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

The Telecom Digest for Sun, 23 Jun 2019
Volume 38 : Issue 174 : "text" format

Table of contents
Re: Robocalls Go From Annoying to DangerousHAncock4
Re: NPA 909 & overlay trends.HAncock4
Goodbye, Chrome: Google's web browser has become spy software [paywall]Monty Solomon
Debunked: The absurd story about smartphones causing kids to sprout hornsMonty Solomon
AT&T cancels Galaxy Fold pre-ordersBill Horne
Re: Please help me identify this deviceNeal McLain
2nd Circuit: Receipt of Unwanted Text Msg Enough to Confer TCPA Claim StandingMonty Solomon
Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphonesMonty Solomon
Ajit Pai promised that killing Net Neutrality would spur investment and improve serviceMonty Solomon
Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom
The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like John Levine
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <788ece6a-54da-4eb4-95a6-66aef3223bbf@googlegroups.com> Date: 21 Jun 2019 13:14:07 -0700 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: Robocalls Go From Annoying to Dangerous On Friday, June 21, 2019 at 12:34:10 PM UTC-4, Bill Horne wrote: > Hospital phone lines are being overwhelmed. > We all know that constant calls to our phones from spammers and > scammers can be frustrating. But a Washington Post report notes that > they [are] causing serious disruption at hospitals and other medical > facilities, with potentially deadly consequences. > > https://www.outsidethebeltway.com/robocalls-go-from-annoying-to-dangerous/ Robocalls are disruptive to individual patients whom are awaiting urgent calls from their doctor, pharmacy, etc., but those calls are blocked by robocalls tying up the line. A phone line is supposed to be cleared and released if the recipient hangs up. But in reality, it doesn't always work that work, so a line is busy for several minutes. ------------------------------ Message-ID: <6061ac1f-04ad-438b-a41e-3f73190b2486@googlegroups.com> Date: 21 Jun 2019 13:34:29 -0700 From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> Subject: Re: NPA 909 & overlay trends. On Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 7:31:26 PM UTC-4, Mark Kaminsky wrote: > There are real costs to having a phone number changed, well beyond the > cost of the stationary. Historical note: While the 1960s and 1970s were relatively stable as far as telephone numbers, the 1950s had many changes. Before Direct Distance Dialing, a town's numbering plan served the needs of the town. So, a tiny town might have three digits while a medium sized city might have five or six digits. Only large cities had today's format of seven digits. In order to implement DDD, every subscriber had to have a unique telephone number. But in addition to DDD, there were equipment upgrades, such as party line identification and basic growth, that also necessitated new numbers. In many cases, the subscriber kept part of their number. For instance, someone with 123 would get 555-0123. But in other cases a whole new number was required. When large cities got dial service, the early method was 3L-4N, such as WAVerly 1234. But a shortage of exchanges required that that be converted to 2L-5N, such as WAverly 7-1234. New York City converted early. Philadelphia converted right after WW II. Note that in Phila's conversion, everyone got a new exchange--old exchanges were not recycled. It was also a flash conversion--everyone's number changed at once and there was no grace period. Below are a sample of newspaper articles from the 1950s describing the conversions. https://books.google.com/books?id=4-4lAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA24&dq=telephone%20number%20change&pg=PA24#v=onepage&q&f=false (upper right side) https://books.google.com/books?id=2vUkAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA18&dq=telephone%20number%20change&pg=PA18#v=onepage&q=telephone%20number%20change&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=M8QwAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA2&dq=telephone%20number%20change&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q=telephone%20number%20change&f=false (right page) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <838B9D4F-90AE-4BE4-A2AC-4050BA1CC0BC@roscom.com> Date: 22 Jun 2019 09:13:50 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Goodbye, Chrome: Google's web browser has become spy software [paywall] Goodbye, Chrome: Google's web browser has become spy software Our latest privacy experiment found Chrome ushered more than 11,000 tracker cookies into our browser - in a single week. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <FE8DF210-81B4-4640-81B3-33CDF175015C@roscom.com> Date: 22 Jun 2019 14:20:17 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Debunked: The absurd story about smartphones causing kids to sprout horns Debunked: The absurd story about smartphones causing kids to sprout horns The Washington Post on Thursday published a story suggesting that the use of mobile devices is causing young people to sprout horns from their skulls. But a look at the scientific data behind the story finds that such a splashy takeaway is tenuous at best - and atrocious reporting at worst. The Post's story was primarily based on a study published back in February 2018 by two Australian researchers. It earned fresh attention last week after being mentioned in a BBC feature on how modern life is supposedly transforming the human skeleton. The study was published in Nature's open source journal Scientific Reports, which is supposedly peer-reviewed. But the study has significant limitations and flaws, and the Post breezed over them for a sensationalized story. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/06/debunked-the-absurd-story-about-smartphones-causing-kids-to-sprout-horns/ ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20190619000247.GA5219@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2019 00:02:47 +0000 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> Subject: AT&T cancels Galaxy Fold pre-orders Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like John Levine - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - AT&T is canceling all pre-orders for Samsung's Galaxy Fold smartphone. The folding phone, which costs nearly $2,000 dollars, was initially scheduled to be launched on April 26th, but that date has been postponed indefinitely due to device failures in some test versions. https://www.wilx.com/content/news/ATT-cancels-Galaxy-Fold-pre-orders-----------------511437671.html -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly) ------------------------------ Message-ID: <4402e0df-11f6-41ed-8cbd-0c9c25c99961@googlegroups.com> Date: 20 Jun 2019 09:18:23 -0700 From: "Neal McLain" <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> Subject: Re: Please help me identify this device Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at M.I.T. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Re: Please help me identify this device - "Greg Monti" On 6/15/2019 11:02 PM, Bill Horne wrote: > One of my amateur radio friends has asked me what the > device shown at <http://telecom-digest.org/cable-overhead-loop.jpg> > is used for. Please take a look and offer your advice, > and thanks in advance. On 6/15/2019 11:54:03 -0400, Fred Goldstein wrote: > The other device is a "showshoe", which, used in pairs, > holds a loop of optical fiber at a large enough bending > diameter to not damage it. This is generally a slack loop, > which is released in order to lower the loop and allow new > connections to be spliced onto it while working near ground > level. Agreed. However of equal importance is the ability to repair the fiber in case of damage. If a utility pole is damaged (drunk driver) the entire fiber cable may be damaged, and individual fibers may be broken. In such cases it may be necessary to splice each broken fiber. The extra slack stored between two snowshoes makes it possible to make the splice in a convenient location such as inside a utility truck. The broken ends of the fiber can be brought into the truck where the splice can be made under controlled conditions. If course it's advisable to bring the broken ends of the fiber into the truck through the same window... Neal McLain Brazoria, Texas ------------------------------ Message-ID: <B116C6E0-D98F-49DD-922C-FF9BA3A66E96@roscom.com> Date: 16 Jun 2019 11:12:39 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: 2nd Circuit: Receipt of Unwanted Text Msg Enough to Confer TCPA Claim Standing Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at M.I.T. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Second Circuit Holds Receipt of Unwanted Text Messages, Even Without Other Alleged Harm, Confers Standing for TCPA Claims Joining similar decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Ninth Circuits, the Second Circuit held in Melito v. Experian Marketing Solutions, Inc. that the receipt of unwanted text messages, even without any other alleged harm, meets the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing to bring Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) claims. https://www.natlawreview.com/article/second-circuit-holds-receipt-unwanted-text-messages-even-without-other-alleged-harm ------------------------------ Message-ID: <DB1D955E-AEDE-422E-A49C-7B1D9D39F250@roscom.com> Date: 19 Jun 2019 23:03:29 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Give up your password or go to jail: Police push legal boundaries to get into cellphones Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like John Levine - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "The world should know that what they're doing out here is crazy," said a man who refused to share his passcode with police. William Montanez is used to getting stopped by the police in Tampa, Florida, for small-time traffic and marijuana violations; it's happened more than a dozen times. When they pulled him over last June, he didn't try to hide his pot, telling officers, "Yeah, I smoke it, there's a joint in the center console, you gonna arrest me for that?" https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/give-your-password-or-go-jail-police-push-legal-boundaries-n1014266 ------------------------------ Message-ID: <146986B0-A97D-4348-A02A-1A7A3A9F2217@roscom.com> Date: 19 Jun 2019 21:51:43 -0400 From: "Monty Solomon" <monty@roscom.com> Subject: Ajit Pai promised that killing Net Neutrality would spur investment and improve service Please send posts to telecom-digest.org, with userid set to telecomdigestsubmissions, or via Usenet to comp.dcom.telecom The Telecom Digest is made possible by generous supporters like the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at M.I.T. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ajit Pai promised that killing Net Neutrality would spur investment and improve service: a year later, service and investment have declined A year ago, Trump FCC Chairman (and former Verizon exec) Ajit Pai killed Net Neutrality, leveraging illegal, fraudulent industry dirty tricks to ram his rule through the process; all along, he claimed that Net Neutrality was a drag on investment, competition and service improvements, and that Americans would see immediate benefits once he was done killing Net Neutrality. It's been a year, and while Pai has touted major gains in broadboand investment, these were also a fraud, with the big telcos slashing investment, slashing jobs, sucking up massive tax subsidies (no, even more massive), while continuing to deliver the slowest, most expensive data in any developed country. https://boingboing.net/2019/06/19/thanks-ajit.html ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Sun, 23 Jun 2019

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