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TELECOM Digest Thu, 10 Nov 2005 15:12:00 EST Volume 24 : Issue 512 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NASA Telescope Gets Image of Young Stars (Associated Press News Wire) European Space Agency Lauches Venus Probe (Melissa Eddy) Telephone History Enquiry: Earliest Pre-Pay Calls (John R. Covert) "Soft Dial Tone" on Unused Lines (Lisa Hancock) Yahoo! Drops Bid For AOL Stake (USTelecom dailyLead) Cellular-News for Thursday 10th November 2005 (Cellular-News) Dutch Trial SMS Disaster Alert System (Joseph) Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service (Bruce K.) Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service (Lisa Hancock) Re: Phishers Lure Google Users With Bogus Google Cash Prizes (S Lichter) Re: Good News, Linux Users! A Worm Just for You (ellis@no.spam) Re: NN0 Central Office Codes (Fred Goldstein) 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: Associated Press News Wire <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: NASA Telescope Gets Image of Young Stars Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 22:26:00 -0600 A dazzling photo taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows colossal pillars of cool gas and dust, giving scientists an intimate look at the star-forming process. The image released Wednesday shows the columns stretching out like fingers similar to an iconic photo taken of the Eagle Nebula by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995. While the Hubble visible-light image was dubbed "Pillars of Creation," NASA describes the Spitzer infrared image as "cosmic mountains of creation." The image reflects a region in space known as W5, in the constellation Cassiopeia 7,000 light years away, which is dominated by a single massive star. The largest pillars -- formed by radiation and winds from hot, massive stars -- contain hundreds of newborn stars. "We believe that the star clusters lighting up the tips of the pillars are essentially the offspring of the region's single, massive star," Lori Allen of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a statement. Spitzer was able to spy the stars being born inside the pillars because of its infrared capability. A visible light telescope would see the same region as dark columns outlined by specks of light. Scientists believe the pillars eventually become dense enough to give rise to a second generation of stars, which may in turn, trigger successive generations. On the Net: Spitzer Space Telescope: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu 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 additional news headlines from Associated Press, please go to: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html ------------------------------ From: Melissa Eddy <ap@telecom-digest.org> Subject: European Space Agency Launches Venus Probe Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 22:29:27 -0600 By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer A European spacecraft left Earth orbit Wednesday on a five-month, 220 million-mile journey to Venus, an exploratory mission that could help spur a new space race. The European Space Agency said the unmanned Venus Express lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and mission control in Darmstadt activated the probe's instruments and immediately picked up a signal to hearty applause in the observation room. The Europeans then received another signal -- a congratulatory note from the Pasadena, Calif.,-based Planetary Society, which had monitored the launch from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. The $260 million spacecraft will take 163 days to get to Earth's nearest planetary neighbor, where it will drop into orbit and explore the hot, dense atmosphere of Venus. "The mission is an outstanding success," Gaele Winters, director of ESA's operations in Darmstadt, told reporters. "We had a perfect launch, the instruments are switched on, the solar panels are deployed, everything is working." The Venus mission is the latest sign that competition in space is heating up even as NASA is reassessing its own exploration plans. NASA is cutting some of its programs to focus resources on developing a replacement for the space shuttle. The space shuttle Columbia tragedy in 2003 caused NASA to ground its fleet for more than two years. Flights resumed in July with the Discovery, but the dangerous loss of a chunk of its insulation during launch has put future missions on hold until at least May, and possibly even next summer. NASA plans 18 more shuttle flights to the international space station and possibly one to the Hubble Space Telescope before the fleet is retired in 2010. "NASA has really dominated in planetary science and missions for the last 40 years," having seen off the challenge from the former Soviet Union, said Spas Baradash of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics. "But now Europe is catching up." Last month, two Chinese astronauts spent five days in orbit last month on that country's second manned mission. Japan and India also are ramping up their programs, and despite close cooperation between scientists and agencies, "maybe we are witnessing the beginning of a new space race," said Baradash, who worked on the instruments aboard Venus Express. David Southwood, ESA's scientific director, said the Venus mission "once again illustrates Europe's determination to explore the different bodies in our solar system." European scientists plan to apply next month for funding for new ESA missions to Mars and the moon. Venus Express follows ESA's successful Mars Express, launched in 2003. It is Europe's first mission to Venus, which is sometimes visible at sunrise or sunset along the horizon. The Venus mission aims to explore the planet's atmosphere, concentrating on its greenhouse effect and the hurricane force winds that constantly encircle it at high altitudes. There have been roughly 20 U.S. and Soviet missions to Venus since the 1960s, the last being NASA's Magellan, which completed more than 15,000 orbits between 1990 and 1994. Using radar, Magellan mapped virtually its entire surface, revealing towering volcanoes, gigantic rifts and crisp-edged craters. The Venus Express' seven instruments, including a special camera as well as a spectrometer to measure temperatures and analyze the atmosphere, will try to determine whether the planet's volcanoes are active. It also will examine how a world so similar to Earth could have evolved so differently. "Venus is still a big mystery," said Gerhard Schwehm, head of planetary missions at ESA. In the next three days, mission controllers will continue testing the probe's instruments. It is expected to reach Venus in April, when it will slow down to enter the planet's orbit. It will begin the initial stages of gathering data in June. "We hope to see the first results in early July," said Schwehm, adding that the probe will remain active for more than a year. Venus and Earth are alike in that they share similar mass and density. Both have inner cores of rock and are believed to have been formed at roughly the same time. However, they have vastly different atmospheres, with Venus' composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide and very little water vapor. It also has the hottest surface of all the planets in the solar system. Associated Press Writer Stephen Graham contributed to this report from Berlin. On the Net: http://www.esa.int 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. More Associated Press reports available at: http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/newstoday.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 09:38:54 EST From: John R. Covert <nospamtd@covert.org> Subject: Telephone History Enquiry: Earliest Pre-Pay Calls Telephone History Buffs: I'm looking for information on early pre-pay systems that did not require special telephones. To be relevant to my search, the pre-pay system would need to: 1. Have been implemented before 1987. 2. Have documentation that we could find today. 3. Not require special telephone stations. An example of a system which might meet these requirements would be a company which would provide telephone calls for me on the basis of my depositing money into an account with them; I would then call their telephone number and they would then extend calls for me only until that credit was used up; terminating the call when the there was no more money, and requiring me to replenish my account before further calls could be made. Yes, this is common today with the plethora of pre-pay calling cards. I'm looking for the first instance of such a thing, even if fully manual in terms of operation. To be relevant, it must have been in use (and verifiably so) prior to 1987. My search of the archives so far has not returned anything; we weren't talking about such things in the early 1980s. Back then we thought that the introduction by the Bell System of the first dial-it-yourself calling card system in early 1982 was cool (ref my own article in the digest 21 Jan 1982 1035). Prepay doesn't seem to have been needed back then since almost anyone could get the pay-when-the-bill-comes type of calling card. People must have been more obvious, or more of the cost of fraud was built into the cost we all paid for calls. And resellers of telephone service were few and far between. Regards/john TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For those readers who may have missed the issue of the Digest from almost 24 years ago -- January 21, 1982 -- the pertinent message from John Covert, another long time, charter subscriber to this Digest, is excerpted here. Prior to using '@' as the middle character in our email addresses and using a domain suffix such as '.org' or '.com' we simply concluded with the site name. _Do not_ use the address shown below to reach Mr. Covert now. PAT] Date: 21 Jan 1982 1035-EST From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO> Subject: Dial-it-yourself telephone Calling Card service I was using the new Dial-it-yourself credit card service on our Denver FX last night. It is really well done. In a previous message I described the operation of the service. That demon- stration was before the service was put into actual use. When your call goes into TSPS, you will hear a new tone, which is the DTMF "#" key immediately followed by a very brief and fading dial tone. During the pre-service demonstration, you then got a recorded voice asking you to enter your Calling Card number. It seems that in actual implementation, that message does not occur. You have to simply know that if you hear the new tone to enter your card. If you don't, or if you dial "0", you will go to an operator. If you want to call the number to which the credit card is issued, you need dial only the last four digits of the credit card. This is the reason RAOs beginning with "0" will appear on calling cards beginning with "6" now. If there is no answer, or after the person you call hangs up, you may dial a "#", and you will be told, "You may dial another number now." At this point you may dial either 0+Number or just Number with the same result. 1+Number is illegal. Likewise, you may dial 01+ overseas number, but not 011+ overseas number. In no case do you get an actual operator through this procedure, although I have heard that there may be a change to the procedure to allow you to dial you calling card and still get an operator for person-to-person calls. Surprising, though. They'd like to make person-to-person go away. This may have been a false story. The rates for using this will, like all phone rates, be regulated by state authorities for instate use and by the FCC for interstate use. In a few states, Bell has already filed special credit card rates. For example, in Massachusetts, you get the DDD rate for credit card calls (regardless of whether it is operator keyed or dialed yourself) but you pay a $0.45 credit card billing charge. From messages in this digest, I presume that North Carolina has done the same thing. Other states may have as well. In a previous message to this digest, I explained that I have a copy of an "illustrative" tariff which shows a significant re-vamping of charges for INTERstate calls. In this tariff, there is a service called "Customer Dialed Calling Card, Station" which is the DDD rate plus $0.50. The next line lists "Operator-Station" as the DDD rate plus mileage-based service charges. The final line lists "Operator-Person-to-Person" as the DDD rate plus $3.00. This tariff is not yet approved. It seems unfair for me to have to pay more to use my calling card simply because some pay-phone at some airport in some small town doesn't have Touch-Tone. The instate tariffs I have seen so far seem to take that into account; the "illustrative" tariff for interstate calls doesn't. ------------------------------ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A quarter-century ago, Mr. Covert was an active participant in this Digest. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: "Soft Dial Tone" on Uuused lines Date: 10 Nov 2005 06:56:47 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Some other posters mentioned that an unused land phone line may still offer dial tone to provide for emergency 911 service. Is this a recent offering? The phone boxes within my apt have a forest of wires, it appears about six pairs. It's been a while since I tested them, but other than the ones I use the lines are dead. They may not be physically connected within the master jct box outside. Cell phones purchased at a flea market have that capability, I believe that was mandated by law a few years ago. I keep such a phone in my car glove box (with an power adapter) in case of emergency since I don't carry my real cell with me that often. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 12:39:51 EST From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com> Subject: Yahoo! Drops Bid For AOL Stake USTelecom dailyLead November 10, 2005 http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/xPfgatagCxclqFaevF TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * Yahoo! drops bid for AOL stake BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Analysis: RIM settlement looks likely * Calix acquires OSI * Marriage of music, mobile phones off to rocky start in U.S. * Cisco, NTT report earnings USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT * Telecom Crash Course -- The must-have book for telecom professionals TECHNOLOGY TRENDS * Intel bullish on WiMAX * Nortel teams with partners on IPTV solution REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Bush nominates Tate for FCC; backs new term for Copps * House lawmakers move forward on telecom bill EDITOR'S NOTE * The dailyLead will not be published Friday Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others. http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/xPfgatagCxclqFaevF ------------------------------ Subject: Cellular-News for Thursday 10th November 2005 Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:51:02 -0600 From: Cellular-News <dailydigest@cellular-news-mail.com> Cellular-News - http://www.cellular-news.com US Messaging Market Set for Rapid Growth - report http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14765.php Wireless messaging revenue in the USA increased by 106% in 2004 and is expected to continue to grow strongly over the next five years from its current low base, according to a new report published by Analysys. In 2004, wireless data accounted for jus... Verizon Wireless Stops Information Theft - Again http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14764.php Verizon Wireless has filed suit and obtained an immediate injunction against a Florida-based private investigative agency and its affiliates to stop their attempts to fraudulently obtain confidential information about Verizon Wireless customers. The ... USA Networks Set Adult Content Control Rules http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14763.php The USA's Wireless Association, in partnership with leading carriers, has unveiled a set of voluntary guidelines to proactively provide tools and controls to manage wireless content offered by the carriers or available via Internet-enabled wireless d... Five New Phones from Samsung http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14762.php Samsung is launching five new mobile phones for the European market. The average thickness of the newly unveiled phones are under 15mm and offer the latest multimedia features, such as music playback capability, megapixel camera and Bluetooth connect... Wireless Operators Not Doing Enough to Sell Mobile Data http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14761.php Pyramid Research says that it estimates that 42% of the roughly 1.05bn new mobile subscribers over the next five years will come from the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China. According to a recent study, 20% to 50% of mobile subscribers ... Econet Granted Leave to Seek Arbitration in Legal Battle http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14760.php Nigeria's Econet Wireless has been granted court permission to launch two additional arbitration applications against two other shareholders in Vee Mobile Networks of Nigeria for their failure to buy and sell shares in the company without following l... Record GSM Subscriber Additions in India http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14759.php India's COAI has again reported a record subscriber growth of more than 2 million subscribers during the month of October'05 ? the highest subscriber additions (2.11 million) since inception of service. The cumulative GSM subscriber base grew to 52.... New Billing Contract in the Cayman Islands http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14758.php Cerillion Technologies has announced a new contract to supply caymanone with a complete CRM and billing solution for their telecom network in the Cayman Islands. Cerillion will deliver a complete turnkey solution, implementing the Revenue Manager, CR... FOCUS: Russian police raids fail to cut illegal handset imports http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14757.php [Premium] The raids against illegal imports of mobile handsets undertaken by the Russian police and the Federal Customs Service in August have failed to make the market transparent and cut illegal handset imports, industry representatives said adding that the ... Ukraine's UMC mobile subscriber base up to 11.49 mln Oct 30 http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14756.php The total subscriber base of Ukraine's Mobile Communications, or UMC, Ukraine'slargest mobile phone operator, rose 5.3% on the month to 11.490 million subscribers as of October 31, UMC said. ... Caudwell Group Invites Offers For Caudwell Holdings http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14755.php Caudwell Group said Wednesday that it decided to invite offers for 100% of Caudwell Holdings Limited and has decided to delay any final decision in respect of the proposed sale of Caudwell Communications, the fixed line telephony business of the Caud... INTERVIEW:Qualcomm President -Royalty Model Aids Competition http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14754.php [Premium] The licensing model at the heart of a European Union investigation into Qualcomm Inc.'s royalty payments stimulates rather than stifles competition in the mobile handset market, according to Steve Altman, the company's president. ... Judge To Review RIM-NTP Settlement http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14753.php he ongoing patent dispute between Research In Motion Ltd. and NTP Inc. took another turn Wednesday, when a federal judge said he would review the disputed $450 million settlement between the companies. ... China's Huawei also gets VimpelCom's offer on URS deal http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14752.php China's telecommunications equipment producer Huawei has received an offer from Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom, which would help the Russian mobile operator enter the Ukrainian market by purchasing Ukrainian Radiosystems mobile o... Number of Mobile Users Almost Doubles in Uzbekistan This Year http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14751.php The number of mobile telecommunication subscribers almost doubled in Uzbekistan since January 1 to over 1 million users as of now, Uzbektelecom, Uzbekistan's national telecommunications company, said Wednesday. ... Deutsche Telekom Swings To Profit, But Outlook Weighs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14750.php Deutsche Telecom AG, Europe's largest phone company, said Wednesday it swung to a profit after adding large numbers of wireless customers in the U.S. ... TeliaSonera Continues Integrating Mobile, IP Telephony http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14749.php Swedish telecommunications company TeliaSonera AB Wednesday said it continues with the initiatives in integrating fixed and mobile telephony and will now conduct a technical trial of the Unlicensed Mobile Access technology which permits the use of on... Taiwan Chunghwa Telecom Lowers Call Costs http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14748.php Chunghwa Telecom Co. said Wednesday it will cut the fees it charges for mobile-to-fixed line services by an average of 7% effective Dec. 1, a move it doesn't expect to affect revenue much. ... Ericsson, TeliaSonera In Joint Trial Of UMA http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14747.php Swedish telecommunications equipment maker Telefon AB LM Ericsson Wednesday said that together with Nordic operator TeliaSonera AB it will conduct a joint trial of Mobile@Home, Ericsson's solution for Unlicensed Mobile Access, or UMA, which permits t... SK Telecom To Invest In Vietnam Wireless Joint Venture http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14746.php SK Telecom Co. said Wednesday it plans to invest up to $280 million in a wireless joint venture that offers mobile services in Vietnam. ... Swisscom Confirms Talks With Eircom http://www.cellular-news.com/story/14745.php Swiss telecommunications company Swisscom AG Wednesday confirmed it was in talks with Eircom Group PLC about a potential takeover. ... ------------------------------ From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com> Subject: Dutch Trial SMS Disaster Alert System Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 17:13:43 -0800 Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com By Julie Clothier for CNN Using text messaging to warn people they are in danger is quick and easy, says the Dutch government. (CNN) -- The Dutch government is testing a mobile phone danger alert system that sends text messages to people who could be affected by natural disasters or terrorist attacks. The system, called Cell Broadcast, uses GSM technology to identify cell phone users in a particular area. If a disaster occurs, a message is sent to all phones in the area, warning of the danger. http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/11/09/dutch.disaster.warning/index.html ------------------------------ From: Bruce K. <bruceaknospam@optonline.net> Subject: Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:18:24 -0500 Organization: Optimum Online Called Verizon Wednesday. Rep told me I was the first customer to make request to her. She then reduced my bill by $15.00. Bruce [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Verizon is not (thank God!) SBC but I do suggest you make certain the credit is permanent and that it 'sticks' in the computer system. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com Subject: Re: Verizon Reduces Prices for Phone Service Date: 10 Nov 2005 09:52:14 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Lena wrote: > (Heck, my bank was advertising free online billpaying for the past six > months, and the website still indicated it cost $6.95 per month until > I emailed them about the discrepancy). Sadly, these ad discrepancies are a big part of the world we live in today. Companies are so big and far flung that often the right-hand doesn't know what the left-hand is doing. Further, many of the ad campaigns are run by extra aggressive marketing and advertising units which are not in touch with the rest of the company, indeed, often are not even part of the company but just a hired consultant. Try calling one of the promotional 800 numbers and tell them you have two-party service or a 'local battery line' and if you can still ger DSL and they'll say "sure you can, that's not a problem". They're just a bunch of boiler room serfs under heavy pressure to sign up as many names as possible. This isn't just the phone companies, but big banks, department stores, even hospitals. > Verizon won't entice me back until they drastically drop the cost of > their unlimited local calling, included caller id and call waiting, and > add a very low rate long distance plan. I just don't use enough LD to > pay a fixed amount per month for unlimited LD calls. Everybody's situation is different. For myself, I found it cost effective to switch to unlimited LD. The reason was that while I make extremely few traditional "long distance" calls, I make a lot of local toll calls. Local toll rates are high as is unlimited regional local service (which is what I had before). Upgrading to unlimited national LD from regional LD is only a few bucks more. In the old days of the Bell System short distance toll calls were very cheap, only a few cents per minute. But after divesture every toll call, whether 10 miles or 1,000 miles away became the same rate. For myself, I was paying EIGHT times as much for my LD calling. So much for divesture saving us ordinary consumers money. I think the new era phone companies new most subscribers area of interest was regional toll calls, not 1,000 long distance. Thus, it was profitable for them to lower the price of 3,000 mile calls while steeply increasing 10 mile calls. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... Two questions you may wish to ask > the rep on a subsequent phone call: (1) is this new rate a > promotional thing for new/returning subscribers only and if so (2) > how many months is it good for? Is any contract required, and if so, > for how long? Very good and important questions to ask. A common practice today is to have promotional plans to lock you in, than later discretely steeply jack up the cost of service. Most consumers will be lazy and do nothing and keep the service. Another practice, esp in long distance, was to discontinue a plan and revert to higher a la carte pricing. A third practice was to add a service charge on top of actual usage charges. I avoided many LD plans that add a $5/month service charge since that $5 far outweighed any savings from the plan. I will note that my Verizon LD plan has been fixed and trouble free since I got it. Having unlimited service does make it more pleasant to chat on the phone without worrying about the meter running or wasting calls to someone's machine and playing phone tag. > regarding a 'tie-in' to DSL service where you must take the one to get > the other My LD plan has no tie-in to DSL. However, getting DSL does have tie-ins to other services. One must be careful ordering DSL, although users I've spoken to are very happy with it. I'll probably go that way when I get a new computer than can handle the speed. > not at all very politic but interesting none the less: telco is > _supposed to be_ a common carrier utility operated at cost. Did the > operating costs suddenly make it feasable to offer this 'reduced > rate' now; if it was feasable earlier, _why wasn't it offered > earlier_? It has been fairly recent that the local telcos have been allowed to offer their own long distance service and bundle it with other offerings. Many parts of telephone service are no longer offered as "common carrier" status, that is, they have been deregulated. I think nowadays basically the local dial-tone line is all that's left of common carrier regulated status, everything else is optional and unregulated. The phone co can thus introduce or withdraw services and pricing as it sees fit. I pay a single phone bill to Verizon, but on the fine print (literally) of the bill are a variety of Verizon subsidiary companies offering various services to me, all bundled together. If I fail to pay my phone bill, Verizon can shut off instantly any of the optional services. However, it must follow PUC procedures for protecting local service. The bill includes a complex matrix of charge and payment allocation. That's really only the fair to go nowadays since the competition has the ability to market as it chooses, so the local Baby Bell should be able to do the same. Those who advocated free market competition in telephone service had a false idea that prices would be the lowest possible. That is not how it works in other businesses. Every business has some high profit items and low-profit items for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's more profitable for a business to charge a high markup and sell low volume. The sad fact is that our telephone companies, once proudly quite staid and proper, are now as slippery as the guy in the loud plaid jacket at the used-car lot down the street. In the old days, when Ernestine quoted you $4.65 for local service, that is what it cost you. Today the quotes are meaningless with all the extra "FCC Line Cost", "Deaf Relay Service", "911 Fee", "Porta number fee", "Help the Martian settlers fee", etc. I know others steadfastly maintain long distance rates are lower on account of competition. However I maintain it is technology. Cheap switchgear and fibre channels are a world of difference to what AT&T had to do to offer long distance 30 years ago. Rates were dropping long before divesture came along. Further, many toll call services, such as collect and pay phone, have gone up dramatically. Remember that the same technology that allows you to buy a computer for $500 that once not long ago cost $10,000 applies to telco equipment as well. [public replies please] ------------------------------ From: Steven Lichter <shlichter@diespammers.com> Reply-To: Die@spammers.com Organization: I Kill Spammers, Inc. (c) 2005 A Rot in Hell Co. Subject: Re: Phishers Lure Google Users With Bogus Google Cash Prizes Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:55:27 GMT Jay Wrolstad wrote: > Jay Wrolstad, newsfactor.com > An online scam offering the lure of free money through a bogus Google > Web site has been uncovered by security company Websense, which > reported that the site was shut down about 30 hours after it was first > discovered on Monday. > The phishing attack employed a page that closely resembled the real > Google home page, with a banner message claiming "You won $400.00!" > Users were instructed to collect their prize money by transferring it > to a credit card. To do so, they were asked to provide their account > numbers. They also were asked to provide their home addresses and > phone numbers. > After the sensitive personal information was collected, users were > redirected to Google's legitimate Web site. The phishing site was > hosted in the U.S., Websense said. > Direct Approach > "This is a little different than other phishing attacks in that it > attempted to entice people into divulging their credentials and using > the Google name, as opposed to attacks that target banks or e-commerce > sites," said Dan Hubbard, senior director of security research at > Websense. > This particular phishing site did host other attacks targeting > financial institutions, he added, noting that the approach taken by > these criminals was fairly rudimentary when compared with attacks that > use a Trojan horse or log a user's keystrokes. > Attacks on the Rise > And the Google mimicry reflects a disturbing trend. A recent Gartner > survey showed that phishing attacks grew at double-digit rates last > year in the U.S. > In the 12 months ending in May 2005, some 73 million U.S. Internet > users said they received an average of more than 50 phishing e-mails > in the prior year; some users reported a dozen or more daily. > And an estimated 2.4 million online consumers report losing money > directly because of the phishing attacks. Of these, approximately 1.2 > million consumers lost $929 million during the year preceding the > survey, Gartner reported. > "The standard security rules apply in protecting yourself from a > phishing attack," said Hubbard. "Don't click on links in e-mail > messages, type in the address of a bank yourself, run the latest > antivirus software, and obtain the latest security patches." > "And," Hubbard noted, "you can assume that anyone offering you some > sum of money on the net is most likely just a crook." > Copyright 2005 NewsFactor Network, Inc. > 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. I think when these people are cought, they should just shoot them right on the spot, after a few public shootings then they will all get the idea!!!! 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. ------------------------------ From: ellis@no.spam Subject: Re: Good News, Linux Users! A Worm Just for You Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2005 01:51:47 -0000 Organization: S.P.C.A.A. In article <telecom24.508.3@telecom-digest.org>, Nancy Weil <idg@telecom-digest.org> wrote: > Linux users should update antivirus software No, Linux users should intall the PHP updates that fix the XML-RPC problem. http://www.spinics.net/linux/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2005 22:59:10 -0500 From: Fred Goldstein <SeeSigForEmail@wn6.wn.net> Subject: Re: NN0 Central Office Codes On Wed, 9 Nov 2005 19:24:39 UTC, wollman@khavrinen.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote, >> If there was ever an Allston CO, it was gone many years ago. > I don't think so. It's located on the short diagonal street behind > the gas station at the corner of Western and Harvard. Now it's > probably just a remote wirecenter on the Brighton CO. That would probably be Spurr St., behind the Gulf. City on-line tax records show the entire triangular mini-block to belong to Cumberland Farms (which runs Gulf stations), while Harvard owns the other side of the street. No land nearby appear to belong to Verizon (under any of its names). It is possible, though, that they have a hut there, something that is not classified as a wire center, on rented land. (The LERG shows no switches in Allston.) They might, for instance, have a Digital Loop Carrier. But the nearby Soldiers Field Park apartment complex, while in North Allston, has Harvard extensions (617-498). Nearby buildings on Western also have Cambridge numbers. Perhaps it's a Cambridge DLC, though being so close to the Cambridge-Ware St. CO, I'd be a little surprised they'd use one. Also it would be right on the rate center boundary, a strange place for a DLC. In any case, all of Verizon's Brighton prefix codes are homed on the Brighton (Wirt St.) switch. > (When I lived in Brighton, I also had an ASPinwall (617-277) number > and Brookline ZIP code. This did not result in lower insurance rates; > the insurance companies have maps that show where the town line lies > -- as do the city and town parking offices. The other important > Brookline exchange you didn't mention was BEAcon (617-232).) Funny; when I moved my car registration to Massachusetts in 1978, I gave my "Brookline 02146" postal address for my Brighton apartment, and got the Brookline rate. It was all on ZIP code; different Boston ZIPs got different rates, almost always higher than anyplace else in the state. I wonder if they changed that rule. Thanks for pointing out BEAcon; I knew I was forgetting at least one. >> 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. > MIT has its own 5ESS and has for a long time (it was one of the first > 5E's sold to a non-telco customer). There's a project on now to > figure out what to do about it before it comes up for renewal next in > a few years' time. Yes, the MIT 5E was installed as a PBX, when there were not a lot of alternatives for that range (basically just the DMS-100, which as a PBX was called an SL-100 at the time). It must be about 20 years old. The 5E is still technically a current product, though MIT's may be an obsolete variant. Still, newer stuff is a LOT cheaper to buy AND operate -- smaller, less power consumption, easier, lower software fees. What can touch the 5E's end user friendliness is an interesting question, though. For all of its benefits, though, the 5E can't touch the old Dorm Line Strowgers for the hands-on experience. ;-) Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.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. 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