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TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 Oct 2005 19:37:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 458 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Private Equity Firms May Tender Offer For NTL (USTelecom dailyLead) Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 (Angus TeleManagement Group) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Tony P.) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Lisa Hancock) Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband (Paul Coxwell) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Tony P.) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John Levine) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (Steve Sobol) Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! (John McHarry) Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 (Dan) Re: Life Beyond Earth (anon1@sci.sci) Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering (Paul Coxwell) Re: Motorola Bag phone (Dave Hunter) Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan (Daniel AJ Sokolov) 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: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 12:51:20 EDT From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com> Subject: Private Equity Firms May Tender Offer For NTL USTelecom dailyLead October 7, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vrBoatagCrluyVASAu TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Private equity firms may tender offer for NTL, Telewest BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Time Warner, Microsoft in Internet talks again * Report: SBC to use AT&T brand * Nortel's chief touts growth prospects in Asia * Cable & Wireless shares plunge following revenue announcement * Yahoo! chief outlines future, badmouths Google * EarthLink plans mobile phone service USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Presented by HP: OpenCall Media Platform and Next Generation Voice Services TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * IPTV's star on the rise, report says VOIP DOWNLOAD * XO joins Stealth's VoIP peering fabric * AOL puts new focus on VoIP REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Google hires lobbyist, opens D.C. office EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published Monday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/vrBoatagCrluyVASAu Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 11:34:19 -0700 Subject: Telecom Update #500, October 7, 2005 From: Angus TeleManagement Group <jriddell@angustel.ca> Reply-To: Angus TeleManagement Group <jriddell@angustel.ca> ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 500: October 7, 2005 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** NEC UNIFIED SOLUTIONS: www.necunifiedsolutions.com ** ROGERS TELECOM: www.rogers.com/solutions ** VONAGE CANADA: www.vonage.ca ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Ten Years of Telecom Update ** Rogers Telecom Buys GT Fibre From Bell ** Cellcos Oppose Early Number Portability ** Rogers Signs 18,000 Phone Subscribers ** Bell, Matthews Join for Business Applications ** Wireless Revenues Jump 16% ** Emerson May Favor Local Deregulation ** Starbucks and Bell Begin Wi-Fi Rollout ** Bell Not Required to Collect Directory Bills ** Aliant Wants Automatic Contract Renewals ** Bell Seeks Higher Rural Business Rates ** Meriton Acquires Mahi Networks ** Telecom Ottawa Adds SONET, WDM ** RFP Seeks Ontario Optical Net ** Aliant Offers Flat-Rate Cellular LD ** Cygnal Restructures Debt; CFO Quits ** One Week to Telemanagement Live ============================================================ TEN YEARS OF TELECOM UPDATE: Happy Birthday to us! This is issue number 500 of Telecom Update. We launched it in September 1995 as an experiment in electronic publishing, and it soon became the most widely read telecommunications newsletter in Canada. ** Telecom Update is distributed free of charge, thanks to generous support from our sponsors. All 500 issues are available on line at www.angustel.ca, providing a unique outline history of a decade of dramatic change. ROGERS TELECOM BUYS GT FIBRE FROM BELL: Rogers Telecom (formerly Call-Net) has paid $23.6 million to Bell Canada to purchase 7,700 route kilometres of fibre in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec. The fibre was formerly owned by Group Telecom, which was acquired by Bell in 2004. (See Telecom Update #435, 458, 480) ** Rogers has an option to buy more GT fibre in Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland by the end of 2006. CELLCOS OPPOSE EARLY NUMBER PORTABILITY: Replying to a CRTC request for ways to speed up wireless number portability, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association says that preparing alternate scenarios would be costly and time-consuming, and that the original plan to implement WNP nationally by September 2007 is "both aggressive and reasonable." (See Telecom Update #497) ** The major cellcos agree, saying that an earlier target date would create many technical problems and would be unfair to consumers. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2005/lt050923.htm ** The CRTC has received over two dozen comments from consumers, all irate at waiting another two years for WNP. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2005/8620/c12_200510934.htm#4b ROGERS SIGNS 18,000 PHONE SUBSCRIBERS: Rogers Communications says its cable-based local phone service, launched on July 1, now has more than 18,000 subscribers. (See Telecom Update #488) ** Rogers expects to add between 600,000 and 650,000 wireless subscribers in 2005, about a third more than its previous forecast. Net 3Q additions: 213,000. BELL, MATTHEWS JOIN FOR BUSINESS APPLICATIONS: Bell Canada and Wesley Clover Corp. have jointly launched an Advanced Solutions Innovation Centre in Kanata, Ontario, to develop IP-based business applications. Wesley Clover, a holding company chaired by Terry Matthews, owns Mitel Networks, March Networks, and NewHeights Software. WIRELESS REVENUES JUMP 16%: Statistics Canada says wireless telecom revenues grew 16%, to $2.5 billion, in Q1 2005. Canada now has over 15 million wireless subscribers, a penetration rate of 47%. Wireless now generates nearly one-third of total telecom revenues in Canada. ** Wireline revenue fell 1.2% to $5.6 billion, and wireline network access lines fell by 1.2%, the thirteenth consecutive quarterly decline. www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/051004/d051004a.htm EMERSON MAY FAVOR LOCAL DEREGULATION: Interviewed by Bloomberg News this week, Industry Minister David Emerson said that eliminating the requirement for incumbent phone companies to get prior approval for price changes could improve the industry's efficiency. However, a spokesperson for the Minister later said he would not make any major moves in telecom before receiving the Telecom Policy Review panel's report. STARBUCKS AND BELL BEGIN WI-FI ROLLOUT: Bell Canada and Starbucks say they will begin offering Wi-Fi service in 140 Starbucks outlets in Ontario this week, and will eventually deploy it in more than 400 stores across Canada. Bell has subcontracted installation and management of the networks to Ottawa-based Wi-Fi pioneer Boldstreet Inc. ** Customers can have their Wi-Fi internet access billed to a cellphone bill, or pay by credit card. BELL NOT REQUIRED TO COLLECT DIRECTORY BILLS: Following an expedited hearing on September 23 (see Telecom Update #498), the CRTC has ruled that billing and collection for directory advertising is not a telecommunications service, so Bell does not have to perform the service for YP Corp. if it does not wish to. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2005/dt2005-57.htm ALIANT WANTS AUTOMATIC CONTRACT RENEWALS: In Tariff Notice 178, Aliant Telecom asks the CRTC to approve a procedure for automatic renewal of contracts for Centrex and other business local services, effective October 31. Under the proposed rules, the telco must advise the customer 60 days in advance of the renewal, and the customer will be allowed to cancel up to 30 days after the renewal. Similar rules have been previously approved for other telcos. www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/a53/tn178.pdf BELL SEEKS HIGHER RURAL BUSINESS RATES: Bell Canada Tariff Notices 6907 and 6908 propose increases of 8.5% to 9.9% in the monthly rates for individual business lines and for Local Link service in the rural and remote rate bands E, F, and G. Bell wants the CRTC to okay the rate hikes in time for implementation on December 4. ** The increases would not apply to sub-bands E1, F1, F3 and F5, which are part of larger exchanges. www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/b2/tn6907.zip www.crtc.gc.ca/8740/eng/2005/b2/tn6908.zip MERITON ACQUIRES MAHI NETWORKS: Meriton Networks, an Ottawa-based provider of high-speed optical networking systems, is buying New Jersey-based Mahi Networks, which makes reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers. TELECOM OTTAWA ADDS SONET, WDM: Telecom Ottawa now offers SONET, WDM, and storage extension services, using Ciena technology, as part of its 10-Gigabit Ethernet connectivity in the Ottawa region. RFP SEEKS ONTARIO OPTICAL NET: CANARIE and ORANO have issued a joint RFP for a next-generation network across southern Ontario with possible extensions to Montreal, Albany, and New York City as well as from Windsor to Chicago, as a basis for experiments with novel optical architectures over the CA*net 4 and ORION networks. www.canarie.ca/canet4/rfp8.html ALIANT OFFERS FLAT-RATE CELLULAR LD: Aliant cellular customers can now make unlimited long distance calls within Atlantic Canada for $20 per month. CYGNAL RESTRUCTURES DEBT; CFO QUITS: Cygnal Technologies has obtained about $25 million in new financing to pay off bank debt and provide working capital. ** CFO David Horsley has resigned; his interim replacement is Michael Conway. ONE WEEK TO TELEMANAGEMENT LIVE! Canada's premier business telecom and networking event will be held October 17-19 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Canada's top conference and tradeshow facility. Over 35 in-depth sessions will address the most important challenges facing enterprise telecom and network managers in Canada today. ** This year's program also features the announcement of the first members of Canada's Telecommunications Hall of Fame, at a gala celebration and dinner. ** Space is limited: register now at www.telemanagementlive.com ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-mail ianangus@angustel.ca and jriddell@angustel.ca =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web late Friday afternoon each week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2005 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail jriddell@angustel.ca. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ============================================================ ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 16:02:15 -0400 In article <telecom24.457.10@telecom-digest.org>, BobGoudreau@notchur.biz says: > [As always, please anonymize my email address.] > > John Hines <jbhines@newsguy.com> wrote: >> My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the >> world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the >> US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences >> are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller >> number are run. >> Multiply by millions and millions of these things all over the place, >> and it is easy to see why, even though it is being reported in the US >> media, the actual action is taking place in a foreign county, in the >> article, it was Japan. > Nice theory, but a few seconds with Google would have saved you the > trouble of expounding it. In fact, there are MORE than two different > electrical systems in the world; the existence of two chief voltage > ranges (110ish vs. 220ish) is only one of the differentiators. The > other big one is the frequency of the AC (50 Hz vs. 60 Hz). And there > are several different physical connector standards (plugs and sockets) > even to serve some of the same voltage/frequency combinations, though > of course this does not affect things like transformer load. > The US is hardly alone in using 110v at 60 Hz; so does most of the > rest of the western hemisphere. Most of the eastern hemisphere uses > 220-240v, but one of the exceptions is in fact Japan, which uses 100v > (though part of the country runs at 60 Hz and the other part at 50 > Hz). So, any conclusions made on the faulty premise that Japan uses > 220v power must be discarded. Interesting point about the 50/60 Hz in Japan. Maybe this is the reason most computer power supplies can switch between not only voltage but frequency. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband Date: 7 Oct 2005 13:06:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com John Stahl wrote: > while the US power system has something like 4 or so end-users > connected to the (last link) power transformer. My old city rowhouse neighborhood (built 1948, gas heat, hot water, cooking, clothes dryer) had about 70 houses off of one transformer. My present complex (built 1970 and all electric) has one transformer per building serving 14 units. In the 1948 neighborhood, many homes were rewired from 60 amp to 100 amp service in the 1960s and 1970s. Around 1980 the electric company strung new cables. I wonder how much the power company had to add to their neighborhood distribution system to accomodate increased needs. In 1948 home air conditoners were rare, by the 1970s almost every house had at least one large window unit (required 220 service). (My family had an early RCA window air conditioner from about 1950 that lasted for 30 years. When it was running we couldn't use other appliances without blowing a fuse). Likewise, I wonder how much extra capacity was needed for telephone service. I believe everyone in the neighborhood had a phone in 1948, but many had party lines. Into the 1970s party lines were gone and some families had two lines. Into the 1990s multiple lines would be common for computer/home fax/home business use. (I would love to find any planning documents for the neighborhood. Land was reserved for schools. Streets were usually continuation of the existing grid, but individual blocks were built by many different developers, large and small. I believe the city and private utilities were ready in advance. The new schools built with the neighborhood did suffer from overcrowding from the baby boom. Today the school population is a lot lower than my day. The power cables were mounted on the back wall of the wall houses near the second story. The telephone cable pipe (also redone around 1980 from lead to heavy rubber) was around the first floor. Around 1990 cable TV came and was hung still lower. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 23:12:21 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: Electric Powerlines to be Used For Broadband > agents. (b) I personally have tried so-called 'wireless intercoms' > between different locations nearby; sometimes they worked (although in > a rather piss-poor way; other times not at all. I have no personal > experience with (a) but have been told the connections are very > 'noisy' many times, and (b) when they worked, they seemed to have a > lot of 'hum' in the background. When they did not work (all I got > was hum with no audible voice at all) I am told this was because the > two intercom stations involved were on opposite 'legs' of the > transfomer. Can anyone explain this better to me? Pat, The standard electrical service to homes in the U.S. is a 3-wire system which delivers both 120 and 240 volts. The secondary on the pole transformer provides 240V, but has a center tap which is grounded and becomes the neutral to your house. The two "hot" legs are thus each at 120 volts with respect to ground/neutral, but because these two legs are at opposite ends of the winding they are 180 degrees out of phase and thus you get 240V between them (used to feed your range, dryer, large A/C unit, etc.) The 120V outlets in your house are wired so that some are on one leg of the supply, some on the other. If you plug your intercom stations into receptacles which are on opposite sides of the transformer, the signal will be affected by the degree of coupling which exists between the two sides. If that same transformer feeds other nearby homes, then you may be able to communicate between houses, but again the signal will be affected by which side of the transformer you are connected to. If you got a poor signal from house to house, you may have found that it would have improved if you'd plugged into a different outlet (on the other leg). John Hines wrote: > My understanding is there are two different electrical systems in the > world, the 220v version the rest of the world uses, and the 110v the > US uses. In the rest of the world, a fairly large number of residences > are run off a single transformer, where in the USofA, a much smaller > number are run. Yes, North America typically has single-phase transformers feeding residential loads, each transformer providing power to a small number of homes. On this side of the Atlantic, the typical British system uses very large 3-phase transformers, each providing power to a large number of homes by way of a 3-phase 4-wire wye distribution network running at 240/415 volts. Normal residential services are just tapped from the network as 2-wire 240V, houses being distributed between the phases as evenly as possible, while commercial premises can take 3-phase 415V power from the same transformer. You can find smaller, single-phase pole transformers serving a small group of houses in rural areas, but as soon as you get anywhere with more than a couple of dozen homes together you'll find the 3-phase 4-wire system in use. In Continental Europe, it's quite normal to find 3-phase 4-wire 220/380-volt service to even quite small houses, In France they'll even install 3-phase residential power that way with the main breaker set for 15A maximum per phase! Very strange. Going back to Pat's wireless intercoms, you can find a similar situation here in which you might not be able to get a good signal to your next-door neighbors' house (different phase) but can to a house a few doors away (same phase). I remember a problem of this nature some years ago in which the owner of a general store was trying to use a set of these intercoms to communicate with his apartment above. The signal was very noisy due to the units being on different phases. Fortunately, the store had a 3-phase supply and I was able to solve the problem by installing an outlet for the intercom on the same phase as that used to feed the apartment above. > An electric wire can carry currents of different frequencies, so AC > power current, DC power current as well audio frequency and radio > frequency can be all carried on the same line. For example, a RR line > powered by AC has both the AC power (25 or 60 Hz) as well as the > control signal (100 Hz and others) sharing the medium. Some lines > even have multiple power sources from a separate wire, such as DC via > third rail. There are "filters" (IIRC, "impedence bonds") that > separate out the stuff. The Victoria line of the London Underground (subway system), built in the 1960s, was designed to run with automatic control right from the start. All the driver has to do is close the doors and push a pair of "start" buttons when ready to leave the station, then the train runs automatically, stopping and restarting at signals if necessary, and coming to a stop at the next station. The control is provided by safety codes modulated onto a 125Hz carrier injected into the running rails, along with higher frequency signals (up to about 20kHz) which control the actual application of power and braking. There's a good outline of the system on the "Tube Prune" website (go to "Signalling Pages" then "Victoria Line ATO"): http://www.trainweb.org/tubeprune > I know that the third-rail seems like an awful way to transmit voice > communications. On the one occassion I had to see the CTA system in > action, I called into the CTA main headquarters phone number (MOHawk > 4-7200) and the operator switched me to a supervisor in one of the > control towers several miles away for whom I had a question. The > connection, frankly, was not all that good. Once I also called Grand > Central Station in downtown Chicago to the Lost and Found; she > switched me to the Lost and Found in Baltimore, OH, also via the > trackside phone lines. That connection sounded pretty bad also. PAT] These days the London Underground uses radio extensively, but for many years it seems the only communication available was by a portable phone kept in the cab. A pair of bare wires a couple of inches apart run on insulators along the tunnel walls. These carry a low-voltage DC circuit which serves a dual purpose. By shorting the wires together a driver can remotely open the breaker which feeds traction current to his section of track. He can then take his portable phone and clip it across the wires to communicate with the control center. Connecting the phone trips the traction current off if that was not done already, so clearly this was used only in emergencies. The traction supply in the London system is interesting in itself, being 630V DC arranged on TWO separate conductor rails (i.e. the running rails are not used as the return). You can see some pictures of the layout on the link above. -Paul. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for that good explanation. I will tell you another example I found fascinating a few years ago. I worked part time late evenings a couple nights per week for a department store in downtown Chicago. The building was closed at that time of night except for me working in the one small office. When I was ready to leave, I always had to turn the burglar alarm on and put a wooden gate with wires on each end of it across the door to the elevator after I boarded the elevator; i.e. set the alarm, within 15 seconds get on the elevator, insert the gate on the front of the elevator and leave the premises. One night it malfuctioned; the alarm failed to 'set'; I had to call the alarm company to come out and correct it. The alarm company repairman came out with tools and also with a headset. He clamped his headset onto the wires (which otherwise were not connected at the elevator without the piece I put there upon leaving at night), he then diddled up some code on the box I used to set the alarm, and presently was talking over his headset to his office, wherever it was. I told him I thought it was interesting that he was able to 'communicate by voice' over those wires which served as our burglar alarm system; he said it was a routine thing whenever he went out to do repairs to systems like ours around town. This alarm system came from the ADT Company, which I think means 'American District Telegraph' or at least it did in the olden days. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. <kd1s@nospamplease.cox.reallynospam.net> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 07:16:17 -0400 In article <telecom24.456.6@telecom-digest.org>, george@m5p.com says... > Kenneth P. Stox wrote: >> Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing >> preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their >> own root servers. [...] > Anybody who wants to can set up their own name servers, and they don't > have to ever connect to the current root name servers. But few people > are inclined to do this. Ninety-nine percent of users will simply > configure their systems to use their ISP's name servers by virtue of > doing nothing: DHCP, the same protocol by which they receive their IP > address assignment, will also tell them the IP address(es) to use for > domain name lookups. Ninety-nine percent of ISPs will use the root > name server hints which were packaged with their own name server setup > packages, and guess where those hints will send domain name requests > for the root zone? Actually it's DNS that tells them. DHCP does nothing more than dish out an IP address and various routing information. > Various people have tried on more than one occasion to set up meaning- > ful alternative root name servers. None achieved wide acceptance, and > no one I know of has even tried in the last five years. I cache Cox's DNS servers on a box I own because quite frequently their DNS servers go belly up. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Oct 2005 15:10:31 -0000 From: John Levine <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers. It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten > recently. Well, two things standing in the way are money and expertise. Running a real root server, as opposed to a toy one that only you and your twelve best friends use, is a a significant operational challenge. I gather a typical root costs about a million bucks a year. The other reason that nobody sets up new roots is that there is no actual reason to do so. For all that ICANN does a lousy job, the roots work fine and nobody other than a few get rich quick artists and foolish idealists want root domains other than the ones there already. Of the new domains that have entered the roots in the past few years, the only ones with enough registrations to be a financial success are .INFO and .BIZ, cynical clones of .COM used almost entirely by people whose information you don't want and with whom you do not want to do business. The .NAME domain, intended for personal domains, has a modest number of registrants, largely in Europe, but I see them loosening up their registration rules which tells me that they're scrambling for registration dollars. The rest, .MUSEUM, .AERO, .COOP, and .PRO are failures used by almost nobody. The three new ones .JOBS, .TRAVEL, and .MOBI haven't been around long enough to fail, but there's no reason to expect them to be any different. R's, John ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2005 19:41:48 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers Except the fact that many Internet users' computers won't even recognize them. Nameservers are hard-wired to look up TLDs and SLDs using specific root servers, and for them to use other root servers you're going to have to have a huge number of ISPs, etc., change etheir NS configurations. > It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten recently. It shouldn't. Steve Sobol, Professional Geek 888-480-4638 PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Company website: http://JustThe.net/ Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/ E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307 ------------------------------ From: John McHarry <jmcharry@comcast.net> Subject: Re: United States Says No! Internet is Ours! Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 02:50:23 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:39:32 +0000, Kenneth P. Stox wrote: > Am I the only one who is ROFLMAO about this? There is nothing > preventing other nations and/or organizations from setting up their > own root servers. It amazes me how much press this issue has gotten > recently. I think the problem with doing that is that the root servers hold a database of top level domain servers. It doesn't change rapidly, but it does change. Unless you could get a feed of the official file from IANA, or a domain transfer (dump of the database) from one of the root servers, you would slowly lose connectivity. If you did get either sort of connectivity, I guess it wouldn't be that hard to to add or subtract what you wanted from the official TLD list. I think the real complaint is that IANA derives its authority from a $0 contract with the US Department of Commerce, which, under certain conditions, can veto changes in the database. ICANN and IETF are probably also similarly tainted. Would we trust the British, or the wily Canadians, with similar control over our vital infrastructure? I think not. We have had what are now called ITU-T and ITU-R for decades with everyone being more or less comfortable. I see no particular harm in an ITU-I, with the same bunch of propeller heads doing much the same thing as they are doing now. ------------------------------ From: Dan <dan@nospam.com> Subject: Re: Disaster Recovery in 1871 Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 10:37:22 -0500 On 10/6/2005 2:11 PM, Norm wrote: > Nice item, thanks! I've looked for something you posted a dozen years > ago, that happened during the initial A- bomb testing, where they > couldn't make phone calls and someone drove out and traced the > telephone lines to the "central" office in a house and woke the > operator. Is that still around somewhere? > Thanks, > Norm > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The story goes like this ... in the > early to middle 1960's I was employed as a telephone operator at the > University of Chicago. I lived in an apartment hotel on East 56th > Street, 56th and Hyde Park Blvd. to be precise. Another resident of > the hotel was Mrs. Laura Fermi, widow of the late Enrico Fermi, of > atomic bomb fame. Mrs. Fermi was a typical, 'well-to-do' widow. She, > on various occassions 'invited' me, a Young Man to join her for dinner > and cocktails at 'The Anchorage', the hotel's dining room and cocktail > lounge. I almost always accepted her invitation. In those days, forty > years ago, the Windermere Hotel (phone FAIrfax 4-6000) was not only a > very good place for a Young Man to live, but the bar and restaurant > was very 'cozy' also. Of course dinner and drinks were on her on-going > always-open tab at the restaurant/bar/hotel. I understand now that > maybe 20-25 years ago, UC bought the property and converted it into > faculty housing. I understand the bar, restaurant, front lobby, etc > have, like much of Hyde Park these days lost their luster, if in fact > The Anchorage is even still open, which I sort of doubt. Anyway, this > would have been in 1962-63 or thereabouts. Mrs. Fermi told me a very > interesting story which I will relate to you. After I first related > this here in the Digest, middle to late 1980's there were some readers > who discredited it to varying degrees. The discredits ranged from > polite attempts to set the record straight, to more crude replies > about older ladies spending forty dollars (in 1960's money) to > entertain and amuse a Young Man with food and drink for whatever > reason, once or twice weekly. Most readers did not discredit the > account, nor me, nor Mrs. Fermi however. Certainly, as a telephone > operator at a prestigious university, and a salary to match the > cheap standards of UC (i.e. 'you should be glad to be allowed to > work here, do not bother us asking for still more money') I certainly > could not afford to eat/drink at The Anchorage, although I did live in > the building. The Hyde Park Coffee Shop up the street was more my > speed. Anyway, Mrs. Fermi was good friends with Doctor and Mrs. Beadle, > (in those days _he_ was president of UC) so it just seemed 'prudent' > IMO, for this Young Man to do what was expected of him. > With this preamble in mind, Mrs. Fermi told me this acccount of the > closing days of World War II: > "Enrico and several fellow employees in his lab were asked to go out > to Alamagordo, NM, to monitor one of the test explosions. It was all > very hush-hush, secrecy was still in effect and quite widely > enforced. He took me along, and was to report to a certain place about > forty miles out in the desert about 3 AM that day. We checked into a > motel outside Alamagordo, then drove out to the place where Encrico > was to set up his observation equipment. As luck would have it, it > started raining, a very hard drenching rain. We sat in the car and > waited until the rain stopped, then he sat up his testing gear. The > test explosion was to happen at 4 AM, but 4 AM came and went; no bomb > test. > "Finally Enrico got to thinking it out and he said that maybe because > of the heavy rain the test had been called off. He would need to check > with the other scientists and see what was going on. He packed up all > his equipment and we drove back toward Alamagordo. The only place that > was open at that time of night was the motel we were staying in, so he > drove the car up and stopped next to the public phone in the parking > lot. He put a nickel in the phone and waited and waited and waited > for an answer from the operator; which never happened. He finally > slammed the phone down in disgust and said 'I am going to find out > what is going on here.' We got back in the car, and starting from that > payphone booth, he began driving slowly down the street, all the while > stickihg his head out of the car window studying the overhead wires. > We went down one street, then the wires turned another way and we > started going down that street. I know why he put the nickle in the > phone; all the scientists on this mission had agreed that if anything > went wrong they would talk in code to each oher; him in Alamadordo, > the other guys elsewhere. Anyway, driving down the street he suddenly > saw what he was looking for; there was this one house and out of the > sky from various directions came bunches of telephone wires; all the > wires went in through a hole on the side of this lady's house. A bunch > of wires as thick as your wrist; all came out of the sky from various > directions and went into this house. > "It just looked like any regular house; but the front porch light was > turned on, the front door was open but the screen door was latched. In > the house itself sat a telephone switchboard, with bunches of lights > blinking off and on. A radio was playing soft music in the background > and there was a sofa nearby; stretched out on the sofa was a woman who > was sound asleep. > "Enrico banged and pounded on the door for a couple minutes, then the > lady must have woke up; she sat up sort of startled, looked over at > Enrico by the door, then turned and looked at the switchboard all > glowing with people waiting for service. She looked back at Enrico and > literally jerked to her feet, stood up, walked over to the switchboard, > sat down and began taking the calls as fast as she could. Enrico said > to me as he got back in the car, let's go back to my observation > point. And we drove out there right away; Enrico set up his test gear > once again, and about eight or ten minutes after we got there, the > test explosion went off. > "We found out later that all those guys had been trying to get in > touch with one another since a few minutes after 4 AM, but the > central swithboard for that area was going unanswered while this woman > had her nap. I cannot blame her, really, yes, she should have been > awake and alert, but given that she worked nights and had to sleep in > the daytime, it was a 'mere' 115 degrees the day before, too hot to > sleep during the day when she should have been, and then that night it > rained, blessed cool air and she fell asleep. I doubt if on a typical > night there were ever more than one or two calls through the board all > night (there was a 'night bell' and a 'flashing light' which should > have woken her up in those cases) but somehow they did not do so. > "I seriously doubt to this day that the lady knows the reason the > atomic test explosion was delayed for an hour and fifteen minutes was > because _she_ was asleep. Enrico said to me 'I am not going to tell on > her and get her in trouble.' She looked to me like just a teenage girl > anyway." > ---------------- > Now that was the story as told by Laura Fermi, eighteen years after it > happened, and twenty-five years (my first relaying of it) after I > heard it and now forty years (my second relaying of it.) Is it a true > story or not? Or was Mrs. Fermi a wee bit forgetful that night? Or > did I have too many shots of brandy or some other after-dinner liquor > in me? PAT] Why would she make up such a story? What is interesting is 'what would have happened if Fermi didn't get equipment deployed and operational in time?' Does anyone know if phone switch operators protested/picketed when auto-switches were being put is place? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed, in Chicago at least, there was a work stoppage by telephone operators over this very issue, in 1954-55 in some of the non-automated (at that point in time) suburbs. All that accomplished was to build the company's resolve to work harder and faster at getting those points automated as well. But Bell did not lay off a _single worker_ (usually an operator) as a result of automation. They kept everyone around, and it was only through attrition (people retiring, otherwise getting fired, etc and Bell not hiring new workers) that things leveled off. There were a lot of rumors in Chicago during the 1940's from operators saying that 'when the company is totally automated most of us wil be let go.' That simply was not true and did not happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: anon1@sci.sci Subject: Re: Life Beyond Earth Date: Fri, 7 Oct 2005 10:41:48 -0700 Organization: UseNetServer.com > Changes on the surface of the Jovian moons, by contrast, look far > older, perhaps 100 million years or more. It's my understanding that new cracks open on Europa almost daily, and then the latest open crack extends continually for a major portion of one orbital period around Jupiter. Thus at any time we choose, there are changes on the surface of Europa less than a week old. For more discussion on this topic, perhaps move to a more appropriate newsgroup? . ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 21:46:03 +0100 From: Paul Coxwell <paulcoxwell@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: 2L-4N, 3L-4N, 2L-5N Numbering > While this was going on, C&P Telephone converted the Washington DC > area (including suburbs in Maryland and Virginia) from 2L-4D to > 2L-5D. An example that comes to mind: Bethesda's OLympic XXXX > became OLympic 9-XXXX. > That change really did create a mess in Washington, as contemporary > commentators and cartoonists noted. One memorable newspaper cartoon > featured a telephone operator speaking with a customer, noting that > "that number has been changed to (some NNX code)-OOU2." The changes in numbering seem to have provided an outlet for humor in many branches of the media at the time. Near the beginning of the movie "Move Over Darling" (1963) there's a wonderful scene in which Doris Day arrives back in America after being marooned on a desert island for years. She goes straight to a coinphone on the dock, calls the operator and asks for a 2L-5N number in Los Angeles. There follows a wonderful exchange as the operator corrects her by saying that's now a 7D number, she asks for that number, the operator then says she can dial direct by first dialing 213 then the number etc. I can't remember the title, but there was a British movie of the same era which also made light of the changes here as direct long-distance dialing was being implemented, introducing people to the pleasures of dialing up to 10 digits in one go. Somebody picks up phone, we see him dial out about 15 or 16 digits, then hear him say "Operator? Could you connect me with 25 please." -Paul ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2005 17:48:13 -0300 From: Dave Hunter <dhunter@isn.net> Subject: Re: Motorola Bag phone Hi Steven: Steven Lichter wrote: > I have one of these. Don't use it at all; it is not digital. > Pretty good condition, no battery with it, just pugs in to lighter in a > car. It was on BellSouth Mobility, but with you try to use it it says > it is not registered with Verizon. > If someone wants to pay me to pack it up and ship it to them, let me > know, I can send pictures if you like. > The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? > (c) 2005 I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell Co. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I certainly have the required power > supply even though I do not have a car/cigarette lighter. I wonder > how it would work on Cingular Wireless here in Kansas? PAT] Probably way too late, but do you still have the bag phone, Steven? I am looking for one for the museum display of cellphones ... Dave The Telephone on Prince Edward Island: http://www.islandregister.com/phones/phones.html The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island: http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit! ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:13:35 +0200 From: Daniel AJ Sokolov <sokolov@gmx.netnetnet.invalid> Subject: Re: Vonage and the 500 Minute Plan Am 07.10.2005 07:16 schrieb Henry Cabot Henhouse III: > When I signed up with Vonage in December '03, I did the 500 minute > plan, which was perfect. I seem to recall that all local calls - in > our case in Los Angeles within the 323 area code -- were included and > did not eat up any of the 500 minutes. > Last month was the first time we've ever exceeded 500 minutes -- most of > those for local 323 calls. I was charged for calls over and above my 500 > minutes, the call detail shows local calls being billed at the 3.9c per > minute. > I poked around the Vonage website and can't find any reference to > local calls being included. Does anyone know a site that may have the > older Vonage website in storage? An email to Customer Service > resulted in a stock reply, pointing me to a bunch of faq's - none of > which seem to answer my question. Do you have the "Unlimited Local Plan" for 24.99? It includes unlimited Local and Regional Calling plus 500 Long Distance minutes. Take a look at this: http://web.archive.org/web/20031201145749/http://vonage.com/ It is a snapshot from December 1st, 2003. HTH Daniel AJ My e-mail-address is sokolov [at] gmx dot net ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. 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