---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20190425160335.GA20050@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:03:40 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: The Department of Social Security Administration I just got a call that displayed 888-810-1045, on my VoIP number. First a recording said that my social security number was being suspended, and then it told me to push 1 to speak to an "officer." I then spoke with a person in some boiler room, and he wanted to know - surprise, surprise - my social security number and name and address. I asked him why he didn't already have all that if he worked at Social Security. He said it was for "verification." I told him that he could send me a letter via the U.S. Mail if he wanted me to verify something. He hanged up. The problem with having a backup phone number is that it doesn't get enough sleezoid traffic to be put on the "hostile lead" lists, and I've gotten old and cranky and used to being left alone, so I'm out of practice when it comes to stringing them along. C'est la vie. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190424174908.GA30052@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 24 Apr 2019 17:49:08 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T Lobs Pole Attachment Complaint By Cablefax Staff AT&T argues it is entitled to the FCC's new telecom rate of $8.35 per pole unless the utility company can prove a higher rate is justified because the parties' joint use agreement provides AT&T net material benefits over its competitors. "Alabama Power has not tried to prove that AT&T has any such benefits. Instead, Alabama Power just claims that AT&T receives certain 'obvious' benefits under the JUA," AT&T said in its complaint filed with the FCC Monday. This isn't small potatoes, with AT&T facilities attached to more than 630K Alabama Power poles in the state. AT&T doesn't just want a new rate, but would like to be refunded for what it claims are "overpayments" since 2012. The company acknowledges it doesn't have "complete insight" into what Alabama Power is charging and wants the utility to be share its formulas and calculations. http://www.cablefax.com/regulation/att-lobs-pole-attachment-complaint -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190425133759.GA19378@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 13:37:59 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T Settles Lawsuit Over 'Fake 5G,' Won't Change A Thing from the ill-communication dept By Karl Bode Big wireless carriers haven't been exactly honest when it comes to the looming fifth-generation wireless standard (5G). Eager to use the improvements to charge higher rates and sell new gear, carriers and network vendors are dramatically over-hyping where the service is actually available, and what it can actually do. Some, like AT&T, have gone so far as to actively mislead customers by pretending that its existing 4G networks are actually 5G. AT&T took this to the next level recently by issuing phone updates that change the 4G icon to "5GE" on customer phones, despite the fact that actual 5G isn't really available. This isn't just confusing consumers. Even Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff was misled this week by AT&T's gambit: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190422/16071242063/att-settles-lawsuit-over-fake-5g-wont-change-thing.shtml -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <d51592cd-04e9-46a1-9af2-7c3ebd190b10@googlegroups.com> Date: 23 Apr 2019 13:23:00 -0700 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Canada: Court Orders Release Of Consumer Complaints About Bell's Marketing Practices On Sunday, April 21, 2019 at 1:32:14 PM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: > The Federal Court of Canada has ordered the Commission for Complaints > for Telecom-television Services (CCTS) to release consumer complaints > about Bell's alleged deceptive marketing practices to the Competition > Bureau. The Financial Post newspaper often covered Canadian technology. Here is an article on telco offerings of 1957: https://books.google.com/books?id=o-ZeAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA60&dq=dial%20telephone%20upgrade&pg=PA60#v=onepage&q&f=false (Other articles in that issue include ads for ten-key adding machines and other office appliances.) Here is a 1958 article on new equipment for Goose Bay, Labrador and an ad for GE mobile radio. https://books.google.com/books?id=-mI_AAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA31&dq=canada%20dial%20telephone&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false A 1961 article on new services. https://books.google.com/books?id=fWo_AAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA57&dq=canada%20dial%20telephone&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sat, 27 Apr 2019