TELECOM Digest     Tue, 26 Apr 2005 20:00:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 184

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Qwest's Offer Is Beyond Its Means (Eric Friedebach)
    Re: Verizon/MCI (Steven Lichter)
    Re: Verizon/MCI (Paul Vader)
    Re: SBC, Vonage Working on 911 Service Access Deal (DevilsPGD)
    Re: SBC, Vonage Working on 911 Service Access Deal (Tony P.)
    Re: Can You Hook Home Alarm System With Vonage Service? (DevilsPGD)
    Re: Politics in Telecom (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Basics of COT (HarryTheDog)
    Re: New Spam Scam Exploits Pope's Death (Paul Vader)

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and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

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

From: Eric Friedebach <friedebach@yahoo.com>
Subject: Qwest's Offer Is Beyond Its Means
Date: 26 Apr 2005 15:59:15 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


David M. Ewalt, 04.25.05, Forbes.com

NEW YORK - For the first time since the bidding war over MCI erupted
two months ago, Qwest Communications has taken the lead over
competitor Verizon Communications in the fight for MCI. But the bad
news for Qwest is that even if it wins, it loses.

Chances are good that Verizon will produce more cash and walk away
with MCI in the end. Yet for now Qwest chief executive Richard
Notebaert can probably taste victory. After being repeatedly brushed
off and ignored by MCI's board, he's finally gotten their attention
and approval. What once looked like a long shot bid to shore up
Qwest's faltering financials looks momentarily plausible.

But Qwest had to ramp up its bid so ferociously to get noticed that
now it's faced with a payout that's well beyond its means. At this
price, Qwest's proposed merger would be so hard to pay for it would
probably negate the value of doing it in the first place.

http://www.forbes.com/enterprisetech/2005/04/25/cx_de_0425qwest.html

Eric Friedebach
/An Apollo Sandwich from Corky & Lenny's/

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

From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com>
Reply-To: Die@spammers.com
Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc.  (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell. Co.
Subject: Re: Verizon/MCI
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 01:31:29 GMT


John P. Dearing wrote:

> The Bell Atlantic/Nynex merger (painful as it was) actually made sense
> and was the right thing to do. Kudos to Ray Smith (former Chairman &
> CEO) for having the vision to see the need and "make it so".

> The Bell Atlantic/GTE merger is a whole 'nuther kettle of fish.

> Ivan wanted to "one up" Ray. It certainly was a bigger merger but as a
> result of the *HUGE* "negative dowry" (over $50 Billion) that GTE
> brought to the altar, the combined company went from one of the best
> debt to equity ratios to one of the worst. At the time of the merger
> the dot com boom hadn't gone bust yet and the cash flow was probably
> assumed to be strong enough to cover the debt service.

> John P. Dearing
> A+, Network+, Server+
> To reply: Just drop "YOURPANTS" in my address! 8-)

I agree the Nxnex/Bell Atlantic merger might have been good.  I also
agree that the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger was a big error, in more then
money.  They were two different companies.

I don't know about Bell Atlantic, but GTE had bundles of money from
selling it non telecom groups as well as merging it AE unit with AT&T.
Many people said the GTD5 was not as good as other machines of its
kind.  It was made to work in many different projects where others
would not and it was a log more forgiving then others also.

GTE's merger with Contel was ok at the best, but after the merger they
dumped a lot of the Contel areas as some GTE areas. After the GTE/Bell
Atlantic areas a lot more were dumped, and the latest was the Hawaiian
Telco sales was a big error, it was one of the best run of the system
and made lots of money since it was located midway between the US and
Japan.

I retired from GTE a few years before the merger and am glad I did.  I
have done contract work for Verizon in California were I retired from
as well as Washington State and Oregon, it seems to be running the
same, but the people I talked to would rather have it as before.  I
started in 1967 with CWT and when GTE came in we wondered, but that
worked out.

LB@notmine.com wrote:


> No.

> LB

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And according to news reports today at
> http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news Verizon is working now
> on a new bid.  PAT]

I sure hopt not, much more will sink the whole company.

Tony P. wrote:

> I strongly suspect that Verizon is just trying to elevate the price
> past that which Qwest can reasonably be expected to be able to pay.

> In other words, once the bankruptcy happens to Qwest it would be
> childs play for Verizon to roll in and suck all of it up.

I did contact work for USWest as they were being bought by Qwest; the
whole area was a mess since no one know what was going to happen.

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

From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader)
Subject: Re: Verizon/MCI
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:34:56 -0000
Organization: Inline Software Creations


John P. Dearing <John.Dearing@VerYOURPANTSizon.NET> writes:

> Boom economy goes bust and the cash flow dries up but the debt, which
> up to this point was the 800lb gorilla in the room but was a
> *manageable* 800lb gorilla, well the debt becomes an albatross and
> starts sinking the ship.

Congratulations, you're the winner of the mixed metaphor of the week
award! *

* PV   something like badgers--something like lizards--and something
       like corkscrews.

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

From: DevilsPGD <ihatespam@crazyhat.net>
Subject: Re: SBC, Vonage Working on 911 Service Access Deal
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:37:05 -0600
Organization: Disorganized


In message <telecom24.182.10@telecom-digest.org> zcarenow@yahoo.com
wrote:

> All I know is that I got an email from Vonage telling me to activate
> the 911 by logging into their website and start the activation under
> the "Features" section of site. I assume that now I just need to dial
> 911 and it should work.

If that is all you know then you either haven't activated 911, or you
didn't bother to read the information provided when you activated 911
service (important things to know, like the difference between a PSAP
and a 911 call center)


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Vonage generally sends a much more
detailed email when 911 is turned on for each user requesting it. Like
Devil'sPGD I would strongy suggest you look more closely into it. Or
go to the Vonage dashboard and try to turn it on again. If it is
already turned on it will indicate that.   PAT]

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

From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net>
Subject: Re: SBC, Vonage Working on 911 Service Access Deal
Organization: ATCC
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 14:52:08 -0400


In article <telecom24.182.10@telecom-digest.org>, zcarenow@yahoo.com 
says:

> All I know is that I got an email from Vonage telling me to activate
> the 911 by logging into their website and start the activation under
> the "Features" section of site. I assume that now I just need to diall
> 911 and it should work.

Call it and state you are testing -- they will verify the address for 
you. 

In my case, they had the street number wrong. Odd because on Vonage's
web site the address is correct.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not usually recommend testing 911
by calling it -- at least not without an okay to do so first from the
person(s) in charge. I know in my case the dispatcher said they had
it on file, but 'the screen looks different than others I see.' And
she would not elaborate on what made it 'different looking'.  PAT]

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

From: DevilsPGD <ihatespam@crazyhat.net>
Subject: Re: Can You Hook Home Alarm System With Vonage Service?
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 21:37:05 -0600
Organization: Disorganized


In message <telecom24.182.5@telecom-digest.org> lothario4real@yahoo.com
wrote:

> Is it possible to hook up my Vonage to the home alarm system service
> (Brinks Security)? Or do I still need to get an analog phone line from
> Southwestern Bell? Thanks.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It _should_ be possible, but bear in 
> mind one thing burglars sometimes do is cut the electrical wire to 
> your house; that would as a result cut off your computer's electrical
> supply, and kill your Vonage phone. Some alarm companies also have a
> method of dealing not only with a call _into_ them, but also a way of
> telling when their device has been _disconnected_ from the phone
> line. I am not sure how well that would work when using Vonage, so you
> might want to have the Brinks representative there to look at it
> also.  PAT]

The only way an alarm company can tell if the line was cut is if they're
using alternate frequencies (Similar to how DSL over voice typically
works) -- This would be completely incompatible with DSL.

The only other option is if there is an alternate communications method
available -- If the alarm system detects a phone outage and it switches
to some sort of radio method instead.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do think it best that he have a 
security person from Brinks there to make the actual cutover, and not
cause them to get all excited if it fails for some reason.  PAT]

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

From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Politics in Telecom
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 00:16:55 -0700
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

> I don't know why this is such a surprise to anyone.

For many perks, the status quo is that only the favorite people and
groups (favorites of the political party and administration currently
running the country) benefit.

This particular perk happened to be different. It was supposed to be
available to anyone.

But no, I'm not surprised.


JustThe.net - Apple Valley, CA - http://JustThe.net/ - 888.480.4NET (4638)
Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / sjsobol@JustThe.net / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED

"The wisdom of a fool won't set you free"
     --New Order, "Bizarre Love Triangle"

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

From: HarryTheDog <the.harry@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Basics of COT
Date: 26 Apr 2005 04:58:00 -0700
Organization: http://groups.google.com


Try a google search. It always throws up a few (thousand ;-) hits for
me and I just sift through them putting together an answer.

You need to be careful, though. The first hit may not be accurate, may
not be apposite, may not have been written by someone who actually
knows what they are talking about, etc. That's why you need to read a
few hits and then form your own opinion.

And there's always the chance that no-one else actually knows the
answer, or has posted it to the web, or it has been crawled by your
search engine.

In this particular case, COT Test, context is important.

You don't want to know about baby sleeping arrangements (where does a
baby ape sleep? In an Apricot), do you?

And you don't want to know about Senator Frist running for President in
2008.

And it's not maths, it's Telecoms, so try this:

www.tailyn.com.tw/doc/TDC%20621.pdf

And if that doesn't answer your question, you can follow my advice
above.

Be Lucky.

Anything more complicated than two tin cans and some wet string needs
an expert, a degree and a three week residential training course in
the Caymans.

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

From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader)
Subject: Re: New Spam Scam Exploits Pope's Death
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:37:40 -0000
Organization: Inline Software Creations


pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) writes:

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Paul, I can fix that for you. I
> have a little perl script here which I will give in a minute, that 

Why don't you post your comments in their own message, instead of
defacing other people's messages with them? *

* PV   something like badgers--something like lizards--and something
       like corkscrews.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not regard my work here as 'defacing'
things, and the way this Digest is drawn up each day is the way I have
always done it and probably always will do it. Did you review that
perl script I provided? It is intended for folks like yourself who
prefer this group to be 'Patrick Optional'.   PAT]

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


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #184
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