For your convenience in reading: Subject lines are printed in RED and
Moderator replies when issued appear in BROWN.
Previous Issue (just one)
TD Extra News
Add this Digest to your personal
or  
TELECOM Digest Wed, 9 Nov 2005 13:10:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 510 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson French Youth use Internet to Plan Riot (Paul Carrel) Gates Warns of 'Sea Change' in Memo (Allison Linn) High-Tech 'Sniffers' Try to Stop 'Dirty Bombs' (Mark Clayton) Verizon's New Slimmed-Down Unlimited Calling Plans Add Choice (M Solomon) Digital Tracking to Protect On-Demand TV (Monty Solomon) Jumpy Enough to Chew a Chair? Try DogCatRadio (Monty Solomon) Pay Phone Coin Drop Reference on TV; Youth Phone Culture (Lisa Hancock) Cellular-News for Wednesday 9th November 2005 (Cellular-News) Dimension (Michael Muderick) Re: Verizon POTS (Michael Chance) Re: Verizon POTS (Lisa Hancock) Re: NN0 Central Office Codes (Fred Goldstein) Re: NNO Central Office Codes (Mark Roberts) Re: US Mandates More Security in Online Banking (Dan Lanciani) Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service (Dan Lanciani) Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service (Lena) Re: Internet ID Theft Worsens, Scares Away Bank Customers (Wesrock@aol.com) 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 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Paul Carrel <reuterss@telecom-digest.org> Subject: French Youth use Internet to Plan Riots Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 10:30:58 -0600 By Paul Carrel France's government is policing cyberspace as well as rundown suburbs in the battle to end two weeks of rioting. Young rioters are using blog messages to incite violence and cellphones to organize attacks in guerrilla-like tactics they have copied from anti-globalisation protesters, security experts say. Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has diverted resources to monitoring blogs -- short for Web logs -- in an effort to anticipate the movements of the protesters, who have set fire to thousands of cars since the unrest began on October 27. Two youths were placed under official investigation, one step short of pressing charges under French law, early on Wednesday on suspicion of inciting violence over the Internet after urging people to riot in blogs, a judicial source said. But tracking rioters' blogs is a big task for the security services, already stretched by the violence on the ground. "This is a new dimension to take into consideration," said Internet security expert Solange Ghernaouti-Helie. "To do the tracking on the Internet to identify the people involved is without doubt possible. But it requires considerable surveillance and analysis resources," she said. Blogs are easy-to-publish Web sites where millions of people post commentary. Those allegedly posted by the two youths under investigation were made in online diaries hosted by Skyblog, a Web site belonging to popular youth radio station Skyrock. Skyblog's site says it hosts over three million blogs, with thousands added each day. One of those urging people to riot -- since deactivated by Skyrock -- read: "Unite, burn the cops." Some bloggers have urged people not to incite violence. The host of bouna93.skyblog.com, a memorial blog for the two youths whose deaths sparked the riots, urged contributors to respect the dead boys, adding: "It would be preferable not to make racist, fascist comments or to give rendez-vous spots." CELLPHONES Youths are also using cellphones to coordinate the violence, mainly blamed on frustration over racism and unemployment, and to evade the police once the riots are underway. "Text messages and mobile phones ... help small groups of rioters," said criminologist Alain Bauer. "They can connect easily. It's not only a way to avoid the police, it's a way to organize the fires." The rioters have learned from anti-globalisation protesters, some of whom have used cellphones to coordinate riots at meetings of the Group of Eight industrial nations and the World Trade Organization in recent years, Bauer said. "I think they learned from what they saw on television. I think anti-globalisation movements and rioters have the same way to organize -- or to disorganise the police," he said. "It's old guerrilla tactics with modern technology." The political establishment is also harnessing technology to amass and organize support. The ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) has tapped into intense Web traffic searching for information on the unrest to try to rally support for the tough line taken against rioters by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the party's president. Since the weekend, searches on Google for words such as "riots" or "burned cars" in French have thrown up a link to a UMP site where readers are invited to put their names to a petition supporting Sarkozy's policy of "firmness." A UMP official said more than 12,000 people had registered their support via the online petition since Sunday. (Additional reporting by Thierry Leveque) 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: Allison Linn <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: Gates Warns of 'Sea Change' in Memo Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 10:33:06 -0600 By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer The technology industry shift's to Internet-based software and services represents a massive and disruptive "sea change," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates wrote to top-level executives in a memo aimed at rallying his troops against the new competitive threats the company faces. In an e-mail to top executives, dated Oct. 30 and obtained late Tuesday by The Associated Press, Gates urged company leaders to "act quickly and decisively" to move further into the field of offering such services, in order to best formidable competitors. But he also warned that the company must be thoughtful in building the right technology to serve the right audience. "This coming 'services wave' will be very disruptive," Gates wrote. "We have competitors who will seize on these approaches and challenge us - still, the opportunity to lead is very clear." Gates compares the push toward such services -- which range from online business software offerings to free Web-based e-mail -- to the changes he saw nearly a decade ago. Then, he wrote a now-famous memo, called "The Internet Tidal Wave," the prompted a massive shift at Microsoft toward Internet-based technology. "The next sea change is upon us," Gates wrote to executives. Gates included a memo from Ray Ozzie, one of Microsoft's three chief technical officers, which outlined ideas for broad companywide changes that can address the growing competitive threat. In the memo, dated Oct. 28, Ozzie concedes that Microsoft has not led the pack on Internet-based software and services, and now faces intense competition from companies like Google Inc. Ozzie said Microsoft needs to focus on key tenets of the new model, including a shift toward offering free, advertising-supported offerings and more sophisticated, Internet-based methods of delivering products. "I believe at this juncture it's generally very clear to each of us why we need to transform -- the competitors, the challenges, and the opportunities," Ozzie wrote. Last week, Microsoft announced plans for Windows Live and Office Live, two Web-based offerings that aim to help the company compete with Google, Yahoo Inc. Salesforce.com and other companies that are already seeing success with such Web-based offerings. Microsoft Corp. has recently faced criticism that its model, which still relies mostly on delivering software in traditional packaging, could grow antiquated. The concern is that, as more companies offer online services for everything from word processing to storing photos, there will be less of a need for Microsoft's lucrative Windows operating system and Office business software. Microsoft's nascent Windows Live and Office Live efforts aim to complement its valuable software franchises with online products that build on what people find on their desktop computers. 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 Associated Press headlines and strories, go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Mark Clayton <csm@telecom-digest.org> Subject: High-Tech Sniffers Try to Stop 'Dirty' Bombs Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 10:36:44 -0600 By Mark Clayton, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor If a terrorist tried to sneak a "dirty" bomb into the United States, would anyone notice? Possibly. Radiation detectors rushed into service since 9/11 might sound the alarm at seaports, border checkpoints, and mail-handling facilities. Then again, the sensors have been set off by everything from loads of kitty litter to bananas. And a smart terrorist could hide a basketball-size chunk of highly enriched uranium by using lead shielding less than an inch thick. That's why the US is set to begin deploying a new generation of radiation detectors intended to be America's "last line of defense" against weapons of mass destruction. By early spring, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will pick technologies from among 10 companies, whose newest generation of nuclear detectors was tested in the Nevada desert this summer. Their devices will begin field-testing at a few ports of entry by next June, with a full-production decision expected by 2007. Some experts are breathing a sigh of relief. "We're now on the cusp of seeing the next generation of [nuclear and radiological] detectors," says Benn Tannenbaum, a physicist and expert on sensor technology at the Center for Science, Technology & Security Policy at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington. But others say the US is not moving fast enough to install a multilayered defense against one of its biggest security threats. While billions of dollars have been spent on biological countermeasures, nuclear detection efforts have lagged. "Little steps are being taken that may be in the right direction," says Richard Wagner Jr., a senior staffer at Los Alamos National Laboratory, who served in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration. "It's the rate of progress I'm concerned about." Alarming evidence that the pace may be picking up as disturbing evidence accumulates. About a year ago, the National Intelligence Council warned that "undetected smuggling has occurred, and we are concerned about the total amount of [nuclear and radiological] material that could have been diverted or stolen in the past 13 years" around the world. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has documented 650 cases of trafficking since 1993, echoed that report. About $300 million has been spent by the Department of Homeland Security since 1994 to deploy 470 radiation-detection systems at America's border crossings and ports, according to a Government Accountability Office report in June. But their shortcomings have become obvious. In March, DHS officials told Congress port detectors were working and had registered at least 10,000 radiation hits. But questions about the value of those hits arose in a June congressional hearing, when the security manager for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey reported 150 "false positives" per day. That amounted to a false alarm -- and possibly a time-consuming search -- for about 1 in every 40 shipping containers. The resulting delays, in turn, often caused detection sensitivity to be turned down, crippling a sensor's ability to detect weapons material, the Port Authority security manager and other experts say. Next-generation sensors will generally be far smaller, often mobile, and smarter -- networked with other sensors and able to detect the difference between radiation emitted from a nuclear bomb and a load of bananas. New homeland security officeOverseeing the effort is a brand new office within the Department of Homeland Security devoted to one goal: detecting terrorist nuclear material before it can get into the country. Established by presidential directive in April, its first assignment is to create a network of US nuclear detectors as part of a larger "global architecture" of detectors to be deployed overseas. "We anticipate mobile detection systems and fixed systems ... that enable us to achieve randomness and screening around the country, in transit zones, aircraft in flight, and container ships," says Vayle Oxford, acting director of the new DHS Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). He envisions detectors that would screen "target areas" like high-risk cities, and some that could alert security forces to investigate. In sum, it's a new concept that will need huge databases to collect and collate data from what could become thousands of WMD sensors on bridges and buildings. "What we're trying to do with global architecture is to knit this together," Dr. Oxford says. DNDO received $318 million in fiscal year 2006 funding -- about $90 million more than President Bush requested from Congress. Today only a few truly advanced detection systems are actually deployed, including one at MassPort in Boston and another at a border crossing with Mexico near San Diego, Dr. Tannenbaum says. By 2007, DHS expects to decide on the best technology to put into 2,500 advanced detectors to be rolled out nationwide. Innovative technologiesOne possible technology, from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is RadNet, a kind of global positioning system married to a radiation detector packed into a cellphone. The idea is that this "cellphone sniffer" could be carried by police officers on their daily routes -- all the while detecting radiation and transmitting coordinates to a computer that maps hot zones for investigation. Another contender: Princeton University's Miniature Integrated Detection System (MINDS), which can distinguish between types of radiation using sophisticated software. So far, MINDS systems are scanning for suspicious material at a major train station on the East Coast and a military base in New Jersey, as well as being evaluated for airports and mail facilities. Scientists at the Livermore lab are working on an even more futuristic nuclear detector that could sense a bomb made of highly enriched uranium, which emits little radiation and is easily shielded. Other countries are coming on board. A year ago, the European Union and the US agreed to cooperate on development of sensor technology. Canada last year noted that its Ottawa International Airport would be getting detectors that would sense material likely to be in a dirty bomb, a non-nuclear device that uses conventional explosives. Even local entities are getting involved. Last year several Las Vegas hotels announced deployment of nuclear and chemical sensors. MetroRail in the nation's capital has been moving to upgrade its chemical and biological sensors. WMD sensors: not sufficient? Few experts, however -- Oxford included -- believe WMD sensors are enough. Most agree the primary defensive layer must be locking down and monitoring with new smart detectors the insecure nuclear materials in places like the research reactors of the former Soviet Union. The next layer would be smart sensors at ports overseas to screen cargo before it is loaded onto a ship bound for the US. Some critics, though, say the bulk of funds should be spent securing loose nuclear material overseas and creating sensor networks to make sure that it doesn't end up in the wrong hands. If it did, the argument goes, all the sensors in the world might not be enough. "This could become a Maginot line for us, creating a false sense of security," says Randall Larsen, CEO of Homeland Security Associates, an Arlington, Va., consulting firm. "Anyone smart enough to get this stuff could sneak it past detectors." Still, other experts say sensor networks abroad combined with a last line of defense in the US are critical. "If you have a better defensive system, the attacker has to work that much harder, recruit more people, put on more shielding," says Mr. Wagner. "The bigger the operation gets, the better chance our people have of detecting and stopping it." Copyright 2005 The Christian Science Monitor 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. To read headlines and stories each day from Christian Science Monitor and New York Times with no login nor registration requirements, go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/nytimes.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 00:37:33 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Verizon's New Slimmed-Down Unlimited Calling Plans Add Choice Verizon's New Slimmed-Down Unlimited Calling Plans Add Choice and Value in 9 East Coast Markets Unlimited Calling for as Little as $29.95 a Month Underpins Super Prices on Bundles of Calling, Internet and Entertainment NEW YORK, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon customers in nine East Coast markets now have two new options for flat-rate, unlimited, any-distance calling. Customers can combine the new phone plans with Verizon high-speed Internet and DIRECTV services to meet or beat the best offers from cable. Verizon Freedom Essentials offers unlimited local, regional and domestic long-distance calling with the three most popular calling features -- Home Voice Mail, Call Waiting and Caller ID -- for as little as $34.95 a month. Verizon Freedom Value, offering any-distance domestic calling but no calling features, starts at $29.95 in some markets and is the company's lowest-priced any-distance calling plan. The new plans are available starting today in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The Freedom Value and Freedom Essentials plans were introduced last month in Florida, California and Texas and have proven very popular, bringing new long-distance customers to Verizon and promoting sales of service packages that include Verizon Online DSL and DIRECTV all-digital entertainment services. With the new calling plans, customers can have unlimited calling at as little as $29.95 and entry-level DSL at up to768 megabits per second (Mbps) downstream at $14.95 for a combined cost as low as $44.90. DIRECTV service from Verizon can be added for a total of as little as $84.89 per month. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52953597 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 00:56:38 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Digital Tracking to Protect On-Demand TV Digital Tracking to Protect On-Demand TV - Nov 8, 2005 11:01 PM (AP Online) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=52981885 BURBANK, Calif. (AP) -- Invisible marks that can be used to trace illegal copies of television shows and movies will be embedded in programs available on demand across the country using technology from Widevine Technologies. Widevine, based in Seattle, said Tuesday its invisible digital markers would be embedded in programs distributed to cable companies served by TVN Entertainment Corp., a Burbank-based company. Among TVN's cable customers are four of the nation's largest operators: Comcast Corp., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc. and Adelphia Communications Corp. Digital watermarks are not visible to the naked eye, but contain information about the origin of the program. They allow Hollywood studios to track shows as they are distributed to cable boxes, TV sets, computers, cell phones or other devices. The watermarks remain even after the program is copied several times, allowing law enforcement to tell where illegal copies were obtained. TVN provides movies, concerts and other programs to cable operators and telecommunication companies, who then offer them to consumers for a pay-per-view fee. Tuesday's announcement marks the first time digital watermarking has been used to track such programs. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 07:55:49 -0500 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Jumpy Enough to Chew a Chair? Try DogCatRadio By DINITIA SMITH "Remember, be kind to your mailman," said Jane Harris, a disc jockey. Then she softened her voice until it was a little insinuating: "He only wants to deliver the mail." It is a message that many of her listeners need to hear. Ms. Harris is a D.J. on DogCatRadio.com, a new Internet radio station for pets. Now dogs, cats, hamsters and parrots can keep the anxiety, the loneliness, the restlessness at bay while their owners are out. It is radio just for them, live 17 hours a day, 4 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time, and podcast for the rest of the 24 hours. Those who listen to DogCatRadio will find that there is generally an animal motif to the playlist, like "Hound Dog": "You ain't nothin' but a hound dogcryin' all the time." This Elvis song is a frequent request from listeners (presumably the owners), as are the Baha Men, singing: "Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof)." And Dionne Warwick is also popular, especially her soothing song "That's What Friends Are For": "Keep smiling, keep shining,/Knowing you can always count on me." Since many pets are apparently bilingual, DogCatRadio also has a "Spanish Hour," 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Pacific time daily, with Hispanic commentary and music, like Luis Miguel's "No S=E9 T=FA": DogCatRadio.com was started last June by Adrian Martinez, who is also president of Marusa records, an independent record label in Los Angeles. He runs the station out of a customized RV parked in his office lot in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles. Mr. Martinez, 34, who owns six dogs and two cats, said he founded the station because "my cat, Snickers, asked me to do it." One day, Snickers was pacing the floor restlessly and meowing. "I said, 'What do you want?' " Mr. Martinez recalled in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "I turned up the music, and she was fine." He discovered that Snickers likes 80's rock, particularly the Eddie Money version of the song "Take Me Home Tonight:" "I feel a hunger /It's a hunger that tries to keep a man awake at night." Mr. Martinez added, "I wanted to do something for the pet community." The first week that DogCatRadio was broadcast, the local CBS television station showed a feature about it. As a result, so many people tuned in, 130,000 in one day, that the server crashed, Mr. Martinez said. "We had to get a bigger server to accommodate more listeners." Now, he said, "We average close to 8,000 hits a week. We have a meter that tracks it." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/02/arts/02pet.html?ex=1288587600&en=363ad= acb531f2993&ei=5090 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Pay Phone Coin Drop Reference in TV Show; Youth Phone Culture Date: 9 Nov 2005 06:47:38 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com A TV show just broadcast used the "ding ding" sound effect when coins were desposited in a modern pay phone. The show was "Life with Derek"* shown on the Disney Channel. What is interesting is that this show is meant for younger people who very likely never saw a or used a 3-slot pay phone, so they're not familiar with the coin drop sounds. Further, a lot of teens today probably never even used a pay phone because they have cell phones (in this episode's plot, the user didn't have a cell phone and was working to get one, thus her need to make a pay phone call.) Our local public library got rid of its pay phone because it was not used enough, when kids need a ride home they have a cell to call. (There are occassional requests for a phone, however). I wonder what the market penetration of cell phones among teenagers is today. It seems every time I see a teen they're staring at their cell phone panel. (My cube neighbor yells at his kids for too much cell phone/text msg use and big bills). Also in this episode the "ker-ching" sound effect of a cash register was used. This is a very common sound effect on TV when money is mentioned. But almost every cash register in stores for years is electronic. Indeed, the "ker ching" type of cash register was manual and not as widely used as electric registers. Many smaller stores or secondary counters in big stores did use a manual register (where the lever action of depressing keys worked the mechanism). The pre-record ".wav" sounds included with my PC included that sound. Indeed, sometimes I wonder if some of the jokes on youth shows might go over kids' heads unfamiliar with culture history. For instance, in another show, during career day a 13 y/o tells of how "mama won't work for the man", which I thought was an expression of an older generation. As an aside, about 25 years ago it was common for affluent families to install a second phone line for the kids to use (pre computer days, voice only). (In those days I remember senior citizens looking down at that as being decadent and reminding us that in their day they all shared the phone in the drugstore, if they had a phone at home it was shared with many siblings and a party line.) Anyway I wonder if families still bother with second lines just to meet voice needs or the cell phones now meet that need. Also, with DSL and cable modems, I wonder if people still have second lines for their computer. *"Life with Derek" is about a teen girl who mother remarries and she now has to live with a very annoying step-brother. Import from Canada. ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Wednesday 9th November 2005 Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 07:41:17 -0600 From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news-mail.com> Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com GSM Network gets World Bank Loan http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14744.php The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, has announced the signing of a US$20 million loan to Wataniya Telecom Maldives which is building a GSM network in the island nation. In addition, IFC mobilized a U... Nearly 70% of All Ringtones are Purchased by Women http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14743.php Telephia reports that women outpaced men in purchasing ringtones by two to one during Q3 2005. Sixty-nine percent of mobile ringtones were bought by women, while purchases by men comprised 31% of the total revenue share, according to the latest Telep... Starent Networks Connects over 7 Billion Subscriber Data Calls http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14742.php Starent Networks is celebrating its fifth birthday. Since its inception, the company has deployed its ST16 Intelligent Mobile Gateway in numerous CDMA2000 and UMTS networks, connecting more than 7 billion subscriber data calls.... Qualcomm Gets a Foothold in the UK http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14741.php Qualcomm has signed an agreement with O2 UK to use uiOne to develop a consistent user interface (UI), initially for two of its own-branded X range devices. With this agreement, O2 becomes the first operator in Europe to announce plans to deploy uiOne... Top 50 Companies in the UK Mobile Market http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14740.php O2 UK has published a "50 to Watch in Mobile" report, which is an independently compiled list identifying the 50 most important British mobile companies to watch. The list looks beyond handset manufacturers and network operators, to reveal the new vi... SaskTel Mobility and Virgin Mobile Rank Highest in Canadian Customer Satisfaction Study http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14739.php Canada's SaskTel Mobility, a regional operator in Saskatchewan, ranks highest in customer satisfaction with contracted wireless service, while Virgin Mobile, which is new to the Canadian market, ranks highest in pre-paid service, according to the J.D... Niche Markets Ripe for a New Breed of MVNO http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14738.php ABI Research says that Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are in a second phase of growth, made possible by the advent of 3G mobile phone services. 3G's data-centric capabilities have opened up new markets for MVNOs targeting specific high-end ... British Consumers not Reaping Full Benefits of 3G http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14737.php A recent survey by Harris Interactive shows that although 3G mobile phones have reached a nine percent (9%) share of the mobile phone market in Great Britain, 41% of 3G users are only using their phone for talking and texting. Furthermore, some users... Technology Promises To Link Wireline, Wireless Networks http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14736.php [Premium] Phone carriers are pinning their hopes on a technology that promises to bridge disparate communications networks, potentially saving them money and setting the groundwork for new services. ... Russian court freezes 20% of SMARTS, bans registration http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14735.php Russia's St. Petersburg Arbitration Court has frozen 799 shares, or about 20% of Russian regional mobile operator SMARTS and prohibited the regional tax service from registering the company as an open joint stock company, Pavel Svirsky, general direc... Hong Kong Hutchison Telecom End-Sep Subscribers At 15.1 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14734.php Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. said Tuesday the number of subscribers to its mobile phone services at the end of September was 15.1 million, up 34% from a year earlier and up 9.6% from the end of June. ... Nokia To Analyze Qualcomm Claims When Complaint Obtained http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14733.php Finnish telecommunications equipment maker Nokia Corp. late Monday said it has learned from a Qualcomm press release that Qualcomm has filed a complaint for alleged patent infringement against Nokia and Nokia Inc. in San Diego apparently involving so... SingTel Says Regional Mobile Subscribers Exceed 74 Million http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14732.php Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. said Tuesday its mobile subscribers totaled 74.05 million at the end of September, a gain of 2.91 million from the end of June. ... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 09:51:14 -0500 From: Michael Muderick <michael.muderick@verizon.net> Subject: Dimension Does anyone still maintain the old Bell System Dimesion systems? I came across an operator console and programming console along with a set of manuals /schematics. Does anyone need them? INterestingly, there were stickers on the equipment from other companies. Was Dimension post divestiture? mm ------------------------------ From: Michael Chance <mchance@swbell.net> Subject: Re: Verizon POTS Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 11:20:16 GMT In article <telecom24.508.12@telecom-digest.org>, userid@camsul.example.invalid says: > Joe wrote: >> I get a dial tone. However, when I dial a number, I get a message >> saying to call Verizon if I want telephone service. > That's known as soft dial tone. You can call 911 (and maybe the > telco's business office), but nothing else. It's required in many > places, for emergency situations. It also lets you know that the > phone line is electrically connected to the CO. Didn't know that Verizon still had soft dial tone in places, but if that's what it is, then you've got completely wired service already in place. No inside central office wiring to do, no outside or customer location wiring needed, so the only thing is to update all the provisioning and billing databases and set the central office switch to show the new service, all done with software. Should take no more than a couple of hours, max. Michael Chance ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Verizon POTS Date: 9 Nov 2005 06:50:57 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Tony P. wrote: > Verizon is famous for having crappy outside plant records. For > example, when I moved here in October, 2004 they swore up and down > that service was hooked up. Plug in the phone and no dial-tone. No NID > either. Verizon is a big company that is a hodge podge of companies with very different performance history. You can't generalize. When we added service it took only a day (physical line already there), and about week (wires had to be run, cost $110). > So I open the terminal block, take out the butt set and start dialing > the ANAC number on every pair. Not only did I find my pair, I found > the NID for my apartment and the two weren't anywhere near each other, > nor was the NID connected. What is "ANAC" and "NID"? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:32:07 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein <SeeSigForEmail@wn6.wn.net> Subject: Re: NN0 Central Office Codes On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 22:47:41 UTC, wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote: > Not uncommon. At Boston's WBZ, the main call-in number was originally > ALgonquin 4-5678 (617-254-5678), which still works but has been > superseded by 254-1030 to reinforce the branding. But the contest > line is in what was the Boston "choke" exchange, 617-931-1030. The > main switchboard number is 617-787-7000, which would have been STadium > 7-7000 in 2L+5D days, but I don't know if that number was in use back > then. Those three exchanges historically belonged to three separate > COs: 617-254 is Allston, 617-787 is Brighton (both now in the same > ratecenter IIRC), and 617-931 is a downtown Boston exchange which I > think was historically located at the NET&T headquarters. WBZ-TV > (channel 4) used to have 617-782-4444, but I doubt that is as old as > the number would imply. (WBZ-TV has been at the same location since > 1948, when that number would have been STAdium 4444.) If there was ever an Allston CO, it was gone many years ago. Allston is a part of Brighton. Allston's separate identity dates back to the railroad, which needed a name for a second station in Brighton. George Washington Allston was a popular local painter, so they named it after him, and it stuck; the neighborhood (once a Town before crooked politicians essentially sold it to Boston sometime around 1870) is sometimes called Allston-Brighton, though the two halves are reasonably distinct. The Brighton CO is right in Brighton Center, within a short enough reach of Allston to cover it efficiently. Note, though, that a significant part of Allston-Brighton is served by the Brookline CO and is in that rate center. When I moved from one side of Comm. Ave. to the other some years ago, my phone number (and rate center) changed from ASPinwall-7 to STAdium-3. (Brookline's 3Ls included REGent and LONgwood.) Boundaries are weird there. The phone company follows the middle of Comm. Ave. (a natural boundary for wire, with a trolley line running there). The post office puts all Comm. Ave. addresses, both sides, in Allston or Brighton, but side streets in Brookline. (This impacts insurance rates. I once knew someone whose basement apartment, on a side street, netted a much lower car insurance rate than the upstairs units, because of the different ZIP code.) The real city limits meander a couple of blocks back. Harvard has bought up a LOT of land in North Allston, right across from their Cambridge campus, and is planning to develop that too. I think a couple of blocks in Allston near Harvard are already in the Cambridge rate center, and Harvard is likely to equip most of its new buildings with Cambridge numbers too. WGBH ("God Bless Harvard", though they'll probably claim it stands for "Great Blue Hill") has a Cambridge phone number, for instance, though it too is in Allston (or as it's known to Zoomers, "Boston 02134"), just across the river. The 617-931 choke exchange is listed in the LERG to the Cambridge 02T tandem, a DMS-200. It's one of two tandems in VZ's 210 Bent St. CO (the other is a 5E; a 4E next door, at 250, has been decommissioned). If MIT still gets its dial tone from VZ, it comes out of Bent St. That 3-block-long street is full of telecom carriers, Level 3 (and others having buildings there. AT&T still uses 250, which is a divestiture condo (shared between AT&T and VZ). I think the carrier hotel (was Network Plus, now defunct) at #185 has closed. XO is at 89 Fulkerson, a block or two off Bent. It seems like there's more glass than dirt in the ground around there.... Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: markrobt@myrealbox.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: NN0 Central Office Codes Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:00:48 -0000 Garrett Wollman <wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu> had written: > In article <telecom24.508.14@telecom-digest.org>, Mark Roberts > <markrobt@myrealbox.com> wrote: >> I can personally attest to 713-630 because that was used for the PBX >> at KTRH radio, where I worked at the time. While most of the "public" >> numbers for KTRH were standard JAckson numbers -- I'm pretty sure the >> main call-in number was 526-5874 (KTRH) -- our internal extensions >> were of the form 630-3xxx. > Not uncommon. And it is a practice not limited to broadcasting stations. A local example in Oakland is a real estate agency in my area whose main office line is 531-xxxx. In its corporate ads for real estate listings, the agents for the individual listings are given a phone number of 531-xxxx, ext. nnn. But in ads for the individual agents (such as their open house of the week), they usually give their phone numbers as 485-7nnn. Interestingly, 485 isn't a Pac Bell/SBC office. This, too, seems increasingly common judging by the prefixes I have seen in our neighborhood weekly whose primary means of support is real-estate ads. Of course, there is nothing these days to prevent routing an ILEC number to a CLEC switch, but it is perhaps notable that the established ILEC number is retained as a central point of contact even as all the internal DID extensions are provided by the CLEC. For the real-estate office example above, it would seem that 485-7000 would be a perfectly serviceable main reception number, yet they've kept the 531-xxxx number. Mark Roberts | "I know you know the situation is past critical." Oakland, Cal.| -- FEMA staff member Marty Bahamonde, in New Orleans NO HTML MAIL | "Anything specific I need to do or tweak?" | -- FEMA director Michael Brown replies to that e-mail Permission to archive this article in any form is hereby explicitly denied. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 01:17:02 EST From: Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com> Subject: Re: US Mandates More Security in Online Banking > Federal regulators, alarmed by the threat of online financial fraud, > are requiring banks by the end of 2006 to provide several layers of > identify verification before customers can access their accounts and > conduct other banking over the Internet. Yet they continue to allow (or even encourage) banks to refuse to allow customers to require any verification at all for ACH debits against their accounts by third parties. > In addition to standard passwords, customers may soon need a unique > digital 'fingerprint' that will identify their computer for the > bank, or may scan a copy of their real fingerprints to identify > themselves to the bank's network. As usual, their answer is for consumers to disclose more personal information and/or allow snooping on their computers. I'm sure that information will never be abused ... even by the phishers who will collect it as well ... > Another, more cumbersome method would have customers carrying > keyfob-sized electronic 'tokens' that authenticate their identity. Because it would be, like, impossible to set up a cryptographically secure, publicly verifyable (open source) system that works for the customer ... It's getting really hard to attribute all this nonsense to mere incompetence. Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 01:26:51 EST From: Dan Lanciani <ddl@danlan.com> Subject: Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service > Verizon Communications Inc. sharply cut its prices for unlimited > telephone service across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic on Tuesday, > including markets where Cablevision Inc. has just boosted broadband > Internet speeds. Unless you have residential ISDN in Massachusetts (which is apparently no longer offered to new customers). All the new low-cost plans explicitly exclude ISDN customers. :( And it looks like all the plans that didn't exclude ISDN are themselves no longer offered, so ISDN lines are pretty much frozen. Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ From: Lena <lenagainster@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service Date: 8 Nov 2005 20:25:29 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Shame that it doesn't show on the website yet (11/8/05. 11 pm EDT) Lena [TELECM Digest Editor's Note: Well, remember, Lena, you read it _first_ here in TELECOM Digest, both yesterday and again in the current issue in another article in this issue. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 09:38:51 EST Subject: Re: Internet ID Theft Worsens, Scares Away Bank Customers In a message dated 11/8/05 8:27:46 PM Central Standard Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes, in a note to a posting by Jonathan Stempel < reuters@telecom-digest.org>: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of the major banks, Bank of > America, has considered having a picture (a .jpg perhaps?) of the > customer on line to help 'prove his identity', so that if a phisherman > comes along asking you to do something allegedly for BOA, _your_ > picture will have to be part of whatever _authentic_ request is made > by the bank. All well and good, I suppose, but what prevents the > phisherman from adding the same .jpg files to his pitch letters? PAT] The bank provides a selection of pictures from which to make your selection. You also give the picture a name. After you enter your username, the picture and the name you gave it is displayed with a warning not to enter your password unless the proper picture appears along with the name you gave it. Then it allows you to enter your password. Presumably it will be more difficult for the operator of a phishing or fraudulent site to find and display the proper picture and the name you gave it. Why someone would respond to an e-mail request supposedly from a bank by clicking on a link in the e-mail is beyond me anyway. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecomm- unications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) RSS Syndication of TELECOM Digest: http://telecom-digest.org/rss.html For syndication examples see http://www.feedrollpro.com/syndicate.php?id=308 and also http://feeds.feedburner.com/TelecomDigest ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ Visit http://www.mstm.okstate.edu and take the next step in your career with a Master of Science in Telecommunications Management (MSTM) degree from Oklahoma State University (OSU). This 35 credit-hour interdisciplinary program is designed to give you the skills necessary to manage telecommunications networks, including data, video, and voice networks. The MSTM degree draws on the expertise of the OSU's College of Business Administration; the College of Arts and Sciences; and the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology. The program has state-of-the-art lab facilities on the Stillwater and Tulsa campus offering hands-on learning to enhance the program curriculum. Classes are available in Stillwater, Tulsa, or through distance learning. Please contact Jay Boyington for additional information at 405-744-9000, mstm-osu@okstate.edu, or visit the MSTM web site at http://www.mstm.okstate.edu ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V24 #510 ****************************** | |