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TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 Oct 2005 01:27:00 EDT Volume 24 : Issue 473 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Massachusetts Dam Holds - But Danger Remains (Ray Henry) Real Networks Mulls Buys After Microsoft Settlement (Georgina Prodhan) Patent Dispute Threatens Prepaid Wireless Service (Reuters News Wire) Feds Want Banks to Strengthen Web Login Procedures (Brian Bergstein) Motorola Spearheads WiMax Adoption in Asia Pacific (Monty Solomon) Motorola Announces Third Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) Intel Announces Record Revenue (Monty Solomon) Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? (Steve Sobol) Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? (Daryl Gibson) Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? (Eric Friedebach) Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? (Thomas A. Horsley) TV Show - Legacy Phone-in Scene (Lisa Hancock) Re: Alamogordo Telephone Office (Lisa Hancock) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Ray Henry <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Massachusetts Dam Holds - But Danger Remains Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:53:33 -0500 Engineers Work to Ease Mass. Dam Pressure By RAY HENRY, Associated Press Writer Engineers struggled to ease pressure on a battered 173-year-old wooden dam Tuesday and prevent a collapse that could send a wall of water crashing through this town of 50,000. Crews opened floodgates on the Whittenton Pond Dam, and also adjusted the flow on a second dam upstream on the rain-swollen Mill River. The river fell by several inches, but an evacuation order remained in effect, and schools and highways were closed amid fears a dam break could send 6 feet of water surging through downtown Taunton, a working-class community about 40 miles from Boston. "As the water level decreases, it will be taking a load off the structure and that's what everyone is looking for," engineer Matthew Bellisle said. Mayor Robert Nunes said officials were worried about excessive vibration coming from a rotted wooden beam at the base of the dam. He said nothing was being done to reinforce the structure for fear that intervening could just cause it to fail. With the dam buckling under heavy rains, the mayor on Monday ordered about 2,000 residents who live near the river to evacuate. The situation worsened after some of dam's timbers washed away, and dive teams stood by in case rescues proved necessary. But as the water level dropped in Lake Sabbatia, the body of water behind the dam, authorities were hopeful disaster could be avoided. "I've got my fingers crossed that this thing is able to hold," said Gov. Mitt Romney, who visited the dam. Romney ordered emergency inspections of dams across the state. Late Tuesday, Nunes said the city's schools would be closed again on Wednesday. Officials planned to decide Wednesday morning whether to reopen the downtown business district. Emergency utility workers remained on duty and employees specifically assigned to the dam continued to gingerly divert the water in other directions. Whittenton Pond Dam is one of about 3,000 private dams in the state. It was inspected two years ago and was considered in fair condition at that time, Romney said. One of the owners, Steve Poelaert, said Tuesday night that work to restore the dam was to have begun last Friday but was delayed because of heavy rain. The 12-foot-high dam dates to 1832 and is near homes and businesses about a half-mile upstream from downtown Taunton. It was built to power a textile mill but no longer has any industrial purpose. Taunton has received 11 1/2 inches of rain this month, including more than 7 inches from Friday through Sunday. The city last flooded in 1968, when the same dam broke. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. For more news from Associated Press please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ From: Georgina Prodhan Subject: RealNetworks Mulls Buys After Microsoft Payout Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:51:04 -0500 By Georgina Prodhan Internet media software company RealNetworks is mulling more acquisitions after receiving a $761-million payout from Microsoft Corp. to settle an antitrust case, its chief executive said on Tuesday. "Our two growth businesses have been music and games so if you could do acquisitions that accelerate that I wouldn't rule it out," Rob Glaser told Reuters in an interview on the fringes of a tech conference in Athens. "This is a business where are many kinds of opportunities," he said, declining to elaborate on specifics of any potential acquisition targets. Software giant Microsoft agreed a week ago to pay RealNetworks $460 million in cash and to invest $301 million in promoting RealNetworks' Rhapsody online music subscription service on Microsoft's MSN website. RealNetworks had sued Microsoft almost two years ago, saying Microsoft's decision to bundle Windows Media Player for free within the Windows operating system was an abuse of its market dominance and had harmed RealNetworks' sales. Rob Glaser -- a former protege of Microsoft founder Bill Gates before he left fo start his own company, built his business on the RealPlayer software for playing video and audio on computers -- a rival to Microsoft's Media Player. In response to the Microsoft competition, RealNetworks shifted toward online music and games, buying PC games firms GameHouse and Mr Goodliving after acquiring listen.com -- the company that brought it the Rhapsody service -- in 2003. Glaser said, however, he was in no rush to buy more companies, despite the Microsoft cash that he said would boost RealNetworks' cash and equivalents to above $800 million by the end of the year -- more than twice last year's sales. "I'd rather do four acquisitions that work than do eight, six of which work," he said. "We'd probably look at more opportunities now but I couldn't predict that the velocity will increase." He said he was not currently in any talks with Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer Inc., which dominates the online music business with its wildly popular iPod mobile music player and iTunes software. "Right now it's a dormant stage in that relationship." Glaser added he was ready to put aside rivalry with Microsoft to make the new cooperation, which will also give RealNetworks access to Windows technologies to enhance the RealPlayer software, work. "We're sincere about wanting a collaborative relationship with Microsoft," he said. Asked whether he could imagine ever returning to Microsoft, Glaser said: "I think I enjoy working for a company of a size big enough to get things done but that's still nimble." Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Patent Dispute Threatens Prepaid Wireless Service Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:51:47 -0500 A patent dispute over prepaid cellular telephones threatens to disrupt service to millions of prepaid wireless customers at several U.S. carriers, including Cingular Wireless. A federal judge in Boston granted an injunction on Monday against Boston Communications Group Inc., (Nasdaq:BCGI - news) which sells customer management services for prepaid wireless telephones to a number of companies, including Cingular and Alltel Communications Inc. The court had previously ruled that Boston Communications had infringed on two patents held by Freedom Wireless Inc., and has awarded Freedom Wireless $128 million in damages. Last week, the court added $19.7 million to the award for interest on lost royalties, and said it would explore further damages. Under the injunction, wireless companies that use the BCGI prepaid wireless services must stop selling them. The companies have 90 days to continue serving current customers, during which they must pay royalties to Freedom Wireless. BCGI said that the injunction could affect service to 3.1 million prepaid customers, including 400,000 at Cingular, representing 70 percent of its total revenue. It has asked the judge to stay the injunction while it files immediate appeals. Cingular Wireless spokesman Mark Siegel said the injunction does not apply to the "vast majority" of Cingular's prepaid wireless customers, who use a different type of network technology. He said Cingular would also seek a stay of the injunction while it appealed the case. "We intend to continue to provide service to all prepaid customers, including those on the BCG platform," Siegel said. He declined to say what steps Cingular might take if the injunction is not lifted. A spokeswoman for BCGI could not immediately say who the other affected carriers were. The company has sold services in the past to a variety of carriers, including Alltel Corp. (AT.N) and Nextel, now a part of Sprint Nextel Corp. Cingular Wireless and AT&T Wireless, which Cingular bought last year, were co-defendants in the suit against BCGI. Verizon Wireless was also a co-defendant but reached a settlement with Freedom Wireless before the trial began earlier this year. Cingular is a joint venture of SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news) and BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS - news) Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ From: Brian Bergstein <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Feds Want Banks to Strengthen Web Log-Ons Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:49:34 -0500 By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer Federal regulators will require banks to strengthen security for Internet customers through authentication that goes beyond mere user names and passwords, which have become too easy for criminals to exploit. Bank Web sites are expected to adopt some form of "two-factor" authentication by the end of 2006, regulators with the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council said in a letter to banks last week. In two-factor authentication, customers must confirm their identities not only through something they know, like a PIN or password, but also with something they physically have, like a hardware token with numeric access codes that change every minute. Other types of two-factor authentication include costlier hardware involving biometrics or "smart" cards that would be inserted into designated readers on a user's computer. Banks might also issue one-time passwords on scratch-off cards or require "secret questions" about a customer's account, such as the amount of the last deposit or mortgage payment. The council also suggested that banks explore technology that can estimate a Web user's physical location and compare it to the address on file. The most common way of stealing consumers' personal identity data and financial account credentials online, known as phishing, typically involves sending e-mails that direct unwitting users to phony Web sites. Data harvested at such sites is then used fraudulently. The Anti-Phishing Working group, an industry association, reported 13,776 unique types of phishing attacks in August. While some financial institutions have given their customers electronic password tokens, those have tended to be optional. Other banks have instituted password entry through mouse clicks instead of typing, a protection against keystroke-snooping programs. But in general, the industry can do more to stop account fraud and identity theft, according to the financial institutions council -- which includes the Federal Reserve; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; the U.S. Comptroller; the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration. "The agencies consider single-factor authentication, as the only control mechanism, to be inadequate for high-risk transactions involving access to customer information or the movement of information to other parties," the council wrote. "Account fraud and identity theft are frequently the result of single-factor ... authentication exploitation." FDIC spokesman David Barr said the rules will serve as standards that will be checked when banks' practices are audited. Although the requirements apply just to financial services companies, the policy could stimulate wider use of two-factor authentication by other merchants that are willing to "federate" their Web sites with banks, said Michael Aisenberg, director of government relations for Internet services provider VeriSign Inc. VeriSign is a member of the Liberty Alliance, a group that is working to develop standards for federated authentication. In a federated system, a two-factor login at one site would be recognized by another, so a travel agency associated with your bank would automatically grant you access if you came straight from the financial institution's Web site. At the very least, Aisenberg said, "The securities industry is going to have to go along and other regulated sectors will no doubt follow along as well." On the Net: The report: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2005/fil10305.html June report on bank authentication practices: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/consumer/idtheftstudysupp/index.html Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new articles daily. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:58:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Motorola Spearheads WiMAX Adoption in Asia Pacific Motorola Spearheads WiMAX Adoption in Asia Pacific - Oct 18, 2005 11:59 PM (PR Newswire) Delivering Mobile Broadband Wireless Solutions Through Motorola's Expertise in IMS Core, Radio Access, Network Services and Devices SINGAPORE, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT), a global leader in wireless communications and mobility, announced its commitment to developing WiMAX in Asia Pacific at the Wireless Broadband Week 2005 conference held in Singapore October 18-19. Motorola's commitment to develop WiMAX in Asia Pacific will be backed by its global drive to provide operators with improved wireless broadband networks through increased R&D, business alignment and industry alliances. Motorola is focusing its efforts on developing WiMAX 802.16e solutions that provide mobility as well as fixed and nomadic access. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52444257 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:58:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Motorola Announces Record Third-Quarter Sales and Earnings Motorola Announces Record Third-Quarter Sales and Earnings - Oct 18, 2005 04:01 PM (PR Newswire) Third-Quarter 2005 Financial Highlights - Sales up 26 percent: Record sales of $9.42 billion, compared to third-quarter 2004 sales of $7.50 billion - Earnings from continuing operations of $.69 per share, including earnings of $.39 per share from significant items discussed below - Global mobile device market share up 5.5 percentage points: Achieved an estimated global market share of approximately 19 percent, an increase of approximately 5.5 percentage points versus the year-ago quarter and approximately 1 percentage point versus the second quarter of 2005 - Record Mobile Device shipments of 38.7 million units - Positive operating cash flow of $1.1 billion SCHAUMBURG, Ill., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today reported record sales and earnings from continuing operations as shown below. Third Quarter % 2005 2004 Increase Sales $9.42B $7.50B 26% EPS $0.69 $0.18 283% Third-quarter 2005 earnings from continuing operations include income of $.39 per share from the items shown below. Third-Quarter 2005 EPS Impact Gain on Nextel stock and related hedge adjustments $0.32 Tax benefits related to the repatriation of cash and the divestiture of a business 0.13 Debt retirement costs (0.03) Reorganization of businesses (0.03) Total EPS Impact $0.39 During the quarter, the company continued to strengthen its balance sheet. The company generated operating cash flow of $1.1 billion, its 19th consecutive quarter of positive operating cash flow. In addition, the company reduced its total debt by $1.0 billion through repurchases of long-term debt in the market. Also, the company purchased $353 million of its outstanding shares pursuant to a previously announced and ongoing share repurchase program. The company ended the quarter with a record net cash(1) position of $8.4 billion. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52434493 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 00:59:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Intel Announces Record Revenue of $9.96 Billion; EPS of 32 Cents Includes Legal Settlement that Lowered EPS by Approximately 2 Cents Intel Announces Record Revenue of $9.96 Billion; EPS of 32 Cents Includes Legal Settlement that Lowered EPS by Approximately 2 Cents - Oct 18, 2005 04:22 PM (BusinessWire) SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2005--Intel Corporation today announced record revenue of $9.96 billion for the third quarter, up 18 percent year-over-year and up 8 percent sequentially. Third-quarter operating income was $3.1 billion, up 31 percent year-over-year and up 17 percent sequentially, and includes the impact of a legal settlement discussed below. Net income was $2 billion, up 5 percent year-over-year and down 2 percent sequentially. Earnings per share (EPS) were 32 cents, up 7 percent from 30 cents in the third quarter of 2004 and down 3 percent from 33 cents in the second quarter of 2005. Third-quarter net income and EPS included the impact of a legal settlement and tax item discussed below. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52435428 ------------------------------ From: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> Subject: Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:21:12 -0700 Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote: > So, what do I do now? Obviously I'm going to call Qwest back and > raise whatfor, but then what? Switch. 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 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 14:22:17 -0600 From: Daryl Gibson <daryl.gibson@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? Gordon S. Hlavenka <nospam@crashelex.com> wrote: > What I'd like to do (obviously) is get back to paying 50 cents a month > for practically zero LD usage. What tack should I take with Qwest to > return to those halcyon days, and if there is no such chance at Qwest, > who should I replace them with? You could ask them for a block on International calling. That wouldn't stop the abuse necessarily, but would stop the calls to Mexico. Any chance you have a cordless phone? That's the first place I'd look if I had a bunch of calls turn up on my account. Obviously, you'd expect to pick up the phone and hear someone using your line, but unless you've got teenagers, your home phone probably isn't in use that often. Daryl ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach <friedebach@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? Date: 18 Oct 2005 16:09:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote: > Good news and Bad news: The Mexico calls stopped. But I now have a > $15.00 "minimum revenue" charge on my bill every month. The X-Files > fan in me says Qwest invented the Mexico calls just to get me to > "touch" my account so their computer could throw in the minimum > billing charge. Here's another conspiracy theory, Gordon. Perhaps Qwest would like to separate you from your unused 800 number. I've often wondered if an unused 800 number could be taken back by force or somehow conveniently *assigned* to another customer by *mistake*. Some time later you find out what happened and telco offers you an 866 number as a replacement. Eric Friedebach /And now it's time for: Jaromir Weather/ ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Giant Conspiracy or Just Rotten Luck? From: tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) Organization: AT&T Worldnet Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 01:39:42 GMT I'm reminded of a phone bill I got with a very expensive call to Hawaii on it. Got all the same run-around about how there couldn't possibly be any error in the phone bill because the phone company is perfect -- then I pulled out my secret weapon: The call was made 15 days before my phone service was hooked up, after that, they were finally willing to believe there might possibly have been a mistake somewhere :-). I had another fun time with my bank once: I spent about 6 hours trying to get my checkbook to balance, and the numbers would never come out right. As an act of sheer desperation, I added up the numbers on my statement and compared them to the total "ending balance" printed at the bottom, and discovered that the bank's computer apparently could not do arithmetic (highly confidence inspiring :-). The next month they finally acknowledged that anyone who made an ATM transaction on Feb 29th (it was a leap year) had their statement screwed up by a computer that counted Feb 29th transactions as being in March sometimes and Feb other times so the total came out different than the individual transactions. -- >>==>> The *Best* political site <URL:http://www.vote-smart.org/> >>==+ email: Tom.Horsley@worldnet.att.net icbm: Delray Beach, FL | <URL:http://home.att.net/~Tom.Horsley> Free Software and Politics <<==+ ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: TV Show - Legacy Phone in Scene Date: 18 Oct 2005 08:17:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com On "7th Heaven" of 10/17/05, a traditional black 500 set rotary phone was used to help set the scene of a dumpy situation. The phone was next to a bottle of liquor. A person was sleeping and when the phone rang he pulled the pillow over his head to ignore it. The ringing sound for the phone was like a Trimline, which has a single gong ringer (a bit more pleasant sounding than the dual gong ringer of a regular phone set.) For many years, on TV the ringer sound for a telephone often did not match the telephone set shown. In earlier years a 300 set or separate bell box ringer would be used for a 500 set. In later years, a modern phone with an electronic ringer would still sound like a mechanical bell and vice versa. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Alamogordo Telephone Office Date: 18 Oct 2005 10:23:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor noted in respose to John McHarry: > Telco insisted they had easement rights to that box to get to those > pairs when they needed to do so. The people who had purchased the > house knew nothing about any answering service switchboard; it had > been long since removed when they bought the house. All that remained > there was that 'phone closet' from years earlier. This was in Joliet, > IL, and the people eventually got tired of Illinois Bell knocking on > their door at 7 AM on Saturday morning to get access to 'their' pairs, > so they sued and Bell finally got rid of the box by constructing a new > terminal outside the house somewhere. If I could find the story > somewhere I would re-run it here. PAT] As I understand real estate law, such easements for utilities are part of the general law and not necessarily shown on someone's deed. There is nothing to stop the phone, power, or water company from digging up your front lawn to run or maintain lines, whether you like it or not. Obviously the need to enter the inside of someone's home is pushing the envelope (and probably a waste of manpower time as well) The law is fuzzier when it comes to newer services such as cable and fiber optic. They don't have quite the same "common carrier" status as the old line utility service. Even established carriers have to handle things differently for new services. For example, when Verizon strung fiber through our area for its FIOS service, they needed municipal permission and they did not provide it universally. I suspect customers of FIOS will see a tiny footnote on their bill denoting a subsidiary company for the FIOS service. When our cable company went fiber, they installed very ugly big junction boxes on well-manicured lawns in expensive neighborhoods. The residents were outraged over that descrecration plus the new expense for a rented digital converter to get premium channels*. I think the residents had to live with it. The boxes are indeed big and ugly, but the residents go too nutsy over their lawns. The cellphone carriers tried to have it both ways. They claimed common carrier status meaning they could plant their towers where they pleased overwriting municipal zoning codes. On the other hand, they claimed to be free market if it served their purposes with rates, customer service, and public responsibilities. *I had HBO but dropped it when they added the digital converter requirement, which was another $5 on top of the HBO premium charge. I think technically they didn't need it, but rather went that way to prevent cable theft. The cable company wised up eventually and lowered the digital rental fee. Customers weren't buying some new channels, so they just raised everybody's basic package price and included them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You may be correct on easement laws. I saw something in Chicago a few times I thought was very distasteful and very uncaring. A homeowner had a couple of large trees on his property, very beautiful older Oak trees. The Commonwealth Edison Company had some electric lines running from some street pole to a house nearby and the electric lines ran right through some of the large branches on the trees. (Mostly because over the years as the trees grew taller, the branches grew out and encompassed the electric lines.) In the case of one tree, Edison just chopped it down totally, even though it had been growing there for forty or fifty years. In the case of the other tree, they decided to 'save it' by climbing up into it (with one of those lift baskets attached to the utility trucks) and chopped off two or three or the long branches leaving the tree standing there sort of lop sided with leaves and branches growing on one side of it, sawed off stumps on the other side of it high in the air, leaving it very ugly and grotesque looking. I guess it did not occur to Edison to simply re-route their electric lines a few feet so the tree could have lived there peacefully as well. The people who lived in the house did not like it either, and thought it left the tree looking very hideous, but Edison insisted they had the right to do it that way under their easement rules. Personally, I think they should have gotten a good suing on account of it. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #473 ****************************** | |