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The Telecom Digest for Thu, 11 Jun 2020
Volume 39 : Issue 147 : "text" format

table of contents
The Commission's eHealth Network Looks To Develop The Interoperability Framework For Contact Tracing Apps
President Signs Executive Order Directing Agencies To Probe The Contours Of CDA Immunity
AT&T Hit by Potentially Costly Lawsuit
Re: Why Did Dial-Up Modems Make So Much Noise?
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <20200610012344.GA25171@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 01:23:44 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: The Commission's eHealth Network Looks To Develop The Interoperability Framework For Contact Tracing Apps by Cynthia O'Donoghue and Katalina Bateman On 13th May, the European Commission's eHealth Network published its interoperability guidelines for approved contact tracing mobile applications in the EU, guiding developers when designing and implementing applications and backend solutions to ensure efficient tracing of cross-border infection chains. These guidelines serve as a follow-up action to their previously published 'Common EU Toolbox for Member States' on mobile applications to support contact tracing in the EU's fight against COVID-19 on 15th April. https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/privacy-protection/941064/the-commission39s-ehealth-network-looks-to-develop-the-interoperability-framework-for-contact-tracing-apps?email_access=on -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20200610011822.GA25040@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 01:18:22 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: President Signs Executive Order Directing Agencies To Probe The Contours Of CDA Immunity by Jeffrey D. Neuburger President Trump signed an Executive Order today attempting to curtail legal protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act ("Section 230" or the "CDA"). The Executive Order strives to clarify that Section 230 immunity "should not extend beyond its text and purpose to provide protection for those who purport to provide users a forum for free and open speech, but in reality use their power over a vital means of communication to engage in deceptive or pretextual actions stifling free and open debate by censoring certain viewpoints." https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/social-media/948820/president-signs-executive-order-directing-agencies-to-probe-the-contours-of-cda-immunity?email_access=on -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20200610201207.GA8121@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2020 20:12:07 +0000 From: Moderator <telecomdigestsubmissions@remove-this.telecom-digest.org> Subject: AT&T Hit by Potentially Costly Lawsuit By Ruchi Gupta AT&T accused of charging hidden fee AT&T (T) has been sued in California on accusations that it secretly overcharges its wireless customers in an attempt to fatten its bottom line. According to a report from Ars Technica, two AT&T customers in California recently filed a lawsuit in a federal court in the state where they accused the company of charging customers more than the advertised rates for its wireless plans. The lawsuit specifically refers to what AT&T describes as the "Administrative fee" in customer bills. https://marketrealist.com/2019/07/att-hit-by-potentially-costly-lawsuit/ -- Bill Horne Telecom Digest Moderator ------------------------------ Message-ID: <20200610183429.GA21534@alphanet.ch> Date: 10 Jun 2020 20:34:29 +0200 From: "Marc SCHAEFER" <schaefer@alphanet.ch> Subject: Re: Why Did Dial-Up Modems Make So Much Noise? Moderator's Note: This is from the "We were all modem users once" department. I used to log into Ward Christensen's CBBS by using a Model 35 TWX machine, so I'm going to ask those who need them to dust off your French textbooks and enjoy the show. +--------------------------------------------------------------+ Hello, > Of course we knew how to use ATMx[1], where x could be used to mute the modem (0), I made a small video showing you can access the Internet with a V.34 modem in 2020: - on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLIbF1RFRws - on Peertube: https://peertube.gaialabs.ch/videos/watch/a0e6f4dd-2a4c-48a8-8e3b-9f514d532d06 The audio explanation is in French, but maybe Youtube is not too bad at translating auto-captions. Actually, I cheated a bit: this is no actual ISP (*), I simply implemented my own ISP using a Linux laptop, a pppd daemon, a modem and a direct phone line. Obviously, I am using a 100% analog setup, connecting two modems directly, so V90 / 56k won't work (**). acer-1 --- modem 1 --- 2 wires --- modem 2 --- reliand Obviously, accessing a dial-up ISP using an analog modem connected via an analog-to-VoIP adapter and through a VoIP network is useless, and has some issues (notably sensitivity to network jitter, re-encoding or echo-cancellation in the adapters and network). I did a simple UNIX login using `cu', then a PPP session (with private IPs and routing/masquerading on the Linux host). I did some Web page loading timing and some file transfer too. PPP compression has a big impact, but with non compressible files 4 Kbyte/s (~40 kbit/s) is reachable (so probably around V.34 speed, about 33 kbit/s or 3.3 kilobyte/s [1]). Compared to typical Swiss xDSL or CATV connections today, this is about 3'000 to 30'000 slower. (*) I failed to find a dialup modem ISP in Switzerland: I guess the 100% VoIP switch by the national telco Swisscom, followed or preceeded by most of the other telcos is the rationale for not having dialup ISPs anymore in Switzerland (**) V.90 requires that most of the path be numeric (the V.90 ISP side modems were `numeric' only: connected to the PCM or ISDN directly). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ITU-T_V-series_recommendations ------------------------------ ********************************************* End of telecom Digest Thu, 11 Jun 2020
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