From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Feb 2 22:30:43 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0F2AF15291; Thu, 2 Feb 2006 22:30:43 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #51 Message-Id: <20060203033043.0F2AF15291@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 22:30:43 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, ITS_LEGAL autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 2 Feb 2006 22:32:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 51 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Western Union in 1950-60's (Digest Archives Reprint) Western Union Public Telegram Offices (Patrick Townson) Re: Western Union Telegrams -- End of a Very Long Era (Lisa Hancock) Carlyle Group Gives IPv6 a Vote of Confidence (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment ... (T) Re: EFF Sues AT&T Over Phone Surveillance (Lisa Hancock) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in Lobby (Thomas Daniel Horne) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in Lobby (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. 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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, 2 Feb 2006 15:37:18 EST From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Subject: Western Union in 1950-60's (Digest Archives Reprint) About 14 years ago in this Digest, I printed some files from Business Week Magazine which had appeared 32 years prior to that; they appeared in Business Week in August, 1960, discussing WUTCO over the decade prior to that. In this file: 3 part series "Things Looked Rosy For Western Union, appeared in TELECOM Digest February 20-24, 1992. Also, "Early History of Western Union, from Digest February 24, 1992. Also see 'history of telex' file and references to Morkrum Company. Also see articles on 'Western Union Clocks' during 1991-92 in Digest. From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 22:51:55 -0800 Subject: Things Looked Rosy for Western Union in 1960 - Part I The August 27, 1960 issue of {Business Week} showed W. U. President Walter P. Marshall on the front cover, with a pushbutton message switching position in the background, and the following story inside. (page 86 ff) "Electronics Puts Young Blood in Old Company" "When Walter P. Marshall (cover) stepped into the president's job at Western Union in December, 1948, it looked as if his tenure might be short and unhappy. Western Union, once the backbone of fast and dependable long-distance communications in the United States, was, quite plainly, a deathly sick old company. It was saddled with high labor costs, old equipment, crushing debt, and local operations that often cost more to run than they returned in gross revenue. "Some Western Union executives were waiting for a declaration of bankruptcy; many doubted that the company would survive to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 1951. "-Rejuvenation- But in the ensuing 10 years, Western Union not only has pulled through, but it has thoroughly rejuvenated itself. Instead of a winded oldster that could only look back at the days when its competition was the Pony Express, it now resembles an electronics adolescent with a bright and profitable future. The company's new strength already is evident: Last year its revenues and earnings set an all-time high. "Western Union can be expected to keep on growing. In the next five years, management hopes to spend $350-million on expansion. Next year, the company plans to spend $105-million for plant and equipment on top of $45-million this year. Completion of a transcontinental microwave network will increase the system's circuit capacity 10 times, and will add enormously to the range of services it can offer. It will be able to provide increased telegraphic service, leased voice channels, facsimile, closed-circuit television, and perhaps most important of all, high-speed data processing channels that can handle digital information at computer speeds. "-I. Financial Turnaround "The job of turning Western Union around from a faltering centenarian to an eager and aggressive competitor in the communications field was a difficult one. Before the company could even think about modernization, it had a raft of complex financial problems to solve. Few outside the company realized just how close to extinction it was 10 years ago. "A look at the books shows how deeply in trouble the company was: "- Operating losses were about $1-million a month. "- Bond issues totaling $30-million were maturing in 1950 and 1951, and bond issues and notes totaling $35-million were due in 1960, but no provisions for paying them were being made. "- Labor costs were eating up 69.2% of the company's gross revenues, leaving little money for maintenance or modernization. "- Message service, Western Union's basic revenue source, was declining steadily. It dropped from $178-million in 1947 to $146- million in 1949. "- Competition was formidable. More and more, business communication was going over long-distance telephone lines, and American Telephone & Telegraph's TWX service, a teletypewriter exchange network, was diverting a tremendous amount of business from Western Union's wires. "So the yellow glow of the familiar Western Union offices burned red in Western Union's ledgers. The many local offices it maintained hung like a weight around the company's neck, pulling it deeper toward losses. Yet to abandon some of the offices or even limit their hours required not only months of delay but also expensive hearings. "-Quick Action - These are problems that Marshall set about solving when he took over in 1948. He was 47 and had a background in financing and accounting. Unlike most of his predecessors, he had long experience in the telegraph business. With the exception of Joseph Egan, Marshall's immediate predecessor, Western Union's presidents since the 1930s all had been railroad men. "Marshall had come to Western Union in 1943 as assistant to the president when the company absorbed Postal Telegraph, where he had been executive vice-president. For years, Postal Telegraph had been on the verge of insolvency, and its troubles provided familiar experience. Marshall's first actions as president of Western Union were to organize the company's debts and to start cutting labor costs. "He took care of debts by selling off property and leasing it back, by selling pole lines, cashing in securities, and selling such subsidiaries as Teleregister and American District Telegraph. For example, the big Western Union building in downtown New York was sold to Woodmen of the World Life Insurance ... [illegible] company for over $12-million. "Then Marshall shocked the board of directors by announcing immediate plans to spend millions of dollars on a broad modernization and expansion program for services such as Desk-Fax, a method of transmitting telegrams by facsimile directly to business offices. He also accelerated the program for installing automatic switching centers in 15 cities. He got management behind a big push to get more private wire business and to increase facsimile services. All of this cost a lot of money. And with the company's history of steadily diminishing revenues, it looked risky indeed. "-Quick Results- Losses in 1949 amounted to nearly $4.5-million on sales of $181-million. But by the end of 1950, Marshall's moves began to show results. Unprofitable local offices were being cut out and automatic switching centers were beginning to increase efficiency. That year alone, labor costs were cut by nearly $6-million, revenues went up to almost $188-million, and the company turned a $7-million profit. There has been no red ink since then, and in 1959 earnings were a record $16-million on sales of $276-million. "The company's debt position also has been reversed. All the outstanding bond issues have been paid in full or advantageously refinanced." [Moderator's Note: This is part one of three parts. Part two will appear in the Digest Friday night, and part three on Saturday. PAT] From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 22:52:16 -0800 Subject: Things Looked Rosy for Western Union in 1960 - Part II [Moderator's Note: This is part two of three parts of an article which appeared in {Business Week} magazine over thirty years ago, back in 1960. Part one appeared Friday morning; part three will appear here on Saturday morning. PAT] "-II. Leap to Modernization- "So, with its financial house in order, Western Union is in a position to take off in new directions to insure its future. And in many respects, never has there been so fortuitous a time for the company to modernize. "During the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s, startling progress has been made in electronics and communications technology. Two developments particularly were important to Western Union: (1) the perfection of high frequency radio relay system - microwave - which provided a logical and much less expensive way to increased long-distance facilities; and (2) development of computers and automatic electronic switching systems, which promised big increases in efficiency at high reliability levels. "-Big Jump- With much of its plant obsolete, Western Union was able to go from old manual systems to the most modern automatic equipment in one big jump. For example, in the 1940s almost all of Western Union's services were carried on telegraph channels of a very narrow frequency range of 170 cycles per second, providing a top communications speed of only 60 to 100 words a minute. Today, the company's nearly complete transcontinental microwave system will consist of two 6-million cycle channels capable of carrying broadband television, handling over 12,000 simultaneous telegraph messages, transmitting computer tapes at high speed, or carrying voice communication or facsimile. These so-called broad band signals can't be carried on ordinary wires, but require coaxial cable or ultra-high-frequency radio beam carriers. "Had its modernization started earlier and been more gradual, the company would have sought to increase its capacity slowly through intermediate steps. These would have been expensive and yet they would not have been able to provide the facilities the company now feels it needs. "-Decreasing Dependency- The new broad-band system also will reduce Western Union's dependence on other communications carriers. Western Union particularly has been dependent on the Bell System for leased facilities. In the early 1950s, about 70% of Western Union's circuit mileage was leased, mostly from AT&T. "Although the number of leased wires has not been reduced in absolute terms, today their proportion has decreased to about 60%. S. M. Barr, Western Union vice-president in charge of planning, expects this percentage to drop to 40% in the next few years, hopes to get the proportion of leased facilities down to 20% eventually. 'You can see the kind of growth we expect, then, if we see no reduction and a possible increase in the number of leased facilities,' he says. "The big increase in traffic that Western Union anticipates for its new system is not likely to come from public message services, which have been the backbone of its business. This type of service basically is tied to population growth, and to some extent to merchandising gimmicks such as singing birthday greetings, flowers and candy by wire, and other special services. [1] "-Private Expansion- But it does expect its private wire services to expand greatly. Here, particularly, Western Union's new facilities will be of help in solving communications problems for private customers. Western Union already has a good deal of savvy when it comes to tailoring a special system to a customer's needs. About 2,000 companies in the U.S. -- among them U.S. Steel, General Electric, Sylvania, and United Air Lines -- have private communications networks leased from Western Union. And its bank wire service interconnects 213 banks in 55 cities with pushbutton switching. "Western Union got into the private systems business without much selling effort. In most cases, it just waited for customers to come to it. But those days, like the days of the hand-operated message centers, are long since gone. "Now the company is pushing leased systems aggressively, and the results show it. In 1950, private wire revenues brought in $8-million, or about 5% of Western Union's message business. In 1959, private wires sang a $52.3-million tune on the cash register. It won't be long, Marshall believes, before the revenues from private wires top those from public message services. "-Meeting the Competition- Until recently, however, Western Union could not compete directly with AT&T's TWX network, which offers direct customer-to-customer teleprinter connection through a central exchange system similar to a telephone network. Several years ago, FCC gave Western Union permission to purchase TWX from AT&T, but the price was too high. Now, Western Union is expanding a roughly similar system called Telex that will offer direct customer-to-customer dialing. [2] "Besides direct dialing, the biggest difference between Telex and TWX is the method of billing customers. Telex customers are charged only for the time that the facilities are in use plus a 50-cent connection charge. A short order to a New York broker from, say, Chicago via Telex might be subject only to a 10-second time charge, compared with a three-minute basic charge on TWX. "-Growing Network- At present, Telex service is available only between New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. But before yearend, 19 more cities will be added. In 1961, it will cover 23 more cities, and management hopes to get approval from the board of directors to cover 128 cities by 1962." [1] One would think that a writer for such an astute publication as {Business Week} would have noted the price elasticity of personal communication. This would have suggested that the dropping price of long-distance telephony would devastate public Telegram service, as it did. [2] Dial Telex service began in Germany in 1933, just three years after AT&T introduced manual TWX service in the U.S. Telex used modified SxS telephone switching equipment. Western Union imported the European technology and equipment, even to the 50-baud teleprinters. One wonders if AT&Ts conversion to dial TWX was at all in response to competition from Telex, or if it was simply a matter of taking advantage of the switched telephone network for transmission. I assume that manual TWX calls were timed using Calculagraphs, just as voice calls were. Telex used a simpler charging mechanism, no doubt because it originated long before automated telephone billing. At the time a Telex call was set up the customer's charging register was connected to a pulse generator, the pulse rate depending on the distance to the called station. The charges could be reduced at night simply by slowing down the pulse generators. At least in Germany there were Telex PBXs in hotels; in this case the pulses were relayed to the PBX so that the hotel guest could be billed. Telex was always customer-dialed long-distance service. [Moderator's Note: Although telex was always customer-dialed, provision was made for an operator's help in completing a difficult connection. Dialing (was it? ) '17' from the telex unit connected the user to WU's 'manual assistance positions' in Bridgeport, MO. An operator there communicated with the user by typing back and forth on the keyboard, like a modern day 'chat', and the operator could then do what any telco operator could do: complete the connection, verify a busy terminal, busy circuits, out of order, or number not in service condition on the receiving end. In addition, the WU manual assistance operator was used to place 'collect' (reverse charge) connections and special or third-party billing. I think dialing '19' connected the user to WU directory assistance where help was given by 'chatting'. Part three of this article will appear in the Digest on Saturday. PAT] From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 23:44:55 -0800 Subject: Things Looked Rosy for Western Union in 1960, part III [Moderator's Note: This is part three of three parts of an article about Western Union which appeared in {Business Week} magazine more than thirty years ago, in 1960. Parts one and two appeared in the Digest on Friday morning and Friday evening. To continue this series about Western Union, an issue Saturday overnight/Sunday morning will include an article from {Fortune Magazine}, March, 1959, also supplied by Jim Haynes. PAT] "-III. Building For the Future- "Western Union has great hopes that Telex will increase its revenue load many fold. Even so, it's hard to imagine that such business will fill all the extra traffic capacity that Western Union's new microwave system provides. And so, once again, President Marshall is counting on electronics technology to help him out. Three out of every four systems that Western Union is now installing for customers include provision for handling data processing information. Communication between computers, or tape-to-tape digital messages between dispersed plants, offices, and data processing centers may eventually equal the volume of voice and message communication. AT&T President Frederick R. Kappel, too, thinks that's possible. "-Expandable System- So Marshall believes his modern plant is coming on stream just in time to catch the new flood of data processing business. The transcontinental microwave network's two 6-million cycle channels each are capable of handling transcontinental telecasts, or thousands of telegraphic, voice, and data processing channels. The system is designed to carry up to seven broad-band channels, and these will be added as needed. "The Transcontinental network, with extension legs, will cost $56-million, but once the microwave relay towers are in place, the system's capacity can be doubled for about 15% to 20% of this cost. Eventually, Western Union will have a great loop of microwave routes that will interconnect North and South as well as East and West. The full system may cost $250- million between now and 1970. "-Government Contracts- Part of the load the new microwave system will carry is already under contract. The U.S. Air Force hired Western Union to build an automatic system of data and message handling that will interconnect all domestic Air Force bases. The combat and logistics network (COMLOGNET) [1] also costs, coincidentally, $56- million and will be operated by Air Force personnel. Western Union also built for the Air Force an international automatic switching telegraph network, [2] which was completed last May, and has put in a high-speed weather map facsimile system for the Strategic Air Command. In addition, it built a nationwide weather map facsimile system for the Weather Bureau that serves several hundred points. "To work out new communications applications to keep its microwave system busy, Western Union has enlarged its engineering and research departments. The company is now spending about $6-million a year on research and development -- more than ever before in its history. Of course, Bell Laboratories spends a lot more. But Marshall has some pretty definite ideas on how to get the most mileage out of research expenditures. "'One problem,' he admits, 'is getting the right kind of people that can really come through with innovations, and I'm not at all sure it is possible to hire this kind of person off the street, even if you have the most wonderful facilities in the world. Some people just don't like to work for big organizations.' "-Research Interests- To tap that kind of talent, Western Union has purchased large interests in a number of small companies that offer intriguing technological or manufacturing competence: "Microwave Associates, Inc., a leading developer of microwave elements such as waveguides, tubes, and semiconductor elements. "Technical Operations, Inc., a Boston company engaged in contract research for the government and industry in computing, physics, mechanical engineering and electronics. "Dynametrics Corp., another Boston company, which produces electronic measuring equipment that possibly could be related to future production control systems. Such systems might fit into an integrated data processing system built around a Western Union network. "Hermes Electronics Co., a producer of crystal filters for microwave uses and designer of part of the telemetering system for the Titan missile. Hermes also has done a lot of work on computer translators that change binary code to decimal readouts. "Gray Mfg. Co., Hartford, manufacturer of switchboards, dictating machines, and electronic gear. "Teleprinter Corp., which has developed the smallest page teleprinter on the market. [3] "These six companies dovetail so well as a combined research, engineering, and manufacturing operation that there are incessant rumors that Western Union intends to meld them into one big outfit. Marshall denies such an intent, disputes the logic of such a move on the ground that the talent attracted by these companies comes from their small size and independence. Actually, Western Union benefits substantially from the present management. As part owner, it can use the services of the individual companies and also coordinate their activities to some degree. "In addition to these six companies, Western Union also has invested in Teleprompter Corp. But this company falls into a different category. Teleprompter is not a manufacturer of communications equipment. It custom-designs office communication centers, assembling equipment made by others and mounting it on its own furniture. But Teleprompter's work in closed-circuit and pay TV and in other fields jibes with Western Union's interests. "-Dynamic Outlook- These new interests and Western Union's own research efforts all point to a greatly expanded future for the company. Although it still has some problems to solve, the company is in vastly better shape than it was ten years ago. Instead of sitting back and being outdated by new technology, Western Union very definitely is counting on the latest electronic wizardry to win a bigger piece of the communications market for itself." [1] COMLOGNET started out as a bunch of IBM card transceiver machines, which used internal modems to transmit punched cards over private telephone lines connecting the Air Materiel Command bases. When the Air Force set out to replace these with a Real communication system, both the name and the scope of the project changed several times as is typical of government projects. Names that followed COMLOGNET were first AFDATACOM and ultimately AUTODIN (automatic digital network), which became the main record communication system for the whole DOD. The original terminals consisted of a Model 28 ASR teletypewriter, an IBM card reader/punch, and a refrigerator-sized electronics package made by IBM. Transmission was synchronous using a modified Fieldata code. All transmissions were encrypted. This was somewhat to the dismay of the materiel people, who had started out with the card transceivers in their Base Supply offices; the AUTODIN terminals had to be locked up in secure Base Communications buildings because of the encryption equipment. So the supply people had to carry their cards between buildings on the base. There were also a few magnetic tape AUTODIN terminals. This was in the days before IBMs tape format became a de facto standard of the industry; so the terminals had to be designed to read and write the kind of tapes appropriate to the kind of computer they were to be used with. AUTODIN provided both message switching (i.e. store-and-forward) and circuit switching a la Telex. The switching centers for AUTODIN used computers made by RCA, originally discrete-transistor machines contemporary with the RCA 301-501-601 line, later replaced by machines of RCAs Spectra 70 line. Having to replace all those original computers after only five years or so must have been terribly galling to old Western Union hands, as some of the company's own offices were still using teleprinters made by Morkrum-Kleinschmidt prior to 1930. [2] This system was Western Union's Plan 55, based on paper tape store and forward technology. The switching centers used a combination of electromechanical and vacuum-tube electronic technology. Cross- office transmission was at 200 wpm, requiring electronic transmitting and receiving distributors and parallel-input reperforators. Plan 55 was superseded by AUTODIN when the latter acquired Teletype as well as punched card capabilities. [3] Perhaps Western Union hoped to use Teleprinter Corp. to free itself from dependence on AT&Ts Teletype subsidiary. W.U. had made some previous efforts to build its own teletypewriters. As things turned out the Teleprinter product, MITE (Miniature Integrated Teleprinter Equipment), was popular with the military for its small size and weight but never achieved much of a commercial market. From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Sat, 22 Feb 92 00:01:43 -0800 Subject: Early History of Western Union This is excerpted from {Fortune Magazine}, March 1959 - an excellent article with nice pictures, "Western Union, by Grace of FCC and AT&T". "Many legends have blurred the history of Western Union. Contrary to widely held belief, for instance, the company was not founded by Samuel F. B. Morse, the portrait painter who invented the first telegraph. Initially, as a matter of fact, it didn't even use the Morse patents and, relatively speaking, it was a latecomer to the field. "Morse did his pioneering work on the telegraph in the 1830's. By 1850 there were fifty telegraph companies operating between various cities in the U.S., most of them with licenses on the Morse patents. "In 1846, Royal E. House of Vermont had come up with a device that permitted the electrical impulse to imprint letters and numbers on tape, eliminating the dot-dash symbols. The House printer became the basis for a new company financed and operated by a group of Rochester[3] investors headed by Hiram Sibley. This was the New York & Mississippi Valley Telegraph Co., formed to link upper New York State to St. Louis. But even as Sibley's plans began to unfold, the competition in the telegraph industry became chaotic. Some cities were being served by three competing patent systems. Meanwhile the war in rates was ruinous. "Sibley had a simple solution: consolidate all the telegraph companies into one. New York & Mississippi Valley Telegraph was reincorporated as the Western Union Co., with licenses on both Morse and House patents, in New York State in 1856. Its avowed purpose was to bring together into one company all the telegraph firms then operating beyond the Hudson -- hence 'Western' Union. "Western Union grew at a fantastic rate. The New York company gobbled up hundreds of competing telegraph companies, made exclusive, and advantageous, deals with the railroads, and reached all the way to the Pacific Coast. By 1866 it had a virtual monopoly. In the first ten years of its life its capital had grown from $500,000 to $41 million. "-The war with the telephone- "The company's first brush with the telephone came in 1877, when it imperiously declined an opportunity to buy the invention of Alexander Graham Bell for $100,000. Soon after, Western Union decided to enter the telephone field via the American Speaking Telephone Co., which would exploit voice-communication patents by Elisha Gray [1] and Thomas Edison. The Western Union system was quite as good as Bell's, and Western Union began to grow in the telephone field. But in 1878, Bell sued for patent infringement. As part of the settlement, reached the next year, Western Union agreed to stay out of the voice business and Bell agreed to stay out of the telegraph business. But Bell slipped out of the agreement when it formed, in 1885, a new company called the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. "In 1909, AT&T won stock control of Western Union by purchasing the shares held by the estate of Jay Gould. Theodore Vail, a distant cousin of the Alfred Vail who had helped Morse start his telegraph line, was president of Bell at the time, and he planned to integrate the two companies. To begin with he had himself elected president of Western Union and began using it to promote the telephone by encouraging people to phone in their telegrams. Western Union had already developed a private-wire business with a volume of $3 million annually, and AT&T took this over, too, adding it to the small private-wire service it had developed on its own. "In 1914, to avert government antitrust action, AT&T disposed of its Western Union holdings, but stayed in the private-wire business. After AT&T and Western Union parted, expansion of the telgraph system merely kept pace with the increase in population. By the Thirties the business was contracting. More and more Americans forsook telegrams for long-distance phone calls and air mail. Western Union was now bothered also by competition from the Postal Telegraph Service, a system formed in the 1880's. Postal had been taken over by Sosthenes Behn of IT&T in 1928, and thereafter fought Western Union hard. As if this were not enough, AT&T introduced in 1931 its TWX service, whereby subscribers could have direct telegraphic connection with each other through a central exchange. (AT&T invited Western Union to join it in the TWX network, and later even considered selling the system to Western Union, but Western Union couldn't pay the price.) "In the early Thirties a debate began on whether there was enough telegraph business to support two telegraph companies -- meaning Western Union and Postal, but not AT&T, which most people thought of as a telephone service only. The debate was not resolved until 1943, when Congress authorized a merger of the two companies. An amendment to the same law authorized Western Union to buy the telegraphic services of AT&T -- but it did not make it mandatory for AT&T to sell." The following material comes from a {Business Week} article of approximately ten years earlier than the {Fortune} article: Nov 19, 1949. "Western Union's only all-telegraph competitor of recent years in the domestic field, Postal Telegraph, Inc. started in the 1880s. It competed with Western Union with indifferent success, but Western Union was prevented by law from buying its competitor. "Finally, during the war, it became obvious that Postal couldn't go on. Operations for several years had been dependent on RFC [2] loans. So Congress finally permitted Western Union to absorb its competitor (BW - Aug. 7 '43, p102). "Western Union was probably not too eager to acquire Postal in 1943. For one thing, Postal's facilities partly duplicated its own. Further it had (1) to take over Postal's $12.5-million debt to RFC, and (2) to guarantee jobs for most of Postal's staff for four years, despite its own heavy labor costs. "However, Western Union didn't have much choice. Otherwise the government might have taken over Postal. "Another competitor is the government-operated communications systems. The armed services and the State Department have their own networks of 'record' communications (any means of communication that produces a permanent record on paper) ..." [This seems like a silly remark to me, since the government-operated systems were based on private wires leased from the common carriers.] [1] This is the Elisha Gray who lost the race to the Patent Office to Bell. I remember in the 50s or so there was a "Gray Telephone Pay Station Co.", making pay stations almost identical in appearance to the Bell phones, for the independent companies. I wonder if this is connected with the Gray Mfg. Co. that was listed as a Western Union affiliate in another article? [2] RFC = Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a Depression-era government agency in the business of lending money to business firms to help them get back on their feet. [3] I wonder if the late Larry Lippman, in clearing out the Western Union office there, was aware that Western Union was started in Rochester. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I recall receiving a phone call or two from Larry Lippman in 1989-90 asking me if I would join him in Rochester, NY for the cleaning out/closing of the local Western Union office there. I always regretted not being able to be there to help him, but I was quite ill at the timem ad simply could not go there to help him; it was really my loss. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: Western Union Public Telegram Offices Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:00:00 EST In Chicago, and almost all cities, large and small, there was a public telegraph office; a place where people could go either to send a telegram or wait for the arrival of one. In the bigger cities at least, the public offices were quite ornate places, replete with high back comfortable chairs for customer use, writing desks to sit at when you wished to compose your message or sit to read the message you had received, etc. They all had nice carpeting, were kept very cool in the summer with overhead ceiling fans which turned sort of slowly, spitoons and ashtrays, a long marbletop counter where one was waited on by the clerk(s) on duty (the desks where one could compose their message were finely polished wood) and of course there were always one or two Western Union clocks, often times the 'grandfather' style clock which had Western Union works in it. The offices were almost always open 24/7 and generally were rather noisy inside. You would always hear the clock(s) ticking, except for when the printing machinery would start up to print an incoming message or send a message. In Chicago, the public office was on the first floor of the main head- quarters building for Western Union, 407 South LaSalle Street, more or less across the street from LaSalle Street (Train) Station, and about a block or so away from the Illinois Bell central office locatred at 65 West Congress Parkway. Western Union had some kind of arrangment with the telephone company in most towns, the public office phone number was always (exchange)-4321. Chicago was a little different in this respect, the headquarters right upstairs had a switchboard whose number was WABash-4321 but the phone message takers were on WABash-7111. Smaller offices in little towns, etc were often times not operated directly by the company, but were maintained as 'agency stations', and operated by individuals who were 'agents' for the company. Western Union was like Greyhound Bus in this respect: the public offices which were good money-makers for the company were owned by the company; those which made less (if any) profit were owned by these agents, who were expected to hire their own help, transmit/recieve telegrams, etc. Most of the smaller 'agency locations' received a commission on their traffic both send-paid and received-collect in the range of 10-15 percent, where at a 'company' or 'corporate location' of course Western Union kept all the money, but also had to pay all the bills, the payroll, the rent and utilities, etc. Agents, on the other hand, paid all those expenses themselves, including their payroll, which generally amounted to a clerk for each shift (or time period in a day) as well as a 'relief clerk' as needed. Typically the agents tried to make do with only one clerk at a time to both man the front counter, send/receive the telegrams, answer the phone, etc. Company locations, generally limited to larger cities, would be more 'extravagent' with two or three telegraphers working in their area behind the main counter, and at least one or sometimes two clerks in front. The office would be sort of quiet (except for the telephone [always whatever-4321] which seemed to ring almost constantly.) Then the quietness would be broken as one would hear the 'whirring noise' of the gears engaging on a printing machine, then the noisy chatter of the keys as they began to strike the paper, etc. Sometimes, there would be almost constant clatter for hours at a time in the busier offices. Offices like Chicago had several 'circuits' in a 'hunting' system like lines on a switchboard: If things were busy, three or four printing machines would be going at once. One or two of the circuits were used for outgoing stuff, two or three were used for incoming messages. Experienced telegraphers usually operated two or three machines each; sitting in a swivel rolling wheels chair, they would hear the intial 'whirr', glance around to see which terminal it was and scoot their chair to that position to begin accepting a new incoming message. Incoming messages were put on a spindle on a counter near the clerk, who would enter it in the log book, stamp the proper indicia on the message, fold it up and put it in an envelope. Even if the customer was in the office waiting for the message to get there, the rule was 'the customer is entitled to privacy at all times', so always, the message was folded and put in an envelope before handing it over. One of the clerk's duties was to always announce in a clear voice, "a message recieved for Name; is Name here?" If the person came to the counter the message would be handed over; if the person was not there then the message was given to a messenger for delivery to the person at the address specified. In reverse, if a message was to be sent out, and the customer had brought the message to the office, after being seated at one of the desks used for writing messages, using the pads of yellow paper for that purpose, the customer would approach the counter with the scrap of yellow paper in hand. The clerk had the task of reading the message, using a red pencil just like an old-fashioned school teacher, squinting at the scribble marks on the yellow paper. Now and again the clerk would look at the customer and ask "what is this word here?" the customer would tell the clerk who would then use the red pencil and draw a circle around the word in question and off in the margin somewhere _neatly print_ the word in question. When the clerk was satisfied with the results, she (most clerks were women; most telegraphers were men) would count up the words and say to the customer, alright, this will be fifty cents or whatever it would cost. The clerk was expected to be a sales person also; she would say 'this is fourteen words, you can send six more words for seventy- five cents as a day message, that way it will not have to wait until night rates go in effect.' The customer would consider the offer she made him and decide one way or another. Many customers would approach the counter with a yellow slip of paper mostly looking looking like chicken scrawls and the clerk would have to ask him "what is it you are trying to say?" The customer would lean over and with sort of an embarassed look explain what he was trying to convey. The clerk would say, "then let's do it this way, and get it all down into eight or ten words instead of the hundred words you have here, and she would write the whole thing over for the customer with her red pencil, then show it to the customer, who was usually quite pleased at how the clerk had done it. And she would say to him, "now if this is what you want to tell your relatives, do me a favor and sign your name here at the bottom of the page." The person would sign off, the clerk would count up the words and announce the total due just as usual. Then she had to put the inidicia on that message outgoing as well, in addition to special indicia in the form of a rubber stamp which read "My name is (name). I am employed by Western Union in (city) office. First being deposed and under oath I state that the customer asked for assistance in preparing and sending his message." This was an FCC requirement as part of 'secrecy in communications' which WUTCO considered a very serious matter. The clerk _never_ discussed the matter any further or risked being fired if she did. Outgoing messages were handled the same way: On a spindle, a little attention-getting bell rung, and presently one of the telegraphers would pick it off the spindle and send it out. The clerks had to turn on/turn off their smiles and tears all day long depending on the customer they were with. An incoming message stated that 'grandpa had passed away; funeral on Tuesday, please come home'. With a somber look on her face, the clerk call the person's name; they had been waiting there in the office; she hands them the envelope. The customer opens the envelope, reads the bad news and gives it to her husband who reads it quietly and gently squeezes his wife's hand. The clerk would likely say something like "I sure am sorry to have to give you this news". A few seconds later when the machine in back started chattering again, it would be to tell the recipients that "junior graduated from high school yesterday", and as she handed over that message to the person waiting there when she saw them start to smile and show pleasure at what they were reading the clerk might also smile and say, "well Junior sure sounds like a very smart young guy!" Their laughs and tears turned on and off all day as called for, based on the message the customer recieved or sent out. And always the salesperson: would you like to respond to this message as long as you are here? You can send a ten word reply giving them congratulations for just sixty cents. An era long since gone. Most of the public telegraph offices were gone by the early 1970's, and people had to start calling in their messages to a central message taker in (I think) St. Louis. PAT ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Western Union Telegrams -- End of a Very Long Era Date: 2 Feb 2006 11:38:22 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Marcus Didius Falco wrote: > Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all > Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any > inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal > patronage. I tried looking up the message but it was gone. Nothing was on the WU site except "Telegram" was blanked out. I wish I had known before the closure so I could of sent a Telegram just for the heck of it. The question remains: Suppose you need to quickly send a message to someone with an officially recognized receipt for legal purposes? I don't think a fax reaches that standard because it's easy to forge a fax receipt and no neutral third party is involved. Certified mail provides a legal receipt, but is too slow for most purposes. [public replies please] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 13:12:54 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Carlyle Group Gives IPv6 a Vote of Confidence USTelecom dailyLead February 2, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cUrYfDtutamPkFeWSA TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Carlyle Group gives IPv6 a vote of confidence BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sprint Nextel names local phone spinoff * Analysis: Nortel-Huawei combo could create video powerhouse * IPSphereForum adds Verizon to its ranks * Alcatel, Comcast report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Author Steven Shepard teaches Crash Course at TelecomNEXT TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Cambridge teams with MIT for Wi-Fi network * CBS to sell "Survivor" online REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * U.S. Patent Office backs RIM in patent dispute * Lawmakers back swift action on phone record sales * FCC looks into wireless spectrum discounts Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cUrYfDtutamPkFeWSA ------------------------------ From: T Subject: Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment Organization: The Ace Tomato and Cement Company Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 17:38:14 -0500 In article , jmeissen@aracnet.com says: > I notice that in the UK Bulldog Broadband offers 8Mb/s DSL for 20 > pounds per month, for the life of your contract, and is starting to > deploy 20Mb/s ADSL+2 service (no price quoted). > Here in the States, Verizon offers a max 3Mb/s service for $30 per > month (after $20 per month for the first three months). And if you're > lucky and you're in one of the areas where they're deploying FIOS, you > can get 5Mb/s for $36 per month (which seems to be a drop from the > $40/mo I remember seeing the last time I looked). > Could it be the competition created by the US government's rulings to > give incumbent phone providers exclusive access to their networks? > For comparison purposes it's useful to note that while it's expensive > for US dollars to buy UK products, the salaries and prices in UK > currency for a UK citizen are roughly equivalent to US salaries and > prices in US currency for US citizens. With Cox I pay $39.95 for 5Mb/2Mb - for an extra $10.00 I can get 15Mb/2Mb but to be quite honest, 5Mb/2Mb is plenty fast enough for me right now. Now, if you want to talk deep discount, lets talk about the deal that Cox gives the State of Rhode Island. Like a 2Mb symmetrical over coax for $400 a month. Not too shabby - we use two as point-to-points and then we pay $1,200 a month for a 10Mb fiber connection. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: EFF Sues AT&T Over Phone Surveillance Date: 2 Feb 2006 11:55:08 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Matthew Fordahl wrote: > A civil liberties group sued AT&T Inc. on Tuesday for its alleged role > in helping the National Security Agency spy on the phone calls and > other communications of U.S. citizens without warrants. I am very sensitive to privacy issues. However, this particular case isn't so easy. Clearly, part of it is motivated by politics, that is, people are upset because they don't like Bush in general, not because of the specific issue involved and I don't like that. As the "moral principle", this country was attacked in an act of war and clearly the govt has the duty and responsibility to take defensive measures against a further attack. Spying on the enemy and possibly traitors within this country is a classic activity in time of war. IMHO, part of the issue here is what was done with the information gained. If they turned it over to prosecutors for other routine crimes (ie tax evasion, drug running, import laws), I would object since normal domestic search warrants were not obtained. But AFAIK that was not done. > It also seeks billions of dollars in damages. "Damages" means the plaintiff suffered a monetary loss in some way as a result of the defendant's action. Unless the govt utilized the gleaned information against someone, I'm not sure there was any loss suffered. I am also very hesitant about the class action status, I believe that is overused. > "Our main goal is to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from > occurring again and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers > understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences when > they fail to follow the law," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff > attorney. Did the EFF sue all other carriers as well? Activist groups like to pick on the big guys, but that is not fair. If EFF has a true case against the carriers, it has a responsibility to sue every carrier. > The White House has vigorously defended the program, saying the > president acted legally under the constitution and a post-Sept. 11 > congressional resolution that granted him broad power to fight > terrorism. I am not in a position to say if the White House was right or wrong in this action. However, it would appear that it is unfair to order the carriers to make that decision either. I can't help but wonder that the carriers received what appeared to be legitimate official wiretap requests and they complied accordingly. I'm pretty sure if some unknown Fed agent showed up with a wiretap demand without documentation he wouldn't get very far. However, I suspect this came through normal channels that the carriers were used to working with, and thus they had no reason to suspect there may have been a question on them. > "We are quite confident that discovery would reveal evidence proving > our allegations correct," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney. That's very nice, but "discovery" is an expensive time consuming process. Who's gonna pay for AT&T's cost? We are! > "I think we are going to definitely have a fight on state-secret > issues," Bankston said. "I would also point out that the state-secret > privilege has never come up in a case where the rights of so many have > been at issue." Censorship of civilian activities was a major activity in WW II. Even back then it was not particularly appreciated, but it was done. As mentioned, I strongly believe in privacy and normally support EFF efforts. But I'm not so sure on this particular case and I wonder if it's grandstanding. I can think of a great many other privacy issues EFF ought to be concerned about, although they're not very glamorous or headline making. [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: Thomas Daniel Horne Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Thu, 02 Feb 2006 20:15:21 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I could never understand is how > stores such as Walmart on the one hand want to encourage shoppers > (although I do not personally care for the chain) yet on the other > hand they can claim that someone is 'tresspassing' if the person comes > in their store. Ditto with public transit. If it is a public place, > which is claimed, then how can a member of the public who chooses to > go inside or upon the property of the store or the transit agency get > arrested by police for trespassing? Yet CTA does that all time; so > does Walmart. Seems to me like Walmart and transit agency want to have > things both ways at the same time. PAT] Pat, Your purpose in being on private or public property must be consistent with the express or implied invitation of the properties owners. It makes perfect sense to me that a mall would not want skateboarders turning there property into a skateboarding park. When a juvenile skateboarder breaks their arm the parents may allege attractive nuisance. Clearly posted signs and active enforcement of the owners right to exclude that activity can serve as a strong element of the property owners defense against such a claim for damages. In the case of Walmart; or Mall wart as I unlovingly call them; any activity on the premise that detracts from the shopping experience of other shoppers is directly contrary to their ownership rights. I don't shop Walmart because I believe they use their market power in predatory and anticompetitive ways. That does not mean I would want to loose that choice because various pressure groups want to be able to harass them out of business by picketing and obstructing perfectly legal commercial activity. My least favorite misunderstanding of property rights is the difference between public ownership and public access. I'm a firefighter / rescuer by avocation. Many times I've had to turn down demands for access to fire stations by members of the public who demand access to the toilets or the apparatus bays on the grounds that "it is a public building." It has not happened often but we have sometimes needed police assistance to have belligerent citizens removed. You have no more right to use the toilet in a firehouse than you do to borrow one of the tankers quartered there to fill your swimming pool or water your lawn. The real kicker in the case of many volunteer fire stations in the US is that they are not publicly owned at all. They are often owned fee simple by a private corporation that is organized under state charter to provide a public service. So when someone tries to push past me at the door to my firehouse, after being denied access to the toilets that are located in locker rooms that are not open to anyone other than fire and rescue personnel, they are committing a number of crimes including assault on a public safety worker to deter the performance of their duty. You see one of our duties is to secure the station and it's contents from any unauthorized access. The same principals apply to a public transit station or conveyance. The express and implied invitation to the public to enter on that premise is for the very limited purpose of buying transportation from one place to another. You cannot set up housekeeping or a shop, You cannot demand the use of space set aside for employees to wash and change, you cannot put your land yacht up on the buss maintenance shops lift to change it's oil and so forth ad nauseam. hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > David wrote: >> The advantage of the passport is that it does not have address. It >> also does not have SSN (or a key that is easily cross-referenced to >> SSN). > For simple ID in cases like this the passport will work. But to say > open a bank account I wonder if banks will accept a document that does > not have an address and a key number. In other words, when they ask > for your license, they record that key number and your address. >> You can have a driver's license and a passport (I don't believe >> you're really allowed to have the license and the non-license ID). > True. I wanted to get a non driver's ID card for this very reason; > plus I wanted to keep my driver's history separate. In other words, > if a cop stops me while walking down the street, he has no need to see > my driver's license, just some official ID. (A passport would be > useful, unless he wanted an official address as well.) But you're > only allowed to get a non driver's ID if you can't drive. They appear > to be rather fussy about giving them out. >> I'll use my passport when I know I'm going to need specific ID (new >> job, getting a mortgage, etc.). > My only concern would be losing your passport. Is it hard to replace > if lost or stolen? For that reason when I traveled internationally I would have the US embassy in the destination country notarize a true attest copy of my Passport so that I could leave the original in the hotel safe. The reason I had it done at the destination embassy is that they new the local procedures and would do it in the form that the locals would recognize. That being said some places will except nothing but the original. I once had to find a different hotel when the hotel I had reservations with insisted that they needed to hold my passport as surety for my payment. I was not willing to have the passport out of my control in that particular country. -- Tom Horne "people willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both" Benjamin Franklin ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: 2 Feb 2006 13:53:55 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: CTA has (or did) have an almost > constant 'war' with 'street people' loitering in their stations during > overnight hours in cold weather. In the old, old days there weren't many street people so it wasn't much of a problem. Those people are mentally ill in some manner, some moderately so, some severely. Since the activists sued to shut down the state mental hospitals and made it much harder to commit someone many troubled people are now out on the street. They don't have a long lifespan as exposure and disease will get to them in a few years. Anyway, as time went on the street people grew in numbers and became a problem. Initially the transit carriers (in many cities) simply kicked them out, but the social activists sued the transit carriers and forced them to stop that practice. In the 1980s the situation got really bad as stations turned into whole communities of homeless and the transit carriers were innundated with complaints from regular riders who objected to walking in the human waste products left behind as well as the harassment. > CTA retaliated by remodeling the benches to put arm rest dividers on Other cities did likewise with various specific rules of behavior. Those are harder to argue with and activists have a hard time fighting them, even if they claim they are intended to keep out the homeless. The courts have leaned more toward riders' rights as well. In NYC, you are not allowed to lay down or sleep anywhere in the system. You must exit a train at the end of its run (you can't simply ride on one train back and forth all night as homeless used to do). There are some other rules, too. As mentioned, this is an issue I feel strongly about. A troubled person should not "live" in the transit system. Many die from the third rail or get run over by trains. Many start fires which hurt other people and disrupt the system. Some are violent and have hurt passengers. They are filthy with bodily waste and a health hazard. They harass other passengers. If one or two street people sat in a corner and didn't bother anyone they could be ignored. But that's not how it worked out -- it was far more than "one or two" and they didn't simply sit in the corner. Social activists made things worse by bringing food to transit stations. The homeless then had an incentive to be in the transit system where they'd get fed. The transit carriers tried to stop this but the advocates sued and won in court some years ago. The carriers, as you described, have other tactics. As an aside, there were problems in the mental health care system, but simply closing places down and making commitment extremely difficult was not the answer. There have been numerous publicized cases where a family desperately seeks a dangerous family member to be committed but it can't be done, and the ill person goes out and shoots a bunch of people. Many of the street people are troubled just enough so that they are too disruptive/tempermental to stay with relatives and of course hold down a job. They self medicate their demons through alcohol and drugs. Others ended up on the street from drug abuse. In any event, these people deserve better than a harsh life on the street. Frankly, I've followed the activists' work in closing down the hospitals by lawsuits and I put the blame squarely on them. The hospitals are needed with good staff to take care of these people. > With Walmart (there are _no_ Walmart stores in Chicago itself; only in > a couple of suburbs; that is because the Chicago politicians have > various disputes with Walmart executives over things like Walmart's > pay scale, non-union practices, etc) ... A lot of people hate Walmart, but it is a mixed issue. They are certainly not the first big powerful business; in their glory days the old chain stores like Woolworth's, Sears, and Penney's, had plenty of market power and hurt mom 'n pop stores. In the 1950s a new shopping center with chain stores hurt older stores on the old shopping avenue, so the Walmart onslaught is nothing new. Postwar supermarket chains also were hard on mom 'n pop stores. They opened up two Walmarts near me in somewhat depressed areas. Both stores were a re-use of an empty old shopping center. There wasn't much retail in those neighborhoods by that point anyway and the Walmart brough it new shopping options and jobs for people without them. I'll note that if Walmart is paying so low, people won't quit their other jobs to take them. Another consideration is that Walmarts do have a wide selection and are cheap. From the shopper's point of view, they are a great improvement over the little stores they may have killed off. For people of modest means, being able to buy inexpensive goods is very important. I don't particularly care to shop in Walmart. For sundry items, I prefer Target. Actually, I always liked Woolworths but they're gone. I patronized an independent drugstore until the CVS chain put him out of business. I am forced to admit I usually do better by the CVS because (1) it is open much longer hours which is convenient for me and (2) it offers much greater variety of sundry items. They even got a new pharmacist who is just as helpful to me as the other guy was. So, from the shopper's point of view, the CVS serves me better. As to wages, I don't know the profit situation and if Walmart can afford to pay better than it does. Frankly, I don't think the old time big department stores paid their people that much; a sales clerk was certainly not a rich person. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You may recall reading here things I have mentioned about our local Walmart Supercenter versus the rest of the merchants downtown. Now we also have a Walgreen's store which is right downtown, and the other merchants do not like that very well either. Personally, I have a wee bit more sympathy for Walgreens than Walmart because of my personal friendship _many_ years ago with Myrtle Walgreen, widow of Charles the founder of the chain and mother of Charles II, the current president and CEO of the firm. Myrtle was a first class lady. But just like Walmart, the new Walgreens store right downtown does not offer any charge accounts, nor do they accept Main Street Gift Certificates (like the other stores here.) As soon as the other drug stores in town found out that Walgreens was not offering any sort of charge accounts, nor much in the way of customer service, the local merchants circled the wagons and started specificically advertising that _they_ offered charge accounts, _they_ offered delivery service to your home, _they_ worked closely with Medicare on the new Part D thing, _they_ would work closely with your physician to fill your scripts, etc. Buy anything you want here in downtown Independence is their new chant, forget about the Walgreens and the Walmarts; all you need are us, your long time merchants. But you know, Lisa, I can begin to see the handwriting on the wall; more and more vacant store fronts downtown, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #51 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Feb 3 15:27:26 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5642B15133; Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:27:26 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #52 Message-Id: <20060203202726.5642B15133@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:27:26 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, BIZ_TLD,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 3 Feb 2006 15:30:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 52 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson File Destroying Worm (Anick Jesdanun) FAQ on Latest Worm (Gregg Keizer) Microsoft Warning on 'MyWife' Worm (Robin Arnfield) More Data Theft (was Ameriprise Notifies Clients of Data Theft) (Al Gillis) Telecom Update #515, February 3, 2006 (Angus TeleManagement Group) AT&T ups Ante in Broadband Price Battle (USTelecom dailyLead) Cellular-News for Friday 3rd February 2006 (cellular-news) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 3, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment (Bob Goudreau) Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment (DLR) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (DLR) Last Laugh! Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (Henry) 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: Anick Jesdanun Subject: File Destroying Worm Not Causing Much Damage Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 12:53:29 -0600 By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer One Italian city's government shut down its computers as a precaution but a file-destroying computer worm otherwise caused relatively little damage when it triggered worldwide Friday. Hundreds of thousands of computers were believed to be infected, but many companies and individuals had time to clean up their machines this week after security vendors and media outlets warned of the "Kama Sutra" worm. "It's been pretty quiet," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for Finnish security company F-Secure Corp. "We know the word is out there." In Milan, Italy, technicians switched off 10,000 city government computers after discovering the infection Thursday when they had been warned in various internet newsgroups and deciding they didn't have enough time to clean the machines before the worm would began wreaking havoc on Friday. "It has spread to all our computers," said Giancarlo Martella, Milan's councilman for technological innovation and public services. "Knowing how destructive it is, we turned off all personal computers to avoid losing our data." Only the municipality's registry office had been kept open because its "passive terminals" don't store data, Martella said, adding he hoped the computers would return to normal by Monday. Experts had warned earlier that the worm, also known as "CME-24," "BlackWorm," or "Mywife.E," or various other pornographic names could corrupt documents using the most common file types, including ".doc," ".pdf," and ".zip." The worm, nicknamed after the Hindu love manual Kama Sutra because of the pornographic come-ons in e-mails spreading it, affects most versions of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, prompting the software giant to issue a warning Tuesday. Although the worm tries to disable anti-virus software, vendors have generally posted updates that should protect users. Assuming the computer's internal clock is correct, users can also avoid the worm by leaving their machines off until Saturday, although the worm is set to trigger again on March 3, and on the third day of each month thereafter. Security vendors Trend Micro Inc. and CA Inc. both assessed the overall risk and distribution as low. The worm wasn't expected to spread any more quickly Friday. Rather, Friday was the first trigger date for the file-destroying code. "It's well past the deadline but we haven't confirmed any cases of the Kama Sutra in Japan, which suggests we're not looking at a major outbreak," said Itsuro Nishimoto, an executive at Tokyo-based computer security company LAC Corp. "It has been Friday here for almost a day already," he noted. A manager at Hong Kong's official coordination center for computer emergencies said he had not received any reports or calls for help from those infected by the worm. "It began spreading late last month but we haven't received any calls in the past two weeks," Roy Ko said. "We don't expect to receive any today, either." Ajit Pillai, India's manager for U.S. security firm Watchguard Technologies Inc., said about 10 percent of his customers in the country had the worm, but they "followed the remedies and managed to avoid any problem." "We didn't have to do any firefighting today," Pillai said. Unlike other worms generally designed to help spammers and hackers carry out attacks, Kama Sutra could inflict more damage because it sets out to destroy documents. "This virus is nowhere near as widespread as some of the (recent virus) cases," Hypponen said. "The reason it's talked about is because it's more destructive." He said damage is high among those hit, but many businesses should already be protected by anti-virus software. Home users and smaller companies without the latest software updates may be more vulnerable. But he noted that pornographic stuff is so common on the internet, that people who were not familiar with the worm itself might not take any special notice of it at first. He said one thing people could do is if they normally use AOL or Yahoo -- two email systems with a very high volume of spam and porn -- is to either simply quit using those systems or monitor email from those two very closely. And of course, in any event keep fresh loads of anti-virus software on their machines. Associated Press writers Ariel David in Rome, Sylvia Hui in Hong Kong and S. Srinivasan in Bangalore, India, contributed to this report. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Gregg Keizer Subject: FAQ on Latest Worm Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 12:56:44 -0600 FAQ: How Bad Is Kama Sutra? By Gregg Keizer TechWeb.comWed Feb 1, 5:06 PM ET Where did the worm come from? Nobody knows. It's not a new piece of malware, however. The current variant is part of a family that goes back to March 2004, when Nyxem.a launched a DoS attack against the New York Mercantile Exchange Web site. How serious, really, is the threat? Security vendors generally agree that the worm is no Sober, no Zotob, and certainly no MSBlast. Their threat rankings for the worm reflect that. Symantec, for example, tagged it as a "2" in its 1-5 scale from the start, and hasn't moved it off that number. F-Secure, which uses a 1-4 ranking, slapped the worm with "2," and Microsoft labeled it as "Moderate" in its three-level system. Largely because the number of infected machines is thought to be relatively low, no one has been calling for Doomsday. But some security companies' language is strong. In an alert to its DeepSight customers, Symantec said "it is of crucial importance that this threat be removed if it is found" and "that careful vigilance is executed over the coming days." Sometime on Friday computers already infected with the Kama Sutra worm will start writing over important documents, rendering them useless and potentially causing catastrophic damage to consumers and businesses. The worm, though not nearly as widespread as several that hit Windows PCs in 2005, has caught users' attention for that reason. It's a throw-back to times when hackers crafted their code to destroy data, not to make a buck. What is this worm called? Good question. According to some lists, the worm has more than two dozen obscene monikers. The most popular, though, are Kama Sutra, Blackworm, Blackmal, MyWife, Nyxem and ErectPenis. It's also been dubbed CME-24 by the Common Malware Enumeration database, which is supposed to provide one name for malicious code. What will the worm do? On Friday, the worm will write the text string "DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 F5]" over all data in files with file formats from Microsoft Office (.doc, .xls, .mdb, .mde, .ppt, .pps) and Adobe (.pdf, .psd), as well as popular compression formats (.zip, .rar) and memory dumps (.dmp). The worm will seek out these files on all connected drives, including mounted network drives, USB-based flash drives, and external drives. It also disables many popular security programs -- those from Computer Associates, Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, Symantec, and Trend Micro -- so that users won't be able to sniff it out once it's planted on the PC. Techniques here include rendering the security programs unable to call for revisions of themselves, and reporting 'all okay' when run. For this reason users may want to manually re-install anti-virus software. When does it start destroying files? According to the security firms which pulled apart the worm's code, it will overwrite files on the third of each month, local time. Friday, Feb. 3, is the first such trigger. The worm will activate by looking at the PC's clock -- not, as have other worms, by synchronizing with time servers -- which is why there have been scattered reports of damage already. Helsinki-based F-Secure, for instance, has said it has received reports from users -- with incorrectly-set PC clocks -- who have had files overwritten. How many machines have been infected? The consensus seems to be that there are about 300,000 compromised PCs, worldwide. That number, however, has been extrapolated from the Web-based counter which was, at least for a time, providing a pretty accurate picture of the infection scale. The counter, which was triggered each time a PC was infected with the worm, was apparently manipulated by a large-scale denial-of-service (DoS) attack, perhaps by the worm's original author or another hacker. What can users do to protect themselves? Most security organizations have made the standard recommendation -- use anti-virus software and keep its definitions up-to-date -- from the beginning. Other advice doled out by Microsoft in a security advisory this week included the also-usual items of not opening e-mail attachments (that's how the worm is packaged and distributed) and running Windows in User, not Administrator, mode. Security vendors' warnings are getting shriller as the Friday deadline approaches, with a universal recommendation that users run an anti-virus scan as soon as possible, and certainly before Friday, PC clock time. Those without anti-virus software or who have been infected -- remember, the worm disables a wide range of security software -- can run one of the free tools security companies have posted on the Internet. Symantec, for instance, has one. And although Microsoft's declined to update its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool out-of-cycle, its online security service, Windows Live Safety, and its in-beta OneCare Live software disinfect compromised computers. Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. ------------------------------ From: Robin Arnfield Subject: Microsoft Issues Warning for MyWife Worm Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 12:59:39 -0600 Robin Arnfield, newsfactor.com Microsoft has published a security advisory to warn Internet users about a worm that could destroy their documents on February 3. While other companies have identified the worm by several names -- including Kama Sutra, Blackworm, Nyxem-D, and W32.Blackmail.E -- the Redmond, Washington-based software firm is calling the worm Mywife, and has said that it is a variant of the Win32/Mywife.E@mm virus. "The mass-mailing malware tries to entice users through social-engineering efforts into opening an attached file in an e-mail message," the Microsoft advisory states. It tries to make an intelligent guess regards what the user is likely to be sexually tempted by, then goes on to write an email attempting to lure the user into opening the alleged 'pictures' of 'mywife', 'these pictures of you', etc. "If the recipient opens the file, the malware sends itself to all the contacts that are contained in the system's address book. The malware may also spread over writeable network shares on systems that have blank administrator passwords. Never open mail or operate as 'administrator'" it goes on to say. Purely Malicious Microsoft is warning that on the third day of each month, starting February 3, the Mywife worm will attempt to destroy common document files. The advisory indicates that the malware also modifies or deletes files and registry keys associated with certain security-related applications. "Unlike most viruses, which have some financial objective, such as stealing Internet-banking passwords or using the victim's PC to send spam, this worm is purely malicious," said David Perry, antivirus software firm Trend Micro's global director of education. "It is as if its creators just want people to sit up and take notice of them." Perry said that Trend Micro's free virus-scanning service on its Web site -- used by those who do not have the company's security tools installed on their PCs -- had identified 26,000 computers that were corrupted with the Mywife worm, along with 184,000 infected files. "Other antivirus vendors are reporting hundreds of thousands of computers infected with Mywife, and one security research firm, SANS Institute, is even claiming the number is over two million," Perry said. Threat Assessment Perry also said that, compared to recent outbreaks, Mywife is not a major threat. Stacey Quandt, Aberdeen Group's research director of security solutions and services, agreed. "Since most businesses use antivirus software and understand the risk of clicking on a link in an e-mail, the threat that this worm poses is minimal," Quandt said. "However, the risk is certainly higher for any organization or consumer that does not currently use antivirus software or is not aware of the risks of executables in an e-mail." "Will I be infected, or will someone in my organization be infected?" asked Russ Cooper, senior information analyst at security firm Cybertrust. "The simple fact is that, if you are infected with this one, you were probably infected with something else -- likely a Sober variant -- before. That's because there's nothing special about this one that we haven't been seeing in so many worms over the past 18 months." Cooper said a user has to double-click on a .PIF, .SCR, or .ZIP file to get infected with the worm. "If .ZIP, then you have to further double-click on the .PIF or .SCR it contains," he said. "Further, for you to get infected, you have to have stopped your antivirus from running," Cooper said. "All antivirus applications have been detecting this since virtually the first day it was discovered." With .PIF, .SCR, and .ZIP files, our suggestion is if you are not expecting one, then just ditch it, zap it on the spot without further examination. "What this variant has going for it is that it 'social engineers' people who are tempted by porn." Copyright 2006 NewsFactor Network, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html Also please read more of interest in these areas: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/othernews.html ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: More Data Theft (was Ameriprise Notifies Clients of Data Theft) Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 09:36:31 -0800 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com The quoted story below informs us of a data theft involving 225,000 individuals. Here in Portland, Oregon we're all reeling from the announcement by the Providence Hospital chain that about 365,000 patients of the hospital now have their records in the hands of a thief! Providence has a few major hospitals and numerous smaller clinics in Oregon. Both my wife and I have been patients of this major business player here in Portland. It seems the IT staff at the hospital relied on employees taking CDs, disks and tapes home at night as their disaster recovery strategy! Well, it wasn't long before an employee had their car involved in a "smash and grab" with the thief taking the laptop bag complete with the backup records. That was back in December. The hospital's response was to keep quiet -- evidently the "don't say anything and deny everything" method of public relations was their protocol at Providence. Sooner or later, of course, the news got out and Providence had to own up to the problem. Now, in the face of an impending Class Action suit, they're starting to play nice and tell us how important we are to Providence and how much they will help us resolve any issues that may arise from this situation. Something not revealed so far is related to the mid-level manager that decided to send records to employee homes for safekeeping: did that manager get a nice promotion and a fat bonus? Also not revealed is, with their apparent cavilier approach to data integrity, how secure and accurate are medical records they maintain, pharmacy records, etc. There could, of course, be patient medical care issues mixed up in this now disclosed security problem. Google or other search engines will help locate more information on this issue. Telecom connection: St. Vincent's Hospital, now a mamber of the Providence chain, in the western suburbs of Portland was one of the first major users in Portland to install a privately owned PBX. This must have been in about 1970, shortly after the Carterphone decision. Their chosen switch was from Japan and had little support in the US - Pacific Northwest Bell was taken aback by this defection of one of thier previously good customers. Life goes on, of course, and now, "St. Vs" is still there and Pacific Northwest Bell has morphed into something much different than it was in 1970. Thanks! Al Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom25.38.8@telecom-digest.org: > By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press Writer > MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Ameriprise Financial Inc. said Wednesday it has > notified about 226,000 people that their names and other personal data > were stored on a laptop computer that was stolen from an employee's > vehicle. > Ameriprise said it has alerted 68,000 current and former financial > advisers whose names and Social Security numbers were also stored on > the same computer. About 158,000 clients had only their names and > internal account numbers exposed. The company says it has more than 2 > million customers and about 10,500 current financial advisers. > Minneapolis-based Ameriprise said it had received no reports that the > data lost in the theft had been used improperly. Ameriprise is the > name of the former American Express Financial Advisors division, which > New York-based American Express Co. spun off last fall. > Ameriprise said the theft appeared to be a "random criminal act" and > that it has been working with law enforcement to recover the laptop, > which it said was stolen recently from an employee's locked vehicle > that was parked offsite. > Company spokesman Steve Connolly said the laptop was stolen in late > December outside Minnesota, but he declined to say where. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=55067057 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 10:09:05 -0800 Subject: Telecom Update #515, February 3, 2006 From: Angus TeleManagement Group Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 515: February 3, 2006 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MICROSOFT CANADA: www.microsoft.com/canada/telecom/ ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** BCE in 2006 -- Layoffs, Spinoffs, and Price Hikes "Bell Regional Lines" to Become Income Trust IPTV Still on Hold BCE Revenue Up 4% Bell Union Not Impressed ** MTS Launches Business Review ** U.S. Government Wants RIM Injunction Delayed ** CRTC Orders Changes to VoIP 9-1-1 Routing Services ** Nortel to Sell Huawei Broadband Gear ** Ontario and Michigan Research Networks Linked ** Wi-LAN Leaves Equipment Business ** Nicer Canada Launches Hosted VoIP ** Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams ** Roadpost to Offer Satellite Broadband ** Laliberte Named Aastra EVP ============================================================ BCE IN 2006 -- LAYOFFS, SPINOFFS, AND PRICE HIKES: BCE Inc. held its annual business review conference on Wednesday, February 1. Some highlights: ** Bell Canada will reduce its workforce by between 3,000 and 4,000 positions this year. CEO Michael Sabia said that "at least half" of the cuts will come from attrition. ** BCE will sell a minority stake in Telesat through an IPO in the second half of the year. ** BCE will use cash from recent deals to buy back 5% of its outstanding common shares ($1.3 billion) and reduce debt ($1 billion). ** Former Telus exec George Cope, who became Bell's President and COO in January, stressed a policy of price discipline. He announced near-term price increases in the LD network charge (from $2.95 to $4.50), the ExpressVu system access fee ($2.99 to $5.99) and Sympatico high-speed ($44.95 to $46.95, in Ontario only). ** Wireless president Robert Odendahl promised "selective price increases" for wireless offerings, including eliminating existing all-in-one plans, and shifting the start of night-time rates to 9pm on all mass-market rate plans. "BELL REGIONAL LINES" TO BECOME INCOME TRUST: Bell will spin off 1.6 million access lines, mainly in areas where cable competition is weak or non-existent, into a separate corporation that will operate as an income trust. Bell will keep 50% ownership and distribute the rest to its common shareholders. One thousand Bell employees will be transferred to the new entity. (See Telecom Update #484) ** The largest communities included in the spin-off areas are Sudbury, Sault Ste-Marie, Chicoutimi, and Sarnia. IPTV STILL ON HOLD: Speculation that Bell would use the conference to launch an IPTV service proved incorrect. Kevin Crull, President of Residential Services, told participants that the IPTV product works but is not yet sufficiently differentiated from other TV offerings, and that needed VDSL2 cards aren't yet available. He declined to give a launch date, but said that IPTV would have "no material impact" on Bell's video service sales this year. BCE REVENUE UP 4%: BCE's total revenue for the full year 2005 was $19.1 billion, up 4.0% from the previous year. Operating income was $4 billion compared to $2.9 billion. Earnings per share rose to $2.04 from $1.65. ** In the first year of competition from cable companies in the local telephone business, Bell lost 324,000 local access lines, a 2.5% decline overall -- residential lines were down 4.8%. The telco expects to lose 3%-5% of its lines in 2006. ** Long distance revenue fell to $2.0 billion from $2.3 billion. ** Wireless revenue was up from $2.8 billion to $3.1 billion. Data revenue rose from $3.6 billion to $4.0 billion. Bell added 387,000 new high-speed Internet customers, a 21% increase. BELL UNION NOT IMPRESSED: The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, which represents workers at Bell Canada, says it will oppose the telco's plan to spin off rural lines into an income trust. "We have a long-term concern about job stability and service levels in what amounts to 15% of Bell's customer base," the union said. MTS LAUNCHES BUSINESS REVIEW: Manitoba Telecom's new CEO, Pierre Blouin, has hired advisors to conduct a "comprehensive review of our entire business," to be completed by December. MTS previously announced plans to lay off 800 employees, most of them in the former Allstream division. ** The company's October-December revenue was $504 million, the same as in these months in 2004. Net income fell to $14.6 million from $42.3 million. Wireless revenue rose 16%; long distance revenue fell 10%. ** Chief Technology Officer Kelvin Shepherd has been named President of MTS Manitoba, replacing Cheryl Barker, who has retired. U.S. GOVERNMENT WANTS RIM INJUNCTION DELAYED: The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a Virginia court to delay an injunction that would shut down Blackberry service. The brief described continuity of Blackberry service as "imperative" for the government, and said it had "serious questions" about whether service could be continued only for government users, as plaintiff NTP Inc. has proposed. ** Also this week: the U.S. Patent Office issued a non-final judgment that the last remaining NTP patent claim was invalid, and RIM won two European court rulings against patent infringement claims by Luxembourg-based InPro Licensing. ** Despite lawsuit-induced uncertainty, RIM's subscriber base has doubled in the past year: it now has about five million customers. CRTC ORDERS CHANGES TO VoIP 9-1-1 ROUTING SERVICES: CRTC Telecom Decision 2006-5 gives final approval to Telus's tariff for routing VoIP service providers' 9-1-1 calls to the correct emergency centres. However, it orders Bell, Aliant, MTS Allstream, and SaskTel to change their tariffs to allow VoIP service providers to subscribe to existing zero-dialled emergency call routing services, including access to 9-1-1 agencies' 10-digit numbers. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2006/dt2006-5.htm NORTEL TO SELL HUAWEI BROADBAND GEAR: Nortel Networks and Chinese telecom development giant Huawei Technologies have agreed to establish a joint venture to develop "ultra broadband access solutions." The Ottawa-based company will start production by September; in the meantime, Nortel will sell Huawei's access products. ONTARIO AND MICHIGAN RESEARCH NETWORKS LINKED: The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) and its Michigan counterpart, Merit Network, have been connected by a one Gbps fibre link through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. The link, which is the first of its kind, is seen as a step towards a larger Great Lakes regional optical network for research and education. WI-LAN LEAVES EQUIPMENT BUSINESS: Calgary-based wireless broadband developer Wi-LAN Inc. will close down all manufacturing by April 30 and focus on licensing its patents and technologies to companies such as Cisco, which settled a patent infringement suit with Wi-LAN in December. (See Telecom Update #509) ** Wi-LAN has begun a search for a new President and CEO. Incumbent Bill Dunbar will remain in office during the search. NICER CANADA LAUNCHES HOSTED VoIP: Vancouver-based Nicer Canada Corp. has launched a hosted Voice over IP service that provides PBX-like functions for "businesses of any size." (See Telecom Update #466) WESTERN UNION STOPS SENDING TELEGRAMS: Western Union, once the largest telecommunications company in the world, sent its final telegram January 26, after 155 years in the business. It continues operations as a money-transfer company. ** Its Canadian counterpart, CNCP Telecommunications (a predecessor of Allstream), dropped out of the telegram business in 1999. ROADPOST TO OFFER SATELLITE BROADBAND: Toronto-based Roadpost Inc. will offer France Telecom's new BGAN broadband satellite service in North America when the service is launched later this year. LALIBERTE NAMED AASTRA EVP: Concord, Ontario-based Aastra Technologies, a manufacturer of residential and business telecommunications equipment, has named Yves Laliberte as Executive Vice-President. He previously held senior management positions at Avaya Canada and Cisco Canada. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 12:50:24 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: AT&T ups ante in broadband price battle USTelecom dailyLead February 3, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cUAMfDtutannslkPzj TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * AT&T ups ante in broadband price battle BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Q Television in carriage deal with Verizon's FiOS * Palm investor calls for sale * AOL, Charter Communications ink broadband deal * Consumer companies go wireless to boost brand * NTT reports earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * NEXT Papers: Hot technology on the TelecomNEXT exhibit floor TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Intel, NBC to offer Olympics online through Viiv * Cable warms to muni Wi-Fi * NYC subway plan sparks debate * Report: Wi-Fi phone market is red hot VOIP DOWNLOAD * VoIP tax exemption fails again in Colorado * Eastern Europeans take to VOIP * CableLabs aims to enhance VoIP services Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cUAMfDtutannslkPzj ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Friday 3rd February 2006 Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:43:47 -0600 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[ 3G ]] 3 Italia Seen Delaying IPO If No OK Before Feb 15-Sources http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15910.php Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. will have to further delay listing its Italian third-generation mobile operator if a Milan regulator fails to approve the deal in two weeks, a person familiar with the situation said Thursday. ... T-Mobile: Faster 3G Service Broadly Available In Summer 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15912.php T-Mobile, Thursday said that its high-speed third-generation wireless services will become broadly available in Germany as of summer 2006. ... Top exec sees Ukrtelecom sole co on Ukraine's 3G market till 2010 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15922.php Ukraine's national fixed-line monopoly Ukrtelecom is likely to be the only operator of third generation (3G) mobile networks until 2010, Igor Sirotenko, the company's deputy chairman of the management board, said Thursday presenting the company's 3G ... Hutchison To Migrate All Customers to 3G Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15926.php Australia's Hutchison Telecoms is considering shutting down its 2G CDMA network as it pro-actively migrates all its customers onto its WCDMA network. From today, and over a short period of time, Hutchison will rebrand Orange to 3 - specifically 3 CDM... [[ Financial ]] ISP Sunbeach aims for mid 2006 mobile launch http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15918.php Barbados internet service provider (ISP) Sunbeach could launch a new cellular phone service by as early as mid-year depending on the rate at which the company obtains funding, Sunbeach's CEO Ian Worrell told BNamericas. ... Hondutel CEO confirms US$21.2mn budget for 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15920.php Honduras' state telecom company Hondutel plans to invest 400mn lempiras (US$21.2mn) in its network in 2006, the company's new CEO Jacobo Regalado confirmed to local daily La Prensa. ... Russia's Sibirtelecom sees 2006 mobile investment up 60% on yr http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15923.php Russian regional telecommunications operator Sibirtelecom plans to increase its investment in mobile services 60% on the year in 2006 to U.S. $160 million, the company said in a statement Thursday, citing Dmitry Levin, deputy general director and dir... Investments in Ukraine's telecom sector up to $1.5 bln in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15924.php Investments in Ukraine's telecommunications sector rose to almost U.S. $1.5 billion in 2005 from about $0.75 billion in 2002, Georgy Butenko, director of state department for communications and IT, told a meeting Thursday. He provided no other compar... [[ Handsets ]] Are Parents Ready To Give Phones to Kids ? http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15928.php Parents say that between the age of 10 and 12 is the most appropriate time for a child to get his or her first mobile phone, according to a new study from Compete. The company assessed interest in the new category of kid-friendly phones as well as th... [[ Interviews ]] INTERVIEW: Russia's Svyazinvest units may merge mobile assets http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15917.php Executive directors of VolgaTelecom and Sibirtelecom, controlled by Russia's national telecom holding Svyazinvest, may consider merging their mobile assets this year, Valery Yashin, CEO of Svyazinvest, said in an interview with Prime-Tass this week. ... [[ Legal ]] U.S. Government Details Opposition To BlackBerry Ban http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15909.php The U.S. Department of Justice reiterated its opposition to a possible BlackBerry ban, saying in a court filing Wednesday that NTP should file a specific implementation plan that details exactly how BlackBerry service for authorized users will contin... Research In Motion Gets Positive Ruling In UK InPro Case http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15913.php A London patent court has ruled in favor of Research In Motion Ltd. in a patent dispute with InPro, a patent-holding firm based in Luxembourg. ... [[ Messaging ]] Nextel launches push to mail http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15919.php Mexican trunking operator Nextel Mexico has launched push to mail, a service that sends voice mail messages to email accounts, the company said in a statement. ... Mobile Email on the Verge of Mass Market Adoption http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15925.php A new report by Datamonitor expects the number of mobilized email accounts to explode over the next three years. According to the report there are roughly 650 million corporate email inboxes worldwide today. Based on the assumption that at least 35-4... [[ Mobile Content ]] Flash Alternative Shipped in 60 Million Handsets http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15929.php Sweden's Ikivo has announced that their "Flash-Alternative" Mobile SVG client has been shipped in more than 60 Million handsets worldwide and estimates that more than 95 million handsets with Mobile SVG have been shipped globally. Flash is the vector... [[ Network Operators ]] T-Mobile UK Launches Flext Tariff Structure http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15911.php T-Mobile International, the mobile arm of Deutsche Telekom, Thursday launched a new U.K. tariff structure called 'Flext,' designed to give customer more flexibility with mobile phone contracts. ... Road Believes Verizon Wireless Shutting Down CDPD Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15914.php @Road Inc. believes Verizon Wireless is in the process of shutting down a Cellular Digital Packet Data network, with completion scheduled for the next several days. ... [[ Offbeat ]] Greek PM's Vodafone Handset Was Bugged http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15915.php ATHENS (AP)--The mobile phones of Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis and top government and security officials were tapped by unknown individuals during the Athens 2004 Olympics and for nearly a year, the government said Thursday. ... Vodafone Found Spy Software After Complaints http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15916.php U.K. wireless operator Vodafone Group PLC (VOD) uncovered spy software on its central system in Greece after complaints from customers, Greek Public Order Minister Yiorgos Voulgarakis said Thursday. ... [[ Reports ]] Modest Growth in Mobile Infrastructure - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15927.php In a newly released report, Dell'Oro Group forecasts that the mobility infrastructure equipment market will grow 3% in 2006 to US$41.8 billion, and that the market will continue to grow in the low single-digits through 2010. Subscriber growth should ... [[ Statistics ]] Indec: Mobile base grows 74.2% yoy http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15921.php Mobile operators in Argentina closed December 2005 with 22.1 million lines in service, up 74.2%, or 8.6 million lines, compared to the end of 2004, according to statistics bureau Indec. ... Handheld Market Experiences Year-Over-Year Decline http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15930.php The worldwide market for handheld devices swelled to its largest quarterly shipment volume all year, reaching 2.2 million units during the fourth quarter, growing 37.6% from the previous quarter. According to IDC's Worldwide Handheld QView, growth wa... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 11:55:13 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 3, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 3, 2006 ******************************** Sandvine Study Underscores Fluidity of North American and European VoIP Markets http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/16517?11228 Sandvine, the provider of broadband network management solutions, has revealed the results of a recent survey of its broadband service provider customers. The survey, carried out in November and December 2005, analysed VoIP traffic trends of over 700,000 broadband households serviced by a group of service providers with over 6 million... Turkish Regulator to Disconnect Unregistered Mobiles, to curb Grey Market http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16514?11228 In the wake of new regulations issued last year, Turkey's mobile operators have said that they will block unregistered mobile handsets in a bid to curb the grey market for smuggled or cloned handsets. According to the regulator, some 19 million people registered their handsets within the allotted time and the outstanding 500,000 will be... Location Services Lost on Users http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/16509?11228 Location based services (LBS) -- which deliver localized information directly to your mobile phone in real time -- have generated plenty of buzz in the wireless industry over the last couple of years, but it turns out these new cellular applications are largely lost on enterprise users. Verizon Wireless this week announced its first... Business Professionals Expect Increased Wi-Fi Hotspot Use http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16506?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Business professionals' use of Wi-Fi hotspot access and services is on the rise, both in the number of users and the frequency that they use these services, reports In-Stat. According to an online survey of 579 business professionals conducted by the high-tech market research firm, nearly half of all respondents... Next DTV Step: Bush's Signature http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16503?11228 President George W. Bush has signaled his willingness to sign major budget-reconciliation legislation just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that includes a digital-television (DTV) cutover measure (plus a transition deadline three years from now). In a White House-issued statement also anticipating an Administration budget... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ From: Bob Goudreau Subject: Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment ... Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 22:51:11 -0500 jmeissen@aracnet.com wrote: > I notice that in the UK Bulldog Broadband offers 8Mb/s DSL for 20 > pounds per month... > Here in the States, Verizon offers a max 3Mb/s service for $30 per > month (after $20 per month for the first three months). And if you're > lucky and you're in one of the areas where they're deploying FIOS, you > can get 5Mb/s for $36 per month... > For comparison purposes it's useful to note that while it's expensive > for US dollars to buy UK products, the salaries and prices in UK > currency for a UK citizen are roughly equivalent to US salaries and > prices in US currency for US citizens. Um, no, they are not remotely equivalent. Prices of certain items perhaps are, but not salaries. According to http://www.bls.gov/cew/state2002.txt, the average annual salary nof a US worker in 2002 was $36,764, which works out to $3,064 per month. A $30/month broadband offering thus costs 0.97 percent of the average salary. (The introductory rate of $20/month is 0.65 percent of salary.) In the UK in the same year, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/nes1002.pdf reports that the average weekly salary was 371 pounds. That works out to a monthly rate of 1,612 pounds, so the 20 pound/month broadband service consumes 1.24 percent of the average salary. I.e., 20 pounds in the UK represents almost DOUBLE the salary share that 20 dollars represents in the US. (Or at least it did in 2002, which was the most recent year for which I could find stats for both countries.) Coincidentally, at current exchange rates, 20 pounds is worth almost exactly $36, so at least the 20-pound Bulldog offering gets you more bandwidth (8 Mb/s for 1.24 percent of monthly earnings) than does the $36 Verizon FIOS offering (5 Mb/s for 1.17 percent of monthly earnings). Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 02:25:49 -0500 From: DLR Subject: Re: The Competitive Broadband Environment ... > I notice that in the UK Bulldog Broadband offers 8Mb/s DSL for 20 > pounds per month, for the life of your contract, and is starting to > deploy 20Mb/s ADSL+2 service (no price quoted). > Here in the States, Verizon offers a max 3Mb/s service for $30 per > month (after $20 per month for the first three months). And if you're > lucky and you're in one of the areas where they're deploying FIOS, you > can get 5Mb/s for $36 per month (which seems to be a drop from the > $40/mo I remember seeing the last time I looked). > Could it be the competition created by the US government's rulings to > give incumbent phone providers exclusive access to their networks? This was discussed briefly on another newsgroup and a fellow from London talked about how exchanges seemed to be a mile or so apart, many much less. Which would make it MUCH easier to offer high speed broadband. We didn't discuss the why but maybe they built them that close after WWII took out a lot of the infrastructure. Or maybe that was all they could drive the signals 100 years ago and now they get a totally unplanned benefit. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 02:21:28 -0500 From: DLR Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby > As to wages, I don't know the profit situation and if Walmart can > afford to pay better than it does. Frankly, I don't think the old > time big department stores paid their people that much; a sales clerk > was certainly not a rich person. http://www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/sot/index.php?p=3D548 Links to an interview: Host Frank Stasio talks with Charles Fishman, former editor at The News & Observer, about his new book, The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works and How It's Transforming the= American Economy (Penguin/2006). Listener Call-In. (59:00) Very interesting. He's not a fan of Wal Mart but argues that big businesses are here to stay so we should look out how we change the landscape as they WILL be a part of it. One very interesting point he made. Wal-Mart isn't greedy. Their profits are about $6,000 per employee when averaged. So making them add heath benefits or other costs means that prices will go up. Tell that to the voters in an area. :) I'm not a big fan or enemy of Wal Mart. They are. Things change. My uncle died about a year ago. He was the last link to the family farm. When I was very young about 1960 it still had an operating saw mill, slaughter house, grew crops, etc... The slaughter house was the last operating piece and it was sold off about 10 years ago. I stopped by last year and the owner was candid that he couldn't stay open except for the work he did for deer hunters. We no longer go to school in white T shirts, jeans, and black Keds. We expect the drug store and doctor to be open on Thursday. We expect stores to be open Wednesday afternoon in particular and after 5 in general. Mom isn't home all day to run to the stores during the day. We like having more than two choices for canned green beans. Large and small. :) We no longer need to have towns every 10 to 20 miles so we can get there and back in one day on a horse. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You may recall reading here things I > have mentioned about our local Walmart Supercenter versus the rest of > the merchants downtown. Now we also have a Walgreen's store which is > right downtown, and the other merchants do not like that very well > either. Personally, I have a wee bit more sympathy for Walgreens than > Walmart because of my personal friendship _many_ years ago with > Myrtle Walgreen, widow of Charles the founder of the chain and mother > of Charles II, the current president and CEO of the firm. Myrtle was > a first class lady. But just like Walmart, the new Walgreens store > right downtown does not offer any charge accounts, nor do they accept > Main Street Gift Certificates (like the other stores here.) As soon as > the other drug stores in town found out that Walgreens was not > offering any sort of charge accounts, nor much in the way of customer > service, the local merchants circled the wagons and started specificically > advertising that _they_ offered charge accounts, _they_ offered > delivery service to your home, _they_ worked closely with Medicare > on the new Part D thing, _they_ would work closely with your physician > to fill your scripts, etc. Buy anything you want here in downtown > Independence is their new chant, forget about the Walgreens and the > Walmarts; all you need are us, your long time merchants. But you > know, Lisa, I can begin to see the handwriting on the wall; more and > more vacant store fronts downtown, etc. PAT] Now that makes sense. Come up with a REASON for folks to visit a small store and pay a bit more. But most folks still look at purchase price and then complain later about the results of their decision. One of the most ironic comments I've ever seen was a fellow talking about how WalMart was evil, didn't pay people enough, provide benefits, etc ... This was on a forum dedicated to finding the absolutely cheapest prices on technology. ;) ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Last Laugh! was Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 08:32:38 +0200 Organization: Elisa Internet customer Patrick Townson wrote: > The clerks had to turn on/turn off their smiles and tears all day long > depending on the customer they were with. Reminds me of the old joke during the fad of 'singing telegrams'. Delivery messenger rings the bell and the lady of the house answers the door. 'Telegram for you, ma'm.' 'Oh!' says she. 'A telegram! I've never had a telegram before! You've got to sing it to me!' 'Well, no ma'm, I can't sing...' 'Oh, please! Sing it to me!' 'Well, all right ... if you insist ... HMMMMMM la la la (dramatically warming up the voice): JIM AND THE KIDS ARE DEAD. Cheers, Henry ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 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 V25 #52 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Feb 4 19:57:07 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 7918C150A4; Sat, 4 Feb 2006 19:57:07 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #53 Message-Id: <20060205005707.7918C150A4@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 19:57:07 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sat, 4 Feb 2006 20:00:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 53 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MySpace.com Under Investigation For Sex Assaults on Kids (AP NewsWire) Teens at Risk on MySpace.com, Other Net Sites (Matt Apuzzo) Postage Due For Companies Sending Email (Saul Hansell) Cell Phone Interception in Greece Includes Prime Minister (Danny Burstein) Ev-Do In Ontario (gladman911@gmail.com) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (snertking) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (Robert Bonomi) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (not email replies) Re: EFF Sues AT&T Over Phone Surveillance (Dan) Thinking of David Nelson w/r to 1776 (Carl Moore) 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: Associated Press News Wire Subject: MySpace Investigated For Sexual Assaults on Children Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 17:09:50 -0600 MySpace.com Subject of Sex Assault Probe Police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through the popular Web site MySpace.com. The girls, ages 12 to 16, are from Middletown and say they were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed. None of the incidents appeared to be violent, said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna. He said it was difficult to determine the exact number of victims because some girls have been reluctant to disclose that they met their assailants online. Others, particularly boys, may also be reluctant to admit it 'happened to them also'. The social networking Web site allows users to create profiles that can include photos, personal information and even cell phone numbers. In a statement Thursday, MySpace.com said it was committed to providing a safe environment for its users. The site, which includes safety tips, also prohibits use by anyone younger than 14, though a disclaimer says the people who run the site can't always tell if users are lying about their ages. On the Net: http://www.myspace.com Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Matt Apuzzo Subject: Teens at Risk on MySpace, Other Net Sites Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 16:52:53 -0600 Teens Putting Themselves at Risk Online By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer On Web sites such as MySpace.com, teenagers can find people around the world who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on the latest Hollywood star. But authorities say teens are increasingly finding trouble in an online environment where millions of people can, in seconds, find out where they go to school, learn their interests, download their pictures and instantly send them sexual messages. Police in the central Connecticut city of Middletown suspect that as many as seven girls were recently assaulted by men they met on MySpace. The FBI says it regularly receives calls from police trying to figure out how to stay ahead of popular technology that puts children a mouse click away from millions of strangers. MySpace, one of several popular social networking sites, is a free service that allows people to create Web sites that can be personalized with information, pictures and movies. Searching for someone is as easy as typing the name of a high school and the photographic results are instantaneous. "They're licking their lips and arching their back for the camera because they can, and they have no idea of the consequences," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and child advocate who runs http://WiredSafety.org, a site that helps inform parents and site managers about online predators. MySpace said in a statement that it includes safety tips and prohibits children under 14 from using the site. Aftab said MySpace, a subsidiary of News Corp., has a great reputation for trying to keep the site safe. Some teens keep their personal profiles scant, aimed only at their friends. Others describe their likes and dislikes, from the mundane to the profane, and encourage people to send them messages. "That is a perpetrator's dream come true," said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna. McKenna said several Middletown girls, between 12 and 16, told police they met men on the MySpace who claimed to be teenagers. When they met in person, he said, the girls were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed. In at least one case, McKenna believes the assault happened at the girl's home while her parents were there, but unaware of what their daughter was doing in her room with the computer.. Last month, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, New Jersey, garbage bin and 15-year-old Kayla Reed was found naked and dead in a canal not far from her Livermore, California, home. Both deaths remain unsolved and the use of MySpace.com has surfaced in both investigations. As recently as a few years ago, Aftab said the profile of an online victim was a young woman who felt alone, didn't have many friends and craved attention. Then, in 2002, 13-year-old Christina Long of Danbury was strangled in a Danbury mall parking lot by a 26-year-old man she met on the Internet. Long was a popular cheerleader, a good student and an altar girl. The profile went out the window. Now, Aftab said, it's no surprise that a wealthy state such as Connecticut is seeing a spate of problems. "This is a rich and upper-middle-class problem," Aftab said. "They have too much time, too much technology and their parents aren't around to keep an eye on them." Connecticut's FBI office was the first in New England to launch an online, undercover program to catch sexual predators. Timothy Egan, the squad's supervisor, said parents often don't know their children are using these Web sites or what information is being released. The FBI hopes to train more local officers about these sites in coming months. The investigators are currently working undercover trying to catch/locate/arrest predators on MySpace.com as well as at their other favorite locations, aol.com and yahoo.com chat rooms Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who has strictly limited the information his 10- and 12-year-old children put on the Internet, said he was surprised to learn that they had been contacted by strangers they believed were pedophiles. His kids ignored it, Morano said, but parents need to closely monitor Internet activity. "You wouldn't leave your kid on the side of the highway without supervision," Morano said. "You shouldn't put them on the Internet highway without the same type of supervision." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html For more news on internet sex crimes, please go to: http://blog.watchright.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Please recall that http://myspace.com is also the home base for Jacob Robida, the 18 year old guy who on Wednesday night this past week went into 'Puzzles' the gay bar in Massachusetts and shot or axed several of the patrons. People who have seen his blog/web pages on My Space.com say it is a lot of Nazi propoganda and illustrations, along with promotions for his music recording business, 'Psycho Music'. He still is at large, police have not been able to find him. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Saul Hansell Subject: Postage Due for Companies Sending e-Mail Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 16:55:43 -0600 By SAUL HANSELL Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers. America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a controversial system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely. The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. The two companies also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted. AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a special bulk e-mail box or strip them of images and Web links. Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and worries about online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable way for companies to reach their customers, even as online transactions are becoming a crucial part of their businesses. "The last time I checked, the postal service has a very similar system to provide different options," said Nicholas Graham, an AOL spokesman. He pointed to services like certified mail with return receipts, "where you really do get assurance that if what you send is important to you, it will be delivered, and delivered in a way that is different from other mail." But critics of the plan say that the companies risk alienating both their users and the companies that send e-mail. The system will apply not only to mass mailings but also to individual messages like order confirmations from online stores and customized low-fare notices from airlines. "AOL users will become dissatisfied when they don't receive the e-mail that they want, and when they complain to the senders, they'll be told, 'it's AOL's fault,' " said Richi Jennings, an analyst at Ferris Research, which specializes in e-mail. As for companies that send e-mail, "some will pay, but others will object to being held to ransom," he said. "A big danger is that one of them will be big enough to encourage AOL users to use a different e-mail service." In a broader sense, the move to create what is essentially a preferred class of e-mail is a major change in the economics of the Internet. Until now, senders and recipients of e-mail -- and, for that matter, Web pages and other information -- each covered their own costs of using the network, with no money changing hands. That model is different from, say, the telephone system, in which the company whose customer places a call pays a fee to the company whose customer receives it. The prospect of a multitiered Internet has received a lot of attention recently after executives of several large telecommunications companies, including BellSouth and AT& T, suggested that they should be paid not only by the subscribers to their Internet services but also by companies that send large files to those subscribers, including music and video clips. Those files would then be given priority over other data, a change from the Internet's basic architecture which treats all data in the same way. This Tuesday the Senate Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to consider legislation for what has been called Net neutrality -- effectively banning Internet access companies from giving preferred status to certain providers of content. The concern is that companies that do not pay could find it hard to reach customers or potential customers, threatening the openness of the Internet. AOL and its parent, Time Warner, which also owns a large cable system offering high-speed Internet access, have not taken a public stand on the principle of Net neutrality. Neither has Yahoo, which has close relationships with AT& T and Verizon. The issue of e-mail postage has not yet come up in the debate over Net neutrality. In the next two months, AOL will start accepting e-mail processed by Goodmail Systems, a company in Mountain View, Calif., that will collect the electronic postage and verify the identity of the sender. Goodmail has tested the system with the participation of a few companies, including the American Red Cross and The New York Times. Paying senders will be assured that their messages will be delivered to AOL users' main in-boxes and marked as "AOL Certified E-Mail." Unpaid messages will be subject to AOL's spam-filtering process, which diverts suspicious messages to a special spam folder. Most of these messages will also not be displayed with their original images and links. Users will be able to specify that unpaid messages from a particular person or company should never be treated as spam, as they can do now. Yahoo will start trying out Goodmail's system in coming months, but it has not decided how paid mail will be differentiated from unpaid, said Brad Garlinghouse, vice president of communications products at Yahoo. Goodmail will charge 1/4 cent to 1 cent per message, with high-volume mailers getting the biggest discounts. It will give more than half of that amount to the e-mail service provider. When AOL started to explain the details of its plan last month to companies that send a lot of e-mail, many quickly raised objections. "No one wants Goodmail or any other provider to set up a tollbooth that makes it cost-prohibitive for legitimate mailers to reach the in-box," said Matthew Moog, the chief executive of Q Interactive. The company runs a marketing service called CoolSavings that sends e-mail to 10 million people a month who have requested it. Mr. Moog said that he was very much in favor of systems that helped distinguish the mail he sent from spam. But Mr. Moog added that he wanted AOL and other Internet providers "to offer several competing services to ensure that innovation continues and there is a competitive market to drive fair pricing for the service." For example, he said that CoolSavings already works with Bonded Sender, a company used by Microsoft's Hotmail service and other providers to identify sources of legitimate mail. Bonded Sender charges a flat fee of no more than $20,000 a year to the highest-volume senders, a fraction of what they would pay through the Goodmail system. Mr. Moog said that the Goodmail system would at least double the cost of an e-mail campaign. "I don't think the economics work," he added. Matt Blumberg, the chief executive of Return Path, the New York company that runs Bonded Sender, said there was no need for the Goodmail price to be so high. "From AOL's perspective, this is an opportunity to earn a significant amount of money from the sale of stamps," he said. "But it's bad for the industry and bad for consumers. A lot of e-mailers won't be able to afford it." But Mr. Garlinghouse of Yahoo said that by making senders pay for each message, they will be forced to be more discriminating in whom they send e-mail to, which will benefit users. "Because the cost of sending e-mail is so low, some players are not as good at keeping their lists clean," he said. "I still gets e-mails from lists I signed up for three years ago, but I haven't responded to a single one." As spam has started to clog millions of mailboxes, particularly over the last five years, some people have suggested that requiring all e-mail senders to pay some sort of postage would drive out spammers, who can profit even if they sell their wares to a very small percentage of mail recipients. But in recent years the volume of spam has leveled off, in part because of a new federal law that imposes penalties for many deceptive e-mail practices. Moreover, most major e-mail providers have built sophisticated filters that divert much of the spam. AOL says that spam complaints from its members are down 75 percent since their peak in 2003. (These filters also capture about 20 percent of legitimate mail, according to Ferris Research.) A more troublesome problem now is phishing, messages that appear to be from a bank or an online payment service and that seek to fool recipients into divulging their passwords or credit card numbers. Phishing has led Internet providers and other companies to look for ways to help people identify legitimate mail. Goodmail was founded several years ago with the idea that it would charge postage for all mail, but it has narrowed its focus to mail sent by companies and major nonprofit organizations, which will pay a reduced rate. It does not envision that individuals will pay to have their e-mail delivered. "The e-mail in-box is a potentially dangerous place," said Richard Gingras, the chief executive of Goodmail. "There is a tremendous need for a class of certified e-mail that can convey to consumers that a message is authentic." Mr. Gingras argued that companies will be glad to pay the postage fee because their customers will have more trust in their e-mail and thus will buy more from them. And Mr. Graham of AOL added that the portion of the postage it will receive is justifiable compensation for the costs it has incurred in developing systems to combat spam. "We have some prerogative to move to a system that asks for other people to participate and share the financial burden in making a clean e-mail environment on the Internet," he said. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines and stories from New York Times with no login nor registration requirement -- the way the net should be -- please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Cell Phone Interceptions in Greece, Includes Prime Minister Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 22:12:42 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC " The mobile phones of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and many other leading Greek officials were tapped for around a year, the government revealed yesterday while admitting that it had no way of finding out who had been eavesdropping on the conversations. " In a joint press conference lasting three hours, Public Order Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis, Justice Minister Anastassis Papaligouras and government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said that some 100 cellphones had been tapped from just before the Athens Olympics in August 2004 to March of last year. " 'It was an unknown individual or individuals who used high technology,' said Roussopoulos, who refused to say whether the people listening in on the calls were working for foreign agencies. . . " The software allowed calls to and from the numbers being tapped to be monitored by other cell phones, from which conversations could be recorded. rest at: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4Dcgi/4Dcgi/_w_articles_politics_2583625100003_03/02/2006_65959 ------------------------------ From: gladman911@gmail.com Subject: Ev-Do In Ontario Date: 4 Feb 2006 05:11:41 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Anyone using EV-Do in Toronto with a treo 700w? What does it cost? How are you finding the speed? ------------------------------ From: snertking Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 14:34:13 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Herb Stein wrote: >> "NOT a public place" would imply that the no-smoking ban in NY is a crock. > I have no idea what the terms are of no-smoking ban which is a > different issue. But any property owner may ban smoking on their own > property if they so choose. The govt for many years has banned > smoking in some places, such as the inside of a transit bus. No smoking in "public places" -- which includes pretty much everywhere - bars, hotel lobbies, etc. Owner of premises CANNOT decide to allow smoking on his or her own property. Seems unconstitutional, if ya ask me. ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomni.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 00:19:45 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I could never understand is how > stores such as Walmart on the one hand want to encourage shoppers > (although I do not personally care for the chain) yet on the other > hand they can claim that someone is 'tresspassing' if the person comes > in their store. Ditto with public transit. If it is a public place, > which is claimed, It is *still* _PRIVATE_PROPERTY_, and the property owner _does_ have the legal right to determine who can, and *cannot*, be present on their property. The property can extend an invitation (permission) to the 'general public', and then revoke -- by 'actual notice' to the party involved -- that permission for specific individuals. Where an invitation to the general public exists, *before* you can be charged with trespass, they must first expressly notify you that your presence is 'no longer welcome' (i.e., they ask you to leave the premises, "now"), and you fail to comply with that request in a timely manner. > then how can a member of the public who chooses to > go inside or upon the property of the store or the transit agency get > arrested by police for trespassing? Yet CTA does that all time; so > does Walmart. Seems to me like Walmart and transit agency want to have > things both ways at the same time. PAT] If you allow somebody into your apartment -- say, to use the phone -- do you think you should have no recourse, if they sit down on the sofa and refuse to leave when you ask? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a considerable difference between purely private, residential property and privately owned property used for commercial purposes, as any reasonably intelligent person would explain to you. At my house, for example, I have to positively invite someone to come in to use the phone. Walmart does not 'invite' someone in to do shopping or use the phone. The store just sits there with an open door; people walk in and out at their leisure. No one specifically 'invites' or 'allows' them to come in to do shopping. Now if Walmart was to specifically lock their front door, and have someone sit there to question all comers, and specifi- cally allow them to come in to do shopping or use the phone or whatever that would be different. When is the last time you ever heard someone walk into Walmart, seek out the manager or some responsible employee and ask permission, "is it okay if I come in to go shopping?" PAT] ------------------------------ From: Please post not email replies Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Sat, 04 Feb 2006 21:40:19 GMT Organization: Road Runner Thomas Daniel Horne wrote: > ... The real kicker in the case of many volunteer > fire stations in the US is that they are not publicly owned at all. > They are often owned fee simple by a private corporation that is > organized under state charter to provide a public service. ... It's not just bathrooms that are off limits. For many of them, depending on the legal form of their organization, neither the public nor the municipality hiring them has any right to see their books or internal affairs. There was a recent case where the top two officials of a volunteer fire department suddenly resigned with no official explanation, but with a hint of financial impropriety. Yet, this same department regularly solicits the public for contributions. It tries to combine the best (for it) aspects of a privately owned corporation and of a public charity. To be fair to it, it does fight fires competently. ------------------------------ From: Dan Subject: Re: EFF Sues AT&T Over Phone Surveillance Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:42:50 -0600 On 2/2/2006 1:55 PM, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: > Matthew Fordahl wrote: >> A civil liberties group sued AT&T Inc. on Tuesday for its alleged role >> in helping the National Security Agency spy on the phone calls and >> other communications of U.S. citizens without warrants. > I am very sensitive to privacy issues. However, this particular case > isn't so easy. Clearly, part of it is motivated by politics, that is, > people are upset because they don't like Bush in general, not because > of the specific issue involved and I don't like that. > As the "moral principle", this country was attacked in an act of war > and clearly the govt has the duty and responsibility to take defensive > measures against a further attack. Spying on the enemy and possibly > traitors within this country is a classic activity in time of war. > IMHO, part of the issue here is what was done with the information > gained. If they turned it over to prosecutors for other routine > crimes (ie tax evasion, drug running, import laws), I would object > since normal domestic search warrants were not obtained. But AFAIK > that was not done. >> It also seeks billions of dollars in damages. > "Damages" means the plaintiff suffered a monetary loss in some way as > a result of the defendant's action. Unless the govt utilized the > gleaned information against someone, I'm not sure there was any loss > suffered. I am also very hesitant about the class action status, I > believe that is overused. >> "Our main goal is to stop this invasion of privacy, prevent it from >> occurring again and make sure AT&T and all the other carriers >> understand there are going to be legal and economic consequences when >> they fail to follow the law," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff >> attorney. > Did the EFF sue all other carriers as well? Activist groups like to > pick on the big guys, but that is not fair. If EFF has a true case > against the carriers, it has a responsibility to sue every carrier. >> The White House has vigorously defended the program, saying the >> president acted legally under the constitution and a post-Sept. 11 >> congressional resolution that granted him broad power to fight >> terrorism. > I am not in a position to say if the White House was right or wrong in > this action. > However, it would appear that it is unfair to order the carriers to > make that decision either. I can't help but wonder that the carriers > received what appeared to be legitimate official wiretap requests and > they complied accordingly. I'm pretty sure if some unknown Fed agent > showed up with a wiretap demand without documentation he wouldn't get > very far. However, I suspect this came through normal channels that > the carriers were used to working with, and thus they had no reason to > suspect there may have been a question on them. >> "We are quite confident that discovery would reveal evidence proving >> our allegations correct," said Kevin Bankston, an EFF staff attorney. > That's very nice, but "discovery" is an expensive time consuming > process. Who's gonna pay for AT&T's cost? We are! >> "I think we are going to definitely have a fight on state-secret >> issues," Bankston said. "I would also point out that the state-secret >> privilege has never come up in a case where the rights of so many have >> been at issue." > Censorship of civilian activities was a major activity in WW II. Even > back then it was not particularly appreciated, but it was done. > As mentioned, I strongly believe in privacy and normally support EFF > efforts. But I'm not so sure on this particular case and I wonder if > it's grandstanding. I can think of a great many other privacy issues > EFF ought to be concerned about, although they're not very glamorous > or headline making. > [public replies, please] Tapping (e.g. carnivore, eshalon) will get the low lying fruit. Real criminals will use strong encryption... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 3 Feb 2006 16:49:32 EST From: Carl Moore Subject: Thinking of David Nelson w/r to 1776 Some time ago there was the controversy about problems encountered by men called David Nelson. No, I don't know of any David Nelson in 1776, but I just now thought of this story which I read in history books long ago: One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence was Charles Carroll. We've read of the risks taken by such signing, and the story goes that someone told Mr. Carroll that he had nothing to fear because there were many Charles Carrolls. So he added "of Carrollton" after his name, and he remarked "They cannot mistake me now." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is a very inspirational story, and one which should give us all something to think about. I have always been amazed at how many 'essentially anonymous' blogs there are on the net. I am one of the few people -- at least it appears that way -- who bothers to put a real name and real picture and real 'life- style status' on my various blogs as well as on this Digest. For that matter, I also geo-tag all my pages; if you go to the trouble to read any of my blogs, etc and then cross reference them to Google Maps for example, you will see a nice little 'Google map marker' where I am at. Yet I see so many entries on http://blogspot.com which are just silly frivilous nonsense and the people refuse to sign them or even include a small thump-size .jpg of themselves. I am sure most of them do _not_ think of their blog pages as frivilous nonsense, just as I do not feel that way about mine. If you happen to wish to review my blog and how I like to handle it, please go to: http://ptownson.blogspot.com and feel free to comment on what I have written over the past few months. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 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 V25 #53 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Feb 5 18:38:26 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 6B9D41512C; Sun, 5 Feb 2006 18:38:26 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #54 Message-Id: <20060205233826.6B9D41512C@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 18:38:26 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Sun, 5 Feb 2006 18:40:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 54 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Tapping Into AT&T (Mike Riddle) An Important Lesson in 2005: Back up Your Data (Rhomda Abrams) Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set For Subways (Ellen Wulfhorst) Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail (Monty Solomon) Increasingly, Internet's Data Trail Leads to Court (Monty Solomon) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (Robert Bonomi) Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby (AES) Re: Cell Phone Interceptions in Greece Includes Prime Minister (Gerard Bok) Spammer With a Toll Free Fax number (Steven Lichter) 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: Mike Riddle Subject: Tapping Into AT&T Organization: Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish & Short Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 15:37:46 -0600 http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-nsa5feb05,0,4247173.story?coll=la-home-oped From the Los Angeles Times EDITORIALS Tapping into AT&T February 5, 2006 THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION has spent much of the last few weeks trying to explain that to protect American democracy, it must sometimes spy on American citizens. Now the debate over its warrantless domestic spying program has reached out to touch one of the iconic names of American capitalism: Ma Bell. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for civil liberties in cyberspace, sued AT&T last week, alleging that the company violated its duty to keep phone records and conversations private. The suit asserts that AT&T not only allowed the National Security Agency to intercept phone calls without a warrant as part of its program to monitor the calls of U.S. residents with suspected ties to terrorists overseas, but it also enabled government agents to sift through the company's vast database of calling records in search of suspicious activity. The lawsuit takes an indirect route to the foundation's ultimate goal, which is to force investigators to get a court's approval before spying on U.S. residents. At Senate hearings on the NSA program, which begin Monday, members of the Judiciary Committee may want to borrow from the foundation's strategy and see what they can learn not just from government officials but from telecommunications executives, who cannot hide behind executive privilege. Ma Bell is certainly an inviting target. Outside of the NSA, no one knows more about the domestic surveillance program than the phone companies, the largest of which is AT&T. And the Bush administration has been extremely tight-lipped about the program's details. As a result, it is impossible to judge whether the program has focused exclusively on people chatting with Al Qaeda, as President Bush likes to say, or a much larger group of Americans who just happen to make or receive international calls. AT&T, which isn't commenting on the suit, may have felt it had no choice but to comply with the NSA's requests. Federal law requires telephone companies to cooperate with law enforcement demands if they are supported by a court order or, in emergencies, certification from the U.S. attorney general that no court order is necessary. The surveillance program was almost certainly backed by just such a certification, and that could stop the lawsuit in its tracks. Ideally, the lawsuit will stop AT&T from cooperating in the NSA program, or at least prod it to put up more resistance. There is no need or excuse for warrantless surveillance in America, especially given the accelerated procedures Congress established for obtaining such warrants. Indeed, the court that Congress created with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is notoriously accommodating to such requests. In addition, the administration's assertion that it can conduct whatever spying operation it pleases during the unrelenting war on terrorism is an affront to Americans' privacy and due-process rights. More practically, the lawsuit may also reveal how the spying program works and what types of information it collects. But the administration views such details as sensitive national security secrets, and it is likely the government will try to have the lawsuit thrown out before any such disclosures are made. In the mid-1970s, the late Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat, led a Senate investigation into domestic spying and other abuses of power by the NSA and federal agencies. By interviewing executives from telecommunications companies, his investigators gained critical details about the government's snooping. Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee could learn from the Church committee's boldness. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html *** 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, Los Angeles Times. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Rhonda Abrams Subject: Important Lesson from 2005: Back up Your Data Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 15:48:40 -0600 Reviewing events of 2005, if I were to choose the most important lesson for entrepreneurs, it clearly would be this: Back up your data. This year, hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated tens of thousands of small companies. Critical to their recovery was gaining access to their business records. Yet, roughly 60% of small businesses and nearly 70% of home-based computer users fail to back up their data regularly, according to research firm IDC. The Information Technology Solution Providers Alliance, an association of computer consultants, differentiates between two types of backups small businesses need: .Data backup, or copying critical information as part of everyday operations. .Disaster prevention, or being able to recover information and keep operating after damage or loss of a location. For data backup, you need an easy mechanism to copy your critical data -- such as customer records, work product, key documents -- to a second storage device. For disaster prevention, you need a way to keep a copy of that mission-critical data in a safe location far away from your primary workplace in case of unanticipated emergencies. What type of backup system you use depends on your specific needs. But one thing's for certain: Any backup system is better than none. The key is finding one that's easy, affordable and relatively mindless. "If you have to take major steps to back up, you're not going to do it," said Mike Williams, general manager of branded products at Maxtor in Milpitas, Calif., a leading maker of backup storage devices for small business. I've tried a number of backup approaches in my business: Copy it yourself Years ago, I started with the simplest, cheapest procedure. Once a week, I copied critical files to backup drives. Depending on how much data you have, you can use CDs, DVDs, flash memory or other storage media. Then take or send these backups to another location at least a mile away. But you have to remember to do it. Advantages: It's easy, cheap and locates your data off site in case of emergency. Disadvantages: It's slow, especially if you have lots of data; the data is not very secure; and it's easy to forget to back up. Online backup service I've long been a proponent of online services such as EVault or SwapDrive. These systems access your computers over the Internet, copy files you've chosen and automatically back them up to their secure computers. You get both data backup and disaster prevention in one solution. Advantages: Once installed, you don't have to think about it; data is stored securely in a remote location; it's easy to recover from any computer. Disadvantages: Slow, especially if you have large amounts of data; you'll need to keep computers running overnight because backing up during the day will slow down regular computer use; ongoing monthly expense. Internal backup system These systems copy data over a USB2 or Firewire connection from your company's computers to your server using special software, such as Second Copy from Centered Systems. Or data can be backed up to a dedicated storage device, such as One Touch from Maxtor. Advantages: Fast, which is especially critical for large amounts of data or graphic-intensive files; relatively secure from intrusion; no fixed monthly expense. Disadvantages: The data is stored on site and you must remember to make a copy to take elsewhere. While the method is not difficult, it requires someone with technical capabilities to install and maintain. We use a hybrid approach in our office. We back up to our company server but make copies -- on DVDs -- of our most critical data and send those to a secure location out of state. Maxtor's Williams recommends the same approach. "Buy two (storage) drives. Do a full back up to one once a week. Take that drive home and swap out the one you had at home from last week. At the most, you'll lose one week's worth of data." Yes, 2005 was a reminder of how vulnerable and vital our data is. So choose a simple backup system for your important files. Remember, the most effective backup system is the one you actually use. Rhonda Abrams is author of The Successful Business Plan: Secrets & Strategies and president of The Planning Shop, publishers of books and other tools for business plans. Register for Rhonda's free business planning newsletter at www.PlanningShop.com. Copyright Rhonda Abrams 2005. Find this article at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/abrams/2005-12-23-data_x.htm?csp=N009 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For other headlines and news of interest from USA Today, and United Press International, see the most recent headlines and stories at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html -No login nor registration requirements, the way the Internet ought to be!- ------------------------------ From: Ellen Wulfhorst Subject: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2006 16:04:24 -0600 By Ellen Wulfhorst One of life's ironic oases of solitude -- the peace people find amid the roar of a New York City subway -- could soon be gone. As New York plans to make cell phones work in subway stations, experts say Americans eventually could be connected everywhere, underground or in the air. "It's technically feasible, both for airplanes and subways," said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. "It's the social aspect that's really the most intractable." People fall into two camps, one that defends the right to make calls no matter the inconvenience to others and the other that likes an undisturbed atmosphere, he said. Business people tend to belong to first camp, and leisure travelers to the second, he added. Any solitude found waiting for a New York subway is bound to end. City officials have solicited bids to connect more than half the stations for cell phone service, although there's no set timetable yet. Service through the tunnels is another, more expensive matter, but even the suggestion sends shudders through people who like being incommunicado. "It's a time when people should unplug," said Jon Giswold, a personal trainer in New York. "I rely on my cell phone, but I find it a safe haven on a train when people can't get a hold of me." Cell phone service in planes is further off, with the Federal Aviation Administration determining if use in flight would interfere with electronic equipment. If it's found to be safe, providing service would be up to individual airlines, an FAA spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, most people aren't clamoring for cell phones in the sky. CELL PHONE MANNERS In seeking public comment last year, the Federal Communications Commission, which deals with if it's technically feasible to operate phones on planes, heard from thousands of people, many of whom focused on passenger "air rage." "Can you imagine 13 hours to Beijing next to someone on a cell phone?" asked Fern Lowenfels, a Manhattanite walking in the city's Upper West Side. According to Katz, research shows cell phones become annoying because the human brain is uncomfortable listening to just one half of a conversation. "Without that other part of the conversation, our brain constantly thinks we're being tickled to be involved," he said. Michael Malice, author of the book "Overheard in New York," said bad cell phone behavior gives him good material. "It's just tacky and gauche. That's all there is to it," he said. "But most people are tacky and gauche." The Straphangers Campaign, which represents the interests of city subway riders, is "firmly and resolutely ambivalent," said Gene Russianoff, attorney for the group. "There's people who want to be permanently wired, and then there's a big contingent that ironically view the one private moment they have during their busy day is on the subways." Cell phones have gotten a bad reputation -- from being used as detonators in high-profile assassinations to the devices that spread mass insanity in Stephen King's newest horror tale "Cell: A Novel." But, Malice noted, phones are not to blame. "After September 11, none of us are really in a position to criticize cell phones entirely," he said. "So many people were able to call their families and talk to them one last time. "If you were trapped and your family was freaking out and you were able to call them, a lot of minds would be put at ease," he said. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 22:48:12 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail By SAUL HANSELL Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers. America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely. The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. Thy also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted. AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links. As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam. Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and worries about online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable way for companies to reach their customers, even as online transactions are becoming a crucial part of their businesses. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/05AOL.html?ex=1296795600&en=6efb03c8cbfac79e&ei=5090 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This abreviated version of the original article we had in yesterday's digest was sent in again today by Monty Solomon, and is reprinted as a reminder to commercial emailers on what to expect in the near future. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 22:53:16 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Increasingly, Internet's Data Trail Leads to Court By SAUL HANSELL The New York Times February 4, 2006 Who is sending threatening e-mail to a teenager? Who is saying disparaging things about a company on an Internet message board? Who is communicating online with a suspected drug dealer? These questions, and many more like them, are asked every day of the companies that provide Internet service and run Web sites. And even though these companies promise to protect the privacy of their users, they routinely hand over the most intimate information in response to legal demands from criminal investigators and lawyers fighting civil cases. Such data led directly to a suspect in a school bombing threat; it has also been used by the authorities to track child pornographers and computer intruders, and has become a tool in civil cases on matters from trade secrets to music piracy. In St. Louis, records of a suspect's online searches for maps proved his undoing in a serial- killing case that had gone unsolved for a decade. In short, just as technology is prompting Internet companies to collect more information and keep it longer than before, prosecutors and civil lawyers are more readily using that information. When it comes to e-mail and Internet service records, "the average citizen would be shocked to find out how adept your average law enforcement officer is at finding information," said Paul Ohm, who recently left the Justice Department's computer crime and intellectual property section. The issue has come to the fore because of a Justice Department request to four major Internet companies for data about their users' search queries. While America Online, Yahoo and Microsoft complied with the request, Google is resisting it. That case does not involve information that can be linked to individuals, but it has cast new light on what privacy, if any, Internet users can expect for the data trail they leave online. The answer, in many cases, is clouded by ambiguities in the law that governs electronic communication like telephone calls and e-mail. In many cases, the law requires law enforcement officials to meet a higher standard to read a person's e-mail than to get copies of his financial or medical records. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/technology/04privacy.html?ex=1296709200&en=904f8c86659f2cfe&ei=5090 To read this full report in New York Times, and other headlines and stories of interest with no registration nor login requirements -- really, the way the web should always be -- please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomni.com (Robert Bonomi) Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 04:36:29 -0000 Organization: Widgets, Inc. In article , Robert Bonomi wrote: > In article , >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What I could never understand is how >> stores such as Walmart on the one hand want to encourage shoppers >> (although I do not personally care for the chain) yet on the other >> hand they can claim that someone is 'trespassing' if the person comes >> in their store. Ditto with public transit. If it is a public place, >> which is claimed, > It is *still* _PRIVATE_PROPERTY_, and the property owner _does_ have the > legal right to determine who can, and *cannot*, be present on their > property. > The property can extend an invitation (permission) to the 'general > public', and then revoke -- by 'actual notice' to the party involved > -- that permission for specific individuals. > Where an invitation to the general public exists, *before* you can be > charged with trespass, they must first expressly notify you that your > presence is 'no longer welcome' (i.e., they ask you to leave the > premises, "now"), and you fail to comply with that request in a timely > manner. >> then how can a member of the public who chooses to >> go inside or upon the property of the store or the transit agency get >> arrested by police for trespassing? Yet CTA does that all time; so >> does Walmart. Seems to me like Walmart and transit agency want to have >> things both ways at the same time. PAT] > If you allow somebody into your apartment -- say, to use the phone -- > do you think you should have no recourse, if they sit down on the sofa > and refuse to leave when you ask? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a considerable difference > between purely private, residential property and privately owned > property used for commercial purposes, as any reasonably intelligent > person would explain to you. At my house, for example, I have to > positively invite someone to come in to use the phone. Walmart does > not 'invite' someone in to do shopping or use the phone. The store > just sits there with an open door; people walk in and out at their > leisure. No one specifically 'invites' or 'allows' them to come in > to do shopping. Now if Walmart was to specifically lock their front > door, and have someone sit there to question all comers, and specifi- > cally allow them to come in to do shopping or use the phone or > whatever that would be different. When is the last time you ever heard > someone walk into Walmart, seek out the manager or some responsible > employee and ask permission, "is it okay if I come in to go shopping?" > PAT] When is the last time you heard someone ask "is it okay if I come in to go shopping?" at a garage sale. Which *is* held on "purely private, residential property", to use your language. An 'invite' to enter a premises can be "explicit" (as in the case of you allowing someone in to your apartment to use the phone), or "implicit" (as in the case of an establishment 'open to the public'). Absent _either_ an 'explicit' or 'implicit' invitation on the premises, *AND* absent 'actual notice' that ones presence is 'not welcome'; it is =NOT= trespassing for a person to "merely" be on the premises. However, =regardless= if you once had an 'explicit' _or_ 'implicit' invitation to be on the premises, when you receive ACTUAL NOTICE that you are no longer welcome -- that said invitation has, in your case, been withdrawn -- *THEN* if you enter (or _remain_ on) the premises, you are trespassing. Retail establishments -- or any other place for that matter -- that first _tell_ someone "you are not welcome on our property; get out of here now, and DO NOT RETURN", and *if*/*when* that person _does_ return has them arrested for trespassing, *ARE* properly exercising their 'private property' rights. Absolutely no different than a farmer that has somebody arrested for going hunting in his fields w/o permission, and despite the posted 'no trespassing' warnings. In article , Please post not email replies wrote: > Thomas Daniel Horne wrote: >> ... The real kicker in the case of many volunteer >> fire stations in the US is that they are not publicly owned at all. >> They are often owned fee simple by a private corporation that is >> organized under state charter to provide a public service. ... > It's not just bathrooms that are off limits. For many of them, > depending on the legal form of their organization, neither the public > nor the municipality hiring them has any right to see their books or > internal affairs. There was a recent case where the top two officials > of a volunteer fire department suddenly resigned with no official > explanation, but with a hint of financial impropriety. Yet, this same > department regularly solicits the public for contributions. It tries > to combine the best (for it) aspects of a privately owned corporation > and of a public charity. To be fair to it, it does fight fires > competently. Do they claim that the 'contributions' are tax deductible? If the answer is "no", then they don't have to reveal anything to the public. OTOH, if they claim the contributions are deductible, that they are a "501 (c) {something}" not-for-profit, then they are required by federal law to release certain financial information to _anyone_ who requests it. If they are 'hired' by a municipality -- then the municipality _can_ make it a condition of that 'hiring' that they disclose to the town whatever financial information that the town deems necessary. The FD has a 'free choice' -- disclose the info, or don't get the city contract. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your mention of 'bathrooms off limits' reminds me of how difficult it is to find a public restroom in a store in downtown Chicago. _None_ of the CTA stations allow anyone to use the restroom; _none_ of the little shops along State Street downtown permit it either. Even many restaurants do not permit the public to use the restroom. Now, a restaurant _which also sells liquor_ is required by the city code in Chicago to have available restrooms, but places for _food only_ are not. You can easily go five or six blocks in downtown Chicago before you can find either a public restroom or for that matter, a pay phone. Where this becomes worrisome for someone like myself is because since my brain aneurysm, I do not have extremely good control over my bodily functions; at least not perfect control. Years and years ago, CTA had restrooms in all their stations as a courtesy to the public; some of them were not terribly clean; even the ones which demanded a five cent coin to go in and use them, (coin lock on the door) but at least they were there. Then City of Chicago passed yet another ordinance which outlawed the installation/use of 'pay toilets' and CTA's response was to close all the bathrooms entirely. Lisa Hancock, this was another example of the social do-gooder activists I guess: CEPTIA (Committee for the Elimination of Pay Toilets in America) convinced City Council to get rid of them. To hell with those of us who at least could count on having somewhere 'to go' when downtown or in a CTA station. There was also a very large public facility in the basement of City Hall for at least fifty years; one day I went past (several years ago) and it was totally boarded up and permanently out of service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: AES Subject: Re: Challenge to Hospitality: The ID Check in the Lobby Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 07:46:54 -0800 Organization: Stanford University In article , snertking wrote: > hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote: >> Herb Stein wrote: >>> "NOT a public place" would imply that the no-smoking ban in NY is a crock. >> I have no idea what the terms are of no-smoking ban which is a >> different issue. But any property owner may ban smoking on their own >> property if they so choose. The govt for many years has banned >> smoking in some places, such as the inside of a transit bus. > No smoking in "public places" -- which includes pretty much everywhere > - bars, hotel lobbies, etc. Owner of premises CANNOT decide to allow > smoking on his or her own property. Seems unconstitutional, if ya ask > me. Might or might not be. However, government can probably nonetheless, in interest of public health and safety, mandate bans on smoking on any places where employees are required to work, or general public needs to go to obtain various services. In other words, owner of premises can indeed "decide to allow smoking on his or her own property" -- just can't compel or require (or allow) any employees to work there, and so on. I used to think that health risks of second-hand smoke were probably greatly exaggerated by opponents of smoking -- just didn't seem that great a threat. Then I read of a study on employees of bars and restaurants in San Francisco, whose health records were rather carefully followed before and after a smoking ban, which had earlier been in force, was turned off for a while. The quality of the study and the magnitude of the results convinced me the risks are real and significant. ------------------------------ From: bok118@zonnet.nl (Gerard Bok) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Interceptions in Greece, Includes Prime Minister Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 12:00:44 GMT On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 22:12:42 -0500, Danny Burstein wrote: > " The mobile phones of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and many other > leading Greek officials were tapped for around a year, > " The software allowed calls to and from the numbers being tapped to > be monitored by other cell phones, from which conversations could be > recorded. And how did the 'Prince Charles and Camilla tapes' come to us ? They could have known. They should have known. Kind regards, Gerard Bok ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2006 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Spammer with an toll Free Fax number Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 17:50:30 GMT I got a junk e-mail advertising Lumber Liquidators. I can't believe that such a large reputable company would fall for a spammer. The number is not theirs, it is the spammer's Fax, I thought about also putting theirs up, but figure I give them a chance to explain their actions when I call their corporate office on Monday. (888)269-3836 The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Some readers here, who know the routine, may decide to investigate this latest listing. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #54 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Feb 6 14:28:59 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 9F32D15104; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 14:28:58 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #55 Message-Id: <20060206192858.9F32D15104@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 14:28:58 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Feb 2006 14:30:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 55 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Gonzales Defends Bush Eavesdropping (Katherine Shrader) No Internet Tax? - Don't Be So Sure (Sonia Blumstein) Cellular-News for Monday 6th February 2006 (cellular-news) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 6, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Google, Skype Want to Help People Fon Home (USTelecom dailyLead) Re: Interconnecting Alcatel OmniPCX (caveman) Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway (Lisa Hancock) Re: Tapping Into AT&T (Lisa Hancock) Re: Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail (David Wolff) 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: Katherine Shrader Subject: Gonzales Defends Bush Eavesdropping Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 12:24:15 -0600 Gonzales Defends Legality of Surveillance By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insisted Monday that President Bush is fully empowered to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants as part of the war on terror. He exhorted Congress not to end or tinker with the program. Gonzales' strong defense of Bush's program was challenged by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and committee Democrats during sometimes contentious questioning. Specter told Gonzales that even the Supreme Court had ruled that "the president does not have a blank check." Specter suggested that the program's legality be reviewed by a special federal court set up by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. "There are a lot of people who think you're wrong. What do you have to lose if you're right?" Specter, R-Pa., asked Gonzales. However, he said that court was already quite familiar with the program. He also said he did not think the 1978 law needed to be modified. And, said Gonzales, "To end the program now would afford our enemy dangerous and potential deadly new room for operation within our borders." Specter told Gonzales that federal law "has a forceful and blanket prohibition against any electronic surveillance without a court order." While the president claims he has the authority to order such surveillance, Specter said, "I am skeptical of that interpretation." A former Texas judge, Gonzales played an important role as White House counsel in developing the legal justification for the spy program. He served in that post from January 2001 to February 2005. Committee Democrats, who have generally contended that Bush is acting illegally in permitting domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency, sharply grilled Gonzales. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked if the authorization Bush claims to have would also enable the government to open mail -- in addition to monitoring voice and electronic communications. "There is all kinds of wild speculation out there about what the president has authorized and what we're actually doing," Gonzales said. "You're not answering my question," Leahy retorted. "Does this law authorize the opening of first class mail of U.S. citizens? Yes or no." "That's not what's going on," Gonzales said. "We are only focusing on international communications, where one part of the conversation is al-Qaida." Gonzales said the fact that the nation is at war gives the president more powers than during peacetime. "The president is acting with authority both by the Constitution and by statute," he said. Gonzales called the eavesdropping program "reasonable" and "lawful," and said much of the published criticism about it was "misinformed, confused or wrong." Monday's hearing got off to a rocky start when Republicans and Democrats disagreed over whether Gonzales should be sworn in. Democrats said he should, but Specter said it wasn't necessary. He wasn't. "My answers would be the same whether I was under oath or not," Gonzales told the panel. Gonzales reiterated the administration's contention that Bush was authorized to allow the NSA to eavesdrop, without first obtaining warrants, on people inside the United States whose calls or e-mails may be linked to terrorism. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., told Gonzales the administration broke with the time-honored system of checks and balances by not seeking greater congressional cooperation. Kennedy said the eavesdropping program could actually weaken national security, raising the prospect that terror suspects could go free if courts rule evidence collected from such surveillance to be tainted. "We're taking a risk with national security which I think is unwise," Kennedy said. "We don't believe prosecutions are going to be jeopardized because of this program," Gonzales told Kennedy. Gonzales declined to discuss details of the operation, as skeptics of the program have demanded. "An open discussion of the operational details of this program would put the lives of Americans at risk," he said. The program has sparked a heated debate about presidential powers in the war on terror since it was first disclosed in December. Gonzales argued that Congress did, in fact, authorize the president in September 2001 to use military force in the war on terror. The Judiciary Committee's Democrats want Specter to call more administration officials for questioning, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and ex-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey, both of whom reportedly objected to parts of the program. Specter said such appearances were possible. The committee chairman asked Gonzales if he would have any objections to Ashcroft's appearance before the committee on the spy program. Gonzales told Specter his committee could ask whomever they wanted to appear. "Senator, I don't think I would have an objection." On the Net: Senate Judiciary Committee: http://judiciary.senate.gov/ Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Sonia Blumstein Subject: No Internet Tax? - Don't Be So Sure Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 12:28:25 -0600 New IPI Study: No Internet Tax? Don't Be So Sure; Alarming State, Local, Federal & International Threats Contact: Sonia Blumstein of the Institute for Policy Innovation, 703-912-5742 or soniab@ipi.org WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 /U.S. Newswire/ The Internet Tax Moratorium expires in 2007, and state, federal and international regulators and legislators are already targeting the Internet as a lush source of new revenue, says a new report released today by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI). George Pieler, an IPI research fellow and author of "No Internet Tax? Don't Be So Sure," points out that, "Absent a sweeping federal intervention to secure the Internet's freedom, it will be an increasingly rich target for revenues and regulatory interference from all directions." STATE & LOCAL THREATS: One indication of states' eagerness to collect Internet taxes is that they quickly began taxing VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Because VoIP competes with traditional telecom services, the 2004 moratorium did not consistently block its taxation. If states are so quick to take this tax advantage, what is to stop them from taking even more Internet revenue? "It would be better if competition from VoIP was used as an occasion to rethink telecom taxation from the ground up," writes Pieler. FEDERAL THREATS: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is targeting VoIP for contributions to the "Universal Service Fund" (USF). There is no surprise here, however. The USF is not a legislated tax, and therefore with minimum scrutiny and oversight from the congressional budget and appropriations process, is wide open to increased funding through taxation. INTERNATIONAL THREATS: In November of last year, the UN failed in an attempt to create a globally-controlled Internet. If UN had succeeded, there would be strong pressure to make the currently operating Digital Solidarity Fund (DSF) -- a UN program designed to encourage companies to donate part of their profits to the fund for "public technology projects" -- required instead of optional. According to Pieler, "As in the United States itself, the universal assumption that the Internet should be minimally regulated, and not taxed per se, rapidly seems to be vanishing." THE SOLUTION: "Before the Internet Tax Moratorium expires in 2007, Congress and the executive branch should seriously review Internet taxation from the local, state, national and international perspective, and determine how best to sustain the largely tax-free Internet, that has done more good for the world than any bureaucracy ever could," concludes Pieler. The Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is an independent think tank with offices in Washington, DC and Dallas, TX. http://www.usnewswire.com/ Copyright 2006 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770 ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Monday 6th February 2006 Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 07:46:39 -0600 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[3G News]] Bulgarian Operator Orders 3G Billing Platform http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15949.php Bulgaria's GloBul has ordered a new platform from LHS to manage billing for its 3G services. GloBul has just recently been awarded a 3G license. LHS will implement the system at GloBul replacing an old legacy system. BSCS iX is a fully convergent end... EDGE Coverage Expanded in Bulgaria http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15950.php Bulgaria's M-Tel says that it has increased the coverage of its EDGE network to 9 new cities. Starting from the end of December 2005, customers living in Kardzhali, Samokov, the Borovetz resort, Sandanski, Dimitrovgrad, Dupnitsa, Bankia, Radomir and ... 3G Based Mobile TV to Dominate - But Not For Long http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15953.php Northern Sky Research (NSR) has released a report, which concludes that mobile TV will represent an increasingly compelling content offering to mobile subscribers and will enable new methods to deliver video programming and advertisements to consumer... T-Mobile Expanding German HSDPA Coverage http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15956.php T-Mobile Germany says that it plans to offer HSDPA coverage at the upcoming CeBIT 2006 consumer and trade fair in Hanover. T-Mobile will offer transmission rates of up to 1.8 Mbit/s and uplink speeds of 384 Kbit/s in large parts of the UMTS network. ... [[Financial News]] Telenor Blocks VimpelCom 2006 Budget For 2nd Time http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15934.php Russia's second-largest wireless operator VimpelCom said Friday its board had failed for the second time to approve the company's 2006 budget. ... FOCUS: Russian operators want to expand abroad, opportunities limited http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15936.php Russia's largest mobile operators have divided the saturated domestic market and are now looking for opportunities in neighboring countries but there are not many assets available for sale and they may be pricey. ... CenterTelecom sells stakes in two regional mobile cos http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15938.php CenterTelecom, a hub telecommunications operator in Russia's Central Federal District, has sold its 30% stake in Belgorod Mobile Communications and its 40% stake in Smolensk Mobile Communications, according to information released by CenterTelecom ... Telenor supports cooperation between VimpelCom, Kyivstar http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15939.php Norway's telecommunication operator Telenor supports establishing cooperation, such as a service provider agreement, between Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom and Ukrainian mobile operators, including Kyivstar, Telenor said in a pre... IDC: Mobile telephony to continue growing at 2 digits http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15944.php The mobile market in Latin America is expected to grow above 10% this year, although not as high as the 33% growth recorded in mobile handsets during 2005, Romina Aducci, Telecom Services Director for Latin America at tech consultancy IDC told BNamer... Virgin Mobile Australia Merging with SIMplus Mobile http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15948.php Australia's Optus is planning to merge its two wholly-owned subsidiaries, Virgin Mobile Australia (VMA) and SIMplus Mobile. Mr Matt Davey has been appointed Chief Executive of the combined operation. Mr Davey replaces Jonathan Marchbank who has decid... Mid-East Operator Seeks Route Into Europe http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15952.php Mohammed Hassan Omran, Chairman and CEO of Emirates Telecommunications Corporation - Etisalat, says that the company aims to be among the Top 10 telecommunications corporations in the world, having successfully grown from a local to international oper... [[Handsets News]] Brightstar 2005 revenues boosted by Motorola sales, Brazil launch http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15943.php Entry into the Brazilian market, a partnership with Motorola and renewed agreements in Latin America were behind the US$2.2bn record revenues regional wireless equipment distributor Brightstar posted for 2005, the company's global marketing and publi... [[Legal News]] Maxim Enters Settlement Pact With Qualcomm In Patent Suit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15931.php Maxim Integrated Products Inc. said Thursday that it entered into a settlement agreement with Qualcomm Inc. to resolve patent litigation. ... Telekom Malaysia Pays $232 Million To Deutsche Telekom Unit http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15942.php Government-controlled Telekom Malaysia said late Friday it has paid $232 million to DeTeAsia Holding, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, after it lost a dispute over a contract. ... [[Messaging News]] Telecom Rio de Janeiro selects First Hop to offer SMS platform http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15941.php Brazilian mobile services platform provider Telecom Rio de Janeiro has selected the Wireless Broker platform sold by Finland's First Hop to connect its value-added services to mobile phone operators across Brazil, the companies said in a joint stat... Mobile operators sign up for multimedia service http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15945.php El Salvador's four mobile operators have signed up to receive multimedia services from provider LPG Mvil, local daily La Prensa Grfica reported. ... [[MVNO News]] Spain Regulator To Force Mobile Operators To Allow MVNO http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15933.php Spanish telecommunications industry regulator CMT Friday said it will force the country's mobile operators to share their networks with mobile virtual network operators, or MVNO. ... [[Network Operators News]] Wireless Broadband for Kenya http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15951.php Japan's Kyocera has announced the commercial introduction of iBurst wireless broadband services in the Republic of Kenya. iBurst base stations and terminals designed and produced by Kyocera will be provided to Africa Online, the Kenyan Internet servi... Celtel Launches Technical Center in Kinshasa http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15955.php The pan-African operator, Celtel International recently launched a US$7 million Technical Center in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This new infrastructure will serve as a technical hub for not only the DRC but also other Celtel operations such as;... [[Offbeat News]] Greek Phone-tapping Didn't Endanger National Security http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15935.php ATHENS (AP)--Greece's governing conservatives said Friday the country's security wasn't at stake despite the discovery government mobile phones were tapped by unknown individuals during the Athens 2004 Olympics and for nearly a year. ... Snow Leads to Exceptional Increase in MMS Traffic http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15957.php Vodafone says that it experienced a significant increase in traffic as the result of the snowfalls that swept across Portugal on Sunday 29 January. On that day, the Vodafone network registered a traffic peak between 3 pm and 4 pm, with the number of ... [[Personnel News]] KPN's Head Of Mobile Operations Resigns http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15932.php Dutch Telecommunications operator Royal KPN Friday said Guy Demuynck, the chief executive of its mobile division, will leave as of July 1 to join another company. ... Thailand Information And Communications Tech Min Resigns - Government http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15946.php BANGKOK (AP) _ Thai Information and Communication Technology Minister Sora-at Klinpratoom resigned Saturday, a government spokesman said, without citing a reason. ... [[Reports News]] Nightmare Customer Service Slashes Profits - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15947.php A backlash at shoddy customer service and unrelenting sales pitches is hitting British business where it hurts most -- on the bottom line -- warns a new report from the National Consumer Council (NCC). The report reveals a sorry picture of businesses o... [[Statistics News]] Belarusian GSM operator BeST user base at 2,000 as of Feb 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15937.php The subscriber base of state-controlled Belarus Telecommunications Network, or BeST, which started commercial operations in the capital city of Minsk on December 21, 2005, amounted to 2,000 users as of February 1, the company said late on Thursday. ... Russia's MegaFon user base in Orenburg Region up to 300,000 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15940.php The subscriber base of Russia's third largest mobile operator MegaFon in the Orenburg Region rose to over 300,000 people as of December 31, 2005 from about 100,000 people as of January 1, 2005, MSS-Povolzhye, a MegaFon subsidiary operating in the r... Vodafone Gains 100,000 3G Customers in Romania http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15954.php Romania's Connex Vodafone says that it added 602,832 net subscribers in the quarter to December 31, 2005, giving it a total customer base of 6,131,839 which is 25% higher year on year. As of December 31, 2005, postpaid subscribers accounted for 36% o... ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 11:41:14 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - Monday, February 6, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 6, 2006 ******************************** Fitch: Reforms Threaten Financial Profiles http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16537?11228 Credit profiles of some wireless operators could be negatively affected by reforms to the Universal Service Fund (USF) - due to expire in June - according to Fitch Ratings. Fitch says the reforms could pose "a material event risk to some U.S. wireless operators and place negative pressures on future cash flows." Companies without enough... Turning a Campus into a Wireless Testbed http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16530?11228 Ubiquitous communications -- the ability to reach people anytime anywhere -- is getting a trial on the Newark, N.J., campus of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). In fact, the campus is about to be turned into a virtual laboratory for investigating innovative ways students can connect with each other using cell phones and... Survey: Wireline Erosion Will Accelerate; 20% of Households Plan to Cancel or Not Use Wireline Services http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16528?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- According to the In-Stat US Consumer Telecom Survey, nearly 20% of respondents that use wireless voice service plan to drop landline phone service, reports In-Stat. Furthermore, as an indication of future wireline erosion, wireless usage continues to increase in proportion to wireline usage, particularly among... German T-Mobile Makes Data Faster, Cheaper http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16523?11228 Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Mobile, in a major mobile-data- services push in Germany, has unveiled a flat-rate wireless-data pricing scheme and a new High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) service with bandwidth as much as 1.8 Mb/s. The carrier says a handful of its business customers, including Deutsche Bahn AG, has been testing... Google, Skype Back WiFi Startup http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16520?11228 Google and eBay Inc. division Skype have invested in the Spanish start-up company FON , whose software turns home wireless routers into WiFi hotspots for broadband sharing among a worldwide community of "foneros." Google and Skype joined VCs Index Ventures and Sequoia... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:03:32 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Google, Skype Want to Help People Fon Home USTelecom dailyLead February 6, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cVjUfDtutaoxvxkBai TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Google, Skype want to help people Fon home BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Alltel asks RIM to settle beef with NTP * KDDI to buy stake in cable operator * Satcasters may join forces for Internet services USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * What's NEXT for Disney? Find out at TelecomNEXT TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * IBM chip links home entertainment platforms * More gaming consoles include Internet functions * Bravo to start gay/lesbian broadband channel REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Telecoms cooperated with NSA wiretapping plan * Bush nominates McDowell for FCC post Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cVjUfDtutaoxvxkBai ------------------------------ From: caveman Subject: Re: Interconnecting Alcatel OmniPCX Date: 6 Feb 2006 01:33:12 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Can we use Alcatels ABC between enterprise and office ? ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway Date: 6 Feb 2006 07:13:06 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Ellen Wulfhorst wrote: > In seeking public comment last year, the Federal Communications > Commission, which deals with if it's technically feasible to operate > phones on planes, heard from thousands of people, many of whom focused > on passenger "air rage." On commuter trains, the cell phone usage is very annoying. People talk loudly. Do cellphones have enough sidetone or too much anti-sidetone circuitry? At my local convenience store a customer was loudly yaking away on her cell phone, including liberal use of profanities, and created a disturbance. She utterly ignored requests to go outside; as if her phone conversation was more important than anyone else. A lot of cell phone talkers have that nasty attitude. Talking while driving is very distracting. Regularly motorists yaking pull up to the wrong lane and then block traffic trying to switch over. They still don't hang up even then. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Tapping Into AT&T Date: 6 Feb 2006 07:40:05 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mike Riddle wrote: > AT&T, which isn't commenting on the suit, may have felt it had no > choice but to comply with the NSA's requests. Federal law requires > telephone companies to cooperate with law enforcement demands if they > are supported by a court order or, in emergencies, certification from > the U.S. attorney general that no court order is necessary. The > surveillance program was almost certainly backed by just such a > certification, and that could stop the lawsuit in its tracks. The above is a very important point. If true, it means that EFF wasted the time and money of AT&T and hurt its own credibility. > Ideally, the lawsuit will stop AT&T from cooperating in the NSA > program, or at least prod it to put up more resistance. I object to that approach. If the government is doing something wrong, focus on the government; don't harass a private organization that may not have a choice in the matter. On principle, I object to lawsuits such as this because they are a backhanded way of creating social policy outside of the normal democratic means. Right now Congress is taking a hard look at this particular situation (this morning's paper had a front page headline on it), which is how it is supposed to work. > More practically, the lawsuit may also reveal how the spying program > works and what types of information it collects. But the > administration views such details as sensitive national security > secrets, and it is likely the government will try to have the lawsuit > thrown out before any such disclosures are made. Spying on enemy communications is a critical method of defense and must be kept secret, lest the enemy learn and change its codes. > In the mid-1970s, the late Sen. Frank Church, an Idaho Democrat, led a > Senate investigation into domestic spying and other abuses of power by > the NSA and federal agencies. As a result of those hearings laws were passed limiting the FBI and CIA and information sharing. IMHO, these restrictions may have contributed to 9/11; perhaps there would've been better tracking of potential terrorists within the U.S. I also believe some of the domestic spying work of the 1960s and 1970s was justified because of efforts by some groups to disrupt and attack domestic targets in those years. ------------------------------ From: dwolffxx@panix.com (David Wolff) Subject: Re: Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 16:45:38 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > By SAUL HANSELL > Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a > postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be > delivered to many of their customers. > America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of > e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives > preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 > of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must > promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their > messages, or risk being blocked entirely. So ... spammers sign up for this under a throwaway business/domain, send spam to AOL'ers knowing that the spam will be delivered without any filtering whatsoever, and then disappear. I understand this cuts down the spammers, since they actually have to pay a little, but the advantage of entirely bypassing filters would be huge for many spammers. Am I confused? Thanks -- David (Remove "xx" to reply.) ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #55 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Feb 6 23:48:11 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 8E4801507A; Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:48:10 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #56 Message-Id: <20060207044810.8E4801507A@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:48:10 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.8 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 6 Feb 2006 23:50:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 56 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson BMW Cut From Google Search For Cheating (Nancy Gohring) Toys Go on Parade at New York's Annual Fair (Nichole Maestri) Straight Talk on Mac and Security Risks (Rebecca Freed) AOL Starts Charging for Email from Large Senders (Jon Swartz) Drivers Who Misuse Cell Phones Have Rest of us in a Dither (Gary Richards) Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway (Steven Lichter) 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: Nancy Gohring Subject: BMW Cut From Google Search For Cheating Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:46:33 -0600 BMW Cut From Google Results for Cheating Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service In a move that analysts say indicates a problem that still needs a solution, Google has removed BMW's German Web site from its index for violating Google's guidelines against trying to manipulate search results. The move was first reported by Google employee Matt Cutts in a posting to his blog on Saturday. He said BMW.de had been removed last week because certain pages on the site would show up one way when the search engine visited the page but when a Web user opened the page, a redirect mechanism would display a completely different page. Google noted that "you cannot show us one page, then show other users different pages." Cutts wrote that the practice violates Google's guidelines, particularly the principle that states: "Don't deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users." Google's guidelines also specifically include an item that recommends that Web site creators don't employ cloaking or sneaky redirects. Cutts' blog posting also said that Ricoh.de would be removed from Google's index soon for similar reasons. In mid-January, Cutts wrote in his blog that he was offering a courtesy notice to designers of non-English language sites that starting in 2006 Google would be paying closer attention to tricks that go against Google's guidelines. A Google spokesperson confirmed via e-mail that the BMW.de site has been removed but would not comment further on the specific case, adding that Google cannot tolerate sites that try to manipulate search results. Cutts wrote that he expects that Google's Web spam team will require a re-inclusion request including details on who created the misleading pages before BMW.de is included in the database again. He said that some of the offending pages had already been removed. Setting an Example Removing BMW.de from the Google database sets a high-profile example because BMW's Web site practices have been discussed online for years, said Hellen Omwando, a principal analyst at Forrester Research. Still, Google's actions don't tackle the source of a problem, she said. "Google needs to focus on enhancing its algorithms to deal with this kind of situation because right now BMW isn't the only company that does this," she said. In addition to better technology, Google should add some human editors to help prevent manipulation, she said. Companies commonly employ a range of techniques to try to ensure that their sites rank first when users search for them. Part of the problem that Google faces, however, is that there's a fine line between site optimization and tricky practices that manipulate results, Omwando said. While the BMW.de situation points to the control Google has on the type of information that users can access on the Web, Omwando said that if Google takes that too far it will only hurt itself. "Google is saying, 'we're the gatekeepers, if you will, of the information on the Web and if you'd like to be a part of that database you need to step in line,'" she said. However, if Google prevents users from accessing information they seek, they'll look elsewhere for that information, she notes. Google's response was "certainly that is true, but what you show us, has to what you show everyone. Put up whatever kind of web page you like, but do not be deceptive about it. So people will look elsewhere for information if we do not go along and give folks the same deceptive information other search engines give them?" Currently, a Google search for "BMW Germany" turns up BMW's international Web page first and a link to a story about BMW.de being removed from Google's index second. A Yahoo search turns up BMW.com first and BMW.de second. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more technical reports please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/technews.html ------------------------------ From: Nicole Maestri Subject: Toys Go on Parade at New York's Annual Fair Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:42:16 -0600 By Nicole Maestri While many people still haven't paid their 2005 bills yet, it'll look very much like Christmas 2006 this weekend in New York as hordes of brand new dolls, action figures, toy cars and stuffed animals are set to make their debut at the annual American International Toy Fair. The fair, which takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and various showrooms in New York's Toy District, attracts toy makers and inventors from around the world who are looking to wow retail buyers and the media with their latest products. According to the Toy Industry Association, the trade group that organizes the fair, 14,000 buyers from more than 6,500 retail outlets are slated to attend, including buyers from toy stores, department stores, home furnishings retailers, consumer electronics stores, grocery stores and convenience stores. But the amount of business that gets done at the February show has changed in the past few years. With the U.S. toy industry now dominated on the retail front by national chains like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp., buyers for many of the large stores are finalizing their orders for the upcoming year in October, at the American International Fall Toy Show, instead of waiting until February. The autumn show, also held in New York, is largely closed to the press and buyers often make their decisions based on toy prototypes. "The February show has really transformed over the last three years," said Jim Silver, editor-in-chief of Toy Wishes magazine, adding that the October show is where most of the buying gets done. But there is still plenty of work to be done at the upcoming February show, as toy makers meet with small or independent retailers, inventors show off their latest creations and the shroud of secrecy surrounding the 2006 crop of products is lifted. For instance, Mattel Inc. is set to reveal its makeover of the Ken doll as it works to boost sales of its iconic Barbie doll. MGA Entertainment, which makes rival Bratz fashion dolls, will also unveil its 2006 line. Toy makers often keep their plans secret as long as possible to deter copycats from beating them to market. "This is the first time that we can really talk about what we're going to do," said Julia Fitzgerald, vice president of marketing for VTech Electronics North America. VTech will be showcasing its new V.Smile Baby Development System and V.Flash Home "Edutainment" System, which build on the company's V.Smile educational video game system that teaches children math, phonics, problem solving and comprehension. The V.Smile Baby is aimed at infants aged 9 months to 36 months, while the V.Flash is a new video game console for kids between 6 and 10. VTech is hoping the V.Flash, with its line of nonviolent, educational video games, will resonate with parents who want to control which video games their children play and do not yet want to buy an Xbox or a PlayStation. VTech's products illustrate the convergence of electronics and toys as toy makers fight to regain sales they have lost to flashy consumer electronics. "Toy makers are trying to figure out: How do we get back the kids that we've lost?" Fitzgerald said. Highlighting the increasing importance of electronics in the toy industry, the Toy Industry Association is planning a new section at the fair this year that will be called "e@play." It will feature educational toys, handheld games, educational software, DVDs, video games and accessories. The TIA said it created the section after 49 percent of Toy Fair buyers said they were looking to purchase electronic, "edutainment" and educational products at the show. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news reports from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Rebecca Freed Subject: Straight Talk on Mac and Security Risks Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:48:09 -0600 The Mac Skeptic: Straight Talk on Mac Security Risks Rebecca Freed, special to PC World Are Macs impervious to malicious software? No. Have Macs been the subject of catastrophic attacks? No again. Should Mac users be vigilant anyway? Of course. It's time for me to fess up: I've been as complacent as most Mac users when it comes to taking precautions to safeguard my data and the integrity of my system. Although my Windows PC is swaddled in antivirus, anti-spyware, and firewall software, my Mac has been fairly undefended, up to now. I just haven't felt much urgency to put up barriers against threats that don't seem to exist. But at Macworld Expo last month, I stopped by the booths of several security software vendors and began to wonder if they are pushing products people don't need, or if they know something I don't. After all, Mac users are just as vulnerable as anyone to the social engineering used by many computer exploits to install themselves. (While Mac fanatics will insist that they're more sophisticated than the Wintel rabble, there are plenty of innocents in Apple-land as well.) Justifiable Confidence? The complacency about Mac security has some basis in fact: OS X comes with many of the ports that could allow snooping closed; you have to change a System Preference to activate file sharing, personal Web hosting, or even printer sharing. If you don't use these features, you're protected by default. If you want to give other users access to some areas of your system, you should turn on the firewall that's built into OS X. OS X's built-in firewall lets you specify which types of connections you will allow.The firewall is in the same System Preference window as the sharing services, and it lets you close all ports except those for services you want to allow. The firewall has some advanced features, including activity logging and a stealth mode. If enabled, the stealth mode makes your Mac invisible to incoming data inquiries, which is essentially the same thing that hardware firewalls do. If your home network includes a router with a built-in firewall, it probably gives you the same kind of protection. Turning on OS X's firewall is a no-brainer, but finding it isn't. I looked for this control under the Security heading--but instead you need to double-click the System Preferences icon in the Dock, then double-click the Sharing icon in the Internet & Network section. The Security preference in the Personal section deals with managing passwords for account access and FileVault, OS X's built-in encryption capability. I think FileVault is a great idea, but it's something of a blunt instrument. I would like the ability to encrypt just some folders, not all of my hard drive. And as someone who regularly forgets passwords, I'm scared of the possibility that I could irretrievably lock up the contents of my hard drive. Another reason that Mac users tend not to worry about exploits is that Apple tends to patch discovered vulnerabilities quickly. In 2005 Apple issued nine security updates as well as product updates incorporating security patches. These patches addressed exploits that were theoretical; as with most Windows vulnerabilities, no one had used the security holes to create a worm or virus and release it into the wild. For example, last May an independent developer revealed a proof-of-concept exploit in a Dashboard widget, but no malicious activities were reported as a result of the security hole. Within days, Apple had released a security update that fixed the problem: You are now warned with a dialog box when you download and open a widget, and you can remove them, unlike in the first iteration of Dashboard. Like using the built-in firewall, taking advantage of OS X's Software Update is also a no-brainer. To set up automatic updates, open System Preferences, click on Software Update in the System section, and choose an interval at which to check for updates. Safety Software All the precautions I've just discussed are nonintrusive and no-cost, since they are included in the operating system. But are they enough? Just because almost no Mac vulnerabilities have turned into full-blown exploits in recent years, does that mean it won't happen? It would be foolish to think so, and OS X's defenses aren't foolproof. I tried downloading the malicious widget mentioned above, and found that the system's warning said only "do you want to install the program 'zaptastic'"? That doesn't tell me anything about the program or warn me that it's potentially harmful. Only by comparing the name of the applet to a database of known viruses or spyware would I learn that I shouldn't install it. I checked out a spyware scanner from Securemac.com called MacScan 2.0, after speaking with the vendor at Macworld Expo and secretly thinking "Yeah, right. Mac spyware. Show me, dude." What the vendor showed me was a list of programs that its system had been intentionally infected with. So back at home, I downloaded a trial version of the $25 program and scanned my system. Predictably, MacScan found no malicious apps. I checked out the company's list of known spyware, and it consists mostly of keyloggers -- programs that can be surreptitiously installed on a computer to record a user's activities -- although MacScan does identify some Trojan horses and remote dialers as well. Since I don't share my Mac with anybody, and there's no one in my home office who'd want to spy on me, I don't need to worry much about keyloggers. And I wasn't completely satisfied with the amount of information provided by MacScan: There are generic descriptions of the various general categories of malicious software, but no information about the specific programs, such as how prevalent they are or how much damage they are capable of. Spyware scanners for Windows often give you this kind of information. Antivirus Scanner ClamXav lets you schedule virus scans and choose folders to watch for infected files.I also tried a free, open-source antivirus scanner for OS X, called ClamXav. I found it to be reasonably full-featured, allowing me to schedule scans and specify folders to watch. It was easy to install and run, and scanned everything on my system, including my e-mail files. When I ran it, ClamXav found a potentially harmful attachment. Scanning e-mail is important because Mac users could unwittingly forward an infected message attachment received from a Windows user. In fact, catching and containing crud received from Windows users is currently the best reason to use a virus scanner on the Mac. I haven't used ClamXav for long, but I'm keeping it on my Mac. I'd recommend giving it a try. A Firewall That Tells Too Much Little Snitch alerts you if programs on your Mac try to phone home. And then there's Little Snitch, a complement to the OS X firewall that monitors which programs on your system are calling out to the Internet, and through which ports. This $25 shareware has a trial that lasts for only 3 hours, but that's probably long enough to alert you to any suspicious programs -- or drive you crazy, whichever comes first. When I tried Little Snitch, it repeatedly popped up warnings for innocent connections (such as my e-mail program sending a message) even if I checked the "allow forever" option. And Little Snitch requires a rather high degree of computer know-how: It doesn't give you any hints as to which programs are legitimate and whether they should or shouldn't be using a particular port. I got numerous warnings related to my system connecting to my iDisk remote storage -- but they weren't easily recognizable and could have been very worrying. ZoneAlarm for Windows does a much better job of interpreting connections and allowing you to turn off particular alerts. Little Snitch is getting kicked off my system. Other Options There are a handful of commercial antivirus programs and security suites for the Mac as well, including McAfee's Virex, Symantec's Norton Antivirus and Personal Firewall, and Intego's collection of security products for the Mac, including ChatBarrier (an iChat encryption product), NetBarrier, and Virus Barrier. Last winter, sibling publication Macworld compared Mac security products, and the reviewer liked Intego's $70 VirusBarrier best among the antivirus products reviewed. And in a Macworld roundup of third-party software firewalls, the reviewer found that these products didn't add significant improvements over the built-in OS X firewall. After mulling all of this over, I think I've reformed a bit. I now have a few more defenses in place and a healthy caution about downloading and installing unknown files -- but I'm not paranoid. I'll fork over a donation to the developer of ClamXav, to make sure he keeps updating the product, and I'll keep an eye on information sources like Mac Security News and MacInTouch. Mostly, I figure that I'll take the same reasonable, sensible security precautions that I take with my Windows PC to keep out most of the crud -- and I won't be surprised when the Mac crud inevitably surfaces. Comments or questions? Drop a line to Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ From: Jon Swartz Subject: AOL Starts Charging for Email from Large Senders Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 13:52:16 -0600 AOL to charge fee as way to cut spam By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY SAN FRANCISCO - America Online will begin charging businesses to send commercial e-mail to its users in the first wide-scale use of authenticated e-mail to reduce spam. But some marketers affected by the plan, set to start in several weeks, call it e-mail taxation designed to create a new stream of revenue for AOL. The certified e-mail system would require advertisers to pay $2 to $3 per 1,000 messages. The plan is optional, though AOL and its tech partner, Goodmail Systems, cannot guarantee that all non-certified e-mail with Web links and images will be delivered. "This is all about protecting consumers from spam, phishing, viruses and fraud," says Richard Gingras, CEO of Goodmail. If successful, the plan could entice other Internet service providers to follow. Yahoo plans to test Goodmail's system to certify e-mail for transactions such as financial statements and shipping confirmations. Certified e-mail has become a hot topic in e-mail circles because many ISPs -- out of security concerns -- block messages with images and Web links. The AOL system would ensure such messages pass its stringent e-mail defenses and reach its 25.5 million subscribers worldwide. Gingras compares the system to certified postal mail. "This will be painful for marketers in the beginning, but it is a positive step in forcing them to be more selective in who they e-mail," says Jupiter Research's David Daniels. "Many now just blast e-mail rather than target an audience." Anyone can apply for the program. Goodmail determines if applicants are legitimate companies with pristine e-mail standards. AOL has final approval. E-mail of approved companies will come with digital tokens recognized by AOL security defenses. AOL subscribers will still be able to block mail from certified senders by adjusting anti-spam tools on their accounts, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham says. AOL says The New York Times and American Red Cross have signed up for the service. Spending on e-mail marketing is expected to jump 24%, to $1.1 billion, by 2010 from $885 million in 2005, Jupiter Research estimates. Still, the revamped commercial e-mail system could have unintended consequences for some marketers and consumers. "It's taxation of the good guys with cash, and it does nothing to help the good guys who can't afford the cost or to deter the bad guys who spam anyway," says Matt Blumberg, CEO of Return Path, an e-mail services company. "Baloney," says AOL's Graham, scoffing at suggestions the e-mail system amounts to taxation. "That's competitive chatter and sour grapes." Consumers, meanwhile, may discover that some commercial e-mail they previously received, and wanted, no longer arrives if advertisers opt not to pay AOL, some e-mail marketers warn. E-mail users would need to retrieve them from a spam folder. "This takes a system that works and shoves a stick in the flywheel of communication," says Jordan Ayan, CEO of SubscriberMail, an e-mail service provider for high-tech, media and sports companies. Find this article at: http://yahoo.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-02-05-aol-yahoo-email_x.htm?csp=1 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For more news and headlines from USA Today please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Gary Richards Subject: Drivers Who Misuse Cell Phones Have Many Readers in a Dither Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:07:16 -0600 Drivers who misuse cell phones have many readers in a dither By Gary Richards Mercury News Staff Columnist Q I think we need a day dedicated to cell phone blunders. Maybe it will become an educational issue. Dennis McKenna San Jose A Oh, yeah. Here we go, with truly amazing stories. Q My candidate was the guy in a BMW in a left-turn lane on Almaden Expressway. While talking on his phone he pulls a U-turn, against the red light, under the sign saying no U-turn, in front of oncoming traffic at 45-plus mph. Dennis McKenna A We can do better than that . . . Q I'm a light-rail driver and missed a man by 18 inches coming into the Campbell station. He was on a cell phone, walking around the crossing arms which were down with lights flashing. I sounded the horn, he turned and put up his hand as if he was going to stop a 50-ton light-rail train doing 45 mph. The bad news: This is not an isolated incident. Gary Campbell San Jose A Truly, amazing. Q I was on Brokaw Road when suddenly I had to brake because there was a car stopped in front of me with its hazard lights on. I was cringing because I thought I might get rear-ended. Cars behind me stopped suddenly or swerved into the next lane. Next thing I know, the lady with her hazards on hangs up her cell phone and proceeds to drive to the left-turn lane. Patrick Ichikawa San Jose A She was truly a hazard. Q I know you probably get 1,000 e-mails about this a day, but I had to share this. I was crossing The Alameda at Newhall on foot when a driver on his cell phone came within a foot of hitting me as he made a left. Seconds later, a woman made a right turn and actually hit me (I wasn't hurt). She was on her phone as well. Can you please, please, please tell people not to talk on their cells while driving? Especially in residential areas. Kevin Cooper San Jose A Through you, I am trying. Q My favorite: the person who would alternate between driving 60 mph and 75 mph in the fast lane on Interstate 280, depending on whether she was speaking or listening. Ken Yee Sunnyvale A Roll on. Q Driving on Highway 101 south of Tully Road, the freeway was gridlocked. Some guy riding a motorcycle was splitting lanes and making cell phone calls. He would take his right hand off the throttle, weave back and forth as he dialed his phone. He then tucked the phone into his helmet, grabbed the throttle and took off. I saw him do this twice in about 300 yards. At least he was wearing a helmet -- although I am not sure there was much to protect. George Leavell Gilroy A Now, smile for you may be on ``Candid Camera.'' And . . . Q I was on Highway 17 when there was a car speeding along in the left lane that kept shoving back into the right lane. Wait, what's that on his head? Why, it's one of those newfangled video cell phones. But it's not glued to his ear. He's got it braced against his head with his hand as he's shooting clips of the Valley Surprise and gabbing at the same time. All the while wobbling all over the road. Lynne Jolitz Los Gatos A Wobble fits. Q Yikes! While driving on Highway 87 in the construction zone, a woman driving behind me was talking on her cell that she held in her left hand, smoking a cigarette she was holding in her right hand and flicking ashes out the window. My guess she was steering with her knee. Rita Capps San Jose A And . . . Q I don't think we need a law against driving while talking on a phone. But we need something like the 1-800-EXHAUST line, to report people driving badly. Maybe 1-800-YAKKING? Scott Schroeder Palo Alto A The signal would be constantly busy. Have a gripe, minor annoyance or major problem with transportation? Contact Gary Richards at mrroadshow@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5335. The fax number is (408) 288-8060. Please leave a daytime phone number. Copyright 2006 San Jose MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. http://www.mercurynews.com ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2006 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 02:57:09 GMT Lisa Hancock wrote: > Ellen Wulfhorst wrote: >> In seeking public comment last year, the Federal Communications >> Commission, which deals with if it's technically feasible to operate >> phones on planes, heard from thousands of people, many of whom focused >> on passenger "air rage." > On commuter trains, the cell phone usage is very annoying. People > talk loudly. Do cellphones have enough sidetone or too much > anti-sidetone circuitry? > At my local convenience store a customer was loudly yaking away on her > cell phone, including liberal use of profanities, and created a > disturbance. She utterly ignored requests to go outside; as if her > phone conversation was more important than anyone else. A lot of cell > phone talkers have that nasty attitude. > Talking while driving is very distracting. Regularly motorists yaking > pull up to the wrong lane and then block traffic trying to switch > over. They still don't hang up even then. Last year in Riverside, Ca. a person talking on a cell phone on the Freeway rearended a car with a family, killing several of them, he was charged and convicted of Murder, not Manslaughter as has been in the past. More of these trials are needed until the people in charge pass laws and then enforce them. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 V25 #56 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Feb 7 16:18:05 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id E22B215059; Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:18:04 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #57 Message-Id: <20060207211804.E22B215059@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:18:04 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.1 required=2.0 tests=ACCEPT_CREDIT_CARDS, ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00,MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:20:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 57 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Starts Instant Messenger (Eric Auchard) EU Domain Names Open for Business (Agence France Presse News Wire) Boston Globe Credit Card Phishing Scheme (Monty Solomon) Cellphone Law Seems to Silence its Critics (Monty Solomon) Confidential Patient Data Sent to Wrong Company -- For 15 Months (Solomon) Honeywell Blames Employee in Data Leak (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News for Tuesday 7th February 2006 (cellular-news) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 7, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Report Touts IPTV's Promise, Warns of Obstacles (USTelecom dailyLead) Great Job Board (ema32@msn.com) Re: AOL Starts Charging for Email from Large Senders (Matt Simpson) Yahoo Starts Using Fee-Based Email Also (Reuters News Wire) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com) Telecom Humor (Kenneth P. Stox) 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: Eric Auchard Subject: Google Puts Instant Messenger Service Inside Email Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:29:31 -0600 By Eric Auchard Google Inc. users will be able to conduct instant message chats from a Google Web browser window, alongside their e-mails, instead of requiring a separate application, the company said late Monday. Google, known for its simple and powerful Web searching, hopes that by embedding new instant messaging software it calls "Gmail Chat" into its existing e-mail service, it can differentiate itself in a crowded market it was late to join. The company is struggling to stand out in an entrenched field. Instant messaging was pioneered by America Online more than a decade ago. AOL, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. now have tens of millions of users each. Google shares fell 4.2 percent to $369 on Nasdaq. Google is fixing a decade-old technical divide between the generic Web browser that can check e-mail, search the Web or perform a host of other activities, and separate software used to converse in quick back-and-forth messages with buddies. "We are breaking down some of the artificial barriers between e-mail and Web browsing," Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president of product management, said in a phone interview. "We observed by talking with our users that there is no reason to think of IM as different from an e-mail message." Gmail Chat complements Google Talk, a more sophisticated program the company introduced six months ago that combines instant messaging (IM) with free Web-based calling features. By joining IM to e-mail, Chat can reach a wider base of users. "This is training wheels for Google Talk," said Greg Sterling, an analyst with Kelsey Group. "It is a way to introduce a broader population to instant messaging and give them exposure to Google Talk." Gmail Chat requires no special software download. It is available to any registered user of Gmail e-mail. Existing contacts within the more advanced Google Talk program automatically show up in Google Chat, the company said. Gmail Chat features include a Quick Contacts list on the left side of a Google e-mail page that automatically displays the people the user communicates with most frequently, not just via Chat but also via Gmail e-mail or Google Talk services. Gmail users will start receiving offers to join the Gmail Chat service over the coming weeks, although some members received invitations as early as Tuesday. In effect, Mountain View, California-based Google is easing the frustrations of millions of instant messaging users of having to install special software on each computer to hold instant chats. While this presents little difficulty for computers users sitting at a PC they control, many office workers are restricted from downloading the special IM software required for their work machines. Casual Web users checking their e-mail on friends computers or Internet cafes hit similar roadblocks. But the innovation is one of degree. Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo all allow users to send instant messages from within a Web browser, although none of them puts special emphasis on the feature. Last September, Meebo, a Silicon Valley-based start-up began publicly testing a simple-to-use service that allows someone to sign into the four major instant messaging programs at once -- AOL, Yahoo, MSN and Google -- from a single Web page, without any sign-up process or downloading any special software. The trial software is available at http://www.meebo.com/. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Agence France Presse Newswire Subject: EU Internet Domain Names Open for Business Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:33:41 -0600 Hundreds of thousands of businesses raced to snap up ".eu" internet domain names, with "sex.eu" taking the prize for the most sought-after address on the first day companies could apply. Two months after the .eu domain name was launched for public institutions and trademark holders, the tag was opened up to companies other than those seeking a site for a brand, as well as for art works and literature. Within the first hour, sex.eu domain had received 23 applications, followed by schumacher.eu with 15, realestate.eu with 12 and business.eu also with 12 applications, said the European Registry of Internet Domain Names (Eurid). Eurid, the non-profit organisation appointed by the European Commission to manage requests, reported fierce demand for the ".eu" domain names. In the first 15 minutes, it received 27,949 applications and after one hour the number had risen to 71,235. The ".eu" domain name is not supposed to replace national endings such as ".fr" and ".de" but rather offer the possibility of a pan-European identity in cyberspace. Germany -- which already has 9.5 million ".de" names -- led the way and was by mid afternoon making up 30.5 percent of the total applications received to date followed by the Netherlands with 16 percent and France with 10.6 percent. A Eurid spokesman said that technically anyone who could claim a prior right to a domain name could apply although in reality that mostly meant that companies were applying. Individuals will have to wait until the second quarter of 2006 before trying to get access to their own veritable European piece of the Internet. Eurid chose to introduce the ".eu" in phases in hope of being able to discourage cybersquatting, when firms or individuals lay claim to a domain name likely to be sought by a somebody with a similar name. During the first phase reserved for institutions and trademark holders, ".eu" has proved hugely popular. About 180,000 requests made for 131,000 domain names during that period and about half of that was made on the very first day. The European Commission, which has been pushing the idea, hopes that ".eu" domain names will soon rival the ".com" that currently dominates the web and currently counts about 40 million variations. About a million ".eu" domain names are expected to be up and working by the end of the year. Just because a company applies Tuesday does not mean that it will get the name because the application process works on the basis of first-come, first-served. If two or more companies apply for the same domain name, then the runners up can appeal, by rapidly offering evidence to back their claim and prove that it is more justified than the others. Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html *** 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, Agence France Presse. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 08:47:06 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Boston Globe Credit Card Phishing Scheme https://bostonglobe.com/subscriber/custsrvc/phishing.asp It has come to our attention that consumers are receiving telephone calls from companies offering to assist them prevent credit card fraud. These companies, including one calling itself the "National Verification Office", are asking consumers to provide the credit card or bank card information the consumer used to pay his or her Boston Globe or the Worcester Telegram & Gazette subscription. These companies are NOT AFFILIATED with the Boston Globe or the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. DO NOT RESPOND to these requests for private financial information from anyone on the telephone regardless of the company name given to you. These requests are not coming from a legitimate business or government office. Neither the Boston Globe nor the Worcester Telegram & Gazette are asking their customers to provide them with confidential credit card or bank account information. An investigator with a law enforcement office is not asking -- and would not ask -- consumers to provide credit card or bank account information by telephone. Consumers should not give personal financial information to someone claiming to be from a legitimate business, financial institution, or government agency who contacts you by phone or email. You should only give private financial information to businesses or government agencies when you have initiated the telephone call or other transaction. To learn more about what you can do to protect yourself, click on the link: http://www.ago.state.ma.us/sp.cfm?pageid=986&id=1602 or please contact the following agencies: The Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General http://www.ago.state.ma.us - Consumer Protection One Ashburton Place, Boston, MA 02108 617-727-2200 Consumer Hotline 617-727-8400 Federal Trade Commission for the Consumer http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/ 1-877-438-4338 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 09:29:05 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cellphone Law Seems to Silence Its Critics By Associated Press BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- Think you won't get caught driving around with your hand-held cellphone? Think again. In the first three months of the new Connecticut law that targets motorists who do not use hands-free sets, police around the state have written more than 2,400 tickets. The hot spot has been Bridgeport. Police there have handed out 289 citations, the most in the state. http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/02/06/cellphone_law_seems_to_silence_its_critics/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 11:59:23 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Confidential Patient Data Sent to Wrong Company -- For 15 Months Doctors and clinics in the U.S. have been faxing information to an herbal remedy distributor News Story by Jaikumar Vijayan FEBRUARY 06, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - A small Lockport, Manitoba-based distributor of herbal remedies has for the past 15 months been mistakenly receiving faxes containing confidential information belonging to hundreds of patients with Prudential Financial Inc.'s insurance group. The data exposed in the breach -- and faxed to the company by doctors and clinics across the U.S. -- included the patients' Social Security numbers, bank details and health care information. So far, at least, efforts to deal with the issue appear to have failed, said Jody Baxmeyer, vice president of marketing at North Regent RX, the company that's been receiving the faxes. The situation has been caused by North Regent's toll-free fax number, which is nearly identical to one used by Prudential to receive medical claims-related information from doctors, Baxmeyer said. In fact, the two numbers differ by only one digit, Baxmeyer said. As a result, North Regent's Lockport office has mistakenly received thousands of documents sent to the wrong fax number that involve more than 1,000 claims. The documents contain detailed patient medical histories, Social Security numbers and bank information meant for Prudential's insurance division. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,108429,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:13:55 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Honeywell Blames Ex-Employee in Data Leak Payroll, other information on 19,000 workers was published on Web, company says News Story by Robert McMillan FEBRUARY 06, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Honeywell International Inc. says a former employee has disclosed sensitive information relating to 19,000 of the company's U.S. employees. Honeywell discovered the information being published on the Web on Jan. 20 and immediately had the Web site in question pulled down, said company spokesman Robert Ferris. In court filings dated Jan. 30, the company accused former employee Howard Nugent of Arizona of accessing the information on a Honeywell computer and then causing "the transmission of that information." Nugent has since been ordered not to disclose any information about Honeywell, including "information about Honeywell's employees (payroll data, Social Security numbers, personal information, etc.)," according to a Jan. 31 order signed by Judge Neil Wake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,108434,00.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Tuesday 7th February 2006 Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 07:51:18 -0600 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Italy's Consob Approves 3 Italia IPO Prospectus http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15958.php Italy's market watchdog Consob late Friday approved Italian third-generation mobile operator 3 Italia's initial public offer prospectus. ... Shrinking 3G Tower Amplifiers http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15973.php Andrew Corp. has introduced what it says is the industry's most compact tower mounted amplifier (TMA) that will provide operators with an ideal option for coverage and capacity enhancement for 3G networks.... 3G Licenses Awarded in Lithuania http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15977.php The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority in Lithuania has awarded three 3G licenses. The winners are TeliaSonera's subsidiary Omnitel, Bite and Tele2. Omnitel says that it plans to launch the 3G services and to disclose country-wide roll-out plans... [[ Financial ]] Sony Ericsson Delays Availability Of P990 Handset http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15961.php Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said Monday it has delayed the market introduction of its flagship P990 model, as setting up partnerships with external parties and ramping up production is proving more complex than anticipated. ... Telekom Malaysia In Talks For India Spice Stake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15961.php Telekom Malaysia Monday said it is in talks to buy a stake in India's Spice Telecom. ... Sprint Nextel Gets Antitrust OK To Buy Nextel Partners http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15965.php Sprint Nextel received antitrust clearance from the Federal Trade Commission to buy out affiliate Nextel Partners. ... PRESS: Telenor to mull VimpelCom stake rise after URS conflict over http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15966.php Norway's telecommunication operator Telenor plans to consider the option of increasing its stake in Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom only after the conflict over VimpelCom's purchase of Ukrainian Radiosystems (URS) is resolved, Jan... Sweden's Tele2 ups stake in Russia's Lipetsk Mobile to 100% http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15971.php Swedish telecommunications company Tele2 AB has increased its stake in Russia's Lipetsk Mobile to 100% by purchasing 5.9% in the company from CenterTelecom, according to a statement by CenterTelecom released on Monday. ... Jordan Telecom Revamps Operational Structure http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15974.php Jordan Telecom, the Jordanian communications company, has announced the integration of the operations of Jordan Telecom, MobileCom, Wanadoo and e-Dimension into a single organization with a single management structure: Jordan Telecom Group. The new, ... MTC Completes Sudan Purchase http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15975.php Kuwait's MTC says that it has successfully concluded the acquisition of 61% of Mobitel from Sudatel in a deal valued at US$1.332 billion. Mobitel customers will benefit from further investments in network capacity and coverage. MTC plans to invest ap... [[ Handsets ]] Sony Ericsson Delays Availability Of P990 Handset http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15961.php Mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson said Monday it has delayed the market introduction of its flagship P990 model, as setting up partnerships with external parties and ramping up production is proving more complex than anticipated. ... Telekom Malaysia In Talks For India Spice Stake http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15961.php Telekom Malaysia Monday said it is in talks to buy a stake in India's Spice Telecom. ... Customers Disappointed With Camera Phones - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15972.php A camera is considered by many users to be one of the most desirable features in wireless handsets, yet, evidence suggests that only a tiny percentage of camera phones are used regularly to transmit pictures or to store for later use, reports In-Stat... [[ MVNO ]] Spanish Regulator Sees Several Potential MVNO Entrants http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15962.php Several companies with operations in Spain are looking to become mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs, the chairman of the country's telecommunications regulator CMT said Monday. ... [[ Network Operators ]] PRESS: Russia's MTS to change its advertising slogan soon http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15967.php Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) plans to change its Russian-language advertising slogan to "To hear you always" from "You are better" soon, Grzegorz Esz, MTS marketing director, said in an interview with Sekret Firmy bu... Russia's VimpelCom ready to launch network in Chechnya http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15969.php Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom has completed preparatory work to launch its network in Russia's constituent republic of Chechnya, Nikolai Pryanishnikov, VimpelCom's executive vice president, said Monday. ... [[ Offbeat ]] Sprint Nextel Cooperating In Domestic Spying -Report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15963.php AT&T, Verizon Communications' MCI and Sprint Nextel Corp. are among several large US telecommunications companies that agreed to cooperate with the National Security Agency's spying without warrants on international calls by suspected terrorists, USA... Greek Socialists Demand 2 Mins Quit In Phone-Tapping Case http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15970.php ATHENS (AP)--The opposition Socialist Party in Greece called Monday for the resignation of two senior ministers over a mobile phone-tapping scandal that hit the country last week. ... [[ Personnel ]] KPN: Michael Krammer To Become CEO Of E-Plus http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15960.php Dutch telecommunications company KPN, Monday said it plans to appoint Michael Krammer as new chief executive of its German mobile operator, E-Plus. ... Qualcomm Names Andrew Gilbert President Of Europe Segment http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15964.php Qualcomm has named Andrew Gilbert as president of Qualcomm Europe to replace Pertti Johansson. ... Horn-Smith Swaps Out Of Vodafone, Into Sage http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15968.php Julian Horn-Smith, a key player in building Vodafone into the world's largest mobile phone company by sales, Monday joined software developer Sage Group PLC as its next chairman. ... [[ Reports ]] Mobile Technology Helps Doctors Deliver Better Medical Care http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15976.php Physicians and others who use PDAs, Smartphones, and related medical decision support tools say they're providing better and more efficient patient care as a result, according to a new survey of 2,800 medical professionals conducted by Skyscape. In t... ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:14:54 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - Tuesday, February 7, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 7, 2006 ******************************** Taking Care of the Triple-Play http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/16556?11228 Every aspect of customer care is impacted significantly by triple play. Even the cable MSOs that have been offering the telecom trinity for some time now have yet to advance their care practices significantly. This is not to say that services aren't being supported or that customers are disgruntled. What's at issue is the difference... Balance Swings to Customer Retention http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16552?11228 With carrier subscriber bases swollen by the recent string of mergers, the pendulum is swinging from customer acquisition to customer retention. Maintaining happy customers is certainly wise, considering that each subscriber costs several hundred dollars to sign up. But keeping existing customers has its costs, too. Carriers must... Regulator Plans to Tighten Control over ADSL Providers http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16550?11228 The Spanish government is planning to put more regulatory pressure on the country's ADSL providers, in an effort to stem fraudulent business practices. This could include drafting a new law to govern the broadband sector and increasing the penalties on companies that breach the law. Significance: The move follows an increase in... SingTel Ends 2005 with 78 mil. Regional Mobile Customers http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16547?11228 SingTel has announced that its aggregate number of mobile subscribers in the region increased to 77.79 million at end-2005, up 26% from a year earlier. On a year-on-year (y/y) basis, SingTel's three Asian mobile associates - Advanced Info Services (AIS), Bharti and Telkomsel - recorded strong subscriber growth, ranging from 8% to... Sonae Launches US$12.8 bil. Bid for Portugal Telecom http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16545?11228 Sonae SGPS has launched a 10.7 billion-euro (US$12.8 billion) bid for Portugal's dominant telecoms company. It is promising to pay 9.50 euro per share, or a total of 10.72 billion euro, for Portugal Telecom's shares and convertible bonds; an offer worth a 16% premium on Portugal Telecom's last closing... Google to Unveil New Chat Feature http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16544?11228 SAN FRANCISCO--Online search engine leader Google Inc. is wedding its instant messaging and e-mail services in the same Web browser, hoping the convenience will lure users from the larger communications networks operated by its chief rivals. The new chat feature to be unveiled Tuesday will provide users of Google's Gmail... Comptel Exec Named New FCC Nominee http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16542?11228 WASHINGTON - Wireless carriers welcomed the White House's nomination late Friday of a fifth FCC commissioner, while some observers cautioned not to assume too much in the nomination's ramifications. Late Friday, the Bush Administration finally unveiled its choice - Robert McDowell - to fill the fifth and final FCC commissioner slot.... Big ISPs To E-Marketers: Pay To Play http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16541?11228 In a deal first announced in October 2005 but apparently only being subjected to scrutiny within the past few days, America Online Inc. (AOL) and Yahoo! Inc. say they will be charging large companies fees ranging from $2 to $3 per 1,000 e-mail messages sent to AOL or Yahoo! customers in an effort to reduce spam and to "certify"... Disappointment with Quality and Cost Limits Usage of Camera Phones http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16539?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A camera is considered by many users to be one of the most desirable features in wireless handsets, yet, evidence suggests that only a tiny percentage of camera phones are used regularly to transmit pictures or to store for later use, reports In-Stat. Less than a third of camera phone owners surveyed by In-Stat... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:49:49 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Report Touts IPTV's Promise, Warns of Obstacles USTelecom dailyLead February 7, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cVtEfDtutaoShRFiAj TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Report touts IPTV's promise, warns of obstacles BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Sonae makes offer for Portugal Telecom * Google integrates e-mail, chat functions * Nokia turns focus to North America USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Cutting-edge technology papers, exhibits at TelecomNEXT TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Q-and-A: Cisco exec says IPTV is the future * PanAmSat enters ethnic programming biz REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * AG Gonzalez defends NSA surveillance plan * Bush budget projects $25B from wireless sales Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cVtEfDtutaoShRFiAj 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: ema32@msn.com Subject: Great Job Board Date: 07 Feb 2006 10:03:27 GMT There is a great job board located at the employment section of http://www.4charlesson.com . So pass it on to anyone looking for a job. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Everyone look it over, but also consider our very own classified advertisemens here at http://telecom-digest.org/classified.html for quite reasonable rates on an (as of yet) not too widely used classified ads section. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Matt Simpson Subject: Re: AOL Starts Charging for Email from Large Senders Organization: Yeah Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 09:09:30 -0500 In article , Jon Swartz wrote: > Anyone can apply for the program. Goodmail determines if applicants > are legitimate companies with pristine e-mail standards. AOL has final > approval. E-mail of approved companies will come with digital tokens > recognized by AOL security defenses. AOL subscribers will still be > able to block mail from certified senders by adjusting anti-spam tools > on their accounts, AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham says. > AOL says The New York Times and American Red Cross have signed up for > the service. OK, right away we know the "pristine email standards" requirement is BS. Red Cross is a spammer, and AOL is going to let them pay to get around spam filters. I made a donation to the Red Cross for Katrina relief. (Please don't flame me; I realize now I should have donated to a better organization). Like most sites that accept credit card payments, they asked for an email address for confirmation. Fortunately, I gave them a throwaway one. Subsequently, that address was bombarded with email from the Red Cross. Each one had an "opt out" link that directed me to a website. The language on that site was something to the effect of "Click here if you want us to stop sending you news and only send you requests for money". There was no option to stop ALL email from them. Finally, I disabled the address I had given them. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire Subject: Yahoo Starts Using Fee-Based Email Also Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 12:44:33 -0600 AOL, Yahoo to test fee-based email America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's biggest e-mail providers, said on Monday they would offer a service where companies may choose to charge a tiny fee to ensure that e-mail reaches the intended recipient in a bid to derail spam. The service, provided in partnership with privately held Goodmail Systems, will also help the providers better protect their customers from online fraud, spam and phishing attacks, said Goodmail Chief Executive Richard Gingras. Phishing is a practice where criminals send e-mails asking prospective victims to verify personal data through links to real-looking, but fake, Web sites. "The main point we want to get across is that you cannot pay to spam or that consumers will have to pay to receive e-mail," Gingras said. The service will be optional on AOL, a Time Warner Inc. unit, and Yahoo Inc. Fees would only apply to senders such as large financial institutions where it was critical for e-mails to arrive promptly to the intended recipient, Gingras said. By serving two of the three biggest providers of consumer e-mails, Gingras said, the partnership marked an important step in protecting businesses and consumers from spam and other forms of unwanted electronic messages. "The in-box can be a dangerous place," Gingras said. "Certified e-mail was created to restore trust for commercial senders." AOL plans to introduce the service, which would charge fees of about a quarter of a cent per certified e-mail, in the next few weeks with Yahoo following a few months later, Gingras said. Yahoo spokeswoman Karen Mahon said her company planned to accept certified e-mail from Goodmail to complement Yahoo's existing range of e-mail services. "Our goal is to provide additional protection against spam and phishing scams to our customers," Mahon said, "and we of course will interchange email between our systems, and we hope to get other large ISPs to start this also and work along with us, and us with them." The Goodmail service, which will undergo testing over the next several months, should be introduced in the coming year and be mainly targeted at large companies, she said, but any person using email will be welcome to particpate with us as well, to ensure the delivery of their email. AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company decided to employ the service after many of its members asked for more tools to combat spam. He also made it clear consumers will bear no financial cost for the service. "For our members, this is an easy and welcome way to identify mail they want to get more quickly and easily into their in-box," Graham said. Gingras also said similar partnerships with other e-mail providers would likely follow and that Goodmail would also target business e-mail providers. Yahoo and AOL will also share in revenue as part of the deal with Goodmail. Goodmail also does a background check on the senders to make sure they are authentic and the company only allows businesses to send permissioned e-mails to existing customers, he said. Then Goodmail provides a cryptographic token for each message so it can track the e-mail through the system, Gingras said. These safeguards ensure spammers cannot use the system to bypass a junk-mail filter. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please look at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices Date: 7 Feb 2006 08:17:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Note that the original Western Union filed for bankruptcy and is essentially gone. Today's company is in the money transfer and financial service business. Patrick Townson wrote: > In Chicago, and almost all cities, large and small, there was a public > telegraph office; a place where people could go either to send a > telegram or wait for the arrival of one. In the bigger cities at least, > the public offices were quite ornate places, replete with high back > comfortable chairs for customer use, writing desks to sit at when you > wished to compose your message or sit to read the message you had > received, etc. To see a view scene of this, check out the opening scene of the movie "Executive Suite". A corporate executive goes into a WU office to send a telegram and it's exactly as Pat describes it. (The rest of the movie is good, too.) In the early 1980s I visited a WU owned office in Trenton NJ. It was not attractive, but quite austere in a 1960s kind of way, no decoration, ugly flourescent lighting, linoleum floor, and glass walled unit with holes to deal with the employee who looked tired. There was one Teletype in a corner and one equipment rack frame that didn't seem to be connected to anything. Soon after it was closed and WU service handled by an contract agent in a diner outside the city. At that time almost all business of WU was wire transfers, not personal messaging. This is the same business they do now. > In Chicago, the public office was on the first floor of the main head- > quarters building for Western Union, 407 South LaSalle Street, more or > less across the street from LaSalle Street (Train) Station I visited that office and the train station in the mid 1990s. The La Salle St station had been rebuilt. It once was the terminal for many classic trains, including the 20th Century Limited. Now it serves commuters only and looked it. It was reached by a narrow stairway and had a tiny glass waiting room at the top; whatever station building facilities it once had were gone. The WU office across the street was similar to the one in Trenton in appearance and atmosphere. Whatever dignified decorations it once had were gone. Indeed, I think the office was actually on the side of the building; probably the original nicely furnished office was closed and space for a small office found off to the side. > Western Union had some kind of arrangment with the telephone company > in most towns, the public office phone number was always (exchange)-4321. Early on the companies were jointly owned. Ever since they had a friendly arrangement. You could dial Operator and ask for Western Union and you'd be connected to them. You could charge your telegram to your home phone number and it would appear on your long distance bill. WU ended up using much of AT&T's physical plant and AT&T gave WU a big discount on service charges. I believe this was a matter of quiet policy. Accordingly to Oslin's book, AT&T hit WU hard in other ways such as TWX getting a great deal and other regulatory benefits. > An era long since gone. Most of the public telegraph offices were gone > by the early 1970's, and people had to start calling in their messages > to a central message taker in (I think) St. Louis. When MCI came along, it demanded the same discounts that WU got. AT&T wasn't about to give MCI a break and was forced to raise the WU rates steeply. This was the final knife that killed off WU. As mentioned, cheap long distance rates by the 1970s pretty much killed off the traditional telegram traffic. WU main business was wire transfers by individuals and some Telex. It operated a few service centers (one was near me). Basically an agent or customer would call in with a request, it would be verified and entered into the computer. The computer would then have another operator call the appropriate receiving agent to authorize the pickup. AT&T WATS lines were used. When AT&T rates went up per above, things got tough. WU was also well unionized. A friend of mine worked at a message center and was very well paid for the work she was doing. The office was very structured, the computer counted keystrokes and errors and was part of one's productivity report. (Sadly, this is common now, but new in 1978.) In alt.folklore computers we had discussions on the demise of WU other businesses. It tried getting into satellites, becoming a long distance provider, etc. but it didn't work out. In the above movie mention about an executive sending a telegram to his home office, I wonder when the switch to using long distance telephone would've taken place. The executive was in a distance city, heading home, and calling a special meeting of the Board. Had he telephoned, his secretary would've had the message immediately and would've started making arrangements, where via telegram there was a delay and it was a one-way conversation. (However, part of the movie's plot dealt with the Board speculating intensely on why the meeting was called, so the one-way concept was important to this particular movie.) It's amazing in so many old movies that vital information is telegraphed to a person rather than telephoned, even from relatively short distances. Most large railroad stations had a Western Union desks or ticket agents doubled as telegraph agents. When business people travelled, they'd wire ahead their arrival plans or that they arrived safely. Everyday people sent a postcard. Anyway, at some point in time (1960? 1965?) long distance phone rates came down low enough that a businessman could telephone his distant office. I think in the 1954 movie the telegraph charge was about $1.00 while a person-to-person long distance phone call would've been $3-5. In 1954 a $4 differential was like $40 today. Business did make extensive use of Long Distance telephone back then and before, but for simple messages they'd wire. I note that business people in those days made calls by name, not number. For person-to-person, charges would not start until the desired party was on the line, significant in a business atmosphere where someone might have to paged. I believe the p-to-p premium was relatively modest compared to later years. It is still offered to this day but one would pay about $2.00 or more for a call that otherwise might be 5c. Would anyone have a telephone directory from around 1954? They usually had sample long distance charges to various points and I'm curious as to what toll charges were back then. [public replies please] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although I never had any employee/employer relationship with Western Union, around 1960-62 I used to hang out with a guy who was himself employed by a Western Union agent, at the old Union Bus Terminal in Hammond, Indiana. Actually, the Western Union agent in Hammond was also the bus agent; both of those were sort of expensive and losing propositions; combining them and the help required to operate both at least mitigated the expense somewhat. The lady had three or four bus lines (Greyhound, a couple of the Trailways Bus companies, something else); she also had the Western Union agency; each and every one of them paying her 12-15 percent commission on the bus tickets she sold, the telegrams, etc. And from those proceeds she was responsible for hiring staff to run the place, both 24/7 operations of course. But since she owned the entire Bus station building, she also rented out space for a restaurant, a beauty salon, a barber shop and a few apartments, all of whom paid her rent as well. So I guess she did okay. The guy who worked for her doing the telegraph stuff was the guy I mentiond, my friend. He told me a very interesting story once, around 1960 or so. He said that one morning he had gone over into the restaurant area to get a cup of coffee; looked around the station, and had gone back to his office since the phone was ringing. He took the call, and a lady he had seen getting off an incoming bus with a big smile on her face walked into the telegraph office area; still with a big smile on her face. She was probably 18-19 years old. She wanted to send a telegram to her parents ('they told me to be sure and let them know I got here safely as soon as I arrived') so she wanted to do that, and also asked for directions on getting to some address. That done, she then picked up her luggage and started walking down the street, still with that big smile. My friend said he thought no more about it. He said he came to work the next morning, shortly after that this same woman came back, but this time instead of the big smile, she obviously had been crying. Her earlier smile had been so infectious, I could not help but wonder what had gone wrong to cause her to begin weeping sort of silently. She counted out some change and told me to please send a telegram for her. It simply said 'Bus leaves at 10 change in South Bend at 2 home about 6' . He said "I was curious about what had gone wrong: Had she been there for a new job and either not gotten hired or been hired then fired on her first day at work? Was she intending to meet a new boy friend who wound up being some sort of flake? Had she gotten physically hurt somehow?" But I did not dare ask her anything on it. She paid for the message and asked if she 'could sit in here and wait until the bus arrived' I told her of course, in a way hoping that she might decide to say something about it, but she did not. And the 'company' (WUTCO) was always so strict about secrecy in communications. If they found out that _I_ had brought the matter up, well -- you know, I do not work for the 'company' (WUTCO) directly, I only work for Jim R. and his wife Lillian (the agents) but Western Union would have put all kinds of heat on _Lillian_, she would have had to fire me. The company was like that with the agents. The company ran nothing personally when it suited them, but in reality they ran _everything_ when that suited them better, if you get my drift. So I walked in back by the printers and sent out her message; I came back out in front by the counter a bit later; she looked at me with a sort of very small, faint smile, said 'thank you so much for helping me find the place yesterday; my bus is here now, goodbye' got up and left, hauling along her suitcase. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Subject: Telecom Humor Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 05:20:37 GMT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or so the man says, 'humor'! I have never found anything 'humorous' about this story which seems to involve mistreatment of a small animal. The story has been around for simply _years_, I have printed it here a few times, but not for many years now since I do find it distasteful and not a bit funny. PAT] [Source Unknown] An Indiana farm wife called the local phone company to report her telephone failed to ring when her friends called, and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her pet dog always moaned right before the phone rang. The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile elderly lady. He climbed a nearby telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber's house. The phone didn't ring right away, but then the dog moaned loudly and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found: 1. The dog was tied to the telephone system's ground wire via a steel chain and collar. 2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose. 3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the phone number was called. 4 After a couple of such jolts, the dog would start moaning and then urinate on himself and the ground. 5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring. Which demonstrates that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have seen this story set in England, in Scotland, and various other places, but this is the first time for it in 'Indiana'. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 V25 #57 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Feb 7 19:30:27 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 2870C14F24; Tue, 7 Feb 2006 19:30:25 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #58 Message-Id: <20060208003025.2870C14F24@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 19:30:25 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.3 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, URG_BIZ autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Feb 2006 19:33:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 58 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Broadband, Content Provider Firms Fight Over Net Neutrality (J. Pelofsky) Web Traffic Jams Bring Fights Over Fast-Lane Fees (Paul Davidson) The Front Lines - January 31, 2006 (Jonathan Marashlian) WUTCO and Telco Past Relationships (Patrick Townson) 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: Jeremy Pelofsky Subject: Broadband, Content Provider Firms Fight Over Net Neutrality Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:33:21 -0600 By Jeremy Pelofsky High-speed Internet providers and Internet content companies clashed before lawmakers on Tuesday, in dispute over whether a law enshrining the right to surf anywhere on the Web would help or harm consumers. Representatives of local telephone and cable companies that offer fast Internet access, known as broadband, said passing a new law could stymie innovation while companies like Google Inc. said that could happen without legislation. Broadband providers have largely pledged that consumers will be able to access any Internet site. But some also said they may charge more for services that use faster private Internet networks, like downloading movies. "Regulatory or legislative solutions wholly without justification in marketplace activities would stifle, not enhance the Internet," Walter McCormick, head of the U.S. Telecom Association, told the Senate Commerce Committee. Yet companies like Web search engine Google and Internet telephone provider Vonage Holdings Corp. argued that a private fast Internet lane could not only block users from accessing their content and services, but also squash innovation. "We must preserve neutrality in this system in order to allow new Googles of the world, new Yahoos, the new Amazons, to form," said Vinton Cerf, a Google vice president who in previous jobs helped develop the Internet. "We risk losing the Internet as a catalyst for consumer choice, for economic growth, for technological innovation and for global competitiveness," Cerf said. In the middle were lawmakers who were divided and uncertain about whether they should act. Republicans and Democrats both expressed support for unfettered Internet surfing, but a few Republicans cautioned about legislating too quickly. "This hearing on Internet neutrality is one of the most difficult but most important issues before this committee as we consider revisions to the nation's communications laws," said Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican. Sen. John Ensign, who has offered legislation to revise U.S. communi- cations laws, questioned whether such provisions would cut incentives for companies to build out their networks and compete. "You do deserve a return on your investment is the bottom line if you're going to build out these networks," the Nevada Republican said. "Otherwise, if you can't give them the return on their investment, Wall Street is not going to loan them the money to do this." But Democrats on the panel countered that consumers are already paying for content and broadband access. "It is not a free lunch for any one of these content providers," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. "I've already paid the monthly toll" to go to any Internet site. Analysts have been skeptical that Congress will act this year on the issue. "Details are devilish, suggesting differences would have to be bridged with broad and possibly ambiguous mandates that invite regulatory and court battles," said an analyst report by Stifel Nicolaus released on Tuesday. "And even then, legislation could easily stall." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For latest news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Paul Davidson Subject: Web Traffic Jams Bring Fight Over Fast-Lane Fees Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:34:48 -0600 Web traffic jams bring fight over fast-lane fees By Paul Davidson, USA TODAYTue Feb 7, 7:18 AM ET The Internet isn't always the smoothest information highway. Bottlenecks are increasing as more consumers use bandwidth-intensive applications, such as video, over broadband lines. When bottlenecks happen, videos may download more slowly. Live webcasts freeze up. Calls on Internet-based phone services break up a bit. To address the problem, BellSouth and AT&T, formerly SBC, plan to offer Web content providers new fee-based services that would assure speedy delivery of movies, games and other offerings over DSL broadband lines. Verizon is also considering enhanced services but has been vague about its plans. Yet Web stalwarts such as Google and Amazon say the strategy would turn the equal-opportunity Internet into a two-tiered market. One for phone companies, which are offering video services themselves, and their paying partners; another for websites that refuse to pay up. They also fear that while cable companies have not discussed similar plans, they would follow suit. "Once they decide what's normal and what's fast, (phone companies) are gatekeepers," says Mark Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America. The phone companies say they simply want to recoup their multibillion-dollar investments in new broadband lines, better manage an increasingly congested network and hold down consumer prices. The debate has become the most heated battle in telecom and takes center stage at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday. Lawmakers are considering new laws to ensure consumer access to websites. The controversy is rooted in two trends. On the one hand, phone companies are beefing up their networks with fiber-optic lines so they can compete with cable providers. They're rolling out TV services, including video-on-demand, as part of a bundle that includes phone and turbocharged high-speed Internet services. At the same time, more video offerings are coming to the Web. Google last month started selling reruns of TV shows and National Basketball Association games. ITunes, NBC Universal and AOL also plan to sell or stream TV programs. Eventually, the distinction between traditional TV and online video could blur as subscribers watch more programs on demand and new technology delivers Internet content to TV screens. The emerging competition raises the fear that phone companies could block access to rivals' websites. A prohibition against such a practice was lifted when the Federal Communications Commission deregulated phone-company broadband services last year. As a condition for approval of the SBC-AT&T and Verizon-MCI mergers, those companies must refrain from blocking access to websites for two years. Phone companies say they would never impede such access, and telecom-reform bills in Congress would outlaw the practice. Yet the House bill explicitly allows phone companies to offer premium content-delivery services. They are needed, the phone giants say, because video and other high-bandwidth applications will place a growing strain on their networks, increasing congestion and costs. Already, snarls at certain times might disrupt the flow of an online game or cause a live video stream to jitter. The premium services would guarantee a content provider top-notch service by boosting its bandwidth or giving its offerings priority over other data packets. BellSouth says it's in talks about such deals with about five companies, including Movielink, which offers movie downloads. For example, to juice up the speed of a download for a Movielink customer, BellSouth is considering charging Movielink a fee equivalent to about 10% of the $3 to $5 the consumer pays Movielink, says BellSouth Chief Technology Officer Bill Smith. Similarly, an Internet-based phone company that charges subscribers $24 a month might pay BellSouth $2 a month per customer to ensure crystal-clear conversations. The added costs could be passed to consumers. "We have to have ways to recoup our investment," Smith says. Yet content providers say consumers already pay varying prices for different broadband speeds. Those who want faster service can simply upgrade to a higher tier. Why should the content provider also be hit with a fee? "If the customer isn't already buying high-quality broadband that doesn't have congestion, what are they getting -- substandard performance?" says Jeffrey Citron, CEO of Vonage, the No. 1 Internet-based phone service. Vonage worries the added cost could make it tougher to compete with the phone companies' own Internet-based phone services. Adds Google's policy counsel, Alan Davidson: "Our concern is that carriers are being given the power to control what consumers do and see online." Content providers that don't pay will suffer, he says, either by comparison or because giving routing priority to some services will inherently slow down those that wind up at the back of the line. While Google can afford the premium fees, Davidson says, many start-ups can't, hobbling innovation on the Web. Smith says regular broadband service would not be affected. "What we're talking about is offering a higher level of service, not pushing people to a lower level." Phone companies say they are trying to pass costs to high-bandwidth users and spare subscribers price increases. Content providers "can always say, 'No, we're not interested,' " says AT&T Vice President Jim Cicconi. Still, Cooper says, the plans are troubling because phone companies plan to ensure their own video offerings boast superior quality. To get comparable service, their rivals would be saddled with higher costs. If the phone giants really want to ease congestion, let them improve the quality of all video and pass the costs to their subscribers, Web providers say. "It ought to be done in a content-neutral fashion," says Brent Thompson of IAC/InterActiveCorp, which operates websites such as Ask Jeeves and Match.com. Smith retorts that BellSouth's plan is no different than Google charging a fee for prime placement in its advertised search results. "Their arguments are inconsistent with their own model," he says. Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines from USA Today please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html (with BBC World Service Audio) ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Marashlian Subject: The Front Lines - January 31, 2006 Date: Tue, 07 Fed 2006 14:42:58 -0500 Organization: The Helein Law Group http://www.thefrontlines-hlg.com/ The FRONT LINES Sponsored by The Helein Law Group, P.C. http://www.thlglaw.com/ Advancing The Cause of Competition in the Telecommunications Industry URGENT NOTICE: FCC ENFORCEMENT BUREAU FINES AT&T & ALLTEL $100,000 EACH AND ORDERS ALL TELECOMMUNICATIONS CARRIERS TO FILE CERTIFICATIONS REGARDING COMPLIANCE WITH CPNI RULES In the wake of highly-publicized investigations and lawsuits concerning the apparent misappropriation of telephone consumer's private information for use by black market data brokers (on the Internet), the FCC's Enforcement Bureau on Monday proposed fining AT&T and Alltel $100,000 each and, today, released a Public Notice which commands ALL telecommunications carriers providing interstate services to file CPNI compliance certifications with the Bureau. Section 222 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the "Act"), requires that telecommunications carriers protect the privacy of customer proprietary network information ("CPNI"). The Commission has initiated several inquiries into the procedures used by telecommunications carriers to ensure confidentiality of CPNI based on concerns regarding the apparent sale of telephone call records over the Internet. In furtherance of its investigations into this matter, the Commission directed several telecommunications carriers to submit compliance certificates they are obligated to prepare and maintain in accordance with section 64.2009(e) of the Commission's rules. After reviewing the submissions filed by these carriers, the Bureau proposed fining the "old" AT&T and rural ILEC, Alltel, $100,000 each. The Bureau found that AT&T and Alltel apparently violated section 64.2009(e) of the Commission's rules by failing to have a corporate officer with personal knowledge execute an annual certificate stating that the company has established operating procedures adequate to ensure compliance with the Commission's rules. In the Public Notice released today, based on the information received during its limited investigation the Bureau concluded that further investigation and review of ALL telecommunications carriers' most recent annual CPNI certifications is required. In the Public Notice, the Bureau directs all telecommunications carriers, including wireline and wireless carriers, to submit a compliance certificate to the Commission as required by section 64.2009(e) of the Commission's rules. Carrier certificates for the most recent period, along with the accompanying statement explaining how their respective operating procedures ensure compliance with the rules, must be filed no later than Monday, February 6, 2006 in accordance with the procedures outlined by the Bureau. Due to the short timeframe for making the required certification filing, we highly recommend contacting your regulatory counsel immediately to seek advice regarding your company's obligations. If you do not have existing counsel, please contact our firm at: 703-714-1300 or by e-mail: jsm@thlglaw.com. FCC ADOPTS MODIFIED COMPETITIVE BIDDING RULES IN ANTICIPATION OF AUCTIONS FOR WIRELESS BROADBAND AND OTHER SERVICES In a Report and Order ("R&O") released last Thursday, the FCC adopted several modifications to its wireless spectrum competitive bidding rules. Some of the changes the FCC adopted were required by the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act ("CSEA"); others are intended to enhance the effectiveness of the FCC's auctions program. In order to comply with CSEA, the FCC: * Modified its reserve price rule, section 1.2104(c), to provide that, for any auction of "eligible frequencies" requiring the recovery of estimated relocation costs pursuant to CSEA, the Commission will establish a reserve price(s) pursuant to which the total cash proceeds shall equal at least 110 percent of the total estimated relocation costs provided to the Commission pursuant to CSEA; and * Modified its tribal land bidding credit rule, section 1.2110(f)(3), to enable the Commission in auctions subject to CSEA to award all eligible applicants tribal land bidding credits on a pro rata basis in the event that the net winning bids at the close of bidding (exclusive of tribal land bidding credits) are not sufficient both (a) to meet the reserve price(s) and (b) to award all eligible applicants full tribal land bidding credits. To enhance the effectiveness of our auctions program, the FCC: * Modified its tribal land bidding credit rule, section 1.2110(f)(3), to enable the Commission in auctions with specified reserve price(s) not mandated by CSEA to award all eligible applicants tribal land bidding credits on a pro rata basis in the event that the net winning bids at the close of bidding (exclusive of tribal land bidding credits) are not sufficient both (a) to meet the reserve price(s) and (b) to award all eligible applicants full tribal land bidding credits; * Clarified its default rule, section 1.2104(g)(2), to facilitate early determination of a final default payment and clarify the appropriate calculation in certain circumstances; * Enhanced rules for interim withdrawal and the additional payment portion of default payments, section 1.2104(g)(1)-(2), by enabling the Commission in advance of each auction to set each type of payment at between 3 percent to 20 percent of the relevant withdrawn or defaulted bids; * Facilitated combinatorial (or "package") bidding by enabling the Commission to establish in advance of each such auction a mechanism to attribute an individual bid amount to individual licenses won as part of a package when an individual bid amount is needed for a regulatory calculation, such as calculating the amount of a small business bidding credit; * Modified section 1.2104 of its rules to allow the Commission to apportion a bid amount on an individual license whenever a bid amount on a portion of a license is needed to compare with bids on portions of corresponding reconfigured licenses, such as when a withdrawn bid on a license in an auction must be compared to bids on corresponding reconfigured licenses in a later auction; * Standardized auction payment rules by conforming rules applicable to broadcast construction permits won at auction, sections 73.3571, 73.3573, 73.5003, 73.5006, and 74.1233, to the final payment procedures in section 1.2109(a); and * Enhanced the availability of the consortium exception to the designated entity and entrepreneur aggregation rule, section 1.2110(b)(3)(i), by providing further clarity as to its implementation. In particular, the new rules provide that (a) each member or group of members of a winning consortium seeking separate licenses shall file a separate long-form application for its respective license(s) and, in the case of a license to be partitioned or disaggregated, the member or group filing the applicable long-form application shall provide the parties' partitioning or disaggregation agreement in its long-form application; (b) two or more consortium members seeking to be licensed together shall first form a legal business entity; and (c) any such entity must meet the applicable eligibility requirements in our rules for small business or entrepreneur status. _____ The Front Lines is a free publication of The Helein Law Group, P.C., providing clients and interested parties with valuable information, news, and updates regarding regulatory and legal developments primarily impacting companies engaged in the competitive telecommunications industry. The Front Lines does not purport to offer legal advice nor does it establish a lawyer-client relationship with the reader. If you have questions about a particular article, general concerns, or wish to seek legal counsel regarding a specific regulatory or legal matter affecting your company, please contact our firm at 703-714-1313 or visit our website: http://www.thlglaw.com/ www.THLGlaw.com The Helein Law Group, P.C. 8180 Greensboro Drive, Suite 700 McLean, Virginia 22102 ------------------------------ From: Patrick Townson Subject: WUTCO and Telco Past Relationships Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 16:08:09 -0600 In discussing Western Union Public Offices in a previous message, I noted: >> Western Union had some kind of arrangment with the telephone company >> in most towns, the public office phone number was always (exchange)-4321. Lisa Hancock noted in reply: > Early on the companies were jointly owned. Ever since they had a > friendly arrangement. You could dial Operator and ask for Western > Union and you'd be connected to them. You could charge your telegram > to your home phone number and it would appear on your long distance > bill. Actually, the way this worked was: If calling from your own telephone (presumably a private line) you either asked the operator for '4321' or in the event you were using a dial type phone you dialed (the EXChange)-4321. The WUTCO clerk asked for your number, and applied the charges to your phone bill (actually the portion of your bill known as 'Other Charges and Credits'); the charges were identified as 'Western Union Telegraph Company' and the appropriate WUTCO ticket or serial number. WUTCO submitted the charges to telco, via Separations and Settlements, then in turn it was put on your bill. If calling from a _coin operated phone_ one was to (dial the operator or otherwise ask) the operator for 'Western Union'. If you dialed it direct and expected to be billed direct, you were to go through the '4321' direction. Then, like now, going direct (via 4321) could not raise the operator as needed for money collection. Asking for 'Western Union' (by dialing the operator to start with) allowed flashing the hook switch to bring the operator back on the line as needed. I think the call generally terminated on the same incoming line(s) at WUTCO in any event. From a purely manual exchange, I do not suppose it mattered either way. But if you were using a coin phone, then _your_ operator had to tell the Western Union operator 'COIN SERVICE! Flash me when ready for coin collection!', then she left the line, and you chatted with the Western Union clerk. Once the message was prepared and ready for sending, the clerk would say 'Will you now please flash for your operator to come back on the line?' and you would flash once or twice. _Your_ operator would come on the line, the Western Union operator would instruct her, 'collect 75 cents (or however much money was required)'. You would fish for the change, and deposit it in the coin box. When _your_ operator notified WUTCO the money was in the box, WUTCO would respond, "thank you, I am (ticket serial number); you are?" your operator would reply "I am (ticket serial number)at (date/time) on (coin telephone number)". WUTCO would copy this information on their ticket in place of your signature and money payment. That paper, went in to telco separations/settlements the same as the 'billed direct' paper (for calls via 4321). Lisa Hancock continued: > When MCI came along, it demanded the same discounts that WU got. AT&T > wasn't about to give MCI a break and was forced to raise the WU rates > steeply. This was the final knife that killed off WU. Not only that, but the entire concept of '900' service (that is to say, services given over the phone and billed to your phone bill [i.e. sex phone, horoscope, etc]) had its start through that precedent originally set by Western Union. AT&T was originally not going to get all caught up in billing for sex, etc on the phone. The original vendors of same, MCI and Integratel (anyone remember that bunch of snakes?) knew that selling sex over the phone to a very dubious bunch of transient users would amount to collection rates via direct billing of almost zero. Invoices showing up in the mail would generally find their way to the closest trash can; MCI and Integratel both knew that; there would have to be a system of billing that the users would respect, or at the very least, be afraid to cross or ignore, presto, the phone bill. (This was the 1973-75 era). People will not just throw their phone bill in the trash, now will they? They approached AT&T and asked for the same arrangements 'as Western Union'. AT&T said no way, they would not get involved, and anyway, in those days, MCI was a nasty competitor to AT&T which was sort of inclined to say 'let there be a plague on both their houses' and stay out of it. MCI told AT&T if that was their decision, then they were fixing to get themselves sued. (Remember, this was several years before divestiture however AT&T was quite familiar with getting sued by MCI and they suspected MCI would use the Western Union precedent to sue them and win successfully) so they agreed to use the 'newly created' 900 mass- calling system as a way to administer it. MCI and Integratel did agree to pay an 'administrative fee' to AT&T, just as WUTCO did, so it got installed, even though by that point WUTCO was in the process of getting out of telco direct billing. AT&T, which for several generations had admonished their customers to 'never use profanity on the telephone; for one, it is an embarassment to our operators and for two, it is against FCC regulations' suddenly decided to bite the bullet and get into the sex business themselves for a few years (anyone remember those AT&T 'reach out' advertisements for a couple years in the 1970's and early 1980's ran in various gay newspapers and magazines: with an obvious S & M motif AT&T would tell us 'Reach Out and Meet a New Master/Slave/Friend/Lover/Whatever'. Just dial this number: (some international point, but the number was parsed in an odd way so as to decieve the users) and then we were cheerfully told, "no service charges for calling this 'bridge'; just pay toll!" as if that was supposed to be some bargain, and a little caraciture of 'Ma Bell' up in the corner of the ad telling us that toll would usually be 50-75 cents per minute. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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End of TELECOM Digest V25 #58 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Feb 8 15:32:42 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 5DCD714F77; Wed, 8 Feb 2006 15:32:42 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #59 Message-Id: <20060208203242.5DCD714F77@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 15:32:42 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR,NA_DOLLARS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Wed, 8 Feb 2006 15:35:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 59 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Complaints Exceed Credit Complaints in New York State (Reuters) Cartoons Prompt Net Vandalism (Robert McMillan) Three Microsoft Bugs Found (Jeremy Kirk) Cellular-News for Wednesday 8th February 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 8, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Verizon Business Beefs Up IP Services (USTA Daily Lead) Seeking VOIP UK Consultants (Rob Nicholson) Re: Broadband, Content Providers Fight Over Net Neutrality (Danny Burstein) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway (Steve Sobol) Re: Great Job Board (David O'Heare) 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: Reuters News Wire Subject: Internet Complaints Exceed Credit Complaints in NY State Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 11:23:40 -0600 The Internet has passed credit and banking as the biggest source of consumer complaints in New York state, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday. Spitzer's office received 7,723 complaints about the Internet last year, up 28 percent from 2004, he said. Complaints about the Internet accounted for about 15 percent of the more than 51,000 written complaints the office received last year. Typical Web-related complaints involved non-delivery of goods, incorrect charges for shipped goods, auctions, computer spyware and spam, Spitzer said. Credit and banking complaints, involving such things as credit cards, identity theft, debt collection and credit reporting, generated 6,164 complaints in 2005, while automobile-related complaints totaled 5,514. In 2004, credit and banking generated 6,724 complaints, followed by 6,255 related to automobiles and 6,013 related to the Internet, Spitzer said. There were nearly 55,000 reported complaints overall. Spitzer is a 2006 Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New York. He announced the statistics as part of National Consumer Protection Week. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news and headlines from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Robert McMillan Subject: Cartoons Prompt Spike in Danish Web Hacks and Vandalism Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 11:26:54 -0600 Robert McMillan, IDG News Service The furor over a Danish newspaper's publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed is being felt on the Internet, where hackers have struck down and defaced hundreds of Danish Web sites over the past week, according to a Web site that tracks digital attacks. Approximately 800 Danish Web sites have been hacked since the end of January, when reaction to the cartoons began to receive widespread media attention, says Roberto Preatoni, founder of the Zone-h.org Web site. On Tuesday, about 200 Danish Web sites were reported as hacked with many of them being defaced with messages "in support of this Islamic war on the Internet," Preatoni says. Typically between five and 10 Danish Web sites are reported hacked each day, he says. Messages on the hacked sites include "don't ever [expletice] tallk [cq] about our prophet," "[expletive] Denmark," and "Let the Muslim people live in peace [expletive]." Most of the hackers are "posting hate messages," Preatoni says, but there are exceptions. "In some examples, we actually saw intelligent educated people who hacked and posted very polite messages, explaining what they were thinking." The 12 cartoons, originally published on September 30 by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten have offended Muslims the world over and sparked attacks by protesters on Danish embassies in Tehran, Beirut, and Damascus. Preatoni estimates that another 700 non-Danish Web sites have also been hacked in connection with the cartoons. History of Hacks The Zone-h.org Web site contains about 10 years' worth of data on hacked Web sites, most of it submitted by the hackers themselves, including information on the motivation behind the attacks. Other worldwide hacking protests have flared up in the past, including a surge in attacks after a U.S. spy plane was downed in China in 2001. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there was also a "massive Islamic protest" on the Internet, Preatoni says. The reaction to the Danish cartoons, however, has yielded the largest number of defacements in such a short time, according to Preatoni. "Islamic hackers, regardless of where they are located in the globe, they are uniting in this general protest against Denmark," he says. One Danish site that has apparently not been defaced is that of the Jyllands-Posten itself. It has been the target of a number of denial of service attacks, where attackers attempt to flood the Web site with so many requests that it ceases to operate, but it has remained in operation, says Mikko Hypponen, director of anti-virus research with F-Secure. "Outside of that, I'm not aware of any hack attacks that have succeeded in any way," he says. "It has not been defaced." Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html *** 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, PC World Communications. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Jeremy Kirk Subject: Three Microsoft Bugs Found Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 11:29:03 -0600 Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Microsoft is warning of two bugs in its software that could potentially give unauthorized control or access over a person's computer, while a third problem has been highlighted by a security research company. One vulnerability revisits the Windows Metafile (WMF) debacle from December, but impacts fewer users. The bug is in Internet Explorer (IE) 5.01 Service Pack 4 on the Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 OS and IE 5.5 Service Pack 2 on Windows Millennium, Microsoft says. An attacker could gain control if a user opened a malicious e-mail attachment or if a user were persuaded into visiting a Web site that had a specially-crafted WMF image, Microsoft says. A patch has not been issued, but Microsoft says the issue is under investigation, and an out-of-cycle patch could be provided depending on customer needs. Microsoft typically issues patches on the second Tuesday of the month, due this month on February 14. Second Flaw Found A second vulnerability could allow a person with low-user privileges gain higher-level access, Microsoft says. Proof-of-concept code that has been released attempts to exploit overly permissive access controls on third-party application services, along with the default services of Windows XP Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2003, the company says. No attacks have been reported. Microsoft says several factors diminish the threat of the problem. Those running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 -- the latest updates of the software -- are not affected, and someone who launches an attack would need authenticated access to the affected OS, it says. Security vendor Secunia detailed a third vulnerability involving Microsoft's HTML Help Workshop, software that can create online help for a software application or Web site content. Secunia says the problem "is caused due to a boundary error within the handling of a '.hhp' file that contains an overly long string in the 'contents file' field. This can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow and allows arbitrary code execution when a malicious '.hhp' file is opened." The bug could allow arbitrary code to be executed on a computer, Secunia says. An exploit has been released, and Secunia advises that untrusted.hhp files not be opened. Copyright 2006 PC World Communications, Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html *** 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, PC World Communications. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Wednesday 8th February 2006 Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 08:43:09 -0600 From: cellular-news Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com ====================================================================== [[ 3G ]] Huawei Gets EUR150 Million UMTS Network Order From Polish P4 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15987.php Polish mobile telephone operator P4 Tuesday said it has chosen China's Huawei Technologies as the main supplier for its planned third-generation wireless network in Poland. ... Mobile Firms Go To Court For 3G License Fee Tax Refunds http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15993.php In Europe's top court, mobile telephone companies Tuesday accused European governments of acting like private companies, not regulators, and making too much profit from selling EUR109 billion of third-generation licenses. ... Mobile Cellular Industry as Set for the Year of the 3G Phone http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15998.php At the end of September 2005, the global cellular market clocked a record 2 billion cellular subscribers. By the end of December 2005 that figure had reached 2.14 billion and is well on the way to reaching 3 billion before the end of 2008.... European 3G Users Embracing New Multimedia Mobile Culture http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15999.php M:Metrics has published the findings of its first European Benchmark Surveys. Although 3G users account for a low percentage of mobile phones users overall, 3G users in the U.K. or Germany are as much as five times more likely to use the multimedia c... Nortel Demos HSUPA Calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16000.php Nortel has successfully achieved the industry's first simultaneous uplink and downlink high-speed wireless calls between two mobile devices at uplink speeds four times faster than current UMTS services. Nortel's demonstration used it's commercial UMT... [[ Financial ]] Sonae Launches EUR10.74 Billion Bid For Portugal Telecom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15979.php Conglomerate Sonae SGPS late Monday launched an audacious, EUR10.74 billion bid for former state telecommunications monopoly Portugal Telecom. ... Portugal Telecom Calls Sonae Bid "Unsolicited" http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15980.php Portugal Telecom Tuesday called Sonae SGPS's EUR10.7 billion takeover offer "unsolicited" and said the board of directors would meet to review the offer. ... KPN CEO: Company Isn't For Sale http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15982.php Dutch Telecommunications company Royal KPN NV (KPN) "is not for sale," Chief Executive Ad Scheepbouwer said Tuesday during a press conference. ... CEO says Russia's MTS net profit up 9% on year in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15985.php The net profit of Russia's largest mobile operator Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) rose 9% on the year in 2005 to U.S. $1.115 billion, MTS' President Vasily Sidorov said at a meeting with investors Tuesday. ... Moldova's Voxtel revenue up 51% on year in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15995.php The revenue of Moldova's leading mobile operator Voxtel rose 51% on the year to US$74.1 million in 2005, General Director of Voxtel Francis Gelibter told reporters Tuesday. ... MTS CEO says Q4 churn to rise to about 6.8% vs 2.9% in Q3 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15996.php Russia's Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) said Tuesday that it expects its churn rate, or the amount of subscribers leaving the operator, to rise in the fourth quarter to about 6.8% from 2.9% in the third quarter. ... [[ Handsets ]] Nolato Sees Increased Activity At Benq-Siemens In 06 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15983.php Swedish mobile phone parts maker Nolato sees increased activity at Benq Corp's European mobile phone operations in 2006 after some weakness in the fourth quarter of 2005, Chief Executive Georg Brunstam told analysts Tuesday. ... BenQ Mobile expects Brazilian revenues of US$450mn http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15989.php Taiwanese handset manufacturer BenQ Mobile expects its sales in Brazil to reach 1.5bn reais (US$450mn) in 2006, BenQ Brasil said in a press release. ... TTPCom Announces Blueprint for $20 Handset http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16004.php TTPCom has developed a complete handset reference design to address the growing Ultra Low Cost (ULC) handset market segment. The design, which includes TTPCom's AJAR ULC application suite, protocol software and baseband chipset engine, will enable ha... [[ Legal ]] Russia's customs says 124 cases initiated for 2005 illegal imports http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15988.php Russian courts initiated 124 criminal cases against illegal imports of consumer electronics in 2005, Vladimir Yegorov, a department director at the Federal Customs Service said Tuesday. ... Data Lab to sue Conatel http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15990.php Paraguayan telecoms services firm Data Lab plans to sue the country's telecoms regulator Conatel because of alleged irregularities in a tender for a contract to supply spectrum monitoring equipment, local newspaper ABC reported. ... [[ Mobile Content ]] Mobile TV Trial Doubles Average Viewing Time http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16002.php The world's first live trial of interactive mobile TV has doubled the average time viewers are using the mobile TV service. The trial was conducted by Ericsson and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). The nine-week trial has shown that, on a... [[ Network Contracts ]] Nokia Gets WCDMA Network Order From Telecom Italia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15981.php Finland's Nokia said Tuesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Telecom Italia for wider cooperation in the area of WCDMA 3G. ... Another WiMAX trial in Russia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15997.php Alcatel and Russia's Start Telecom have signed an agreement to conduct a field-trial of WiMAX equipment, starting this month. Under the terms of this agreement, Alcatel will provide Start Telecom with its WiMAX end-to-end solution, including base sta... Improving T-Mobile's IP Network http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16003.php T-Mobile has contracted InfoVista to optimize network performance and reduce cost of operations on its new UK MPLS-based IP VPN. The software will enable T-Mobile to ensure the reliability and Quality of Service of 2.5 and 3G data services and, ultim... [[ Personnel ]] Intrigue, chaos, conflict at Andinatel http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15991.php As plans to seek a foreign administrator for Ecuadorian state-owned landline telco, Andinatel and the mobile operator, Pacifictel remain on hold, the need for them appears ever more urgent. ... [[ Regulatory ]] Kuwait's MTC Bids For Egypt's 3rd GSM License: Official http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15978.php Kuwait's Mobile Telecommunications (MTC) is bidding for Egypt's third GSM license, a spokesman said Tuesday. ... EU Says 16 Countries Lack Competitive Telecom Mkts http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15984.php The European Commission Tuesday said its long-running probe of the telecommunications sector showed 16 out of 25 member countries lacked sufficient competition. ... EU To Press For Lower Roaming Charges On Mobile Calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15986.php Europe's top telecommunications regulator Wednesday will propose a law forcing mobile phone operators to cut charges customers pay while traveling abroad. ... Virgin's Bloomfin Ld gets license for mobile service in Georgia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15994.php The Virgin Islands' Bloomfin has received a license to offer mobile services in Georgia, Dimitry Kitoshvili, chairman of the country's National Communications Commission told Prime-Tass Tuesday. ... [[ Reports ]] African Continent Fastest Mobile Growth Market http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16001.php The latest report from Portio Research, predicts that the African continent will see significant growth in mobile subscribers between 2006 and 2011, adding 265 million new subscribers over that period. During 2004 and 2005 Africa saw overall mobile m... WiMAX Will Dominate Fixed Broadband Wireless Market - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16005.php WiMAX will quickly dominate the fixed broadband wireless market, but its success in the mobile arena will be slower and more difficult to achieve, according to a new report from Senza Fili Consulting. Despite this, 802.16e -- the version of WiMAX tha... [[ Statistics ]] Panama Mobile sector grows 26% in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/15992.php Panama ended 2005 with 1,588,200 mobile telephony clients, up 26% from 1,259,948 in 2004, Costa Rican daily Capital Financiero reported, citing statistics from Panama's telecoms regulator ERSP. ... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 11:54:30 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - Wednesday, February 8, 2006 ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 8, 2006 ******************************** EU Reprimands 16 Countries for Uncompetitive Telecoms Markets http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/130/16576?11228 The European Commission has ruled that no European Union (EU) member countries have a competitive telecoms market. According to Dow Jones reports, 16 out of the 25 member states lacked sufficient competition, while the other nine failed to respond to the EU's inquiries before the 30 September 2005 deadline. From a total of 152 markets... Portugal Telecom Wary of Sonae's Hostile Bid http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16575?11228 Portugal Telecom has described Sonae's US$12.8 billion-bid for a majority stake as hostile and below the actual or potential worth of the company. In a statement, Portugal Telecom chief executive Miguel Horta e Costa insisted that the bid undervalued Portugal Telecom's current and future worth, warning that it could lead to a break-up of... SingTel Achieves Q3 Net Profit Growth on Mixed Regional Performance http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16574?11228 In the quarter ending 31 December 2005, SingTel's net profit grew by 16% y/y to S$885 million (US$541.9 million), while underlying net profit rose 4.1% y/y to S$778 million. The net profit increase was mainly boosted by a S$105-million exceptional gain from the partial sale of its stake in Singapore Post. Revenue rose by 4.2% y/y to... "Better Than WiMax" Device Gets FCC Nod http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16573?11228 Startup xGTM Technology has received FCC approval for its novel wide area wireless network transmitter, an important step for a firm that's looking to buck a seemingly overwhelming trend toward 3G and 802.11 technologies.   The xGTM system is based on a new low frequency wireless networking protocol called xMax. Sarasota,... Google Battles Broadband Provider Fee http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/16570?11228 WASHINGTON -- Internet giant Google said Tuesday that the wide variety of Web sites might shrink if broadband providers like AT&T start charging companies for premium access to high-speed networks. The Bell companies promised members of the Senate Commerce Committee that they have no plans to block Internet services. Lawmakers... Bush Wants $3.6B Wi-Fi Tax http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16564?11228 The Bush administration has asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider imposing fees that would yield about $3.6 billion during the next 10 years on unauctioned spectrum licenses -- a notion widely seen as targeting newer broadband and Wi-Fi services, but presumably also applicable to a wide range of emerging RF... Nortel Takes $2.5B Hit http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16560?11228 Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT - message board) is on course to take a $2.473 billion charge to settle outstanding class action lawsuits. It would "remove a significant impediment to Nortel's future success and allow Mike Zafirovski and the Nortel team to move forward," the company's chairman Harry Pearce said in a statement this... US Business Data Services Spending Headed for Slow Decline http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16559?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Total US business end-user data service expenditures will grow 0.3% to $36.6 billion by the end of 2005, reports In-Stat. Expenditures will increase slightly again in 2006, fueled by broadband Internet access and shifts to IP environments, but start a gradual decline in 2007 as a result of mounting pricing ... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 13:39:59 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Verizon Business Beefs Up IP Services USTelecom dailyLead February 8, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWeQfDtutarsvlenCd TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Verizon Business beefs up IP services BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Lucent snaps up Riverstone * Cisco's business strategy begins to pay dividends * Nortel proposes $2.5B settlement for two lawsuits * Cisco, Level 3 report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * TelecomNEXT adds exhibit hall to meet demand! TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * IBM works with Houston utility on BPL network * IPTV firm to sell NBC Uni content on VOD service REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Senate hearing looks at "net neutrality" Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWeQfDtutarsvlenCd ------------------------------ From: Rob Nicholson Subject: Seeking VOIP UK Consultants Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 08:53:27 UTC Organization: BT Openworld I'm looking for a independent UK based VOIP consultant who has a wide knowledge of the various VOIP PBX systems for impartial advice on picking a VOIP PBX system for use in the terminal server/Citrix environment in a medium sized office. I'm sure you can work out my email address. Thanks, Rob ------------------------------ From: danny burstein Subject: Re: Broadband, Content Provider Firms Fight Over Net Neutrality Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 00:41:54 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Jeremy Pelofsky writes: [ big snip ] (quoting a news clip: ) > "You do deserve a return on your investment is the bottom line if > you're going to build out these networks," the Nevada Republican > said. "Otherwise, if you can't give them the return on their > investment, Wall Street is not going to loan them the money to do > this." However, just because someone (some company...) "deserves a return" does NOT mean, under the free enterprise system, that they are _guaranteed_ a return. There are way, way, too many groups, that have managed to get either perpetual gov't (taxpayer...) handouts or, the next best thing (and sometimes better) a gov't enforced monopoly or... a gov't mandated price set. We don't need more. _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 20:26:28 EST Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices In a message dated 7 Feb 2006 08:17:02 -0800, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > In the above movie mention about an executive sending a telegram to > his home office, I wonder when the switch to using long distance > telephone would've taken place. The executive was in a distance city, > heading home, and calling a special meeting of the Board. Had he > telephoned, his secretary would've had the message immediately and > would've started making arrangements, where via telegram there was a > delay and it was a one-way conversation. (However, part of the > movie's plot dealt with the Board speculating intensely on why the > meeting was called, so the one-way concept was important to this > particular movie.) Sending a telegram, just like sending a fax, an e-mail or a letter, has the advantage you don't have to wait around and engage in perhaps a lengthy conversation when you have something else more pressing. Also, the same telegram can be sent to multiple address (generally paying for each one) and you don't have to engage in a colloquy with every addresses. In addition, there may be, as in this case, a specific desire not to engage in conversation. In many cases there was also the desire to have a record of the sending and receiving of the message on paper. There was also the question of finding a telephone in a distant city to call from. Many people would not let you use their phone for a long distance call, particularly businesses, and the alternative would be to find the telephone office in the town. Telephone credit cards were becoming more common about that time, but certainly not the broad coverage of the public they later became. Note that rapid long distance connections generally were not especially common until at least the 1950s, and you would be waiting for the connection to come through. Manual connections were the rule, with the call being passed from operator to operator to an inward operator at the end office. The process speeded up quickly when operator toll dialing was introduced, but that was about the time that manual connections had also become more rapid. > It's amazing in so many old movies that vital information is > telegraphed to a person rather than telephoned, even from relatively > short distances. Can you clarify why distance would be a significant factor in the decision to telephone or telegraph? > Most large railroad stations had a Western Union desk or ticket > agents doubled as telegraph agents. When business people travelled, > they'd wire ahead their arrival plans or that they arrived safely. > Everyday people sent a postcard. Not just large stations; the smaller the town the more important the railroad office would be for sending telegrams. In small towns that would often be the only telegraph office there. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol Subject: Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 18:29:18 -0800 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Steven Lichter wrote: > Last year in Riverside, Ca. a person talking on a cell phone on the > Freeway rearended a car with a family, killing several of them, he was > charged and convicted of Murder, not Manslaughter as has been in the > past. More of these trials are needed until the people in charge pass > laws and then enforce them. Cite? I live in the Inland Empire too, about an hour from Riverside, and I don't recall hearing about this anywhere. It'd be in the papers in my area too, since the company that owns my local newspaper also owns the Riverside _Press-Enterprise._ Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: David O'Heare Subject: Re: Great Job Board Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 23:34:26 -0500 Pat, there seem to have been submissions from this person, or someone very like them, to every newsgroup that there is. wrote in message news:telecom25.57.10@telecom-digest.org: > There is a great job board located at the employment section of > SPAM CRAP . So pass it on to anyone looking for a > job. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Everyone look it over, but also > consider our very own classified advertisements here at > http://telecom-digest.org/classified.html for quite reasonable rates > on an (as of yet) not too widely used classified ads section. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for passing on this advice. I have always _attempted_ (frequently without much success) to provide a safe harbor or legitimate place to put legitimate messages about employment opportunities, people seeking employment, groups of scientists holding seminars and/or seeking papers for publication, etc. Even those relatively safe (i.e. free from spam/scam) types of messages are becoming few and far between it would seem. In the past, I would publish 'call for papers' without bothering to verify anything they said; my assumption was the persons who coordinated/managed those events knew infinitly more about the subject matter under discussion than I did; I simply wanted to do a good job in my 'support role' for those events and spread the word if possible. Now, I got a message from John Levine, printed here a week or so ago, advising me that a group of people in China were sending out 'call for papers' spam; I sort of dismissed his complaint as a 'sour grapes' thing; I did not, and still do not have the time (really, the energy and interest) in confirming and verifying all those things; but today, Wednesday, when the _third_ CFP from the same bunch of Chinese people showed up with the same details as before except for a change in the date that papers were 'due' I bounced it out. I guess from now on I have to start reviewing CFP items for the Digest as well, or limit my acceptance of them to the very few 'tried and true' ones which arrive, from IEEE and others. Ditto with the classified ads: I had _thought_ it would be a good way to introduce our readers to employment opportunities and introduce employers to the readers here. Legitimate ones, that is. I have seen so damn many commercials on television and the net which say in effect "I bought my first computer. I read this web page, it taught me how to spam and my first month I made five thousand dollars. Now I am making ten thousand dollars per month. You need to read this web page and start making money also." We all know that amounts to so much bullshit ... working with Google AdSense now for over a year I do not come *close* to 'thousands of dollars per month'; so I thought a few months ago, why not start a legitimate web site with classified ads for people to use; let folks post LEGITIMATE ads for services offered and services desired, preferably technical in nature. Guess what! _Two_ LEGITIMATE advertisers have come along. The _illegitimate_ advertisers (i.e. spammers) continue to load my inbox and my spam box daily with all kinds of crapola. I have never advertised it even once outside this Digest. http://telecom-digest.org/classified.html . Maybe I should start spamming it (the presence of my classified section) on all the other web sites around ... whoever thought, a quarter-century ago, that the internet would become this crappy ... Thanks again, Mr. Oheare, for bringing this latest bunch of crap to my attention. I guess there are no longer any safe harbors on the net where one can work. Feel free to write me again whenever you wish. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2006 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! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. 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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 V25 #59 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Feb 9 16:19:16 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 9CA9A150D1; Thu, 9 Feb 2006 16:19:15 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #60 Message-Id: <20060209211915.9CA9A150D1@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 16:19:15 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, NA_DOLLARS autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Feb 2006 16:20:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 60 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Fiber Cut Knock S.E. Kansas Off Line (TELECOM Digest Editor) News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920 (Solomon) A Web Site for Real-Estate Voyeurs (Monty Solomon) Boston Unveils WiFi Push (Monty Solomon) Cellular-News For Thursday 9th February 2006 (cellular-news) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 9, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Vonage Goes IPO Route (USTelecom dailyLead) Ground Start Analog Phone (Administrator) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (Lisa Hancock) Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway (Steven Lichter) PanFish Inc. Searching For Respectable Person (Robert Hard) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Fiber Cut Knock Rural S.E. Kansas Off Line Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 14:06:05 EST From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) A fiber got cut by a clumsy contractor with a backhoe early Thursday in Parsons, KS which knocked all of rural s.e. Kansas as served by cableone.net off line. This cut included TELECOM Digest. Right now I am working off of our back up modem dial up line using TerraWorld. Cableone is aware of the problem and they estimate it will be six to eight hours in repair. The contractor just shrugged his shoulders and acted like he did not know what he had done. "He'll shrug his shoulders alright when he gets the repair bill, noted a technician from Cableone.net in Phoenix, AZ where the cableone technical center is located. In the meantime, your editor has to limp along with a very slow dial up connection, meaning today's issue of the Digest will be sort of skimpy. You'll get what I had available when the fiber got cut; the rest will sit in the mailox until perhaps later tonight when they estimate repairs will be finished. PAT ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 00:28:17 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920 Mln News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Operating Income of $920 Million as Revenues Increase to $6.7 Billion; Income from Continuing Operations Increases to $694 Million - Feb 8, 2006 04:05 PM (BusinessWire) NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2006--News Corporation QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS -- Cable Network Programming operating income up 15% on advertising growth at Fox News Channel and higher affiliate revenues at the Regional Sports Networks. -- Television operating income up 20% on strong revenue growth at STAR and lower promotional costs at the FOX Network due to the earlier launch of its fall lineup versus a year ago. -- Filmed Entertainment delivers operating income of $299 million on continued strength of home entertainment sales of film and television titles. $108 million decrease versus prior year reflects record home entertainment results in second quarter a year ago. -- New subscriber additions at SKY Italia improve operating results by $52 million. At quarter end the subscriber base had expanded to 3.6 million, an increase of 496,000 subscribers in the past 12 months. -- Newspaper operating income declines as $99 million in redundancy costs associated with the printing project and advertising weakness in the U.K. more than offsets the inclusion of Queensland Press' results in Australia. -- Increased contributions from the In-Store division drives Magazines and Inserts operating income up 4% while an array of bestsellers at HarperCollins raises Book Publishing operating income 24%. News Corporation today reported second quarter income from continuing operations of $694 million, ($0.21 per share on a diluted combined basis(1)), as compared with $386 million ($0.13 per share on a diluted combined basis(1)) reported in the second quarter a year ago. These results primarily reflect an increase in equity earnings of affiliates and increased Other income from the unrealized change in fair value of certain outstanding exchangeable debt securities partially offset by a decrease in consolidated operating income. (1) See supplemental financial data on page 14 for detail on earnings per share Consolidated operating income for the second quarter of $920 million was down 4% versus the $954 million reported a year ago, primarily as a result of a $99 million redundancy provision recorded this quarter in connection with the U.K. newspaper printing project, as well as a reduction from the record Filmed Entertainment operating income reported in the second quarter a year ago. These items more than offset double-digit improvements from the Television, Cable Network Programming, Direct Broadcast Satellite and Book Publishing segments. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=55529641 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 00:55:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Web Site for Real-Estate Voyeurs By WALTER S. MOSSBERG and KATHERINE BOEHRET If there's anything Americans obsess over as much as sports, pop culture and college for their kids, it's real estate. All over the country, people love to talk about how much their homes, and those of their neighbors, might be worth if sold today and what it would take to snag a new house. Trouble is, it's hard for average folks to obtain solid, neutral estimates of the market values of homes without consulting a real-estate agent. There have been a few Web sites that offer estimates of a home's value, such as housevalues.com. But they require you to enter your contact information and to be contacted by a real-estate agent or mortgage broker in order to actually receive a detailed estimate. While these sites look like they are focused on the consumer, they are actually designed to generate sales leads for agents. Now there's a new, well-designed, free online service for finding the value of a home that doesn't require you to identify yourself or to communicate with an agent or broker, and provides heaps of information directly to consumers. It's called Zillow, and it is launching today, in beta, or test, form at http://zillow.com. Zillow uses data such as tax records, sales history and the actual prices of "comparables" -- homes in your area that are similar to yours -- to come up with an estimate, which it calls a "Zestimate." It backs up the estimate with lavish data -- aerial photos and maps showing prices in a neighborhood; loads of charts and graphs displaying historical data and price movements, as well as details on the size and room totals of a home. It even allows you to enter information, like the types and prices of recent renovations, that might change an estimate. A home needn't be for sale to be searched in Zillow, which claims to cover 62 million houses and to update its estimates daily. The company, founded by people who formerly ran the Expedia travel Web site, hopes to make money through advertising. When estimating home values, real-estate agents can draw on their industry's massive database, called the Multiple Listing System, as well as on their own local knowledge. Zillow doesn't have access to the MLS or to agents' local savvy. So, it draws on roughly 10 commercial providers of real-estate data, which supply information like a home's sale history; tax assessment and payment history; comparable-home sale prices; and numbers of rooms in a home. This information is largely collected by the commercial-data providers from government records. Zillow also obtains some government records directly. Zillow then crunches these numbers using its own proprietary computer formula and comes up with an estimate. The company acknowledges that its raw data on comparable sales can be three to six weeks older than the data in the MLS system that agents use. We've been testing Zillow for a couple of days, and we are favorably impressed. The site is fast, broad and deep. It's easy to use and is nicely laid out. It even offers to email updates on its estimates for any property that interests you. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20060208.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 12:26:55 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Boston Unveils WiFi Push By Robert Weisman Globe Staff Mayor Thomas M. Menino this morning said Boston will mount an effort to bring wireless Internet access to the entire city. A new task force announced today will report to Menino by mid-summer on a plan and a timetable for rolling out wireless Internet. The task force will be co-chaired by Joyce Plotkin, president of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council; Jim Cash, a former Harvard Business School professor; and Rick Burnes, co-founder of Charles River Ventures. http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2006/02/boston_unveils.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Thursday 9th February 2006 Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 07:59:50 -0600 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[ 3G ]] Indonesia Telkomsel,Indosat, Excelcom Win 3G Licenses http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16006.php The Indonesian government has awarded PT Indonesian Satellite, PT Excelcomindo Pratama and unlisted PT Telekomunikasi Selular, or Telkomsel, licenses to operate 3G networks, Indonesian Communication Minister Sofyan Djalil told reporters Wednesday. ... Nokia Wins Network Expansion Contract With 3 In UK http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16008.php Nokia says it has received a network expansion contract in the U.K. from mobile operator 3, owned by Hutchison Whampoa. ... Regulator Asks Hutchison To Highlight 3G IPO Risks - Source http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16009.php Italian stock market regulator Consob has placed unusually strict disclosure requirements for Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.'s planned initial public offering of Italian mobile phone unit 3 Italia, a person familiar with the situation said Wednesday. ... Mobilcom Founder: Letter Aids Claims Vs France Telecom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16015.php Gerhard Schmid, the founder and former chief executive of German firm Mobilcom believes he has a good chance of making prior minority shareholder France Telecom liable for the financial consequences stemming from its termination of a contract between... KPN, Telfort Put Rollout Of 3G Networks On Hold http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16016.php Dutch telecommunications operators Royal KPN and Telfort have put the rollout of their third-generation mobile networks on hold, pending the outcome of a study into the possible synergies that can be reached by integrating the networks, the operators... ANALYSIS: Can Sunbeach's CDMA mobile model work? http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16019.php PREMIUM - Barbadian ISP Sunbeach is gearing up to launch a new CDMA mobile service as early as mid year. However, while the company's CEO Ian Worrell is confident that Sunbeach will differentiate itself through roaming and advanced data services, analysts are ... HSDPA Launched in Kuwait http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16028.php Kuwait's Wataniya Telecom yesterday opened its High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) network, making it the first operator in the Middle East and Africa region to offer mobile services beyond 3G. The solution, provided by Nokia, covers Kuwait and... [[ Financial ]] FOCUS: VimpelCom shareholders' conflict worsens, future unclear http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16013.php PREMIUM - The conflict between two key shareholders of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom has worsened in the last few weeks, creating problems for the company. Analysts see no easy exit from the situation since both shareholders want to incre... Comcel to invest US$66mn in infrastructure in 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16020.php Colombian mobile operator Comcel plans to invest 150bn pesos (US$66.4mn) to expand its infrastructure in 2006, local daily Portafolio reported. ... Knowledge Management for Customer Service: Critical Ingredients for Success As enterprises increasingly use customer service to differentiate themselves; knowledge management has gained prominence as a strategic initiative. This eGain whitepaper discusses the critical ingredients of success as it relates to knowledge management strategy, technology, people and processes. CLICK HERE - Download New Whitepaper http://www.egain.com/pages/eGain_bestpractice_knowledge_management_uk.asp?id=ir200&source=IR%20Cellular%20News Compliments of eGain [[ Handsets ]] Camera Phone Demand Soon to Peak - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16031.php Phones with the ability to take images, both still and video, have captured about 40% of the wireless phone market, reports In-Stat. Despite the products' popularity, many camera phone users want higher resolution, the ability to use storage media, a... SonyEricsson Tops Handset Sales In January http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16034.php The Swedish manufacturer of carrying cases for portable electronics, Krusell, has released their "Top 10"-list for January 2006. The list is based upon the number of pieces of model specific mobile phone cases that have been ordered from Krusell duri... [[ Legal ]] Telenor Commences Arbitration Against Alfa Group http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16007.php Norwegian telecommunications operator Telenor, Wednesday said it has commenced an arbitration proceeding against Alfa Group Russia's subsidiary Storm LLC in connection with Storm's violations of the shareholders agreement of Ukrainian mobile operator... Nortel Reaches Proposed Class-Action Settlement http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16011.php Nortel Networks Corp. has agreed in principle to settle two significant class-action lawsuits against it, which result in the payment of $575 million in cash and the issuance of 628,667,750 of its shares, or about 14.5% of its current equity. ... Qualcomm: Court Orders Broadcom Must Remove ITC Action http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16012.php Qualcomm says a district court permanently enjoined Broadcom Corp. from going ahead with infringement claims against it, regarding two patents. ... [[ Mobile Content ]] Mobile TV and Mobile E-Mail Are Favorite Applications - survey http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16026.php Downloading music to a mobile handset, accessing and editing e-mails on a mobile handset, watching television or the person at the other end on the display during a phone call - which services will wireless customers be using in the future, and what ... [[ Network Operators ]] O2 Abolishes Roaming Charges Between The Irelands http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16030.php O2 Ireland has became the first operator in Ireland to abolish roaming charges between the Southern Republic of Ireland and British Northern Ireland for all of it's 1.6 million customers. In addition the company has abolished roaming charges across G... Vodafone Japan Adopts Ethical Shopping http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16036.php Vodafone Japan has announce its implementation of Vodafone Group's Code of Ethical Purchasing (CEP) with its main suppliers starting mid-February 2006 as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative. The CEP is designed to promote safe and fair... [[ Offbeat ]] UK Mobile Users Upset At Poor Customer Service http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16029.php New research shows that more than 40% of internet chat about UK mobile operators is related to customer service issues. Not only is customer care the most common topic of discussion, it also attracts the most negative sentiment, with only one UK oper... [[ Regulatory ]] Russian lower house OKs last reading of caller-pays bill http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16010.php Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved Wednesday the third, and last, reading of a bill seeking to introduce the Calling Party Pays (CPP) principle in Russia. ... Movistar: Spectrum bidding rules on sale Feb 20 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16021.php Mobile operator Movistar Chile has set February 20 as the date to start selling the bidding rules for the auction of 25Mhz of excess spectrum it has in the 800MHz band, local press reported. ... Hutchison joins Movistar spectrum suitors http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16022.php The Argentine unit of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications has put in a bid for the 35MHz of the spectrum mobile operator Movistar Argentina is expected to return to authorities, local press reported. ... EU Urges New Rules To Cut International Mobile Phone Roaming Costs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16023.php BRUSSELS (AP)--The European Commission wants new rules to stop mobile phone firms charging travelers a higher price for making calls abroad, European Union Telecommuications Commissioner Vivane Reding said Wednesday. ... Antonyuk: Russia gets 50 bln rbl annually in GSM frequency fees http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16024.php The Russian government receives 50 billion rubles annually from GSM mobile operators in payments for frequency usage, Deputy IT and Telecommunications Minister Boris Antonyuk told a news conference Wednesday. ... [[ Reports ]] Spend on Wireless by Education Authorities to Soar http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16027.php Juniper Research finds that the market for mobile and wireless in the education sector will grow exponentially from US$827 million in 2005 to US$6.49 billion in 2010. Overall expenditure will be made up of sums for the buying in of handheld and porta... Enterprise Wireless Data Revenues Set to Top $22 Billion http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16032.php Strategy Analytics has released a report that is predicting that business use of wireless data will step into the early mainstream market in 2006, growing over 20 percent to a market worth over US$22 Billion in North America, Western Europe and Asia/... Wireless Industry Must Prepare For Radically Different Futures http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16035.php The wireless industry could evolve in very different ways over the next five to ten years, demanding robust planning by network operators, technology vendors, service providers and regulators, according to a new report from Analysys Research. Major u... [[ Statistics ]] Analysts say Kyrgyz mobile subscriber base at 560,000 on Feb 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16014.php The mobile communications subscriber base in Kyrgyzstan amounted to 560,000 users as of February 1, consulting company Expert said in a report released Wednesday. No comparisons were provided. ... Survey shows Russia's mobile penetration up to 60% as of January http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16017.php Russia's mobile penetration rate amounted to about 60% in January, up from about 56% in December 2005, according to a survey results of which were released Wednesday by Russia's ROMIR Monitoring. Russia's population amounts to about 142.8 million p... Azercell mobile user base up 34.6% on year as of Jan 1 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16025.php The subscriber base of Azeri mobile operator Azercell Telecom rose 34.6% on the year to 1.75 million users as of January 1, the company said in a press release Wednesday. ... [[ Technology ]] Symbian OS License Costs Cut http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16033.php Symbian has drastically cut the cost of Symbian software licenses for use in smartphones. The company says that its objective is to reduce the cost of using Symbian OS and further accelerate the uptake of Symbian OS in high volume segments. The curre... ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 10:50:18 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 9, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 9, 2006 ******************************** Oh, Wireless, Where Art Thou? http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16596?11228 Now that Cabelcos have paired with Sprint Nextel Corp. for mobile wireless service, what are other CLECs to do about achieving the desired quadplay? Many regional CLECs simply don't have the volume, expertise or resources to take on a full-fledged MVNO business. Fortunately, help is on the way. "It's now mandatory for a CLEC to have... Jordan: France Telecom Looks to Take Controlling Jordan Telecom Stake http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16594?11228 France Telecom, which took a 40% stake in the Jordanian fixed-line incumbent when it was privatised in 2000, is in negotiations with the Jordanian government to increase its stake by 11% and thereby take a majority shareholding in the operator, Reuters reports. The state pension fund and private institutions own a 18.5% stake in Jordan... Broadband Boosts BT Q3 Results http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16590?11228 BT Group has announced not-so-wonderful results for its fiscal third quarter of 2005 and the nine months ending 31 December 2005. According to chief executive Ben Verwaayen, growth at the operator's broadband business helped boost results in a dynamic business environment. The company said that connections through BT Wholesale stand at... Vonage Files for $250 million IPO, Appoints New CEO http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16589?11228 NEW YORK (AP) -- Vonage Holdings Corp., the United States' largest Internet telephone service, on Wednesday filed for an initial public offering worth up to $250 million. The company also appointed Mike Snyder chief executive, succeeding founder Jeffrey Citron, who will remain chairman and take the new title 'chief... Motorola Launches Virtual Mobile Wallet http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/100/16588?11228 Leave your wallet, credit cards and cash at home. All you'll really need is your mobile phone. Motorola says its M-Wallet gives users quick and secure access to their bank accounts and eliminates the need to ever carry credit or debit... Remote Control http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16586?11228 Mobile devices have become a bit of a mixed blessing for IT managers -- allowing unprecedented freedom and productivity, but raising a host of management issues most are unused to handling. To relieve some of that burden, developers are increasingly offering over-the-air management solutions that allow IT managers to do things like... Research: VoWLAN Device Sales To Spike In 2007-08 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16585?11228 Enterprise Voice-over-Wireless LAN (VoWLAN) usage is expected to grow dramatically during the next three years, according to a new study issued by TelecomWeb's sister division InfoTech as part of its "InfoTrack for Enterprise Mobility" program. In its Mobile Communications in the U.S. Workplace report, InfoTech also predicts annual U.S.... Europe Is Urged to Improve Web Security http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16582?11228 VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Europe must work harder to make the Internet more secure as the nature of online threats becomes increasingly criminal across the 25-nation bloc, a senior EU official warned Thursday. "We are still far from achieving the goal of secure and reliable networks that protect confidential and reliable... Cable Telephony Service Revenues to Hit $10 Billion by 2009 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16580?11228 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., February 8, 2006 - Worldwide cable telephony service revenues rose from $4.5 billion in 2004 to $5.6 billion in 2005, and are projected to reach $10 billion by 2009, reports In-Stat. The widening availability of VoIP-based cable telephony services has resulted in thousands of new cable telephony subscribers for... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 13:07:47 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Vonage Goes IPO Route USTelecom dailyLead February 9, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWoMfDtutasFxNbMLm TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Vonage goes IPO route BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Telcordia announces IMS solution * Satellite company's wireless spectrum suddenly becomes valuable * EarthLink, Telstra, BT, DirecTV report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Complimentary Exhibits and Keynotes Only registration at TelecomNEXT TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * RIM offers details for software workaround REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Surveillance requests more common after Sept. 11 * Slew of sites hawking phone records close down Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWoMfDtutasFxNbMLm ------------------------------ Subject: Ground Start Analog Phone Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 07:57:03 -0600 From: Administrator Hi Pat, With your vast experience, I was wondering if you can help me. I just installed a Cisco CallManager Express system. Everything is working great with the system. The problem is we set the lines to groundstart. Now we would like to have the main line also going to an analog phone just in case we have a power failure or the CME goes down. Is there an analog phone we can purchase that has groundstart capabilities? If so, please point me in the right direction. Kindest Regards, Damian P.C. Jones IT Manager Great Northern Cabinetry, Inc. 749 Kennedy Street P.O. Box 207 Rib Lake, WI 54470 (715) 427-5255 (715) 427-5227 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your compliment about my 'vast experience'. In the olden days of Ma Bell, asking your service rep for a 'ground start' style telephone would produce one promptly from a technician who would show up with it on request. You can purchase one from various suppliers, but their names escape me at the moment and it would not come as inexpensive as you could simply build one. Please recall all you need to do to have a 'ground start' phone is to touch the 'tip' side of the line to ground momentarily, like for one or two seconds, then remove that connection. Sort of like you press a doorbell for a second or two, then release the button you were pressing. I do not know how large your installation is, but I am sure you know where to find a connection to 'ground', such as a cold water pipe. Use a phone with a temporary push to connect switch on it such as one of the older 'two line twist button' phones. You know, the ones with red/green wires as line one, or turn the little twist button the other direction and yellow/black wires connect with line two. In this instance, 'line two' (yellow/black wires) will not do anything unless you want an actual line two. What you will concern yourself with are the blue/white wires in the cable which make temporary connection when the 'twist button' is used in its _third_ position, which is temporary push down/release (sort of like a doorbell button). In fact, when Bell was in business, what they did with those blue/white wires was have them temporarily connect to buzz or signal another phone somewhere on the line. But what you are going to do is use the blue/white wires to make a temporary connection to ground. When you press, then release the twist button (its third, press/release thing), you will bring ground onto the pair for for second or two needed to establish a ground start connection. I did that many years ago when my uncle was the proprietor of a Walgreen's Agency drug store in Whiting, IN. He had a pay phone in the front of the store and a private phone (Whiting-68 was the number as I recall) on the wall in back by the pharmacy. To use the pay phone, people had to put a nickel in the phone which tripped the ground, and presently the operator would answer and get the desired number. I found a two line/twist button phone somewhere and hooked it up in his pharmacy office instead. Turn the button one way, you got the Whiting-68 pharmacy phone line. Turn the button the other direction and you got the pay station in the front of the store, To _use_ the payphone however (without having to run up to the front of the store and put a nickle in) you would depress that little button for all of a couple seconds until you heard a sort of 'clack' or static on the line, then release the button and wait for the operator to respond, same as if you had been in the front of the store, on the payphone. I just went to the phone terminal box in the basement of the store and jumped the white wire (of the blue/white pair) to the yellow (ground wire) of the payphone. Either way, (person in front with a nickel which tripped the finger in the coin box to temporarily in turn trip the ground to make the connection) _or_ uncle in back in his pharmacy office twisting the button to the payphone line position then tapping the buton with his finger to temporarily touch blue to white down to the basement where white met yellow. *In theory* it was only supposed to be an 'answer-only' extension to the payphone which was always ringing because kids from school hung around the fountain area at the front of store making calls and getting calls from their buddies. The fountain clerk/store cashier was not always able to get to the pay phone to answer in time, and uncle would have to run out to the front and get the payphone. It worked fine for a couple weeks then one day I was in the store and the telephone inspector came around to see my uncle and asked him what had happened. Uncle played sort of dumb, he claimed to have no idea what was wrong. The telephone inspector went to the basement, looked in the terminal box, snapped off _my_ side of the ground wire, came back upstairs, disabled the twist button/two line phone, went over to the pay phone, lifted the receiver, waited for the operator to respond and said to her 'give me the Business Office'. I thought it sort of prudent at that point to make myself scarce so went outside the drugstore where I could spy through the window and see what was going on. The inspector told the Business Office he had 'corrected the problem'. Then he came outside, saw me and asked 'have you seen anyone fooling around with the pay station?' This inspector had a very large, red, bulbous nose; he appeared to drink too much ice tea, IMO. I assured him I had not seen anyone 'messing around' with the phone, and he replied "I sure would like to catch the little bastard; if you see who it was, tell him to stay away from the phone." I told him I would make certain to tell the 'little bastard' not to mess with the phone any further. But now days, Bell is out of business as you know. Feel free to tap the proper wire to ground anytime you want to get a groundstart phone to produce dial tone. You cannot get in trouble for it any longer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices Date: 8 Feb 2006 13:36:16 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > Sending a telegram, just like sending a fax, an e-mail or a letter, > has the advantage you don't have to wait around and engage in perhaps > a lengthy conversation when you have something else more pressing. In the example of this movie, it was the big boss, who has the advtg of being able to cut short conversations. IIRC, the staff had unanswered questions about his arrival, that is, if someone should pick him up at the airport and on what flight. Also the staff were wondering what they should do to prepare for the meeting. Admittedly this unknown was a dramatic feature of the movie as it lead to speculation and scheming among the board members. > There was also the question of finding a telephone in a distant city > to call from. By the time of the movie, 1954, pay phones were a standard fixture virtually everywhere in cities. The building he was visiting had a Western Union office in the lobby and certainly would've had a bank of pay telephone booths; all office buildings had them in the lobby. Being the boss he could've called collect. > Note that rapid long distance connections generally were not > especially common until at least the 1950s, and you would be waiting > for the connection to come through. That is true. The movie took place in 1954 and while there was considerable operator toll dialing by that point, it was by no means universal. While I would expect his toll call to take a minute or two to put through, I don't think the delay would've been too cumbersome. If the call originated in a rural area and went to another rural area, additional relay points would've been required as the call moved from primary toll centers to secondary and tertiary ones on both ends. On the other hand, a call between two cities on a busy route (ie St. Louis to Chicago or Washington to NYC), I suspect the call was completed rather quickly. It is an interesting question. I strongly suspect the Bell System compiled completion-time statistics for toll calls and as the 1950s wore on the times decreased. In the 1950s the Bell System was busy upgrading its toll network with microwave and coax cables and No 4 crossbar switching. I wonder in 1954 what percentage of subscribers had DDD and what percentage of subscribers had operators who had toll dialing capability. > Can you clarify why distance would be a significant factor in the > decision to telephone or telegraph? I don't know about telegraph rates, but long distance telephone rates were based on distance. A call 1,000 miles away cost considerably more than a call 100 miles away. If telegraph rates were flat by distance, then telegrams would be more likely sent for longer distances than short distances. I wish I knew what telegraph rates were for 1954 compared to long distance decreasing rates. All I know for sure is that telegraph rates were increasing while long distance phone rates were. According to some literature, WU executives recognized this as early as 1960, knew their basic public message businsess would be soon obsolete because of cost, and sought to get into other lines, such as data transmission and military services. Anyone know a source where old rates might be found? [public replies, please] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2006 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Welcome or Not, Cell Phones Set for Subway Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 03:23:20 GMT Steve Sobol wrote: > Steven Lichter wrote: >> Last year in Riverside, Ca. a person talking on a cell phone on the >> Freeway rearended a car with a family, killing several of them, he was >> charged and convicted of Murder, not Manslaughter as has been in the >> past. More of these trials are needed until the people in charge pass >> laws and then enforce them. > Cite? I live in the Inland Empire too, about an hour from Riverside, > and I don't recall hearing about this anywhere. It'd be in the papers > in my area too, since the company that owns my local newspaper also > owns the Riverside _Press-Enterprise._ > Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED > Company website: http://JustThe.net/ > Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ > E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 I don't remember when it was to the date, but it was in the paper several days as well as on the news, the car hit a van with a whole family in it. You might try looking at the PE site and check the archives, I know the trial was not covered much since the person pleaded the case out. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) 2006 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:18:24 -0800 From: Robert Hard Subject: PanFish Inc. Searching for Respectable Person Multinational fish selling company "PanFish Inc." searching for respectable person to fill post of regional manager . Demands : age 21-61 years old, smart, communicative, prompt, call of duty, readiness. PanFish Inc. is pleased to offer you a job as a regional manager. We trust that your knowledge, skills and experience will be among our most valuable assets. Should you accept this job offer, per company policy you'll be eligible to receive the following beginning on your hire date. Salary: 1000-2000 per week Profit sharing Sick leave Vacation and personal days Please send your CV, profiles according this address : panfishfilial@aol.com PanFish Inc. seeks to hire only the best. We conduct business following the spirit and the intent of the equal opportunity laws and we strive towards maintaining a diverse community. We encourage excellence at all levels in our organization. PanFish Inc. is an equal opportunity affirmative action employer. Should you require accommodation to apply for a position at PanFish Inc., please contact us PanFish Inc. does not accept and does not respond to resumes that are unsolicited. Regards, Robert Hard, hiring coordinator. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let me ask this question, Mr. Hard. Would one of the new employee's duties be to accept payments from 'international customers', deposit said payments in a bank somewhere, convert the payments to money _you_ can use, deduct a fee, then remit proceeds to _you_, who will vanish about the time the sheriff, police, bank examiners show up looking for _me_? Tsk, tsk, tsk. I did not think you were that way ... Perhaps you can also write again and tell us why a large reputable company like yourself would dirty his hands with a post office like AOL, the original and still largest spam/scam operation on the net? And a two thousand dollar per week salary, you say? My, that is really something ... and you would make accomodations for me and my diseased brain. I can see now all my readers here rushing to get in on this great opportunity. Mr. Hard, if you are _for real_ please accept my apologies for having my tongue in check .. err .. cheek, but somehow I feel that something is not quite right. Another three hours since the fiber cut; I sure hope cableone gets their act togther sometime today. :( PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * 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 2006 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! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. 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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 V25 #60 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Feb 9 23:52:38 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id DEF24150A7; Thu, 9 Feb 2006 23:52:37 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #61 Message-Id: <20060210045237.DEF24150A7@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 23:52:37 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=unavailable version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Feb 2006 23:55:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 61 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Yahoo Accused in Jailing of 2nd China Internet User (Lindsay Beck) Fresh Outrage at Yahoo in China (Eric Auchard & Joel Rothstein) Japan Internet Suicide Rate Rises to 91 Last Year (Elaine Lies) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (DLR) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Ground Start Analog Phone (William Warren) Re: Fiber Cut Knock Rural S.E. Kansas Off Line (John McHarry) 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: Lindsay Beck Subject: Yahoo Accused in Jailing of 2nd China Internet User Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 21:40:31 -0600 By Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc. provided evidence to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of an Internet writer, lawyers and activists said on Thursday, the second such case involving the U.S. Internet giant. The latest storm over Western Internet companies in China comes just weeks after Web search giant Google Inc. came under fire for saying it would block politically sensitive terms on its new China site, bowing to conditions set by Beijing. Writer and veteran activist Liu Xiaobo said Yahoo had cooperated with Chinese police in a case that led to the 2003 arrest of Li Zhi, who was charged with subverting state power and sentenced to eight years in prison after trying to join the dissident China Democracy Party. Yahoo gave public security agents details of Li's registration as a Yahoo user, Liu said in an article posted on U.S.-based Chinese- language news portal Boxun, citing a defense statement from Li's lawyers. A spokeswoman for Yahoo said the company was looking into the matter. "As in most jurisdictions, governments are not required to inform service providers why they are seeking certain information and typically do not do so," spokeswoman Mary Osako said. "We would not know whether a demand for information focused on murder, kidnapping or another crime," she said by phone from California, adding Yahoo thought the Internet was a positive force in China. But media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said the argument that Yahoo simply responds to requests from authorities did not hold water. "Yahoo certainly knew it was helping to arrest political dissidents and journalists, not just ordinary criminals," it said in a statement. PROFITS AND PRINCIPLES The group, along with the Committee to Protect Journalists, also called on Yahoo to disclose information on all Internet journalists and writers whose identities it has revealed to Chinese authorities. The case is the latest in a string of examples that highlight the friction between profits and principles for Internet companies doing business in China, the world's number-two Internet market. In September, Yahoo was accused of helping Chinese authorities identify Shi Tao, who was sentenced last April to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets abroad. Yahoo defended itself at the time, saying it had to abide by local laws. In December, Microsoft shut down a blog at MSN Spaces belonging to outspoken blogger Michael Anti under Chinese government orders. The government has also been pressuring mainstream Internet news Web sites in what analysts say is a tightening of the atmosphere for intellectuals. A notice issued by the Beijing Internet Propaganda Management Office earlier this week listed media sites it said were reprinting information that went beyond what was lawful. "At present, do not use what they report on political news; especially do not use them for frontpage news on the Internet," the notice warned. Its list included the Web sites of adventurous newspapers like Guangdong-based Southern Metropolis News, but also the International Herald Leader, which belongs to the state news agency Xinhua, and regional dailies such as the Lanzhou Morning News. Print editions have also been targeted. Chen Jieren, the chief editor of the Beijing-based Public Interest Times, was sacked on Wednesday over a report criticizing authorities, the South China Morning Post said. The case follows the dismissals of the editor of the outspoken Beijing News and the closure of Freezing Point, the weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily known for its critical commentaries and investigative reporting. (Additional reporting by John Ruwitch in Hong Kong and Guo Shipeng in Beijing) Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines from Reuters, please go to : http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Joel Rothstein & Eric Auchard Subject: Fresh Outrage at Yahoo Ahead of China Hearings Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 21:35:03 -0600 By Joel Rothstein and Eric Auchard U.S. Internet companies faced fresh bipartisan criticism in the Congress on Thursday following heightened controversy over Yahoo Inc.'s alleged role in the Chinese government's eight-year prison sentence against a second dissident. "I don't like any American company ratting out a citizen for speaking out against their government," Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat and member of the House Human Rights Subcommittee, told Reuters on Thursday. "This is the tip of the iceberg of a very oppressive regime that we have almost become accustomed to America," Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican and chairman of the House Human Rights Subcommittee, told Reuters. The storm over Western media companies' compliance with China's policies comes before next week's hearing by Smith's committee where lawmakers from both parties are expected to grill representatives from Yahoo, Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc.. "There are probably others (dissidents) that we need to find out about. We are going to make sure it doesn't get swept under the rug," Smith said. Google came under fire last month for bowing to Chinese government pressure to block politically sensitive terms on its new Chinese site. Microsoft has also angered human rights activists by blocking the blog of a critic of the Beijing government. Yahoo spokeswoman Linda Osaka said her company was unaware of the details of the latest case raised by Paris-based international rights group Reporters Without Borders. The group said Yahoo provided electronic records to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of writer Li Zhi in 2003. "The choice in China and other countries is not whether to comply with local laws. The choice is whether to remain in the country or not," Osaka said. "We have a philosophy of engagement. We believe the Internet is a positive force." Yahoo's engagement includes a $1 billion investment last year to acquire a 40 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba.com, which now runs the company's China operations. Alibaba has moved all of its 2,000 Yahoo China servers from the United States to China, Alibaba's CEO said last year. Smith, one of the harshest China critics in Congress, said he wants legislation requiring companies to pull operations such as e-mail servers out of China and other countries that lack U.S.-style civil rights and due process protections. Google is already engaged in a legal battle with the Bush administration over whether the Justice Department can force the Web search company to turn over data about its customers' Web-surfing habits. The information is sought by the government to defend a law to prevent online child pornography. Smith said the hearings set for February 15 will push Yahoo to reveal what information it provided to the Chinese government, the number of people involved and details on how Yahoo interacts with what he describes as the "secret police." "We only responded with what we were legally compelled to provide and nothing more," Osako said. "We had a vigorous process in place to make sure that only required material was provided," she said. "Congress remains very concerned with the Chinese pressure on Internet companies to help in Beijing's continuing crackdown on free speech," said Rep. Tom Lantos (news, bio, voting record), the founding co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. "We are looking into ways in which the companies can resist or circumvent this pressure, and this will be Topic A at our hearing next week," said Lantos, the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee whose district includes the northern edge of Silicon Valley. "The bloom is off the rose for the Internet industry," said John Palfrey, director of an Internet think tank at Harvard Law School. "There is a sense that American companies have a higher obligation than has been practiced in China in recent years." Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters and headline stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Elaine Lies Subject: Japan Internet Suicide Deaths Soar to 91 in 2005 Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 21:43:44 -0600 By Elaine Lies The number of Japanese killing themselves in groups after meeting through the Internet -- strangers afraid to die alone -- soared to a record 91 last year, nearly double that of 2004, police said on Thursday. The deadly pacts pose a grim challenge for officials struggling to deal with Japan's high suicide rate, one of the worst among industrialised nations. No religious prohibitions exist against taking one's own life in Japan, where suicide was once a form of ritual atonement for samurai warriors and in modern times is a way to escape failure or save loved ones from embarrassment or financial loss. Suicides surged by 35 percent in 1998 as Japan's economy was mired in stagnation and have exceeded 30,000 every year since then. Group suicides make up only a small fraction of the total, but the steady annual increase, along with the widespread media coverage most get, has experts increasingly worried. "Many people are too scared to die alone," said Yumiko Misaki, director of the Tokyo Inochi no Denwa (Phone of Life), a suicide counselling service. "So they reach each other through the Internet and make arrangements. "And the worst thing is that people are often very influenced by reporting on this, so it's likely to keep on increasing." In 2003, 34 died in group suicides, rising to 55 in 2004 and 91 last year. SECOND TO RUSSIA That compares with a total of 32,325 suicides in 2004, the latest year for which figures are available -- down from the record-high 34,427 in 2003 but second only to Russia among Group of Eight industrialised nations. According to World Health Organization data, Japan's suicide rate was 24.1 per 100,000 people in 2000, compared with 39.4 in Russia and 10.4 in the United States. The pace of group suicides was especially sharp during the first three months of last year. On one day in February, six people were found dead in a car on a deserted rural road. As with most of the other cases, police found several charcoal stoves in the car, which had its windows sealed from inside. The three men and three women had died by inhaling carbon monoxide from the charcoal. Experts warn that the Internet alone cannot be blamed for promoting suicide, but noted that the intensity of some suicide chat rooms may worsen the psychological state of those involved. With mental care systems in Japan still basic and often overloaded, the Internet also has the potential to be a powerful therapeutic tool, particularly since many Japanese find it hard to share their worries with others face to face. The time lag between people writing about their feelings and receiving an answer, however, is a hurdle that Misaki's group -- which plans to start an Internet counselling service later this year -- finds worrying. "The best solution would be if we could break into the chat rooms and start communicating with people directly," Misaki said. There are some hopeful signs, however. From October, several communications industry groups began providing police with information on people who posted messages suggesting they might be close to committing suicide. Deaths from group suicides in the last three months of the year, after the new system took effect, dropped to 11 from 36 during the same time the previous year, police said. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:21:09 -0500 From: DLR Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices > It is an interesting question. I strongly suspect the Bell System > compiled completion-time statistics for toll calls and as the 1950s > wore on the times decreased. In the 1950s the Bell System was busy > upgrading its toll network with microwave and coax cables and No 4 > crossbar switching. I wonder in 1954 what percentage of subscribers > had DDD and what percentage of subscribers had operators who had toll > dialing capability. I have an early childhood memory. I think it is from a variety show staring Gary Moore. But I'd never swear to that name. He's doing a skit where his sidekick is telling him his new Direct Dial number and he goes on and on with digits. My memory was this was just after the "Bell System" announced country wide LD direct dial. Being born in 1954 I'm guessing this was around 1960 or so? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were a lot of jokes on this topic during the 1960's. One person would ask for another person's phone number and the response would go on and on and on, with a long string of digits, and then for an added laugh, one or the other would inquire "do I need to put a '1' in front of that?" PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 20:22:04 EST Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices In a message dated 8 Feb 2006 13:36:16 -0800, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com writes: > By the time of the movie, 1954, pay phones were a standard fixture > virtually everywhere in cities. The building he was visiting had a > Western Union office in the lobby and certainly would've had a bank of > pay telephone booths; all office buildings had them in the lobby. It was certainly difficult to find any public telephone in Denton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and home to two universities, in that time frame, nor any business that would allow you to make a collect telephone call. I speak from experience. Denton was served by General Telephone. [ ... ] > I don't know about telegraph rates, but long distance telephone rates > were based on distance. A call 1,000 miles away cost considerably more > than a call 100 miles away. If telegraph rates were flat by distance, > then telegrams would be more likely sent for longer distances than > short distances. Telegraph rates, like telephone rates, were set by distance. I once had occasion to send a local telegram, and I believe they were common in some cities. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And there were also, like phones, both day and night rates on telegrams, and promotional deals, such as a person who picked up a telegram in the public office was entitled to a special cheap rate if they responded within a few minutes while still in the office. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:44:53 -0500 From: William Warren Subject: Re: Ground Start Analog Phone Administrator wrote: > Hi Pat, > With your vast experience, I was wondering if you can help me. I just > installed a Cisco CallManager Express system. Everything is working > great with the system. The problem is we set the lines to groundstart. > Now we would like to have the main line also going to an analog phone > just in case we have a power failure or the CME goes down. Is there an > analog phone we can purchase that has groundstart capabilities? If > so, please point me in the right direction. [snip] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: [snip] > Please recall all you need to do to have a 'ground start' phone is > to touch the 'tip' side of the line to ground momentarily, like for > one or two seconds, then remove that connection. [snip] Pat, If all he wants is to be able to _answer_ the phone, any instrument will do. William Warren (Filter noise from my address for direct replies) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I once wanted to see what would happen if a call came into a payphone (in those days they were all ground start with the coin touching the lever and tripping it to make the connection to ground). So I took one payphone off hook and held it to my ear while depositing the ten cent coin in a second nearby phone and dialing the first number. I heard (on the second phone) the audible ring aand as the second (audible) ring was occurring, the first phone gave a little 'click' as the table inside tilted to collect any coins it has been holding (none) and with another click the two phones were connected. Ditto with any ground start phone. I put a speaker phone on a ground start line once and left it there in the 'answered' position; a call came in to the phone, the way I could tell there had been a call was all of a sudden I heard breathing on the line as someone was sitting there waiting for an answer. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Fiber Cut Knock Rural S.E. Kansas Off Line Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 00:24:48 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 14:06:05 -0500, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > A fiber got cut by a clumsy contractor with a backhoe early Thursday > in Parsons, KS which knocked all of rural s.e. Kansas as served by > cableone.net off line. This cut included TELECOM Digest. Right now I > am working off of our back up modem dial up line using TerraWorld. > Cableone is aware of the problem and they estimate it will be six to > eight hours in repair. The contractor just shrugged his shoulders and > acted like he did not know what he had done. "He'll shrug his > shoulders alright when he gets the repair bill, noted a technician > from Cableone.net in Phoenix, AZ where the cableone technical center > is located. There is a method to how these things are covered up. Whoever is causing the digging has the actual work done by a contractor. Unless the contractor can be proved to be directly supervised, this gets the instigator off the hook. Then they call in "Miss Utility", another party. If they didn't clearly mark the line, they may be the party at fault, but repairs will destroy the markings. I was burned out of a townhouse in Northern Virginia a number of years ago by a cable company crew drilling into the underground power lines. Everybody pointed fingers at everybody else. My insurance sued, but it took years to come up for trial, at which point the cable company settled, and I never got my deductible back. Verizon lost maybe 50 yards of buried cable, and the power company at least as much. They both seemed to take the attitude that they caused about as much damage as they suffered, so it was a wash. As long as it is only the consumers who really suffer, I doubt any of them much care. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That damnable mess here went on for several hours. We officially got back on line at 9:55 PM, or about 12 hours after it started. They had hoped to have the repairs finished before it got dark outside (which would have been about 7 PM this time of year.) It turned out they had to take bright lights and set them up there in that field where the contractor had been working. What a mess it was! PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications 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 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 V25 #61 ***************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Feb 10 15:49:41 2006 Return-Path: Delivered-To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (Postfix, from userid 11648) id 0B0271509F; Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:49:41 -0500 (EST) To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V25 #62 Message-Id: <20060210204941.0B0271509F@massis.lcs.mit.edu> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:49:41 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org (TELECOM Digest Editor) X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.0.4 (2005-06-05) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-3.7 required=2.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00, MAILTO_TO_SPAM_ADDR autolearn=ham version=3.0.4 Status: RO TELECOM Digest Fri, 10 Feb 2006 15:50:00 EST Volume 25 : Issue 62 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wireless to Organize - And Maybe Save - Lives (Sinead Carew) Web Site Lets Public Track Alaska Volcano (Jeannette Lee) Craigslist Accused of Ad Discrimination (Dave Carpenter) Everyday Gadgets Getting Smarter (Kevin Maney) Cable, Phone Companies Battle to be Your Everything (Andrew Kantor) Cellular-News For Friday 10th February 2006 (Cellular-News) TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 10, 2006 (telecomdirect_daily) Indian Carriers Cut Rates Amid Stiff Competition (USTelecom dailyLead) Virtual Number With Flexible Call Forwarding? (joel@exc.com) Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices (DLR) Re: Fiber Cut Knocks S.E. Kansas Off Line (Jim Stewart) 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: Sinead Carew Subject: Wireless to Organize - And Maybe Save - Lives Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:30:31 -0600 By Sinead Carew Imagine a warning on your cell phone that tells you when a parent in ill health needs help, when you've eaten too much, or that you should avoid your regular commute because of a biohazard danger. Forget mobile music and video. Wireless may end up running your life -- down to when to wash your underwear. This may sound far-fetched, but laboratories around the world are exploring such scenarios as wireless networks become more robust and amid moves to miniaturize electronic chips to the point where they can be discreetly placed into any product. James Canton, president of Institute for Global Futures, a consultancy that advises on trends, says sensor chips may one day even be embedded into underwear to send laundry-related text or voice alerts to cell phones, "It will tell you when it needs to get cleaned," he said and suggested a potential prompt: "Stop using that bleach on me because it's shrinking me and if I shrink any more, you're not going to be able to wear me." Chip-embedded clothes could also help suppliers manage stocks. They could even provide consumers walking by a wirelessly linked ad with details, such as a sale on a matching shirt for the trousers the passerby is wearing. Others foresee a prevalence of wireless sensors for potentially life-saving applications. Professor John Guttag from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is studying how wirelessly connected medical devices, such as heart-monitor sensors, could automatically send warnings of a problem to the patient's cell phone and then on to a relative or a doctor. "If your elderly parent is having trouble breathing, you can't rely on them to do something (like send a text message or make a call)," said Guttag who works in MIT's electrical engineering and computer science department. "It would have to happen automatically." But Guttag said such devices would only work if they are sophisticated enough to avoid false alarms. "The machine will have to be clever enough to tell the difference between fainting and having a nap," he said. "The doctors will go nuts if hypochondriacs flood them with information every day." WIRELESS LIFE Cell phones, software, computers and sensors can also work together to make our jobs easier and eliminate menial daily chores, according to researchers at the world's biggest handset makers. In the future, your computer will automatically switch on when you arrive at work and display documents for your first meeting, thanks to phone and PC-based sensors, said Tom MacTavish, a human interaction researcher at Motorola Inc. "I had to do a whole bunch of stuff this morning that the computer and the cell phone of the future will together to do for me," he said. MacTavish believes voice-recognition technology on cell phones, which can be frustrating to use when it does not recognize context or accents, could improve with pattern-recognition technology. For example, if you call John Jones at noon every day, your phone could remember this information and first suggest Jones rather than select a random John from your contacts. Image-recognition technology is also being developed, which could help with law enforcement. For example, a wireless device that can read license plates could automatically link to a database to tell a police officer if the car was stolen or belonged to somebody with no speeding record. Nokia also sees image-recognition technology aiding consumers by recognizing and labeling photographs taken on cell phones for albums or helping users remember locations. "We could think of it like a memory prosthesis," said Jyri Huopaniemi, Nokia's head of strategic research. Eventually we may be able to host a Web site from our phones to share holiday notes or create a personal diary. Many forecasters see location-aware phones playing a major role in the future, providing such information as the history of a neighborhood, a list of its restaurants and data on crime rates and pollution levels. Others say they could alert users to environmental hazards or terrorist attacks. But one analyst was skeptical about focusing on such sophisticated applications as he believes it will take years for more basic advances, such as simply connecting televisions and computers with wireless instead of cable. "You could see a lot less cable everywhere," said Stephen Baker of research firm NPD. Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news from Reuters, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Jeannette J. Lee Subject: Web Site Lets Public Track Alaska Volcano Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:33:21 -0600 By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press Writer From his home in Nanwalek, Vince Evans can stare across the water at Augustine Volcano as it pumps out clouds of ash and steam, but like many residents in the isolated village, Evans prefers to check the Internet for the latest on the erupting island mount. The Alaska Volcano Observatory's popular Web site lets the public track Augustine's activity, from live earthquake data to hourly updates on the blasts of ash and rocky pyroclastic flows that have rumbled down the snowy volcano since it began erupting in mid-January. "When I wake up, I turn it on and keep track of Augustine through the night," said Evans, a 43-year-old health practitioner in the south-central Alaska community. With a network that includes seismic stations, cameras and Global Positioning System receivers, Augustine is the most heavily instrumented volcano in the state. In the last decade, scientists have concentrated equipment on the uninhabited island because it is a short flight from Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula and has less vegetation, ice and snow than other nearby volcanos in the Alaska Range. Because of the Web site, residents of remote Alaska communities like Nanwalek can make better decisions about whether to shut down schools, carry dust masks to church or take the time to cover heating vents with pantyhose to filter volcanic ash. "We can go online and see the wind direction and see when ash is going to fall," Evans said. "Before, it just happened, now there's more preparation." The Web site provides information Evans did not have during a major eruption 20 years ago, when a dark cloud filled with ash and spiked with lightning headed across Cook Inlet toward Nanwalek, a 200-person village only reachable by plane or boat. "We just went home and watched it through our window," Evans said. "Information we just got through TV and radio." Augustine dusted small communities in south-central Alaska with extremely light ashfall during two series of eruptions in January. Alaska Airlines, the state's largest carrier, grounded dozens of flights during one day of ash explosions. The string of sporadic eruptions could go on for months, scientists said. The wealth of data, combined with easy communication through the Internet, has allowed the public to glean more timely and useful information about Augustine's eruptions than those of any other volcano in the state's past. "No erupting volcano in Alaska has ever been this closely monitored before," said Game McGimsey, a volcanologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. The observatory's Web site has tallied about 158 million hits this year, said Seth Snedigar, an analyst programmer for the state Department of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Regularly updated Web camera images of the 4,134-foot volcano receive the most mouse clicks, he said. One camera sits on Augustine's eastern flank, while another records the volcano from the town of Homer, 75 miles northeast across Cook Inlet. Observatory scientists also use the site as a public journal of the research trips they take to the island during lulls between explosions, as well as aerial photos of Augustine. Data collection also is safer for scientists now that volcanos have more instruments on site. "The public can see almost everything we see," McGimsey said. "Even the seismic data is exactly what's posted in our operation room right now." People can also e-mail their own observations or ask questions through the site. Hundreds have written from all 50 states and a host of foreign countries and scientists have replied to every missive. Many Alaskans have mailed ash samples to the observatory after following the site's step-by-step guide on ash collection. Improvements in volcano monitoring have helped the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines make more accurate decisions on flying restrictions during a volcanic eruption. "The FAA and folks having to make the call to delay flights can almost do it in real time," said FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer. On the Net: Alaska Volcano Observatory: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/ Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more Associated Press headlines and stories, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Dave Carpenter Subject: Craigslist Accused of Ad Discrimination Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:36:57 -0600 By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Business Writer A federal lawsuit accuses the online site Craigslist of violating fair housing laws by publishing discriminatory classified ads, reviving the question of what legal boundaries, if any, should exist for postings on the Internet. But legal experts say the lawsuit against Craigslist, a fast-growing online network of classified ads and forums, faces an uphill battle because of laws in place to protect online service providers. The lawsuit, filed by a Chicago fair housing group in U.S. District Court last Friday, contends that Craigslist's Chicago site distributed more than 100 ads that violated the federal Fair Housing Act by excluding prospective buyers or tenants on the basis of race, gender or religion. Among the housing ads cited as objectionable by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law Inc. were ones that read "NO MINORITIES," "Requirements: Clean Godly Christian Male," and "Only Muslims apply." While it remained unclear Thursday if the suit is the first of its kind, it signifies a burgeoning effort by housing watchdog groups to extend to the Internet the same legal restrictions facing those that publish print classifieds. "Our goal is to have the Internet places like Craigslist treated no differently than newspapers and other media who have traditionally been posting real estate advertisements," said Stephen Libowsky, a counsel for the housing group. "All of the gains are going to get lost if the same rules don't apply." The nonprofit group is an affiliate of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Its Louisiana affiliate, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, recently filed a similar complaint against the hurricane relief Web site Katrinahousing.org, alleging it found 68 discriminatory housing ads. San Francisco-based Craigslist, founded in 1995 as a roundup of local events, now has listings in more than 20 countries and 150 cities and runs 8 million new classified ads a month. Its huge scope means the Chicago case will likely be watched closely by other online sites. EBay Inc. owns 25 percent of Craigslist. A ruling against it "would have a chilling effect on the Internet and what it was intended to provide, and that is an open forum and free expression," said Melissa Klipp, a Florham Park, N.J.-based attorney who practices Internet law. The lawsuit seeks, among other things, to require Craigslist to report to the government any individual seeking to post a discriminatory ad and to develop screening software to preclude discriminatory ads from being published on its Web site. Craigslist, which has 19 employees, maintains that screening its almost-nonstop classified listings would be impossible. Jim Buckmaster, its chief executive officer, said Thursday that the system is automated and that users can flag postings. If enough do, it comes off automatically. The "NO MINORITIES" ad was removed within two hours, he said. "We admit that one or two postings per 100,000 are discriminatory," Buckmaster said. "But we feel we're in the forefront of promoting fair housing for everyone." The site last month added a yellow link on each housing ad warning that "Stating a discriminatory preference in a housing post is illegal." When clicked, users get information about the Fair Housing Act and guidance on how to write ads that comply. Several Internet law experts said the suit seems likely to fail, citing a 1996 federal law that says an online service provider isn't considered a publisher or a speaker when it merely passes along information provided by someone else. Jennifer Rothman, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, called it "a complete nonstarter" despite legitimate concerns about discrimination. "Congress decided it was more important not to chill speech on the Internet and not to shut down these Internet providers," she said. "If you start holding them responsible, essentially you shut down the business." "From a moral standpoint, of course, people will expect that if you're going to run a site like that you ought to police it," said Houston-based attorney Jeff Diamant. "But all Craigslist is doing is running a forum for people to communicate." Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more headlines and stories from Associated Press please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Kevin Maney Subject: Everyday Gadgets Getting Smarter Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:40:40 -0600 By Kevin Maney, USA TODAY Regular old dumb stuff is getting smart and connected. You can buy a backyard telescope loaded with global position satellite (GPS) technology so it can point out which stars you're viewing. At one university, each parking meter has a chip and antenna so you can call it with your cellphone and buy more time. And then there are the touch-screen sewing machines that can download images to embroider, gas station pumps that run Microsoft Windows, and shipping crates that can call their owners for help if they're lost. A lot of technology companies focus on making computers more powerful and Internet connections faster. But a major trend is pushing in another direction -- toward getting cheap computer chips and limited networking capabilities into products that never used to have such technology. It lets companies turn commodity products into premium products that cost more and stand out in the marketplace. The trend is analogous to the electrification of products 100 years ago, when inventors found ways to use that technology to change everyday items. Hand-turned drills became power drills. Ice boxes became refrigerators. The same thing is happening now, but with computer chips and tiny radio transmitters. And there's a fascinating twist this time: When you add information and communications to a product, it doesn't just improve that product -- it allows that product to become part of a network. Which means those products can talk to other products, or to websites, or to you through your cellphone or PC -- creating layer upon layer of new possibilities. "It opens up innovation to all new things no one ever thought of," says Irving Wladawsky-Berger, in charge of IBM's technical strategy. "There's an interesting pattern now -- everything is an accessory to everything else," notes Mick McManus, CEO of Maya Design. The parking meters, for instance, are at the University of California, Santa Barbara. IBM devised the system and will try to sell it to other campuses and cities. In the near future, a "smart," networked parking meter might be able to talk to all the other parking meters in the neighborhood and feed that information to a website. That way, as you drive to an area looking for a place to park, your cellphone could tap the parking website and display a map showing open spaces. You might even be able to push a button and reserve a space. The meter could flash a "reserved" sign and refuse to accept payment from any other cellphone for five minutes. After that, you'd lose the space. The challenges Such a level of integration isn't here yet. In fact, there are significant challenges to getting there, as anyone knows who has tried to get two incompatible gadgets to work together. Still, the movement toward smart stuff keeps picking up steam. Research firms haven't yet put a value on the "smart stuff" industry because it's so scattered and new. But companies are clearly making plans to move in that direction. A survey by research firm Aberdeen Group found that more than half of executives plan to pump more money into radio frequency identification (RFID) projects in the next 12 to 24 months, even though half of those surveyed also said they don't yet know the "value proposition" of such investments. One way or another, though, fascinating developments keep popping into view. Some recent examples: Home goods. Consumer electronics companies keep pushing the idea of the "digital living room" -- a holy grail where high-end TVs, PCs, video recorders and stereos link up and share content. But while we're waiting for that to happen, a number of companies are digitizing less-glamorous appliances. Whirlpool's Duet Sport washing machine has embedded sensors that can set the water level depending on how big a load you put in. Down the road, Whirlpool and others plan to include sensors that can read bar codes or RFID tags on clothes so the machine can program appropriate wash settings. Another appliance maker, Salton, has introduced the Beyond Microwave. When you need to heat packaged food, swipe the bar code past the microwave's reader. Stored inside are 4,000 settings for different products. A wireless Internet connection allows the microwave to download new ones all the time. Salton's microwave reads the bar code, sets the right time and power level, and all you do is push start. Maya Design is bringing out a layer of technology it calls Home Heartbeat. It connects sensors on washing machines, microwaves, doors and other fixtures in a house. The system, in turn, can generate text messages that can be sent to a cellphone. So a homeowner can program the system to tell her every time the front door opens and the TV turns on -- a good sign the kids arrived home from school. On a more futuristic scale, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and New Jersey Institute of Technology are working on nanotechnology that could change the nature of paint and carpets. Both could be connected to the home network, so you could use a computer to instruct the paint or carpeting to change colors. The nano-engineered molecules would do just that. The military is already beginning experimental use of the smart paint. Fun stuff. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, telescope maker Celestron rolled out its $399 SkyScout -- a gadget loaded with global position satellite (GPS) technology and a database of star and planet positions. Aim it at a part of the night sky, and the device picks up its position via GPS, cross-checks with its database, and tells you what you're seeing. Also at CES, Brother was showing its Innovis 4000D sewing machine, which can store and download images, and then embroider them on fabric. Wearable technology is a hot concept. ElekTex makes "smart fabrics" -- clothing and backpacks with soft, built-in controllers and a Bluetooth wireless connection for an iPod or cellphone. Drop the gadget in your pocket, for instance, and use the buttons on your sleeve to control it. Swim goggles from start-up Inview add a computer chip to plain plastic goggles for competitive swimmers. The chip keeps track of time and number of laps and displays it on the inside of the goggle lenses. Industrial stuff. Computer and networking technology is even making its way into the least glitzy of places -- like the gas station. Gas pump maker Dresser Wayne in January unveiled its Ovation iX -- a prototype pump with a flat-panel screen and a network-connected, Windows-based computer inside. "In addition to dispensing fuel, the Ovation iX lets customers (order) a cup of coffee, download MP3s, or check traffic conditions without ever leaving the pump," the company's literature says. In a popular IBM commercial, the boxes inside a truck notify a help desk that the truck is off course. Though it's a dramatization, the technology is real. RFID tags and cheap GPS units today are being tacked onto crates. That lets the crates "talk" to the network and lets operators know where they are. If they get lost -- or stolen -- the crates can be located. "We have already recovered over $7 million of goods illegally diverted last year," says Mark Eppley, president of SC-integrity, a company formed to build this kind of technology. "I had no idea how large the supply chain 'shrinkage' problem was." Then there are cows. When asked about this trend of making mundane stuff smart, Matthew Szulik, CEO of open-source software company Red Hat, points to the DeLaval Voluntary Milking System. It's a milking machine -- running on Linux open-source software -- that lets the cow request to be milked by stepping into the milking area through a gate. A radio tag identifies the cow, and the system knows when the cow was last milked. That way, the system knows whether to attach the robotic milking arms -- or keep the gate closed, blocking the cow from getting in. That kind of development, Szulik says, "is just the tip of the iceberg." Why now? Why is stuff getting smart now? Some of it is straightforward: The technology has finally gotten good enough and cheap enough to put into everyday items without driving the cost sky-high. Inexpensive microprocessors add smarts. Wi-Fi, now nearly ubiquitous, allows appliances to get on the network without wires. Tiny RFID can add small bits of data and communications to any item. GPS is getting cheap and reliable. "The entire process and mindset of product makers now is to have a tech component," says tech research analyst Gary Arlen. As the technology falls into place, integrators such as IBM, Maya and SC-integrity can do their thing -- putting pieces together to create applications and services never before possible. Of course, it's not all smooth seas ahead. One huge hurdle is getting different technologies to work together. Just as Apple's iTunes doesn't work with a Dell MP3 player, various pieces built on different standards can't communicate. Some industry leaders such as Google's Vint Cerf, who helped create the Internet's TCP/IP standard, are pushing for new standards that would help solve these problems. One other possible hitch: "Everyone runs the risk of making products soooo complicated and off-putting," analyst Arlen says. Still, as the next decade unfolds, more of our stuff will get smarter. Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines and stories from USA Today please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ From: Andrew Kantor Subject: Cable, Phone Companies Battle to be Your Everything Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:42:52 -0600 Andrew Kantor: CyberSpeak - Cable, Phone Companies Battle to be Everything Andrew Kantor, USA TODAY It looks to be a busy year for lawmakers, technology-wise. Last week I wrote about a debate beginning in Washington about Net neutrality -- something that could affect everyone who uses the Internet. Continuing in that vein, there's another argument going on that also directly affects just about everyone. It's what you might think of as the next stage in the battle between "cable" companies and "telephone" companies. I put those terms in quotes because these days, no matter how they got their start, both are becoming phone, Internet, and increasingly television providers. Data are data. Sure, it's still a bit odd to get your phone service through your cable company, or your television through your phone line, but more and more that's exactly what's happening because it's all carried using the same technology that carries data across the Internet -- TCP/IP. (IP stands for Internet Protocol; think of it as the language of the Internet. That's why you hear about "voice over IP" and even "IPTV.") Having this common data language means that companies that used to only provide the connection can now provide other services as well -- as soon as the law catches up, that is. We're already seeing that in some places. Cable companies are offering VoIP telephone service, which is helping to drive down the price of traditional phone calls from traditional phone companies. Today, flat-rate service is the norm. And phone companies are offering television, most notably Verizon with its Fios service, which provides a fast enough connection for several DVD-quality signals to a home. It's been an uphill battle for the phone companies. If a high-speed Internet provider (e.g., a cable company) wants to offer VoIP phone service, it doesn't need to change the law. But if a phone company wants to offer TV, that's another story. Breaking in When cable television first came along, towns and cities were happy to get the extra channels. At the same time, though, they realized that the problem with cable TV was, well, cables. If 10 cable companies converged on an area, there would be wires hanging all over the place, streets dug up, traffic snarled, dogs and cats living together; you get the idea. So municipalities started to offer cable franchises, in which one cable company was granted the exclusive right to service an area. In exchange for a virtual monopoly, it agreed to wire every home and not discriminate against the poor side of town, among other things. Of course telephone companies enjoyed a monopoly status too, starting with good ol' Ma Bell, and then onto the regional Bells. Deregulation came along, but it never really took off for local phone service, which is why you still have "the phone company" wherever you live. The sharp division between the phone company and the cable company started to blur when the Internet came along. Both kinds of company began offering high-speed access, and suddenly the Sharks and the Jets were eyeing the same piece of turf. The line blurred even further when voice over IP caught on, and cable companies -- whose connections tended to be faster than the phone companies' DSL -- began to offer telephone service. They were able to crack into the phone companies' monopoly fairly easily as these things go, and suddenly there was more choice in the market thanks in large part to the deregulated phone business. Sauce for the gander But now the shoe goes on the other foot. Just as television providers' technology got to the point where it could carry phone calls, phone companies' technology is getting to the point where it can carry television. It takes about 3.5 Mbps of bandwidth to carry a single DVD-quality television signal,. (Obviously, companies want to be able to offer at least three times that; so many home have more than one television.) At less than 5 Mbps, DSL didn't fit the bill. But now companies like Verizon are deploying fiber-optic connections which have plenty of bandwidth. They want to break into the television business, but in their way are those cable franchises. To offer TV to an area, a company like Verizon needs to negotiate an agreement with the local franchising board. There are thousands of those, and they often have lots of requirements -- 'build a new wing for the library,' 'wire all government buildings for free TV,' etc. Sometimes those negotiations only take a few months. Sometimes they take years. Which brings us to today's arguments. On one side, the cable companies: If they're going to get competition from Verizon and Co., they want that competition to have to meet the same requirements they had to - namely, to build out to an entire area and not only the profitable parts of town. On the other side are the phone companies: They don't think they should have to meet those same requirements because, unlike the cable companies, they don't have monopoly status -- they have to fight tooth and nail against an entrenched competitor for every customer. "So what?" say the cable companies. It's unfair not to have a level playing field. Over here in Roanoke, VA, the phone companies played a bit of a trump card. They pointed out that, when the shoe was on the other foot, the cable companies were arguing for relaxed standards for a new entrant to a market. In fact, the cable TV people had practically written the phone companies' argument for them. Wrote the Virginia Cable Television Association, in a filing to the State Corporation Commission (which regulates these things): "[R]equirements necessary to regulate a government-protected monopoly can impose significant burdens on new entrants without any corresponding public interest benefits." So, says the phone industry, when you wanted to get into the phone business the regulations were a "significant burden." But when we want to get into TV, those regulations are a level playing field? Ha! (OK, I made up the "Ha!") What Verizon, and I suspect other phone companies want, is a standard set of requirements for anyone wishing to enter the television-provider market. So rather than negotiate everything with each franchising authority, the company would certify that it would meet those standards, pay the franchising fee, and start laying fiber. That's the premise behind the Broadband Investment and Consumer Choice Act (S. 1504, if you want to search Thomas). It says, "A video service provider may not be required -- (1) to obtain a State or local video franchise; (2) to build out its video distribution system in any particular manner; or (3) to provide leased or common carrier access to its video distribution facilities and equipment to any other video service provider." By eliminating the cumbersome franchising process, an open-access law should make it easier for new providers to come to an area and start offering television service. Verizon's Fios is limited, for now, to larger metro areas, but that probably won't last, and smaller companies might be able to get into the game more easily. And as much as I hate to take the side of either major industry here, I gotta back the phone companies. Yes, consumers have some choice now; I use DirecTV instead of my local cable company. But more choice is almost always better for us little guys, and letting competition into the TV market isn't an exception. Andrew Kantor is a technology writer, pundit, and know-it-all who covers technology for the Roanoke Times. He's also a former editor for PC Magazine and Internet World. Read more of his work at kantor.com. His column appears Fridays on USATODAY.com. Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. 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/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or) http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html For more news headlines and stories from USA Today, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Friday 10th February 2006 Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 07:51:18 -0600 From: Cellular-News Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com [[ 3G ]] Nokia To Supply WCDMA 3G Network To Cosmote In Greece http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16038.php Finland's Nokia said Thursday it has signed a contract with Cosmote Mobile Communications in Greece for the supply of a third generation WCDMA radio network. ... Nearly 60 Operators on Track for UMTS Enhanced With HSDPA http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16046.php 3G Americas and Informa Telecoms & Media report that UMTS, the third generation evolution for the GSM family of technologies, having already added 33 million customers since the end of 2004, serves close to 50 million customers today. UMTS (WCDMA) is... Super 3G Could Arrive Within 3 Years http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16050.php Amid growing interest in alternative technologies, such as DVB-H and WiMAX, 3G is set to fight back with 3G LTE, or 'Super 3G', which could dramatically enhance the capabilities of 3G networks from 2009, according to a new report from Analysys. HSPA ... [[ Financial ]] Australia's Telstra Net Dives 10%, Grim Outlook http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16037.php Retaining its grim outlook ahead of its A$27 billion (US$20 billion) privatization later this year, Australia's largest telephone company Telstra, Thursday said first half net profit fell 10.3% due to its weakening fixed-line operations. ... Russia's VimpelCom completes purchase of Uzbekistan's Unitel http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16041.php Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom has completed its acquisition of Uzbekistan's second largest mobile operator Unitel, VimpelCom said in a statement Thursday. ... Amrica Mvil predicts US$3bn in capex for 2006 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16043.php Latin American mobile giant Amrica Mvil is planning capital expenditure of US$3bn in 2006 compared to some US$3.5bn in 2005, the company's CEO Daniel Hajj told a conference call to discuss fourth quarter 2005 results. ... [[ Handsets ]] Hospital SuperBug Found on Mobile Phones http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16048.php A study conducted at the Craigavon Area Hospital Group Trust in Northern Ireland has found that the majority of mobile phones used by doctors and other health workers are carrying infectious pathogens, including on some phones the deadly hospital "su... [[ Legal ]] RIM Develops BlackBerry Software Workaround http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16039.php Research In Motion has developed and tested software workaround designs that will allow BlackBerry service in the U.S. to continue should it be forced to shut down its current service as a result of its ongoing patent dispute with NTP. ... [[ Network Contracts ]] Alcatel Wins Congo GPRS Upgrade http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16049.php Alcatel has been selected by Vodacom Congo for the deployment of a complete end-to-end GPRS (EDGE-ready) mobile data solution in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new mobile "always on" data services will be made available by Vodacom Congo from t... Improving Voice Quality On Orascom Networks http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16052.php Orascom Telecom has ordered a Voice Quality Assurance platform from Ditech Communications for use on its subsidary networks in Pakistan and Algeria. Mobilink, a GSM operator in Pakistan, and Djezzy, a GSM operator in Algeria, are the initial OT netw... High Speed Data for Somalia http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16053.php Somafone, a nationwide wireless services provider in Somalia, says that it has completed a major network expansion, bringing high-speed mobile data services to the region. The Somafone network expansion features EDGE and GPRS wireless data capabiliti... [[ Network Operators ]] Telemig launches customer retention drive http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16045.php Brazilian mobile operator Telemig Celular (NYSE: TMB) has launched a customer retention drive based on reformulation of its online store, the company said in a statement. ... [[ Offbeat ]] India's Highest Base Station http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16051.php India's GSM network operator, Airtel (Bharti Televentures) has installed the country's highest elevation base station, at a height of 3,350 meters above sea level -- at Qutak Gompa in the Leh district of Northern India. The company currently has four ... [[ Personnel ]] Sprint CEO Gets Restricted Stock Valued At $5.7 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16042.php Sprint Nextel Corp. granted restricted stock units valued at about US$5.7 million and 637,755 stock options to President and Chief Executive Gary D. Forsee. ... [[ Reports ]] Egyptians Would Switch Operators For Lower Tariffs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16047.php A new Arab Advisors Group major survey of GSM users across Egypt has revealed that while a majority of GSM users (75.5%) are satisfied with their existing mobile operators, a substantial percent (close to 36.1%) will consider switching to a another o... [[ Statistics ]] Rogers Communications 4Q Loss Widens On Items; Operating Net Up http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16040.php Canada's Rogers Communications experienced growth in operating profit during the fourth quarter but posted an increased loss due to one-time integration expenses, the amortization of intangibles assumed on acquisition and the fact that the prior year... Non-voice traffic reached 25 million minutes in 2005 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16044.php Chilean mobile phone users dedicated 25 million minutes of traffic to non-voice services in 2005, local daily La Tercera reported. ... [[ Technology ]] Predictive Text Blends With Handwriting Recognition http://www.cellular-news.com/story/16054.php Zi Corp. has announced the release of the latest version of its Decuma handwriting recognition software. Decuma Version 4 is a new predictive pen-input solution now available for OEMs to embed into smartphones and PDA's. It adds predictive text capab... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 12:17:01 -0500 From: telecomdirect_daily Subject: TelecomDirect News Daily Update - February 10, 2006 Reply-To: telecomdirect_daily-owner@telecomdirectnews.com ******************************** PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents The TelecomDirect News Daily Update For February 10, 2006 ******************************** TeliaSonera Net Sales Rise to US$11.3 bil. in 2005 http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/16612?11228 The Nordic telecoms giant has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and the full year ending in December 2005. According to a company press release, strong growth in mobile and broadband operations helped boost sales to 87.661 billion Swedish kronor (US$11.3 billion) in 2005, from 81.937 billion kronor in... Vonage Aims to Raise US$250 mil. in IPO http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/16611?11228 The U.S.-based leading pure-play VoIP provider, Vonage, is planning to raise US$250 million in an initial public offering (IPO) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Vonage has also appointed Mike Snyder as its new chief executive officer (CEO), who will replace the company's founder, Jeffrey Citron. Significance: The... Nokia Introduces Location Based Services to Mid-Range Portfolio http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/150/16609?11228 ESPOO, Finland -- Nokia today underlined its effort in making location based services available to a broad consumer base with the announcement of the Nokia GPS Module LD-3W, which is compatible with a wide selection of Nokia's Bluetooth enabled handsets. By cooperating with several partners, Nokia provides comfortable and... Cable 'A La Carte' Would Save Money http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/120/16607?11228 WASHINGTON -- Most cable TV subscribers would save money if allowed to pay for only the channels they want, a Federal Communications Commission study said Thursday, reversing the agency's earlier finding that consumers wouldn't benefit. The analysis by FCC staff provides new support for consumer groups and conservatives pushing for a... Broadband Saves The Bacon At BT, Telstra http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/110/16605?11228 Driven by booming broadband sales, BT today reported financial results far better than analysts had expected. The U.K. giant says "new wave" revenue -- from networked IT services, broadband and mobility -- for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2005, was more than $2.8 billion, 42-percent higher than the same quarter in 2004. This... Stoke Stokes 'Net Neutrality' Flames http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/140/16601?11228 If broadband network operators begin charging quality of service (QOS) fees in exchange for tranporting the bandwidth-hungry services of other companies, one of Silicon Valley's new communications startups, Stoke Inc. , believes it has the just the toolset to help them do it. (See Stoke Uncloaks.) "It seems intuitive to me that the... Copyright (C) 2005 PricewaterhouseCoopers. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 13:05:36 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead Subject: Indian Carriers Cut Rates Amid Stiff Competition USTelecom dailyLead February 10, 2006 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWAAfDtutaulzRxsKN TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Indian carriers cut rates amid stiff competition BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Verizon's Seidenberg says FiOS plans are on target * Qwest under pressure as it plots strategy * Wall Street cool on Vonage IPO * Report: Businesses to spend less on data services * Telmex holds tight grip on Mexico's telecom market * Murdoch seeks satellite alliance to build Web, phone services USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Cutting-edge technology papers, exhibits at TelecomNEXT TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Disney to carry full episodes of some shows online. VOIP DOWNLOAD * Skype announces Web presence technology * With VoIP, it's all about the features REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * FCC: A la carte pricing could pare cable bills * U.S. funds Web data-mining venture Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/cWAAfDtutaulzRxsKN ------------------------------ From: joel@exc.com Subject: Virtual Number with Flexible Call Forwarding? Date: 10 Feb 2006 05:45:32 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi all, I'm looking for a virtual number that offers flexible call forwarding, including call forward to overseas numbers. The only options I've found are virtual PBX's, that answer the phone, put the caller on hold, and play music or a greeting. Can any recommend a good service that just forwards the call, possibly to more than one number? Many thanks. -Joel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Vonage does what you are requesting. It can forward calls to various numbers at one time (I think that service is called 'blast' or something similar. It goes down the list of numbers you have given it, rings them all, then transfers the call into the line you actually answered. I think virtual numbers are around four dollars each, and if you take a virtual 800 number, you get a certain number of minutes included. I still have e-coupons for a free month of Vonage service; the terms are you have to get the Vonage telephone adapter shipped through the e-coupon; you cannot get the TA through some other source (which often times allows its own rebate) and _then_ get a free month from my e-coupon as well. If you want to experiment with Vonage via a free month of service just write and ask for an e-coupon: ptownson@telecom-digest.org PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 04:30:23 -0500 From: DLR Subject: Re: Western Union Public Telegram Offices >> I don't know about telegraph rates, but long distance telephone rates >> were based on distance. A call 1,000 miles away cost considerably more >> than a call 100 miles away. If telegraph rates were flat by distance, >> then telegrams would be more likely sent for longer distances than >> short distances. > Telegraph rates, like telephone rates, were set by distance. I once > had occasion to send a local telegram, and I believe they were common > in some cities. North by Northwest was on TCM a few hours ago. The plot hinged on Cary Grant wanting to send his mother a telegram across mid town Manhattan as she was at a friends where they had just moved in and the phone wasn't yet installed. My how times have changed. Also for years you couldn't place many types of toll calls to or from xxx-9xxx numbers as almost all pay phones were numbered that way. I worked at a business with such a number in the early 80s and calling the office collect was a big hassle at times. David Ross [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your complaint about exchanges which used '9' as the first digit in the suffix is very true. Many years ago when I was living in Chicago, I knew a guy whose mother had a phone on the LOngbeach-1 (312-561) exchange. Her number was LOngbeach-1-9xxx and she had a terrible time placing long distace calls or receiving collect calls. Operators would never believe she was giving her number correctly or that she had a private (not a coin) phone. Every other telephone in Chicago had been converted to (1) 911 calling; (2) long distance direct dialing (3) in most instances totally ESS while LOngbeach-1 kept plugging along as a step-by-step office for several more months. It was in the Chicago-Edgewater central office up on Carmen Street around Ashland Avenue somewhere. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 09:16:08 -0800 From: Jim Stewart Reply-To: jstewart@jkmicro.com Organization: http://www.jkmicro.com Subject: Re: Fiber Cut Knocks S.E. Kansas Off Line TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: >> A fiber got cut by a clumsy contractor with a backhoe early Thursday >> in Parsons, KS which knocked all of rural s.e. Kansas as served by >> cableone.net off line. This cut included TELECOM Digest. Right now I >> am working off of our back up modem dial up line using TerraWorld. >> Cableone is aware of the problem and they estimate it will be six to >> eight hours in repair. The contractor just shrugged his shoulders and >> acted like he did not know what he had done. "He'll shrug his >> shoulders alright when he gets the repair bill, noted a technician >> from Cableone.net in Phoenix, AZ where the cableone technical center >> is located. I know that shrug. I have my own small company and a few years ago I watched as the 3 incoming POTS lines went one by one from good to scratchy to dead, followed by our ISDN line going down. I went outside and walked across the street where a contract