37 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
Copyright © 2019 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved.

The Telecom Digest for Mon, 14 Jan 2019
Volume 38 : Issue 14 : "text" format

Table of contents
Re: Astronaut sparks panic after accidentally dialling 911 John Levine
EDITORIAL: The Mysteries of Rural Broadband, Part FourBill Horne
Re: U.S. Workers Outsourced as Trump Plans Giveaway to Foreign WorkersHAncock4
Huawei fires Chinese employee arrested in Poland on spying allegationsMonty Solomon
AT&T Layoffs, CenturyLink Outage Explanation and the Week in ReviewBill Horne
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---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20190112213325.A9715200C92163@ary.qy> Date: 12 Jan 2019 16:33:25 -0500 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> Subject: Re: Astronaut sparks panic after accidentally dialling 911 Here is a less breathless report: https://www.newsweek.com/astronaut-accidentally-calls-911-space-1276892 They have phones on the space station, and it turns out they can call 911. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190113213858.GA14732@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2019 16:38:58 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: EDITORIAL: The Mysteries of Rural Broadband, Part Four I've been a customer of Skywerx Internet Services for the past decade, and have been reasonably happy with the service provided. Skywerx has also been a Daily Post advertiser for about the same length of time. I feel good about promoting Skywerx, and I trust they feel good about supporting our little online magazine. That's a disclaimer, because we're going to be talking some more about broadband. Skywerx is one of three local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) here in Archuleta County. The other two are USA Communications and CenturyLink. https://pagosadailypost.com/2019/01/08/editorial-the-mysteries-of-rural-broadband-part-four/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ***** Moderator's Note ***** I wonder if I can get some internet provider to support my little internet magazine ... Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <52db3afe-d409-4322-92c5-cc02aaa5a100@googlegroups.com> Date: 12 Jan 2019 12:45:31 -0800 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: U.S. Workers Outsourced as Trump Plans Giveaway to Foreign Workers On Saturday, January 12, 2019 at 2:09:53 PM UTC-5, Bill Horne wrote: > As President Trump says he wants to offer a "potential pathway > to citizenship" for foreign workers imported by multinational > corporations, American workers at Verizon are having their jobs > outsourced. > > As Breitbart News has chronicled, American Verizon workers had > exclusively detailed that mass layoffs were coming at the corporation > in an effort to shift all IT work over to Infosys, one of the biggest > multi-billion dollar outsourcing firms in the U.S. that has been > accused of undercutting American workers and discriminating against > black and white Americans in favor of Indian nationals. > > https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/11/u-s-workers-outsourced-as-trump-plans-giveaway-to-foreign-workers/ It's too bad these corporations fail to realize that by screwing their workers en masse, they're eliminating their customers. Unemployed or under-employed people can't afford luxuries and have to cut back. Further, exploited workers aren't happy about their lot and tend to form militant unions. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <75382351-94CC-47B3-B60B-F6446CA1E91B@roscom.com> Date: 13 Jan 2019 09:50:47 -0500 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Huawei fires Chinese employee arrested in Poland on spying allegations Huawei fires Chinese employee arrested in Poland on spying allegations The Chinese tech giant is facing widening international worries about possible spyware cooperation with Beijing. BEIJING - Chinese technology giant Huawei has fired the Chinese employee arrested in Poland on suspicion of espionage, saying that he had brought the company "into disrepute." The man's arrest Friday comes amid mounting concerns across the world that Huawei, the world's largest maker of telecommunications equipment, might be acting on behalf of the Chinese government to spy on people and governments. Huawei denies the claims. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/huawei-fires-chinese-employee-arrested-in-poland-on-spying-allegations/2019/01/12/60e4681a-167d-11e9-a896-f104373c7ffd_story.html ***** Moderator's Note ***** I must, in conscience, remind readers that scare stories about the Big Red Menace were the bread and butter of the American TV networks for decades in the last century. However, stories about widespread thefts of software, proprietary information, and methodologies are easy to find amoung the technicians and engineers who have visited China. This is, sad to say, nothing new: we cannot claim innocence or inexperience. I read a story back in the 1960's, about a firm which attended a trade show in Moscow, and posted a large diagram on the wall of their booth, showing the microwave network that the company wanted to sell to the former Soviet Union. They posed for lots of pictures, with the network diagram in the background, and then went home empty-handed after the soviets gave the contract to a competitor, using their design. Any security expert will tell you that a computer monoculture - such as Microsoft Windows - is dangerous. If the accusations that Huawei is acting on behalf of the Chinese government are verified, then the security aspect becomes larger by at least an order of magnitude. If it turns out to be true, blame can be easily assigned: we need only look in a mirror. Buying goods made in foreign countries has always been "cheaper" in the short term, but very costly in the long run. Setting up manufacturing facilities in overseas factories inevitably gives the governments of those nations a chance to acquire free technology and expertise that would otherwise take decades to develop "in house." We did it to ourselves. Bill Horne Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190113194523.GA14360@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2019 14:45:23 -0500 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T Layoffs, CenturyLink Outage Explanation and the Week in Review Written by James Anderson [Centurylink explanation points to] ... a malfunctioning network management card. The unnamed U.S. vendor is a longtime facet of CenturyLink's network. The FCC announced an investigation into the matter, as did Washington state's attorney general. 1. AT&T Workers Bracing for More Job Cuts A labor dispute with Ma Bell is also sure to draw eyeballs. Not all of the news with AT&T is union-related as much as it is workforce-related. Edward Gately reported that AT&T will lay off more employees in a "geographic rationalization" and "employment surplus reduction." https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/2019/01/11/att-layoffs-centurylink-outage-explanation-and-the-week-in-review/2/ -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Mon, 14 Jan 2019

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