSouth with whatever South Carolina calls its public utilities commission, because BellSouth has some 'splainin to do. Exciting details of the prefixes in the 803 area code can be found on the NANPA web site: select South Carolina, wait for the NPA menu to slim down, then select 803. (Or select any other state and NPA you want to check on.) Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Reply-To: cnavarro@wcnet.org Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:34:34 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Sun, 2 Jan 2005 11:19:01 -0500, Fred Atkinson wrote: > My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his > telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have an > exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to the > Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. > Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed > his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the > area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number > as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the > Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 exchange. > I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin > number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why this > retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the > Columbia calling area. How odd. It appears that 345,932, and 945 list as the BellSouth exchanges for Chapin SC. If EAS agreements are in place, I'd be asking the Telco wha'ts up. Carl Navarro > Have been punching around the Internet trying to find out where this > number is housed. So far, no luck. > Anybody got any ideas on this weird arrangement? > My father used to call my Vonage phone from Chapin on his old Bellsouth > line. My phone is also on Vonage's 233 exchange. He did not have to dial > long distance to do it. > Regards, > Fred ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? Date: 3 Jan 2005 14:09:36 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) David B. Horvath, CCP wrote: > My brother moved into a new house and I was helping him with some > wiring and plumbing. Attached to one wall was a Western Electric > device that was really weird. It consisted of a square box with an > old style house fuse (round, with the box marked 0.3 AMP) that had a > regular AC plug on one side and an electric motor on the other. This is a motor-generator set that produces a 1 KHz tone. What it was used for, I have no idea. But the other components may be a clue. scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth Date: 3 Jan 2005 14:11:10 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Clark W. Griswold, Jr. wrote about > Inauguration Requires Boost In Bandwidth on Fri, 31 Dec 2004 > 17:00:49: >> Marcus Didius Falco wrote: >>> Although there are known dead spots close to the White House and CIA >>> headquarters in Langley where wireless signals are blocked for >>> security reasons >> Now that's interesting. First time I've seen a public reference to the >> US Government intentially blocking/jamming a licensed communications >> service within the US. Would be interesting to see the procedure they >> used to get that approved, since it directly violates US law. > Secret exemption from the rules provided by the FCC? More likely the spooks just talked to the cellphone providers and urged them not to locate towers in the area. It's easy to create dead spots by careful antenna placement. The hard part is _preventing_ dead spots. scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players Organization: Symantec Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 22:43:46 -0500 In article , Gary Novosielski wrote: > Joseph wrote: >> Is Pat asleep? Why did this crap get into the digest? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There had been an article by Monty >> Solomon about Apple iPod and it was intended as a followup to >> that. PAT] > Except it wasn't a follow up, it was spam for one of those ponzi prize > scheme web sites, and not the first time, either. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I generally do not have the time nor > resources to investigate every web site which is presented here. *If* > an article comes in with a 'Re: recent previous subject' title which > was presented here within a day or two prior, I generally accept the > article for publication. If the same article had shown up without the > 'Re: previously published article' it would have been scrutinized > more closely as I always do. This is not 1980 or 1985, the volume of > mail -- and spam blended with legitimate mail -- is horrendous. So > now and then I miss one, sorry. What, Mr. Novosielski, would you have > me to do? Read and personally investigate every followup message? > After Joseph first wrote with his complaint, I did go back and review > the message, I doubt I would run it again, as it was, IMO very > marginal at best. PAT] As the "free iPod" thing is becoming a well-known scam on the net (although not yet at the level of the Nigeria scams), I think he was surprised that you didn't recognize it immediately, with no need to "investigate". Myself, I'm less surprised. I get the impression that you don't participate in many other online forums, and don't read much Usenet (which is where the iPod messages frequently show up). So if it hasn't been discussed in TELECOM, you might not be aware of it. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not participate in many other online forums, and I do not read/write in Usenet (other than now and then checking the status of c.d.t.) I put out between one and three or four issues of this Digest daily, and I work on *my* web pages as needed, which is enough for me to do. As good as spam assassin is at cleaning out my mailbox (it flags 400-500 pieces daily) another hundred or so fall into my regular mail and get weeded out by hand. Lisa Minter 'surfs the net' looking for other items to be used here, (sort of in the style of Monty Solomon) and she looks after the news feed thing I subscribe to (and hope to eventually be able to pay for assuming Google comes through with payment some day. [its still zero/ zero even after the mail arrived today. :( ] I am probably going to wind up giving all this to Lisa eventually, if my brain disease continues to deteriorate as it has been for some time now.) Maybe I will ask her to do more invetigation of messages arring here. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Rudy Valencia Subject: Re: AT&T Recordings: Synthesized or Actual Person? Date: 2 Jan 2005 20:18:56 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Diamond Dave wrote: > On 1 Jan 2005 20:59:34 -0800, Rudy Valencia > wrote: >> Hi, >> I am wanting to know if this AT&T voice is real or synthesized, please >> listen and respond. >> http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/attflood.ram >> http://www.dmine.com/phworld/sounds/modern/att/atthur.ram >> (Both recordings feature the same voice, but two different phrases) > Considering I operate the website where you found these, I feel that I > should respond. > As far as I know, all AT&T recordings are real people and are not > synthesized. > In times past, most of these were recorded by the late Jane Barbe or > Pat Trumbull (Trumble?), now recently remarried and goes by the name > Pat Fleet. > However, I don't know the name of the person who made those > recordings, nor most of the ones you find on the AT&T network these > days. > In addition, recordings from the older 4ESS tandems are stored in > analog, while I think that the more modern 4ESS tandems have their > recordings in digital format. > Hope this helps. > Dave Perrusel > Webmaster - Telephone World > http://www.dmine.com/phworld Hi, I did some research (Google: "AT&T recordings"), and it leads me to believe (though I am not sure) that they were recorded by this person (perhaps with a different inflection): http://www.greatvoiceco.com/index.html (Click "Hear Samples" and then "Susan") Other links point to this Telecom Digest thread, and to (former) AT&T Wireless error recordings. -- Rudy Valencia (rudyvalencia@gmail.com) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 12:25:32 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Analysis: Big Changes Lie Ahead for Telecom Sector Telecom dailyLead from USTA January 3, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18473&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Analysis: Big changes lie ahead for telecom sector BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Qwest gears up for residential VoIP launch * Mobile phones aid tsunami relief efforts * Analysis: Broadband penetration to grow in 2005 USTA SPOTLIGHT * Now in the USTA Telecom Bookstore: Newton's Telecom Dictionary, 20th Edition EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * TiVoToGo to launch today; DVR technology sends files to PCs * New IPv6 network to link universities in China REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Ruling a blow to Dutch telco KPN Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18473&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Man Charged in UK Tsunami Death Email Probe Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 10:29:37 EST LONDON (Reuters) - British police said on Monday they had charged a man with sending hoax emails to relatives of people missing since the Asian tsunami, saying their loved ones had been confirmed dead. The hoaxer, claiming to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in Thailand, targeted people who had placed appeals for information about relatives and friends on the Web site of TV station Sky News. Police said a 40-year-old man from Lincolnshire in northeastern England was charged with malicious communication and causing a public nuisance. He was due to appear at a London court on Monday. On Sunday, officers seized computer equipment in a joint operation by London's Metropolitan Police and Lincolnshire police. All the messages came from one bogus email address, ukgovfoffice@aol.com . "The British government would not use email to convey news of the death of a loved one," police said. "Anyone receiving such an email should treat it with utmost caution." Sky News said it was "disgusted" at the abuse of the message board on its Web site and had contacted police as soon as it was alerted to the hoaxes. The death toll from the tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off western Indonesia a week ago, stood at almost 130,000 on Monday, including at least 40 Britons. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Max Mustermann Subject: Tsunami Treatment by US Consulate of Arriving Passengers Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 09:46:51 +0100 (originally was Re: Such Carnage is Hard to Believe!) jmeissen@aracnet.com wrote on 29 Dec 2004 21:18:13 GMT: > In article , TELECOM Digest Editor > wrote: > Meanwhile, the United Nations called on Dubya to do more than the > stingy pittance he offered. He said he would 'think about it'. Trouble > is, Dubya has gotten so badly in debt on account of Iraq, he does not > have a lot of money left over for things like alleviating human misery. > http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/28/tsunami.diver/index.html > [American tsunami survivor] Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the > efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the > Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the > U.S. government, her mother said. > At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to > greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she > said. > That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. > It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from > the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge. > Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documen- > tation, they had to have new passports issued. > But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, > Helen Wachs said. > John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, how did Dubya know they were not > just a couple of 'terrorists' trying to sneak in and use the tsunami > thing as an excuse? Anyway, Dubya has no spare money (right now, or > probably for a few decades at least) to spend on such foolishness. > Every spare nickle has to go to Navy SEALS and Army guys in their > ongoing humane treatment of Iraqi terrorists -- err, prisoners. His > religious war against Islam has many more years to go. PAT] I came through Thai Domestic Arrivals from the south of Thailand unhurt and unaffected. Lined up there in a very orderly fashion are Red Cross People, Officials of the Thai Police, Embassy Officials withe every known embassy wearing flags on their armbands, with forms free money habdouts acomadition arrangements and tables for free phone calls and free coffee drinks etc. It is very well done. The people are friendly. There must be I estimate at least 100 people working together there and very well. However, I at first saw no US consul officials. Finally at the door, 30 yards away I saw two. They now wear badges just like cops that say US Embassy. These two one a man and a woman were dressed very formerly unlike the rest. they have no forms, they have no free coffee, they have nothing except scowls on their ugly faces. I did not wish to be further victimised by then and I imagine no one else would. I had my passport money and ticket so I just got the hell away from those two. I imagine they were interrupted from their xmas dinner or something by the looks on their faces. Every time anyone walked by looking injured they just looked away. Thats what we are getting for our tax dollars. While these guys live the high life over here. The next day I came there again to pick up a freind who was similiarly unaffected as we had been staying in Phuket town. This time they weren't even there but all the others were. There was a sign if you are a US citizen come to such and such a VIP room where we are, I gather that was some hike away if you could find it, to bad if you have a broken leg I guess. You can be sure we did not go there and our flights are out of here tonight. We called our families to say I was ok and warned them not to even call up about me to save the money. The Thais and other offiicials especially the Swedes were wonderful I have no comment as to where I think the US officials belong but I guess it would be called the monkey house here. The US says they will give some money here I wonder what the conditions are? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think that horrible mess has affected almost everyone. Even people thousands of miles away ... a reader of our mailing list based out of Phuket lost his life in it; two casual aqauintences of mine who had gone over to the Phuket area to a gay resort *probably* lost their lives; they were not good friends of mine, just people I had met a couple times from Chicago. I say 'probably' since they have not been heard from or seen since they left to go there a couple days before Christmas. They would not have been in touch with me anyway, but rather with their own close friends, etc who have not seen or heard from them. Bad news, all the way around. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #4 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 4 00:37:04 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j045b3K16489; Tue, 4 Jan 2005 00:37:04 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 00:37:04 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501040537.j045b3K16489@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #5 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 2005 00:37:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 5 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell (cherold@gmail.com) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Fred Atkinson) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Tony P.) Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human (Thomas A. Horsley) Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human (desafinado) Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? (John McHarry) Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear (Tony P.) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cherold@gmail.com Subject: AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell Date: 3 Jan 2005 13:06:54 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I feel I need to warn people about my experience with AT&T's horrendous customer service and warn them about my friend's horrible experience with the CallVantage service. This is in New York City, I don't know if it works better in other states, since I see some people here seem to not be having problems, but my experience has been abominable and AT&T raises the question, can a major corporation reach a level of incompetence where they can actually drive themselves out of business. Because if it's possible, I think AT&T can do it. It all started around the middle of October. At this time I had been considering going from normal phone service to digital phone service, which is a bit cheaper. I had actually ordered this from Time Warner, who made an appointment to come out and install the proper hardware. But then I got mail from AT&T with an offer for their own, cheaper digital CallVantage service, with free activation and a month of free service, so I decided to cancel with Time Warner and order CallVantage. Ordering the service took quite a while because the offer I had been mailed did not match the offer the operator showed on her computer, which did not have the free month and free activation, so she had to spend some time fixing that. AT&T mailed me a phone adapter with instructions for how to set it up. The instructions told me to check my confirmation email for my login name, but I had never received a confirmation email, so I phoned up and was told the order had been cancelled because there was a port change request against my phone number. This was apparently because AT&T had put in the order before Time Warner had cancelled my order with them. AT&T had first told me to call Verizon, because they said Verizon was the carrier for all of New York City, but this isn't true. Actually, AT&T was my carrier, but they insisted I call Verizon, who predictably said I wasn't in their system (I think the problem is AT&T no longer accepts new customers for normal phone service and doesn't actually know it still is a carrier). AT&T said I would have to reorder the service, so I did. Once again I had to verify I was getting the same offer, and found that now they were charging the activation fee, but when I told them that was wrong they fixed it (or said they did). I was also told I could set up my service right away, since I had the adapter. Five minutes later I realized I still didn't know my login and I called back and she said the confirmation email could take a couple of days (which I was later told by someone else was incorrect). A couple of days later I called back, said I still hadn't received a confirmation email and was told my case would be transferred to a specialist who would get back to me in 48 hours. After 48 hours passed I called again and was told my login name was just my phone number! Apparently it did not occur to any of the other phone support personnel to tell me this. I hooked up the adapter but it didn't work, and I found I couldn't log into the website with my login name. I called tech support. After some investigation they discovered that neither my first nor second order had gone through. They said the best thing to do would be to wait a few weeks until both orders completely cleared out of the system and then try again. As it happens, a friend of mine had also ordered CallVantage, and by this time I had learned through her that it was absolutely horrible. It frequently went out and since it worked through her cable modem she was told every time it stopped working she would have to turn off her modem and computer for 15 minutes then restart. Sound quality was poor and when I would talk to her there would be an echo half the time. She had called tech support, and one person told her it would take a few weeks before the system "settled down," and that after that it would be better. Later a different tech person told her it would settle down in about 72 hours. It never actually settled down. She had a miserable time until she could switch back to a normal phone line. She said the service was clearly still in the beta testing stage and AT&T shouldn't be selling it until it actually worked. (When she got her first bill, they had charged her both the activation fee and the first month, although they had told her they wouldn't, and had actually charged her conventional rates for the first several days she had used the service, during which she had made some lengthy long distance calls, and she had to go through a series of support people to get these charges removed). So at this point I said, never mind, cancel my order, I don't want CallVantage. It was cancelled just at the end of November, and I thought that was the end of it. A couple of days before the end of December my phone went dead. I used my girlfriend's cell phone to call AT&T and they said they had cancelled my service because there was a port change request for my number. I said I had not ordered a change in service and they said I should call Verizon. Once again I told them Verizon wasn't my carrier, AT&T was, once again they insisted, and the operator at Verizon actually laughed when I told her my story and confirmed that I was not in their records. I called AT&T again. They began transferring me from one department to another. The analog phone service people said the problem came from CallVantage, that the order had never been cancelled. CallVantage said no, the order had been cancelled long ago. I was finally transferred to a specialist who would consult with various people in various departments while I stayed on hole. Finally after being on hold for 20 minutes the recording telling me to wait disappeared and after five minutes I gave up. They had asked for the cell phone number so they could call me back if we got disconnected, but they did not call me back, and I had no idea who I had last been talking to or how to contact them. I had also used up an hour of my girlfriend's minutes for nothing. After my girlfriend went back home I had no phone, so I contacted AT&T through a form on their website. (Normally I would have gone to a friend's house and borrowed their phone but I had bronchitis and was not up to facing the winter weather.) After a couple of days AT&T replied to tell me their records showed I was no longer a customer of AT&T (keep in mind I had explained the enter story in my message to them). I sent a reply repeating what had happened. They emailed me back to tell me to phone the repair department, although I had explained I had no way to make phone calls. I explained that to them again. They then told me that they were the CallVantage division (I had just used the contact AT&T form on the website) and couldn't help me. I said, are you telling me there is no way to contact anyone in repair by email and they sent me a url for a different form that contacted regular analog repair service. It had taken them five days to send me to the right people. The repair department of course emailed back to ask me to call them. I emailed and said once again that I had no phone and that since I have no way to fix my own phone, I have explained the problem in detail already and when I'm on the phone with them they just keep me on hold that there was no reason to actually have me on the phone. They then emailed me again to say there was no way they could reinstate my number, it was gone, and gave me a number where I could call to get new AT&T service. Instead I went to Verizon's website and signed up for phone service, which will presumably be turned on in a couple of days. It is my greatest hope in life that I never again have to deal with AT&T. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 17:20:00 -0500 Thanks for the feedback. I shared the information with the neighbor. The neighbor called and is having their number switched to a 345 number, which will make them a local call to Columbia. The number is supposed to be changed effective tomorrow. My father was previously on the 932 exchange, for those who asked. This update to their service should resolve the issue. I'd have suggested that they switch to Vonage, but they don't have a PC or cablemodem. Regards, Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 19:39:41 EST Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door In a message dated 3 Jan 2005 02:21:38 GMT, desafinado writes: > Your father's Vonage 233 number is in Richland county while the Chapin > 945 exchange is in Lexington county. Apparently calling from 945 to > 233 crosses a LATA boundary. There are many cases where local calling areas cross LATA boundaries, so this is generally, in itself, irrelevant. One of the noted interstate metropolitan exchanges is Kansas City, Mo.-Kan., which is in two LATAs but one local calling area. Many, many smaller such cases exist. County lines are generally irrelevant, too. Parts of Payne County, Oklahoma, are in three different NPAs. The county seat is Stillwater, area code 405, but there are parts of the county in 580 and 918 (the part in 918 is in a different LATA, but NPAs 580 and 405 area in the same LATA). Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 21:24:43 -0500 In article , lincmad@suespammers.org says: > In article , Fred Atkinson > wrote: >> My father lives in Chapin, South Carolina. I recently got his >> telephone service switched over to Vonage. As Vonage does not have >> an exchange in Chapin (and since all Chapin exchanges are local to >> the Columbia, SC area), we got a Columbia, SC number for him to use. >> Last week, his next door neighbors complained that when they dialed >> his number they got a recording telling them to dial 'one plus the >> area code and the number'. I used their telephone to dial his number >> as seven digits and got the same thing. Vonage's exchange in the >> Columbia area is 233. The neighbors had a number in the 945 >> exchange. >> I called Vonage. Turns out that this 945 number is not a Chapin >> number but something else entirely. I'm trying to figure out why >> this retired couple has a number that apparently isn't local to the >> Columbia calling area. > If Vonage told you that 803-945 is not a Chapin, SC, exchange, then > Vonage lied to you. Vonage hasn't yet heard of the site where you can lookup and NPA/NXX and get it's rate center. For example, when I first signed up for Vonage they gave me a 401-608- nnnn number. Problem is that's in a Newport rate center. So people calling me from next door got charged a toll. Luckily all that was resolved when my 401-621-nnnn number was ported to Vonage. That's a Providence rate center number. But the fact that they didn't issue me a Providence rate center temporary number is interesting even though I'd entered my billing details and they clearly put me in the Providence rate center. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:03:08 GMT > TRY to reach customer service at Amazon.com to fix a problem with an > order and you will encounter one of the most prominent and frustrating > aspects of the Internet era: a world devoid of humans. Not only is > there no telephone number on Amazon's Web site, but the company makes > a point of not including one. Instead, customers are asked to fill out > an online form and wait for a response. To which I say Thank God! (or at least Jeff Bezos). No hanging on hold forever -- none of my time wasted. I send my email, and forget about it. Later I get a response (and usually a pretty prompt and useful one clearly written by a human who knows whats up) -- I can deal with it when I get around to reading the mail. I'd turn this article on its head -- what I want to complain about is what seems to be the vast majority of companies that have policies of never talking to customers via email. You are forced to call them, wade through voicemail, and sit on hold and speak to "humans" who have no idea what you are talking about. Give me good email customer service any day over stupid human customer service (of course there are the companies which use an email robot responder for customer service -- so far, I've never encountered an email robot that wasn't dumber than even the dumbest human -- it is possible to screw up email customer service too :-). -- >>==>> The *Best* political site >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: desafinado Subject: Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human Date: 3 Jan 2005 23:49:45 GMT Organization: sin nombre Monty Solomon on 1/3/2005 in comp.dcom.telecom wrote: > By KATIE HAFNER > TRY to reach customer service at Amazon.com to fix a problem with an > order and you will encounter one of the most prominent and frustrating > aspects of the Internet era: a world devoid of humans. Not only is > there no telephone number on Amazon's Web site, but the company makes > a point of not including one. Instead, customers are asked to fill out > an online form and wait for a response. > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/30/technology/circuits/30serv.html?ex=1262408400&en=b148bc2e844b6599&ei=5090 This was first reported by PC-World in 2001. Way to go, gray lady. http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,55306,00.asp "So as my first act as I take over this column, let me tell you the toll-free number for calling Amazon.com's customer service -- 800/201-7575 -- because even with a compass and a map, you may not be able to find it on Amazon's site." ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Western Electric: What is This Device? Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:27:32 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John McHarry: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Many of the older 6 button/5 line > phones had a small 'buzzer' inside them also and the incoming ringing > voltage rang *one* of the phones; the other phones in the group > would 'buzz'. Also sometimes one of the line appearances was a dial > intercom to call the other phones in the group; the phones, on an > intercom call would 'buzz' with a certain cadence rather than 'ring' > (with a certain cadence) as they did for outside calls. PAT] That sounds right, although a motor-generator to drive a buzzer sounds pretty Rube Goldberg. A DC buzzer is a pretty simple device. I seem to be replying to my own post. Maybe I should engage a shrink. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 21:28:07 -0500 In article , monty@roscom.com says: > COLUMN ONE > Global positioning technology on mobile phones and other devices can > track errant workers, teens or even pets. The price is privacy. > By David Colker > Times Staff Writer > As her daughter enjoyed a weekend road trip, Donna Butler sat back > home 120 miles away at her personal computer and watched a blue dot > tick slowly across the screen. > But not slowly enough. > "They were going 85 on the interstate where the speed limit is 70," > said Butler, who interrupted 17-year-old Danielle's getaway to let her > know, " 'I will personally come up there and drive you home.' " > It would have been easy to find her. Whenever Danielle is away from > her central Florida home, her mobile phone uses a global positioning > system to transmit her precise location, which her mother can track > online. > Developed originally as a military tool, GPS is used widely by > drivers, hikers and boaters to figure out where they are. A new > generation of relatively cheap GPS-equipped devices can tell others > too -- allowing people for the first time to keep constant tabs on > their rebellious teens, wandering spouses or loafing employees. > That prospect comforts mothers like Butler, but it concerns some who > see ever more powerful and invasive technology eroding a sense of > personal privacy. > http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gps27dec27.story Ah, but most phones have the capability to shut the GPS transmissions off to all but 911 operators. I know that's the situation on my Audiovox phone. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! 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Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #5 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 4 20:16:00 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j051G0J23919; Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:16:00 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:16:00 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501050116.j051G0J23919@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #6 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:16:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 6 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Kansas City Metro and Local Inter LATA Calling (Anthony Bellanga) Linksys Wireless-G Media Link (Monty Solomon) SBC Plans Set-Top Box For Music, Photos, Downloads (Telecom dailyLead) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Lisa Hancock) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Rick Merrill) Re: TiVoToGo Service Enhancement (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear (Justin Time) Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human (Steve Sobol) Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (John Smith) Re: AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell (Rick Merrill) Re: Verizon Fios and its Effect on v.90 Modems? (dtowntech) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 23:12:24 -0700 From: Anthony Bellanga Subject: Kansas City Metro and Local Inter LATA Calling Reply-To: anthonybellanga@withheld on request Pat, please do not display my email address in my post, neither in the "from" line, nor in the "reply-to" line. I don't need to be spammed from outside anymore so than I presently am. Thanks. In "Re: Long Distance From Next Door", Wes Leatherock wrote: > There are many cases where local calling areas cross LATA boundaries, > so this is generally, in itself, irrelevant. One of the noted > interstate metropolitan exchanges is Kansas City, Mo.-Kan., which is > in two LATAs but one local calling area. While the MO and KS sides of the Kansas City Metro area are obviously in different states, and also in separate NPAs (816 Kansas City MO and 913 Kansas City KS), and there has been mandatory ten-digit local dialing between the two state and NPA sides for several years now, i.e., no "protected" c.o.codes in each NPA for at least the metro area, both the KS (913) and MO (816) sides of the Kansas City Metro area are in the same LATA, #524, an SBC LATA. LATAs can and do cover parts of multiple states. But there are other instances of local calling areas which do cross LATA boundaries, some happen to also be interstate and postdivestiture EAS calling. In all such inter LATA local calling cases that didn't already exist prior to divestiture, in addition to the state or several state regulatory bodies having to approve the new EAS (local) calling, the FCC must also give its nod to such inter LATA local calling, even if it is inter LATA but intra state. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 08:32:28 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Linksys Wireless-G Media Link Linksys, Intel Unveil Standards-Based Product That Distributes Protected Premium Content in the Home The Linksys New Wireless-G Media Link Enables Wireless Streaming Video, Music and Pictures to Play From the PC to the Entertainment Center IRVINE and SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Linksys(R), a division of Cisco Systems, Inc., and Intel Corporation, today announced the Linksys new digital media adapter that will enable broad, mainstream consumer adoption of on-line, on-demand video services. This new product includes support for DTCP-IP (Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP), an industry standard framework for media adapters to move Internet-based premium content from the PC to other devices on a wired or wireless home network. With this standard, the new Linksys Wireless-G Media Link (WMLV54G) will help allow consumers to enjoy premium movie and music services from such companies as Movielink and RealNetworks Inc. on TV and stereos around their home in the future. Home networks now offer consumers much more than just sharing an Internet connection among PCs. The proliferation of digital content and broadband Internet adoption has spurred rapid innovation in consumer electronics devices that will enable the sharing of PC and Internet content on any TV and stereo in the home. The emerging category of digital media adapters is an important element in delivering this capability to mainstream consumers. The Linksys Wireless-G Media Link for video, music and photos is the next product in a line of wireless entertainment devices from Linksys that brings consumers exciting new capabilities such as support for premium online movie and music services, high-definition photos and video, and the most advanced media formats, including MPEG4 and WMV. With the Linksys Wireless-G Media Link, the Digital5 middleware solution, and a high-performance PC based on the Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 processor with Intel Hyper-Threading (HT) technology, consumers will be able to wirelessly send a broad selection of personal and protected premium content stored on the their PCs or pulled from select Internet services to their TVs, stereos, entertainment centers and other PCs throughout the house. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45981924 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 13:44:16 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: SBC Plans Set-Top Box for Music, Photos, Downloads Telecom dailyLead from USTA January 4, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18500&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * SBC plans set-top box for music, photos, downloads BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Motorola seeks younger demographic with new line of outerwear * Report: Cisco, Nortel won Comcast fiber deal * Intelsat names cell phone exec as CEO * Verizon to carry Court TV USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order IP in Wireless Networks Today! EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Orb Networks links content devices through Web browser * Companies team up to develop "Super 3G" * Vonage to offer Wi-Fi phone REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * China clears Corning of dumping charges Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18500&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Date: 4 Jan 2005 08:21:09 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > There are many cases where local calling areas cross LATA boundaries, > so this is generally, in itself, irrelevant. One of the noted > interstate metropolitan exchanges is Kansas City, Mo.-Kan., which is > in two LATAs but one local calling area. Yes, in many places you're allowed to call to the adjacent exchange across a LATA boundary (regardless of state line or area code boundary). It gets confusing because some LATAs have multiple area codes while some area codes have multiple LATAs. Further adding to the confusion are various local calling plans, some of which provide wider calling areas. Someone mentioned rate centers being created. In one part of Verizon (nee Bell Tel of PA) they've consolidated minor rate centers and reduced message unit charges. Many calls that for many years used up message units are now untimed. Where message units remain (called 'measured service' now, the rate of 7c/unit has been stable for years, and night/weekend discounts introduced. However, there are other boundaries that are strictly toll, such as between New Jersey and NYC or NJ and Phila. Would anyone know past and current charging practices for North American international calls between two adjacent cities (ie US and Canada or US and Mexico)? Did they charge you the full expensive international rate for a 5 mile call or give a break? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 16:52:23 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Thanks for the great link. Here is how to "port " a number :-) http://tinyurl.com/4namm ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: TiVoToGo Service Enhancement Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 03:27:35 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications Monty Solomon wrote: > TiVo(R) Goes Mobile; Delivers Groundbreaking TiVoToGo(TM) Service > Enhancement > - Jan 3, 2005 05:00 AM (PR Newswire) > TiVoToGo(TM) Service Enhancement Allows Subscribers to Enjoy Their > Favorite Shows Anytime, Anywhere > ALVISO, Calif., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) > announced today its new TiVoToGo(TM) service enhancement is now > available and has begun to roll out the software update to standalone > TiVo(R) Series2(TM) boxes. The TiVoToGo service enhancement allows > subscribers to transfer programs from their TiVo box to a laptop to > enjoy their favorite shows anywhere, anytime. The TiVoToGo service > enhancement is available at no extra charge as part of the TiVo > service. TiVoToGo adds to a growing list of exclusive features found > only on the TiVo service and not available on generic cable or > satellite DVR. These include, Online Scheduling, Season Pass(TM) > recordings, WishList(TM) searches, and home networked music and > photos. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45953241 It's a neat concept but typical of today's hype. I have two of the qualified Series Two units already network, thus ready to go. I signed up for the system operating software today and the site advised me to be patient because it would be several weeks. Plus, the third-party software necessary to make it all work is not ready. Since I update programming and system software via the Internet you would think they could make that distinction because I don't tie up phone lines and a software update is transmitted to my machine in minutes instead of a couple of hours. Oh well ... hype is the way of American life. ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear Date: 4 Jan 2005 06:24:19 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Yea, you know that, I know that and anybody who takes the time to read their manual knows that. But the story wasn't written to inform, it was written to alarm and cause a backlash against "Big Brother" and their invasion of *MY* privacy, which is absolute BS, but that doesn't look so good in print. Rodgers ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Customer Service: The Hunt for a Human Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 10:20:21 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Thomas A. Horsley wrote: > To which I say Thank God! (or at least Jeff Bezos). No hanging on hold > forever -- none of my time wasted. I send my email, and forget about > it. Later I get a response (and usually a pretty prompt and useful one > clearly written by a human who knows whats up) -- I can deal with it > when I get around to reading the mail. The problem is that a lot of companies suck at reading mail in any reasonable timeframe. I use both phone and email, depending on the company. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 20:26:31 GMT Organization: ntl Cablemodem News Service Alan Burkitt-Gray wrote in message news:telecom23.620.3@telecom-digest.org: > I thought Digest fans would be interested in this programme on BBC Radio 4 > tonight (Monday 27) at 20.00 GMT (3pm ET): > It's available when broadcast from the BBC Radio Four website in RealAudio > on http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/radio4.shtml?fm > (you can download a free player if you don't already have it) > The Secret Life of Phone Numbers > Dialing up stories from the history of telephony, Ian Peacock recalls the > days of two-digit phone numbers and purring dial tones, GPO operators and > mechanical exchanges. He discovers that this era was still with us even as > digital technology and mobile phones entered our lives in the 1990s. > Producer Alan Daulby > The BBC has a listen again facility, also in RealAudio, for up to > seven days after original broadcast: > http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml > Alan Burkitt-Gray > alan@burkitt-gray.com > 7 Foxes Dale, London SE3 9BD, UK > tel 020 8463 0365 international +44 20 8463 0365 > mobile 079 6202 1330 international +44 79 6202 1330 Hmmm, can't find this ... Any pointers? Ta ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 15:48:08 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell Dang! Except for the bronchitis I have nearly the same story but in Massachusetts. AT&T is a bad example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Part of the problem is that each department uses a different system. Another part of the problem is the "local number service" system where someone other than ATT has your local number that must be ported to another provider. - RM ------------------------------ From: dtowntech Subject: Re: Verizon Fios and its Effect on v.90 Modems? Date: 4 Jan 2005 15:35:29 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com FIos is fiber from the Central office all the way to your door step. It will creat the shortest analog conversion because it will be at your door step. There is no other D/A conversion until you reach the central office of the modem you are connceting to. CharlesWGreenJr@NetScape.Net wrote: > It looks like we'll soon be getting Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises on > our street, so I can give up my Adelphia cable modem. In reading > about other people's experiences, however, a thought has occurred to > me: > It is sometimes necessary for me to dial up via modem when my home > broadband connection doesn't work, or there are VPN issues between my > laptop and the workplace. It's my understanding that when people opt > to have the fiber broadband brought to their house, it *replaces* the > existing copper pairs which are currently serving my analog phone - a > box is mounted outside the house, the fiber goes in, and broadband and > phone connections come out and go into the house. (Somewhere in > there, power and backup battery from the homeowner come into play as > well.) > I understand that v.90 gets its high-speed inbound capability when > there is a pure digital path from the remote / server "modem" end all > the way to a single D/A converter which serves the analog feed to the > house. The shorter and cleaner the analog end, the better the modem > does. And if there's another A/D - D/A stage in between, the v.90 > "magic" is lost. > Does anyone know whether FTTP, at least for Verizon, means that the > phone connection can now be pure digital all the way to my house, or > is some sort of conversion performed on the signal before it gets to > the neighborhood which might wreak havoc with v.90? > Thanks, > Charles Green ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #6 From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jan 5 17:20:32 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j05MKWB02714; Wed, 5 Jan 2005 17:20:32 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 17:20:32 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501052220.j05MKWB02714@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #7 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 Jan 2005 17:20:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 7 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Vonage Offers Internet Users Wireless Phones (Lisa Minter) Level 3's VoIP Services Offer Critical E-911 Capability (Jack Decker) Online Marketer Agrees to Halt 'Spyware' Ads (Lisa Minter) FTC Settles, For Now, With (Spam King) Wallace (Danny Burstein) Site Wins Right to Dub Famed Stuntman 'Pimp' (Lisa Minter) Another Appeals Court Requires Net Music Suits (Lisa Minter) MediaPortal (Monty Solomon) Sat Radio Recording Moves Ahead (Monty Solomon) Cingular, Lucent Complete First HSDPA Test Atlanta (Telecom dailyLead) REN For Western Electric Products (Lisa Hancock) Telefiesta Article of November 19, 2001 (Olivia Rodriguez) Are Sprint Local Customers Really This Stupid? (Andrew Bell) Yeilding Party Lines (Lisa Hancock) Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (Linc Madison) Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Long Distance From Next Door (Tony P.) Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear (Tony P.) Re: International Long Distance From Next Door (John R. Levine) How Ignorant! Homosexuality, Fornication Caused Asia Tsunami (L Minter) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Vonage Offers Internet Users Wireless Phones Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 09:51:52 EST LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Vonage, the U.S. pioneer of low-cost phone service over Internet broadband connections, on Tuesday said it was working with a phone maker to offer a "Wi-Fi" handset for subscribers to use at home or around town. The Edison, New Jersey-based company said it had partnered with UTStarcom, a diversified maker of telecommunications equipment based in Alameda, California, to introduce a portable Wi-Fi handset in the spring or summer. In a series of announcements timed ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show conference here this week, Vonage unveiled plans for the wireless phone, a separate cordless model, and to make these phones available broadly through retailers. The new Wi-Fi handset, to be known as the F-1000, would be designed to work with Vonage phone service out of the box for U.S. subscribers. The phones would take advantage of local radio airwaves on the most mainstream of Wi-Fi standards -- the so-called "B" standard. The Wi-Fi handset can act as a replacement to traditional fixed-line phones that a subscriber might have around the house. It can also work when it is within range of any nearby Wi-Fi hotspot out of the house, according to UTStarcom. Separately, Vonage said it had agreed to a partnership with phone maker VTech (0303.HK), one of North America's largest suppliers of conventional phones, to create a cordless phone system that runs on Vonage's broadband service. The product is based on Texas Instruments Inc.'s VoIP chipset, and will be available at more than 8,000 U.S. retail locations during the spring/summer of 2005. The phone plugs directly into a customer's broadband Internet connection. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 14:16:16 -0500 Subject: Level 3's VoIP Services Offer Critical E-911 Capability http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-04-2005/0002767259&EDATE= Level 3's VoIP Services Offer Critical E-911 Capability to 60 Million U.S. Households Company Plans to Extend Coverage Further Throughout 2005 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) announced today that its operating subsidiary can now provide E-911-enabled Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services to areas encompassing approximately 60 million households nationwide. Level 3 made the announcement on the eve of the Consumer VoIP Summit being held in conjunction with the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Over the course of the past year, Level 3 has been deploying its E-911 VoIP solution in more than 300 markets across the country and plans to expand its E-911 coverage further throughout 2005. The E-911 solution, which is a foundational component of Level 3's broad suite of VoIP services, enables ISPs, cable companies, local phone companies, long-distance providers and others to build E-911 functionality into the VoIP services they offer to enterprises and consumers. "Adoption of VoIP in both business and residential markets is growing at exponential rates," said Sureel Choksi, executive vice president of services for Level 3. "It is increasingly important that VoIP service providers be able to deliver E-911 in order to meet the demands of the market, as well as fulfill important public-safety needs. Level 3 made a significant investment in building its E-911 network platform for VoIP in 2004, and we believe that this capability is a key reason why leading communications companies are choosing Level 3 as their preferred provider of wholesale VoIP services." E-911 (for "Enhanced 911") delivers address-specific information to public safety agencies whenever someone makes a 911 call, enabling first responders to be dispatched to the scene of an emergency even if the caller is unable to speak or if the call is suddenly disconnected. But delivering E-911 presents challenges with VoIP, because determining the location of the caller is difficult in an IP-based network transaction. Today, many VoIP service providers use so-called "10-digit routing" to deliver basic 911 capability to their customers. Although this method is relatively easy and low-cost to implement, it provides emergency responders with only a phone number and not the location of the person requiring assistance. Level 3 has leveraged its existing nationwide network to interconnect with 911 Tandems and establish dedicated connections from its network to PSTN switches that serve Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) in over 1,500 rate centers around the country. "In our view, mainstream consumers will not fully embrace Voice over IP as a replacement for the traditional land line unless they are confident that it will deliver the public-safety features they are accustomed to," said Donna Lachance, senior vice president of Consumer Voice Services for Level 3. "We believe the E-911 capability we are embedding into the Level 3 network represents enormous progress in addressing this issue, and that it will serve as a real differentiator for Level 3 in the marketplace. We are committed to maintaining a leadership position in this area, and we look forward to expanding our E-911 footprint even further in the coming quarters." Level 3 has embedded E-911 functionality into its suite of business and residential VoIP offerings. For more information about Level 3's business and consumer voice services, visit booth 71047I inside the Consumer VoIP Techzone at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, or visit http://www.level3.com/3184.html. Level 3 has also developed a position paper on E-911 and Voice over IP, available at http://www.level3.com/userimages/dotcom/pdf/Enhancing_911_White_Paper.pdf. Full press release at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-04-2005/0002767259&EDATE= How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Online Marketer Agrees to Halt 'Spyware' Ads Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:17:33 EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Internet marketer has agreed to stop inundating computers with unwanted "spyware" that can disable users' computers while he fights a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Sanford Wallace and his two companies, Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. and SmartBot.Net Inc., have agreed to stop distributing programs that secretly crawl onto Web surfers' computers, though they will be able to display pop-up ads, according to an agreement filed on Dec. 20. The agreement, filed in U.S. District Court in Concord, New Hampshire, remains in place until the FTC's charges of deceptive business practices are settled. The FTC sued Wallace in October in a case widely touted as the first federal attempt to crack down on spyware. The FTC said Wallace's software disables computers in an attempt to bully their owners into buying anti-spyware products. Wallace did not have to admit guilt as part of the agreement. An attorney for Wallace was not available for comment and an FTC spokesman declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. Internet users running Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer Web browser become infected when they visit Web sites that contain certain banner ads, the FTC said. The software then hijacks Web browsers, causes CD-ROM trays to slide open and slows down computers or causes them to cease working altogether, all the while displaying a torrent of pop-up ads urging consumers to buy programs called Spy Wiper or Spy Deleter to clean up the mess. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright ownerm in this instance Reuters News Service.. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: FTC Settles, For Now, With (Spam King) Wallace Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 20:19:43 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC (nothing yet on the FTC website. If there's nothing significant continuing beyond what the press clip reports, I'm very disappointed) "CONCORD, N.H. Under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission, a man known as the "Spam King" will stop infecting computers with advertising programs until a federal lawsuit against him is resolved. "Stanford Wallace and his companies, SmartBot.net Inc. of Richboro, Pa., and Seismic Entertainment Productions Inc. of Rochester, are required by the agreement to send online ads only to people who visit their Web sites. "The government says Wallace used spyware to infiltrate computers, overwhelming them with ads and other programs. Then, he tried to sell programs he claimed would fix the problems. The government said the remedies do not work. "'The commission does believe this is great relief for consumers until the matter is ultimately resolved in the courts,' said Laura Sullivan, a lawyer for the FTC. 'This provides wonderful protection for consumers in the interim ... rest at (among others): http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/aptech_story.asp?category=1700&slug=FTC%20Spyware _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Site Wins Right to Dub Famed Stuntman 'Pimp' Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:21:01 EST By Adam Tanner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel cannot sue a Web site that published a photo of him with two women above a caption reading "You're never too old to be a pimp," a U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The term "pimp" was probably intended as a compliment, the court said. But Knievel said, "What good is law in the United States of America if five or six goddamn bimbos are going to rule against it?" The Montana native sued after ESPN, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Co., published a photo of the famed stunt driver at the Action Sports and Music Awards in 2001 with his arms around his wife and a second young woman. The photo on the EXPN.com Web site ran alongside that of other people with captions that, in the words of a lower court ruling, "contained loose, figurative, slang language." The motorcycle rider, who gained notoriety jumping over rows of buses, trucks and other barriers in the 1960s and 1970s, sued, alleging the photo brought him and his wife "public disgrace and scandal." After a Montana district court dismissed the case at the request of ESPN, Knievel appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. "Although the word 'pimp' may be reasonably capable of defamatory meaning when read in isolation, we agree with the district court's assessment that 'the term loses its meaning when considered in the context presented here,"' Judge Wallace Tashima wrote for the three-judge panel. "The term 'pimp' as used on the EXPN.com Web site was not intended as a criminal accusation, nor was it reasonably susceptible to such a literal interpretation. Ironically, it was most likely intended as a compliment." In a dissent that quoted William Shakespeare, Judge Carlos Bea backed Knievel. "Good name in man and woman, dear my lord, Is the immediate jewel of their souls," he wrote, quoting Shakespeare's Iago. Then in his own voice, Bea wrote, "In my view, the word 'pimp' is reasonably susceptible to a defamatory meaning." Informed of the decision by a telephone call to his home in Clearwater, Florida, Knievel responded angrily. "They disregarded the goddamn law and they ought to be discharged, they ought to be ashamed of themselves," he told Reuters. "They ruled against the law. What good is law in the United States of America if five or six goddamn bimbos are going to rule against it?" Knievel, 66, added that he would ask his lawyer to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Another Appeals Court Requires Net Music Suits Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:23:56 EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Music-industry investigators must file a lawsuit to uncover the identities of people who may be copying their songs online, a U.S. appeals court said on Tuesday in a decision that echoes earlier rulings on the subject. Internet service providers like Charter Communications Inc. don't have to turn over customers' names whenever they receive a request from the Recording Industry Association of America the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said. Instead, the RIAA must file an anonymous "John Doe" lawsuit to get the names of suspected song-swappers, an extra step that Internet providers say will discourage frivolous requests. The decision will have little effect for the recording industry, which began filing such lawsuits a year ago after an appeals court in Washington reached a similar conclusion. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to examine that ruling in October. Industry officials had hoped that the Eighth Circuit, which covers much of the Midwest, would uphold the tactic and create an inconsistent legal landscape that could force the Supreme Court to take another look. An RIAA spokesman said the decision would not deter the trade group's legal campaign against copyright violators. "We have successfully utilized the John Doe litigation process to sue thousands of illegal file sharers, so our enforcement efforts will not miss a beat," RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy said. RIAA members include privately held Warner Music Group, EMI Group Plc and the music divisions of Sony Corp, Vivendi Universal and Bertelsmann AG. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:32:17 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MediaPortal MediaPortal combines TV (IPTV or Satellite) with broadband Internet to bring the best of the airwaves and the Internet to your TV set. The integrated Satellite and Digital Television Receiver, High-Definition Digital Video Recorder and Digital Media Server make MediaPortal the most powerful set top box available anywhere. Multi-Room Entertainment Networking and compelling Broadband Media Services provide the easiest way for the entire family to enjoy the digital lifestyle. http://www.2wire.com/?p=11 Product Sheet http://www.2wire.com/pages/pdfs/11.pdf Specs http://www.2wire.com/?p=13 MediaPoint http://www.2wire.com/?p=12 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 10:47:12 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sat Radio Recording Moves Ahead By John Gartner A handful of new and soon-to-be-released devices enable music listeners to automatically record tracks from satellite radio broadcasts onto hard drives or portable music players such as the iPod. While the recording industry has publicly decried such activities for terrestrial radio, analysts say it has a financial reason for remaining silent about satellite radio recording. Satellite radio broadcasters XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio each deliver more than 100 channels of music, sports and news in high-quality digital audio streams to home, portable and automobile receivers. Last June, the Recording Industry Association of America sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission describing the ability to record songs from digital broadcasts as the "perfect storm" facing the music industry. But within weeks, electronics manufacturer Delphi and Time Trax Technologies released the first products for recording digital tracks from satellite radio, without a note of discord from the RIAA. Time Trax will increase the number of radio-recording devices this month at the Consumer Electronics Show , and CEO Elliot Frutkin expects the recording industry will turn a deaf ear. "I am not immediately concerned about the RIAA challenging Time Trax," said Frutkin. Frutkin said Time Trax will unveil a docking station that enables PC users to schedule the recording of broadcasts and to save tracks, including the artist and title information, directly to Apple Computer's iPod. (A Macintosh version is not currently in development). The company will also unveil two devices for recording from Sirius broadcasts that will parallel products the company delivered for XM listeners late last year, according to Frutkin. To discourage recorded songs from being posted on peer-to-peer networks, the company's TimeTrax software application embeds the serial number of the receiver into the track information, making it easy to trace the source, Frutkin said. "We are not being cowboys telling people to do whatever they want to do" with the tracks they record, Frutkin said. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,66156,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 13:13:29 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Cingular, Lucent Complete First HSDPA Test in Atlanta Market Telecom dailyLead from USTA January 5, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18532&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cingular, Lucent complete first HSDPA test in Atlanta market BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Comcast in deal with RealNetworks * Wayport surpasses 6,300 locations * Sony Ericsson to sponsor women's tennis tour * Charter offers Wi-Fi * InPhonic inks two-year deal with AT&T USTA SPOTLIGHT * Fill your most urgent job requirements EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * DVRs, portable entertainment devices take center stage at CES * Sirius, Microsoft to develop video service for autos REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Minnesota to challenge FCC's VoIP ruling * Level 3 plans E-911 expansion Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18532&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: REN For Western Electric Products? Date: 5 Jan 2005 11:34:08 -0800 I understand the "ringer equivalance" value is based on the WE 500 set which is defined as 1. Would anyone know what the REN is for certain other WE products such as: 1) 302/354 sets. (The "art deco" telephone set developed in 1938, was the first to have the ringer within the set.) 2) Older wall mounted "bell boxes" used for 202 and earlier sets. 3) The "Bell Chime", an extension ringer that has several settings on it. Can sould like a regular phone, a doorbell chime, or a very loud bell. 4) A more modern WE extension ringer which is a small gray box, roughly 3x6x2 inches. 5) An outdoor ringer. These had two exposed gongs, usually painted gray or black. Used outside or in big rooms like gyms where an extra loud ringer was needed. 6) Trimline and Princess telephone sets, which used a more compact ringer to fit into the small base. Thanks! [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: Olivia Rodriguez Subject: Telefiesta Article November 19, 2001 Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 13:35:23 -0600 Good Afternoon Mr Townson, I'm writing to you to see where I can locate the above article on Telefiesta, published November 19, 2001. Do you have any additional information on Telefiesta or NORTE. PLease advise. Thank you in advance for your prompt attention. Olivia Rodriguez ------------------------------ From: Andrew Bell Subject: Does Sprint Really Believe Their Customers Are This Stupid? Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 16:43:41 -0500 [PAT - please replace my email address with andrewb314@yahoo.ca] My daughter lives in North Carolina and has Sprint as her local provider. I'm a Bell Canada customer. Whenever we phone her, we get an intercept that claims we are an "unidentified caller", and requires us to speak our name to be put through. The system then rings her, and she accepts the call, etc. We don't block our outbound CID, but I'm guessing this is some kind of privacy screener that kicks in because our CID is not getting passed down to her switch properly. This also happens if I call from work, and CID is not blocked here either. We do receive number only CID from her when she calls us. Anyway, now the good part -- my daughter claims that they didn't want this service, so I pointed out that she was probably paying extra for it, and should call Sprint to have it removed. When called, she was told that there was no way to remove the service, as it was there "to prevent other phone companies from stealing her long distance" (!!!!!) Does anyone here have any insights into the CID issue, or perhaps just want to share in my amazement at the explanation they gave her? Andrew [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Have her call back and tell them she does not care if 'some other phone company steals her long distance', just to remove the privacy screener from her line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Yielding Party Lines Date: 5 Jan 2005 13:14:46 -0800 Recently there was a discussion of party lines and use thereof. According to the criminal code: > Refusing to yield a party line > A person is guilty of a disorderly persons offense when, being > informed that a party line is needed for an emergency call, he refuses > immediately to relinquish such line. > "Party line" means a subscriber's line telephone circuit, > consisting of two or more main telephone stations connected therewith, > each station with a distinctive ring or telephone number. > "Emergency call" means a telephone call to a police or fire > department or for medical aid or ambulance service, necessitated by a > situation in which human life or property is in jeopardy and prompt > summoning of aid is essential. In other states, the law also states that claiming an emergency when none exists is also an offense. It is my understanding that some POTS users still have party line service these days. It would appear that using computer modems on such lines that would prevent interuption for emergency would be a violation of this law. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is the reason why telco tariffs also state that no 'attachments' (i.e. even telephones other than the ones supplied by telco itself) can be used on party lines. Modems are not permitted under tariff on party lines. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 18:06:36 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , John Smith wrote: > Alan Burkitt-Gray wrote in message > news:telecom23.620.3@telecom-digest.org: >> The BBC has a listen again facility, also in RealAudio, for up to >> seven days after original broadcast: >> http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml > Hmmm, can't find this ... Any pointers? The programme in question has rolled off the seven-day queue and is no longer available on the web site. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2005 19:17:35 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Smith wrote: > Hmmm, can't find this ... Any pointers? In an attempt to keep the copyright police happy, the BBC limits replays to 7 days after the original airing of the program. As such, it's no longer available on the BBC web site. My wav file copy is a too large to email (15MB), my upstream channel isn't fast enough to entice me into putting it somewhere for people to download and it captured to a flavor of wav that won't convert to mp3 using Audiograbber, so I can't compress it. :( That said, it's a good program. If you can't find a copy of it somewhere a little closer to home, send me a private email and we'll see if we can work something out. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Long Distance From Next Door Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 21:32:12 -0500 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > Wesrock@aol.com wrote: >> There are many cases where local calling areas cross LATA boundaries, >> so this is generally, in itself, irrelevant. One of the noted >> interstate metropolitan exchanges is Kansas City, Mo.-Kan., which is >> in two LATAs but one local calling area. > Yes, in many places you're allowed to call to the adjacent exchange > across a LATA boundary (regardless of state line or area code > boundary). It gets confusing because some LATAs have multiple area > codes while some area codes have multiple LATAs. Further adding to > the confusion are various local calling plans, some of which provide > wider calling areas. In many cases the reason for crossing LATA boundaries is because it is cheaper for them to use the switch that happens to site on the other side of the LATA boundary than to build out a new one. For example, any number in Providence, RI (401) can call 508-336 (Seekonk), 508-761 (Attleboro), and a few others that don't come immediately to mind. I know that Woonsocket, RI can call Bellingham, MA toll free as the communities are right next to each other. > Someone mentioned rate centers being created. In one part of Verizon > (nee Bell Tel of PA) they've consolidated minor rate centers and > reduced message unit charges. Many calls that for many years used up > message units are now untimed. I can remember when Coventry, RI was a toll to/from Warwick, RI for many years. Confounded lots of people until it was realized that Coventry was under-trunked. Finally when everything went digital Nynex realized they couldn't keep raking people over the calls with asinine calling areas. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Go Ahead, Just Try to Disappear Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 21:34:44 -0500 In article , a_user2000@yahoo.com says: > Yea, you know that, I know that and anybody who takes the time to read > their manual knows that. But the story wasn't written to inform, it > was written to alarm and cause a backlash against "Big Brother" and > their invasion of *MY* privacy, which is absolute BS, but that doesn't > look so good in print. Sort of how the rights management to be built into new consumer electronics only have to be so good as to defeat the average end user from overcoming them. So in other words those of us who aren't afraid of the guts of electronic gear, have our amateur and general radio licenses and a pretty good knowledge of digital electronics won't have any problem defeating it. I can't wait! ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: International Long Distance From Next Door Date: 4 Jan 2005 22:34:01 -0500 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Would anyone know past and current charging practices for North > American international calls between two adjacent cities (ie US and > Canada or US and Mexico)? Did they charge you the full expensive > international rate for a 5 mile call or give a break? It depends (TM). Between the US and Canada, there are a few places with local calling across the border. Lists of them have been posted from time to time, but they all seem to be rather small towns. Niagara Falls NY to Niagara Falls ON is toll, as is Detroit MI to Windsor ON. As far as I can tell, the places that are toll have always been toll and the places that are free have always been free. According to messages in the digest a few years ago, in some cases the phone exchanges were wired across the border with a small US town hung off a larger Canadian switch or vice-versa, but it's all normalized now, meaning that a free local call from Derby Line VT to Rock Island QC most likely goes to a remote in Derby Line, then to the main switch in St Johnsbury, perhaps to the main LATA tandem in Burlington, then to a a tandem someplace like Sherbrooke QC, then to the remote in Rock Island, and to the destination phone which might be six feet from the caller. Fiber bandwidth has gotten so cheap that it's often not worth the hassle of maintaing the shortcut routes that used to be common. For a long time the phones in many border areas of Mexico were part of the US phone system and had US area codes. I gather that in many cases there was free local calling across the border. In the 1980s that was all unwound and now I'm unaware of any local calling across the border. ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 18:01:15 GMT Subject: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article, from WorldNetDaily.com does not, they say, reflect their opinion at that web site, and it certainly does not reflect the views of Telecom Digest nor Lisa nor myself. But it is gaining some sympathizers, not only among the Muslim community but also among very conservative Christians in the United States. It is really pretty awful that some people have this much ignorance and hatred in their own lives to deal with. PAT] Homosexuality, fornication cause of tsunami? A Muslim Saudi professor says the earthquake and tsunami in south Asia were punishment from Allah for homosexuality and fornication committed by residents and visitors of affected countries at Christmastime. A television interview of Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor at the Al-Imam University, was translated and posted on the Internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project. MEMRI TV The interview can be viewed on MEMRI's website. "These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out villages, towns, cities and even entire countries, are Allah's punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims," stated Al-Fawzan. "Some of our forefathers said that if there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits its destruction." The professor singled out beach resorts as places of sexual sin. "We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in south Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant," he said, "The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah. It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion. That's when this tragedy took place, striking them all and destroyed everything It turned the land into wasteland, where only the cries of the ravens are heard I say this is a great sign and punishment on which Muslims should reflect." Al-Fawzan urged Muslims to atone for their sin. "All that's left for us to do is to ask for forgiveness. We must atone for our sins and for the acts of the stupid people among us and improve our condition. We must fight fornication, homosexuality, usury, fight the corruption on the face of the earth, and the disregard of the lives of protected people." ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #7 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jan 6 20:09:28 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0719St12961; Thu, 6 Jan 2005 20:09:28 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 20:09:28 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501070109.j0719St12961@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #8 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 Jan 2005 20:09:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 8 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Online Scams Emerge in Tsunami's Wake (Lisa Minter) A&E, National Geographic to Send TV Over Internet (Lisa Minter) Verizon to Launch Video, Music Services - Analysts (Lisa Minter) Telco Outage in India? (Scott Dorsey) Google Telecom-Digest Archive (Neal McLain) WorldCom Directors Settle Lawsuits (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Voice Link via Infrared (baumgrenze) Motorola Introduces SBG940 Cable Modem Gateway (cecilw@pullman.com) For Sale: Efficient Networks 5100 ADSL Modems (kevinw@idpc.com) Cable Finds Its Voice (Eric Friedebach) Re: International Long Distance From Next Door (Linc Madison) Re: International Long Distance From Next Door (Mark Crispin) Re: AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted (Aaron Gutleben) Re: Yielding Party Lines (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers (Rick Merrill) Re: REN For Western Electric Products? (Rick Merrill) Re: Vonage Discussion Group Started (Dave Close) Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News (Joseph) Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News (LB@notmine.com) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Lisa Minter Subject: Online Scams Emerge in Tsunami's Wake Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 18:44:56 EST By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scam artists are posing as tsunami victims on the Internet in a bid to divert some of the millions of dollars flowing to relief efforts, security experts warned on Wednesday. Crudely written appeals for help have begun to appear in e-mail inboxes, asking for donations through a Web site or an offshore bank account, the analysts said. "It's only a matter of time before ... we have fully fledged Web sites that spoof well-known charities, for example," said Paul Wood, chief information security analyst at MessageLabs, an Internet security company. Aid organizations have collected millions of dollars through the Internet since a tsunami claimed an estimated 150,000 lives from Indonesia to Africa on Dec. 26. Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. alone has collected $14.4 million for the American Red Cross through its Web site. Similar scam attempts surfaced after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on the United States. "It's a good opportunity for the criminals out for a quick buck, and it's something that people are going to respond to," said Forrester Research analyst Jonathan Penn. The fraudulent appeals are patterned after two existing scams: "phishing" attacks that direct people to legitimate-looking Web sites in order to trick them into giving up their credit card numbers, and 419 scams, messages that promise great riches in exchange for a bank account number. One message provided to Reuters asks for help freeing up a bank account in the Netherlands, a common 419 tactic. Another claims to be from a small village in Indonesia but asks recipients to route donations through a bank account in Malta. "We have been rendered homeless and have lost all we have in life. ... We will be very grateful if you can assist us with any amount of money to enable us to start a new lease of life," the message says. Ken Dunham, malicious code intelligence manager for the Internet security company iDefense, said such scams can be very effective. "It's a get-rich-quick thing, and it makes perfect sense in light of the disaster. Everybody's heard of it, they all know lots of people have died off, maybe whole families have died off, and monies truly are available," Dunham said. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it has received no complaints about tsunami relief scams so far. The agency urged donors to contact legitimate aid organizations and disregard phone and e-mail solicitations. (Additional reporting by Peter Kaplan) NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I guess it was just a matter of time before the s[p/c]ammers started working the Asian Tsunami as best they could. I've already gotten a few of them in email (I guess my email address is like a magnet for that sort of thing) and they are such heart-breaking stories. Too bad many/most of them are so bogus. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: A&E, National Geographic to Send TV Over Internet Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 18:46:32 EST LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Four cable television channels, including A&E and National Geographic will use the Internet to broadcast programs in a deal with video-on-demand company Akimbo Systems, Akimbo said on Wednesday. The Biography Channel and the History Channel are also part of the announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show, the largest annual technology trade show in the United States. A major theme at the show this year is the proliferation of lower-priced, larger high-definition television screens, and companies like Akimbo are scrambling to carve out a niche providing content for those big screens. Privately held Akimbo sells a programing service and a television set-top box that uses high-speed Internet connections to gather and store TV shows. It can hold up to 200 hours of video. A&E, Biography Channel and History Channel -- all units of A&E Television Networks, a joint venture of broadcasters ABC and NBC and the Hearst Corp. -- will provide various shows like "American Justice," "Biography," "Growing Up Gotti" and "Dog the Bounty Hunter" to Akimbo. National Geographic will serve up films from programs from its library and films like "Inside the Pentagon" and "21 Days to Baghdad." Akimbo's box retails for $230 and service is $10 a month. Walt Disney Co. owns ABC and General Electric Co. controls NBC. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Verizon to Launch Video, Music Services-Analysts Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 18:47:21 EST By Sinead Carew NEW YORK (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless, the second-biggest U.S. mobile telephone provider, is expected on Friday to introduce mobile video and music services and phones capable of high speed Web surfing, analysts say. Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone, said it plans to reveal a new service at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Friday. It did not provide details, but several analysts, including Maribel Lopez of Forrester Research, said it will likely announce services for downloading both video and digital music. "I think video is a logical step," she said. Rival Sprint Corp. already sells a streaming video service that delivers news and entertainment to mobile phones. It has said it eventually plans to provide a service for downloading songs. Operators around the world are developing advanced services such as Web surfing and game downloads to bolster revenue from falling phone call prices. Analysts expect a flurry of music services and video services this year. Verizon Wireless could also launch high-speed mobile phones from companies such as Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Ltd. and UTStarcom Inc. which bought phone supplier Audiovox. Samsung on Tuesday revealed its SCH-a890 phone with video and high-speed capability based on EV-DO technology and said it was designed for the U.S. market. Verizon Wireless currently provides the only U.S. service based on EV-DO, technology that delivers Web surfing to phones at speeds similar to many home computers. It offers the service in 16 U.S. markets and plans to expand to nationwide this year. Samsung did not say who would sell its phone. But Andrew Seybold, president of consultancy Outlook 4Mobility, guessed Verizon would launch a video service using a Samsung phone. Phonescoop.com, a Web site aimed at helping U.S. consumers shopping for mobile handsets, lists EV-DO phones from Audiovox and LG as potential offerings from Verizon Wireless. The Audiovox CDM-8940 phone supports streaming video and has a camera that can also record video, according to the Web site. LG's LG VX-8000 phone has a high resolution color screen. UTStarcom declined to comment and LG was not available. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Yahoo News and Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Telco Outage in India? Date: 5 Jan 2005 23:12:18 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) For the last three evenings I have been trying to get through to any one of a number of phone numbers in Mumbai. I've tried Working Assets, AT&T, MCI, and a couple of the sleazebag VOiP long distance outfits. Not only do I get a fast busy with any number I try, but none of them seem to be able to place a person-to-person call either. They sit on the queue for an inbound operator to India and then the call gets dropped. Is there a substantial telco problem in India as the result of the tsunami? Mumbai is pretty far north and I didn't expect much damage there, but I imagine loads are high and there may be undersea cables out. Anyone know what the true situation with circuits to and within India is? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, tsumani or no tsumani, I have never had very good luck in reaching middle-eastern places on the phone. I used to work at a place several years ago where one of my duties was to try and collect money due the Americans from various middle-eastern debtors. (Typically at least thirty or forty thousand dollar debts which it had to be to make it worth while for the creditor to try and collect.) Dialing direct, the autodialer I used would 'pounce' on the line every ten seconds dialing over and over, while I sat there with my headset doing other work waiting for the call to actually complete without a re-order signal or an intercept. And to first obtain the number was quite a chore from directory enquiry. I had to go through the Pittsburgh IOC (International Operating Center) to get the number, and the operators would always tell me 'the longest we are allowed to work on a call without some sort of positive response is fifteen minutes', but it often times took 15-20 minutes just to get the local number to call in India, from the foreign operator. Pittsburgh would keypulse in the number for DA, it might ring 18-25 times, then that damnable recorded message they use in the middle east would come on, "Tel-eee-com! Your call has been placed in queue for a response from the operator. Please stand by ..." I think the same company which makes/made those machines for use in Latin American countries also made them for the Indians, at least it was always the same very crisp British voice with five or eight seconds of bouncy music in the background. Then it would all repeat itself, over and over and over and over and over. After five or ten minutes, and an infinite number of cycles of this approximatly ten second announcement, then *maybe* tel-eee-com would answer and look up the desired number, or maybe the machine would just cut off and your operator was left hanging to try again if she felt like it. Becuase I had a couple phone lines there, I could put my efforts 'up' on two lines at once and usually get through after some effort. Now that they are dealing with a tusnami, downed cables and people and buildings scattered all over, I can't imagine it has improved any. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 20:45:33 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Google Telecom-Digest Archive Has anybody else noticed how thoroughly Google had messed up its archive of past Telecom-Digest postings? Their archive used to reproduce each message in its entirety, in courier text. Now it truncates long messages. Several of the messages I've posted over the years are chopped off mid-word at around 700 words. Furthermore, it now uses arial text, which of course messes up columnar data (not to mention ASCII art). Except that it doesn't always use arial; sometimes, for no apparent reason, it leaves some lines in courier. All this rather upsets me because I link to many of my old messages from my own website. And I didn't keep copies of some of them because I trusted Google to keep them for me. I realize that PAT has a "back issues" archive. But it's difficult to use because each "back issue" includes about 50 issues strung together. And because PAT's archive is organized by issue number, but Google posts don't reference issue number. Maybe Google is telling me I shouldn't be so long-winded. Perhaps so; but in my mind, one of the great values of Telecom-Digest is the fact that long narratives can be posted for posterity (thanks, PAT!). Is there some other site out there that maintains an unadulterated archive? Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you can look directly on our web site http://telecom-digest.org/back-issues. You'll find the last year or so filed issue by issue; much older stuff is filed in clusters of fifty issues per file. Grep known details with a wild card as the argument in each cluster, then zero in on them from there. For volumes 9-18 there are also 'accelerated indexes' of message subject titles along with the volume number and (cluster of) fifty issues in which to look for your stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 12:41:18 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: January 6, 2005 - WorldCom directors settle lawsuits Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18563&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * WorldCom directors settle lawsuits BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Alltel in talks to buy Western Wireless * Microsoft announces deals with TiVo, BellSouth * AT&T, TI forge VoIP alliance USTA SPOTLIGHT * Order USTA's Best-Selling VoIP Implementation and Planning Guide Today EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Mobile content is focus of CES * Electronics makers seek to bypass cable set-top boxes REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Intercarrier compensation rules on FCC's agenda for next week Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18563&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: baumgrenze Subject: Voice Link via Infrared Date: 6 Jan 2005 09:58:40 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have a situation where running conventional cable to extend indoor voice telephone service would be 'unsightly.' Is there a commercially available infrared device for indoor, short-range bridging from a voice line connected to the demarc to another line 20 feet away? In principle, it seems as though the IR technology used for TV remotes, etc. should work. Yes, I know, I can accomplish this 'sort-of' using a cordless telephone, but the battery runs down at just the wrong time and the 'connection' is not always clean. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: cecilw@pullman.com Subject: Motorola Introduces SBG940 Cable Modem Gateway Date: 6 Jan 2005 06:12:57 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is the Motorola SBG940 available anywhere yet? Although I've seen one unit for sale on Ebay, I can't find it for sale at any stores or anyhwere else on the internet. What's up with this product? - Cecil VOIP News wrote: http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail/0,,4117_3474_23,00.html > Motorola Introduces New Cable Modems Designed for Wireless Home > Networking and Internet Telephony > Motorola extends its market leadership in the broadband-powered > connected home with two new products for customers worldwide. > HORSHAM, Pa., 22 April 2004 Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today unveiled > two powerful new cable modems for the connected home, the Motorola > SBV5120 and the Motorola SBG940. Both products are compliant > with the latest industry standards and extend the feature set of the > company's proven platform for IP services, integrating capabilities > such as voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony or wireless home networking. > The Motorola SBV5120 'Integrated Solution for Telephony and Data': > The Motorola SBV5120 is the newest member of Motorola's family of > telephony cable modems, providing an integrated solution for voice > telephony services and high-speed Internet access. The product > combines a multimedia telephony adapter with a PacketCableTM-compliant > cable modem which was recently certified for DOCSIS=AE 2.0 and 1.1 > (CW28), and Euro-DOCSIS 2.0. > The Motorola SBV5120 allows consumers to use their existing home > telephone wiring to power two lines of voice service, and supports all > class features including: > Basic call functionality > Three-way calling > Caller ID > Call forwarding > Voicemail messaging > Optional battery back-up > The Motorola SBG940 'Simplifying Wireless Home Networks' home > network. By bringing together two of Motorola's inherent strengths > its worldwide leadership in wireless communications and its > technology expertise in building broadband networks, the Motorola > SBG940 saves consumers from the headache of integrating multiple > devices when building a robust home network. > The SBG940 also offers enhanced features, including: > Integrated 802.11g Wireless Access Point > Integrated DOCSIS 2.0-certified / Euro-DOCSIS 2.0-certified Cable Modem > Recently CableHome 1.0 certified (CW28) > Integrated four port 10/100 Ethernet Switch > Integrated Advanced firewall protection > USB port for a PC connection > Motorola will demonstrate DOCSIS 2.0-certified versions of these > products at the NCTA 2004 trade show (2-5 May, New Orleans, Ernest > N. Morial Convention Center) at the company's booth #3323. In > addition, Motorola's wireless gateway technology is being used at > NCTA to enable wireless Internet access in the shows designated > Wi-Fi area. > The company will also demonstrate Euro-DOCSIS 2.0-certified versions > of these products, the SBV5120E and SBG940E at ANGA Cable > 2004, (11-13 May 2004, Kln, Germany) at Motorola stand B4, Hall > 13.1. ------------------------------ From: kevinw@idpc.com Subject: For Sale: Efficient Networks 5100 ADSL Modems Date: 6 Jan 2005 13:50:54 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Looking for ADSL modems compatible with SBC/Yahoo? $25ea. US + freight. Mint condition. 90 Day Warranty. Contact me today ... these are moving fast. Kevin Wendolowski Information Data Products Corp. 800-362-3770 Ext. 23 kevinw@IDPC.com ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Cable Finds Its Voice Date: 6 Jan 2005 14:37:01 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com David M. Ewalt, 01.06.05, Forbes.com NEW YORK - The most eagerly watched thing in the cable industry these days isn't a fledgling network or a cutting-edge drama -- it's plain old-fashioned conversation. Voice communications currently represent only a tiny part of the massive amounts of data carried over the cable networks. But voice-over-Internet Protocol services are starting to catch on as consumers get used to the idea of making phone calls over the Internet. Cable operators are increasingly eyeing voice as a driver of future growth and planning ways to expand their presence in both IP and wireless voice. "Voice-over-IP is a critical component for us," says Steve Gorman, Cox Communications' (nyse: COX - news - people ) vice president of product marketing and management for high-speed Internet. "We only have a small percentage of customers on it now, but we're increasingly looking at it." Since VoIP services run over the existing cable networks and don't require much extra hardware to deploy, they represent an attractively high-margin business for the cable carriers. http://www.forbes.com/wireless/2005/01/06/cx_de_0106cable.html Eric Friedebach /An Apollo Sandwich from Corky & Lenny's/ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: International Long Distance From Next Door Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 17:13:23 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , John R. Levine wrote: >> Would anyone know past and current charging practices for North >> American international calls between two adjacent cities (ie US and >> Canada or US and Mexico)? Did they charge you the full expensive >> international rate for a 5 mile call or give a break? > It depends (TM). > For a long time the phones in many border areas of Mexico were part > of the US phone system and had US area codes. I gather that in many > cases there was free local calling across the border. In the 1980s > that was all unwound and now I'm unaware of any local calling across > the border. I believe that all US/Mexico cross-border local calling arrangements ceased some years ago, but they would be especially complicated now because of the renumbering in Mexico a couple of years ago. Even the smallest villages in Mexico now have 7D local numbers, so even a block of ten prefixes would not even begin to cover it. Twenty or more years ago, calling from El Paso, Texas, to Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, involved dialing a special two-digit prefix plus the five-digit Juarez number, although I'm not sure if the short-cut dialing also made it a local-rate call. There was a proposal floated a couple of years ago by the chambers of commerce and/or city governments in "Los Laredos" (Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas) to establish a local calling zone between them, but it seems to have just been filed away in the FCC's and COFETEL's "maybe someday" department. Probably the easiest way to handle the dialing would be to establish a three-digit prefix for calls from Laredo to Nuevo Laredo -- a pseudo-NPA, probably one of the unassignable N9X codes. Of course, that would require revisiting the arrangement as the NANP runs out of NPAs, but that is now looking to be thirty years or more. Then from Laredo, you would dial ten digits (pseudo-NPA + XXX-XXXX). One of the obstacles is that it would be very difficult to special-case payphones to treat 011-52-867-XXX-XXXX as a local call. However, some carriers still rate calls to Mexico based on rate bands, with a less expensive band for places just over the US border. I would guess, though, that you would pay the same rate for a 5-mile call as for a call from Maine to the same Mexican border town. Some carriers may also have special rates for very short-distance calls into Canada, but the trend has been towards flat-rate per-minute pricing for anywhere in the US to anywhere in Canada. (Of course, some carriers now include Canada in their flat-rate monthly unlimited long-distance plans.) Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: International Long Distance From Next Door Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 10:45:48 +0900 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing Hyder, Alaska still is part of Stewart, British Columbia as far as the telephone network is concerned. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Aaron Gutleben Subject: Re: AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted Date: 5 Jan 2005 14:07:23 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have run into an issue with our PhoneXpress 4.03 system which runs under OS/2. In house we have 7 useable lines. Lines 1-4 are answered by an AutoAttendent Call Processor (000). If a call comes in when lines 1-4 are in use, PhoneXpress tries to access a particular extension (236). It seems that no matter what I do to configure that extension, the AutoAttendent answers with " I'm sorry, extension XXX does not answer!", and then forwards calls back to the first call processor (000). I am trying to get the system to instantly access the first call processor and get rid of the message. I have looked at all of the config screens, but I do not see any mention of ex. 236. I have also tried changing ex. 236 into a call processor that takes the action of Goto call processor 000, but it does not work until after the "Does not answer" message. I only have an admin guide, which of course is no help, but wondered if you have encountered anything similar? Any help or pointer in the right direction would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: Yielding Party Lines Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 07:43:06 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is the reason why telco tariffs > also state that no 'attachments' (i.e. even telephones other than the > ones supplied by telco itself) can be used on party lines. Modems are > not permitted under tariff on party lines. PAT] It's my understanding that everywhere in the U.S. single-party lines are now available; that is, where there is tariffed wireline service. But, the politicans let some folks remain on party lines to save a buck. Shame on the regulators for not outlawing party lines in the 21st Century. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 14:51:35 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: The Secret Life of Phone Numbers Clark W. Griswold wrote: > John Smith wrote: >> Hmmm, can't find this ... Any pointers? > In an attempt to keep the copyright police happy, the BBC limits > replays to 7 days after the original airing of the program. As such, > it's no longer available on the BBC web site. > My wav file copy is a too large to email (15MB), my upstream channel > isn't fast enough to entice me into putting it somewhere for people to > download and it captured to a flavor of wav that won't convert to mp3 > using Audiograbber, so I can't compress it. :( > That said, it's a good program. If you can't find a copy of it > somewhere a little closer to home, send me a private email and we'll > see if we can work something out. Try the Google archive: http://tinyurl.com/63hf8 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 14:52:34 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: REN For Western Electric Products? hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > I understand the "ringer equivalance" value is based on the WE 500 set > which is defined as 1. > Would anyone know what the REN is for certain other WE products such > as: > 1) 302/354 sets. (The "art deco" telephone set developed in 1938, was > the first to have the ringer within the set.) > 2) Older wall mounted "bell boxes" used for 202 and earlier sets. > 3) The "Bell Chime", an extension ringer that has several settings on > it. Can sould like a regular phone, a doorbell chime, or a very loud > bell. > 4) A more modern WE extension ringer which is a small gray box, > roughly 3x6x2 inches. > 5) An outdoor ringer. These had two exposed gongs, usually painted > gray or black. Used outside or in big rooms like gyms where an extra > loud ringer was needed. > 6) Trimline and Princess telephone sets, which used a more compact > ringer to fit into the small base. They are potentially all different as the REN is reported in tenths of a REN. ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Vonage Discussion Group Started Date: 5 Jan 2005 22:43:48 -0800 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Vonage writes: > If you are at all interested, I just started a new Google Group > http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Vonage to support my efforts on > http://www.vonage-forum.com to provide a means of communications for > Vonage VoIP customers. Can you bridge it to Usenet? Some of us prefer to get everything in one place ... Or, if that is automatic, what is the newsgroup name? Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises." -- Teresa Heinz Kerry ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 19:34:26 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 18:01:15 GMT, Lisa Minter wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article, from WorldNetDaily.com > does not, they say, reflect their opinion at that web site, and > it certainly does not reflect the views of Telecom Digest nor Lisa > nor myself. But it is gaining some sympathizers, not only among the > Muslim community but also among very conservative Christians in > the United States. It is really pretty awful that some people have > this much ignorance and hatred in their own lives to deal with. PAT] > Homosexuality, fornication cause of tsunami? > A Muslim Saudi professor says the earthquake and tsunami in south Asia > were punishment from Allah for homosexuality and fornication committed > by residents and visitors of affected countries at Christmastime. > A television interview of Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan, a professor > at the Al-Imam University, was translated and posted on the > Internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor > Project. > MEMRI TV The > interview can be viewed on MEMRI's website. > "These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out > villages, towns, cities and even entire countries, are Allah's > punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are > Muslims," stated Al-Fawzan. "Some of our forefathers said that if > there is usury and fornication in a certain village, Allah permits its > destruction." > The professor singled out beach resorts as places of sexual sin. > "We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in > Islamic and other countries in south Asia, and especially at > Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are > rampant," he said, "The fact that it happened at this particular > time is a sign from Allah. It happened at Christmas, when > fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to > commit fornication and sexual perversion. That's when this > tragedy took place, striking them all and destroyed everything > It turned the land into wasteland, where only the cries of the > ravens are heard I say this is a great sign and punishment on > which Muslims should reflect." > Al-Fawzan urged Muslims to atone for their sin. > "All that's left for us to do is to ask for forgiveness. We > must atone for our sins and for the acts of the stupid people > among us and improve our condition. We must fight fornication, > homosexuality, usury, fight the corruption on the face of the > earth, and the disregard of the lives of protected people." Don't forget Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell's blaming various hurricanes on homosexuality as well. The sheik is just as much of a fruitcake as these two losers. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 07:40:34 -0800 Organization: Cox Communications This stuff is why our country is doomed. The Religious Right is every bit as evil as the militant Muslims. And, both groups hate everything that does not fit their Nazi-like view of the world. More importantly, both groups hate each other and each think God is on their side. Mix all that with nuclear weapons and Carl Sagen's prediction about the end of Humanity is probably right on target (no pun intended). Poor Carl didn't live long enough to see the world pretty much (but not completely) get beyond the U.S.-Soviet Cold War threat and, instead, have it "advance" into the camps of religious madmen (Islam and Christian). Of course, Dufus in the White House buys into much of this on a very personal basis. TELECOM Digest Editor noted, in a message from Lisa Minter: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article, from WorldNetDaily.com > does not, they say, reflect their opinion at that web site, and > it certainly does not reflect the views of Telecom Digest nor Lisa > nor myself. But it is gaining some sympathizers, not only among the > Muslim community but also among very conservative Christians in > the United States. It is really pretty awful that some people have > this much ignorance and hatred in their own lives to deal with. PAT] ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: An Ignorant, Hateful View of the News Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 12:03:17 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Minter: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This article, from WorldNetDaily.com > does not, they say, reflect their opinion at that web site, and > it certainly does not reflect the views of Telecom Digest nor Lisa > nor myself. But it is gaining some sympathizers, not only among the > Muslim community but also among very conservative Christians in > the United States. It is really pretty awful that some people have > this much ignorance and hatred in their own lives to deal with. PAT] If the article is garbage why give it further publicity? LB [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Because even though it *is* garbage, it will get/is getting lots of publicity -- like it or not -- from the radical, very conservative Christians who somehow feel they are so much better and so much different than the very radical, conserva- tive Muslim people. Actually, they are like two sides of the same coin, but Bush refuses to acknowledge that his 'war against terrorism' is actually a religious war against Islam; actually not just Islam, but against anything/anyone with a different outlook than his own. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #8 **************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jan 7 21:42:16 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j082gGj23071; Fri, 7 Jan 2005 21:42:16 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 21:42:16 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501080242.j082gGj23071@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #9 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Jan 2005 21:42:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 9 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson An Unfortunate Accident (TELECOM Digest Editor) The Day the Bell System Died (Archives Reprint) Book Review: Photographic History of Ameritech (TELECOM Digest Editor) Gore Tax Increase (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Blame it on Me (Lisa Minter) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 18:34:59 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: An Unfortunate Accident ALL my Unix directory got wiped out by accident earlier today. ALL the mail got wiped out as well. If you wrote anything at all Thursday not yet published or at all on Friday please resend it to me. This included many of the most recent messages in the TELECOM_Digest_Online file. Much of the Online file was reconstructed, but some of the numbering of the .html files could not be fixed properly. You can still see these messages in the 'back issues' files however, just not here in the TELECOM_Digest_Online area. Hopefully it will all be reconstructed soon. But for now, please excuse my ongoing clumsiness. I felt absolutely sick when I saw the mess things were in. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 20:03:07 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: From our Archives: Day the Bell System Died About this time every year or so, I like to re-run this parody which was originally submitted to the Digest by Lauren Weinstein more than twenty years ago to us. And it was now some 23 years ago that "Bell System" bit the dust; in its place came the Baby Bell companies we have all grown to love so much. (? !) You should NOT use the addresses shown in this message to respond to Lauren; they are shown here for historical curiosity only. PAT 12-Jul-83 09:14:32-PDT,4930;000000000001 Return-path: <@LBL-CSAM:vortex!lauren@LBL-CSAM> Received: from LBL-CSAM by USC-ECLB; Tue 12 Jul 83 09:12:46-PDT Date: Tuesday, 12-Jul-83 01:18:19-PDT From: Lauren Weinstein Subject: "The Day Bell System Died" Return-Path: Message-Id: <8307121614.AA17341@LBL-CSAM.ARPA> Received: by LBL-CSAM.ARPA (3.327/3.21) id AA17341; 12 Jul 83 09:14:35 PDT (Tue) To: TELECOM@ECLB Greetings. With the massive changes now taking place in the telecommunications industry, we're all being inundated with seemingly endless news items and points of information regarding the various effects now beginning to take place. However, one important element has been missing: a song! Since the great Tom Lehrer has retired from the composing world, I will now attempt to fill this void with my own light-hearted, non-serious look at a possible future of telecommunications. This work is entirely satirical, and none of its lyrics are meant to be interpreted in a non-satirical manner. The song should be sung to the tune of Don Mclean's classic "American Pie". I call my version "The Day Bell System Died"... --Lauren-- ************************************************************************** *==================================* * Notice: This is a satirical work * *==================================* "The Day Bell System Died" Lyrics Copyright (C) 1983 by Lauren Weinstein (To the tune of "American Pie") (With apologies to Don McLean) ARPA: vortex!lauren@LBL-CSAM UUCP: {decvax, ihnp4, harpo, ucbvax!lbl-csam, randvax}!vortex!lauren ************************************************************************** Long, long, time ago, I can still remember, When the local calls were "free". And I knew if I paid my bill, And never wished them any ill, That the phone company would let me be... But Uncle Sam said he knew better, Split 'em up, for all and ever! We'll foster competition: It's good capital-ism! I can't remember if I cried, When my phone bill first tripled in size. But something touched me deep inside, The day... Bell System... died. And we were singing... Bye, bye, Ma Bell, why did you die? We get static from Sprint and echo from MCI, "Our local calls have us in hock!" we all cry. Oh Ma Bell why did you have to die? Ma Bell why did you have to die? Is your office Step by Step, Or have you gotten some Crossbar yet? Everybody used to ask... Oh, is TSPS coming soon? IDDD will be a boon! And, I hope to get a Touch-Tone phone, real soon... The color phones are really neat, And direct dialing can't be beat! My area code is "low": The prestige way to go! Oh, they just raised phone booths to a dime! Well, I suppose it's about time. I remember how the payphones chimed, The day... Bell System... died. And we were singing... Bye, bye, Ma Bell, why did you die? We get static from Sprint and echo from MCI, "Our local calls have us in hock!" we all cry. Oh Ma Bell why did you have to die? Ma Bell why did you have to die? Back then we were all at one rate, Phone installs didn't cause debate, About who'd put which wire where... Installers came right out to you, No "phone stores" with their ballyhoo, And 411 was free, seemed very fair! But FCC wanted it seems, To let others skim long-distance creams, No matter 'bout the locals, They're mostly all just yokels! And so one day it came to pass, That the great Bell System did collapse, In rubble now, we all do mass, The day... Bell System... died. So bye, bye, Ma Bell, why did you die? We get static from Sprint and echo from MCI, "Our local calls have us in hock!" we all cry. Oh Ma Bell why did you have to die? Ma Bell why did you have to die? I drove on out to Murray Hill, To see Bell Labs, some time to kill, But the sign there said the Labs were gone. I went back to my old CO, Where I'd had my phone lines, years ago, But it was empty, dark, and ever so forlorn... No relays pulsed, No data crooned, No MF tones did play their tunes, There wasn't a word spoken, All carrier paths were broken... And so that's how it all occurred, Microwave horns just nests for birds, Everything became so absurd, The day... Bell System... died. So bye, bye, Ma Bell, why did you die? We get static from Sprint and echo from MCI, "Our local calls have us in hock!" we all cry. Oh Ma Bell why did you have to die? Ma Bell why did you have to die? We were singing: Bye, bye, Ma Bell, why did you die? We get static from Sprint and echo from MCI, "Our local calls have us in hock!" we all cry. Oh Ma Bell why did you have to die? *End* [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, readers, why *did* she have to die? It is easy enough to do 'Monday morning quarterbacking' now some 23 years after the fact and examine all the things which went right with divestiture as well as the things which went wrong, but what do YOU think? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 19:58:31 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: And, Speaking of the Baby Bells ... ... Even they are to some exent starting to go away; getting cannibalized by each other, etc. My own personal experience for many, many years was with Illinois Bell, which at the time of divestiture got renamed 'Ameritech'. And following its absorption in 1999 by Southwestern Bell, the old headquarters building at 212 West Washington/225 West Randolph Street in Chicago was remodeled and turned into condominium apartments. About 11 months ago, the book written by William Coughlin which was a photographic essay of Ameritech ==> Illinois Bell == Chicago Telephone Company was reviewed here in this Digest by myself. Here is another look at that review, in case you did not ever get around to ordering a copy for your own library. Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 22:57:22 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Book Review: A Photographic History of Ameritech Did you know 'Ameritech' originally stood for '(AM)erican (I)nformation (TECH)nologies, Inc.? You will learn that and a lot more in a recent book "A Photographic History of Ameritech". Subtitled 'Snapshots in Time', this photgraphic essay of the companies which make up the present day north-central region of SBC is a brilliant presentation of how our past evolved into our present. Written and compiled by William D. Caughlin, the manager of Ameritech Corporate Archives, with co-authors Brian F. Coffey and Ilana N. Pergam, this 200-page large size paperback book uses pictures to tell the story of the history of telephone service from its beginning in 1876 through the end of 1999, when Ameritech (or Illinois Bell as most of us knew it) became part of SBC, or what we knew as Southwestern Bell. When Alex Bell invented the telephone in March, 1876, many considered it just a novelty, an electrical toy. Everyone -- at least all readers of this Digest -- are aware of how Western Union essentially thumbed its nose at the invention, a snub that about a century later would put it out of business, along with email showing up a few years later. The Chicago Telephonic Exchange was founded on June 26, 1878 to serve the needs of Chicago businessmen. When the general public also wanted phone service, the Chicago Telephonic Exchange merged with a competitor to form the Chicago Telephone Company, in business from 1881 through 1920 to provide local service around the city. About the same time, (1883-1920) Central Union Telephone Company started offering service in other parts of northern and central Illinois. Actually ahead of Chicago by about 9 months (it started in October, 1877) was the Michigan Telephone and Telegraph Construction Company, which was the nation's first Bell Operating Company. Like Chicago, their first interest was private line service for businesses, but on August 5, 1878 the Detroit Telephonic Exchange opened for business. During 1879, telephone exchanges were established in several towns throughout Michigan, and after two years, in 1881, these various Michigan exchanges were affiliated in the Michigan Bell Telephone Company, and two years following that, in 1883 (through 1904) the Michigan Telephone Company was formed. Then comes January, 1879 and the Columbus, Ohio Telephone Exchange. By the end of 1879, there were cities all over Ohio with phone service. It was about that time, that telephone switchboards were started. In the earliest days telephones were all connected directly to each other: in other words if company A had a phone and company B had a phone and Company C wanted to talk to A and B they had to have two telephones, one each to A and B. Multiply that by the number of companies in Chicago alone and you can see why the skies overhead were black with telephone wires running in all directions. Most companies had a phone to most other companies, so typically there were wires running through the air everywhere. Ditto in Detroit, Cleveland and elsewhere. In March, 1879, Ameritech's first predecessor in Indiana -- the Indiana District Telephone Company began operations in Indianapolis. It eventually became part of the Central Union Telephone Company and had phone exchanges all over the state. Milwaukee's first switchboard opened in 1879, and in July, 1882 (through 1983) the Wisconsin Telephone Company was incorporated to serve that state. These five companies -- Central Union, Chicago Telephone, Cleveland Telephone, Michigan Telephone and Wisconsin Telephone became known as Associated Companies in the Bell System, and that is what this photographic essay is all about: The 1876 through 1999 period as those five companies were born, developed, merged then merged again and (as Ameritech) had still another merger into Southwestern Bell Telephone Company which then changed its name into SBC. The rapid expansion of telephone service in those early years brought with it the need for many skilled employees, especially operators. Although the first operators were young men, it soon became apparent that the subscribers preferred women in this role. Women soon became the switchboard operators, and men handled installation and maintain- ence. But around 1972, the companies began once again employing young men as operators in Directory Assistance and elsewhere. Page 139 in this book shows a young man at work in Directory Assistance in Dayton, Ohio. Caughlin and his associates picked through nearly one hundred thousand pictures in their archives and present several hundred of them in this fascinating book along with some text to place all the pictures in context. The book is broken into several parts, covering these periods of time: 1876-1899 1900-1939 1940-1969 1970-1999 and in addition a section is devoted to Ameritech's lineage. You may wish to order one or more personal copies for your library. The SBC Archives and History Center is pleased to offer the book entitled, Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech. This 192-page soft-cover book chronicles the evolution of telecommunications in the SBC Midwest (former Ameritech) five-state region through select historical images. It offers more than 225 captioned photos of switchboard operators, crews with their vehicles and technicians testing central office equipment. The book begins with an 1876 portrait of Alexander Graham Bell and ends in 1999, on the eve of the SBC/Ameritech merger. The cost for each book is $25.00, plus $4.95 for shipping. To order, fill out the form below. If you have questions, please call Bill Caughlin at (210) 524-6192. Or send him an e-mail at wc2942@sbc.com --------------------------------------------------------------- ORDER FORM FOR Snapshots in Time: A Photographic History of Ameritech NAME __________________________________________________ BUSINESS UNIT ________________________________________ ADDRESS _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ CITY _________________________ STATE _____ ZIP __________ PHONE NUMBER (______)_________________________ I would like to order _______ copy(ies) each at $25.00, plus $4.95 shipping, for a total of _____________. No cash, please. Make your check or money order payable to SBC Services, Inc. and send it to: SBC Archives and History Center 7990 IH-10 West Floor 1 San Antonio, Texas 78230 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This review will go in the Telecom Archives section on history for future reference. You may wish to visit the history section in the archives http://telecom-digest.org and check out several interesting files there about the history of the telephone, etc. I am in the process now of attempting to establish an online museum of telephone history with pictures, etc. I'll need readers help to do it however. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Gore Tax Increase Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 18:07:28 -0700 According to a insert in this month's Qwest bill, the Federal Universal Service Fee (otherwise known as the Gore Tax, in honor of the inventor of the internet) is going to be raised from 8.9% to 10.7% - an over 20% increase. This for a program that has so much documented waste and abuse that it was suspended for several months. And for a program that if memory serves, was originally supposed to cover just the wiring of schools for internet service, but has since expanded to underwrite monthly operational costs and added all sorts of other eligible agencies. A program that now has so many constituents that (like every other government program) it now appears to be impossible to kill. Sigh. Is it any wonder people are flocking to VOIP and why taxing authorities are looking so hungry? ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Subject: Place the Blame on Me Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 19:00:00 CST The 'Unfortunate Accident' Patrick mentione at the start of this issue was all my fault. He said it was his fault, but in fact, I was sitting here when it happened. I pressed the wrong keys, all the mail went bye-bye (but tons of spam as well) and before it could get stopped a lot of his main directory was gone as well. I feel like a damn fool because of it and want to apologize to everyone whose mail got lost today. Please send your mail in again so it can be printed over the weekend. Lisa ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the mderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* Telecom Digest is partially funded by a grant from Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and consulting. http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. 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The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #9 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Jan 8 20:46:26 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j091kPf02707; Sat, 8 Jan 2005 20:46:26 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 20:46:26 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501090146.j091kPf02707@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #10 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 Jan 2005 20:46:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 10 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Verizon Wireless Launches High-Speed Wireless Data Service (M Solomon) New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range, Speed of Networks (M Solomon) Sorting Out the Three-Ring Circus of Ringtones (Monty Solomon) Workaround, was: Google Telecom-Digest Archive (Danny Burstein) Calling Canada is an International Call? (quickcur@yahoo.com) Real Election Reform (D Flint) Re: The Day the Bell System Died (Fred Goldstein) Re: Place the Blame on Me (Tony P.) Re: AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell (Joe Blow) Re: Gore Tax Increase (HorneTD) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 22:14:24 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless Launches High-Speed Wireless Data Service Verizon Wireless Launches High-Speed Wireless Data Service in New England Extends National Roll-Out of BroadbandAccess Network to Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven and Several Local Airports WOBURN, Mass., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, operator of the nation's most reliable wireless network, announced today the launch of its BroadbandAccess high-speed wireless data service in New England markets. BroadbandAccess, now available in Boston, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, Hartford and New Haven, Connecticut, and several local airports, is the fastest wide-area wireless Internet access service available in the nation with typical user download speeds of 300-500 kilobits per second (kbps). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=46076659 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 23:06:20 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range And Speed of Networks New Version of Wi-Fi Expands Both Range And Speed of Networks By WALTER S. MOSSBERG As Wi-Fi has grown more popular, users of the wireless networks have yearned for one improvement above all: better range. Wi-Fi base stations can typically cover all of a small apartment or house. But in many larger homes, there are dead spots. Instead of trying to solve the range issue, the computer and networking industries initially focused on increasing Wi-Fi speed. This year, however, coverage problems will finally be addressed. Several makers of Wi-Fi gear are expected to offer wireless routers -- base-station transmitters -- and matching add-on cards for laptops that sharply increase range and speed simultaneously. These products are based on a new technology called MIMO from Silicon Valley chip maker Airgo Networks. MIMO -- which stands for Multiple Input, Multiple Output -- is likely to be the basis for the next major flavor of Wi-Fi, now under development, which goes by the technical name 802.11n. It's intended to replace the most common flavors used in homes today, which engineers call 802.11b and 802.11g. But MIMO is so good that makers are rushing it into the market even before the new standard is complete. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20050106.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 23:03:55 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sorting Out the Three-Ring Circus of Ringtones Sorting Out the Three-Ring Circus of Ringtones By WALTER S. MOSSBERG If your cellphone is still just ringing when someone calls, you're way behind the times. According to the cellphone industry, your phone should be vibrating, flashing a photo of the caller across the phone's screen and above all, playing music -- preferably an actual clip from a song like "Drop It Like It's Hot" by Snoop Dogg. We're talking about sounds that go way beyond the built-in menu of dinky tunes that probably came with your phone. These special effects, called "ringtones," are sold mainly by the carriers and are a large and growing profit center for them. Of course, you might be one of many people who thinks cellphone ringers that play loud songs in public can be rude and annoying. I know I am. But wouldn't it be kind of a gas to have Billy Joel's song, "Pressure" playing whenever your boss calls? If nothing else, you're probably curious about how ringer downloading works so you can know how your kid is spending his, her or your money. So, this week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I took a closer look at ringtones by borrowing phones from three carriers -- Verizon Wireless, Cingular and Sprint -- and downloading various ringtones to see which service offered the most straightforward solution. We also browsed around on a few popular Web sites that sell ringtones for anywhere from about $1.25 to $4. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20050105.html ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Workaround, was: Google Telecom-Digest Archive Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 22:00:06 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Neal McLain writes: > Has anybody else noticed how thoroughly Google had messed up its > archive of past Telecom-Digest postings? Their archive used to > reproduce each message in its entirety, in courier text. Now it > truncates long messages. Several of the messages I've posted over the > years are chopped off mid-word at around 700 words. [snip] The general attitude of many, many, people (myself included) is that Google broke something that wasn't broken ... We've all got our fingers crossed that they'll step back. Fortunately, for now at least, you can still get to the older Google search page (for usenet) by going to: http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_group_search _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: quickcur@yahoo.com Subject: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: 7 Jan 2005 19:54:23 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a default long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge me $3 or so every time I call 800 number. So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute. Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that this plan charges Canada call as international call and it is $1.32/minute. Is there anything I can do? Before I join, I asked the representative about Canada. He told me that Canada call is the same as domestic call. But I have no proof for that. And no one want to listen to that. Is there any federal regulation about Canada? Is that totally up to the phone company to define it as international call or domestic call? Thanks, qq ------------------------------ From: D Flint Subject: Real Election Reform Reply-To: david@qssp.com Organization: Americans For Voter Reform Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 21:42:37 -0800 What do you think about this and have you seen this popular site before? This was taken from a web site http://www.afvr.org How can we safeguard the integrity of each vote? Today we have technology that protects our financial systems, military weapon systems and national intelligent organizations. These proven systems can be combined in a way to issue serialized equipment to authorize personnel for the dates and hours needed. Each would have their own level of clearance to perform the tasks they are responsible for. Each action would be recorded and verified with a higher levels of network authority and again, only available during the hours and dates needed. Ballots would only be printed after the voter has cast their vote but before they leave the booth. If the voter made a mistake he could put the printed ballot into the booth's scanner for correction. All ballots scanned at the booth would go into a shredder and the voter could then correct his ballot on the screen and reprint his ballots. Once the voter accepts the printed ballot he submits his vote on the screen and takes the two ballots to the depository. So two computer generated, serialized and scanner perfect receipts of the completed ballot are printed.* One for the voter and one for the public record. This would eliminate all the extra ballots that could be used for unauthorized voting as well as any question of voter intent. Each piece of equipment involved in the issuing of the receipt would be linked to the serial# of that ballot and an electronic document would be generated that exactly matched the two printed receipts. So the voter themselves has validate the printed ballots, keeping one for themselves, while the other electronic time-stamped document is deposited into an optical scanner used as a secure depository. This second scanned count which should always match the electronic count. This paper ballot could also be used for recounts if needed. The voter could use the receipt to inquire about their vote in the future. The stuffing of the ballot box or "finding ballots" would be eliminated. With this system, if you find a ballot, you have to find the voter that cast that ballot too. This is not so in any of the current systems in place today nor have we ever heard such a system ever proposed. http://www.afvr.org [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds very reasonable to me. But you need to recall that *accurate and honest* elections are a very political issue in and of themselves. No one really wants an honest and effecient election with results immediatly known afterward. Everyone has their own agenda here: Either they want the Republicans to lose, or the Democrats to lose, or black people or poor people or whoever to not get a chance to vote. Or maybe the polls should open too early or not be open late enough. Maybe military personnell in overseas points should not have their votes arrive on time to be counted. You name the problem; there are always supporters of whatever is done wrong. Computerized voting schemes such as you described would resolve all those problems. They'll always hasten to tell you how computerized, internet voting would 'never work', how 'hackers and other cheats' would steal the election, etc. I cannot imagine how any *computerized system* of voting could have been more corrupt and dishonest than the national election in 2000, for example, in Florida, nor the various elections in Chicago most any time. But you just cannot shake the people off of their notion that computerized, internet voting would not work. The suggestions offered by AFVR are very good ones. Now, good luck in trying to get them implemented, maybe with a couple more tweaks. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 22:38:45 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: The Day the Bell System Died At 1/7/2005 09:42 PM, Pat wrote, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, readers, why *did* she have > to die? It is easy enough to do 'Monday morning quarterbacking' > now some 23 years after the fact and examine all the things which > went right with divestiture as well as the things which went wrong, > but what do YOU think? PAT] Divestiture was the high point in telecom history. The old Bell System was too powerful, too resistant to progress. It was good at one thing -- proving Plain Old Telephone Service to residential subscribers at low rates. And it was pretty good at being a steady money-earner, paying a good dividend. But as technology was advancing, as solid-state electronics was shortening product cycles, the Bell System's monopoly ways were impeding progress. By vertically integrating everything including manufacturing, it was an island of a planned, command economy, a miniature Soviet, here in the United States, cleverly masquerading as capitalism. Divestiture was the result o f a case brought against Western Electric in 1949 and revived, years after the 1956 Final Judgment, over three decades later. The original case sought divestiture of Western Electric, which would have opened up telecom-equipment manufacturing; instead, it was settled by closing off Western Electric from participating in competitive markets. The revived case came in an era when the "natural monopoly" in long distance had cracked. The result of divestiture was a flourishing of competition in long distance, as AT&T was no longer able to control the bottlenecks. It led to competition in equipment manufacturing, particularly benefiting Nortel in the CO space, but also creating an opening for SONET (invented by Bellcore right after divestiture) and many competitive transmission vendors, who brought down the cost of distance with rapidly-improving fiber optics. But some of the changes attributed to divestiture were actually coincidental. The FCC's wonderful Computer II decision, which took effect in 1983, forced the LECs to separate competitive from monopoly operations. That is what took PBXs and other terminal gear off of tariff, fully opening up the PBX and telephone set market and, by also strictly separating content from carriage, creating the regulatory framework necessary for the public Internet to develop. The FCC's MTS and WATS decisions ended the old monopolistic separations system and replaced them with a multi-carrier system of access charges. That change ended up being synchronized to divestiture, 1/1/84, but it was an FCC case separate from divestiture. The Internet was opened to the public in the early 1990s. The newly-hatched ISP industry created huge demand for bandwidth, which was unfortunately exaggerated by promoters (pronounced: "Worldcom"), the "analysts" who pimped for them, and the vulture capitalists who hoped to pounce on a quick profit. Divestiture was more important than the Telecom Act of 1996 in fueling the late 1990s telecom boom, which led to the meltdown of 2000-2002. But that doesn't make either the divestiture or the Telecom Act bad. It means that many people who didn't understand how competition worked -- the telecom industry -- and people who didn't understand how monopolies worked -- money people -- had a very bad date. And only now, years later, are they figuring out how to get along on new terms. Shameless plug time: I tell this story in some detail in my new book, The Great Telecom Meltdown, which will be out in a few weeks. It's published by Artech House http://www.artechhouse.com/ . I've been reading Telecom Digest since 1982 and perhaps that helped me write the book. Pat's down for a review copy. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Place the Blame on Me Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 11:36:09 -0500 In article , lisa_minter2001@yahoo.com says: > The 'Unfortunate Accident' Patrick mentione at the start of this > issue was all my fault. He said it was his fault, but in fact, I > was sitting here when it happened. I pressed the wrong keys, all > the mail went bye-bye (but tons of spam as well) and before it > could get stopped a lot of his main directory was gone as well. I > feel like a damn fool because of it and want to apologize to > everyone whose mail got lost today. Please send your mail in again > so it can be printed over the weekend. > Lisa Mmmm ... someone didn't turn journaling on and then did an rm -r huh? One of my better screwups on a Linux server was to mv root and everything under it to my home directory. Ooops! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the Unix 'rm' command, I have 'rm' aliased to 'rm -i', but then if there are a dozen files in some obsolete directory I wish to erase in bulk with 'rm -f' I get in trouble. I have been told before it is not a good idea to use an established Unix command as part of an alias to something else. Friday was a nightmare for me, and it wasn't even the 13th of the month. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: AT&T and CallVantage Put Me Through Hell From: Joe Blow Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:42:24 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com I agree, anytime you deal with a ported number (LNP) you are increasing your chances of problems occuring. I have CallVantage, and the one problem I had was radio station interference on the line. I could hear a local AM radio station clear as a bell when I was talking on the phone (or rather, when I was silent). I fiddled with my home wiring for days looking for shorts or loose ends. Finally I called AT&T and asked for Inside Wiring to report the problem. They said it was a "known issue" with my equipment (Linksys RT41P2). I asked why it wasn't on their webpage list of known issues. They didn't have a good answer for that. However, they did provide me with a fix, a simple filter (the kind you buy for your other lines when you get DSL) works. The noise is now eliminated and I am happy. Rick Merrill wrote in news:telecom24.6.10@telecom- ...: > AT&T is a bad example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand > is doing. Part of the problem is that each department uses a > different system. Another part of the problem is the "local number > service" system where someone other than ATT has your local number > that must be ported to another provider. - RM ------------------------------ From: HorneTD Subject: Re: Gore Tax Increase Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 23:06:53 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Clark W. Griswold wrote: > According to a insert in this month's Qwest bill, the Federal > Universal Service Fee (otherwise known as the Gore Tax, in honor of > the inventor of the internet) is going to be raised from 8.9% to 10.7% > - an over 20% increase. > This for a program that has so much documented waste and abuse that it > was suspended for several months. And for a program that if memory > serves, was originally supposed to cover just the wiring of schools > for internet service, but has since expanded to underwrite monthly > operational costs and added all sorts of other eligible agencies. A > program that now has so many constituents that (like every other > government program) it now appears to be impossible to kill. > Sigh. Is it any wonder people are flocking to VOIP and why taxing > authorities are looking so hungry? There are four components to the Federal Universal Service Fund. They are: * Low-Income. This program provides telephone service discounts to consumers with qualifying low-incomes. * High-Cost. This program provides financial support to companies that provide telecommunications services in areas of America where the cost of providing service is high. * Schools and Libraries. This program helps to ensure that the nation's classrooms and libraries receive access to the vast array of educational resources that are accessible through the telecommunications network. * Rural Health Care. This program helps to link health care providers located in rural areas to urban medical centers so that patients living in rural America will have access to the same advanced diagnostic and other medical services that are enjoyed in urban communities. Most of the funds income is used to subsidize local phone service in sparsely populated areas where the regulated local phone rate is not high enough to sustain the cost of delivering service. It is a little bit like the postal rates to rural Alaska that are low enough to make it economically feasible for contractors to mail bricks to construction sights. The rates Alaskans pay for parcel post are subsidized by the rates paid by the rest of the nation. -- Tom H ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the mderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #10 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jan 9 17:28:17 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j09MSHv10468; Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:28:17 -0500 (EST) Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:28:17 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501092228.j09MSHv10468@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #11 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 Jan 2005 17:28:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 11 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NY Post Story About the Telesleaze Canary (Danny Burstein) New York Times OnLine Now on our Website (TELECOM Digest Editor) Police Charge Students With Internet Scam (Monty Solomon) State of the Art: TiVo Adds Portability to the Mix (Monty Solomon) Verizon to Unveil TV Plan (Monty Solomon) Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at Time (Monty Solomon) Re: Gore Tax Increase (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Gore Tax Increase (John McHarry) Re: Gore Tax Increase (Mark Crispin) Re: The Day the Bell System Died (Tony P.) Re: The Day the Bell System Died (Lisa Hancock) Re: Place the Blame on Me (Steve Sobol) Re: Workaround, was: Google Telecom-Digest Archive (Neal McLain) Re: Cable Finds Its Voice (rob51166@yahoo.com) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (Joseph) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (Linc Madison) Re: Real Election Reform (George Mitchell) Re: Real Election Reform (rob51166@yahoo.com) Re: Real Election Reform (Ben Bass) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: NY Post story About the Telesleaze Canary Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 08:35:05 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC PHONE-SEX PUSHER FLIPS ON MOB A businessman has dropped the dime on a gaggle of Gambino gangsters, agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors who want to nail them for running a phone-sex and Internet porn scam that swindled $730 million. Kenneth Matzdorff in Brooklyn federal court on Friday pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. In the first scheme, customers who called "800" telephone numbers that advertised allegedly free samples of phone sex, horoscopes and dating services were whacked with a $40 fee that would automatically recur each month on their bills ... [ rest at : http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/38144.htm ] _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:04:21 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: New York Times OnLine Now on our Website The daily New York Times newspaper is the latest aquisition in our collection of news items in Telecom Digest Extra. Anytime you log in to our web site http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html you will find 75-100 headlines (constantly refreshing) from NY Times. These headlines all link to the full stories as they are appearing at the moment in NY Times. Best of all, no need to log in or provide any personal identification or passwords. Three sections of the paper are presented each day: the front section news, politics, and technology news. Check it out and let me know what you think of it, and help yourself to whatever you wish to print out for your personal files, etc. Other parts of Telecom Digest Extra include the daily news headlines from USA Today, telecom news from the wire services, and news stories from United Press International, plus hourly audio news summaries from Associated Press, BBC World Service, and NASA television. If that is not enough, then read the Christian Science Monitor on line each day or Atlantic Magazine. For this entire potpourri of useful, informative information, you begin at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra , and work your way around the site from there. And I have even more planned in this section for the future. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:37:27 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Police Charge Students With Internet Scam SYDNEY, Australia -- Four Sydney high school students have been charged in connection with a Russian-based Internet scam that stole people's banking passwords and siphoned their cash into accounts in eastern Europe, police said. The four students were promised a cut of the profits for letting their bank accounts be used for laundering money stolen from Internet bankers via a computer virus that dropped a program for secretly recording passwords, police said. They said 13 Australians, including the students, have so far been charged. New South Wales state police on Thursday said the four students, ages 15-17, cannot be named for legal reasons. Authorities say the suspects robbed 61 people of at least $457,000. They say the total could ultimately reach millions, and more arrests are expected. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/01/07/police_charge_students_with_internet_scam/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Jan 2005 22:04:45 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: State of the Art: TiVo Adds Portability to the Mix State of the Art By DAVID POGUE In the high-stress halls of Hollywood, executives are wrestling with three burning questions. First, how can the industry avoid an era of unfettered online video swapping like the one dogging the music industry? Second, as portable video becomes ever more popular, how far can the studios take copy protection without looking like the bad guy? And third, who the heck green-lighted "Catwoman"? Answering any of these questions is, of course, a difficult and delicate job. But as 2005 dawns, you can already find some answers to the first two. For example, you can buy either a PC add-on circuit board or a whole new Media Center PC that can record TV shows and then, for your time-killing pleasure later on, burn them onto a DVD. You could also spend $200 or more for a personal DVD player, although that limits your out-of-home viewing to what's available on DVD. Or you could spend $500 for a hard-drive-based portable video player, as long as you're prepared to enjoy the sweeping majesty of "The Lord of the Rings" on a three-inch screen. But beginning this week, you may have another attractive option that doesn't involve any new hardware. It lets you watch recorded TV or movies on the nice big screen of your laptop. And here's a pleasant surprise: it's free, more or less, to those subscribing to TiVo. The new technology, called TiVoToGo, is neither a product nor a service. It's a software feature that TiVo, in a phased rollout, is beaming into existing TiVo recorders. TiVo intends for TiVoToGo to be one of several perks that give it a new advantage over the less sophisticated recorders offered by cable and satellite companies for lower monthly fees. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/06/technology/circuits/06stat.html?ex=1262667600&en=d41dfe3e5c45e2ba&ei=5090 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 01:44:42 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon to Unveil TV Plan Wireless service likely to be the first of similar offerings By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | January 8, 2005 Verizon Wireless plans to launch a new television-over-cellphone service next month, the first of a likely wave of similar debuts this year as US carriers look to promote advanced phones and high-capacity wireless networks. Called VCast, the $15-a-month service will offer unlimited access to about 300 daily video clips. Segments, running from two to five minutes, including many specifically produced for the limitations of a two-inch phone screen, will include NBC news clips, music videos from MTV and the Country Music Channel, and mini-episodes of Fox entertainment programs like "24." http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2005/01/08/verizon_to_unveil_tv_plan/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 03:50:33 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time By LISA W. FODERARO Chaz Albert, a freshman at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., is a passionate "texter," someone who loves to send and receive pithy text messages via cellphone. He does it at home, at school and at work. He often prefers texting over talking on his cellphone. Last month, though, Mr. Albert's habit caught up with him. Only $80 of his $400 cellphone charges were his father's, and most of his own, he said, were for text-messaging. "I was shocked, but I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "I didn't realize that I got charged for reading text messages. My dad was just like: 'Hey, it's your problem. Pay it.' " In the last two years, text messages - which cell carriers generally limit to 160 characters - have become a rage among teenagers, who embrace the technology as yet another way to escape a boring class or stay in touch with friends. But text-messaging, or texting for short, has a downside. It can be expensive. Although phone companies offer relatively inexpensive packages -- like Verizon Wireless's $9.99 for 1,000 messages a month -- industry experts say that carriers sometimes fail to draw customers' attention to the cost-saving deals, and that customers themselves, especially young people, often exceed the number of messages allowed. In those cases, sending a text message usually costs 10 cents; the cost of receiving one ranges from 2 to 10 cents. The sticker shock is reminiscent of the early days of cellphones, when users often were surprised by how much they were charged for going over their allotted minutes or for phoning someone outside their calling areas. Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging's pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills when they get involved in keypad conversations that involve hundreds, even thousands, of messages a month. The results are angry confrontations with parents, long-term payment plans and the loss of cellphone privileges. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/technology/09message.html NOTE: Read NY Times on line each day via our website at no charge and no login requirements. 50-75 headlines and stories each day. Go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. Subject: Re: Gore Tax Increase Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 19:44:57 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com HorneTD wrote: Thank you for breaking that down. (Seriously) With a nod towards the law of unintended consequences and the basic truth that subsidies distort the market, let's discuss each in turn. > There are four components to the Federal Universal Service Fund. They are: > * Low-Income. This program provides telephone service > discounts to consumers with qualifying low-incomes. Seems like this should be covered under general assistance. Why should phone subscribers in one area be forced to underwrite the phone service of someone elsewhere? Gas customers in one area do not pay for gas in another area. Same for electricity. > * High-Cost. This program provides financial support to companies > that provide telecommunications services in areas of America where the > cost of providing service is high. The country has changed since the turn of the century. Some costs are higher in the country, many are lower. Those that chose to live in the city find some things priced differently than those in the suburbs. Why should subscribers be subsidizing the large numbers of people chosing to move away from built up areas out into the country? Yes, that would be my dream job also, but you shouldn't be paying for it. Unfortunately, the Senator from Alaska and the one from Hawaii are the ones who want to defend this subsidy. > * Schools and Libraries. This program helps to ensure that the > nation's classrooms and libraries receive access to the vast array of > educational resources that are accessible through the > telecommunications network. Already talked about this one. Probably the biggest boondoggle in the past 3 or 4 decades. Suspect it's worse than the 'big dig' project in Boston. > * Rural Health Care. This program helps to link health care > providers located in rural areas to urban medical centers so that > patients living in rural America will have access to the same advanced > iagnostic and other medical services that are enjoyed in urban > communities. In the grand scheme of things, this is probably penny change and who can argue against better health care? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, for gas and electric service, our utilities here (Atmos Gas, Westar Energy, and Coffeyville Municipal Power) all offer a program to help less fortunate familes pay their utility bills, with a 'checkoff' box on your payment coupon, authorizing either one or five dollars extra to be added to your bill each month, but it is a voluntary thing, and they in turn remit whatever they collect through this voluntary giving program to FAST (Financial Assistance Short Term), which is our local welfare assistance program for Montgomery County, Kansas. Our telco, Prairie Stream Communications is in on it also, I think. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Gore Tax Increase Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 05:04:23 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net I don't think it is fair to call the Universal Service Fund the "Gore Tax", partly since its core is a replacement for a hidden subsidy for rural and lifeline service that precedes his even being a gleam in his father's eye. Besides, Al Gore, like Richard Nixon is not really available to kick around any more. Wouldn't it make more sense to rail against the immeasurably larger "Bush Tax", by which I mean the enormous amount of debt and interest liability being sold to foreign interests, in large measure to the Chinese Communists, to finance the budget shortfall. It may not show up on your monthly phone bill, but a large portion of your children's taxes will be rendered to Beijing to be used as they see fit. At least the USF provides a bit of funding to schools and libraries to help them acquire the skills to help them pay the interest on the squander. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Gore Tax Increase Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 11:55:28 -0800 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Sat, 8 Jan 2005, HorneTD wrote: > There are four components to the Federal Universal Service Fund. They are: > * Low-Income. > * High-Cost. > * Schools and Libraries. > * Rural Health Care. Golly gee. How ever did these people get telephone service before Al Gore came along and gave us the Algore tax (a.k.a. the Federal Universal Service Fund)? If the Algore tax is all so wonderful, why is it that in 1977, I had basic telephone service for under $10, and now I pay at least $25? Quite frankly, given the way that I have seen schools and libraries waste this money, I think that they need it the way a fish needs a bicycle. This goes alone with inane ideas (such as being promulgated in my town) of giving every public high school student a laptop computer. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my editor's note elsewhere in this issue. Our local telco (Prairie Stream) does what is required under the law of course, but they also offer a voluntary 'check off' box which allows *voluntary* financial assistance to be added on the phone to pay other bills and such through our community FAST program. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: The Day the Bell System Died Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 11:28:30 -0500 In article , SeeSigForEmail@wn6.wn.net says: > At 1/7/2005 09:42 PM, Pat wrote, >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, readers, why *did* she have >> to die? It is easy enough to do 'Monday morning quarterbacking' >> now some 23 years after the fact and examine all the things which >> went right with divestiture as well as the things which went wrong, >> but what do YOU think? PAT] > Divestiture was the high point in telecom history. The old Bell > System was too powerful, too resistant to progress. It was good at > one thing -- proving Plain Old Telephone Service to residential > subscribers at low rates. And it was pretty good at being a steady > money-earner, paying a good dividend. But as technology was > advancing, as solid-state electronics was shortening product cycles, > the Bell System's monopoly ways were impeding progress. By vertically > integrating everything including manufacturing, it was an island of a > planned, command economy, a miniature Soviet, here in the United > States, cleverly masquerading as capitalism. > Divestiture was the result o f a case brought against Western Electric > in 1949 and revived, years after the 1956 Final Judgment, over three > decades later. The original case sought divestiture of Western > Electric, which would have opened up telecom-equipment manufacturing; > instead, it was settled by closing off Western Electric from > participating in competitive markets. The revived case came in an era > when the "natural monopoly" in long distance had cracked. > The result of divestiture was a flourishing of competition in long > distance, as AT&T was no longer able to control the bottlenecks. It > led to competition in equipment manufacturing, particularly benefiting > Nortel in the CO space, but also creating an opening for SONET > (invented by Bellcore right after divestiture) and many competitive > transmission vendors, who brought down the cost of distance with > rapidly-improving fiber optics. All the theory and initial development for SONET was done by Bell Labs. More importantly the laser was also a Bell Labs project, as well as the transistor, etc. Mother Bell could have become quite the giant if she didn't give up the rights to her own research and production. They also pioneered the things we take for granted like CLID, etc. I recall a Bell sponsored book from 1972 that discussed the new services over a few pages. The title escapes me but they had prototype photos of the CLID gear, the Trimline prototypes, etc. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: The Day the Bell System Died Date: 9 Jan 2005 10:40:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Fred Goldstein wrote: > Divestiture was the high point in telecom history. The old Bell > System was too powerful, too resistant to progress. It was good at > one thing -- proving Plain Old Telephone Service to residential > subscribers at low rates. That isn't true. At the time of divesture, the Bell System provided sophisticated high speed communication services to business and was developing improvements and new products. > And it was pretty good at being a steady money-earner, paying a good > dividend. But as technology was advancing, as solid-state > electronics was shortening product cycles, the Bell System's > monopoly ways were impeding progress. No, they were not. The Bell System was introducing new electronic telephone sets and central office equipment quickly in those years, consistent with the pace of electronic offerings elsewhere. > By vertically integrating everything including manufacturing, it was > an island of a planned, command economy, a miniature Soviet, here in > the United States, cleverly masquerading as capitalism. The Bell System did not manufacture everything, it outsourced considerable work. The company was not a total monothith, the different operating companies had different environments to reflect local needs. > ... Divestiture was more important than the Telecom Act of 1996 in > fueling the late 1990s telecom boom, which led to the meltdown of > 2000-2002. The continuing drop in the cost of electronics -- the stuff that made a a 4 Mhz 8 bit PC go down from $2,000 to $500 yet yield tremendous more horsepower -- was responsible for the boom. Telephone service, including long distance and feature services, cost less to provide since the electronics behind it were so cheap. Fiber optic cable is worthless without sophisticated electronics at each end to compress and uncompress all the data being sent over it. Everyone forgets that the old Bell System was lowering its rates yet enhancing service continually since WW II. Several people here seem to think the 1983 Bell System was exactly the same in terms of rates and equipment as 1933 or even 1963 and that's ridiculous. Independent telecom vendors love to paint that picture. It must also be remembered that consumers lost a lot from divesture. Those within the telecom industry don't see it that way since they're the ones who have personally gained, in some cases gained very well. But we private people have paid for that in terms of finger-pointing between vendors, "access charges" for stuff that used to be free, and less human support and service. Big companies didn't get hurt since they simply hired their Bell rep to work for them doing the same job. > But that doesn't make either the divestiture or the Telecom Act bad. > It means that many people who didn't understand how competition > worked -- the telecom industry -- and people who didn't understand > how monopolies worked -- money people -- had a very bad date. And > only now, years later, are they figuring out how to get along on new > terms. From the point of view of the end-consumer, to "understand how competition worked" is utterly irrelevent. They look at it simply from the point of view of what service they received and how much they had to pay for that service. For a great many consumers, service went down and costs went up. (I was very irritated at the great long distance scam of cheap minutes but a with a monthly minimum charge and other restrictions with in reality made the cost the same or even higher than the before.) ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Place the Blame on Me Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 19:07:00 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Tony P. wrote: > Mmmm ... someone didn't turn journaling on and then did an rm -r huh? Tony, that assumes they are using a version of Unix/Linux/*BSD that has a journaling filesystem available, and that the filesystem was actually formatted as a journaling filesystem (like ext3). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the Unix 'rm' command, I have > 'rm' aliased to 'rm -i', but then if there are a dozen files in some > obsolete directory I wish to erase in bulk with 'rm -f' I get in > trouble. I have been told before it is not a good idea to use an > established Unix command as part of an alias to something else. Friday > was a nightmare for me, and it wasn't even the 13th of the month. PAT] Pat: Seeing as how rm -f is so powerful -- especially the way I use it, rm -rf (recursive/delete subdirectories too, force deletion) -- I try to remember to pause and examine the command line to make sure I'm deleting the right directory(ies). In my case, since I run my own Linux server and babysit a couple others, and am logged in as the 'superuser', I can very easily delete everything on the drive with one command, so I try to be extra careful even when not logged in as superuser. :) Hope this helps. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:48:40 -0600 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: Workaround, was: Google Telecom-Digest Archive I wrote: > Has anybody else noticed how thoroughly Google had messed up > its archive of past Telecom-Digest postings? Their archive > used to reproduce each message in its entirety, in courier > text. Now it truncates long messages. Several of the messages > I've posted over the years are chopped off mid-word at around > 700 words. To which PAT wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you can look directly on > our web site http://telecom-digest.org/back-issues. You'll find > the last year or so filed issue by issue; much older stuff is > filed in clusters of fifty issues per file. Grep known details > with a wild card as the argument in each cluster, then zero in > on them from there. For volumes 9-18 there are also > 'accelerated indexes' of message subject titles along with the > volume number and (cluster of) fifty issues in which to look > for your stuff. PAT] But I still can't link directly to a specific post, which is what I used to be able to do with Google. BTW, appears to be a dead link. According to your revised website, the "recent single issues" page is at (Volumes 23 [2004] and 24 [2005]), and the back issues pages is at . Danny Burstein wrote: > The general attitude of many, many, people (myself included) is > that Google broke something that wasn't broken ... We've all > got our fingers crossed that they'll step back. > Fortunately, for now at least, you can still get to the older > Google search page (for usenet) by going to: > http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_group_search Hey -- that works! At least most of the time ... although I couldn't find a couple of my old posts, I was able to find all the truncated ones. Thanks for the suggestion! I join you in keeping my fingers crossed. Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wonder if I should go into the source code (on the web pages) where the Google search boxes are located and direct them to go through that link also? PAT] ------------------------------ From: rob51166@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Cable Finds Its Voice Date: 9 Jan 2005 08:32:05 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com We've had cable telephone companies in the UK for nearly 15 years now. They introduced cable phone services with cable TV and the amount of companies operating were prediminantly regional (i.e. Cable London, Birmingham Cable, Yorkshire Cable etc...) and initially provided a proper and decent alternative to BT, both in prices and in service; but over the years takeovers and bankruptcies have whittled the number down to just 2 -- ntl: and Telewest (known respectively as nt hell and Teleworst!). It's only the larger towns and cities here which have cable TV and phone, as the companies decided that they'd make more profit there than if they ventured into the smaller towns. Price-wise now both companies' prices for rental and call charges are either similar to, identical to or more expensive than BT's. Now that approximately 80% or there abouts of the UK is on broadband, however, a lot more people have access to an alternative, and cheaper telephone service than BT. Over the next few years or so it's predicted that calls made over VoIP will be more popular than calls made via the standard phone companies. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 10:47:04 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 7 Jan 2005 19:54:23 -0800, quickcur@yahoo.com wrote: > I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not > cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative > told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a default > long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge me $3 or > so every time I call 800 number. You made the same query in another group word for word. The answer is still the same here. If they told you that they'd charge $3 for every time you call a toll free (800/888/877/866) number they out and out lied to you. The only people who pay to call toll-free numbers are those with cell phone service as cell phone subscribers pay for all calls. > So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute. > Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that this > plan charges Canada call as international call and it is $1.32/minute. Even not talking about Canada 10 cents/minute is a ripoff right there. If you shop around you can get a per minute rate of less than 5 cents/minute commonly and that even with no monthly fee. You'll also possibly get a rate from several carriers that will charge you only for what you use and many charge in 6 second increments. AT&T, MCI and Sprint PCS only charge to the next full minute. These same companies will likely charge you the same rate as you pay for domestic US calls or perhaps a penny or two more to call Canada. The rate they charge to call western Europe shouldn't be but a few cents higher than to make domestic calls. > Is there anything I can do? Before I join, I asked the representative > about Canada. He told me that Canada call is the same as domestic call. > But I have no proof for that. And no one want to listen to that. Unfortunately unless you have something in writing or you recorded your conversation with the rep you likely don't have any recourse. > Is there any federal regulation about Canada? Is that totally up to > the phone company to define it as international call or domestic call? No, it's totally up to what the company wants to charge. It's likely that they have tariffs filed somewhere and if you wanted to go to the trouble to find out what the tariffs are you could. It's likely though that they may have the tariff filed and you'll see that the tarriff is *quite* high. Unless you got a special plan it's likely that you're paying the "casual" rate to call Canada. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I'm afraid you'll just have to pay the bill this time. For a fairly unbiased comparison of long distance vendors go to http://abtolls.com . ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 13:49:52 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , wrote: > I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not > cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative > told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a > default long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge > me $3 or so every time I call 800 number. If that's what the rep told you, the rep out-and-out LIED. It is illegal for your carrier to charge you for calling 800 numbers. > So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute. > Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that > this plan charges Canada call as international call and it is > $1.32/minute. Canada is a different country, so it is an international call. Dialing 1+ instead of 011+ doesn't necessarily mean your call is domestic. > Is there anything I can do? Before I join, I asked the representative > about Canada. He told me that Canada call is the same as domestic > call. But I have no proof for that. And no one want to listen to > that. It depends on which plan you have. For a monthly fee of $1, you can get calls to Canada for 6 cents/minute -- ironically enough, cheaper than domestic long-distance on AT&T. > Is there any federal regulation about Canada? Is that totally up to > the phone company to define it as international call or domestic > call? There are federal regulations which require the phone company to define Canada as an international call, because it is an international call. The phone company is free to charge pretty nearly whatever they please for the call -- anything from included in a monthly flat fee plan to over a dollar per minute. My suggestion would be to check out this web site: and shop around for a better deal than AT&T is offering you. Even 10 cents/minute for US and Canada is not a very competitive rate. For that matter, the basic "One Rate" plan isn't even AT&T's best offering for domestic long-distance. You can get 9 cents weekdays, 5 cents on weekends, with only a $5 monthly minimum usage. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: Sat, 08 Jan 2005 18:14:16 -0800 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com D Flint wrote: > What do you think about this and have you seen this popular site before? > This was taken from a web site http://www.afvr.org > How can we safeguard the integrity of each vote? > Today we have technology that protects our financial systems, military > weapon systems and national intelligent organizations. These proven > systems can be combined in a way to issue serialized equipment to > authorize personnel for the dates and hours needed. Each would have > their own level of clearance to perform the tasks they are responsible > for. Each action would be recorded and verified with a higher levels > of network authority and again, only available during the hours and > dates needed. > Ballots would only be printed after the voter has cast > their vote but before they leave the booth. If the voter made a > mistake he could put the printed ballot into the booth's scanner for > correction. All ballots scanned at the booth would go into a shredder > and the voter could then correct his ballot on the screen and reprint > his ballots. > Once the voter accepts the printed ballot he submits his > vote on the screen and takes the two ballots to the depository. So > two computer generated, serialized and scanner perfect receipts of the > completed ballot are printed.* One for the voter and one for the > public record. This would eliminate all the extra ballots that could > be used for unauthorized voting as well as any question of voter > intent. This kind of transparency is the hallmark of reliable financial systems. Counterintuitively, it is anathema to the secret ballot. Any kind of system which produces a copy of the voter's ballot for the voter to take away from the polling place practiaclly guarantees that someone will offer payment to the voter if only they bring back a receipt which shows a "correct" vote. Full disclosure: I write software for ballot tabulation. But I think I am not alone in believing that this much transparencey is too much. Printing a receipt which stays in the polling place is another matter. -- George Mitchell (obfuscated email address) ------------------------------ From: rob51166@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: 9 Jan 2005 08:08:01 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com We still use the old 'X in a box' method here in the UK on our ballot papers and, depending on which election/referendum we're having (local, national or European) and the amount of candidates taking part, the ballot paper can be up to 18" (that's right, 1' 6") long. We also still use the 'First Past The Post' method instead of Proportional Representation, which I believe you use in the US, and neither is far from perfect in my view. Postal voting was recently tried out in a regional referendum and the fraud and corruption which occurred was incredible. In some instances, mainly in Muslim or Asian/Indian families, the senior member of the family would insist on filling in the papers on behalf of the younger and female members of his family, or telling them that he'd help them in filling the form out -- i.e. where to put the 'X'. I think that sooner or later, a computerised voting system will have to be introduced here in the UK as it'll have to be in the US, but at the moment there appear to be so many creases to iron out to get a decent and fair system, as well as getting all of our political parties to agree to it that it's not going to happen for quite a while. ------------------------------ From: Ben Bass Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 11:48:16 -0500 > What do you think about this and have you seen this popular site before? > This was taken from a web site http://www.afvr.org > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It sounds very reasonable to me. The > suggestions offered by AFVR are very good ones. Now, good luck in > trying to get them implemented, maybe with a couple more tweaks. > PAT] Pat, There are appropriate forums for discussing this issue, but I don't count news groups on animation, amateur radio, satellite television, and even telecom, to be among those forums. These guys spammed almost every news group with this. As far as I'm concerned, if they spam, the message goes out with the messenger, no matter how worthy it might be. I don't acknowledge spammers except to report them to their ISP to have their account cancelled. Given your attitude towards spam, I'm surprised you would pay them any attention. Ben [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let's examine your last paragraph, Ben. In case there is any doubt in anyone's mind, I **hate** spam. So much, in fact, I rarely read Usenet newsgroups nor use the computer for anything other than maintaining this newsgroup and my own web pages. If I were just starting out on the net, in 2004 instead of 1981, chances are I would not even do that much. Therefore, if that AFVR message was 'spammed into several groups' I really would not know. It showed up *here* (c.d.t.) ONE TIME ONLY and the message was of reasonable interest in and of itself. Let's say the poster has a 'clean record' where I am concerned. Even though I pay little attention to Usenet, or the net in general, I *do* know what spam looks like and I get a lot of it. Normally 'Spam Assassin' gets a few hundred for me each day, and somewhere around 85 percent of my regular (non-spam, in theory) mailbox is spam also. Spam is when I: (a) get several identical items in the mail each day, (b) receieve mail purported to have been sent by myself, (c) receive mail with my name in the subject line, (d) get mail from known spammers, or known spam subject lines, and a few other clues which I consider to be my own business. Believe me, Ben, you do not see 99.5 percent of the mail which reaches my box because it is such trash. I have adjusted the point-scoring thing on Spam Assassin as closely as I can without losing *legitimate* mail as well. So you may have well regarded that message as spam, but we are getting some replies to it so not everyone thinks it is spam. In any event, please do not blame any contradictions in my 'attitude about spam'. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the mderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Please request a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #11 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 11 00:41:23 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0B5fMZ23173; Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:41:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:41:23 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501110541.j0B5fMZ23173@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #12 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:42:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 12 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Lingo to Charge taxes in February - What's Up With That? (Ted Koppel) Hang up Voice Call BEFORE it is Answered (Wilson) Book Review: "Net Crimes and Misdemeanors", J. A. Hitchcock (Rob Slade) India Telecom News/India Wireless News (info) Alltel buys Western Wireless (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Executone PBX and a Problem (GOClimb) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (david_esan@hotmail.com) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (Justin Time) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (NOTvalid@surplus4actors) Re: Place the Blame on Me (Ankur Shah) Re: Place the Blame on Me (Bill Matern) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time (NOTvalid) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time (Hancock) Re: REN For Western Electric Products? (Robbie McFerren) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 16:14:55 -0500 From: Ted Koppel Subject: Lingo to Charge Taxes in February - What's Up With That? Received from Lingo/Primus' customer service today in email. So much for "no taxes on VOIP". Dear Lingo Customer, As a valued Lingo broadband phone service customer, we strive to provide you with the best service possible at the most affordable costs. Until now, we have been fortunate to take advantage of current federal regulations and a regulatory environment that has allowed us not to charge Federal taxes and other cost recovery fees on your service. However, changes in both areas have caused us to modify our current policy. Effective with your billing cycle in February 2005, your Lingo service will be subject a 3% Federal Telecommunications Excise Tax on your monthly subscription fees and additional usages charges from the previous month. Additionally, your Lingo phone numbers are now subject to a Lingo service regulatory recovery fee of a $1.50 per phone number on your service. This includes your primary voice, secondary voice, and fax numbers. In anticipation that you may have some basic questions regarding these changes, below are some questions and answers for your reference. *What is the Federal Excise Tax?* Lingo is required by Federal law to collect a 3% federal excise tax on the amount which it charges its customers for all communication services. This tax applies to monthly subscription fees as well as to any additional usage charges. *What is the Regulatory Recovery Fee? * The Lingo service regulatory recovery fee is $1.50 per phone number. This fee is charged to our Lingo customers to recover the costs of certain regulatory and compliance requirements imposed, or expected to be imposed, on us by the federal government or various states and localities. These costs can include charges associated with supporting services such as state or local universal service, emergency calling, law enforcement, disability compliance and certain tax requirements. Your Regulatory Recovery Fee reflects a $1.50 charge for each domestic or international phone number, including primary voice, secondary voice, and fax numbers. We thank you for your understanding and your continued use of Lingo service. Regards, Lingo Customer Service Lingo is a registered trademark of Primus Telecommunications, Inc. ------------------------------ From: smokey_the_cat@libero.it (Wilson) Subject: Hang up Voice Call BEFORE it is Answered. Date: 10 Jan 2005 14:04:38 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm trying to place a voice call using a GSM mobile phone (Philips Fisio 825). Therefore I'm sending ATDT ; and the call gets initiated as expected. The only problem is that now I would like to to terminate the call after a fixed amount of time has elapsed (say 20 seconds) and I just can't seem to get it right: ATH only work after the callee has answered the call and even closing the serial com port doesn't help (phone keeps on ringing). I know that with data calls I can use ATS7=x to specify the # of seconds after which the call should be terminated if no connection is established, but what about voice calls? Any help would be highly appreciated. Wilson ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:33:56 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Net Crimes and Misdemeanors", J. A. Hitchcock Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKNTCRMD.RVW 20041016 "Net Crimes and Misdemeanors", J. A. Hitchcock, 2002, 0-910965-57-9, U$24.95/C$37.95 %A J. A. Hitchcock %C 143 Old Marlin Pike, Medford, NJ 08055 %D 2002 %G 0-910965-57-9 %I Information Today Inc. %O U$24.95/C$37.95 609-654-6266 custserv@infotoday.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965579/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965579/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965579/robsladesin03-20 %P 359 p. %T "Net Crimes and Misdemeanors" This book is not about net crimes in general, but about cyberstalking and online harassment. Chapter one details Hitchcock's own experience with cyberstalking and harassment, an extremely unpleasant case of deliberate personal attack by fraudsters she had exposed. Three other cases are briefly described in chapter two, along with some basic advice on header analysis. Spam is delineated, and some helpful sites for dealing with it are listed, in chapter three (which also contains the usual, not terribly useful, suggestions for keeping your address off the net). Chapter four lists some urban legends and chain letters, which are hardly criminal material. Chapter five lists various types of online scams, but really only addresses credit card theft. The utility of the advice varies: the book suggests that you only deal with vendors with a professional looking website (hardly a guarantee of virtue), but also gives fairly detailed descriptions of indicators for a secure HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) session. Online auction fraud is covered in chapter six, from the perspective of both buyer and seller. The story of adoption fraud, in chapter seven, is particularly distressing. Chapter eight give some account of identity theft, but the initial "case" is more related to harassment, and the material never really looks at more usual identity theft situations. More cases of cyberstalking are listed in chapter nine, with not as much helpful content. Chapter ten discusses trolls, flames -- and more harassment. Chapter eleven examines chat and harassment. Other means of harassment are discussed in chapter twelve. Child exploitation is reviewed in chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen looks at various issues in the workplace. Statements from various law enforcement personnel are given in chapter fifteen -- along with an odd mention of the Sam Spade program. Harassment at universities is covered in chapter sixteen. There is a terse mention of the PGP program in seventeen. Chapter eighteen describes viruses and firewalls, but not very well. Tips on investigating harassment are in chapter nineteen. The book does provide some helpful resources on certain topics. It could have provided more, if it didn't keep returning to the same topic over and over again. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2004 BKNTCRMD.RVW 20041016 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@sun.soci.niu.edu Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile. - Wilfred Grenfell (1865 - 1940) http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 03:35:02 +0000 From: info Reply-To: Subject: India Telecom News/India Wireless News Hi, Greetings. Please have a look at the re-structured India Telecom News (incorporating India Wireless News also). www.indiatelecomnews.com We are also pleased to announce our new special package for ADVERTORIAL (advertisement editorial/ sponsored story) - to commensurate our third year anniversary, we are offering discounted rates to publish advertorial (your story/press release/report) and sponsor the newsletter. Looking forward to your continued co-operation and patronage Regards, Krishna Kumar Editorial Manager info@indiatelecomnews.com * India Telecom News (www.indiatelecomnews.com) -- country's first and only web-based weekly newspaper on telecom. * ITN Newsletter -- India's largest circulated weekly newsletter with highest international reach. (11,200 registered subscribers -- 95% non-technical telecom professionals, executives and entrepreneurs. The readership -- 48% inside India and 52% outside India) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:09:31 -0500 (EST) From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Alltel Buys Western Wireless Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18630&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Alltel buys Western Wireless BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Comcast set to announce major push into VoIP phone service * Verizon Wireless announces 3G service * Tandberg, Broadcom showcase cutting-edge video technology USTA SPOTLIGHT * Telecom Crash Course -- The must-have book for telecom professionals EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Credit card companies warm up to "contactless payment" * The top tech trends of 2005 REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * February trial for WorldCom "holdouts" Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18630&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: GOClimb Subject: Executone PBX and a Problem Date: 10 Jan 2005 08:15:09 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi folks, My company has an Executone PBX that was installed in the early 90s. I'm responsible for maintenance and whatnot. Two questions to the group: 1 - Anyone know who runs these now? As far as I know, Executone doesn't do it anymore. For a while, I thought they'd been bought out by Staples, but I'm not so sure now. 2 - Specific question. Just set up a new extension. It's well within our range of allowed numbers by the phone company. Internally it rings through correctly to the user's phone (and the v-mail works correctly, etc). But when I dial the number through an outside line the call goes directly through to the operator. Anyone have a clue why this might happen? I checked on the VMS/Forwarding screen, and everything there looks hunky-dory. TIA GO ------------------------------ From: david_esan@hotmail.com Subject: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: 10 Jan 2005 05:57:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com quickcur@yahoo.com wrote: > I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not > cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative > told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a default > long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge me $3 or > so every time I call 800 number. > So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute. > Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that this > plan charges Canada call as international call and it is $1.32/minute. > Is there anything I can do? Before I join, I asked the representative > about Canada. He told me that Canada call is the same as domestic call. > But I have no proof for that. And no one want to listen to that. > Is there any federal regulation about Canada? Is that totally up to > the phone company to define it as international call or domestic call? > Thanks, > qq You got screwed. Your current rate is way too high. You should not make any international calls. If you take a look at http://serviceguide.att.com/ACS/ext/od.cfm?OID=2780&menu=101 you will see that ATT will charge standard (read: really really expensive) rates for calls that are not "state-to-state". That would be Canada, the Caribbean islands you can dial with a 1, or any place that you have to dial 011- to get. Go to the web sites suggested. Change your carrier. Almost anyone is cheaper. Many don't even have a monthly charge. Canada is generally treated differently, but most are fairly inexpensive. After the change (which is really painless) make sure that you have a lock put on your account so that AT&T can't "accidently" change it back. ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: 10 Jan 2005 06:39:28 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com You wrote: > I am in CA. I have ATT One Rate Plan for my residence phone (not > cellular phone). I joined this plan because once a ATT representative > told me that, if I do not have a long distance plan, ATT (as a default > long distance carrier for my local phone carrier) will charge me $3 or > so every time I call 800 number. > So I joined. And now you want us to protect you from yourself? If you can't investigate someone's claim before you act, do you have any business acting on that claim? Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? Date: 10 Jan 2005 10:38:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com >> So I joined. The rates for calling everywhere in US is 10C/minute. >> Last month I called Canada. Now I got the bill and found out that >> this plan charges Canada call as international call and it is >> $1.32/minute. I call USA-Canada 1.9CPM! That's using a local access number. Higher if I use an 800 number. Payphone surcharge. Works as prepaid phone card. PIN not needed for calls from home or cell phone. Compare the rates at https://www.onesuite.com/ No monthly fee or minimum. Use promotion code "034720367" for some FREE time. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:21:44 -0500 From: Ankur Shah Subject: Re: Place the Blame on Me Steve Sobol wrote: > Tony P. wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the Unix 'rm' command, I have >> 'rm' aliased to 'rm -i', but then if there are a dozen files in some >> obsolete directory I wish to erase in bulk with 'rm -f' I get in >> trouble. I have been told before it is not a good idea to use an >> established Unix command as part of an alias to something else. Friday >> was a nightmare for me, and it wasn't even the 13th of the month. PAT] > Pat: > Seeing as how rm -f is so powerful -- especially the way I use it, rm > -rf (recursive/delete subdirectories too, force deletion) -- I try to > remember to pause and examine the command line to make sure I'm > deleting the right directory(ies). > In my case, since I run my own Linux server and babysit a couple > others, and am logged in as the 'superuser', I can very easily delete > everything on the drive with one command, so I try to be extra careful > even when not logged in as superuser. :) > Hope this helps. [snip] Having gone through a similar, rather gruesome exercise of mistakenly deleting data with no backups back in my early *nix days, I ended up creating a "pseudo-backup" utility of my own. FWIW, here's how it works: $type rm rm is hashed (/export/home/ashah/bin/rm) $cat /export/home/ashah/bin/rm #!/bin/bash ## # A simple shell wrapper for /bin/rm. It moves the data over # to $TRASH_DIR to be recovered later, if need be. # # TODO: create a cronjob that would remove data from # $TRASH_DIR older than a specified number of days. # # $comments > root [at] ankurshah [dot] net ## TRASH_DIR="/data/backup/.$LOGNAME.trash" CP=/bin/cp RM=/bin/rm [ ! -d "$TRASH_DIR" ] && mkdir $TRASH_DIR $CP -r $* $TRASH_DIR >/dev/null 2>&1 $RM -r $* It is not even close to a complete backup solution and by no means should be treated as one. It has come in handy for me at times, YMMV. Regards, -- Ankur ------------------------------ From: Bill Matern Subject: Re: Place the Blame on Me Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:04:22 -0500 Organization: MV Communications, Inc. When I still worked at AT&T, one of the guys in my group did a rm -r .* to remove all of the hidden files. Back in those days, '.*' matched '..' (or the parent directory). After a few seconds, he realized what had happen. A new file system was subsequently re-installed :) Lisa Minter wrote in message news:telecom24.9.5@telecom-digest.org: > The 'Unfortunate Accident' Patrick mentione at the start of this > issue was all my fault. He said it was his fault, but in fact, I > was sitting here when it happened. I pressed the wrong keys, all > the mail went bye-bye (but tons of spam as well) and before it > could get stopped a lot of his main directory was gone as well. I > feel like a damn fool because of it and want to apologize to > everyone whose mail got lost today. Please send your mail in again > so it can be printed over the weekend. > Lisa ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@surplus4actors.INFO Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Date: 10 Jan 2005 10:50:33 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com To receive text msgs on Virgin Mobile is free To send 10 cents each You can forward filtered Gmail to a Virgin Mobile phone. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Date: 10 Jan 2005 11:46:44 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com This is nothing new. When cell phones first came out people got hit hard unexpectedly for time charges. Before that, teenagers ran up huge phone bills in places that had timed measured service. Turn on old sitcoms that had teen kids and you'll see the fathers complaining "on the phone again!" College students before the 1970s usually did not have telephones in their rooms, rather, there were house phones and pay phones in the hall that they had to share with everyone living in that hall. Frustration over the lines being tied up while waiting for an important call (or wanting to make same) were a fact of life in domitories. Indeed, even after phones made it into individual dorm rooms, roommates used to quarel over the phone. Given how teenagers love to talk, I'm surprised that more teens didn't try to hook up private phone lines between houses using surplus phones. I guess before divesture it was hard to obtain surplus phones, running wires -- especially beyond the house next door -- was a problem, and only the nerdy kids would know and be interested in setting up such a scheme. I must admit I'd like to set up a magneto (local battery) telephone line between my house and a neighbor's, but that neighbor isn't particularly interested. I also wouldn't mind a private intercom at work, but the work authorities wouldn't approve. The motive to do this is just for the heck of it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Back in the 1980's, I had a Melco 2x12 PBX in an apartment building where I had control over a bunch of phone pairs. In addition to having extensions around the building in handy places, I also had an extension hooked up half a block away by using some unused (probably long forgotten about) multiples in my phone box and the phone box in the building down the street. Nice arrangement. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Robbie McFerren Subject: Re: REN For Western Electric Products? Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:14:49 -0500 If you need to use these products right now, just assume each device has an REN of 1.0. This will allow you use the devices by overestimating the REN. wrote in message news:telecom24.7.10@telecom-digest.org: > I understand the "ringer equivalance" value is based on the WE 500 set > which is defined as 1. > Would anyone know what the REN is for certain other WE products such > as: > 1) 302/354 sets. (The "art deco" telephone set developed in 1938, was > the first to have the ringer within the set.) > 2) Older wall mounted "bell boxes" used for 202 and earlier sets. > 3) The "Bell Chime", an extension ringer that has several settings on > it. Can sould like a regular phone, a doorbell chime, or a very loud > bell. > 4) A more modern WE extension ringer which is a small gray box, > roughly 3x6x2 inches. > 5) An outdoor ringer. These had two exposed gongs, usually painted > gray or black. Used outside or in big rooms like gyms where an extra > loud ringer was needed. > 6) Trimline and Princess telephone sets, which used a more compact > ringer to fit into the small base. > Thanks! > [public replies, please] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the mderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #12 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 11 01:33:14 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0B6XDS24145; Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:33:14 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:33:14 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501110633.j0B6XDS24145@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #13 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Jan 2005 01:33:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 13 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New York Times Mulls Charging Web Readers (Lisa Minter) AOL Renames Cable Music Channel, Adds Content (Lisa Minter) Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (Jack Decker) Advice Needed on Villa Phone System in Bali (Android) Upload Address Book to Cingular Cell Phone (shw104@usa.net) IPTVGLOBAL (Manager) Re: Real Election Reform (Bob Goudreau) Re: Real Election Reform (Chris Farrar) Re: Real Election Reform (Tony P.) Re: Real Election Reform (David Clayton) Re: Gore Tax Increase (John Levine) Re: Place the Blame on Me (Herb Stein) Re: Streamlined Cable TV in a Card (Paul) Re: The Day the Bell System Died (Andrew) Re: The Day the Bell System Died (Justin Time) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time (Tony P.) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Jan 2005 08:16:33 -0800 From: Lisa Minter Subject: New York Times Mulls Charging Web Readers NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. is considering subscription fees to the online version of its flagship newspaper, which now is available for free, but it has no immediate plans to do so, the company said on Friday. One of the paper's biggest rivals, Dow Jones & Co. Inc.'s Wall Street Journal, charges for its online edition. A New York Times spokeswoman said the company is reviewing whether it should make any business changes to the online version but that no shifts were imminent. "We are reviewing the site to see whether or not there would be any areas where we should change the business model," said the spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, adding: "This is not new. We've been discussing this for some time." According to the upcoming issue of BusinessWeek magazine, whose cover story focuses on The New York Times Co., an internal debate has been raging at the newspaper over whether its online edition, which had about 18.5 million unique monthly visitors as of November, should adopt a subscription fee. N.Y. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was quoted in the article as saying: "It gets to the issue of how comfortable are we training a generation of readers to get quality information for free. That is troubling." The online edition of the newspaper is available for free to registered users, although some content, such as archived articles, are available only if readers pay a fee. Paid Web sites can help publishers draw new circulation revenue, but free online editions can be attractive to advertisers because they attract many more readers. Newspaper industry consultant John Morton, who heads Morton Research Inc., said he thinks many newspapers want to wean readers off free online content and transform their Web sites into paid-only publications. Free editions of newspapers on the Web are "quickly falling out of favor," he said. "I think you will see newspapers selling electronic subscriptions or print subscriptions, or a combination of both, which is what the Wall Street Journal does, and has been very successful at." The Journal had about 701,000 paid subscribers for its Web edition as of the third quarter. Online Journal subscribers pay $79 a year, or $39 if they also subscribe to the print version. In a statement, Dow Jones' president of electronic publishing Gordon Crovitz said his company "would be delighted" if the N.Y. Times began charging online subscription fees. "We have never understood why a publisher would charge for its news in one medium, such as print, then give it away for free in another medium, such as online," he said. Mathis said that when the online version of the New York Times was first launched in the mid-1990s, it experimented with charging readers outside the United States a subscription fee. She said that plan was dropped in 1998 in favor of a free site for all registered users. NOTE: NY Times is available each day at no charge to readers here of TELECOM Digest. 75-100 headlines from the front section, politics and technology sections of NYT are constantly refreshed throughout the day and can be viewed at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html and I hope you will enjoy it. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jan 2005 08:21:23 -0800 From: Lisa Minter Subject: AOL Renames Cable Music Channel, Adds Content NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online said on Monday it would rename its fledgling cable music video channel and offer more content in an effort to steer viewers to an AOL Web site. The channel, originally called "My Music Channel," will now be named "AOL Music On Demand." AOL is aiming to promote its AOL Music videos and original programing on the channel carried by Time Warner Cable, hoping to entice viewers to find more material on its free Web site AOLMusic.com. Launched eight months ago with little fanfare, the cable channel lets viewers click their remote controls to order up videos and AOL programing, once available only to paying subscribers to its high-speed Internet service, for free. The cable channel is being used as a marketing tool to persuade non-AOL members to find even more free content on its Web site, bucking a trend in the media industry toward charging for content. New York Times Co. said last Friday it was mulling a plan to charge for its online newspaper edition. AOL, the Dulles, Virginia-based unit of Time Warner Inc. is betting that giving away more free material will help it boost online advertising dollars amid an ongoing subscriber defection. AOL has lost millions of members this year, but Time Warner said it expects the unit to post growth in full-year 2004 profit before items in the low to mid-teens percentage range. "Now we're much more interested in extending the AOL brand into the nonmember audience and building that exposure," an AOL spokeswoman said. AOL Music On Demand is now available in 30 markets, after entering New York and New Jersey this month. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Sun, 09 Jan 2005 18:09:32 -0500 Subject: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee According to this thread on BroadbandReports.com , another VoIP company is adding a bogus fee to their price. I personally think such fees amount to false advertising and unfair competition because they allow the company to advertise one price, but actually charge the consumer a higher one. In this case the culprit is Primus, which markets their VoIP service under the "Lingo" brand name. Vonage was the first to do this, and Broadvoice is another one that jumped on this bandwagon. What next, you go to the supermarket for a gallon of milk and at the register they tack on a "milk marketing fee" to the price to cover the "Got Milk?" ads? I say again, this is false advertising and unfair competition, and I truly wish some attorney versed in class action lawsuits would file a suit against all three of these companies and any others that engage in this despicable practice. If they want to charge an extra $1.50 per month, let them add it to their advertised monthly rate so that consumers can make fair comparisons between the carriers, but don't try to hide it from the consumer in this way. What's doubly bad about this is that it's companies doing things like this that are going to add fuel to the fire of those who want regulation of VoIP companies. The states will claim that they need to have authority over VoIP companies to prevent them from charging the consumer any old price they want to, while labeling part of it as a tax or fee. Again, I say they should be able to charge whatever they want to, but only as long as that is the price they advertise. To advertise one price and charge another is simply unethical and if it isn't illegal, it sure ought to be. There is a Lingo user that is mounting a protest against this added fee - the thread on that is here: . I hope it does some good, but somehow I doubt it will. ------------------------------ From: Android Subject: Advice Needed on Villa Phone System in Bali Date: 10 Jan 2005 02:57:57 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi all, I'm in the process of building a villa in Bali and I need some advice about the telephone setup. I'm not a telecoms specialist and don't know much about it, so forgive me if I say, or ask, something stupid. This villa is primarily intended as a business, i.e. people can rent it. It consists of 2 floors (which can be rented separately) and a separate staff house about 80 metres away. Depending on business, I may add 2 more villas in the future. These will be between the 1st villa and the staff house. Apparently, in Bali it's cheap to install multiple lines in one go, but more costly and inconvenient to add extra lines later. I have therefore requested 3 lines straight away. Maybe I should request more? It's not too late yet. If and when I have 3 villas, I imagine it will be worthwhile installing a PABX system -- but I'm not sure I can justify the expense at this stage. So, this is what I'm thinking. Ignoring the staff house for now, I can route 1 line upstairs and 1 downstairs. I can add a switch that lets both floors use the same line (with the other one available for internet access) when the whole villa is occupied by 1 family. When the 2 floors are rented separately, the switch could be thrown so that each floor gets their own line (which they'd use for calls AND internet access, albeit not at the same time). This would prevent both phones ringing when calls come in and guests finding their phone in use when they try to use it. I've spoken to the engineer on this project & he's OK with this idea and ready to implement it. So far, so good (unless you say otherwise ...). Now for the tricky bit. To give more flexibility, I'm thinking of installing (digital) cordless phones. Guests could take them to the kitchen, study, pool area, etc. This also means I don't need so many phone points. Ideally, I'd like to make use of the cordless phone intercom facility (where a handset can call a base unit or another handset) so that, for example, a guest could contact the staff or another family member without moving. I know I could install a separate intercom system, but it just seems neater to keep the hardware to a minimum. But I'm not sure it can be achieved without going down the PABX route. I'm (vaguely) aware that cordless handsets must be set up so that, for example, they don't interfere with a neighbour's set. I'm wondering if there may be a way to exploit this, perhaps by deliberately setting all 3 phones to the same frequency (or whatever) so that intercom calls can be made between them. When new guests arrive, this may need to be changed depending on whether they're renting the whole villa or sharing it. Trouble is, I can see many pitfalls. For instance, if all 3 phones share the same frequency (or ID group number or whatever) won't they interfere with each other during normal calls? Also, when the upstairs and downstairs phones are set differently, they can't both match the staff phone. I guess I could have 2 staff phones, but it seems too complicated. Any ideas? ------------------------------ From: shw104@usa.net Subject: Upload Address Book to Cingular Cell Phone Date: 10 Jan 2005 04:31:56 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is there a way to upload/download a contact list or address book into a Cingular cell phone? Phone model: Motorola 180. There appears to be a USB type data connection on the phone but there is a lack of information about it on their website. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: dorios2001@yahoo.com (Manager) Subject: News: IPTVGLOBAL Date: 10 Jan 2005 21:13:38 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I heard that Microsoft and Sony are to form a company called IPTVGLOBAL to deliver IPTV services worldwide through direct subscription using ADSL. ------------------------------ Reply-To: BobGoudreau@nc.rr.com From: BobGoudreau Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 13:31:30 -0500 [As always, please remove my email address from this message's header and from the issue's ToC Thanks.] rob51166@yahoo=2Ecom wrote: > We also still use the 'First Past The Post' method instead of > Proportional Representation, which I believe you use in the US. Heck, no. I'm not aware of any jurisdiction in the US that uses proportional representation for any office. I suppose there might be some locality somewhere that uses it for a city council or county. commission, but certainly not in any federal or state level elections, I'd wager that most American voters probably don't even know what PR is! (In case any Digest readers aren't familiar with PR, it's a system in which voters select a *party*, not a person, on their ballot for members of a legislative body. Seats are then doled out in proportion to each party's share of the total vote, starting at the top of each one's "party list" of potential legislators.) In fact, almost all federal and state offices are filled using the same so-called "first past the post" system that is used in Britain [BTW, can anyone enlighten me as to why that term is used? It makes it sound like a horse race, in which the first contestant to reach a specified milestone is the winner, but that's not how such elections actually work. A better name would be "winner take all", since the candidate with the most votes wins the election, even if he has a mere plurality instead of a majority.] The only non-obvious exception I can think of in general elections is Louisiana, which has a system similar to that used in French presidential elections. Instead of party-specific primary elections (which all other states use to select each party's candidate for the general election), Louisiana fields an "open primary" in which multiple candidates from all parties may run, and in which the entire electorate may vote. If no candidate garners a majority of the vote, th en a run-off election between the top two finishers determines the winner. And of course, there is also the one big obvious exception: the presidency (and the vice-presidency), which is determined by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 10:06:28 -0500 From: Chris Farrar Subject: Real Election Reform rob51166@yahoo.com wrote on Re: Real Election Reform on 9 Jan 2005 08:08:01 -0800 > We still use the old 'X in a box' method here in the UK on our ballot > papers and, depending on which election/referendum we're having > (local, national or European) and the amount of candidates taking > part, the ballot paper can be up to 18" (that's right, 1' 6") long. Depending on where you vote in the US, that paper ballot would then have to be up to 6' (yes, 6 feet) or more long. While the presidential election is the one everyone follows, there is more on the ballot that "Bush/Kerry". You have to pick senators, sheriff, judges, district attorney, dog catcher, and garbage man. Plus any referendums that make it onto the ballot. One radio station revealed that the absentee (mail in) ballot for a suburb of Chicago was 20 (yes twenty!) pages long. Chris ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 22:26:57 -0500 In article , rob51166@yahoo.com says: > We still use the old 'X in a box' method here in the UK on our ballot > papers and, depending on which election/referendum we're having > (local, national or European) and the amount of candidates taking > part, the ballot paper can be up to 18" (that's right, 1' 6") long. We don't use the X method but instead you must complete a line to form and arrow pointing to your choice. The ballot is then scanned, a counter on the front of the machine incremented, the votes recorded on both internal paper tape and electronically. The ballot is then stored in a bin below the scanning head. Probably the most fool proof system I've come across in many years. This year was interesting though. We print ballots with both English and Spanish on them. The problem was that there were an unusual number of referenda on the ballot so the type was squashed down. ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 14:50:44 +1100 rob51166@yahoo.com contributed the following: > I think that sooner or later, a computerised voting system will have > to be introduced here in the UK as it'll have to be in the US, but at > the moment there appear to be so many creases to iron out to get a > decent and fair system, as well as getting all of our political > parties to agree to it that it's not going to happen for quite a > while. In Australia we have COMPULSORY federal and state Proportional voting (for everyone over 18) -- but get this: we still use a PENCIL to record our votes! Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jan 2005 02:09:55 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Gore Tax Increase Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> There are four components to the Federal Universal Service >> Fund. They are: >> * Low-Income. >> * High-Cost. >> * Schools and Libraries. >> * Rural Health Care. > Golly gee. How ever did these people get telephone service before Al > Gore came along and gave us the Algore tax (a.k.a. the Federal > Universal Service Fund)? USF to support low income and high cost have been around forever. Back in Bell System days it was mostly transfers inside the Bell System where it was largely invisible. The school and library and rural health care parts are new, and I agree that their adminstration leaves something to be desired. > If the Algore tax is all so wonderful, why is it that in 1977, I had > basic telephone service for under $10, and now I pay at least $25? Let's plug those numbers into the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI calculator. $10 in 1977 is a little over $31 today. In constant dollars, your monthly service has gone down. And if for some reason you wanted to call me, a call from Seattle to New York in 1977 would have been about 30 cents/min which is about 95 cpm today. But we know that today's toll rates are under 5 cpm. ------------------------------ From: Herb Stein Subject: Re: Place the Blame on Me Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 20:21:58 -0600 Hi Steve, Steve Sobol wrote in message news:telecom24.11.12@telecom-digest.org: > Tony P. wrote: >> Mmmm ... someone didn't turn journaling on and then did an rm -r huh? > Tony, that assumes they are using a version of Unix/Linux/*BSD that > has a journaling filesystem available, and that the filesystem was > actually formatted as a journaling filesystem (like ext3). >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Regards the Unix 'rm' command, I have >> 'rm' aliased to 'rm -i', but then if there are a dozen files in some >> obsolete directory I wish to erase in bulk with 'rm -f' I get in >> trouble. I have been told before it is not a good idea to use an >> established Unix command as part of an alias to something else. Friday >> was a nightmare for me, and it wasn't even the 13th of the month. PAT] > Pat: > Seeing as how rm -f is so powerful -- especially the way I use it, rm > -rf (recursive/delete subdirectories too, force deletion) -- I try to > remember to pause and examine the command line to make sure I'm > deleting the right directory(ies). > In my case, since I run my own Linux server and babysit a couple > others, and am logged in as the 'superuser', I can very easily delete > everything on the drive with one command, so I try to be extra careful > even when not logged in as superuser. :) > Hope this helps. I've spent the last 20 or so years working with Unix/Linux systems. When I say del DELETE (rm) I mean it. Unrecoverable. We get over it after the first FUBAR ... > JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ > Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / > sjsobol@JustThe.net > PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) > Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. Well, I've got 5 grandkids AND I work in retail part time. (When networking jobs are slow) :-) Herb Stein herb@herbstein.com ------------------------------ From: Paul Subject: Re: Streamlined Cable TV in a Card Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 16:41:17 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > Incidentally, getting rid of the box makes an especially > big difference when it comes to smaller screens, like kitchen-counter > TV's.) Too bad nobody makes a small TV with CableCard support. I've been shopping for a small CableCard capable LCD TV for my kitchen counter and I'm only finding large sets in the $2000+ range right now... -- Paul ------------------------------ From: Andrew Subject: Re: The Day the Bell System Died Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 15:03:35 -0800 Organization: http://newsguy.com Tony P. wrote: > All the theory and initial development for SONET was done by Bell > Labs. More importantly the laser was also a Bell Labs project, as > well as the transistor, etc. Mother Bell could have become quite the > giant if she didn't give up the rights to her own research and > production. > They also pioneered the things we take for granted like CLID, etc. I > recall a Bell sponsored book from 1972 that discussed the new services > over a few pages. The title escapes me but they had prototype photos of > the CLID gear, the Trimline prototypes, etc. And cellular service, of course. One of the favorite books in my library is an old BSP covering AMPS implementation on the 1AESS switch, dated 1983 I believe. andrew@lod.com ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: The Day the Bell System Died Date: 10 Jan 2005 06:49:49 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Fred wrote: Divestiture was the result of a case brought against Western Electric in 1949 and revived, years after the 1956 Final Judgment, over three decades later. The original case sought divestiture of Western Electric, which would have opened up telecom-equipment manufacturing; instead, it was settled by closing off Western Electric from participating in competitive markets. The revived case came in an era when the "natural monopoly" in long distance had cracked. Actually I thought the case against Western Electric's monopoly manufacturing arrangement was cracked with the Carterphone decision. This allowed the manufacture and installation of equipment on the PSTN "as long as the network was protected from harm." (At least that was my understanding of the ramification of the decision.) In all actuality, being forced to install a 'registered protective device' provided more protection for my equipment against the phone company than it protected the phone network. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 9 Jan 2005 22:31:48 -0500 In article , monty@roscom.com says: > By LISA W. FODERARO > Chaz Albert, a freshman at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., is a > passionate "texter," someone who loves to send and receive pithy text > messages via cellphone. He does it at home, at school and at work. He > often prefers texting over talking on his cellphone. > Last month, though, Mr. Albert's habit caught up with him. Only $80 > of his $400 cellphone charges were his father's, and most of his own, > he said, were for text-messaging. Interesting that they actually charge for SMS now. Back about ten years ago when OmniPoint first came on the scene SMS was free. Apparently the bean counters saw a revenue angle and that is why people like Mr. Albert are being held over a barrel. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #13 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Jan 11 18:13:18 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0BNDH902265; Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:13:18 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:13:18 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501112313.j0BNDH902265@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #14 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:12:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 14 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Mass. Republicans Launch Pre-Emptive Web Strike (Lisa Minter) Nortel Completes Earnings Restatement (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Comcast Says They Are Going to Offer VoIP. Bloggers Give This (L Minter) Is SBC Making Huge Refunds to Keep Customers From Defecting (J Decker) Comcast Broadens Offerings With Net-Based Phone Service (Jack Decker) Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (Bart Z. Lederman) Re: Lingo to Charge Taxes in February - What's Up With That? (R Merrill) Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (Rick Merrill) New Utility For Midi Ringtone Creation (cellspark) Payphones With Rotary Dials? (Lisa Hancock) Public Wireless Phones on Trains? (Lisa Hancock) Using Cell Phone as Pager (joe) Cheap Long Distance (sidellc@excite.com) Penna Attorney General and Norvergence (Lisa Hancock) Business Monitoring of Phone Calls (Lisa Hancock) Re: REN For Western Electric Products? (Rick Merrill) Re: REN For Western Electric Products? (Lisa Hancock) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime at a Time (DevilsPGD) Re: New York Times Mulls Charging Web Readers (LB@notmine.com) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 11 Jan 2005 09:05:53 -0800 From: Lisa Minter Subject: Mass. Republicans Launch Pre-Emptive Web Strike BOSTON (Reuters) - Massachusetts Republicans have launched a pre-emptive strike against Democratic Attorney General Tom Reilly by snapping up online Internet addresses that would have been obvious picks for him if he decides to run for governor in 2006. Reilly has not yet said whether he will challenge Republican Governor Mitt Romney in 2006. But if Reilly does run, it will be hard for him to use the Web sites reillyforgovernor.com, tomreillyforgovernor.com, reillyforgovernor2006.com and reillyforgovernor06.com. That's because the state Republican Party registered those domain names last week, the Boston Herald newspaper reported on Monday. "We intend to have some fun if he indeed is the candidate for governor," Tim O'Brien, executive director of the state party, told Reuters. He added that the party did not break any rules. Reilly advisers said the Republicans' Internet maneuvering appeared premature, given that the Democratic attorney general has not yet announced his candidacy. Susan Crawford, an expert in Internet law at New York's Cardozo Law School, said the Republicans' move seemed to be a new twist on the practice of cybersquatting, although O'Brien said it was "standard procedure for political operatives." A term that originated in the 1990s, when the Internet was catching on, cybersquatting refers to the act of reserving a particular domain name for the purpose of selling it at a higher price. Celebrities and corporations have typically been victims of cybersquatting schemes. Crawford said she could not recall another instance of one political party registering domain names for a potential rival, although she noted that before he ran for president in 2000, then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas complained of a parody site that used his name. Crawford said Reilly still has several options available should he decide to run for governor. She noted the number of possible domains has expanded in recent years with the advent of new Web suffixes like .info,/**/.biz and .us. Reilly also could dispute the Republicans' move through arbitration, Crawford said. However, the cost of doing so is likely to be far greater than the $6 to $9 fee for registering a new domain name. "He definitely has options, but he may not want to waste his money," she told Reuters. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance Reuters News Service. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: An observation on this matter: At one point, a few years ago, the thing called 'cybersquatting' was supposed to be against the law, at the worst, and against good taste at the least. I can guarentee you, if *I* (or most any of you) chose to take on the name of some company, or politician, etc as a web page, we would get shot down promptly. I thought -- and there I go, trying to think for myself again -- one of the missions of ICANN was to prevent this sort of thing, and to obligate web page owners to play by certain rules, including no cybersquatting. But when hot shot politicians ignore all the rules on the net and do as they please, what hope is there when a nothing, a nobody like myself complains that the penis enlargement company ripped off a name -- in the .org domain yet -- pertaining to internet history. Neither ICANN nor PIR has answered my inquries about http://internet-history.org and retrieving it back to me, the lawful owner. I don't think they are going to give it back, and if I had the money (or lacking same, a pro-bono attorney) to sue the cybersquatter I would. I can tell you that ICANN appears to be just a bad joke on the net perpetrated by Esther Dyson, Vint Cerf and some others who essentially have done nothing to date except go on expensive vacation/conventions and run out of money frequently. They certainly do not prevent cybersquatters. Let's see how they deal with it/if they deal with it, now that some politicians are involved. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:38:14 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Nortel Completes Earnings Restatement Telecom dailyLead from USTA January 11, 2005 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18655&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Nortel completes earnings restatement BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Analysis: Rocky road lies ahead for Nortel's Owens * Comcast aims for new growth with Internet phone service * VeriSign acquires LightWave * Ciena unveils Ethernet switch * Qwest to raise rates USTA SPOTLIGHT * Telecom Crash Course -- The must-have book for telecom professionals EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Comcast will launch video instant-messaging service in 2005 * Commentary: Short Message Service ads drive U.K. commerce Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18655&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 04:57:10 -0500 Subject: Comcast Says They Are Going to Offer VoIP. Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com Three selected blog entries (the first and last are from the same person): http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=175&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog 1/10/2005 Comcast VoIP's service is no great bargain -- and I'm talking than just the high price. -Posted by russell.shaw @ 10:34 am (PDT) I've been a Comcast broadband subscriber ever since they bought AT&T Broadband Internet's business. I've even filed this entry over my Comcast high-speed Internet connection, which happens to be working. And I am here to tell you I am quite skeptical about the pricing model, and the reliability justifications. Read my previous post to get the details of these. Let's take a look at the two "reliability" crucibles of Comcast's intent to charge a small fortune ($39.95 for existing broadband customers, $54.95 for a la carte) for VoIP. Full story at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=175&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog http://www.daffodillane.com/movabletype/archives/2005/01/comcast_to_offe_1.html January 10, 2005 Comcast to Offer Internet-Based Phone Service You can almost hear the dark music of the Empire from Star Wars playing in the background. VOIP (Voice Over IP) is the future, there is no doubt about that. We are moving toward the future of convergence. One wire into your home that provides, Internet Access, Phone Service, and Television. Of course given my choice of ruthless Mega-Corporattions to be successful at this Comcast is the lowest on my list. They have a long standing reputation for being a company that rolls over to lawyers at the drop of a hat and they have a long history of poor customer service made even poorer when they run all the competition out of business. ..... Full story at: http://www.daffodillane.com/movabletype/archives/2005/01/comcast_to_offe_1.html __________ http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=174&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog 1/10/2005 The details on Comcast's VoIP play -Posted by russell.shaw @ 10:14 am (PDT) In a move that was widely expected, Comcast Corp. has announced it would market its Digital Voice VoIP service to 15 million homes in 20 of its markets by the end of this year, and expand the service system-wide next year. Comcast had been doing selective testing of DigitalVoice for more than a year. The price will be set at both a la carte and bundled levels, and will include unlimited U.S. calling. For subscribers who receive their broadband Internet service from competitors, such as Verizon or Qwest, Comcast will charge $54.95 a month. Subscribers that already use Comcast for broadband Internet will fork over an extra $39.95 a month. My take on this pricing is that it is a little bit high. Discounting the so-called "free" VoIP services, Comcast must compete against lower prices from its established phone company competitors and discounted, VoIP pure plays. For example, in Comcast's corporate home of Philadelphia, Verizon's Voice Wing charges $34.95 a month, and $24.95 if you get Verizon DSL. Vonage's home user pricing plans are $24.95, but go as low as $14.95 a month for 500 minutes. Full story at: http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/index.php?p=174&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 04:44:16 -0500 Subject: Is SBC Making Huge Refunds to Keep Customers From Defecting Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com The following appeared in a blog at: http://voip-blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/voip/is-sbc-sprinting-to-or-away-from-voip.html This is quite interesting and if true, I wonder if SBC would be violating any tariffs by making such one-time refunds? Anyway, if what is being said in this blog entry is really true, it sounds to me like the smart thing for any SBC customer that has any significant amount of long distance usage to do would be to call SBC, and say something to the effect that they are going to switch to VoicePulse or Vonage (or some other VoIP company), and maybe ask how many days' notice SBC needs to disconnect a line, and then say they will call back to cancel service after they get the VoIP service set up and running. If SBC is going to make an offer, that ought to trigger it, and based on their response the customer could decide whether they wanted to stay with SBC or seriously investigate a VoIP company. Maybe local service is becoming like long distance, where those who do nothing and continue on as they always have pay the highest rates, while those who call and threaten to leave get price concessions. I'd be interested to know if any other SBC customers have had similar experiences to what is reported here. Rich Tehrani's VoIP blog VoIP Blogger & TMC President & Publisher This VoIP blog covers VoIP news (Voice over IP) and VoIP analysis, call center, CRM, and other technologies. January 10, 2005 Is SBC Sprinting to or Away From VoIP? There comes a time in all of our lives when we have to get from point A to point B and it is pouring rain and you left without an umbrella. Personally my least favorite rain is the small drops coupled with a high-speed wind ... You know, the kind that hurts your face. If you are like me when caught in such situations, you begin to think about the benefits of sprinting to point B, versus casually walking. Then there is that quick walk that you can do that is right about in the middle. Generally, I am a sprinter ... That is until I run out of breath (which seems to come more quickly every year). What if rain drops were like VoIP customers being lost? If you are an ILEC, every defector to Vonage or CallVantage is like a rain drop. Sure, one drop or two is not a big deal but when a whole bunch of these drops (lets say hundreds or thousands or even millions) hit you, you have to decide how to get out of the storm. A company like SBC is getting hit and hit hard and their umbrella (which would be their own VoIP service) is not available at the moment yet they hope to have one soon. SBC's plans are as follows... Get VoIP rolled out ASAP and at the same time, do whatever it takes to stop losing customers. Recently a colleague of mine who has read my columns was going to switch to Vonage or CallVantage and when they called SBC, they were offered a special "all-you-can-eat" long-distance plan for under $30 per month as well as a refund on their bill going back months for a total of hundreds of dollars! He hasn't received the check yet but this is perhaps the biggest threat to VoIP I have heard from the incumbents and it seems to be a sure sign of desperation. It is not beyond these companies who crippled DSL competition in the past to do whatever it takes to kill VoIP but the question is are they too late. The answer is yes as the momentum of VoIP is too strong to be killed by a $29.95 price point. Still it is a significant day when SBC basically says, "We will not lose customers." Lets see how this plays out. It is difficult to understand how cheap the SBC VoIP offering will be when the PSTN cost hovers around $30. So until their VoIP umbrella can be found it seems like a quick pace of walking (or is this a sprint?) is the best solution to get SBC to point B. Posted by rtehrani at January 10, 2005 03:19 PM [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not know about the giant refunds going back over several months, but it sounds like something SBC might try. I do know that SBC has more money than they know what to do with, if the premiums they offer to 'returning customers' is any indication. Over the year and a half since I left them and went to Prairie Stream, they have inudated me with offers and premiums and special pricing if I would go back to them. For example: a year of 'take it all' along with 60 minutes of long distance for $24.95 per month, plus a month of totally free service, and three more months of $10 'discount' on the already low prices. Other offers from SBC have been for a $50 Visa gift certificate, free wireless phones, etc, and once I got an offer for three months *free* DSL and no obligation for contract on any sort of continued service. Rarely a week goes by I do not get some sort of promotional thing from them always with a letter saying how much they want to have me back. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:09:27 -0500 Subject: Comcast Broadens Offerings With Net-Based Phone Service http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0501/11/D01-56201.htm Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Cable operator hopes users will pay more for features such as battery backup. By Mary Claire Dale / Associated Press PHILADELPHIA -- Comcast Corp. is joining the crowd of major cable TV and telephone companies venturing into Internet-based phone service, but with a higher price and extra features which the nation's largest cable provider hopes will set its product apart. The company -- which plans to charge $40 per month, or $5 to $20 more than most of Internet phone services -- said Monday it believes customers will pay more for features such as battery backup to keep the phone line running during power outages. "We really do believe that this is the next engine of growth," CEO Brian Roberts told investors. Full story at: http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0501/11/D01-56201.htm ------------------------------ From: lederman@star.enet.dec.DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL.com (Bart Z. Lederman) Reply-To: lederman@encompasserve.DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL.org Organization: Personal Opinions Only Subject: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:37:10 GMT In article , Jack Decker writes: > What next, you go to the supermarket for a gallon of milk and at the > register they tack on a "milk marketing fee" to the price to cover the > "Got Milk?" ads? Actually, you are doing that already. Go to your favorite search engine and look up "checkoffs" as they apply to U.S. agriculture. Of course, your payment to support the advertising campaign is buried in the cost of the milk, because it's the farmer that has to pay it. But you're paying for advertising many of the products you buy. Beef, pork, and dairy products are probably the biggest offenders, but I'm sure there are others. I don't disagree with your complaint about telecommunications companies tacking on fees to disguise the true cost of their service. We've all seen many of them documented here. But I now have doubts that the government is going to do anything about it. B. Z. Lederman Personal Opinions Only Posting to a News group does NOT give anyone permission to send me advertising by E-mail or put me on a mailing list of any kind. Please remove the "DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL" if you have a legitimate reason to E-mail a response to this post. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:25:49 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Lingo to Charge Taxes in February - What's Up With That? Ted Koppel wrote: > Received from Lingo/Primus' customer service today in email. So > much for "no taxes on VOIP". ... your Lingo service will be subject > a 3% Federal Telecommunications Excise Tax ... My WAG is that the service INSIDE the IP network (internet) is free and the monthly charge is for interconnecting to the outside telephone network, therefore it gets a federal tax (but NOT a state tax!). - RM ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:28:56 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee Jack Decker wrote: > According to this thread on BroadbandReports.com > , > another VoIP company is adding a bogus fee to their price. ... No! Scandalous! Outrageous! Such a thing has never been done before ... oh wait, maybe it has. - RM ------------------------------ From: cellspark Subject: New Utility For Midi Ringtone Creation Date: 11 Jan 2005 07:25:25 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com MidiCutter is a new utility for cropping a midi file down to a ringtone. It can also save the shortened midi as a wav, au, aiff or mov file to be used as a sample for commercial sites. It's written in java so is cross-platform. Details and download at: http://www.cellspark.com/MidiCutter.com Regards, Colin Mummery, product author ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Payphones With Rotary Dials? Date: 11 Jan 2005 07:48:49 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com A few years ago, some localities were intentionally installing their public payphones with rotary dials instead of Touch-Tone. This was in the hopes of deterring criminal activity which would utilize the Tone pads to call beepers and the like to summon criminal providers. Did this initiative ever get anywhere? Did it do any good? Many consumers have their own cell phones and don't need a public phone to conduct such transactions. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Many municipalities (notably, Chicago) also got the bright idea of making pay phones 'no coins after dark', meaning pay phones would not accept coins; calls had to be made through the operator (collect) or with a calling card. That went over like a lead balloon, plus of course telco made lots of extra money on calling card/collect call surcharges. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Public Wireless Phones on Trains? Date: 11 Jan 2005 08:07:17 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com In the early 1990s, public wireless payphones were installed on some commuter and intercity railroad trains as a convenience to passengers. Initially they were pretty popular. In NYC, the Metro North RR put them on as many trains as possible. Amtrak provided them as well. Calls were paid for credit card at about $1/minute. Now with personal cell phones so popular, would anyone know if the public wireless phones remain available on trains? Some history: In the 1920s, major passenger trains had telephones that were connected to a city system by a plug/jack when the train paused in a station, allowing passengers to make city calls. On major trains, staff would receive and send telegrams for passengers. Until the 1950s, telegrams were an important way to transact long distance business due to the high cost of voice telephone and delay in setting up the call. In the late 1940s, some trains got public radio telephones. I've seen such phones on trains in the 1960s, but I don't know how long the older systems remained in service for public use. In 1969, the Metroliner entered service. This had phone service, introducing direct-dial for mobile service. Calls were paid in coin or calling card about $3 for three minutes. (Keep in mind in 1969 Touch Tone and pay phone direct dialing was still new technology.) Land phones could also call the train and passengers paged to take a call. A few years later, the govt pulled the frequencies for other uses, and the original Metroliner cars were replaced by newer cars; the phone booths remained but were not working. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:44 -0600 Subject: Using Cell Phone as Pager From: joe Organization: TDS.NET Internet Services www.tds.net I'm new to this forum and am fairly ignorant about digital communication, however after trolling the newsgroups, this seemed the most likely place for my post. My wife works at hospitals in two different cities. She carries a hospital-issued pager depending on which hospital and which floor she happens to be working on. She often forgets she's wearing the pager and brings it home. If she's not at the same location the following day, she has to return the pager for the next shift -- obviously a hassle. I was wondering if it would be possible to get her a smartphone that she could use as a pager depending on which location she is at. So instead of carrying the 4-South pager, she could push some key combination on her phone that would receive pages directed to the 4-South pager. If this is possible -- does anyone have any hardware recommendations? Her birthday's comming up, and I've been looking at a Treo 650. BTW, We don't have any control over the hospitals' paging systems, so getting her own page number isn't a viable solution. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: sidellc@excite.com Subject: Cheap Long Distance Date: 11 Jan 2005 10:50:22 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com https://www.tel3advantage.com/signup.aspx?Plan=29&AgentNumber=436514 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Penna Attorney General and Norvergence Date: 11 Jan 2005 12:00:22 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com The Attorney General of Pennsylvania is taking action against Norvergence. See: http://www.attorneygeneral.gov/press/cons_advis/NorVergence.cfm ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls Date: 11 Jan 2005 13:06:37 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com The NYT reported that business now routinely monitor and record calls to customer service, even when the caller is on hold. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/business/11snoop.html?oref=login&8hpib This is perfectly legal and protected by the "your call may be monitored" notice they say at the beginning. One troubling aspect of the report was that the monitoring is done by 3rd party companies. To me, that opens up the risk for identity-theft since the monitors can hear all very personal information, including stuff said on hold. The report mentioned a monitor citing an employee who gave her phone number to a customer asking for a date. Why was that wrong? Indeed, I as a customer developed several good phone relationships with the company rec and would've pursued one except the rep was based way too far away from me. (Another was very nice but married). Is this monitoring fair to customers and employees? Is it in the public interest? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 09:27:18 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: REN For Western Electric Products? Robbie McFerren wrote: > If you need to use these products right now, just assume each device > has an REN of 1.0. This will allow you use the devices by > overestimating the REN. I will dispute that suggestion because the Princess phones I have seen have a REN of 0.1B; every phone must be labeled, so read the label! ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: REN For Western Electric Products? Date: 11 Jan 2005 06:55:04 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Robbie McFerren wrote: > If you need to use these products right now, just assume each device > has an REN of 1.0. This will allow you use the devices by > overestimating the REN. I am concerned that some of these units may have a REN _greater_ than 1.0, therefore I think I'd be better in _underestimating_ the REN. For example, does an outdoor ringer require external power or is it run off the telephone line? That is probably a current draw. The older sets were not as efficient as later models and may use more power. The 500 set contained numerous circuit improvements over the 302 set. Note that in the old days people didn't have as many extension telephones as they do today. Many homes had just one phone -- the Bell System embarked on a big "get an extension phone" campaign in the 1950s to drum up business. With only one set, REN was not a big issue. Further, everything was Bell installed back then, so an installer would know and take care special needs if necessary. Today we not only have our voice telephone sets all over the house, but also fax, modem, and answering machines too. To be sure, they have low RENs, but they still consume current. Adding a heavy load to the line could impact such devices. ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 00:15:23 -0700 Organization: Octanews In message Tony P. wrote: > Apparently the bean counters saw a revenue angle and that is why > people like Mr. Albert are being held over a barrel. Held over a barrel? How is paying for services you use being "held over a barrel"? ------------------------------ From: LB@notmine.com Subject: Re: New York Times Mulls Charging Web Readers Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 08:40:36 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Lisa Minter wrote: > NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co. is considering > subscription fees to the online version of its flagship newspaper, > which now is available for free, but it has no immediate plans to do > so, the company said on Friday. > One of the paper's biggest rivals, Dow Jones & Co. Inc.'s Wall Street > Journal, charges for its online edition. A New York Times spokeswoman > said the company is reviewing whether it should make any business > changes to the online version but that no shifts were imminent. > "We are reviewing the site to see whether or not there would be any > areas where we should change the business model," said the > spokeswoman, Catherine Mathis, adding: "This is not new. We've been > discussing this for some time." > According to the upcoming issue of BusinessWeek magazine, whose cover > story focuses on The New York Times Co., an internal debate has been > raging at the newspaper over whether its online edition, which had > about 18.5 million unique monthly visitors as of November, should > adopt a subscription fee. > N.Y. Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. was quoted in the article > as saying: "It gets to the issue of how comfortable are we training a > generation of readers to get quality information for free. That is > troubling." > The online edition of the newspaper is available for free to > registered users, although some content, such as archived articles, > are available only if readers pay a fee. > Paid Web sites can help publishers draw new circulation revenue, but > free online editions can be attractive to advertisers because they > attract many more readers. > Newspaper industry consultant John Morton, who heads Morton Research > Inc., said he thinks many newspapers want to wean readers off free > online content and transform their Web sites into paid-only > publications. > Free editions of newspapers on the Web are "quickly falling out of > favor," he said. "I think you will see newspapers selling electronic > subscriptions or print subscriptions, or a combination of both, which > is what the Wall Street Journal does, and has been very successful > at." > The Journal had about 701,000 paid subscribers for its Web > edition as of the third quarter. Online Journal subscribers pay > $79 a year, or $39 if they also subscribe to the print version. > In a statement, Dow Jones' president of electronic publishing Gordon > Crovitz said his company "would be delighted" if the N.Y. Times began > charging online subscription fees. > "We have never understood why a publisher would charge for its news in > one medium, such as print, then give it away for free in another > medium, such as online," he said. > Mathis said that when the online version of the New York Times was > first launched in the mid-1990s, it experimented with charging readers > outside the United States a subscription fee. She said that plan was > dropped in 1998 in favor of a free site for all registered users. > NOTE: NY Times is available each day at no charge to readers here of > TELECOM Digest. 75-100 headlines from the front section, politics and > technology sections of NYT are constantly refreshed throughout the > day and can be viewed at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html > and I hope you will enjoy it. > NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily > media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at > http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra . New articles daily. 18.7 million unique vs 701,000 defines the Times dilemma very nicely. I get Ny Times e-mailed every day. I had WSJ but the price was too much. (BTW they will usually drop from 79 to 59 if pushed a little). If NYTimes charged a LOW amount I would pay. LB ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #14 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jan 12 19:59:47 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0D0xkr12982; Wed, 12 Jan 2005 19:59:47 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 19:59:47 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501130059.j0D0xkr12982@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #15 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Jan 2005 20:00:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 15 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FTC Versus Porno Spammers, Kind Of (danny burstein) Digital Video Programmer WANTED (david@maxomo.com) DeltaThree Adds SBC To It's Line Up (Jack Decker) SIP Goals and Milestones For 2005? (halu@enea.se) Your Call (and Rants on Hold) Will Be Monitored (Monty Solomon) Hacker Penetrates T-Mobile Systems (Monty Solomon) Preventing Wireless Spam? (azieger) Book Review: "Web of Deception", Anne P. Mintz (Rob Slade) Motorola's Zafirovski Resigns (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Public Wireless Phones on Trains? (Scott Dorsey) Re: Public Wireless Phones on Trains? (John Levine) Re: Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown (401kill) Re: Executone PBX and a Problem (T. Sean Weintz) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time (Tony P.) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time (Hancock) Re: Another VOIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (Linc Madison) Re: Another VOIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (Barry Margolin) Re: REN For Western Electric Products (Lisa Hancock) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: FTC Versus Porno Spammers, Kind Of Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 17:16:11 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC It's a start.... "The Federal Trade Commission has charged a network of corporations and individuals with using spam to sell access to online pornography. The FTC alleges that the defendants, acting as a single business enterprise, barraged consumers with e-mails containing sexually-explicit content without the required warning label ... http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2005/01/globalnetsolutions.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: david@maxomo.com Subject: Digital Video Programmer WANTED Date: 11 Jan 2005 14:17:24 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi all: New company led by lead develper on COSA's After Effects is looking for a top notch engineer or developer/programmer with skills in digital video image manipulation, storage, and standards. You must know Quicktime, Real, Windows Media, MPEG2 and MPEG4 as well as Flash and MP3. Position entails knowledge of "grabbing" first few frames from streaming media across the web to enable quasi-thumbnails. Obviously, knowledge of video metadata capture important. Exposure or experience with Real, Windows and QT APIS essential; if you are expert in one or more and can learn the others quickly don't hesitate to apply. You should know digital video, as used in streaming media and broadcast TV in and out and be able to work in an organized, efficient and timely manner. This is a project engagement with the possibility of becoming full-time. You will be challenged by this project and have the opportunity to forge new ground in the digital video industry. Knowledge of grids and distributed computing and/or Search Engines a + but not necessary. Pay is decent; we will work out a fee for the project and if you have additional hours because of added features you will compensated. Email david@maxomo.com or davidL@bway.net for more info. ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 16:02:28 -0500 Subject: DeltaThree Adds SBC To It's Line Up From Andy Abramson's blog: http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2005/01/deltathree_adds.html DeltaThree Adds SBC To It's Line Up According to a sell side analyst covering DeltaThree it seems in their SEC filings today they have announced a relationship with SBC to do what they are doing for Verizon and more. The relationship spans just about everything but the network, something SBC already has in place. Who said the RBOC's are standing still. This is a huge win for DeltaThree, a likely blow to Level3 and a big threat to the cable MSO's who have had the chance to lead. Reports are that the SBC rollout will be later in the winter months or early spring in select markets before it goes live network wide. With VoIP not knowing any borders, does this mean Phone Wars will be here? Why can't SBC sell in Qwest's territory. This is also likely going to mean a bundle somehow with Yahoo. Yahoo is very close with SBC and Yahoo will be the entertainment partner is my guess. January 11, 2005 in PSTN, VoIP How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: halu@enea.se Subject: SIP Goals and Milestones for 2005? Date: 12 Jan 2005 02:09:15 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Can anyone tell me about the ongoing work in the SIP WG? I looked on their homepage, but the all goals and milestones had expiration date no later than September -04. Which are the issues for 2005? Thanks in advance, /Hans-Erik ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:49:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Your Call (and Rants on Hold) Will Be Monitored By KEN BELSON MELVILLE, N.Y. - It is the opening line on so many phone conversations these days: This call may be monitored for quality assurance purposes. The taped message is so common that many callers might assume that no one is ever listening, let alone taking notes. But they would be wrong. Monitoring is intended to track the performance of call center operators, but the professional snoops are inadvertently monitoring callers, too. Most callers do not realize that they may be taped even while they are on hold. It is at these times that monitors hear husbands arguing with their wives, mothers yelling at their children, and dog owners throwing fits at disobedient pets, all when they think no one is listening. Most times, the only way a customer can avoid being recorded is to hang up. "You could have a show on Broadway just playing the calls," said Mike Schrider, president of J.Lodge, a call monitoring service based in Hammonton, N.J. Call monitors eavesdrop on millions of exchanges a year, and listening to the mumblings and rants of people on hold comes with the job. Over all, about 2 percent of the hundreds of millions of calls made to call centers are monitored by a company's own managers or, increasingly, by third-party monitoring companies, which have come on the scene in the last couple of years. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/business/11snoop.html?ex=1263099600&en=567d8bda6d8b4605&ei=5090 NOTE: Read NY Times on line each day via our website at no charge and no login requirements. 50-75 headlines and stories each day. Go to http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 14:04:44 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Hacker Penetrates T-Mobile Systems By Kevin Poulsen ,SecurityFocus A sophisticated computer hacker had access to servers at wireless giant T-Mobile for at least a year, which he used to monitor U.S. Secret Service e-mail, obtain customers' passwords and Social Security numbers, and download candid photos taken by Sidekick users, including Hollywood celebrities, SecurityFocus has learned. Twenty-one year-old Nicolas Jacobsen was quietly charged with the intrusions last October, after a Secret Service informant helped investigators link him to sensitive agency documents that were circulating in underground IRC chat rooms. The informant also produced evidence that Jacobsen was behind an offer to provide T-Mobile customers' personal information to identity thieves through an Internet bulletin board, according to court records. Jacobsen could access information on any of the Bellevue, Washington-based company's 16.3 million customers, including many customers' Social Security numbers and dates of birth, according to government filings in the case. He could also obtain voicemail PINs, and the passwords providing customers with Web access to their T-Mobile e-mail accounts. He did not have access to credit card numbers. ... Cavicchia was the agent who last year spearheaded the investigation of Jason Smathers, a former AOL employee accused of stealing 92 million customer e-mail addresses from the company to sell to a spammer. The agent was also an adopter of mobile technology, and he did a lot of work through his T-Mobile Sidekick -- an all-in-one cellphone, camera, digital organizer and e-mail terminal. The Sidekick uses T-Mobile servers for e-mail and file storage, and the stolen documents had all been lifted from Cavicchia's T-Mobile account, according to the affidavit. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/10271 ------------------------------ From: azieger Subject: Preventing Wireless Spam? Date: 12 Jan 2005 11:39:50 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm a writer doing some research on wireless spam, specifically a) SMS/MMS spam coming to mobile devices and b) old fashioned UCE routed to mobile devices. I'd be extremely grateful if any of you, particularly outside of the US, were willing to talk about how you're handling this problem in your company (or even how you advise others to do so, if you're not already dealing with the problem). The results will appear in InformIT.com, a site dedicated to IT stuff. InformIT.com is published by Pearson, the company behind Que Books and other large tech and consumer titles. You DO NOT need to have your name or company associated with any info you provide, however, so fear not on that score. This is proving to be a really tough assignment, so you'll really be a lifesaver if you can share any of this info. If you're willing, please write to me at annezieger@yahoo.com. (If phone calls are easier, ping me and I'll send you my number.) Thanks in advance for any help you can offer! -Anne Zieger ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 08:21:17 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Web of Deception", Anne P. Mintz Reply-To: rslade@sprint.ca BKWBDCPT.RVW 20041017 "Web of Deception", Anne P. Mintz, 2002, 0-910965-60-9, U$24.95/C$37.95 %E Anne P. Mintz %C 143 Old Marlin Pike, Medford, NJ 08055 %D 2002 %G 0-910965-60-9 %I Information Today Inc. %O U$24.95/C$37.95 609-654-6266 custserv@infotoday.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965609/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965609/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0910965609/robsladesin03-20 %O tl n rl 2 tc 2 ta 2 tv 2 wq 2 %P 275 p. %T "Web of Deception" The introduction states that the book is intended to address information that is intentionally misleading, leaving aside considerations of honest mistakes or people who are seriously misguided. Chapter one lists various spoofs and intentionally misleading sites. Medical misinformation is covered in chapter two, which also contains some advice on checking sites. Business deception, in chapter three, is mostly concerned with stock manipulation through crafted messages, but mentions security leaks as well. Random security and privacy issues make up chapter four. Chapter five looks at charity scams. E-commerce and consumer fraud is the subject of chapter six. A very short discussion of legal advice is in chapter seven. Chapter eight has some of the standard guidelines for evaluating Websites. Searching the Web is addressed in chapter nine, and ten goes on to point out some search engine processes that may affect results. Possible remedies for misinformation are reviewed in chapter eleven. An endnote says that the net can be a confusing place. As with any book of essays, the quality is a mixed affair. There are some useful points in this work, but nothing too surprising. It is difficult to recommend that any audience would benefit, beyond the warnings already available in the general media, from the material in this book. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2004 BKWBDCPT.RVW 20041017 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@sun.soci.niu.edu The simple fact that nobody understands you is not to be taken as proof that you are an artist http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 13:38:43 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Motorola's Zafirovski Resigns Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18689&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Motorola's Zafirovski resigns BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Nextel added 2.9 million subscribers in 2004 * Lucent enters WiMAX market with Alvarion deal * Time Warner's CFO touts telephony * MCI chief outlines vision for telecom industry's future USTA SPOTLIGHT * Are Carriers in Your Business Plan? EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Yahoo! chief Semel touts emergence of digital living room * Wi-Fi, 3G hot in '05 REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Ebbers' trial likely to focus on relationship with Scott Sullivan Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18689&l=2017006 ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Public Wireless Phones on Trains? Date: 11 Jan 2005 18:59:47 -0500 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) wrote: > In the early 1990s, public wireless payphones were installed on some > commuter and intercity railroad trains as a convenience to passengers. > Initially they were pretty popular. In NYC, the Metro North RR put > them on as many trains as possible. Amtrak provided them as well. > Calls were paid for credit card at about $1/minute. > Now with personal cell phones so popular, would anyone know if the > public wireless phones remain available on trains? Don't know about the rest of the country, but Metroliners on the Eastern Corridor all have Railfones. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: 12 Jan 2005 03:36:04 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Public Wireless Phones on Trains? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Now with personal cell phones so popular, would anyone know if the > public wireless phones remain available on trains? I haven't seen one in a long time. There were cellular pay phones on Puget Sound ferries a while ago. Does anyone know if they're still there? ------------------------------ From: 401kill@gmail.com Subject: Re: Download Site SuprNova Closes Amid Hollywood Crackdown Date: 12 Jan 2005 12:35:25 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com They made torrentbits close down as well. Bastards. ------------------------------ From: T. Sean Weintz Subject: Re: Executone PBX and a Problem Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 13:00:31 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com GOClimb wrote: > Hi folks, > My company has an Executone PBX that was installed in the early 90s. > I'm responsible for maintenance and whatnot. Two questions to the > group: > 1 - Anyone know who runs these now? As far as I know, Executone > doesn't do it anymore. For a while, I thought they'd been bought out > by Staples, but I'm not so sure now. Inter-tel - http://www.inter-tel.com bought out executone. > 2 - Specific question. Just set up a new extension. It's well within > our range of allowed numbers by the phone company. Internally it rings > through correctly to the user's phone (and the v-mail works correctly, > etc). But when I dial the number through an outside line the call goes > directly through to the operator. Anyone have a clue why this might > happen? I checked on the VMS/Forwarding screen, and everything there > looks hunky-dory. What type of trunks do you have? ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 21:51:50 -0500 In article , devilspgd@crazyhat.net says: > In message Tony P. > wrote: >> Apparently the bean counters saw a revenue angle and that is why >> people like Mr. Albert are being held over a barrel. > Held over a barrel? How is paying for services you use being "held > over a barrel"? When those very same services used to be free once upon a time. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime Message at a Time Date: 12 Jan 2005 07:25:35 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com DevilsPGD wrote: >> Apparently the bean counters saw a revenue angle and that is why >> people like Mr. Albert are being held over a barrel. > Held over a barrel? How is paying for services you use being "held > over a barrel"? Nowadays computers make it easy to have very complicated pricing plans. Such plans are very hard for consumers to figure out, understand, and most importantly, remember to apply as they go day to day. This is done intentionally by business to drive up revenue as customers get confused and go over limits that are not readilly discernable. The customer was misled into thinking he had unlimited usage when in fact he had measured usage. I doubt he had any easy way of checking usage. The fact is that everyday people have lives and don't have the time to memorize all the rules of their credit cards, bank accounts, landline phones, cable TV, and cellphones, etc. What makes it even worse is that these rules constantly change -- even if you can read and understand thoes little bookets, they'll be utterly obsolete in a few months. The business world counts on consumers not being able to keep up. The few customers who gripe will get a refund, but most will flow on inertia and pay over month after month. Since all businesses do it, nothing is gained by switching to another company. As mentioned, powerful computers make it easy for businesses to have an infinite variety of pricing plans and policies, and load the customer down with fine print. (Despite my having a national unlimited calling plan, my phone bill is weighted down every month with 5-point sized disclaimers.)* When my mother was retired, she had the time, patience, and motivation to sit on the phone with customer service reps and get the facts for services she used. She would save money. But being retired she had time to do so. The rest of us have jobs, kids to drive to soccer, houses to maintain, and spouses with in-laws to visit. That doesn't leave much time to fight with the cellphone company or credit card carrier. Indeed, as time went on, my mother got tired of waiting on the phone and dealing with the nonsense and went with inertia, too. *Modern laser printers make it easy to print out all that stuff, and change it frequently as marketing people so direct. In the old days, the mainframe line printers were much less flexible and limited, with message space limited to a single innocuous line: "Long Distance, the next best thing to being there." ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 20:42:36 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Bart Z. Lederman wrote: > In article , Jack Decker writes: >> What next, you go to the supermarket for a gallon of milk and at >> the register they tack on a "milk marketing fee" to the price to >> cover the "Got Milk?" ads? > Actually, you are doing that already. Go to your favorite search > engine and look up "checkoffs" as they apply to U.S. agriculture. > Of course, your payment to support the advertising campaign is buried > in the cost of the milk, because it's the farmer that has to pay it. > But you're paying for advertising many of the products you buy. Beef, > pork, and dairy products are probably the biggest offenders, but I'm > sure there are others. You pay the cost of advertising any product you buy, unless it has no advertising at all. > I don't disagree with your complaint about telecommunications > companies tacking on fees to disguise the true cost of their service. > We've all seen many of them documented here. But I now have doubts > that the government is going to do anything about it. The cost of advertising, marketing, etc., is simply part of the provider's cost of doing business, and *SHOULD* be included in the quoted price. I get quite annoyed when I rent a car, for example. In addition to the taxes and airport concession fees and such, there is an itemized fee, in addition to the quoted rate, for the license plate on the vehicle, as well as something that sounds vaguely like recovering the capital expenditure of the rental company's purchase of the car. Can I get a rental car without the license plate? If not, then it should not be a separate line item. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 01:21:08 -0500 In article , lederman@star.enet.dec.DISABLE-JUNK-EMAIL.com (Bart Z. Lederman) wrote: > In article , Jack Decker writes: >> What next, you go to the supermarket for a gallon of milk and at the >> register they tack on a "milk marketing fee" to the price to cover the >> "Got Milk?" ads? > Actually, you are doing that already. Go to your favorite search > engine and look up "checkoffs" as they apply to U.S. agriculture. > Of course, your payment to support the advertising campaign is buried > in the cost of the milk, because it's the farmer that has to pay it. > But you're paying for advertising many of the products you buy. Beef, > pork, and dairy products are probably the biggest offenders, but I'm > sure there are others. This would only be analogous if the price advertised in newspaper ads from the supermarket didn't include the checkoff fees. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: REN For Western Electric Products? Date: 11 Jan 2005 19:53:27 -0800 Rick Merrill wrote: > I will dispute that suggestion because the Princess phones I have > seen have a REN of 0.1B; every phone must be labeled, so read the > label! Only phones sold by the phone company after divesture were labeled. Phones in service in place that were bought by consumers at the time (as a great many were) weren't labeled. Also, I very much doubt the phoneco sold older phones in their stores. As to Princess phones, I'm surprised their REN is only a tenth of a 500 set. Are you referring to Western Electric sets with a bell ringer (not a tone ringer)? I could see it being slightly lower, like 0.8, but 0.1 seems awfully low. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, back in the middle/late 1980's when phone stores were commonplace, they *leased* and sold the older Western Electric sets as well as the newer stuff. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #15 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jan 12 23:00:17 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0D40GR14659; Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:00:17 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:00:17 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501130400.j0D40GR14659@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #16 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 Jan 2005 23:00:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 16 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Equipment Review: PBXtra Line Sharing Device (TELECOM Digest Editor) Norvergence: NJ Settles With Some Leasing Companies (Danny Burstein) Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager (Bruce L. Bergman) Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager (Joseph) Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls (Justin Time) Re: Cheap Long Distance (Joseph) Re: Comcast Broadens Offerings With Net-Based Phone Service (R Merrill) Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Re: Real Election Reform (rob51166@yahoo.com) Re: Advice Needed on Villa Phone System in Bali (Carl Navarro) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 22:07:50 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Equipment Review: PBXtra Line Sharing Device A device worth investigating is the PBXtra, manufactured by TotalCom, which is also known as ACNC, a company in northern Illinois, in one of the western suburbs of Chicago. Although the company says it should not be used as a small home/office style PBX, there is no reason it cannot be, and it works very well for that purpose. It is entirely modular with 8 ports, labled port 0 through port 7. Out of the package, it defaults to 6 'extensions', and 2 outside lines. The extensions call each other by dialing 100 through 105. Dialing Zero, '0' is an alias for port 100, and dialing 9 is an alias for ports 6 and 7, the two outside lines. Dialing 9 toggles back and forth between ports 6 and 7, the two outside lines. You can also reach the two outside lines by dialing 106 or 107 instead of 9 if you prefer. There are several additional things you can put into the PBXtra via programming commands. All programming is done through a phone which is plugged into port 0. For example, you can arrange it so that the outside line plugged into port 7 is reachable by dialing '8'. So you can plug your single (landline) phone into port 6 and your Vonage phone into port 7 as I have done; then dialing '9' gets an outside dial tone on your landline phone, while dialing '8' gets the dial tone from your Vonage line. Incoming calls from Vonage or landline both ring into port 0 where they can be answered by 'the operator' or can be picked up by anyone dialing "*70" when they hear the common audible ringing. (Actually, '*7xxx' answers any ringing phone; I presume *7106 or *7107 would also intercept incoming calls.) One drawback is the PBXtra does *NOT* pass caller ID. You can get caller ID by installing a caller ID box _prior to (but in series with)_ the incoming port 6 or port 7. And PBXtra defaults to DISA (which means it answers upon getting the slightest signal of an inbound call; not enough time for caller ID to get through); but you can dismiss DISA via a programming command, so the phones will ring long enough (2 rings) to insure caller ID gets through. There are lots of things you can program into the PBXtra; conditions to make busy lines (in your system) hunt to other lines; 'camp on' to busy extensions, 'call forward' one extension to ring elsewhere; you can 'call park' (another name for 'hold') incoming calls while you search for information, etc. If the call left 'parked' or on hold is forgotten about, after a programmed period of time, it rings back to the operator. You set all that up by programming it through the zero port telephone. You can add other parties to a conference call. If you have 'custom calling' features on your telco or Vonage line, you can dial *6 to allow the switch hook flash to get past PBXtra and go to telco instead. Oh yes, also an RS-232 output to go to a printer as desired, an audio input for music, etc and a real time clock for wakeup calls at any extension. My personal configuration here is: Dial 100 (or '0') for 'the operator' (an unattended phone I use for the programming stuff mounted on the wall in the closet where the PBXtra is mounted. 101 is the phone in my bedroom. 102 is the phone on Lisa's desk. 103 is the phone on my desk. 104 is a wireless phone/answering machine in my parlor. 105 (or dial '7') is Cingular Wireless cell phone dialtone. 106 (or dial '9') is landline phone dialtone from Prairie Stream. 107 (or dial '8') is my Vonage line dialtone. (You can attach a cell phone to this system if you have a 'Cell Socket' type device. If no Cell Socket device, then ignore this additional 'dial 7' step.) I ran a 10-pair cable from the PBXtra through the wall to outside my house to the phone demarc. One pair to bring the landline into the house and the PBXtra; the other pairs to 'shuttle' the PBXtra back to the demarc for distribution around the house. Its not that I have such a huge volume of phone traffic; actually I have very little, but its great to be able to go to any phone and answer any call (VOIP, landline or cellular). You can get PBXtra from Mike Sandman http://sandman.com and then searching for 'PBXtra' in his catalog. And you will get a large -- about fifty pages -- manual with all the codes you can dial in to program it. About $350.00 plus shipping, but Mike is very honest and very prompt with shipping. Call 630-980-7710 for more details. PAT ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Norvergence: NJ Settles With More Leasing Companies Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 20:25:55 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC TRENTON - Attorney General Peter C. Harvey today announced settlements with two major financing companies - General Electric Capital Corp. ("GE") and CIT Technology Financing Services, Inc. ("CIT") - that will result in the forgiveness of nearly $8 million in payments owed by New Jersey customers under long-term service agreements with NorVergence, Inc., a bankrupt New Jersey telecommunications company. NorVergence, which was based in Newark, is under investigation for allegedly deceiving thousands of customers across the U.S., mostly small businesses, in its leasing of telecommunications equipment and services. NorVergence sold its long-term service agreements to 26 financing companies. Although NorVergence stopped providing services to the customers, the financing companies have continued to bill customers and, in some cases, have initiated legal actions against them. Some customers have monthly payments as high as $5,700. (GE and CIT...) "have agreed to forgive the majority of payments owed by 525 customers, more than one-third of the roughly 1,450 NorVergence customers in New Jersey ..." ( snippety snip. rest of press release gives more of the details, including the sordid NorVergence history ) http://www.state.nj.us/lps/newsreleases05/pr20050112a.html _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are there *still* some small business people plugging away paying on their Norvegence lease each month? People who have read this Digest for a few months now know starting early in 2004 I began encouraging people to **freeze all accounts payable to Norvergence effective immediatly**, and only release those funds on the advice of their attorney. I guess now most attornies, by and large, would agree with my position. Oddly, I do not get much mail on this topic any longer, only now and then the occassional 'holder in due course' argument, but as sacrosanct as that argument may be, it does not apply in the case of fraud, and I am not at all convinced that the finance companies were not parties to the fraud; either they knew **or should have known** what Norvergence was about. Those companies should have spent some money investigating the leases thoroughly rather than spending the money on bonuses and fancy dinners for the employees who brought in that bogus business to them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Bruce L. Bergman Subject: Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 08:32:21 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Pat: Please leave the address munged. Also E-mailed to Joe. On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:44 -0600, joe wrote: > I'm new to this forum and am fairly ignorant about digital > communication, however after trolling the newsgroups, this seemed the > most likely place for my post. > My wife works at hospitals in two different cities. She carries a > hospital-issued pager depending on which hospital and which floor she > happens to be working on. She often forgets she's wearing the pager > and brings it home. If she's not at the same location the following > day, she has to return the pager for the next shift -- obviously a > hassle. > I was wondering if it would be possible to get her a smartphone that > she could use as a pager depending on which location she is at. So > instead of carrying the 4-South pager, she could push some key > combination on her phone that would receive pages directed to the > 4-South pager. There are WAY too many variables to make a "universal pager" -- you would have to know the radio frequency -- and paging systems use many frequencies spread across all commercial VHF and UHF radio bands -- anywhere between 27 MHz to 900 MHz. You would need to know the digital "cap code" address the pager answers to, and several types of pager data protocols ... Plus there's a huge privacy concern, because any pager that's so easy to set as a duplicate of another could be used (by suspicious husbands or wives etc.) to spy on someone else's pager -- you see every paged number they see, and without a court order. A much better solution would be to use Human Engineering -- make sure she can't walk out the door with the pager in the first place. Find something simple that works to remind her to turn in the pager. Like having her clip her ID Badge or Timeclock Swipe Card to the pager, so she can't clock out without noticing the pager following it out of the pocket. Clip it to her car keys or bus/train monthly pass, that will keep her from getting too far. Or get a big red aircraft "Remove Before Flight" ribbon that clips to the outside purse or backpack handle when the pager gets issued, and doesn't get put away inside the purse until the pager is turned back in. Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700 5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545 Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 08:00:52 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:44 -0600, joe wrote: > I was wondering if it would be possible to get her a smartphone that > she could use as a pager depending on which location she is at. So > instead of carrying the 4-South pager, she could push some key > combination on her phone that would receive pages directed to the > 4-South pager. I can't speak for all mobile services but I know that with T-Mobile you can press 1 for a callback/page so someone could just put their phone to not ring and just forward immediately to voicemail and have in your outgoing message. This is is Joe. Please press 1 to leave a callback number. I will call you back as soon as possible. On AT&T (at least the TDMA service) you press 5 to leave a page/callback so you'd just go into your preferences and in your outgoing message: This is Joe. Please press 5 to leave a callback number. I will call you back as soon as possible. Keypress may be different for the GSM service. ------------------------------ From: Justin Time Subject: Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls Date: 12 Jan 2005 06:15:24 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is this monitoring fair to customers and employees? Is it in the public interest? And what does this question have to do with the fact that companies are monitoring their resources to ensure they are receiving the value they pay for? If you call a company, on their telephones, and their lines, what right to privacy do you think is inherrant in that? If it was your personal telephone line and they called you, then you can expect some privacy. If the company is monitoring that outbound call and uses information disclosed on that call without a notice of monitoring, then they are playing with the wiretap laws. But when a notice that the call may be monitored "for quality control or training purposes" is played and you do not object to that fact when connected, then you have waived your right to privacy. Having been the telecom manager for a large organization with several hundred lines running through our PBX I will tell you the traffic on all larger PBXes is monitored. We used call accounting software to track all inbound and outbound calling. Outbound calls were priced and if an employee was running up an inordinate amount of usage and / or charges, it was brought to their direct manager's attention. When you have people that do not normally perform customer facing tasks running up hours of outbound usage, you have to wonder why they are spending so much time on the telephone and not on their assigned tasks. How about the person on the other end of the line? Are they providing their employer with the effort for which they are being compensated? Monitoring of telephone calls on company facilities is not an invasion of your privacy, it is an attempt to stop people from abusing their employer from stealing both time and resources. When you look at it in that light, it paints a completely different picture. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Cheap Long Distance Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 08:02:01 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On 11 Jan 2005 10:50:22 -0800, sidellc@excite.com wrote: > https://www.tel3advantage.com/signup.aspx?Plan=29&AgentNumber=436514 Are we now letting contributors advertise to get kickbacks? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2005 11:33:19 -0500 From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: Comcast Broadens Offerings With Net-Based Phone Service Jack Decker wrote: > http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0501/11/D01-56201.htm > Tuesday, January 11, 2005 > Cable operator hopes users will pay more for features such as battery > backup. It cost me $37 for a UPS via Ebay and $35 to get it fixed -- a new UPS can cost $120. I like the VoIP CallVantage system with voice email, and speed dial numbers that are available from any phone in the house. Rick Merrill ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Another VoIP Company Adds Bogus Fee Date: 12 Jan 2005 09:35:16 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Bart Z. Lederman responded in article from Jack Decker by writing: >> What next, you go to the supermarket for a gallon of milk and at the >> register they tack on a "milk marketing fee" to the price to cover the >> "Got Milk?" ads? > Of course, your payment to support the advertising campaign is buried > in the cost of the milk, because it's the farmer that has to pay it. I think the original poster meant that the posted sale price turned out to be less than the price that had to be paid (not including the cost of advertising.) > I don't disagree with your complaint about telecommunications > companies tacking on fees to disguise the true cost of their service. > We've all seen many of them documented here. But I now have doubts > that the government is going to do anything about it. Actually, it's govt regulation that contributes to the problem. The govt demands "full disclosure". No problem! The companies disclose everything. But it's in microfine print written in difficult legalese and poor grammar (long run-on sentences with all sorts of exceptions/exclusions that make it hard to follow). Jack continued: > According to this thread on BroadbandReports.com > , > another VoIP company is adding a bogus fee to their price. I > personally think such fees amount to false advertising and unfair > competition because they allow the company to advertise one price, but > actually charge the consumer a higher one. Actually, I think you'd be hard pressed to find products and services where the advertised price is actually the price paid without extras nowadays. > What's doubly bad about this is that it's companies doing things like > this that are going to add fuel to the fire of those who want > regulation of VoIP companies. Very true and deservedly so. ------------------------------ From: rob51166@yahoo.com Subject: Re: Real Election Reform Date: 12 Jan 2005 13:07:04 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com David Clayton wrote: > rob51166@yahoo.com contributed the following: >> I think that sooner or later, a computerised voting system will have >> to be introduced here in the UK as it'll have to be in the US, but at >> the moment there appear to be so many creases to iron out to get a >> decent and fair system, as well as getting all of our political >> parties to agree to it that it's not going to happen for quite a >> while. > In Australia we have COMPULSORY federal and state Proportional voting > (for everyone over 18) -- but get this: we still use a PENCIL to > record our votes! > Regards, > David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@XYZ.myrealbox.com > Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. > (Remove the "XYZ." to reply) You'll never beat the good old pencil! LOL!!! BTW, voting's also compulsory in Belgium and one or two other states in the EU, but not here in the UK, thankfully. If it were, there's be a jail full to overflowing in every village, town and city! ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Advice Needed on Villa Phone System in Bali Reply-To: cnavarro@wcnet.org Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 03:19:53 GMT On 10 Jan 2005 02:57:57 -0800, Android wrote: > Hi all, > I'm in the process of building a villa in Bali and I need some advice > about the telephone setup. I'm not a telecoms specialist and don't > know much about it, so forgive me if I say, or ask, something stupid. > This villa is primarily intended as a business, i.e. people can rent > it. It consists of 2 floors (which can be rented separately) and a > separate staff house about 80 metres away. Depending on business, I > may add 2 more villas in the future. These will be between the 1st > villa and the staff house. > Apparently, in Bali it's cheap to install multiple lines in one go, > but more costly and inconvenient to add extra lines later. I have > therefore requested 3 lines straight away. Maybe I should request > more? It's not too late yet. > If and when I have 3 villas, I imagine it will be worthwhile > installing a PABX system -- but I'm not sure I can justify the > expense at this stage. > So, this is what I'm thinking. Ignoring the staff house for now, I can > route 1 line upstairs and 1 downstairs. I can add a switch that lets > both floors use the same line (with the other one available for > internet access) when the whole villa is occupied by 1 family. > When the 2 floors are rented separately, the switch could be thrown so > that each floor gets their own line (which they'd use for calls AND > internet access, albeit not at the same time). This would prevent both > phones ringing when calls come in and guests finding their phone in > use when they try to use it. > I've spoken to the engineer on this project and he's OK with this > idea and ready to implement it. So far, so good (unless you say > otherwise ...). Now for the tricky bit. > To give more flexibility, I'm thinking of installing (digital) > cordless phones. Guests could take them to the kitchen, study, pool > area, etc. This also means I don't need so many phone > points. Ideally, I'd like to make use of the cordless phone intercom > facility (where a handset can call a base unit or another handset) so > that, for example, a guest could contact the staff or another family > member without moving. I know I could install a separate intercom > system, but it just seems neater to keep the hardware to a > minimum. But I'm not sure it can be achieved without going down the > PABX route. I'm (vaguely) aware that cordless handsets must be set up > so that, for example, they don't interfere with a neighbour's set. I'm > wondering if there may be a way to exploit this, perhaps by > deliberately setting all 3 phones to the same frequency (or whatever) > so that intercom calls can be made between them. When new guests > arrive, this may need to be changed depending on whether they're > renting the whole villa or sharing it. > Trouble is, I can see many pitfalls. For instance, if all 3 phones > share the same frequency (or ID group number or whatever) won't they > interfere with each other during normal calls? Also, when the upstairs > and downstairs phones are set differently, they can't both match the > staff phone. I guess I could have 2 staff phones, but it seems too > complicated. > Any ideas? And you want to do it this way because???? For the sake of an arguement, get yourself a Panasonic TA-1232. It's a nice entry level switch that starts life as an 8 line by 16 phone box. Cable is cheap, so put as many extensions on the box as you wish. You can even set up single digit (I'd use 2 digits) dialing for restaurant and bar dialing. If you're doing the dial-up internet access instead of broadband, it will even give you reasonable data rates through the switch. This system with phones and minimal installation should be around $2K. Add another $200-800 for a decent call accounting system for billing the calls. Carl Navarro ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #16 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jan 13 17:23:54 2005 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id j0DMNr922927; Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:23:54 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:23:54 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200501132223.j0DMNr922927@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V24 #17 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:24:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 17 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Media Files that Spread Spyware (Monty Solomon) API For Caller ID on Nokia Phones (rogerd) Cisco to Buy Airespace (Telecom dailyLead from USTA) Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls (Lisa Hancock) Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls (Rick Merrill) Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager (joe) Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager (Isaiah Beard) Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager (Steve Sobol) Re: Executone PBX and a Problem (J.P. Wing) Re: Drivers Try an Anti-Photo Finish (abbygale) Re: Digital Video Programmer WANTED (Rick Merrill) Re: Level 3's VoIP Offers Critical E-911 Capability (ukcats4218016) Re: Calling Canada is an International Call? (Isaiah Beard) Re: Young Cell Users Rack Up Debt, One Dime at a Time (Isaiah Beard) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk 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; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 02:56:16 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Media Files that Spread Spyware Ben Edelman Users have a lot to worry about when downloading and playing media files. Are the files legal? Can their computers play the required file formats? Now there's yet another problem to add to the list: Will a media file try to install spyware? When Windows Media Player encounters certain special media files, it opens web pages specified by the files' creator. I recently tested one such file, which opens a deceptive popup that attempts to install software on a user's PC. If a user is tricked into pressing Yes once -- in response to the program's false claim that a user "must" accept it -- the program fills the user's computer with unwanted programs. In my testing, some 31 programs, 786 files, and 11,915 registry entries were added in a matter of minutes. http://www.benedelman.org/news/010205-1.html ------------------------------ From: rogerd Subject: API for Caller ID on Nokia Phones Date: 13 Jan 2005 13:39:35 -0800 I'm writing software to send and received some SMS messages, and would be nice if there is an incoming voice call on the phone to programmatically retrieve the caller id and show it in the software. Anyone know the API to retrieve this? (I get the 'RING' data but nothing else.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:15:16 EST From: Telecom dailyLead from USTA Subject: Cisco to Buy Airespace Telecom dailyLead from USTA http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18718&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Cisco to buy Airespace BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Hacker broke into T-Mobile USA's computer network * Charter CEO touts cable's high-speed advantage * Level 3 announces job cuts * Covad to offer new service * TiVo co-founder to step aside as CEO, will retain chairman title USTA SPOTLIGHT * TELECOM '05 -- Where the Carriers Meet EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * BusinessWeek special report looks at new uses for Wi-Fi * VIDEO: Carly Fiorina previews HP's media hub REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * BPL may interfere with some radio broadcasts, report says Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=18718&l=2017006 Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Business Monitoring of Phone Calls Date: 13 Jan 2005 06:52:39 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Justin Time wrote: > But when a notice that the call may be monitored "for quality control > or training purposes" is played and you do not object to that fact > when connected, then you have waived your right to privacy. The article pointedly mentioned that monitoring continues even when the caller is put on hold. I would think the caller has a very reasonable expectation of privacy while on hold; and side conversations to others while on hold should not be heard or recorded. > Monitoring of telephone calls on c