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TELECOM Digest     Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:31:00 EST    Volume 24 : Issue 583

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Spitzer Subpoenas Music Companies on Pricing (Mark Johnson)
    Yahoo! Phone Out? (Harvey)
    Payphone Inserts (AirJordan)
    Music Label Forsakes CDs (Monty Solomon)
    Nortel Snaps up Tasman (USTelecom dailyLead)
    Obituary: John Diebold, as in, Yes, That Company (Danny Burstein)
    Payphone Surcharges (was: Unanswered Cellphones) (Anthony Bellanga)
    Answer Supervision (was: Unanswered Cellphones) (Anthony Bellanga)
    Re: Physically Protecting The Local Loop Network? (Steven Lichter)
    Re: Saudi Telecom Stops Text Vote for Arab Talent Show (Steve Sobol)
    Re: Cell Phone Extenders? (Seth Breidbart)
    Re: Taxes, was: NYC Transit Strike Midst Cold Weather (Seth Breidbart)

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and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Mark Johnson <ap@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Spitzer Subpoenas Music Companies on Pricing
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 18:29:10 -0600


By MARK JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

State investigators have subpoenaed several major music companies as
part of a preliminary inquiry into whether the digital music services
have engaged in any illegal price-fixing activity.

Darren Dopp, a spokesman for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
said the office was seeking information on wholesale prices the music
labels charge for digital music files that can be downloaded. Dopp
said Tuesday that it would take months for the office to launch a full
investigation, if one is warranted.

Warner Music Group Corp. said in a regulatory filing Friday that the
subpoena it received is part of "an industrywide investigation."

"As disclosed in our public filings, we are cooperating fully with the
inquiry," Amanda Collins, a spokeswoman for Warner Music Group, said
in a statement.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that Sony BMG Music
Entertainment and Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group had
also received subpoenas.

Neither company returned calls for comment. Calls to EMI Group PLC's
offices in New York and London went unanswered.

In September, Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs publicly criticized
music companies, calling some major labels "greedy" for pushing Apple
to hike prices on its popular iTunes service. Recording company
executives have scoffed at the suggestion.

In a speech before an investors conference, Warner Music Group CEO
Edgar Bronfman Jr. said that Apple's 99-cent price for single tracks
ignores the issue that not all songs are the same commercially and,
like any other product, shouldn't be priced the same.

Such discord has not kept the labels from licensing their music videos
to Apple. Still, as their contracts with Apple come up for renewal,
the music companies are seeking to improve their take.

"All the prices do seem to move in lock step," said industry analyst
Phil Leigh, who runs U.S. market research firm Inside Digital
Media. "There has been talk of raising prices for several months. I'm
surprised (music companies) raised the issue. It's clear the industry
convention is 99 cents."

The subpoenas issued this month are not the first time Spitzer, a
Democrat running for governor in 2006, has looked into the music
industry.

In November, Warner Music agreed to pay $5 million to settle an
investigation into payoffs for radio airplay of artists. In July, Sony
BMG agreed to pay $10 million and stop bribing radio stations to
feature artists.

Spitzer also asked for documents from EMI Group and Vivendi Universal
in that probe.

On the Net:

New York Attorney General's Office: http://www.oag.state.ny.us

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. And, discuss this and other topics in our forum at
http://telecom-digest.org/forum (or)
http://telecom-digest.org/chat/index.html

For more news from Associated Press, please go to:
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html

------------------------------

From: Harvey <hcohenREMOVE@frontiernetTHIS.net>
Subject: Yahoo! Phone Out?
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 20:15:15 GMT


Yahoo! announced that in the next few days from Dec 8th they would
offer Phone Out.  I have not found it in their Messenger section.  Am
I missing it or is it delayed?  Any expected date?  Thanks ...

------------------------------

From: AirJordan <a1rjordan@yahoo.com>
Subject: Payphone Inserts
Date: 27 Dec 2005 16:18:15 -0800
Organization: http://groups.google.com


I am searching for authentic inserts to put on a payphone that I
received for Christmas for use in my home as a novelty item.  I need a
top and bottom insert as well as the little square piece that goes in
the upper left corner.  I would prefer Ameritech inserts.  Any help
anyone can provide would be appreciated.

-Jeff

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:52:48 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
Subject: Music Label Forsakes CDs


Cost-cutting firm's young fans are online

By Associated Press  |  December 27, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- In 1978, Devo front man Gerald Casale spotted his
band's debut LP in a record store bin for the first time. He was
struck by an undeniable thought: The band had made it.

"It's what you've been busting your butt for and finally, it 
happens," Casale said.

Seeing the latest release by his new group hit a virtual bin as a
digital file on Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store was less than
exciting. "This time it's like window shopping," Casale said.

His new music is distributed by Cordless Recordings, a new breed of
label that has dumped CDs and other traditional formats in favor of
offering music only online.

The strategy is meant to cut the cost of catapulting a new artist to
fortune and fame by tapping the medium where young fans are finding
music.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/12/27/music_label_forsakes_cds/

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 12:46:04 EST
From: USTelecom dailyLead <ustelecom@dailylead.com>
Subject: Nortel Snaps up Tasman


USTelecom dailyLead
December 27, 2005
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/AJnwatagCDmNnRiLgi

		TODAY'S HEADLINES
	
NEWS OF THE DAY
* Nortel snaps up Tasman
BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH
* RIM rivals mount a challenge to BlackBerry
* China's broadband market growing fast
* Google can spin off AOL stake in 2008
* Egypt's Orascom has grand ambitions
USTELECOM SPOTLIGHT
* Bookstore Bestsellers   A Wise Investment
HOT TOPICS
* Industry trends: What to expect in 2006
* Siemens predicts IPTV surge
* Report: Big changes on horizon for IP set-top market
* The top telephony stories of 2005
* Vivato ends operations
TECHNOLOGY TRENDS
* More rural Canadian communities hooked into broadband
REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE
* Saudi mobile firm blocks SMS voting for reality show
* Fiancier caught up in lawsuit over wireless spectrum sales

Follow the link below to read quick summaries of these stories and others.
http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/AJnwatagCDmNnRiLgi

------------------------------

From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Subject: Obituary:) John Diebold, as in, Yes, That Company
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 23:11:24 -0500
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


" John Diebold, a Visionary of the Computer Age, Is Dead at 79"
 	By JENNIFER BAYOT December 27, 2005

" John Diebold, a visionary thinker whose early and persistent
promotion of computers and other far-reaching innovations helped shape
industrial development in America and beyond, died yesterday at his
home in Bedford Hills, N.Y. He was 79.

" The cause was esophageal cancer, said his nephew, also named John
Diebold.

" Mr. Diebold, who held degrees in business and engineering, was an
evangelist of the future. In 1952, at a time when computers weighed
five tons, his book "Automation" described how programmable devices
could change the day-to-day operations of all kinds of businesses ...

rest at:

 	http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/nyregion/27diebold.html

Oh, one more point from the clip:

" Mr. Diebold (pronounced DEE-bold).... "

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
 		     dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:02:31 -0700
From: Anthony Bellanga <anthonybellanga@spam-poison.com
Reply-To: no-spam@no-spam.no-spam
Subject: Payphone Surcharges (was: Unanswered Cellphones)


PAT: Please suppress my email address! THNX!

DevilsPGD <spam_narf_spam@crazyhat.net> wrote:

> Anthony Bellanga wrote:

>> And using a calling card from a payphone can be significant these
>> days since the payphone owner can now "legally" extort huge charges
>> from the long distance carrier or card provider, who will then extort
>> those surcharges from us.

> No extortion involved.  If someone held a gun to your head or
> otherwise forced you to use the payphone, it would be extortion.
> Since you choose to use a payphone, you choose to absorb that cost.
> A cost, which is regulated, and which helps telcos continue to run pay
> phones at all, since they're not generally considered profitable
> anymore, at least around here.

It IS extortion at the rates they charge. While I have a cellphone,
not everyone has one, and payphones with calling cards are still the
way they need to place calls while not at home.

The surcharge rates are *NOT* regulated! The FCC/etc. have "allowed"
the payphone owners to charge these surcharges, LONG AFTER the private
payphone owners first became involved in the payphone game. But the
rates themselves, while "recommended" by the FCC/etc., are NOT
regulated! The amounts that the payphone owners charge back to the
Long Distance carriers who then pass back to the card-holder is *PURE
GRAVY* for both, since the Long Distance and Card companies are most
likely adding even more profit for themselves.

And it is NOT the telcos who own most of the payphones these days but
rather private sleaze companies which entered the payphone game with
1984 (and some illegally before 1984).

The Long Distance carriers, card issuers, etc. usually have some kind
of card surcharge that would apply when you are calling from either a
payphone, hotel phone, or regular business (PBX or otherwise) or
residential line, but if you are using your card from a payphone (and
in some cases even from a hotel or hospital room PBX extension), you
can be hit with quite expensive ADDITIONAL surcharges which again, is
PURE GRAVY for both the (non telco) payphone owner or PBX owner,
passed back to the long distance carrer/card issuer who passes it to
us with a mark-up.  These non-telco private payphone owners (and even
many hospital/hotel PBX owners) wanted to "change the rules" in the
middle of the game, and many of them weren't even playing by the
original rules in the first place!

Payphone service used to be a good convenient public service when
telco really did own the phones. But when the non-telco owners came
in, like a cancer, payphone service went to hell, with the telcos
finally pulling out of the game completely in many places. I'll just
use my cellphone whenever I'm not able to use my home phone, but I do
feel for those who don't have cellphones and have to use remaining
sleazy (non-telco) payphones.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:16:18 -0700
From: Anthony Bellanga <anthonybellanga@spam-poison.com>
Reply-To: no-spam@no-spam.no-spam
Subject: Answer Supervision (was: Unanswered Cellphones)


PAT: Please delete my email address - THNX!

Steven Lichter wrote:

> I know that when I first got mine, if you let it ring more then 3
> rings Pacific Telephone Cellular (later AirTouch) would charge you as
> it would if you let a busy tone go too long. I remember calling one
> of our switchroom numbers which was set for no supervision and getting
> charged for the call as well as a couple of times being dropped off
> since the originating switch was looking for supervision and when it
> got none it would timeout, that was before SS7 and when there was
> still a "C" lead in the switch.

I assume you're referring to outbound calls FROM your cellphone, and
getting billed by cellco (AirTouch, for instance) on such incompleted
calls from your cellular phone.

But the question here, is how cellcos will "supervise back" to the
originating carrier (whether landline or wireless), on calls to an
"unavailable at the moment" (or roamed out of the service area)
cellphone numbers! In theory, the calling party (regardless of whether
they are landline, cellular, calling card, coin, etc) should NOT have
to pay for reaching such an "unavailable or roamed out of the service
area" recordings when calling TO a cellphone. But even with SS7, many
cellcos will cause a charge condition back to the calling party,
though this won't happen in all cases. And it is not consistant even
within the same cellco. Some of their switches will cause a charge
condition back to the calling party, some of their switches will NOT
charge for the call, within the same cellular provider!

------------------------------

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: Physically Protecting The Local Loop Network?
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 02:50:10 GMT


Steven Lichter wrote:

> Many years ago I had an old magneto phone on my line (before
> deregulation) my daughter at the time was about 1 1/2 years old and
> cranked it, to say the least it caused problems, first the fuses on my
> both sides of my line were blown, and it must have taken the protector
> on the frame out, PacTel was out within an hour and they were not
> happy with me, I pointed out it had been a phone that was made by for
> for The Western Electric Co., that did not seem to impress them, I was
> told not to put it on the line again; I did, but disables the magneto.

> The only good spammer is a dead one!!  Have you hunted one down today?
> (c) 2005  I Kill Spammers, Inc.  A Rot in Hell Co.

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably what you should have said to
> the repair service people (after pointing out the Western Electric/Bell
> stickers on the phone) "I have been trying to get a new phone for 
> X years, you people would never come to do it."   PAT]

It was a metal plate.  I have a friend that lives in the Topanga
Canyon (old Topanga Canyon) area of LA County and he has an old Candle
Stick that was installed there in the 20's when his grandfather lived
there.  He used it for years. Never updated his lines until about a
year ago when he opted for DSL, the installer with Verizon just looked
at the phone and the box and shook his head.  He had to call a
supervisor to see it. The phone is still in place and still works.

I had a space saver type of phone (the old black ones with the dial on
top) installed in a room in my parent's garage and the installer that
installed it worked on the phone the better part of a day, could not
get it to work, and had other installers coming by to look at it, he
came back the next day and got it to work, it needed a special bell
box to work.  When I ordered the phone the rep had no idea what it
even was, this was in Pacific Telephone area.  When I moved out they
never came and got it, they just left it there.  I came and got it one
day and it lives with my other old phone in my den.


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: Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net>
Subject: Re: Saudi Telecom Stops Text Vote for Arab Talent Show
Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2005 19:31:09 -0800
Organization: Glorb Internet Services, http://www.glorb.com


Andrew Hammond wrote:

> Saudi mobile operator Mobily has stopped users from text message
> voting for an Arab "Star Academy" competition because of an Islamic
> decree branding the reality show immoral, the company said on Monday.

Y'know, if Simon Cowell (from AMERICAN IDOL) was one of the judges,
maybe as punishment they could have taped his mouth shut. ;)


Steve Sobol, Professional Geek   888-480-4638   PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Company website: http://JustThe.net/
Personal blog, resume, portfolio: http://SteveSobol.com/
E: sjsobol@JustThe.net Snail: 22674 Motnocab Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307

------------------------------

From: sethb@panix.com (Seth Breidbart)
Subject: Re: Cell Phone Extenders?
Date: Tue, 27 Dec 2005 23:34:56 UTC
Organization: Society for the Promulgation of Cruelty to the Clueless


In article <telecom24.578.11@telecom-digest.org>,
AES  <siegman@stanford.edu> wrote:

> So, here's a Verizon customer, sitting at the north end of Silicon
> Valley, not way out in the hills, just a mile or two from downtown
> Palo Alto -- and less than one tower in the display on my phone.  Any
> advice on how to approach Verizon about this?

That's the Verizon who spends more money advertising how good their
network is than on making their network good?

The one that once gave me "no signal" in the middle of Times Square?

The one that about 50% of the time switched me to "roaming" in the
middle of downtown Minneapolis?

I recommend nuclear.

Seth

------------------------------

From: sethb@panix.com (Seth Breidbart)
Subject: Re: Taxes, was: NYC Transit Strike Midst Cold Weather and Christmas
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2005 00:07:07 UTC
Organization: Society for the Promulgation of Cruelty to the Clueless


In article <telecom24.580.5@telecom-digest.org>, Danny Burstein
<dannyb@panix.com> wrote:

> In <telecom24.579.4@telecom-digest.org> sethb@panix.com (Seth
> Breidbart) writes:

> [ Responding to TELECOM Digest Editor regarding NYC's Mayor
>  Bloomberg's non-control of the State chartered transit system ]

>> Then why can't he get the commuter tax back?  (There used to be a NYC
>> Income Tax for non-residents of the city who worked there, but the
>> state turned it off.  Turning it on to lower taxes paid by city
>> residents who vote for mayor would help Bloomberg.)

> If you really believe that letting NYC tap additional tax revenue
> (from, in this case, non city residents) would lead to a corresponding
> decrease in other taxes, I'd suggest you're demonstrating a very rosy
> view of government finances.

No, I believe he'd just have more to spend.  But in either case, it's
clear Bloomberg _wants_ the commuter tax so the fact he doesn't have
it proves that NYS isn't controlled by him.

Seth

------------------------------


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End of TELECOM Digest V24 #583
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