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TELECOM Digest Sun, 31 Jul 2005 18:21:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 347 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson iTunes Mints Podcasting Stars (Monty Solomon) Gadgets Gun for iPod's Glory (Monty Solomon) Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear (Monty Solomon) When Cell Phones Become Oracles (Monty Solomon) Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP (Monty Solomon) Cisco Security Hole a Whopper;Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe (M Solomon) A Hacker Games the Hotel (Monty Solomon) Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users (Monty Solomon) iFM -- Radio, Remote, and Recorder for iPod (Monty Solomon) Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? (Lisa Hancock) Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal (jhedfors) Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? (retrosorter) Re: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP (Tim@Backhome.org) Re: Nextel False Advertising (John Levine) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Joseph) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Robert Johnson) Re: Nextel False Advertising (Scott Dorsey) Re: Nextel False Advertising (NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:39:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: iTunes Mints Podcasting Stars By Steve Friess Self-proclaimed tech geek Brian Reid got an MP3 player for Christmas and decided after fiddling with it for a while to start a little podcast called Sex Talk that focused on one of his passions: gender issues. The suburban Washington, D.C., stay-at-home dad did a few broadcasts, touching on such sonorous topics as the Roman Catholic Church's stance on female priests, and then gave up back in April when his audience failed to grow beyond a few subscribers. So imagine his surprise when, during the first week of July, Reid got an e-mail from an Australian reader of his blog congratulating him for having the 53rd-most-popular podcast on iTunes. And so it went in the first fortnight after Apple Computer issued the software that turned podcasts mainstream. The upgrade to iTunes 4.9 on June 29 gave millions of iPod owners and iTunes customers a simple way to search for and subscribe to podcasts without any other software. Apple counted more than 1 million podcast subscriptions through iTunes in the first two days alone, according to a company press release. Still, the switch came suddenly and without warning, turning a long list of mom-and-pop online audiocasters into overnight sensations, crashing servers across the nation and minting new internet stars in a way not seen since the early days of blogging. And, of course, it left folks like Reid scratching their heads. Reid has no idea how his defunct podcast ended up listed in the iTunes directory -- and with an "explicit" label no less. He assumes that label and the Sex Talk name explain how he scaled the charts alongside such brand-name talkers as Air America Radio's Al Franken, Nightline's Ted Koppel and Z100 radio's Elvis Duran. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68185,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:41:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Gadgets Gun for iPod's Glory By Jonny Evans LONDON -- The iPod may face challenges from music-playing cell phones and online subscription services but will likely reign supreme because it taps into the way consumers enjoy music, experts say. At a panel discussion in London on Tuesday called "I Came, I Saw, IPod -- What's Next?," several digital-music experts were asked to identify a likely successor to Apple Computer's market-leading device. "After the iPod -- isn't that like asking what's after the book?" asked journalist and keynote speaker Charles Arthur, who argued that music will not necessarily flow to cell phones. User interfaces and usage patterns matter, said Arthur. For mobile music to succeed, "cell phones need to be as easy to use as a BlackBerry," he said. Arthur observed that handsets still suffer from unreliable connection speeds and security issues. For example, today's handsets don't offer elegant backup options for purchased songs, leaving consumers at the mercy of network operators to replace their collections if handsets are lost or damaged. At least computers let users burn CDs of their purchases to guard against loss, Arthur said. The cost of music download services and devices is also a barrier to mass-market acceptance, said Michael Bull, a Sussex University lecturer known as "Professor iPod." http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,68261,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:46:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Google Growth Yields Privacy Fear Associated Press Google is at once a powerful search engine and a growing e-mail provider. It runs a blogging service, makes software to speed web traffic and has ambitions to become a digital library. And it is developing a payments service. Although many internet users eagerly await each new technology from Google, its rapid expansion is also prompting concerns that the company may know too much: what you read, where you surf and travel, whom you write. "This is a lot of personal information in a single basket," said Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "Google is becoming one of the largest privacy risks on the internet." Not that Hoofnagle is suggesting that Google has strayed from its mantra of making money "without doing evil." Rather, some privacy advocates worry about the potential: The data's very existence -- conveniently all under a single digital roof -- makes Google a prime target for abuse by overzealous law enforcers and criminals alike. Through hacking or with the assistance of rogue employees, they say, criminals could steal data for blackmail or identity theft. Recent high-profile privacy breaches elsewhere underscore the vulnerability of even those systems where thoughtful security measures are taken. Law enforcement, meanwhile, could obtain information that later becomes public, in court filings or otherwise, about people who are not even targets of a particular investigation. Though Google's privacy protection is generally comparable to -- even better than -- those at Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon.com and a host of other internet giants, "I don't think any of the others have the scope of personal information that Google does," Hoofnagle said. Plus, Google's practices may influence rivals, given its dominance in search and the fierce competition. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68235,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:47:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: When Cell Phones Become Oracles By Ryan Singel Cell phones know whom you called and which calls you dodged, but they can also record where you went, how much sleep you got and predict what you're going to do next. At least, these are the capabilities of 100 customized phones given to students and employees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- and they may be coming soon to your cell phone. The phones were part of a Ph.D. project by MIT Media Lab researcher Nathan Eagle, who handed out the devices as a way to document the lives of students and employees of MIT, ranging from first-year undergrads and MBA students to Media Lab employees and professors. Eagle's Reality Mining project logged 350,000 hours of data over nine months about the location, proximity, activity and communication of volunteers, and was quickly able to guess whether two people were friends or just co-workers. It also found that MBA students actually do spend $45,000 a year to build monster Rolodexes, and that first-year college students -- even those who attend MIT -- lead chaotic lives. He and his team were able to create detailed views of life at the Media Lab, by observing how late people stayed at the lab, when they called one another and how much sleep students got. Given enough data, Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time. Eagle used Bluetooth-enabled Nokia 6600 smartphones running custom programs that logged cell-tower information to record the phones' locations. Every five minutes, the phones also scanned the immediate vicinity for other participating phones. Using data gleaned from cell-phone towers and calling information, the system is able to predict, for example, whether someone will go out for the evening based on the volume of calls they made to friends. Eagle sees the project as a way to envision how mobile devices will further change our lives, but also as a revolutionary new way to study social networks. The project was able to record how the lab as a whole responded to events as disparate as an organization-wide deadline and the Red Sox's stunning World Series win in 2004. http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0,1382,68263,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:50:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Privacy Guru Locks Down VOIP By Kim Zetter First there was PGP e-mail. Then there was PGPfone for modems. Now Phil Zimmermann, creator of the wildly popular Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption program, is debuting his new project, which he hopes will do for internet phone calls what PGP did for e-mail. Zimmermann has developed a prototype program for encrypting voice over internet protocol, or VOIP, which he will announce at the BlackHat security conference in Las Vegas this week. Like PGP and PGPfone, which he created as human rights tools for people around the world to communicate without fear of government eavesdropping, Zimmermann hopes his new program will restore some of the civil liberties that have been lost in recent years and help businesses shield themselves against corporate espionage. VOIP, or internet telephony, allows people to speak to each other through their computers using a microphone or phone. But because VOIP uses broadband networks to transmit calls, conversations are vulnerable to eavesdropping in the same way that e-mail and other internet traffic is open to snoops. Attackers can also hijack calls and reroute them to a different number. Few people consider these risks, however, when they switch to VOIP. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68306,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:52:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Cisco Security Hole a Whopper; Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe By Kim Zetter LAS VEGAS -- A bug discovered in an operating system that runs the majority of the world's computer networks would, if exploited, allow an attacker to bring down the nation's critical infrastructure, a computer security researcher said Wednesday against threat of a lawsuit. Michael Lynn, a former research analyst with Internet Security Systems, quit his job at ISS Tuesday morning before disclosing the flaw at Black Hat Briefings, a conference for computer security professionals held annually here. The security hole in Cisco IOS, the company's "infrastructure operating system" that controls its routers, was patched by Cisco in April, Lynn said, and the flawed version is no longer available for download. But Cisco didn't want the information disclosed until next year when a new version of the operating system would be out of beta testing and ready for distribution. Routers are devices that direct information through a network. Cisco products account for the majority of routers that operate the backbone of the internet and many company networks. Lynn likened IOS to Windows XP, for its ubiquity. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68328,00.html Whistle-Blower Faces FBI Probe By Kim Zetter LAS VEGAS -- The FBI is investigating a computer security researcher for criminal conduct after he revealed that critical routers supporting the internet and many networks have a serious software flaw that could allow someone to crash or take control of them. Mike Lynn, a former researcher at Internet Security Systems, or ISS, said he was tipped off late Thursday night that the FBI was investigating him for violating trade secrets belonging to his former employer. Lynn resigned from ISS Wednesday morning after his company and Cisco threatened to sue him if he spoke at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas about a serious vulnerability he found while reverse-engineering the operating system in Cisco routers. He said he conducted the reverse-engineering at the request of his company, which was concerned that Cisco wasn't being forthright about a recent fix it had made to its operating system. Lynn spoke anyway, discussing the flaw in Cisco IOS, the operating system that runs on Cisco routers, which are responsible for transferring data over much of the internet and private networks. Although Lynn demonstrated for the audience what hackers could do to a router if they exploited the flaw, he did not reveal technical details that would allow anyone to exploit the bug without doing the same research he did to discover it. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68356,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 23:52:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: A Hacker Games the Hotel By Kim Zetter A vulnerability in many hotel television infrared systems can allow a hacker to obtain guests' names and their room numbers from the billing system. It can also let someone read the e-mail of guests who use web mail through the TV, putting business travelers at risk of corporate espionage. And it can allow an intruder to add or delete charges on a hotel guest's bill or watch pornographic films and other premium content on their hotel TV without paying for it. Adam Laurie, technical director of the London security and networking firm The Bunker showed Wired News how he conducted such attacks at hotels around the world before he was to speak about the vulnerability Saturday at the DefCon hacker conference in Las Vegas. Laurie is known as Major Malfunction in the hacker community. He also revealed how infrared used for garage door openers and car-door locks could be hacked, using simple brute force programming techniques to decipher the code that opens the doors. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68370,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:03:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Use of a Mysterious Cookie Irks Some Internet Users By DAVID KESMODEL THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE Earlier this summer, Uno Bloom, a songwriter in Brentwood, Tenn., noticed that his home computer appeared to be slowing down. He searched the files on his hard drive in an effort to uncover clutter, and found dozens of Internet cookies labeled "2o7.net." He started monitoring his cookies -- small tracking files that are automatically downloaded when users visit Web sites -- and realized some of the suspicious files were coming from Ameritrade.com, where he trades stocks. He did an Internet search for "2o7," and learned in a computer forum that cookies bearing the name were maintained by Omniture Inc., a Web analytics firm. Omniture helps its roster of high-profile clients, including Ameritrade Inc., eBay Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Expedia Inc., study how people use their Web sites. Mr. Bloom is one of a number of computer users who grew suspicious when they discovered the files on their computers, either through manual searches or by running antispyware programs that flagged 2o7.net for potential deletion. Adding to their concerns: when users plugged www.2o7.net into a Web browser, they got a blank page. A fair amount of Web know-how was required for users to discover that Omniture owned the 2o7.net Web address. Some users have blasted Omniture and its clients over use of the cookies. The controversy over the 2o7.net cookies highlights the tension that exists between marketing companies like Omniture and Web users who are increasingly aware of, and adverse to, files that are automatically placed on their computers when they surf the Internet. At a time when PCs are under assault by viruses and other nefarious software like never before, users are employing a range of software tools and tactics to protect themselves. Many users don't distinguish between cookies, which are small bits of text commonly used by Web sites to identify users, and malicious software that can steal personal information or change PC settings. That has put marketers on the defensive, as they try to get users to spare cookies when wiping computers clean of potential threats. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112248279507797567-UgCRBcSJhSZRiUI50YLUeSiF6_g_20060729,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 11:18:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: iFM -- Radio, Remote, and Recorder for iPod iFM integrates FM radio tuning, recording and remote control functionality to the iPod, all in a tiny aluminum enclosure. With the flip of a switch users can now switch seamlessly between controlling their music library and listening to their favorite FM radio programming. Use the iFM as an inline remote to control the iPod's transport controls, great for workouts, biking or hiking. iFM is also a recording device, with a built in microphone to record voice, or change modes to capture live FM radio directly to the iPod! http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/ifm/ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Bell System and GTE Telephone Operator? Date: 30 Jul 2005 20:43:12 -0700 Back in the 1960s, the Bell System employed a great many telephone operators in different roles. Some of the jobs looked very interesting, such as overseas or toll operator on a cord switchboard. Others looked extremely boring, such as directory assistance or ONI (caller's number entry). I was wondering how an operator got assigned to the different roles and if pay scales differed for the different roles. To me, Directory Assistance and Intercept seem awfully boring. It's just looking up numbers in the various phone books. The worst would be ONI. Before ANI (automatic number identification became common) an operator had to come on line and ask their caller for their number. She would key it into the system which would use it for AMA billing. Her console for that did nothing else. The most exciting, and available only in a few places, would be an overseas operator. The technical handling of different countries would be a challenge as well as speaking to overseas parties. Now it's no big deal but back then it was. The middle of the road would be toll and assistance on a cord switchboard. These operators would handle trouble with local calls, coin collection from all payphone calls, and operator handled toll calls (collect, time & charges, person-to-person, 3rd billing, etc.) While most toll calls were directly dialed and no big deal to set up, occassionally a call would have to be specially built-up the old fashioned way. As the 1960s went into the 1970s operator jobs were reduced. Bell charged for directory assistance and operator handled toll calls, reducing the volume. Computerized switchboards such as TSP/TSPS streamlined the function and "took the fun out of it". Our retired small town telephone operator started as a teenager during WW II. She enjoyed working the town's local manual switchboard and it was just like in the movies -- calls handled by name and keeping track of where the doctor and policeman were in town. When the town went dial in 1954, she was transferred to a nearby city where it was a completely different atmosphere -- very structured and disciplined. When I toured some Bell central offices in the 1970s the operator's areas didn't seem quite as 'tight' as the 1950s is described. The last manual boards in my area -- in suburban towns -- were retired around 1962. One area was fairly built up and would've had a lot of traffic, enough to justify the "A" and "B" boards (calls received by an "A" board, then passed to the appropriate "B" board for final connection). I wonder if those locations were disciplined. I also wonder what city switchboards (not tiny towns) were like under General Telephone and other independent companies. Did their city switchboards have the same discipline as the Bell System have the same strictness? [In the computer world, IBM was very formal while its competitors were not.] Historically, there wasn't much of a career path for a telephone operator. Often young women took the job for a few years until they got married or had kids, and then they quit. Some returned after the kids were grown. A few would get promoted to be supervisors. Others would leave and get jobs as PBX operators -- almost all large PBX installations required an operator to be "Bell trained" and have Bell Telephone experience to get hired. As a PBX operator, one might have career advancement within the particular company depending on her skills and the attitude of the company (ie going from operator to office secretary). ------------------------------ From: jhedfors <jhedfors@gmail.com> Subject: Cell Phone For VOIP - Home Device Imitates Provider Signal Date: 30 Jul 2005 16:58:09 -0700 I wonder if such a device is feasible? Could there be a device that gives give off a home network signal that your cell phone can connect to as it does your service provider? You could then user your cell handset for VOIP calls when near such a device. There is talk of special wi-fi enabled phones doing this, but this could be used with any phone, and could possibly be wi-fi enabled as well. Any thoughts? J ------------------------------ From: retrosorter <hrichler@sympatico.ca> Subject: Re: Bell Canada Cell Scam? Date: 30 Jul 2005 17:52:40 -0700 I believe that consumers who clearly do not want a phone with browser features should not be sold one with such. If they are sold one they should be told that they can have such a feature deactivated. ------------------------------ From: Tim@Backhome.org Subject: Re: E-911 Making Headway in VOIP Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 00:03:41 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Wayne Rash wrote: > Things change when you're not connected to the phone company's > lines. Cell phone users, for example, are connected to their wireless > provider. Until recently, the best the wireless company could do was > to have a general idea of the area of the caller, accurate perhaps to > several square miles. Now, with more accurate location being mandated, > phones can be located using other means, including GPS (Global > Positioning System) receivers embedded in many phones. GPS works only outdoors in a relatively open area. It never works indoors except perhaps when right next to a very large window with plain glass. This is the problem with technology that is not well understood by those who propose using it for solutions under less than robust circumstances. ------------------------------ Date: 30 Jul 2005 22:22:28 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA TELECOM Digest Editor asked in a message: > My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own > cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ... > (and Dobson came to mind). No, he said, Nextel does _not_ roam. Either > you get our service or you don't get service. Nextel uses a technology called iDEN which is different from all of the other carriers in the U.S. A Nextel phone will work anywhere there is iDEN coverage, which is Nextel's network in the US and Mexico, Telus in Canada, and some carriers in a few other countries. Nextel's coverage is pretty good, and they have as good a claim to national coverage as anyone else. Their coverage has holes in rural areas, but so does anyone else's. The holes are just different. There is for example a narrow valley about 20 miles east of here where no cell phones work at all and, considering how rural it is, they never will. No mobile carrier anywhere provides 100% coverage, and it was pretty foolish of your nephew to expect to be reachable all the time. Somehow we all managed to survive back in the dark ages when travellers had to drop coins into pay phones to call home, and you couldn't get in touch with travelling friends and relatives at all unless you were able to leave a message at a place where they'd be staying. How come now it's a major crisis if someone a thousand miles away isn't instantly available at a touch of a button? Sheesh. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It is not a 'major crisis'; but rather, just quite inconvenient when you are sold a device (commonly known as a 'cell phone') with the assurance it will work 'anywhere', and you have no particular reason to distrust the seller of same only to then later find out the seller was full of hot air. And it is not merely that the 'push to talk' function is not available (I certainly would not miss that feature very much; it is more of a curiosity to me) but even the 'traditional cell phone features' do not work either. PAT]n ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:37:41 -0700 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 30 Jul 2005 16:36:55 EDT, ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) wrote: [lots of snip] > As I have heard it, the key word at Nextel is 'worldwide'; good in any > city, any time. Am I mistaken on that? No need for 'roaming', etc. > That's how they phrase it in the television ads they show here in our > town. It's as "worldwide" as anything is. It's only "worldwide" if a signal is available to you! > They bought their Nextel phones about a month ago ... which worked > quite well in Orlando (the push to talk feature, other calls, etc). [more snip] > They did push-to-talk all the way from Orlando though Atlanta, > Nashville, St. Louis and Kansas City. He got out of Kansas City > heading south/southwest toward our town, and the phone went dead. It's very obvious what happened. There is no Nextel service in Independence! If there is no service in that town you of course will not be able to use your phones. It's the same whether it's Sprint, cingular, T-Mobile or any other carrier. All carriers do not serve all areas. I know that if I go to Elma, Washington my T-Mobile service won't do me any good. Cingular won't do you any good either. Only Verizon will work there. Not every service works in every location despite what you might infer from a company's advertisements. > He got here yesterday (Friday) morning, used my house phone to check > in with his wife in Orlando who was beginning to get frantic. Not > only did 'push to talk' not work, but she tried dialing direct into > his number instead, and got nowhere with that except his voice mail. There is no service so you could not use it. > I played with his phone, which had a big 'no service' message on the > LED That was the answer!! > called tech support on 800-639-6111. I told them where we were at, and > that we do, of course, have cell towers all around here. Just because there are "cell towers" it doesn't mean that they are for Nextel! > In particular Dobson cell towers serve Cingular Wireless, US > Cingular, and (Dobson's own) Cell One. So its not for a lack of > coverage that we were getting the 'no service' message. Quite the contrary. It's because there is no coverage that you indeed are getting that message. Nextel does not service the area or if they do there's not a tower that's near enough to provide service. > The tech punched in my zip code, and street address, then came back > and said 'no towers or service in your area'. This is your answer!!! I'm not sure why you think there's any more "solution" to your problem. Nextel does not service the area. > My next question was 'what about roaming?' If you do not have your own > cell tower, you must have access to someone else's tower in the area ... Nextel does not roam *at all.* If there's no service they do not roam on any other tower. Nextel uses the iDen technology. iDen is incompatible with all other wireless technologies whether CDMA, TDMA, AMPS or GSM. Technically iDen which Nextel uses is not even cellular service. It is SMR which is a glorified walkie-talkie system. > How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying > Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and > the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation. Don't take all advertisements as completely true in every situation. You really should know this for *any* ads. > I had thought about trying Nextel at one point, I am sure glad I did > not fall for that 'nationwide coverage' lie. No offense, but if you're going to use *any* service you need to check it out and make sure that it will work for the purpose and place you wish to use it. It's obvious to me that whoever checked out wireless options for where they were going to end up did not do their homework. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, it was not _me_ to start with. I have inquired of Mike Sandman who has Nextel (among other) services; he told me Nextel was not very good 'anywhere not along a major interstate', but now these guys are stuck with a couple phones that are useless, and a contract to boot. When newer technologies are sort of a mystery even to relatively experienced users, how is it that kids in their early/mid twenties getting a 'cellular phone' for the first time in their lives are expected to know anything? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising From: Robert Johnson <alohawolf@notchur.biz> Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2005 03:19:42 -0700 Nextel has No Roaming Charges as stated in all their ads "anywhere on Nextel's Nationwide Network" Nextel is Based on iDEN and operates in the 800 mhz band, if there is no iDEN network, the phone is a hockypuck, its worthless as a phone, so its not a lack of *some* coverage, its a lack of *COMPATIBLE* Coverage, Nextel cannot roam on a GSM, TDMA, CDMA or AMPS network, it must be iDEN, one of the drawback of Nextel is, it is not rural as a rule, unless you're in the southeast. Robert Johnson (feel free to spool this out to the list, just obscure my email if ya could) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If a cellular telephone company told you 'we have no roaming charges' would you take that to mean (1) we have arrangements with other carriers and do not charge you _extra money_ for roaming, or would you take that statement to mean (2) we do not have any roaming at all? Since in the past, the subject of excessive charges for 'roaming' on another carrier's network has often times been an issue (since resolved by many carriers with 'national' plans such as the old AT&T), wouldn't you think that statement would be interpreted as (1) above? PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 10:31:08 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) TELECOM Digest Editor <ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > How odd ... I told him I heard many commercials on television saying > Nextel was either (take your pick) 'Worldwide' or 'Nationwide' and > the last I heard Kansas was part of the world and part of the nation. > His response was that to Nextel, the phrase 'x-wide' referred to > wherever they had towers, not elsewhere. About that same time there > came another Nextel commercial on _our_ television. Now don't you > think that is fraudulent to make those claims if they are not true? Nextel is not a cellular provider. They are something different. They do not use cellular frequencies or protocols, but use their own proprietary protocols on bits and pieces of the UHF business band. This gets to be interesting since the allocations they have are different in different areas. Anyway, they do have nationwide coverage. They aren't usable on every square foot of the country. No service is. Anybody who tells you that their service is, is lying. If you have an application that is so critical that you need connectivity at all times and all locations, you shouldn't be using cellular phones or Nextel at all. You'll find there are plenty of places where that AT&T phone you got does not work, too. It's like that. You want reliability, get a wire line. scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but at least AT&T Wireless, when it existed, had the 'courtesy' to hold onto your call as long as it was possible to do so, and only when the signal got to be _so crappy_ it was no longer possible to hold you then they swapped you off to the closest Cellular One tower as an 'extended area' user if possible or a 'roamer' as needed. I know they (AT&T) did not like having to lose the traffic from a cell phone which is why instead of swapping you out to Cell One at a reasonable distance, they insisted on holding you until the signal was mostly (but not totally) unusable. That was my main complaint with AT&T; I am just a wee bit outside the range of Tulsa and a wee bit outside the range of Wichita, consequently AT&T would try to deal with me (and sometimes do so in a very crappy way), rather than hand me off to Dobson Cell One. When I went here in town to a very high point on a hill, and dialed zero (the 'O' operator) and asked her 'who are you?' she would say Tulsa. But Nextel does not even afford that limited opportunity for communication. But now I understand they have (or are going to) merge with Sprint. I wonder what will be the technical effects of that merger? Anyone have any ideas? PAT] ------------------------------ From: NOTvalid@XmasNYC.Info Subject: Re: Nextel False Advertising Date: 31 Jul 2005 11:39:34 -0700 I believe the NYS Attorney General recently hauled them into court for false advertising. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Spritzer? He loves to sue one and all; it would not surprise me. I do not suggest that Nextel should be sued but rather, much like Vonage and the recent 911 fiasco, they should be obliged to spell it out in black and white a little better than they do: (1) "We do not have roaming service" (2)"Although we do serve a large portion of the public and are considered 'nationwide', we only serve mostly people centered near major interstate highways and in larger cities successfully" (3)"Our technology is not compatible with what is commonly referred to as 'cellular telephone service'. " PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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