TELECOM Digest     Thu, 1 Feb 2007 01:30:00 EST    Volume 26 : Issue 32

Inside This Issue:                           Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Boston Police Make Arrest in Devices Ploy (Ken Maguire, AP)
    Bill to Curb Online Predators Criticized (Joe Garofoli, SF Chronicle)
    Tracking Who's Saying What About Whom on Line (Kim Hart, Washington Post)
    CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update (communicationsdirect_daily)
    Icahn Targets Motorola (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Re: DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones (Wesrock@aol.com)
    Re: Few Rush Out to Buy New Window Vista (Steven J. Sobol)
    Re: Western Union Desk-Fax -- Discontinued? (www.Queensbridge.us)

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

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

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:12:25 -0600
From: Ken Maguire, AP <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Boston Police Make Arrest in Devices Ploy


By KEN MAGUIRE, Associated Press Writer

More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other
spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned
out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if
not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger.

Boston police said Wednesday night that one person had been arrested,
and authorities scheduled a news conference to provide details.

Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down
and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices
were harmless.

"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said 
he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may 
have."

Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of 
Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV 
show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking 
milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.

"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," 
Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the 
first devices came in.

It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 
cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; 
Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.

"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the
company said. As soon as the company realized the problem, it said,
law enforcement officials were told of their locations in all 10
cities.

The marketing firm that put them up has been ordered to remove them 
immediately, said Phil Kent, Turner chairman.

"We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing
campaign was mistaken for a public danger," Kent said. "We appreciate
the gravity of this situation and, like any responsible company would,
are putting all necessary resources toward understanding the facts
surrounding it as quickly as possible."

Interference Inc. had no immediate comment. A woman who answered the
phone at the New York-based firm's offices Wednesday afternoon said
the firm's CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until
Thursday.

There were no reports from police Wednesday of residents in the other
nine cities spotting similar devices.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he'll seek to punish those
responsible, and indicated that the penalty could be two to five years
in prison per count.

After Turner made its announcement, Menino said he was "prepared to
take any and all legal action" against the company and its affiliates
"for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today's
incidents."

Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke praised Boston
authorities for sharing their knowledge quickly with Washington
officials and the public.

"Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and
counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them
in a post-9/11 world," Knocke said.

Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had 
wires hanging from them.

The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath
Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.

Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at
the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which
span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New
England Medical Center.

The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a 
structure beneath the span, authorities said.

Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and
Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as
well. A similar device was found Wednesday evening just north of
Fenway Park, police spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.

Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at
Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched
television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.

"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," 
Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."

Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon 
Network were left with several publicists.

"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that
airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults
on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is
slated for release March 23.

The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like 
characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err  who were 
pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the 
obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.

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

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

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:17:06 -0600
From: Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Reporter <sanfranchron@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Bill to Curb Online Predators Criticized


It would try to keep pedophiles off social networking sites
by Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Critics are ridiculing the latest legislative effort to combat online
sexual predators, saying provisions of a law proposed Tuesday would be
easy to circumvent and amounted to little more than political "window
dressing" supported by the online social networking giant MySpace.com.

But sponsors -- which include influential senators like John McCain, 
R-Ariz., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., -- say the Keeping the Internet 
Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2007 addresses a small, but important, 
part of ridding social networking sites of predators:

It tries to remove the known offenders trolling them.

Plus, the bill would make it a crime for anyone over the age of 18 to
misrepresent their age with the intent to use the Internet to engage
in criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Together, lawmakers said the
provisions would give law enforcement more legal tools to ensnare
convicted sexual offenders, should they try to prey upon minors again.

Introduced in the House and Senate, the bill requires convicted sexual
offenders to register their e-mail and instant messaging addresses
with the National Sex Offender Registry. The Department of Justice
would make that information available to social networking sites, to
compare with user profiles in their system.

Last month, MySpace teamed up with the security firm Sentinel Tech to
create a database technology to remove sexual offenders from online
communities. This week, it donated the technology to the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children. MySpace is currently
beta-testing the technology, and has already removed a few known sex
offenders from its site.

As for the bill's intent to stop age misrepresentation, Internet
safety experts say nice try, but hardly enforceable. Parry Aftab, a
cyberspace attorney and executive director of the 8-year-old
WiredSafety.org, said only "the stupidest" online predators would use
their registered online monikers, she said. And "while there's a lot
of stupid sexual predators, it's easy to get around" (the proposal).

"I love the idea, but who's going to comply?" Aftab said. "I don't
want to dismiss the efforts of anyone who's trying to help, but what
we're coming up with is a lot of knee-jerk legislation."

"It's a step in the right direction, but how easy is it to change your
e-mail address?" said Judi Westberg Warren, president of Web Wise
Kids.

Tim Donovan, founder of http://www.imbee.com the fledgling Oakland
social network site targeted at people under 13 years old, said it
seems many politicians are "focused on catching criminals and
predators, but where are the efforts at educating parents and kids
about Internet safety?"  Users at imbee.com must personally know with
whom they are communicating online, and parents are able to monitor
their child's online wanderings.

MySpace's support of Tuesday's legislation is its latest effort to try
to blunt public concern about a few high-profile cases of predators
meeting underage users on the site. Earlier this month, four families
whose underage daughters were sexually abused after meeting people
they encountered on MySpace sued News Corp., the site's parent
company, alleging it was negligent in not creating safety measures to
protect younger users.

MySpace policy bans children younger than 14 from the site, which
contains 150 million profiles. Teens 14 or 15 years old can show their
full profiles -- which can contain a variety of personal information
 -- only to people on their list of known friends.

However, it is up to users to confirm their ages to the site. MySpace
announced this month that it was developing software to allow parents
to see if their children were creating multiple profiles -- one to
show to their folks, another to show to the rest of the world. Dubbed
Zephyr, the parental tools are expected to be available this summer.

But critics said Tuesday's legislation will do nothing to address
their main desire: They want MySpace to increase its minimum age to 16
and require that parents confirm their children's ages.

"This is the nothing more than window dressing," Connecticut Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal told The Chronicle Tuesday. Blumenthal is
leading a coalition of 34 attorneys general pondering legal action
against MySpace.

He also was concerned about a provision of the bill that would offer
"liability relief," should a social networking site misidentify one of
its users as a sexual predator based on information in the national
registry. "It seems like that would provide blanket immunity,"
Blumenthal said.

The bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., said Blumenthal
"may be reading (the legislation) too broadly."

"I think this legislation is another step to protect children from
sexual predators," Pomeroy said. Convicted sex offenders are required
to register their home addresses, he said, so why not their virtual
ones?

E-Mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/31/MNGK4NS1KN1.DTL

Copyright 2007 San Francisco Chronicle.
 
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

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

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 21:22:50 -0600
From: Kim Hart, Washington Post <washpost@telecom-digest.org>
Subject:t: Tracking Who's Saying What About Whom on Line


New Media Strategies' 'Online Analysts' Scour the Web for Mentions of 
Opinion-Sensitive Clients

By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer

Moira Curran starts her day at the office by skimming several dozen
blogs, occasionally firing off instant messages to her co-workers with
links to juicy bits of celebrity gossip.

Then she listens to podcasters chatting about the latest episodes of
"Grey's Anatomy" or "Lost." In the afternoon, she keeps an eye on soap
operas on the television set that hangs above her desk.

About 70 colleagues, scattered across two floors of an Arlington
high-rise, spend eight hours a day doing much of the same. Some of
them are also playing video games, watching movies and cruising around
MySpace.

That's exactly what the clients of New Media Strategies, an online
marketing company, pay the employees to do. Companies ranging from
movie studios and television networks to automakers and burger chains
hire these professional Web surfers to scour the Internet for any
mention of their brands. Over the past few years, the "online
analysts" have helped the companies track their reputations, found
ways to get their products noticed and joined online conversations to
help steer them the way clients want them to go.

More recently, as the explosion of blogs, social networks and
video-sharing sites has driven big companies to recognize the role of
Internet image in protecting their bottom lines, traditional media
companies and private investors are seeking to buy Web-savvy start-ups
that have a toehold in cyberspace.

That's what happened to New Media Strategies this month, when it was
acquired -- with two Los Angeles-based online marketing firms -- by
Meredith Corp., a Des Moines-based media company known for its sturdy
lineup of traditional magazines such as Better Homes and Gardens and
Ladies' Home Journal.

"I see the Internet as the world's largest focus group," said Pete
Snyder, a former media consultant and political pollster who started
the company out of his Capitol Hill apartment eight years ago. He had
received a few casual offers to buy the company, but interest spiked
in the past year. "So many companies have been so deeply entrenched in
old media ... Now they're looking to plow into the Web 2.0 world."

Evidence of that world abounds in the Arlington office, brightly
painted in red, orange and yellow. A podcast studio occupies a corner
office, and conference rooms are named ".com," ".net," ".gov" and
".org."

Posters from the movies the company has helped promote line the walls
 -- so many that passersby sometimes ask if the office doubles as a
theater.  Framed albums from Black Sabbath and several seasons of
"American Idol" hang next to a flat-screen television reserved for
"product viewing."

Many of the online analysts wear headphones all day and chat with
bloggers via instant messages. Their job is to be the clients' eyes
and ears online, said Clay Dunn, 28, a brand manager who monitors what
is said about video games and movies.

He watches for rumors and alerts his Hollywood clients if online
coverage goes awry. Once, for example, backstage photos from a movie
set surfaced and spoiled a sneak preview already in the works.

Curran, another brand manager who trolls the Web on behalf of
television clients, corrects errors published in blogs. If rumors
spread that someone's been fired from the cast of HBO's "Entourage,"
for example, she's there to set the record straight. If an angry
viewer bashes a network for a violent scene in a prime-time show,
she's there to post a rebuttal. She watches soap operas so she'll be
able to chat knowledgably with the rest of the online audience.

"Every day, I'm an absolute sponge," said Curran, 25.

Curran said she is careful to acknowledge her connection to clients
when it's required. All online marketers have to walk a fine line when
they work the blogosphere. Federal Trade Commission rules require them
to identify their roles when they're making a point on behalf of a
client, but if they're gossiping about the latest episode of
"Desperate Housewives" they can legally be as anonymous as anyone
else.

The New Media Strategies employees are young, self-identified tech
geeks whose goal is to know the Internet inside and out -- an
increasingly daunting task as hundreds of new blogs and Web sites crop
up every day.  They try to stay a few strides ahead of online
developments -- or at least only a step or two behind.

"The Internet used to be our oyster," Curran said of the days just a
few years ago when there were only chat rooms and message boards to
monitor.  "It still is, but we have to reassess the things we pay the
most attention to."

New Media Strategies' entertainment practice was the first to take
off; Hollywood has long been willing to spend money to influence the
online world. Over the past few years, Coca-Cola, Burger King, AT&T,
Dodge and Ford joined the client roster. Most recently, public affairs
has become the fastest-growing area for the company.

"Before, we could barely get a politician to spend money on a Web
site, let alone a massive Web campaign," Snyder said from his
Arlington office. "The world across the river is waking up to this."

So are buyers and investors. Media companies are starting to show
strong interest in adding interactive firms to their portfolios, said
Seth R.  Alpert, managing director of AdMedia Partners, a New York
investment bank that facilitates deals between advertising and
marketing companies.  AdMedia represented New Media Strategies in its
recent acquisition.

"Serving advertisers is now seen as being more broad than putting ink
on paper or building Web sites," Alpert said.

British marketing giant WPP Group, which includes established
advertising firms Ogilvy & Mather and Young & Rubicam, has acquired
several interactive-media firms. Nielsen Media Research combined three
online-research companies to create Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which
analyzes online markets.

In the Washington area, private investors recently put money into
another start-up -- Clarabridge, a Reston company whose software
crawls Web sites, recording what people say about specific products or
brands and tabulating the occurrence of positive or negative words to
help clients assess their cyberspace images. For example, it tracks
recommendations and criticisms about certain airlines on travel sites.

The company calls the process "online intelligence." It is currently
working for pharmaceutical companies to get a sense of how consumers
feel about the drugs the clients make.

"This can shape how they spend that million dollars to launch a
product," said Sid Banerjee, co-founder and chief executive of
Clarabridge. "There are enough mainstream consumers making decisions
on the Internet that they represent a meaningful sample of the
market."

Last week, the company took in $7.2 million in venture capital funding
from Intersouth Partners, based in Durham, N.C., and Reston, bringing
its total financing to $10 million since it started in 2005.

Cymfony, a Boston interactive-media firm and a competitor of New Media
Strategies and Clarabridge, has received $24 million in venture
capital cash in the past seven years.

Cymfony got its start doing research for intelligence agencies but
decided to use its text-mining software to monitor the
consumer-generated Web. Its business has doubled as advertisers take
to the Internet, said chief executive Andrew Bernstein.

"There's too much media online and no one knows where to turn," he
said.  "So they turn to us."

Copyright 2007 The Washington Post 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 and headlines, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/internet-news.html

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

Subject: CommunicationsDirect News Daily Update - January 31, 2007
From: communicationsdirect_daily <communicationsdirect@communicationsdirect>
Reply-To: communicationsdirect_daily-owner@communicationsdirectnews.com
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 11:32:40 EST 


********************************
PricewaterhouseCoopers Presents
The CommunicationsDirect Daily Update
For January 31, 2007
********************************

FastWeb Sues Telecom Italia for US$675.2 mil.
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/130/22426?11228

     The Italian alternative broadband provider, FastWeb, is suing
     Telecom Italia for 522 million euro (US$675.3 million) for
     restricting competition, according to reports from the daily Il
     Sole 24 Ore.  The new legal proceedings, which will start in the
     coming weeks, follow a ruling yesterday by an arbitration panel,
     ordering Telecom ...

Belgacom to Bid for Luxembourg Operator Voxmobile
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/120/22423?11228

     The Belgian incumbent operator, Belgacom, has been reported by
     the local newspaper,De Tijd, as being on the cusp of making an
     offer for Luxembourg operator Voxmobile, which operates a GSM,
     EDGE and UMTS network, as well as offering fixed, WLAN and ADSL
     services in the Duchy. It is reported that Voxmobile has a 20%
     share of the local ...

Imminent Chokepoint
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/140/22421?11228

     As 3G and enterprise apps drive more traffic on networks,
     backhaul could get all choked up.&nbsp; Classically known as the
     single most costly network operating expense, backhaul could
     become more expensive still. 3G services are rapidly driving
     bandwidth growth across all segments of the network. Growth
     causes more strain on the backhaul ...

Securing Software-Defined Radios
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/22418?11228

     Next-generation mobile phones and various other types of wireless
     communication devices will almost certainly be based on
     software-defined radios (SDRs) -- if the technology can be made
     safe enough for routine use. SDRs use software instead of
     dedicated hardware to define and modify transmission and
     reception signal processing. SDR ...

Icahn Eyeballs Motorola
http://www.communicationsdirectnews.com/do.php/150/22409?11228

     What do these diverse companies -- TWA, ImClone, Time Warner and
     Motorola -- have in common? Answer: Carl Icahn, in some way,
     shape or form.  Yesterday, Motorola confirmed billionaire
     investor and pot-stirrer Icahn and/or his representative now
     wants a seat on Motorola's 13-member board, with the nomination
     to be forwarded ...

Your feedback on our e-letter is always welcome. Send email to:
CommunicationsDirect Editor <telecom_direct_editor@us.pwc.com>

Copyright (C) 2007 PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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

Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:20:49 CST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Icahn Targets Motorola


USTelecom dailyLead
January 31, 2007
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/gdawfDtusXlrvbCibuddhbUf

TODAY'S HEADLINES

NEWS OF THE DAY
* Icahn targets Motorola
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* Vodafone hits 200-million-subscriber mark
* Sony Ericsson to produce handsets in India
* Towerstream arrives in Seattle
* LG Telecom benefits from subscriber gains
* SIPphone plugs in to VoIP
* Mobile telephony boosts Entel
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* Study: Rising broadband use to increase download revenue tenfold
* Competition leads video sites to pay for contributions
* Spending on wireless data services on the rise, report finds
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Colorado bill would allow statewide cable franchise

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

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

From: Wesrock@aol.com
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:05:59 EST
Subject: Re: DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones


In a message dated 1/28/07 4:19:38 PM Central Standard Time, Pat wrote, in a 
comment on a message from  T <nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net>:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct on that. In the 'semi-
> automatic' days of gasoline credit cards (1970's mostly) when the
> dealer had to manually fill in the gas ticket and imprint your credit
> card by hand, then you had to sign, Amoco made a point of writing
> down the license plate number of vehicles. 

     They did that in the manual days, too, When credit cards had no
raised information and were filled in by longhand by the dealer.  Not
just Amoco -- and to say that "Amoco" (or any oil company) did this is
somewhat misleading, since many, many, perhaps a majority, of station
were owned or operated by dealers, not by the oil company.


Wes Leatherock
wesrock@aol.com
wleathus@yahoo.com


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are also correct about the entirely
manual days of credit cards and also on precisely 'who' owned and 
operated the stations. Technically speaking, the stations were 'owned'
and 'operated' by individuals or companies, but rather tightly
controlled by the major oil companies. And it would have been (then or
today) economic suicide to _NOT_ accept oil company credit cards, so
in essence, the oil companies 'operated' the stations even if they
did put an extra layer in the middle about the 'true' ownership.  PAT]

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

From: Steven J. Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Few Rush Out to Buy New Window Vista
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 00:58:38 UTC
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


In article <telecom26.31.3@telecom-digest.org>, Jessica Mintz , AP wrote:

> By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Business Writer

> NEW YORK - Consumers can finally get their hands on Microsoft Corp.'s
> long-delayed Windows Vista, but unlike the mad midnight rushes
> retailers saw with the recently released video game consoles, stores
> saw only a trickle of early adopters Tuesday.

At work we sell PCs from Dell. Our Dell account rep has informed us
that starting this week, on Dimension PCs (the low-end PCs), you get
Vista. No option to do XP instead unless you're buying Optiplex (the
higher-priced business product line). This should get interesting!

> "I've been waiting and waiting, and I've been using my personal laptop
> for work -- it's not working well," he said. "This is a big deal for
> me.  I'll hopefully get the better performance that I need, and I
> won't have to go through the trouble of upgrading later."

That's the way to do it. At work, the official policy is that we
*won't* be upgrading. If you want Vista from us, you have to buy a new
PC. I personally think that's a very smart policy.

Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows
Victorville, California     PGP:0xE3AE35ED

It's all fun and games until someone starts a bonfire in the living room.

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

From: www.Queensbridge.us <NOTvalid@Queensbridge.us>
Subject: Re: Western Union Desk-Fax -- Discontinued?
Date: 31 Jan 2007 20:42:35 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


On Jan 30, 3:21 pm, hanco...@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> In the late 1940s Western Union introduced a small desk top sized
> facsimile machine which was a major innovation for its day.  Before
> that, fax machines were huge.

> The goal was to replace telegraph messengers who were becoming quite
> expensive and provide a faster service -- desk to desk.  Also, these
> machines were cheaper than a Teletype.  The Western Union Tech Review
> (on this website) has articles on the details of transmission.  A lot
> of experimentation went into all facets of transmission issues to
> maximize clarity and minimize errors.  I believe the document size was
> rather small, about 4x6 inches.

> I am not sure if the fax signal was analog, varying as the reading eye
> moved across the line, or digital, with the line divided into tiny
> segments.  A digital signal could be carried on low speed telegraph
> lines and converted to paper tape but would be pretty slow.  I also
> don't know how the messages were routed -- did the fax print out at a WU
> switching center, read by a human, and re-transmitted to the
> destination?  If so, was the fax resent, which would mean a very
> coarse final result, or was the image stored on paper tape (as other
> telegraph messages were) and resent that way?

> (Western Union also handled larger size facsimile transmission, such
> as weather maps for the US weather bureau and private line
> transmissions, but that is separate*).

> Anyway, in 1962 there were 38,000 Desk Fax terminals in operation.  
> Obviously it was popular.

> As voice-telephone line fax machines and cheaper long distance rates
> came out the need for Desk Fax declined.  At some point Western Union
> had to pull the plug on the service.  I tried searching for a
> terminate date, but couldn't find any.  Would anyone know when WU
> discontinued this particular service and how many terminals remained
> in use?  Would anyone know any other details about the service?

> *In 1962 W.U. had a "Public Wirefax" service, which cost $4.00 for a
> coast-to-coast 8x11" page transmission, additional pages at 65 cents.

I remember c. 1965 when I worked at Ideal Toys then at 200 Fifth
Avenue NYC NY we had one by the plug phone switchboard. The operator
would put our original on a drum with a band holding the original for
scanning.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did they have a separate dedicated
phone line to the 'fax machine'?  I know many companies did not have a
dedicated phone line; either someone called in advance and advised the
company phone operator that a fax would be coming through, or in many\
cases, when the phone operator answered and heard 'those squealing and
squeeky noises' it meant for her to transfer the call into the fax
machine line.  And yes, about forty years ago I had one of those
things with the big round drum which would roll back and forth across
the paper.  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://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 2007 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. The program has
state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus
offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum.  Classes
are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning.

Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at
405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at
http://www.mstm.okstate.edu

              ************************

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

Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as
yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help
is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars
per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above.
Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing
your name to the mailing list. 

All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the
author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only
and messages should not be considered any official expression by the
organization.

End of TELECOM Digest V26 #32
*****************************