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The Telecom Digest for Sat, 26 Feb 2022
Volume 41 : Issue 33 : "text" format

table of contents
Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services
Ignoring a Text Message or Email Isn't Always Rude. Sometimes It's Necessary.
Robocall Violations, VoIP Providers, And The FTC
NE: Homeowner notification prior to excavation considered
Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services
Re: 3G Shutdown 2022 – a note of sanity from Texas

Message-ID: <20220224141504.GA10586@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:15:04 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services On Wed, Feb 23, 2022 at 11:37:46PM -0000, Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article <20220221223656.GA27826@telecom.csail.mit.edu>, > Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Cellular service has always been agressively targeted at young, >> impressionable customers who were not (and, sad to say, are still >> not) trained to consider the low-term costs of "included with offer" >> cellphones, or per-minute cellular billing, or lowered voice >> quality. > > Why should they care? They *don't use* voice telephony. Sure they do: especially when their mommy calls them up and screams at them about the cell phone bill that daddy is screaming about to her. There are *STILL* "influencers" roaming middle- and high-school corridors, showing off the "best" "new" "great" and <insert superlative here> instruments to gullible pre-pubescent female customers whom are able to get their mommy's credit card and their behinds to the cell phone store. There is *REAL* money at stake, and the guy at the cell phone store wants it. Pre-pubescent teenage females: that's who buys pop music and expensive cellphones. Bill -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20220222025518.72C77765@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu> Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2022 02:55:18 +0000 (UTC) From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: Ignoring a Text Message or Email Isn't Always Rude. Sometimes It's Necessary. OPINION GUEST ESSAY By Erica Dhawan It was a Tuesday night. In my apartment, I was doing three things at once -- packing for a short business trip, trying to get dinner on the table for my family and taking turns with my husband to calm a crying baby. Behind me, one work Slack alert after another dinged from my laptop. I ignored them all. During dinner, a text popped up on my phone. "Where are u????" asked my colleague. I wanted to scream. Instead, I didn't reply to the text. This wasn't the first time I'd ignored a digital summons, and it wouldn't be the last. I didn't mean to be disrespectful or malicious -- but at the same time I knew what I wanted my silence to communicate: This is not a priority for me right now. You are not my priority. Ignoring messages is frowned upon in these always-on times. At its most egregious, dropping out of communication is condemned as "ghosting," which, in the years since the term became widespread, has become a deadly sin of digital communications. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/opinion/culture/ghosting-work-digital-overload.html ***** Commentary ***** My son and his friends long ago stopped answering voice-mail messages: having grown up with the always-on cellular world, they have made a choice to take a step back, It isn't magic, or mysterious, or otherwise special to him: it's just another PITA. My Brother-In-Law's voice mail greeting warns callers that he checks messages only once or twice a week, and it reminds callers that they've alredy left the most important info (their phone number and the time of their call), and he asks them to just hang up and wait for him to call them back. We Baby Boomers have been early adapters of many technologies: color TV, direct dial long-distance, fast-food restaurants, CLASS features, 24-hour news and weather broadcasts, and then the Internet, and cell phones, and a presumed obligation to use them whenever they need our attention. Television producers, for years now, have been making immense sums of money by having the actors on TV *ALWAYS* answer every cellphone call, as soon as the phone rings. This shilling became so obvious that it was breaking the dramatic continuity of the shows, so now the quick hand jerk reactions when a cellphone rings are being parenthesized by glances at the phone and "gotta take this" excuses. None over the actors ever says "I can ignore this," or "I don't know who that is," or "He's a jerk, I'll ignore this." They *ALWAYS* answer every call, no matter what their producers put in the script to try to maintain dramatic continuity. This is not "product placement" advertising - this "Lifestyle Leadership" propaganda. Think about it: important, decisive, well-liked, and pretty people *ALWAYS* answer their cell calls. The Tall White Guy on TV told me so. WE are coming to the nth inflection point in the history of electronic communication: I don't know how many times the graph hit a knee before now, but I hope the latest bend is the last, as ordinary people decide that they will take back the most important part of their lives: the right that they gave away as children, sold too cheaply as adolescents, and now have come to value: the right to be left alone. Bill Horne -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20220224162720.1FC1D73A@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu> Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 16:27:20 +0000 (UTC) From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: Robocall Violations, VoIP Providers, And The FTC by David O. Klein The Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") recently sent a strong message in enforcing its demands for information from certain VoIP providers. As part of an investigation into alleged robocall violations, the FTC sent letters demanding information from VoIP providers concerning certain telemarketing users. When the service providers failed to comply with the demands, the FTC sued them to force compliance and participation in the investigation. These FTC VoIP actions are notable for their targeting service providers that failed to cooperate as part of FTC enforcement proceedings, instead of just targeting the allegedly offending telemarketer(s). https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/advertising-marketing-branding/1163434/robocall-violations-voip-providers-and-the-ftc?email_access=on -- (Please remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20220221214628.42810765@telecom2018.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 21:46:28 +0000 (UTC) From: Sean Murphy <murphy.s@remove-this.telecomdigest.net> Subject: NE: Homeowner notification prior to excavation considered January 26, 2022 Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, LB884 Excavators would be required to give notice to homeowners prior to breaking ground under a bill heard by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee Jan. 25. Current state law requires that excavators give two days' notice to operators of underground utilities prior to an excavation to ensure that all underground utilities are located, also known as the one-call notification system. LB884, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, would add homeowners to the list of those required to be notified. Under the bill, an excavator also would be required to notify the one-call center if a homeowner discovers damage or dislocation to an underground facility if reported within a reasonable time. Liability would be assigned to the excavator when damages are discovered. http://update.legislature.ne.gov/?p=31206
Message-ID: <20220221223656.GA27826@telecom.csail.mit.edu> Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2022 22:36:56 +0000 From: Bill Horne <malQRMassimilation@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Look Out For The Rising Costs Of ILEC Local Services On Sun, Feb 20, 2022 at 07:26:05PM -0500, Michael Trew wrote: > On 1/11/2022 16:24, Bill Horne wrote: >> by Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP >> >> Do enterprises still use POTS lines? Well, the ILECs appear to be >> asking the same question, because there is a disturbing trend taking >> place with ILEC pricing. For example, one well-known ILEC recently >> raised its list rate for POTS services by a whopping 50%. >> >> Listen to this 9 minute podcast as TC2 Directors Theresa Knutson, Julie >> Gardner, and Joe Schmidt discuss why enterprises still use POTS lines >> for services like elevator phones, explain why ILECs are imposing these >> huge price increases, and offer insight on what you need to do. >> >> https://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/telecoms-mobile-cable-communications/1148782/look-out-for-the-rising-costs-of-ilec-local-services?email_access=on > I've been keeping an eye on my POTS bill, and it just shot up almost > $3/mo, again. It seems to go up a dollar or two per month, every > year or two. I pay well over $10/mo more now, then I did in just 7 > years ago. Flat rate line, local unlimited calling, no features; > $46/month now. It seems that they are trying to price people out of > owning a POTS line. I'm not sure what my limit is, but we're > encroaching it (I pay a few dollars per month for third-party long > distance service). Speaker as a former technician at New England Telephone & Telegraph, and a former union organizer, and a current Verizon retiree, I'll clarify the issue with this simple fact: the "loaded" cost for an hour of a union employee's time is a three-figure number. "Loaded" means that all factors are included: direct wages, training, supervision, supervision of the supervisors, equipment, Workers Compensation Insurance, retirement fund contributions, and health care. It means that the stockholders have to part with somewhere between 100 and 999 dollars for every hour a union technician is on the job. It's real money, and the stockholders are always looking to disenfranchise unions for any reason they can: "retiring," i.e., refusing to spend the money to maintain the copper outside plant, is one of the strategies being used to do that. No wires, no well-paid union members to pay. Most cellular employees are non-union, and the industry makes extensive use of contractors, leased equipment, and low wage employees to install, maintain, and remove physical plant. There have been union drives at some cellular companies, with a few success stories, but overall, it's a non-union industry. The profit figures reflect that. In addition, the ilecs - whom are almost all in the cellular business through various subsidiaries - want to force traffic back into the pay-by-the-minute model that made their vast fortunes in the last century. Although nervous lawmakers forced "Ma Bell" and its subsidiaries to offer fixed-price plans to private citizens, almost all business use has always been measured. Cellular service has always been agressively targeted at young, impressionable customers who were not (and, sad to say, are still not) trained to consider the low-term costs of "included with offer" cellphones, or per-minute cellular billing, or lowered voice quality. They're being led like lambs to a slaughter, and our government's civil servants seem to be serving only themselves when it comes to getting any real protection for ordinary folks whom are paying through the nose. Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
Message-ID: <20220223063739.566b1fc6.mo01@posteo.de> Date: 23 Feb 2022 06:37:39 +0100 From: "Marco Moock" <mo01@posteo.de> Subject: Re: 3G Shutdown 2022 - a note of sanity from Texas Am Sonntag, 20. Februar 2022, um 14:29:22 Uhr schrieb Bill Horne: > Here's a site at the Texas Technology Access Program, which gives a > more clear explanaiton of 3G's multiple sunset dates. The site > includes multiple pointers to resources and information, including > possible work-arounds for those with 3G devices that have WiFi or > other "bypass" capability. Do they still operate 2G in the US? In Germany they switched off 3G, but 2G is still available, so most old mobile phone still work, some UMTS USB modems or PCMCIA cards do not because the don't support 2G.

End of telecom Digest Sat, 26 Feb 2022

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