TELECOM Digest     Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:35:00 EST    Volume 26 : Issue 25

Inside This Issue:                            Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    The Idea of Paid Entries Angers Wikipedia Publisher (Brian Bergstein)
    DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com)
    CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily)
    Analysis: Telecom Video Intrigues Investors (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming (Mark Crispin)
    Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming (Barry Margolin)
    Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming (Scott Dorsey)
    Re: Don't Call. Don't Write. Let Me Be. (hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com)
    Re: Is Your Telephone AC Power Dependent? (nosmo_king58@yahoo.com)
    Last Laugh! Unpaid Fee Loses Debt Group's Web Site (Reuters News Wire)

====== 25 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
Internet.  All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and
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               ===========================

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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, and why not
support Net Freedom Now http://www.freepress.net/netfreedom . 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:21:13 -0600
From: Brian Berstein, AP  <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: The Idea of Paid Entries Angers Wikipedia Publisher


By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer

When a blogger revealed this week that Microsoft Corp. wanted to pay
him to fix purported inaccuracies in technical articles on Wikipedia,
the software company endured online slams and a rebuke from the Web
encyclopedia's founder for behaving unethically.

The imbroglio will soon pass, but it raises a bigger question: Why is
it so bad to pay someone to write something on Wikipedia?

The "free encyclopedia that anyone can edit" requires articles to have
a "neutral point of view." But most contributors surely have some
personal motivation to dive into a subject, whether it's adoration of
"Star Trek" or a soft spot for geraniums.

What's to say contributors who get paid have a harder time sticking to
the golden path of neutrality? And doesn't Wikipedia have a built-in
defense mechanism -- the swarms of volunteer editors and moderators
who can quickly obliterate public-relations fluff, vanity pages and
other junk?

That is precisely what ran through Gregory Kohs' mind last year when
he launched MyWikiBiz, a service that offered to write Wikipedia
entries for businesses for $49 to $99.

A market researcher in West Chester, Pa., Kohs believed that the
corporate world was underrepresented in the sprawling Web
encyclopedia, which is dense with obscure topics.

"It is strange that a minor Pokemon character will get a 1,200-word
article, but a Fortune 500 company will get ... maybe 100 words," he
said.

Kohs, 38, said he was committed to having MyWikiBiz create only
legitimate Wikipedia entries -- neutral, footnoted and just on
companies or organizations with a sizable presence.

"I was not going to write an article for Joe's pizza shop at the
corner of Main and Elm," he said. After all, Kohs was fine with
Wikipedians editing his clients' entries however they saw fit, but he
didn't want the articles to be taken down entirely for being
irrelevant.

Kohs researched Wikipedia to see if his idea violated the site's
communal spirit. He found what appeared to be an answer in his favor:
Wikipedia's Reward Board.

The board is Wikipedia's internal forum for people who would like to
see certain topics introduced or improved so they have a chance of
achieving the rare status of "featured article," earned when editors
consider an entry supremely well-written and fair.

Here's what got Kohs' attention: Offers for barter or even cash are
common on the forum, and the person making the offer can remain
anonymous. Indeed, on Wednesday, someone was ponying up $55 for
whoever could get an article about Lithuania to reach featured status.

So Kohs and his sister decided to launch MyWikiBiz. But a few days
after they put out a press release in August, MyWikiBiz's account on
Wikipedia was blocked. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales called Kohs to
tell him MyWikiBiz was "antithetical" to Wikipedia's mission, as Kohs
recalls the conversation.

Kohs noted that he was openly identifying himself as the author of his
clients' pages. And he cited the Reward Board.

Wales was unswayed. But he told Kohs he could create Wikipedia-like 
entries for his clients on MyWikiBiz.com. Then Kohs could reach out to 
Wikipedia editors and see if they'd like to "scrape" the pages -- use 
them as Wikipedia entries.

Kohs says he got about 10 clients into Wikipedia this way over the next 
few weeks. (He won't name the clients because he wants their entries to 
stick.)

Around that time, however, Wikipedia's volunteer crews were tweaking
the site's conflict-of-interest policy. As Kohs read one new rule, he
could post his clients' copy on his own personal user page inside
Wikipedia, rather than on MyWikiBiz.com. Presumably that would make it
easier to attract Wikipedia editors' interest.

Wales had earlier told Kohs that step would be forbidden. So Kohs wrote 
Wales that it appeared the community now disagreed with him. Wales shot 
Kohs down in a terse e-mail.

"Absolutely unacceptable, sorry," Wales wrote.

Ultimately, Kohs was permanently shut out of Wikipedia. Instead he 
launched Centiare.com, a Wikipedia-esque directory for businesses.

"I think I was rubbing him the wrong way," Kohs says now. "I probably
should have just kept my mouth shut."

Wales agreed in an interview that companies and regular people likely
are surreptitiously editing their own entries, doing in secret what
MyWikiBiz was open about. But that doesn't mean the site should give
up trying to prevent public-relations efforts, Wales said.

"It's one thing to acknowledge there's always going to be a little of
this, but another to say, `Bring it on,'" he said.

Wales was asked why it mattered if Microsoft or anyone else paid to
have copy written on Wikipedia, since there's no guarantee that the
site's vigorous editors and moderators would let it remain. He called
that notion akin to a city with stellar trash collection telling its
denizens to go ahead and litter, since the garbage wouldn't be around
long.

It's certainly understandable that Wikipedians would want to limit the
rubbish they have to sweep away, given that they spend a fair amount
of time fighting PR's more nefarious cousin: use of the site to
denigrate rivals. Last year, for example, Wikipedia temporarily
blocked access from some computers assigned to Congress after a series
of partisan pranks. In one, the entry on Sen. Robert Byrd was altered
to give his age as 180 rather than 88.

Still, Wales said he realizes the payments issue has some gray areas.
Participants on the Reward Board, he said, have to be sensitive about
avoiding conflicts of interest.

"It's all tricky, you know," he said.

The founders of one new information site, Helium.com, argue that Wales 
has it all wrong. As they see it, prohibiting payments is bad for 
Wikipedia -- and an opportunity for them.

Helium.com lets anyone write an article on a topic. But unlike at
Wikipedia, one contributor doesn't overwrite another. Instead the
community votes on which entries are more valuable. As a result,
multiple articles on a subject appear together, with top-rated ones
listed higher.

Authors are encouraged to write on something they know about, of
course, but they are given an extra incentive: a cut of Helium's ad
sales.

Andrew Ressler, a Helium vice president, argues that Wikipedia's ban
on perceived conflicts of interest shuts out lots of people with
"valuable insights and knowledge," and tends to leave the site to a
small clan of diehards.

"Everybody is getting rewarded somehow," Ressler said. "Whether it's
intangible or tangible, what's the difference?"


Copyright 2007 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, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones
Date: 24 Jan 2007 11:56:30 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


The Montgomery County, PA (suburb of Philadelphia) district attorney
wants to restrict pre-paid cell phones.

I find this idea very troubling, kind of Big Brother.  Does anyone
agree with the DA?

"To get a prepaid phone, all you have to do is plunk down your cash
and walk out of the store -- no paperwork necessary.  Castor says
that's a problem for his detectives because they can't track down the
owner of the phone."

For full story please see:
http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/189133.php?contentType=4&contentId=294741

[public replies please]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually, the way the DA would search
for such a person would be the same way he located anyone else;  he
would subpoena the sales records. He would ask the seller of the
phone to produce the record of whom the phone was sold to, the
'mystery caller' as it were. Ditto for any 'non-stationary' phone.
Now, granted, the buyer may have plunked down cash and given a
false ID for the purchase, but I am sure many buyers also used
credit cards or a check. The DA also might try dialing the number
under some pretense and seeing what he can find out that way.  PAT]

------------------------------

Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update - January 24, 2007
From: <communicationsdirect_daily-owner@www.communicationsdirectnews.com>
Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 09:53:19 EST


********************************
PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents
The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update
For January 24, 2007
********************************

Huawei, Qualcomm Complete MBMS Mobile TV Trial
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/22290?11228

     A successful trial of MBMS technology points to a change of focus
     in the emerging mobile TV ...

Naspers Announces US$165-mil. Acquisition of 30% Stake in Russian Internet
Company Mail.ru
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22286?11228

     South African media group Naspers has acquired a 30% stake in
     Mail.ru, a free Russian email service and one of the largest
     online portals in Eastern Europe. Naspers has acquired the stake
     for US$165 million, from Digital Sky Technologies and Tiger
     Global Management, both of which retain stakes in the
     company. Mail.ru has around 24 ...

PT Multimedia Launches Triple Play in Portugal
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22282?11228

     Portugal Telecom's cable TV unit, TV Cabo, has launched its
     triple-play service, offering high-speed internet, telephone and
     cable television services. TV Cabo is under PT Multimedia,
     Portugal Telecom's multimedia unit, which handles its TV
     services.  According to Dow Jones, the triple-play service is
     available to customers ...

Three More Mobile Innovators
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22278?11228

     Last week, we checked out three mobile innovators that promise to
     spark interest in 2007. But with the telecom industry currently
     experiencing an innovation renaissance, it seems a shame to stop
     at just three companies when there are so many worthy
     contenders. So let's take a quick look at three other companies
     -- GoGoMo, JumpTap ...

The Quad-Play Bill
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22275?11228

     Seamlessly integrating an effective billing system that can
     handle the hundreds of new services available on mobile phones
     and wireless networks and getting paid for them as part of the
     popular bundling strategy; is not only a tricky proposition, but
     is also driving many current quad-play business models. And no
     ...

Next-Gen Services Await a Converged Data Core
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22271?11228

     While we probably all have our own view on what the future
     telecoms market will look like, the one certainty is that it will
     be much more complex and uncertain. Change will become an
     intrinsic part of the business environment. In other words,
     we&rsquo;re not seeing a one-off transformation, but an ongoing
     process of change. So ...

Palm Offers Subscription Model
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22267?11228

     Attempting to change the way enterprises purchase and manage
     smartphones, mobile-services startup Movero Technology Inc. and
     Palm Inc. said today they are collaborating on a subscription
     model aimed at small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).  For
     between $20 and $40 per device per month, a company can lease a
     Palm Treo plus a ...

Cable Confronts Bandwidth Crunch
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/22264?11228

     Shaking off two years of disbelief and dismay, the cable industry
     has finally started dealing with the prospect of an impending
     bandwidth shortage. Cable operators and equipment suppliers,
     alarmed by an explosion in bandwidth use by cable subscribers
     over the last couple of years, are now drawing up plans to boost
     capacity at ...

Mobile Networks to Take Lead in Next-Generation IMS Networks
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22260?11228

     SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.  Mobile networks will take the lead in
     establishing IP multimedia subsystem (IMS)-based next-generation
     networks (NGNs) and introducing next-generation applications,
     reports In-Stat http://www.in-stat.com .  Wireline operators will
     continue to operate NGN overlays over the next five years,
     focused on ...

CommunicationsDirect Editor <telecom_direct_editor@us.pwc.com>

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:57:54 CST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Analysis: Telecom Video Intrigues Investors


USTelecom dailyLead
January 24, 2007
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gbakfDtusXkBoCCibuddNPJy

TODAY'S HEADLINES

NEWS OF THE DAY
* Analysis: Telecom video intrigues investors
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Yahoo! improves results, offers mixed forecast
* Cingular reports $782 million fourth-quarter profit
* Merrill analyst likes Cablevision for fundamentals, not takeover potential
* The Qualcomm-Broadcom case nears jury phase 
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Consolidating Interactive Voice & Video Services Tomorrow Jan. 25, 1 pm (ET)
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Siemens, Infoblox partner on domain name resolution
* Broadband video ads are a powerful force
* TI reports high sales for low-priced cell-phone tech
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Analyst: Big media facing challenges in 2007

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gbakfDtusXkBoCCibuddNPJy

------------------------------

From: Mark Crispin <mrc@cac.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007 23:33:40 -0800
Organization: University of Washington


TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Hancock:

> Lisa, the first thing we need to do is uproot the ICANN gang; they are
> as worthless as anyone can be. Then install new people in ICANN who
> take a harsher attitude.  Do not expect anything until ICANN is
> totally cleaned out. Esther Dyson and Vint Cerf are the worst. They
> have to be the first to be gone.  Not a very good prospect, is it?
> PAT]

That is like saying that the solution for telemarketers is to uproot 
TELECOM-DIGEST and install new people in TELECOM-DIGEST who take a harsher 
attitude; and that PAT is the worst.

Just what authority, pray tell, does ICANN have to do anything of what you 
envision?  ICANN is the "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and 
Numbers"; it is a registrar.  They have no control over who is connected 
to the Internet.  Nor do they have any control over IP address 
allocations; that is done by IANA, not ICANN.

ICANN operates the root DNS servers and defines the names at the root, but 
its authority to dictate what goes on under the root is limited or 
non-existent.  In particular, ICANN operates none of the non-root domains.

Furthermore -- and this is important -- the modest authority that ICANN 
has to operate the root DNS servers and define names at the root is based 
upon the *voluntary* acceptance of ICANN's operation and definition by the 
worldwide Internet community.  This acceptance is based upon the fact that 
ICANN acts as an impartial registrar and NOT as a policy-setter.

ICANN may have an MOU from the US Department of Commerce; but the 
governments of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, etc. don't care at all about what 
the US Department of Commerce says.  They do, however, accept ICANN's 
management of the root; and obtained ICANN delegation for the .CU, .IR, 
and .KP domains respectively.

There have been numerous entities who have held themselves up as 
alternatives to ICANN and run their own DNS root.  The individuals behind 
these entities are widely perceived as crackpots and are largely 
disregarded.

Nonetheless, nothing stops you from creating your own DNS root, expelling 
anyone you feel is a spammer, and telling the world that they should use 
PATDNS instead of ICANN.  Maybe you will succeed, everyone will use 
PATDNS, and spammers will plead and do anything (even stop spamming) to 
get you to allow them back into PATDNS.  Then again, maybe the French will 
repay their war debt; the SS Titanic will rise from the bottom of the 
ocean and enter New York Harbor in triumph; John Kerry will have his 
inaugural ball; and George Bush will learn how to pronounce "nuclear".

You seem to think that there is some Internet Dictator at the top who
is not doing his job, and that that ICANN is that dictator.  What
people have been trying to explain to you is that there is *no*
Internet Dictator and *no* authority at the top; nor has there been
one since DCA relenquished control over the Internet in the 1980s.
NSF had a somewhat more modest level of control over NSFnet, but that
came to an end over a decade ago.

Since that time, it has been anarchy.  That's what we said we wanted,
and we were severely punished by being given exactly that.  You may
not like the fact that it is anarchy -- nor, for that matter, do I --
but that is the reality of the situation.

 -- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe it is time to get rid of the
anarchy method (and really, users just *think* they are an anarchy;
AT&T [for example] could crush such an 'anarchy' in a minute if they
chose to do so, at least when the two year 'waiting period' on Net
Neutrality is complete.)

And since you want to make an example of TELECOM Digest, let's do so.
Do I ask all web sites and users to sign contracts giving up the
right to their name?  No ... but ICANN does. Do I assign the final
three letter suffix to user's site names?  No ... but ICANN does. Do I
have any influence at all over DNS?  No ... but ICANN does. How many
things can *I* do? Very few compared to ICANN ... do the various 
resistrars account for their activities to me? No ... but they most
certainly account to ICANN. 

You know, Mark, it gets really irritating listening to you and the
other spam enablers continually apologizing for ICANN's so-called
limitations. And everything is always someone else's fault, which
is the main reason spam/scam is at an all-time high on the net; the
fact that spam enablers like yourself REFUSE to use realistic
approaches to stopping it. Why don't you begin trying to work along
with other netizens instead of continually throwing up road blocks
everywhere?  PAT]

------------------------------

From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming
Organization: Symantec
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:48:33 -0500


In article <telecom26.24.5@telecom-digest.org>, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com 
wrote:

>> MySpace ... go after the worst offenders.

> Why aren't they going after  _all_  the offenders?

Because they only have so many lawyers, investigators, etc. available.  
They're going for the most bang for the buck.


Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***

------------------------------

From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
Subject: Re: My Space Sues Colorado Man for Spamming
Date: 24 Jan 2007 09:54:03 -0500
Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000)


mc  <look@www.ai.uga.edu.for.address> wrote:

> If the allegations are true, this man deserves criminal prosecution, not 
> just a lawsuit.

This is Scott Richter, after all.  He has been doing this sort of thing
for years.

> Using stolen passwords is serious.

I agree, but who is going to prosecute?  And while Richter is probably one
of the worst offenders, you can look at anyone on the ROKSO list and see
similar behaviours.  Why aren't they all in jail?

 --scott
"C'est un Nagra.  C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well _why_ is Scott Richter allowed to 
operate unabated? As the other message in this issue pointed out,
there are practical limitations to the number of lawyers and
investigators available. I agree with 'the biggest bang for the buck'
theory. Get them one after another, the biggest ones first, and 
hopefully, when we get around to the smaller ones, some of the bigger
ones will still be in jail; obviously we cannot count on ICANN to do
anything about it; Esther and Vint are probably on vacation somewhere
in South America, living on the proceeds of the fees they collect for
charging all of us for the 'right' to be here.  PAT]
   
------------------------------

From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com
Subject: Re: Don't Call. Don't Write. Let Me Be.
Date: 24 Jan 2007 08:07:44 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


On Jan 22, 1:01 pm, DevilsPGD <spam_narf_s...@crazyhat.net> wrote:

> In message <telecom26.22...@telecom-digest.org>:
> Not so much that they get away with it, paying the fines is just a
> cost of business.

The vast, vast majority of the consumers will not go to the trouble of
carefully tracking and reporting illegal solicitation calls.  So the
solicitors never get into trouble in the first place and thus there is
no fine.

They use techniques that mask their caller-ID.  VOIP carrier?.
"Fly-by-night" long distance carrier that simply doesn't pass along the
data?

Even if a consumer does report a complaint, the authorities only act
upon receiving a great many complaints that are solidly substantiated.
Again, the chance that will happen is very small.

It was a common trick in the old days for scammers to rent a storefront
and fake a busy business, do their thing for a few months, then take
off before the victims and authorities could react.  By the time they
do, they only find an empty store, the criminals are long gone.

In the modern world, it's a lot easier, no physical property (and
expense) is required.  Just create a website or telephone carrier,
which thanks to deregulation and our beloved "open world*" is very
easy to do.  Remember the problem with illegal long distance carrier
switching?

*See Pat's comments on this in a separate post issued today.

In my opinion, the problems we have today result from the lingering
"anti-Bell" attitude some people have.  Note the caustic response to me
not long ago from one poster claiming the baby-Bells still had a
monopoly.  This attitude resulted in a "wide open" policy for the
Internet and the telephone system.  The problem was that criminals take
quick advantage of this.  It's made all the worse since this is an
intangible service where there's no physical presence or controls.

In the tangible real world, we still require new businesses to meet all
the laws and regulations to protect the public, yet we exempt new
Internet and telephone providers because we want "competition".  Do we
exempt a brand new restaurant from the health code because we want a
new choice to eat out?  (I guess some people think we should.)

[public replies, please]

[ TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am getting sort of ambivilent on the
'Network Neutrality' issue. Just wait until the 'time out period'
agreed to by Bell expires in a couple years. Very few of these fool
spammer/scammers will be able to afford AT&T's prices for fast
network connectivity.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: nosmo_king58@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Is Your Telephone AC Power Dependent?
Date: 24 Jan 2007 13:04:13 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


On Jan 22, 6:51 pm, T <nospam.k...@cox.nospam.net> wrote:

> Around here they don't bother putting backup power at most cell sites.
> When Nextel put one of their cell sites on the building we're in we
> offered them a tap off our generator but they didn't want it.

The typical power "board" for a cell site consists of an AC-to-DC
rectifier system that changes the 240VAC commercial power to +24Vdc
needed for the equipment.  Almost always, a string of twelve 2V VRLA
batteries is provided for backup.  A common size for the battery string
is 1040 Ah (Amp-hours).  The actual back-up time is dependent upon the
load being drawn by the cell site equipment, age/condition of the
batteries, ambient temp inside the cell site, etc.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:16:20 -0600
From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Last Laugh! Unpaid Fee Loses Debt Group's Web Site


An association of debt management offices, who together manage
billions of dollars of government debt, has had its Web site closed
after it failed to pay the $35-a-year fee to keep the Web address
registered.

The World Association of Debt Management Offices (Wadmo), a forum for
treasury officials from more than 40 developing countries, ran the
wadmo.net Web site, but the domain name expired on January 15.

Cecilia Mendoza, of the Wadmo secretariat in the Philippines Treasury, 
said Wadmo planned to renew the address but had been held up because it 
was cutting ties with the UN's UNCTAD agency, and transferring the 
body's duties to different officials.

"It's because we couldn't even withdraw money, because the (new) 
signatories are not yet authorized," Mendoza told Reuters by telephone 
from Manila. The day -- or instant -- the address became available,
some cybersquatters moved in and took it over. 

Domain Bank, the domain name registrar, charges just $35 a year to 
register a ".net" internet address, or $250 a decade.

Wadmo's members span Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and 
South America, and include state debt management offices in Russia, 
Nigeria, Indonesia, and Romania, according to a cached version of 
Wadmo's Web site.

Copyright 2007 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, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html

------------------------------


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*   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.                             *
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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
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The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College
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state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
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Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
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http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

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   In addition, gifts from Mike Sandman, Chicago's Telecom Expert
   have enabled me to replace some obsolete computer equipment and
   enter the 21st century sort of on schedule. His mail order 
   telephone parts/supplies service based in the Chicago area has
   been widely recognized by Digest readers as a reliable and very
   inexpensive source of telecom-related equipment. Please request
   a free catalog today at http://www.sandman.com 
   ---------------------------------------------------------------

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All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
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End of TELECOM Digest V26 #25
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