From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 20 23:40:32 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3L3eW710905; Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:40:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:40:32 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304210340.h3L3eW710905@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #401 TELECOM Digest Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:40:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 401 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson A New Leaf for Apple? (Monty Solomon) Steve Jobs, the Music Man (Monty Solomon) Safari, Camino Could Re-Ignite Browser War - on Macs (Monty Solomon) Rules Let Marketers See Patient Data (Monty Solomon) New Online Harassment Involves Provocative Messages Sent (Monty Solomon) Kyocera 7135 Packs In Features -- and the Bulk (Monty Solomon) Why TiVo Owners Can't Shut Up (Monty Solomon) MIP Combox (Thomas B) Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone On Ans Machine (Chuck) Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule to Let Consumers (Clayton) Spec For Delay: Off-Hook Till Detect Dial-Tone (eas-lab@absamail.co.za) Re: Voicemail Hacking Leaves Ears Ringing (John Higdon) Re: Greenies (Arthur Kamlet) Re: Greenies (John R. Levine) Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Sam Rogers) Re: Ain't Spammers Funny? (David Clayton) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 13:31:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A New Leaf for Apple? By Matthew Rothenberg What will Apple Computer Inc. look like by the end of 2003? The picture should come a lot clearer in the next couple of months, as Apple moves simultaneously on several fronts that encompass its home turf as well as new swaths of territory. Addressing the former first, Apple's grand unified plan for the next Mac chapter seems to be progressing apace. As I wrote back in October, mid-2003 will mark the next major crossroads for the Mac as a software and hardware platform. I believe that crucial moment will arrive slightly earlier than I predicted, at June's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. Apple said it was pushing this traditional gathering of Mac developers back five weeks to give it extra time to prepare a beta version of Panther, the first major rev to Mac OS X since the Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" release, which shipped in August 2002. Like many other observers, I believe that Apple will also use WWDC-and the launch of the 64 bit-complete Panther-as the official coming-out party for new Macs based on IBM's 64-bit PowerPC 970. Behind the scenes, I'm told, Apple is discussing how Panther will present new challenges to Windows XP in terms of interface features and (potentially) performance. At the same time, some hardware wonks at Apple have been privately predicting that new boxes shown at WWDC will close chronic performance gaps compared with Wintel boxes. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1032506,00.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 13:35:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Steve Jobs, the Music Man If he picks up even part of Universal Music, a pay-per-song download service would help to stop Apple devotees from straying. Apple Computer chief Steven P. Jobs is known in the music industry as Mr. "Rip. Mix. Burn." That was the title of an ad campaign that Apple ran in early 2001 for its iTunes software. Music executives fumed that it was a clarion call to Apple customers to steal music by downloading it from the Internet. Then, in 2002, Apple's portable MP3 player, the iPod, went on sale and quickly became the hippest way to listen to such "hot" tunes on the move. Now, Jobs is angling to sell online music. But how Jobs intends to build a thriving online music business where so many others have stumbled isn't clear. Sources confirm that Apple is in talks to buy all or some of Universal Music. Whether or not that happens, Apple is expected by the end of this month to announce its own service, expected to be called the Music Store. http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2003/tc20030418_9975.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 13:52:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Safari, Camino Could Re-ignite Browser War - on Macs By MATTHEW FORDAHL AP Technology Writer Four years after Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer trounced Netscape in the Web browser wars, two new offerings for Macintosh computers offer the best evidence yet that market domination doesn't always make for the most nimble or innovative products. Apple Computer Inc.'s Safari and the Mozilla Organization's Camino are still in beta testing. But they leave Internet Explorer in the dust, rendering pages noticeably faster, dumping rarely used features and adding others not available in the Microsoft browser. Both browsers have simple interfaces that match the elegance of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. And unlike other alternative browsers, particularly for the Mac, they are very quick and accurately draw even complex Web pages. http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20030417&Category=APF&ArtNo=304170917 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 01:25:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rules Let Marketers See Patient Data Campaign afoot to give patients right to block release of files By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff, 4/19/2003 In an emergency, the hospital can't tell anyone except family that you're a patient. But it's free to use intimate medical details to forward marketing pitches to you from drug companies, insurers, and other 'business associates.' That's a crack in the privacy wall established Monday, when new federal rules for health providers took effect, specialists said yesterday. They promise to try to block marketers' indirect access to patients and to reinstate a patient's right to withhold consent for the commercial use of health data by providers and their associates. When Sally Scofield had knee surgery in January 2002 in Joliet, Ill., she had no idea a document-copying company would see her medical history. After the surgery, Scofield asked the hospital for a copy of her medical file. Instead, she received a letter from the copying company requesting a $20 fee and a 75-cent charge per page. "I thought when I talked to the doctor, it was just between me and him," said Scofield, 49. "I did not know a photocopy clerk could get it. The company had my Social Security number, my age, weight, and height, my credit card information -- enough to steal my identity." Scofield is one of 11 individuals and organizations who sued April 11 in US District Court in Philadelphia. They are asking the court to strike portions of the federal rules that permit healthcare providers to sell indirect marketing access to their patients without the patients' consent. US Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, has filed a bill that would require consent. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/109/business/Rules_let_marketers_see_patient_data+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 00:50:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Online Harassment Involves Provocative Messages New online harassment involves provocative messages sent under guise of activists By Anick Jesdanun, Associated Press, 4/18/2003 13:06 NEW YORK (AP) Arab-American activist Nawar Shora checked his e-mail one day and found scores of angry messages asking why he hated Americans and Jews. The messages were responding to e-mails marked as coming from him. Only one big problem: Shora never sent the hate mail. Shora, a legal adviser to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was the victim of a new form of harassment in which fake e-mail is sent using real addresses. By exploiting the simplicity and openness of the Internet's mail protocols, unidentified provocateurs have been sending incendiary messages posing as Shora and other Arab-Americans. The tactic, known as e-mail spoofing, requires little technical know-how and no illegal computer break-ins. Yet it has caused a lot of trouble wasting time, damaging reputations and even leading to the suspension of e-mail accounts. http://www.boston.com/dailynews/108/economy/New_online_harassment_involves:.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 03:00:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Kyocera 7135 Packs In Features -- and the Bulk By WALTER S. MOSSBERG When Kyocera, the Japanese electronics firm, took over the cellphone-making operations of U.S.-based Qualcomm a few years back, it inherited the first serious effort to combine a PDA, or hand-held organizer, with a wireless phone. That first product, called the pdQ, was a joke -- huge and unwieldy, with clumsy software. But Kyocera persevered. In 2001, it brought out the QCP 6035, a much-improved combo device that looked like a large, brick-type phone with a monochrome Palm PDA inside. Now, a third-generation Kyocera, the 7135, will go on sale from Verizon Wireless beginning April 28 for $499 with a two-year service contract, and for $529 with a one-year contract. The 7135 looks like an oversized flip-phone, with a handsome dark-gray and silver case. Inside, in the upper half of the clamshell, is a very nice color screen. Below that, in the bottom half, is a traditional phone keypad topped with an area for entering text in Palm's handwriting-recognition system. In the 7135, Kyocera has remained true to its conviction that combo products should be phones, first and foremost, in contrast with many competitors. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20030417.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 00:45:01 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Why TiVo Owners Can't Shut Up By WARREN ST. JOHN TO hear his friends tell it, Matt Smith is an easygoing guy. A recently engaged business consultant from Charlotte, N.C., Mr. Smith, 31, is a casual fan of golf, Nascar and Wake Forest basketball. But there is one subject his friends are loath to bring up around him, for fear it will provoke one of his prolonged sermons on its myriad virtues: the television gadget TiVo. "I'd say he brings it up every time we're together," said Fran Radano, a college pal who has resisted Mr. Smith's efforts to convert him to TiVo. "There's usually someone in the group who's new to his preaching. It's highly annoying." Not since the PalmPilot debuted in 1996 has a new electronic contraption sparked a cultlike following and so many zealous proselytizers. Type the phrase "TiVo changed my life" into Google, and you will summon an afternoon's worth of reading (including the observation that there are "as many TiVo-praise Web sites out there as there are hairs on Robin Williams"). Michael Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, once called TiVo "God's machine." TiVo has around 700,000 subscribers - a tiny fraction of American television viewers, 70 percent of whom have never even heard of TiVo, according to Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. But, Mr. Bernoff said, TiVo's fans are a vocal minority. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/fashion/20TIVO.html ------------------------------ From: bolero92@yahoo.com (Thomas B) Subject: MIP Combox Date: 18 Apr 2003 19:10:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Anyone tried MIP Combox voip gateway? I can't find any manual in the box and the web site http://www.miptel.com I have set the IP address and dont know how to config the Voip settings. ------------------------------ From: Chuck Subject: Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone on Answ Machine Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 20:31:02 -0700 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Reply-To: Chuck We are plagued by junk fax callers. Although the fax machine autoanswer is now disabled, our answering machine records many messages with several seconds of fax calling tone. Does anyone know of a great system for filtering out fax callers? I have been looking for one of the following solutions to no avail: 1) A digital answering machine intelligent enough not to record a message that has nothing but fax calling tone on it. 2) A box (commercial fax switch?) inserted between the incoming telco line and all other phones that will seize the line, decide if the caller is a fax machine, and ring the downline phones and/or answering machine (using its own built-in ring generator) if it's not a fax. 3) A digital answering machine that has a built-in fax machine port, accomplishing the function outlined in #2 above. Thanks very much! Chuck ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule That Lets Consumers Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 17:40:38 +1000 Organization: Customer of Connect.com.au Pty. Ltd. Reply-To: dcstar@acslink.net.au Joseph contributed the following: > Federal regulators are sympathetic with Danielson's plight and have > ordered cell phone companies to let people take their numbers with > them when they switch to a competitor. The wireless providers asked a > federal appeals court Tuesday to block the regulation, arguing that > keeping the same phone number is a convenience, not a necessity. In Australia we've had Full Number Portability for mobile phones for a while now, the initial "churn" seems to have settled down and it seems to be accepted as a good thing for all concerned. The only issue seemed to be some carriers acting a bit too slowly in processing the change requests, but a bit of negative publicity seems to have fixed that problem. Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@acslink.net.au Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ------------------------------ From: eas-lab@absamail.co.za Subject: Spec For Delay: Off-Hook till Detect Dial-Tone Date: 19 Apr 2003 13:05:51 GMT Hi, This question originates from the quite common "modems fail to detect dial-tone". I'm guessing that the modems allow a certain time to detect dial-tone" ? What is the spec. (for your country/telco) ? A related question (to modems): is the modem supposed to 'activate its "line-relay" ' soon after receiving the string: "ATZ" ? I guess that the delay to recgonise the dial-tone is irrelevant if the line-relay doesn't pull in; or perhaps it is designed to drop-out again if the dial-tone is not recognised in time ? Thanks for any info. -- Chris Glur. PS. is there NewsGroup(s) for mobile/cell technology ? ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Voicemail Hacking Leaves Ears Ringing Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 16:19:59 -0700 In article , Dave Phelps wrote: > I don't see what the disagreement is. If the customer's equipment is > responsible, then the customer is resposible. That's it. If the > customer wants to go after the vendor that configured the equipment, > then that's fine. The buck should truly stop with the vendor > responsible for configuration, if configuration negligence can be > shown on the vendors part. OTOH, if it was because a VM subscriber > used a stupidly obvious password, then the customer pays the bill. In this case, it wasn't the customer's equipment; it was SBC's equipment. > Frequently, a LD carrier will forgive debts rung up by a phreaker, but > it is just only goodwill, not because the LD carrier is responsible. > Why do people confuse goodwill with liability so often? Funny how in this case, no one is even suggesting going after SBC. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: kamlet@panix.com (Arthur Kamlet) Subject: Re: Greenies Date: 19 Apr 2003 22:54:08 -0400 Organization: PANIX -- Public Access Networks Corp. Reply-To: ArtKamlet@REMOVE.com In article , R. T. Wurth wrote: >> Any old Bell System guys out there who remember the green 'analgesic >> tablets' that were a staple in the first aid kits? I wonder what was >> in those things (as I nurse a hamstring strain with nothing more than >> drugstore strength advil)? They would sure clear up a hangover! >> Jim Hopkins >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: For the new guys who do not remember >> the old days of the Bell System, AT&T had a full-size medical unit >> at every company location; a full complement of on duty doctors and >> nurses to treat/examine employees as needed. PAT] > I don't know about your "Greenies", but in my former part of the > former Bell System, a "greenie" was a routing slip, a small slip of > green paper (about 2.5" by 5.5", always used in portrait mode) one > could attach to the front of a memo upon which one would write the > initials of persons one thought might be interested in reading it. > After each set of initials, one wrote a hyphen and the number 2, > unless a.) the person so designated was a direct or indirect report, > and b.) you wanted them to followup, in which case one wrote the > number 1. For normal (-2) handling, one was expected to keep it for > no more , perhaps 1/2 a week to a week, then cross one's initials > off and forward it to someone else on the list, or alternatively, > pass it on without crossing one's initials off if one couldn't read > it within the customary time and wanted another shot at reading it > after others had their chance. The originator could put their > initials, followed by the word "last" if they wanted the memo back > for their files. > New employees were issued a grey routing slip box with a Bell System > logo, a pen holder, and one of those infuriating pens that had no > pocket clip and no way of disarming the writing end (i. e. no cover > and no retraction mechanism), so one had to put it back into its > holder. > The routing slip was also the official raise reporting form in my > organization. One's manager would open his desk, consult his > secret raise report, and write on the slip, for example: > RTW (the report's initials) > > $xx.x K (the report's current salary) > > + x.x K (the raise) > > ----------- > > $xx.x K (the new salary) > > x.x% (the percentage raise) > The slip was then passed across the manager's desk, face down, to the > employee, with the numbers never spoken. Salaries and raises were > always in $100 increments, so the "xx.x K" format sufficed. Later, > the system was changed to use formal computer-generated individual > raise forms on regular (8.5 x 11) paper. > That was the way it was in Bell Labs in the late 1970's. And the late 60s too. At least in Bell Labs Whippany & Columbus. The real green greenies morphed into pale green greenies, and later morphed into plain white "greenies" of the same size. For the last 5-7 years that they still had stockrooms, they carried white :"greenies' which everyone still called greenies. It was the 3M company and its post-it's pads that finally did away with greenies. BTW calling white sheets of papers "greenies" is not too different from calling "green cards" green cards. For those who have not seen a green card lately, they are, naturally, red, white and blue. Art Kamlet ArtKamlet @ AOL.com Columbus OH K2PZH ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Greenies Date: 20 Apr 2003 01:48:26 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Someone wrote me off the group that he thought they might have been > APC tablets, which are a combination of asprin, phenatacine (I think I > spelled that right) and caffeine. That would make sense. APC was widely used with Anacin being the most popular brand. Phenacetin is a chemical relative of acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) which fell out of favor due to some ambigous study data that suggest that it might be a minor carcinogen. These days Anacin is just AC, so you can get the same effect a lot cheaper by washing down some generic aspirin with a cup of coffee. By the way, the DOS attack seems to be under control, so mail to and from telecom-digest.org should be working OK now. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you very much, John, for getting telecom-digest.org and the mail up and running again. Would you mind telling us how the 'DOS attack is under control'? Is it still going on, but 'under control' or has it stopped? Exactly how do you get those things 'under control' if you are not giving away any secrets? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Sam Rogers Organization: V Subject: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 23:32:47 -0400 Verizon is the sole incumbent local telephone carrier for most (all?) of Massachusetts. The state's PUC, known as the DTE, has just passed a rate increase for local service. According to the DTE's findings, Verizon loses an average of more than $6 (per month) for residential local service, which must be made up with business revenue. However the DTE decided that a $6 increase would be too great so, it decided on $2.44. Why a goofy number like $2.44? Because the $0.49 Touch-Tone line item charge is being removed. So the increase for the 87% of customers that pay for Touch-Tone service will see a net increase of $1.95, conveniently just under $2.00. The low income service "LifeLine" subsidy will be increased to at least offset the extra charges. The DTE believes that the increases in regulated rates will spur more competition for local service. ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Ain't Spammers Funny? Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 17:40:35 +1000 Organization: Customer of Connect.com.au Pty. Ltd. Reply-To: dcstar@acslink.net.au rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) contributed the following: > Joey Lindstrom wrote in message > news:: >> My mail system just trapped a piece of spam. Actually it traps about >> 60 a day, but I found this one to be a particularly funny example of >> how spammers don't have a clue about who they're sending their mail to >> (ie: their advertising is not "targetted"). > I get spam for septic tank cleaners and I live in the heart of NYC. > No septic tanks near my apartment building. What about all of us non-US people who continually get spammed for US services or products? You'd think the spammers wouldn't be that brain dead to at least filter out the non-US domains! Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@acslink.net.au Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you'd think they would not be that brain dead, period. Even with my very own deseased brain, as bad as it has gotten since the aneurysm in 1999, I'd never stoop to the kinds of crapola most of them send out. But then, I didn't make 844 thousand dollars last quarter, ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #401 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 21 01:41:03 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3L5f3K13248; Mon, 21 Apr 2003 01:41:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 01:41:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304210541.h3L5f3K13248@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #402 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Apr 2003 01:40:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 402 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Investors Suing Over Possible DirecTV Sale (Monty Solomon) A New Wave of Wireless / 'WiFi' Networks Are Expanding (Monty Solomon) Once You've Tried WiFi, There's No Going Back (Monty Solomon) No Help for Callers in Trouble (Monty Solomon) Irate Phone Customers Find an Ear (Monty Solomon) Magazine Appeals for CD Archive (Monty Solomon) Pyramid Scheme Spam Temporarily Brings Down Montana ISP (Monty Solomon) Letter Author Claims to have Breached Prison Computer Security (Solomon) Digital Defense Apologizes for Releasing Samba Exploit (Monty Solomon) Video Phone Products Still Suffer From Poor Vision (Monty Solomon) Re: Mapping Call Failures to Announcements (Don't email me) Re: Problem Recieving TELECOM Digest Messages (Tom Betz) Iraqi Caller ID Fingers Secret Police (W Randolph Franklin) Re: Safari, Camino Could Reignite Browser War (pae) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 18:58:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Investors Suing Over Possible DirecTV Sale Class Actions Suit Ask Court To Block 'Inadequate' Sale LOS ANGELES -- Hughes Electronics, which owns DirecTV, and General Motors are being sued by investors who claim News Corp.'s $6.6 billion bid to buy 34 percent of Hughes is "wholly inadequate," court papers showed Tuesday. The proposed class action suit asks the court to block the sale, claiming it unfairly benefits GM, which plans to sell its 20 percent stake to Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate for $3.1 billion in cash and News Corp. stock. The other 14 percent comes from shareholders, who would only get stock, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court. http://www.nbc4.tv/money/2114222/detail.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 19:06:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A New Wave of Wireless / 'WiFi' Networks Are Expanding A New Wave of Wireless 'WiFi' Networks Are Expanding Internet's Reach, Profit Opportunities By Yuki Noguchi Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, April 20, 2003; Page H01 It's Saturday afternoon, and Art Slater sits at his perch in the bay window of the Cyberstop Cafe. The thin card he slides into the side of his laptop detects a wireless signal, an icon pops up on the bottom of the screen, and Slater clicks on it to connect to the signal coming from the Dupont Circle cafe's back offices 20 feet away. With that, he's on the Internet, with a connection faster than anything at home. Outside on the patio, Matt O'Neill is transmitting files of art over the same airwaves as Slater. Across town near Eastern Market, Nicholas Cho just installed a similar wireless connection in his own cafe, Murky Coffee. A for-fee version of the same technology is available in 145 Starbucks coffee bars around the area. And in a Leesburg subdivision 40 miles from downtown, Laurie and Rich Dunham are making a tiny profit selling a wireless Internet service broadcast from their rooftop to their neighbors' homes. The WiFi networking all these people are using could not have been purchased for any price 10 years ago. Five years ago it was just arriving in the market, advertised solely as a cheap way to network computers in individual homes and classrooms. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54030-2003Apr18.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 19:07:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Once You've Tried WiFi, There's No Going Back By Rob Pegoraro WiFi has taken a strange path to popularity. For many users, it has gone something like this: first baffled incomprehension, then frustrated annoyance, and lastly zealous idolatry. This increasingly popular form of wireless networking can be a bear to explain, since it's so foreign to traditional notions of computing. Setting up a WiFi network can be a stingingly frustrating experience, as bad as, well, setting up any kind of network. But once you can flip open a laptop and get online from anywhere in or near your home -- and a great many places outside it -- the troubles all fade away. WiFi is one of the true joys of modern computing. Unlike so many other next-big-things, it actually works, and it is worth the trouble. Put in perspective, the advent of cheap, fast wireless networking is as important as the invention of the laptop and the spread of broadband Internet access. Laptops let us take a computer anywhere, always-on broadband lets us get online immediately, and now WiFi combines the immediacy of broadband with the range of a laptop. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53986-2003Apr18.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 19:30:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: No Help for Callers in Trouble By Michelle Delio NEW YORK -- Trapped on a capsizing 8-foot fiberglass dingy floundering in 33-degree waters off New York, Henry Badillo used his cell phone to make a desperate plea for help. "We're taking in water ... we're on the Long Island Sound in a boat off the coast of City I ... oh, my God, we're going to die!" Badillo screamed in his 12-second call to a 911 emergency services operator on Jan. 24, 2003. Badillo, stranded on the boat with three friends, didn't have time to say exactly where he was before the call cut off, and the operator did not clearly hear his reference to City Island, which could have helped to pinpoint the boat's location. The operator and her supervisor decided they didn't have enough information to request assistance. Badillo and his friends died that night. Their parents believe they might have been rescued if New York's 911 system was able to trace cell-phone callers' locations, a service that the state has been collecting taxes to implement for more than a decade. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58485,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 19:52:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Irate Phone Customers Find an Ear By Elisa Batista Two years ago, 31,345 California residents complained to the state about their phone companies. Finally, someone is listening. Most of the complaints -- 57 percent of them -- stemmed from billing disputes. Another 17 percent of the complaints had to do with unauthorized fees and services, while 9 percent of the people griped about poor service. The remaining 14 percent of the problems were lumped together by the California Public Utilities Commission under the "other" category. The PUC responded to these grievances with a list of rules it dubbed the Telecommunications Consumer Bill of Rights, which it will vote on sometime this spring, a PUC spokeswoman said. The proposal -- the first of its kind in the country -- would in essence force all phone companies (local, long distance and cell-phone service providers) to provide timely and consistent service. That includes a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week hotline with live operators to handle customer inquiries. The bill would hold the carriers accountable for their marketing and billing practices and even force them to provide phone service to some customers who have not yet paid their bills. Those would be the folks who have filed petitions with the PUC and are waiting for a response. No doubt, customers who say they were wronged by their phone company are thrilled at the idea of a government mandate for better service. Some industry observers, however, have scoffed at the proposed rules as yet another example of government's intrusive and needless legislation. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58441,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 19:57:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Magazine Appeals for CD Archive By Gabe Friedman The National Geographic Society plans to appeal a jury verdict in a landmark case pitting the magazine publisher against a freelance photographer who claimed his work was improperly included in a CD-ROM. In late March, a jury in Miami ruled that National Geographic failed to properly compensate the photographer, Jerry Greenberg, for photos of his included on a CD-ROM that contained every issue of the magazine published in its 108-year history. The dispute centered on the question of whether archiving work on microfilm and microfiche is different from releasing it on CD-ROM. In appealing the case, the magazine wants courts to recognize new technology. In 1997, Greenberg filed suit against the National Geographic Society for releasing The Complete National Geographic on CD-ROM without giving him additional compensation. National Geographic Society attorneys argue Supreme Court justices have ruled that converting articles from print to microfilm or microfiche without a freelancer's permission is OK. But Greenberg's lawyers successfully argued to a jury that the CD-ROM created a new product -- an anthology of the magazine. He was awarded $400,000 for his 64 photos, plus National Geographic pulled the product off the shelves. In the meantime, National Geographic promised to challenge the logic behind a decision that draws distinctions between archives on microfiche or microfilm and archives on CD-ROM. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58515,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 22:31:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Pyramid Scheme Spam Temporarily Brings Down Montana ISP SANS NewsBites April 16, 2003 Vol. 5, Num. 15 http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/vol5_15.php A Montana Internet service provider (ISP) was deluged with up to 20,000 e-mail messages an hour, causing the service to shut down briefly. The messages were part of an electronic pyramid scheme. The ISPs owner believes the attacks originated locally; the incident is under investigation. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-04-08-isp-attack_x.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 22:31:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Letter Author Claims to have Breached Prison Computer Security SANS NewsBites April 16, 2003 Vol. 5, Num. 15 http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/vol5_15.php The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette received a letter containing the social security numbers of several Arkansas prison employees from someone claiming to be an inmate. The author of the letter alleges that prison authorities were lax in allowing inmates to have access to computers. A prison spokeswoman says the information would not have been available through the Internet, but could have been found on the prison's computer system. The incident is being investigated. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2003-04-08-inmate-hack_x.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 22:33:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Digital Defense Apologizes for Releasing Samba Exploit Along with SANS NewsBites April 16, 2003 Vol. 5, Num. 15 http://www.sans.org/newsletters/newsbites/vol5_15.php The Samba team has released a patch for a vulnerability discovered by the security company Digital Defense. The vulnerability could allow attackers to compromise Samba servers connected to the Internet. Because the vulnerability was already being actively exploited, the Samba team and Digital Defense decided to release their advisories before all the vendors had time to address the problem. Digital Defense's advisory also included code for exploiting the vulnerability, without managerial approval; the company has apologized. http://news.com.com/2100-1002-995834.html http://news.com.com/2100-1002-995939.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:39:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Video Phone Products Still Suffer From Poor Vision By Mike Langberg Mercury News I'm a sucker for videoconferencing. I can't shake the hunch that someday soon we'll regularly see as well as hear people on the other end of phone calls -- despite the years I've spent reviewing home videoconferencing equipment that's too expensive, too hard to install and delivers less than satisfying video. Perhaps I'm hanging on because the products keep getting slightly better, even if the overall results are still disappointing, as with the new D-Link DVC-1000 i2eye VideoPhone at $299 (www.dlink.com/i2eye). The i2eye is unique in that it connects through a home computer network to a broadband Internet connection, such as a cable modem or digital subscriber line. Previous home videoconferencing gear either used regular phone lines, which are far too slow for acceptable video quality, or personal computers with Web cams, forcing callers to sit awkwardly in front of the screen looking at a cracker-sized picture. Slightly larger than a videocassette, the i2eye sits on top of a TV set. Incoming video is displayed on the TV screen, while a camera lens on the i2eye's front captures the outgoing picture. Callers on both ends plug any regular phone -- corded or cordless -- into the i2eye for talking. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/columnists/mike_langberg/5655214.htm ------------------------------ From: nomailp@netscape.net (Don't email me) Subject: Re: Mapping Call Failures to Announcements Date: 20 Apr 2003 13:26:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ The short answer is "yes" you can map announcements to treatment/cause codes. This is usually done in class 5 switches because they serve the end subscriber. Toll and gateway switches typically pass cause codes back to the class 5 which will then play an announcement to the originating caller. Not all cause codes trigger annuncements. The serving class 5 will determine what codes get announcements and which play tones (fast busy etc.) Hope this answers you question ... questions@telcosupport.net http://www.telcosupport.net m.mcconnell@computer.org (Mitch McConnell) wrote in message news:: > Hello all, > I have been reading GR-675-CORE (about announcement systems) and > GR-674-CORE (special information tones) and have a question or two, as > I am not all that facile with navigating the Telcordia specs. > I understand that at some level, call failures must map cause codes to > special information tones (SIT) and announcements. GR-674 > specifically mentions Call Classification Categories that map pretty > closely (e.g., NC=no circuit, RO=reorder, etc.). So, is there a > direct mapping of cause code to call failure classification? > Another question: how flexible are class 5 switches with respect to > customizing which announcements get played? I assume that operators > can customize which voice file gets played, for language or other > reasons. > Do the various types of call services (like CLASS) specify how/when > announcements get played? > Thanks in advance, > Mitchell J. McConnell ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Problem Recieving TELECOM Digest Messages Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:34:24 UTC Organization: XOme Quoth TELECOM Digest Editor in news:telecom22.400.1@telecom-digest.org: > I must sadly say I have come to the conclusion that being on the > mailing list no longer guarentees delivery of the Digest. The spammers > have accomplished that for us. Pat, While it's not normally quite as timely (or ever as complete) as the e-mail delivery of Telecom Digest, the web-enabled among your readers still have the option of going to: ... at such times as perturbations in the fabric of the Internet (which still surprises me and Bob Metcalfe when it works at all) preclude timely delivery of the Digest in e-mail. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Even faster than groups.google is the immediate information available when an issue of the digest is released by checking http://telecom-digest.org/back.issues or or looking right at the front page of our web site where the time of release of the most recent issue is given with a link to read it. Also, you can get a 'Usenet style' message by message display by date, author name or subject by looking at http://telecom-digest.org/TELECOM_Digest_Online as well. But Google also works as you point out. but not quite as fast. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Iraqi Caller ID Fingers Secret Police From: W Randolph Franklin Reply-To: W Randolph Franklin Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 00:29:35 GMT Organization: Road Runner From The Saddam Files http://www.msnbc.com/news/902240.asp?cp1=1 Judging from the documents in the grimy sack, the IIS (Iraqi Intelligence Service) became a gang of corrupt and somewhat incompetent thugs, more interested in pocketing bribes than stealing American secrets or spreading terror abroad. If the Nazis represented, in Hannah Arendt's phrase, 'the banality of evil', the IIS often seemed to embody the stupidity of evil. The director of the IIS, Tahir Jalil Habbush, comes across in the papers examined by NEWSWEEK as an exasperated bureaucrat. He chastises his supposedly secret agents for showing off their firearms and IDs (the better to shake down frightened citizens). He has to send out memos reminding the secret service of the most elemental tradecraft, such as 'not mentioning informants' names when sending correspondence. He rails against Iraqi spies who tried to monitor Turkish commercial companies but couldn't use the companies' computers, so they failed. IIS spies have to be sternly reminded not to take home computers to surf the Internet and send e-mails, lest highly classified information leak out.? He scolds IIS agents who are amusing themselves by making harassing phone calls. The problem: more and more Iraqi citizens have Caller ID on their phones, and they are phoning the IIS to complain. ------------------------------ From: Phil Earnhardt Subject: Re: Safari, Camino Could Re-ignite Browser War - on Macs Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:18:46 -0600 On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 13:52:47 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Apple Computer Inc.'s Safari and the Mozilla Organization's Camino are > still in beta testing. But they leave Internet Explorer in the dust, > rendering pages noticeably faster, dumping rarely used features and > adding others not available in the Microsoft browser. > Both browsers have simple interfaces that match the elegance of > Apple's Mac OS X operating system. And unlike other alternative > browsers, particularly for the Mac, they are very quick and accurately > draw even complex Web pages. Hear, hear. The Beta 2 version of Safari just came out. Like Mozilla, it has tabbed windows for having multiple browser "sessions" in the same window. However, Apple also provides a rich set of keyboard shortcuts for easily doing things like toggling between the tabs (Shift-Command-Left or Shift-Command-Right). Just like disabling pop-up windows, having an easy way to shift between browsing sessions radically alters your experience of browsing. And it is fast! I use my Mac with the mouse typically detached. I view mouse as an ergonomic nightmare -- as does my right arm/hand -- and I do everything I can to avoid using them. Apple has made this browser the most friendly GUI browser to use without a mouse I've ever found. The only think I can't figure out how to do is to open a link in a new tab. With a mouse this is done by holding down the command key when clicking. However, if I hold down the command key when hitting a "5" -- the keyboard key used to simulate a mouse click -- Safari interprets that as a Command-5, which opens your 5th bookmark. Ugh. I filed a bug with Apple. --phil ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #402 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 21 20:24:22 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3M0OLo18156; Mon, 21 Apr 2003 20:24:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 20:24:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304220024.h3M0OLo18156@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #403 TELECOM Digest Mon, 21 Apr 2003 20:22:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 403 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #379, April 21, 2003 (Angus TeleManagement) Kxtd-1232 and HP Officejet d145 (brn2rnjk1@aol.com) Re: Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone on (Ray Normandeau) Re: Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone on (Carl Navarro) Network Interface Specification Documents (Eddie A) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Magazine Appeals for CD Archive (Ed Ellers) Re: Greenies (Manny Olds) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 10:34:38 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #379, April 21, 2003 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 379: April 21, 2003 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** BELL CANADA: http://www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: http://www.cisco.com/ca/letstalk ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: http://www.cygcom.com ** ERICSSON CANADA: http://www.ericsson.ca ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: http://www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: http://www.primustel.ca ** Q9 NETWORKS: http://www.Q9.com ** TELUS: http://www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Wireless Profits Soared in 2002 ** SBC Sells Half Its Stake in BCE ** SaskTel Wants Exemption From Promotion Ban ** AT&T: Telcos Must Tariff Advanced Services ** BCE Puts Off Decision on CGI Shares ** Bell Proposes Customer Rebates ** Millions in Telco Deferral Accounts ** CRTC Data Forms Due May 15 ** AOL Sues Spammers ** U.S. Cellcos Challenge Number Portability ** Bell Mobility to Recycle Handsets ** Rogers Wireless Operating Profit Rises ** Profits Drop at Aliant ** Juniper Reports Sales Increase ** Rave Reviews for Call Center Seminar ============================================================ WIRELESS PROFITS SOARED IN 2002: Statistics Canada has released its October-December 2002 report on Canada's telecom services industry. For the full year, wireline revenues were $24 billion, down 3% from 2001; operating profits were $3.9 billion, down 13.6%. Wireless revenues were $7.6 billion, up 14.9% from 2001; operating profits were $1.13 billion, nineteen times the 2001 profit of $60 million. http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/030415/d030415a.htm SBC SELLS HALF ITS STAKE IN BCE: SBC Communications has sold nine million BCE shares, half the stake it acquired as part of BCE's buyback of its Bell Canada unit last year. (See Telecom Update #339) The shares' market value was about $250 million. SASKTEL WANTS EXEMPTION FROM PROMOTION BAN: SaskTel has asked the CRTC to exempt it from the suspension of local promotions by incumbent telcos (see Telecom Update #374). The telco says its promotions can't disadvantage local service competitors, because there are none in Saskatchewan. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2003/8662/s22_200304882.htm AT&T: TELCOS MUST TARIFF ADVANCED SERVICES: AT&T Canada has asked the CRTC to order the incumbent telcos to file "full and complete" tariffs for Ethernet access, ADSL/Gateway access, and Wavelength access. AT&T says the telcos are wrong to claim that these services are not subject to regulation. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2003/8622/a4_200304957.htm BCE PUTS OFF DECISION ON CGI SHARES: BCE has postponed until August 1 making a decision on what to do with its 30% stake in CGI group. BCE chief executive Michael Sabia has joined CGI's board to facilitate negotiations between the two companies. (See Telecom Update $368) BELL PROPOSES CUSTOMER REBATES: To meet 2002 price cap constraints, Bell is proposing rate reductions of $2.95- $6.00/month for Megalink PSTN access and $.90/month for Equivalent Service ("line hunting"). If the reductions are approved, customers will get rebates retroactive to June 1, 2002. MILLIONS IN TELCO DEFERRAL ACCOUNTS: Bell Canada says its deferral account amount for 2002 (based on 2001 residential revenues) was $56.3 million; SaskTel's was $2.253 million. The CRTC will rule later on how these funds are to be used. CRTC DATA FORMS DUE MAY 15: All telecom service providers in Canada must complete the CRTC's data collection forms by mid- May, reporting on their 2002 results. Electronic submission is encouraged, to speed up production of this year's report on the state of telecom competition. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2003/lt030402.htm AOL SUES SPAMMERS: America Online has sued more than a dozen individuals and companies, accusing them of sending its subscribers a billion pieces of spam. Invoking U.S. anti-spam and computer fraud laws, AOL is seeking US$10 million in damages and the shutdown of these spamming operations. U.S. CELLCOS CHALLENGE NUMBER PORTABILITY: U.S. wireless carriers have asked a federal court to overturn an FCC order that requires them to allow cellular subscribers to keep their phone numbers when they switch carriers, effective November 24. BELL MOBILITY TO RECYCLE HANDSETS: Recycle, Reuse, Redial is a new Bell Mobility program to recycle unwanted handsets. Refurbished phones will be donated to charities across the country. (See Telecom Update #372) ROGERS WIRELESS OPERATING PROFIT RISES: Rogers Wireless recorded a first-quarter operating profit of $153 million, 45% more than a year ago. Operating revenue was $510 million, up 16.3%. Net additions were 50,200, and postpaid churn was 1.82%. Foreign exchange gains of $52 million resulted in a net income of $36.6 million. ** Rogers Communications reports revenue of $1.12 billion-- 14.1% higher than the same period last year--and net income of $23.7 million. PROFITS DROP AT ALIANT: Pension- and tax-related charges reduced Aliant's first quarter net income to $36.5 million, 28% less than the same period last year. Revenue rose 1.5% to $655.4 million, and "free cash flow" more than doubled. JUNIPER REPORTS SALES INCREASE: Data networking supplier Juniper Networks had first quarter sales of US$157 million, 29% more than a year ago. Net income was $3.7 million, compared to a $46 million loss last year. RAVE REVIEWS FOR CALL CENTER SEMINAR: "Rarely have I witnessed such great facilitating skills as those presented by Henry. Upbeat, humorous, knowledgeable, and thorough. Extraordinary to witness and enjoyable to experience. Fabulous!" -- Carl Quinlan, Director Customer Service, Newfoundland Power ** That's just one of hundreds of rave reviews that the seminar "Essential Skills and Knowledge for Effective Incoming Call Centre Management," led by Henry Dortmans, has received from call centre managers and supervisors across Canada. ** For information on bringing this essential program to your call centre team, call 1-800-263-4415 ext. 300 or visit http://www.angustel.ca/angdort/adccs.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: brn2rnjk1@aol.com Subject: Kxtd-1232 and HP Officejet d145 Date: 21 Apr 2003 06:36:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I have the kxtd-1232 system and a hp officejet d145 all-in-one. When I plug the hp into the back of the kxt-7456 deskreceiver, it sends faxes (and an ordinary analog modem works), but I cannot receive a fax. The machine picks up but the connection is never made. Does anyone know how to fix this problem. HP is at a loss since they don't understand the phone system. ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone on Answ Machine Date: 21 Apr 2003 08:01:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Chuck wrote in message news:: > We are plagued by junk fax callers. Although the fax machine > autoanswer is now disabled, our answering machine records many > messages with several seconds of fax calling tone. My same problem was solved with http://www.spectrumresearchinc.com/ See other msgs in comp.dcom.telecom I posted to get it cheaper. Email above no good. ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: Filtering Fax Callers & Associated Calling Tone on Answ Machine Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 12:55:26 -0400 Organization: Airnews.net! at Internet America On Thu, 17 Apr 2003 20:31:02 -0700, Chuck wrote: > We are plagued by junk fax callers. Although the fax machine > autoanswer is now disabled, our answering machine records many > messages with several seconds of fax calling tone. > Does anyone know of a great system for filtering out fax callers? I > have been looking for one of the following solutions to no avail: > 1) A digital answering machine intelligent enough not to record a > message that has nothing but fax calling tone on it. > 2) A box (commercial fax switch?) inserted between the incoming telco > line and all other phones that will seize the line, decide if the > caller is a fax machine, and ring the downline phones and/or answering > machine (using its own built-in ring generator) if it's not a fax. > 3) A digital answering machine that has a built-in fax machine port, > accomplishing the function outlined in #2 above. I don't know if this applies, but try www.digitone.com and check out their products. My friend got one for his residence and he uses it to block telemarketers. It answers with a recording that they do not accept telemarketing calls and to put them on the "do not call" list, then to touch a digit to transfer to him or his wife. I don't know which model he got, but it was about $165. Carl Navarro ------------------------------ From: Eddie A Subject: Network Interface Specification documents Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 15:01:41 GMT Hi, I'm trying to find where I can get Nortel's NIS S106-1 Electronic Business Service Specification document. Does. Anyone know where I might be able to get one? I don't think the NIS documents are included on helmsman CD's and the only place I have found to purchase the document only sells hardcopy (ugh). Any information would be helpful. Thanks in advance, Ed ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 06:04:56 GMT On Sat, 19 Apr 2003 23:32:47 -0400, Sam Rogers posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > Verizon is the sole incumbent local telephone carrier for most (all?) > of Massachusetts. The state's PUC, known as the DTE, has just passed > a rate increase for local service. > According to the DTE's findings, Verizon loses an average of more than > $6 (per month) for residential local service, which must be made up > with business revenue. However the DTE decided that a $6 increase > would be too great so, it decided on $2.44. > Why a goofy number like $2.44? Because the $0.49 Touch-Tone line item > charge is being removed. So the increase for the 87% of customers > that pay for Touch-Tone service will see a net increase of $1.95, > conveniently just under $2.00. > The low income service "LifeLine" subsidy will be increased to at > least offset the extra charges. > The DTE believes that the increases in regulated rates will spur more > competition for local service. Yesiree, there sure will be a gold-rush to compete. Now Verizon's higher rates for local residential service will be only $3.56 below cost. I'll bet AT&T and Worldcom will bust their chops to gobble up those residential customers at a smaller loss than the ILEC. They'll probably make up the loss in volume! What idiocy! Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Magazine Appeals for CD Archive Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 03:00:01 -0400 Monty Solomon wrote: > In the meantime, National Geographic promised to challenge the logic > behind a decision that draws distinctions between archives on > microfiche or microfilm and archives on CD-ROM. One distinction might be that microfilms would normally only be bought by libraries, while the CD-ROMs were a consumer product. (Fortunately I have my set. Unfortunately its access program didn't want to run under Windows 2000; I haven't tried it with XP yet.) ------------------------------ From: Manny Olds Subject: Re: Greenies Date: 21 Apr 2003 20:37:00 GMT Organization: Persiflage Press Jim Hopkins wrote: > Someone wrote me off the group that he thought they might have been > APC tablets, which are a combination of asprin, phenatacine (I think I > spelled that right) and caffeine. The phenaticine ingredient in APC's, > as I understand, was later found to be carcinogenic, so if they were > APC's maybe that's why they're not around anymore. The classic APC was aspirin, Paracetamol (now known as acetaminophen, aka Tylenol), and caffeine. Manny Olds (oldsma@pobox.com) of Riverdale Park, Maryland, USA "Share your loot with your band." -- Dirk E. Mahling ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #403 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 22 22:59:03 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3N2x3E26218; Tue, 22 Apr 2003 22:59:03 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 22:59:03 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304230259.h3N2x3E26218@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #404 TELECOM Digest Tue, 22 Apr 2003 22:58:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 404 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet is Losing Battle in War Against Spam (Monty Solomon) Is Amazon.con no Place For Kids? (Monty Solomon) Record Labels Sue Napster Investor (Monty Solomon) Motorola Takes Wi-Fi to the Living Room (Monty Solomon) Inside Cisco's Eavesdropping Apparatus (Monty Solomon) Apple to Hold Special Event April 28 (Monty Solomon) Wireless Firm Tackles IM Compatibility (Monty Solomon) Viacom to Acquire AOL Time Warner 50% Interest in Comedy (Monty Solomon) Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze (Monty Solomon) Satellite Radio Gains Ground With Right Mix of Partners (Monty Solomon) Instant Messaging, Text Messaging at 30,000 Feet (Monty Solomon) AT&T Takes Steps to Protect Against Collect-Calling Fraud (M. Solomon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Sam Rogers) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John R. Levine) Bill of Rights Defense Committee [BORDC] (gryb@icl.net) Re: No Help for Callers in Trouble (Sam Rogers) Re: Voicemail Hacking Leaves Ears Ringing (Dave Phelps) Surprise International Calling Card Bill (David C) Re: Suing Junk FAX Senders? (Scott Dorsey) Area Code Statistics (Graydon J. Sametz) Re: Phone Filter for Dial Up Connection (Art Jackson) Re: Phone Filter for Dial Up Connection (Bruce Kille) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:32:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Is Losing Ground in Battle Against Spam By SAUL HANSELL Alyx Sachs is no longer sending people e-mail offering to "fix your credit risk free." Confronted by an increasing number of individuals, businesses and Internet service providers using software meant to identify and discard unwanted junk e-mail -- commonly known as spam -- Ms. Sachs has been forced to become more creative in her marketing pitches. The subject line on her credit e-mail, for example, now reads "get a fresh start." From a small office on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, millions of messages prepared on behalf of others by Ms. Sachs and her partner are still going out to e-mail in-boxes every day, promising not just to restore a poor credit rating but also to sell printer ink, 3-D glasses and, lately, even playing cards with pictures of wanted Iraqi leaders. In the cat-and-mouse game of e-mail marketers and those trying to stop them, the spammers are still winning. So far, nothing that has been tried to block spam has done much more than inconvenience mass e-mailers. Just as Ms. Sachs's company, NetGlobalMarketing, has been able to reword its e-mail to evade spam filters, others use even more aggressive tricks to disguise the content of their messages and to send them via circuitous paths so their true origin cannot be determined. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/22/technology/22SPAM.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How about some violence? If someone paid a midnight visit to Ms. Sach's office and smashed up all her computers (that is, any they did not feel like stealing) then set fire to the rest of her office, and caused her lots of money to get her operation back in order again, that *might* slow her down a little bit. And please, don't hand me all that crap about 'violence never solves anything' or 'she has a right to free speech'. She has no rights to anything IMO except a slow, painful death. Of course, in this paragraph I am just kidding. Can anyone give us her actual street address and phone numbers (toll free and otherwise)? What about her home address and maybe that of a couple of her key employees? Don't bother looking for that information in the New York Times article. The NYT is too prissy and proper to give any details of *real value* to their readers. Her and that Ralsky creep in Michigan. They both need slow torture and total devastation of their computer networks. The lawyer reminds me I need to tell you I am just kidding; naturally I do not mean anything said above in this paragraph. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:20:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Is Amazon.com no Place For Kids? By Declan McCullagh and Alorie Gilbert Staff Writer, CNET News.com Amazon.com has taken insufficient steps to prevent children from posting personal information on its Web site, potentially endangering their privacy, a collection of advocacy groups said Tuesday. Eleven groups, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Junkbusters, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, asking that it investigate whether Amazon is letting children 12 years old and younger post reviews of toy products without their parents' consent, which violates the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). A response from the FTC could help establish ground rules for how COPPA affects commercial Web sites primarily intended for adults. The 1998 law applies to data-collection by any Web site or online service directed to children under 13 years old. But Amazon's Web site states that it is intended for use only by adults and says, "If you are under 18, you may use Amazon.com only with the involvement of a parent or guardian." Amazon spokesman Bill Curry called the complaint groundless because "Amazon.com is not a site directed at children." Curry acknowledged that a bug in Amazon's software caused a Web form, designed to allow children to review products anonymously, to work only intermittently, but he said the company had begun work on fixing it before the complaint was filed with the FTC. http://news.com.com/2100-1019-997893.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 19:25:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Record Labels Sue Napster Investor By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Two major record labels filed suit Monday against venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners for its investment in Napster, alleging that it contributed to rampant music theft through the former file-swapping network. Universal Music Group and EMI Recorded Music filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles against San Francisco-based Hummer Winblad, its cofounder John Hummer and general partner Hank Barry, who was formerly the CEO at Napster. The 23-page complaint charges that the Napster system, as conceived and implemented, "provided a safe haven for the rampant piracy of copyrighted works on an epic and unprecedented scale...Hummer Winblad knowingly facilitated infringement of plaintiff's copyrights for its direct financial benefit." During the Napster heyday, while millions of people logged onto the peer-to-peer community to exchange digital music files, Hummer Winblad was one of the outfit's chief backers. In May 2000, Hummer Winblad invested about $13 million in Napster and took control of its business and legal liabilities, with Barry assuming an interim CEO role. Legal efforts by the recording industry and music publishers essentially crushed Napster two years ago. But now the music industry is seeking punitive damages from Napster backers, in a move that could portend further suits targeting assets of companies that back independent file-swapping services. http://news.com.com/2100-1027-997860.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:24:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Takes Wi-Fi to the Living Room By Richard Shim Staff Writer, CNET News.com Motorola has started connecting home-networking devices using its new combination cable modem and Wi-Fi access product, a move it hopes will spur demand for more connected gadgets. The chipmaker's broadband services division, called the Broadband Communications Sector, on Monday began selling the $350 SBG1000, a combination cable modem, wireless networking access point, Ethernet router and switch, print server and advanced firewall. The device is meant to expand consumer access to information and entertainment while taking advantage of the growing popularity of wireless networking technology Wi-Fi. Motorola says it's offering consumers an easy and complete product for sharing broadband access over a home network. In addition to a broadband connection, the device will allow other resources, such as a printer, fax machine and game console, to be shared over a network. http://news.com.com/2100-1041-997731.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:26:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Inside Cisco's Eavesdropping Apparatus By Declan McCullagh April 21, 2003, 4:00 AM PT Cisco Systems has created a more efficient and targeted way for police and intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on people whose Internet service provider uses their company's routers. The company recently published a proposal that describes how it plans to embed "lawful interception" capability into its products. Among the highlights: Eavesdropping "must be undetectable," and multiple police agencies conducting simultaneous wiretaps must not learn of one another. If an Internet provider uses encryption to preserve its customers' privacy and has access to the encryption keys, it must turn over the intercepted communications to police in a descrambled form. Cisco's decision to begin offering "lawful interception" capability as an option to its customers could turn out to be either good or bad news for privacy. Because Cisco's routers currently aren't designed to target an individual, it's easy for an Internet service provider (ISP) to comply with a police request today by turning over all the traffic that flows through a router or switch. Cisco's "lawful interception" capability thus might help limit the amount of data that gets scooped up in the process. On the other hand, the argument that it hinders privacy goes like this: By making wiretapping more efficient, Cisco will permit governments in other countries -- where court oversight of police eavesdropping is even more limited than in the United States -- snoop on far more communications than they could have otherwise. Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says: "I don't see why the technical community should hardwire surveillance standards and not also hardwire accountability standards like audit logs and public reporting. The laws that permit 'lawful interception' typically incorporate both components--the (interception) authority and the means of oversight--but the (Cisco) implementation seems to have only the surveillance component. That is no guarantee that the authority will be used in a 'lawful' manner." U.S. history provides many examples of government and police agencies conducting illegal wiretaps. The FBI unlawfully spied on Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., feminists, gay rights leaders and Catholic priests. During its dark days, the bureau used secret files and hidden microphones to blackmail the Kennedy brothers, sway the Supreme Court and influence presidential elections. Cisco's Internet draft may be titled "lawful interception," but there's no guarantee that the capability will always be used legally. Still, if you don't like Cisco's decision, remember that they're not the ones doing the snooping. Cisco is responding to its customers' requests, and if they don't, other hardware vendors will. If you're looking for someone to blame, consider Attorney General John Ashcroft, who asked for and received sweeping surveillance powers in the USA Patriot Act, along with your elected representatives in Congress, who gave those powers to him with virtually no debate. I talked with Fred Baker, a Cisco fellow and former chairman of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), about his work on the "lawful interception" draft. http://news.com.com/2010-1071-997528.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:29:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple to Hold Special Event April 28 By Jim Dalrymple jdalrymple@maccentral.com Apple Computer Inc. informed MacCentral by special invitation Monday morning of an event the company will hold in San Francisco on Monday, April 28, 2003. While the invitation was not specific on exactly what the company would announce at the event, it did narrow down the possibilities. The invitation says that Apple will have "announcements that will be music to your ears." Apple has several music products, but speculation over the past couple of weeks has focused on three things: a new iPod; a buyout by Apple of Universal Music; and a new music service by Apple. http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/04/21/appleevent/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 02:33:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wireless Firm Tackles IM Compatibility By Ben Charny Staff Writer, CNET News.com Wireless company Air2Web unveiled on Monday a package designed to let users of business-oriented wireless devices more easily trade messages between rival instant messaging programs. The hardware and software setup, called 2IM, enables users of disparate IM programs from Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL to swap messages, Air2Web Chief Technology Officer Dale Gonzalez said. Software designed to address IM interoperability problems already exists, but Gonzalez said 2IM is unique because it's specifically tailored for the new generations of wireless PDAs (personal digital assistants) now being used mainly by business professionals. http://news.com.com/2100-1039-997699.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 16:28:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Viacom Agrees to Acquire AOL Time Warner's 50% Interest in Comedy Cable Network Joins MTV Networks' Lineup of Wholly Owned Channels NEW YORK, April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) announced today that it has reached an agreement with AOL Time Warner (NYSE: AOL) to acquire AOL's 50% interest in Comedy Central, for a total of $1.225 billion. Following the completion of the transaction, expected in the second quarter of 2003, Comedy Central will be wholly owned by Viacom and join MTV Networks' lineup of basic cable channels. Larry Divney will remain President of Comedy Central and the network will continue to be based in New York and Los Angeles. Comedy Central, the only all-comedy network, reaches 82 million U.S. households. Comedy Central's schedule includes an eclectic mix of original programming, stand-up comedy, sketch comedy and movies. Current hits on the network are: "South Park," "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," "Chappelle's Show," "The Man Show," "Insomniac with Dave Attell" and "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn." Also included in the transaction is comedycentral.com, which features original programs, schedule information, advanced technology, games, downloads and an online store. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33911100 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:13:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze By LAURIE J. FLYNN A ceiling-mounted electronic eye captures every transaction at the cash register. In the parking garage, more tiny cameras record every arrival and departure. To many business owners, these aspects of modern life seem a small price to pay for personal safety. But to some customers, they are new examples of Big Brother run amok. The use of surveillance cameras in private businesses and public spaces has been a matter of debate for some time. But even as the controversy becomes more heated, the use of surveillance equipment is surging, driven by new digital technology, falling prices and terrorism jitters. Sales of digital surveillance systems and the services required to install them are growing rapidly at a time sales of many other technologies are limited by tight corporate budgets. In the United States, annual sales of digital surveillance products and services is expected to reach $8.5 billion by the end of 2005. That is up from $5.7 billion in 2002, according to J. P. Freeman, a market research company in Newtown, Conn. One indication this trend will accelerate was the announcement by I.B.M. last month that it would offer a new package of consulting and system-design services for digital network-based video surveillance systems. I.B.M. evidently thinks that retail stores, corporations and government agencies will soon abandon older analog videotape systems and move the management of these surveillance operations to corporate information technology departments. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/technology/21CAME.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Anywhere* it is legal and lawful for a *LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER* to stand and observe what is going on, it is lawful for a mechanical eye to do the same thing. A police officer cannot stand in your bedroom and observe you, but he certainly can stand on a street corner or by a cash register in a store; anywhere there is not or should not be any 'expectation of privacy', or anywhere no judicial 'search warrant' has been issued is perfectly fair game for the placement of a camera for others to watch. If it is lawful to have a police officer on every public street corner in the United States (although admittedly it is not practical or effective where the money to do so is concerned) then a camera can be there instead. I do not like the idea myself, but logic would dictate it is an acceptable form of policing. People who want to scream about constitutional violations should first read the damn thing. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:15:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Satellite Radio Gains Ground With Right Mix of Partners By BARNABY J. FEDER Hugh Panero built a reputation in cable and pay-per-view television as a manager who could turn new entertainment technologies into successful businesses. For nearly five years now, he has been putting that reputation to a test as the president and chief executive of XM Satellite Radio, one of two start-up companies trying to develop a market for nationwide radio shows beamed to subscribers in their cars and homes. In recent months, growing numbers of investors and analysts have concluded he just might succeed. Mr. Panero, 47, arrived in June 1998 at what was then called American Mobile Satellite Radio, a privately held company with 12 employees and licenses to launch two satellites. It envisioned broadcasting 100 digital channels of music and talk radio to subscribers fed up with the lack of variety, the variable sound quality and the incessant commercials on traditional radio. But XM lacked broadcasting technology, support from automakers, consumer radios that could receive its digital programming and the several billion dollars it needed from investors to deliver on the dream. Last week, XM, based in Washington, announced that it had passed the 500,000-subscriber mark. General Motors and the American Honda Motor Company are now its biggest shareholders and are strongly committed to offering satellite radio as an option in new cars. Drivers looking to retrofit the 200 million cars already on the road have a growing range of receiver choices from major radio manufacturers, which have also begun to make home XM units. Analysts are betting XM will have one million subscribers well before the end of the year. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/21/technology/21RADI.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:17:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Instant Messaging, Text Messaging at 30,000 Feet Verizon Airfone's JetConnect Service Now Available on All Continental Airlines Narrow-Body Planes OAK BROOK, Ill., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Two of today's hottest business applications, Instant Messaging (IM) and text messaging, have literally taken off now that Verizon Airfone's JetConnect(SM) service has been equipped on Continental Airlines' entire fleet of narrow-body aircraft. JetConnect is an in-flight communication, news and entertainment service and is the only provider of IM and text-messaging services to passengers on U.S. commercial flights. Verizon Airfone began offering JetConnect on select Continental flights in November 2002. The company has equipped all of Continental's narrow-body fleet with the JetConnect service. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33903689 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:20:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Takes Steps to Protect Against Collect-Calling Fraud From BEDMINSTER, N.J., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T said today it has begun implementing new advanced security measures to protect consumers and businesses against fraud by hackers who compromise inadequately protected voicemail systems to make collect, third-party or direct-dial calls at customers' expense. At the same time, the company renewed a warning it first issued last fall on users' need to safeguard against hacking of voicemail boxes. AT&T said it introduced a technological solution to its automated voice-response platform in January to thwart unauthorized calling from some areas of the world that generated the highest incidence of fraudulent calling. Now, some consumers or business people who receive AT&T international collect calls may notice that instead of saying "yes" to accept an international collect call, they may be asked to follow instructions as to random codes they will need to speak or dial when prompted by an automated operator. Such technological deterrents have proven very effective to date. The solution defeats hackers' ability to complete collect calls once they have hacked into a consumer or business voicemail system and recorded a "yes, yes, yes" string to surreptitiously accept a collect call, the company said. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33905306 ------------------------------ From: Sam Rogers Organization: V Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 00:48:41 -0400 Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > On Sat, 19 Apr 2003 23:32:47 -0400, Sam Rogers posted the following to > comp.dcom.telecom: >> Verizon is the sole incumbent local telephone carrier for most (all?) >> of Massachusetts. The state's PUC, known as the DTE, has just passed >> a rate increase for local service. >> According to the DTE's findings, Verizon loses an average of more than >> $6 (per month) for residential local service, which must be made up >> with business revenue. However the DTE decided that a $6 increase >> would be too great so, it decided on $2.44. >> Why a goofy number like $2.44? Because the $0.49 Touch-Tone line item >> charge is being removed. So the increase for the 87% of customers >> that pay for Touch-Tone service will see a net increase of $1.95, >> conveniently just under $2.00. >> The low income service "LifeLine" subsidy will be increased to at >> least offset the extra charges. >> The DTE believes that the increases in regulated rates will spur more >> competition for local service. > Yesiree, there sure will be a gold-rush to compete. Now Verizon's > higher rates for local residential service will be only $3.56 below > cost. I'll bet AT&T and Worldcom will bust their chops to gobble up > those residential customers at a smaller loss than the ILEC. They'll > probably make up the loss in volume! > What idiocy! The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC loses an average of six bucks a month for every residential phone line. Since companies cannot lose money forever, this needs to be made up from the commercial phone service. It's hard to have competition in a market where you are forced to sell service below cost -- that is what's idiocy. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: 21 Apr 2003 22:09:57 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> According to the DTE's findings, Verizon loses an average of more than >> $6 (per month) for residential local service, which must be made up >> with business revenue. However the DTE decided that a $6 increase >> would be too great so, it decided on $2.44. ... > Yesiree, there sure will be a gold-rush to compete. Now Verizon's > higher rates for local residential service will be only $3.56 below > cost. I'll bet AT&T and Worldcom will bust their chops to gobble up > those residential customers at a smaller loss than the ILEC. > They'll probably make up the loss in volume! If you believe all the details of "losses" in ILEC cost accounting, I have an excellent deal to offer you on some prime trans-aquatic real estate between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. ILECs have always claimed they lose money on resi service, but the facts to back up such claims are at best debatable. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: gryb@icl.net Subject: Bill of Rights Defense Committee [BORDC] Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 21:16:43 -0400 Bill of Rights Defense Committee [BORDC] http://www.bordc.org/ ------------------------------ From: Sam Rogers Organization: V Subject: Re: No Help for Callers in Trouble Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 00:54:36 -0400 Monty Solomon wrote: > By Michelle Delio > NEW YORK -- Trapped on a capsizing 8-foot fiberglass dingy > floundering in 33-degree waters off New York, Henry Badillo used his > cell phone to make a desperate plea for help. > "We're taking in water ... we're on the Long Island Sound in a boat > off the coast of City I ... oh, my God, we're going to die!" Badillo > screamed in his 12-second call to a 911 emergency services operator > on Jan. 24, 2003. > Badillo, stranded on the boat with three friends, didn't have time to > say exactly where he was before the call cut off, and the operator > did not clearly hear his reference to City Island, which could have > helped to pinpoint the boat's location. > The operator and her supervisor decided they didn't have enough > information to request assistance. Badillo and his friends died that > night. > Their parents believe they might have been rescued if New York's 911 > system was able to trace cell-phone callers' locations, a service that > the state has been collecting taxes to implement for more than a > decade. Or their boys would have never needed to have been rescued if they hadn't stolen a rowboat and taken it out in the Long Island Sound in freezing temperatures in the middle of winter, without proper equipment, without anyone knowing they were there etc. The boys' parents time would be better spent on better parenting techniques and teaching common sense. ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Voicemail Hacking Leaves Ears Ringing Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 01:04:00 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , no- spam@amadeus.kome.com says: > In this case, it wasn't the customer's equipment; it was SBC's > equipment. SBC's equipment, but the customer shouldn't have used 1234 for a password (the article doesn't say, but I'll guarantee it was easy). If the customer did use an easy password, as I suspect, then she's on the hook as far as I'm concerned. That's what passwords are for, to secure something. > Funny how in this case, no one is even suggesting going after SBC. Well, you're right about that. AT&T certainly is the innocent 3rd party in this case. SBC, I suppose it could be argued, could limit easy passwords, similar to common practice in the data world. But just because they could do that, I wouldn't call it negligence on SBC's part if they didn't. Even if they did implement an easy password detection scheme, they can't police the thousands of customers that can inadvertently publicize their VM passwords. How many times do you walk up to a PC and see post-its with un/pw on the monitor, keyboard, or desk? Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: dcantoni@earthlink.net (David C) Subject: Surprise International Calling Card Bill Date: 22 Apr 2003 08:07:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Recently I decided to call my son who was vacationing in Scotland and decided to use my Sprint Global Access card, which I had laying in a desk drawer, never having used it before. I made the call, talked for 19 minutes and subsequently got a bill next month for over $60 for that call. I called Sprint customer service and was informed that that was the correct charges for those calls. Am I just stupid? Is this the normal rate for international calling card calls? Is there someplace I can complain to? Or chalk it up to experience and cut up the Sprint Global Access card(which has been done). I saw all the calling cards advertised for making such calls and prices ranged from a few cents/minute up to 20 or 30 cents/minute. I expected Sprint to be higher, but not that much. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sprint lies about almost everything. Let that be a lesson to you! PAT] ------------------------------ From: Phil Earnhardt Subject: Re: Safari, Camino Could Re-ignite Browser War - on Macs Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 23:18:46 -0600 On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 13:52:47 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Apple Computer Inc.'s Safari and the Mozilla Organization's Camino are > still in beta testing. But they leave Internet Explorer in the dust, > rendering pages noticeably faster, dumping rarely used features and > adding others not available in the Microsoft browser. > Both browsers have simple interfaces that match the elegance of > Apple's Mac OS X operating system. And unlike other alternative > browsers, particularly for the Mac, they are very quick and accurately > draw even complex Web pages. Hear, hear. The Beta 2 version of Safari just came out. Like Mozilla, it has tabbed windows for having multiple browser "sessions" in the same window. However, Apple also provides a rich set of keyboard shortcuts for easily doing things like toggling between the tabs (Shift-Command-Left or Shift-Command-Right). Just like disabling pop-up windows, having an easy way to shift between browsing sessions radically alters your experience of browsing. And it is fast! I use my Mac with the mouse typically detached. I view mouse as an ergonomic nightmare -- as does my right arm/hand -- and I do everything I can to avoid using them. Apple has made this browser the most friendly GUI browser to use without a mouse I've ever found. The only think I can't figure out how to do is to open a link in a new tab. With a mouse this is done by holding down the command key when clicking. However, if I hold down the command key when hitting a "5" -- the keyboard key used to simulate a mouse click -- Safari interprets that as a Command-5, which opens your 5th bookmark. Ugh. I filed a bug with Apple. phil ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 17:26:25 EDT From: Graydon J. Sametz Subject: Area Code Statistics How many millions of people does one area code serve? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In theory, slightly under eight million number combinations are possible. Ten thousand per exchange, eight hundred 'exchanges' per area code, or slightly under that. But that does not allow for the many folks who have more than one line in their house (fax, computer, second-third lines, etc). Nor does it allow for companies with many thousands of numbers, indeed, sometimes entire exchanges, etc. Nor does it allow for the fact that many telcos and cellular companies require (according to technical reasons) their own 'exchange' even if they do not come close to using all the numbers. But slightly under eight million number 'combinations' are possible per area code. I'll roughly guess that six million 'people' can be served. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Phone Filter For Dial-Up Connection From: Art Jackson Organization: W4TOY Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:56:18 GMT Incognito wrote in news:3ea56388_3@newsfeed: > The throughput on my dial-up connection is adversely effected > (cumulatively) by each telephone connected to the line. I was > wondering if there might be some kind of filter I could use to > eliminate the problem? It's a real pain having to unplug the phones > whenever I want to connect to the Internet, and then plugging them > back in again afterwards (which I forget to do half the time). I know > there are filters for DSL lines, to keep the analog devices from > effecting the DSL connection. Would that type of filter help at all > with a dial-up connection? Thanks. > Joe No, there are no filters because analog modems use the base voice frequencies just like telephone sets do. There are a couple of things you could try. See if your modem has two phone jacks on it. If so, plug all the extensions into the "Phone" jack of the modem. Not all, but many modems disconnect the phone jack on the modem when the modem makes a connection. There is also a Radio Shack device that will do the same thing. Called a Line Restrictor, p/n 43-445. In either case, you may have to do some wiring changes. It's best to run a wire pair from your Telco box outside to a jack near your computer. Then put another jack near your computer and wire all the other phone jacks to it. Then you can use one of the devices I mentioned above, or some manual switch, to activate the desired device. If you ever need to disconnect the modem or switch, just place a patch cord between the two jacks to make everything live again. Good luck. Art Jackson W4TOY Owensboro, KY USA Life is God's open book test. In order to pass, you must open His book to find the answers. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Bruce Kille From: Bruce Kille Subject: Re: Phone Filter For Dial-up Connection Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:19:02 -0400 Might I suggest doing what I do. Use a simple toggle switch (double pole, double throw) with the center of the switch going to the telco demark, one normally open side to all your phones, and the other open side of the switch to your modem. Now all you have to do is remember to flip the switch. ;^) There are line sharing devices that duplicate the manual switch function automatically, but might still be "seen" by your modem and still effect your connect speed. The toggle switch works great for this, and keeps others in the house from picking up on your connection too. ;^) YMMV, Bruce Incognito wrote in message news:3ea56388_3@newsfeed: > The throughput on my dial-up connection is adversely effected > (cumulatively) by each telephone connected to the line. I was > wondering if there might be some kind of filter I could use to > eliminate the problem? It's a real pain having to unplug the phones > whenever I want to connect to the Internet, and then plugging them > back in again afterwards (which I forget to do half the time). I know > there are filters for DSL lines, to keep the analog devices from > effecting the DSL connection. Would that type of filter help at all > with a dial-up connection? Thanks. > Joe ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22_#404 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 23 14:43:20 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3NIhJj04634; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:43:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:43:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304231843.h3NIhJj04634@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #405 TELECOM Digest Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:40:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 405 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Beware Mystery Fees for Web Services (Monty Solomon) Palm Tungsten C Handheld (Monty Solomon) Callers Dial Up Local Cell Plans (Monty Solomon) Gadget-Heavy Audi Geeks It Up (Monty Solomon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John Higdon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Area Code Statistics (Linc Madison) Re: Area Code Statistics (joe@obilivan.net) Re: Area Code Statistics (Dave Close) Re: No Help for Callers in Trouble (John Higdon) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Chuk Gleason) Re: Phone Filter For Dial-Up Connection (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Anyone Familiar With McLeodUSA's Dynamic PRI Service? (Scott Ables) Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule (Dave Close) Re: Internet Is Losing Ground in Battle Against Spam (tonypo1@sdc.cox) Whuzzup Pat? (Joey Lindstrom) Why Did I Get This Letter? (John R. Levine and Telecom Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:46:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Beware Mystery Fees for Web Services Web firms face investigations of 'cramming' -- charging via telcos for unordered services. Tom Spring, PCWorld.com When Geoff Sigg noticed a small charge from an unfamiliar company called Spoonfull.net on his company's SBC Communications phone bill last September, he looked a little closer. He discovered that for two months, he had paid $4.31 including taxes to a company he'd never heard of. He checked further and found that Spoonfull.net was charging to list his Connecticut jewelry store in its Internet directory. But he couldn't find the listing on Spoonfull.net's site, and he says he never ordered such a service. Sigg soon learned he isn't alone. Other SBC customers have questioned similar charges. Sigg says a Spoonfull.net representative told him and others who complained that they had ordered the service either online or by telephone. Sigg protested, but the bills came for two more months before the charges finally stopped in December. Sigg says he received refunds for two months, then gave up the fight in frustration. http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,110349,00.asp ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 01:00:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Palm Tungsten C Handheld Multimedia News Release: New Palm Tungsten C Handheld Delivers Uncompromising Wireless Power and Speed on Corporate Campuses Integrated Wi-Fi, Built-in Keyboard and the Most Memory and Power of Any Palm Branded Device Offer On-Site Professionals Fast Data Access MILPITAS, Calif., April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For campus-based professionals on the move all day, managing meetings and interacting with data for quick decision-making, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) today introduced its most powerful handheld computer with built-in high-speed wireless connectivity -- the Palm(TM) Tungsten(TM) C handheld. As Wi-Fi hotspots become increasingly commonplace in airports, hotels, offices, hospitals and universities across the nation, Tungsten C handheld users can gain fast wireless access to the Internet, email, messaging, large applications and other corporate data while traveling or anywhere within their business' Wi-Fi-enabled network.(1) To view the Multimedia News Release, complete with video and images, go to: http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/palm/10757/ The Tungsten C handheld debuts several innovations in design and technology to address what campus networkers want most in a handheld. It is Palm's first device to ship with integrated Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, for wireless campus connectivity. It offers 64MB(2) of memory to manage data-intensive applications; 400MHz of ARM processing power to drastically reduce wait times for almost any query or application; a 320 x 320 transflective TFT display (Palm's sharpest screen to date for indoor and outdoor viewing); and integrated, full-featured business applications, such as VersaMail(TM) 2.5 for email, and DataViz(R) Documents To Go(R) for efficiently managing Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint compatible documents. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33923574 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:34:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Callers Dial Up Local Cell Plans By Elisa Batista As the number of phone customers replacing land lines with mobile handsets continues to rise, companies that offer unlimited wireless local calling are seeing strong demand for service. But such popularity hasn't enabled the original player in the field to stave off bankruptcy. This month, the pioneer of unlimited local wireless service, Leap Wireless, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after failing to secure fresh financing to meet debt-payment requirements. The company's stock, which traded a year ago for more than $10 a share, now sells for less than 8 cents. But while Leap failed as a publicly traded company, industry analysts have been impressed by its appeal to customers. Leap Wireless' Cricket service lets anyone purchase a cell phone off a supermarket shelf and pay a flat fee of $33 a month for local and incoming calls. Customers can make long-distance calls for 8 cents a minute and calls to Mexico for 18 cents a minute. In the last two-and-a-half years, Leap managed to snag close to 1.5 million customers and become the 10th-largest carrier in the United States, an analyst said. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58542,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 00:42:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Gadget-Heavy Audi Geeks It Up By John Gartner 02:00 AM Apr. 22, 2003 PT NEW YORK -- While the 2003 New York International Automobile Show features the standard assortment of flashy muscle cars, Formula 1 racers and monster trucks, an unassuming four-door sedan tucked in the corner has been causing a scene because of what it packs inside. Although the 2004 Audi A8 L may look like a typical yuppie-mobile, it boasts computer gadgetry, smart sensors and video displays that will dazzle even the geekiest of nerds. Not since KITT, the talking car of television's Knight Rider, has so much silicon been packed around a transmission. Like KITT, the A8 L does most of the thinking for you while providing sufficient comfort and visual stimulation to occupy drivers stuck in rush-hour traffic. The A8 L has solar panels installed on the roof that -- appropriately enough -- power the sunroof, and enable you to preset the temperature of your car before you get behind the wheel. For example, if you leave for work each day at 8:15 a.m. and head home at 6 p.m. without fail, the A8 L can make sure it's always a comfy 72 degrees when you climb aboard without having to turn the engine on. http://www.wired.com/news/autotech/0,2554,58569,00.html ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:11:39 -0700 In article , johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote: > ILECs have always claimed they lose money on resi service, but the > facts to back up such claims are at best debatable. SBC and its predecessors have always cried big crocodile tears about how much money is lost in residential service, but they seem to fight tooth and nail to hang onto it. In article , Sam Rogers wrote: > The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC loses an average > of six bucks a month for every residential phone line. Since companies > cannot lose money forever, this needs to be made up from the > commercial phone service. It's hard to have competition in a market > where you are forced to sell service below cost -- that is what's > idiocy. What is hard to believe is that the phone company is losing money on a service that it fights tooth and nail to hang onto. We've been hearing this chant about how "business service subsidizes residential service" for decades, but I have yet to see any sort substantiation. "The Commonwealth" simply chews on the figures given to it by the ILEC. It has neither the resources nor the expertise to do a full-scale audit of what amounts to a company that has more complexity and scope than the commonweath's entire government structure. The ILECs mouth the chant and the PUCs pick it up and sing along. But I find two things very interesting. The first is, as mentioned above, the fact that the ILECs fight to the death to keep the residential markets; and the second is that with all this "loss", the ILECs seem to rack up obscene profits, the likes of which were never seen in the days of the full regulated monopoly structure. I would LOVE to lose money that way! John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 05:29:38 GMT On 21 Apr 2003 22:09:57 -0400, John R. Levine posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > If you believe all the details of "losses" in ILEC cost accounting, I > have an excellent deal to offer you on some prime trans-aquatic real > estate between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. > ILECs have always claimed they lose money on resi service, but the > facts to back up such claims are at best debatable. I know something about ILEC cost accounting, but am far from an expert. It's my understanding that the intrastate rates for purely local residential service are typically set to underrecover "historic" costs somewhat. If a given subscriber doesn't make or receive any long- distance calls, there is no offsetting access revenue for that subscriber. Accordingly, local-only subscribers are served at a "loss." The interstate subscriber line charge provides one source of recovery for the "loss" that may or may not make the subscriber "profitable." However, most residential subscribers make and receive long-distance calls, permitting the ILEC to collect originating and terminating access charges from the interexchange carrier. I wouldn't be surprised if residential service is profitable when access charges are taken into account. The whole scheme of telephone rate regulation is senseless and should be junked. I realize, however, this won't happen any time soon, and whatever replaces it will undoubtedly be even worse. Now about that bridge .... Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Linc Madison Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 04:24:13 -0700 Organization: LincMad.com Consulting Reply-To: Telecom@LincMad.com In article , Graydon J. Sametz wrote: > How many millions of people does one area code serve? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In theory, slightly under eight million > number combinations are possible. Ten thousand per exchange, eight > hundred 'exchanges' per area code, or slightly under that. But that > does not allow for the many folks who have more than one line in their > house (fax, computer, second-third lines, etc). Nor does it allow for > companies with many thousands of numbers, indeed, sometimes entire > exchanges, etc. Nor does it allow for the fact that many telcos and > cellular companies require (according to technical reasons) their own > 'exchange' even if they do not come close to using all the numbers. > But slightly under eight million number 'combinations' are possible > per area code. I'll roughly guess that six million 'people' can be > served. PAT] Correct, in theory, but in practice, the number tends to be about 750,000 people in the major urban areas, on up to about twice that in less urban areas. New York City, with only 5 area codes for about 7 million people, is a model of number conservation, by U.S. standards. Nationally, there are well over 200 area codes in service for about 270 million people. www dot LincMad dot com / Telecom at LincMad dot com Linc Madison * San Francisco, California ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:14:38 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications And, there are places like Lone Pine, California that take 10,000 numbers to serve 500 lines. Graydon J. Sametz wrote: > How many millions of people does one area code serve? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In theory, slightly under eight million > number combinations are possible. Ten thousand per exchange, eight > hundred 'exchanges' per area code, or slightly under that. But that > does not allow for the many folks who have more than one line in their > house (fax, computer, second-third lines, etc). Nor does it allow for > companies with many thousands of numbers, indeed, sometimes entire > exchanges, etc. Nor does it allow for the fact that many telcos and > cellular companies require (according to technical reasons) their own > 'exchange' even if they do not come close to using all the numbers. > But slightly under eight million number 'combinations' are possible > per area code. I'll roughly guess that six million 'people' can be > served. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are lots of examples in the USA like Lone Pine. Kansas is not a very densely populated state, yet we have a bunch of area codes. 913 is the Kansas City (Kansas side) metro area code (816 is for the Missouri side); it used to be the entire north side of the state, now 785 is in there for the non-metro areas going west. 316 used to be the entire southern half of the state; now 316 is Wichita metro area and everyone else is 620. Did I miss any? Something tells me there is a fifth area code now, around the Topeka area. Yet most of 785 and 620 are small towns with a few hundred numbers, each occupying an entire ten thousand number exchange, just like Lone Pine, CA. Horace, Kansas and Tribune, Kansas both of Greely County between them share an exchange, but considering the total population of the *county* is about 2000 people, I guess that is okay. Liberal, Kansas a bit to the south in a different county has its own exchange which is pretty full, like our Independence, and its 620-331. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 23:01:19 -0700 From: Dave Close Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: 22 Apr 2003 23:00:13 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California > How many millions of people does one area code serve? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... > But slightly under eight million number 'combinations' are possible > per area code. I'll roughly guess that six million 'people' can be > served. PAT] Not around here. The population of the Los Angeles Area is around 12m and we have at least nine area codes, more depending on where you draw the line. So around here, at least, one area code doesn't serve much more than 1m people. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Quantum computing is a marvelous way to show the non- intuitive nature of quantum mechanics." -Gordon Moore [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Dave and the other guys who have responded in this thread point out that in larger, more dense metropolitan areas, the citizens are likely to use up more of the possible 'number combinations' than are the citizens in the lesser populated areas. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: No Help for Callers in Trouble Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:54:21 -0700 In article , Sam Rogers wrote: > Or their boys would have never needed to have been rescued if they > hadn't stolen a rowboat and taken it out in the Long Island Sound in > freezing temperatures in the middle of winter, without proper > equipment, without anyone knowing they were there etc. The boys' > parents time would be better spent on better parenting techniques and > teaching common sense. Yes, no need to improve or enhance our emergency services. People who are stupid enough to get into dangerous and life-threatening situations deserve to be taught proper lessons. In this case, you can bet those boys will think twice about what they are doing and not behave like children again. I can guarantee you they won't get into trouble anymore. Nothing like death to teach children a lesson! People should realize that they should sit home in chairs with their arms folded and never go out except to earn a living or to get food and clothing. Anything else is reckless and foolhearty. If more people would realize this, we would have no need for these expensive and frivolous emergency response systems. Or at least we wouldn't need them as much. Rather than waste time and money improving emergency response techniques, we should probably just eliminate 911 altogether. All it does is pander to people who should know better than to get into trouble. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mr. Rogers (quoted by John, above) reminds me of my own mother. She is always saying things like 'if the parents did such and such, then the boys would not need so and so and whatever would not happen.' But the fact is, boys will be boys; they will get in trouble and need emergency help. I have a police scanner radio here, and a few days ago it came to life with a call: 'Chatauqua Sheriff needs assistance from Independence'. It seems they wanted some piece of elaborate equipment for a rescue effort (of two boys who had gone joy-riding in a car not their own) and we have the only such equipment for several counties around. Based on the radio call, the police here sent the equipment over to assist the Chatauqua County Sheriff in the rescue attempt. The incident was in a rural area part of the county to our west. The guys were rescued safely, THEN had to deal with the sheriff afterward. I do not think Mr. Rogers understands some of life's realities. Many guys are not going to listen to or obey their parents/guardians; they still have to be kept safe even after the fact as needed. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Chuk Gleason Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:10:14 -0400 Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Actually, Pneumo tubes are still in common use many places; I've seen them at the Home Depot store in Cary, NC (just outsida Raleigh) from the cash registers to um, I've never asked where they go to. I'm guessing other departments like Millwork, etc. Still works like a champ. Now for a _real_ blast from the past: In the small town of Gowanda, NY, about 35 miles south of Buffalo, there was a clothing store named "Himelein's"; I don't know when it was started, but it was in business into the 1970's certainly. (For reference, I graduated high school in 1976). In looking back at across the reaches of time, it was really quite 'big' - it was two store-front widths. As I remember it, it had those 'classic' details like pressed tin ceiling, probably wooden floors, and ancient wooden display cases around the perimeter. In my memory's eye, they were ancient even then! What was unique about it was the cashier system; instead of the pneumo tubes, each sales station had a little 'trolley' to the cashier in the center back of the store. You made your selections, the sales clerk wrote up the slip and put it and your money into a little basket in the trolley. They then yanked the pull chain, the basket went up to the track at the ceiling, and the trolley whizzzzzzzed along its track to the main cashier, who completed the slip and made your change, set it back in the trolley and sent it whizzzzzzing back to your clerk. It was very impressive to many young kids! As with so many quaint things, it was not labor or monetarily efficient, and in a larger sense perhaps helped the demise of the store (the 60's and 70's influx of big-box discount retail a la' K-Mart, etc. notwithstanding!) And to keep the post relevant to telecom, the local Bell office had only 5-digit (Rotary!) dialing into the early 1970's, I think, before they got SS-whatever. The exchange was 532, and I first learned my phone number about 1965 or so, but Mom & Dad who had been there over 12 years already, had learned it as LF2-xxxx. In fact, the last 4 digits started 94xx; I remember making a collect call home in perhaps 1979, and the operator asked me 'Is this a pay phone?' I said "No, not that I've ever seen it! My folks have had it for years." It was many years after that I found out that Bell by then had tried to standardize to payphones being nnn-9xxx format; We had a party line, by then with apparently only one other party on it, into the time I went to college in 1976. Not really conducive to a teenager!! So, some things are best left on the dustheap of history! Chuk Gleason Cary, NC 4/22/03 11:26:43 PM, editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > From: Gordon S. Hlavenka > Subject: Pneumo Tubes (was Re: Step-by-step Demonstrator Box From 1895) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Pneumatic air tubes were a very common > way to move small amounts of paper between offices even as late as > 1990. A department store I did some work for in downtown Chicago ... ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:43:00 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Phone Filter For Dial-Up Connection Incognito wrote: >> The throughput on my dial-up connection is adversely effected >> (cumulatively) by each telephone connected to the line. Art Jackson wrote: > ... you may have to do some wiring changes. It's best to run a wire > pair from your Telco box outside to a jack near your computer. Then > put another jack near your computer and wire all the other phone > jacks to it. Good advice. Crucial to this, though, is the exclusive use of twisted-pair (TP) wire! Back in the goodle days, telephone wiring was 4 parallel conductors; two were tip and ring, and the other two (if present) were aux power. The second "pair" (not really a pair, just two more wires) were often used for a second line. Before modems and fax more crosstalk could be tolerated, plus there was not as much wiring in the house. Cat5 network cabling works wonderfully for telephone wiring. There is cheaper TP cable available which also works fine for telephone, but it's harder to find. You may be able to scrounge a partial box of CAT5 from someplace in which case it's free. Use the wire as it's paired: line 1 uses the blue pair, line 2 uses orange, line 3 green, and line 4 brown. If you have ANY Red-Green-Black-Yellow telephone wire in your house, you should get rid of it*. Now. No exceptions. Even if you aren't "using" a bad piece of wire, it can -- and will -- screw up your telephone circuit just by being connected. Running a spiffy new CAT5 lead from the junction box to your PC will help, but if the rest of the crappy wiring is still connected back at the junction it's still going to cause problems. Rip it out and replace it. *The wire, that is. This is not a real estate forum :-) Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Grammar and spelling flames welcome. Yes, that's really my email address. Don't change it. ------------------------------ From: Scott Ables Subject: Anyone Familiar With McLeodUSA's Dynamic PRI Service? Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 09:36:03 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Has anyone any experience with McLeod's Dynamic PRI service? I'm wondering what they mean when they say they offer dedicated data on a PRI. Is it really just nailed up circuit switched data or are they really DACCsing data onto the T1 and pulling it off prior to delivering the PRI to the PBX??? What CPE do they use? How's it work, how well is it supported, is it reasonably priced? TIA scott.ables@integratelecom.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 23:18:08 -0700 From: Dave Close Subject: Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California tom.horsley@att.net (Thomas A. Horsley) writes: > Which is, of course, why the cellphone companies are desperate to > get the number portability requirement dropped -- they know pissed > off customers wouldn't be as reluctant to switch services. Actually, according to recent news reports, some cell carriers have reconsidered their opposition -- provided the portability interoperates with landline numbers. The idea is that, even though they may lose some customers through churn, they may gain more from people who give up their landline entirely. Sound plausible to me. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Quantum computing is a marvelous way to show the non- intuitive nature of quantum mechanics." -Gordon Moore ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Internet Is Losing Ground in Battle Against Spam Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 06:22:47 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to monty@roscom.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: How about some violence? If someone > paid a midnight visit to Ms. Sach's office and smashed up all her > computers (that is, any they did not feel like stealing) then set > fire to the rest of her office, and caused her lots of money to get > her operation back in order again, that *might* slow her down a little > bit. And please, don't hand me all that crap about 'violence never > solves anything' or 'she has a right to free speech'. She has no > rights to anything IMO except a slow, painful death. Of course, in > this paragraph I am just kidding. Can anyone give us her actual > street address and phone numbers (toll free and otherwise)? What > about her home address and maybe that of a couple of her key > employees? Don't bother looking for that information in the New > York Times article. The NYT is too prissy and proper to give any > details of *real value* to their readers. Her and that Ralsky creep > in Michigan. They both need slow torture and total devastation of > their computer networks. The lawyer reminds me I need to tell you > I am just kidding; naturally I do not mean anything said above in > this paragraph. PAT] While I don't necessarily condone trashing the whole office I can instead offer something that might be more suited to the telecom crowd. Why not find out who her serving ISP is and cut the lines, in several places. Hell, I'm sure some of us know some people in places that have colocated equipment and could find just the right port to unplug or foul up. Better yet -- why not have some real fun. Send condolence letters to people that know her. That probably constitutes assault but hey, she's clogging up mail servers and deserves much, much worse in my opinion. Find out everything we can about Ms. Sachs including parents, sibblings, friends etc. This would be a rather intensive project but the resulting paranoia would be awe inspiring. Better yet, if one were to break in her office why not install keystroke recorders and a remote access tool on all her computers. Would be very entertaining when the spam she tries to send out actually contains her home address and phone, same for her parents and associates. I say we give spammers the bad name they deserve. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree. Of course I was the pioneer in that effort several years ago when I 'outed' Jeff Slaton, the Spam King. Do you guys remember little Jeffy and his toy computers? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 08:10:56 -0600 Subject: Whuzzup Pat? Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 20:33:13 -0400 (EDT), TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > There was a very bad email problem for awhile; John Levine had a major > spammer/denial of service problem. If all went well, a bunch of back > issues of the Digest should have reached you today, or will soon. They did indeed -- thanks muchly. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Ditto to all of you on the mailing list. Early Wednesday morning you should have gotten bunches of Digests, from issues 392 (last week) through 403 (yesterday). John Levine tells us a bit more of the story next ... It seems the spammers ran him out of disk space. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: 23 Apr 2003 00:43:13 -0400 From: John R Levine Subject: Re: Did my Last Letter Arrive? Yes, I got them all and they look fine. Something got messed up here when my disk ran out of space last week, which I'm fixing, so the back digests will go out sometime later tonight. R's, John [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A reader who complained about no issues of the Digest arriving for more than a week tipped me off to this. I forwarded his letter to John Levine, who investigated it as part of the vicious attack some spammer had given him. Why shouldn't all spammers get the same kind of treatment we gave to Jeff Slayton a few years ago. All the junk mail Ralsky in Michigan is getting is a good start; let's try to catch up the gap in our net the New York Times mentioned in that article a couple days ago. It is really getting nauseating. Now the spammers are even getting into the majordomo list servers. Read these next two things in my mail today: Date: 23 Apr 2003 06:48:56 -0400 From: majordomo-owner@telecom-digest.org Reply-To: majordomo@telecom-digest.org Subject: Majordomo results: Japanese girl VS playboy No valid commands processed. > John, look at a letter sent to me by 'majordomo-owner'. Now why would > it have written to me about Japanese Geisha Girls? (distasteful > look on my face). Then John Levine responds: That subject line is one that appears in viruses, so most likely it was a bounce from a virus with a forged telecom-digest return address. Ain't today's Internet great? By the way, I just got and installed a patch for the majordomo mailing list problem that appears to have permanently solved it. > From majordomo-owner@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 23 06:48:59 2003 > Delivered-To: virtual-telecom-editor@telecom-digest.org > Date: 23 Apr 2003 06:48:56 -0400 > From: majordomo-owner@telecom-digest.org > Reply-To: majordomo@telecom-digest.org > To: "editor" > Content-Type: text/plain > Content-Disposition: inline > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit > Content-Description: Results from toplevel > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Subject: Majordomo results: Japanese girl VS playboy > X-Loop: majordomo > Precedence: bulk > X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.3 required=5.0 > tests=MAJORDOMO,NO_REAL_NAME,SPAM_PHRASE_00_01, > TO_LOCALPART_EQ_REAL,X_LOOP > version=2.41 > X-Spam-Level: > No valid commands processed. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #405 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 23 19:02:54 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3NN2sg06782; Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:02:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:02:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304232302.h3NN2sg06782@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #406 TELECOM Digest Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:00:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 406 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Announces First Quarter 2003 Earnings (Monty Solomon) AOL Time Warner Reports First Quarter 2003 Results (Monty Solomon) Lucent Technologies Reports Results for Second Quarter (Monty Solomon) BellSouth Reports First Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) EarthLink Reports Results For First Quarter 2003 (Monty Solomon) Re: Phone Filter For Dial-up Connection (Justin Time) Re: Phone Filter For Dial-Up Connection (Scott Dorsey) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John Stahl) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Spec For Delay: Off-Hook till Detect Dial-Tone (Paul A Lee) Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze (Scott Dorsey) Re: Area Code Statistics (John Higdon) Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists Limiting Play? (Joey Lindstrom) MCI Sucks!!!! (shpat01) Re: Pneumo Tubes (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Need Information for Students on What a Tariff Is (Ken) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:38:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Announces First Quarter 2003 Earnings BEDMINSTER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2003--AT&T (NYSE:T): -- Earnings per diluted share from continuing operations of $0.67, compared to $0.60 per diluted share in the prior year first quarter -- Consolidated revenue of $9.0 billion for the quarter -- Operating income of $1.2 billion for the quarter AT&T (NYSE:T) today reported income from continuing operations of $529 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.67, for the first quarter of 2003. The company's current quarter income from continuing operations compares favorably to income of $446 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.60, in the first quarter of 2002. First quarter 2003 net income of $571 million, or earnings per diluted share of $0.73, included income of $42 million, or $0.06, related to the cumulative effect of the adoption of a new accounting standard. First quarter 2002 net loss of $975 million, or $1.32 per diluted share, included losses of $0.76 and $1.16 from discontinued operations and the cumulative effect of the adoption of a new accounting standard, respectively. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33925499 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:38:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AOL Time Warner Reports First Quarter 2003 Results EBITDA Increases 14% to $2.0 Billion; Operating Income Rises 9% to $1.2 Billion Free Cash Flow Totals $1.0 Billion; Cash Flow from Operations Amounts to $1.5 Billion AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL) today reported financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2003. Revenues for the quarter increased 6% over the same period in 2002 to $10.0 billion. Subscription revenues climbed 10% to $4.9 billion, led by growth in the Company's Cable and America Online businesses. Content revenues improved 11% to $3.3 billion, due to increases at the Filmed Entertainment and HBO divisions. Advertising revenues declined 5% to $1.3 billion, stemming from decreases at America Online and Cable, offset partially by solid gains at the Publishing and Networks divisions. Other revenues decreased 21% to $472 million, due to declines at the America Online and Publishing divisions. The quarter's EBITDA rose 14% to $2.0 billion, led by growth at the Filmed Entertainment, Networks and Cable divisions, as well as a decline in restructuring charges from $107 million in the year-ago quarter to $24 million this quarter. Excluding the effect of these charges, EBITDA grew 9%. Operating Income climbed 9% to $1.2 billion, reflecting the EBITDA growth, which was offset in part by increased depreciation primarily at the America Online and Cable divisions. Cash Flow from Operations was $1.5 billion. Free Cash Flow totaled $1.0 billion, or 48% of EBITDA, partially due to the favorable timing of working capital requirements. At the end of the quarter, the Company's net debt totaled $26.3 billion, versus $25.8 billion at year-end 2002. This net debt balance includes $2.1 billion of incremental borrowings upon the closing of its Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. ("TWE") restructuring transaction. This increase was substantially offset during the quarter by the sale of an investment in GM Hughes for approximately $800 million, as well as the generation of significant free cash flow that was used to reduce debt. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33925115 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:39:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lucent Technologies Reports Results for Second Quarter Lucent Technologies Reports Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal 2003 - Apr 23, 2003 07:02 AM (PR Newswire) * Revenues of $2.4 billion for the quarter show a sequential increase of 16 percent * Loss per share of 14 cents includes a net unfavorable impact of 6 cents per share for global settlement of shareowner litigation and other items * Posts 10-point improvement in gross margin rate MURRAY HILL, N.J., April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today reported results for the second quarter of fiscal 2003, which ended March 31, 2003, in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). The company recorded revenues of $2.4 billion in the quarter, which represented a 16 percent sequential increase from the $2.08 billion in revenues achieved in the first quarter of fiscal 2003. The company recorded $3.52 billion in revenues in the year-ago quarter. The company's net loss for the quarter was $351 million or 14 cents per share(1). These results compare with a loss of $264 million or 11 cents per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2003 and a loss of $495 million or 16 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. The second quarter's loss per share included the negative impact of charges associated with the global settlement of Lucent's shareowner litigation (11 cents per share) and the repurchase of convertible securities and certain debt obligations (6 cents per share). These charges were partially offset by certain income tax benefits (6 cents per share), a net reduction of reserves for certain business restructuring actions and certain other matters (5 cents per share). The net unfavorable impact of these items was 6 cents per share(2) in the second quarter. By comparison, the loss per share for the first quarter of fiscal 2003 included the net favorable impact of 4 cents per share(2) due to the reduction of reserves for a legal settlement associated with Lucent's former consumer products leasing business and certain business restructuring actions, customer financing recoveries and the repurchase of convertible securities, including the resulting tax benefits. The loss per share for the year ago quarter included the net unfavorable impact of 2 cents per share of several items, including tax charges associated with changes in tax legislation and income from discontinued operations. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33925811 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:42:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: BellSouth Reports First Quarter Earnings Gains In Long Distance, DSL, Packages Aid Revenue; Cingular Wireless Adds 189,000 Net Customers ATLANTA, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS) reported earnings per share (EPS) of 66 cents in the first quarter of 2003, compared to a net loss of 8 cents per share in the same quarter of 2002. Consolidated revenues were $5.52 billion, compared to $5.53 billion in the first quarter of 2002. BellSouth reduced consolidated total operating expenses $21 million in the first quarter, compared to the same three months of 2002. Net income was $1.2 billion, compared to a net loss of $154 million in the first quarter of 2002. In accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), consolidated revenues and consolidated total operating expenses do not include BellSouth's 40 percent share of Cingular Wireless. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33926731 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:45:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EarthLink Reports Results For First Quarter 2003 EarthLink Reports Results For First Quarter 2003; Includes record Broadband subscriber growth of 112,000 - Apr 22, 2003 07:02 AM (PR Newswire) ATLANTA, April 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EarthLink, Inc. (Nasdaq: ELNK) today announced its financial results for its first quarter that ended March 31, 2003. EarthLink reported that revenues grew to $353.7 million in the quarter, an increase of 6.1 percent from the same period a year ago. Earnings before interest income and expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) excluding facility exit costs were $22.0 million, improving from $6.5 million a year ago. Net earnings before facility exit costs and acquisition-related amortization were $1.5 million. Neisition-related amortization was $61.9 million. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33911459 ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Phone Filter For Dial-up Connection Date: 23 Apr 2003 11:35:55 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Bruce Kille wrote in message news:: > Might I suggest doing what I do. Use a simple toggle switch (double > pole, double throw) with the center of the switch going to the telco > demark, one normally open side to all your phones, and the other open > side of the switch to your modem. Now all you have to do is remember > to flip the switch. ;^) There are line sharing devices that duplicate > the manual switch function automatically, but might still be "seen" by > your modem and still effect your connect speed. The toggle switch > works great for this, and keeps others in the house from picking up on > your connection too. ;^) > YMMV, > Bruce You should be using a make-before-break switch to lessen the chance of throwing a flash-hook on an analog line. RP ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Phone Filter For Dial-Up Connection Date: 23 Apr 2003 16:16:09 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) > The throughput on my dial-up connection is adversely effected > (cumulatively) by each telephone connected to the line. I was > wondering if there might be some kind of filter I could use to > eliminate the problem? It's a real pain having to unplug the phones > whenever I want to connect to the Internet, and then plugging them > back in again afterwards (which I forget to do half the time). I know > there are filters for DSL lines, to keep the analog devices from > effecting the DSL connection. Would that type of filter help at all > with a dial-up connection? Thanks. No. The solution to this is to stop buying crappy phones that load down the line so heavily. This should NOT happen with decent phones. What is the REN on these phones? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 16:24:48 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase I was wondering what the reference to "the ILEC" is in this article about SBC, in: "The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC loses ..." I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange Carrier". Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell Operating Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) who is the major telephone company in MA, is not an ILEC in that state or any state it operates in; in fact there is only one ILEC listed (by TANE - Telephone Association of New England) in the state of MA. Telephone companies like Taconic Telephone and Hancock Telephone in New York are called ILEC's because of their size and that they are independent operators with franchised physical territories in NY where Verizon has never (and probably will never) operate in.ILEC's have given service in all of those areas where Ma Bell never wanted to service and they have done this for over one-hundred years. The acronyms listed on many Internet teleco sites and in the publications are: LEC - Local Exchange Carrier - the BIG guys like the RBOC's - Verizon, SBC, etc.. ILEC - Independent Local Exchange Carrier - like Taconic, Berkshire and Delhi Telephone - the small franchised territory guys who supply regular residential/business telephone service. CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - like Choice One, AT&T, PaeTec and other telephone carriers "created" as result of the Telecom Act of 1996 to compete with the LEC's (they never really got into the ILEC markets as they are too small for them to make any money in!) Hope this helps to get the acronym straight! John Stahl Telecom.Data Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 17:22:37 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase > John Higdon wrote at Tue, 22 Apr 2003 > 21:11:39 0700 writes: > What is hard to believe is that the phone company is losing money on a > service that it fights tooth and nail to hang onto. We've been hearing > this chant about how "business service subsidizes residential service" > for decades, but I have yet to see any sort substantiation. "The > Commonwealth" simply chews on the figures given to it by the ILEC. It > has neither the resources nor the expertise to do a full-scale audit > of what amounts to a company that has more complexity and scope than > the commonweath's entire government structure. I read the DTE's Order in that case. "Cost" is a really loose concept; "below cost" has a lot of meanings! Just to give an idea of the stuff going on there ... TSLRIC is a cost-study method based on forward-looking incremental costs. TELRIC is like TSLRIC but it adds a share of common costs. Ramsey Pricing is like TSLRIC but it adds common costs based on a different method than TELRIC. The FCC orders the use of TELRIC to produce wholesale (UNE) rates to CLECs. The Mass. DTE looked at equivalent TELRIC rates, in part to determine if there's a "price squeeze" on CLECs. So VZ may be covering TSLRIC and maybe even Ramsey but not necessarily TELRIC. Note that the Mass. DTE is atypically close to the ILEC. They're sometimes called a "subsidiary of Verizon" or "Verizon's outside counsel". They typically rule against VZ when they expect that VZ's position would lose in a higher court; other than that, they give VZ more than enough rope to hang itself. Massachusetts TELRIC rates, recently recalculated by VZ based on DTE guidance, are now among the highest in the country. CLECs will now pay roughly twice New Jersey's UNE prices, for instance, even though both states are similarly urban and appear to me (and I've lived in both) to have similar costs. Even many rural states have lower UNE rates, because the Mass. DTE interprets TELRIC to produce amazingly high numbers. Also, everybody acknowledges that vertical features are pure profit, so while they may lose money on basic rates, they make money on the average ratepayer, because the average one takes a feature or three. ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: Spec For Delay: Off-Hook till Detect Dial-Tone Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 14:21:02 -0400 In TELECOM Digest Volume 22 Issue 401, wrote (in part): > This question originates from the quite common "modems fail to detect > dial-tone". > I'm guessing that the modems allow a certain time to detect dial-tone" > ? What is the spec. (for your country/telco) ? I don't know whether there is a specific published or officially adopted standard. All of the modem and chipset manufacturers I've encountered use a default (and minimum) value of 2 seconds (S-register 6). Some docs call this the "wait before blind dialing" parameter, but I have always been able to use it as the (minimum) time the modem will wait for dial tone under any circumstance (before determining a "no dial tone" condition). The maximum time a modem is permitted to wait is apparently regulated in some jurisdictions, but I don't know specifics by country. I have seen S6 settings that can go to a maximum of '99', '127', '255', and perhaps some others, but none greater than '255' or '256'. > A related question (to modems): is the modem supposed to 'activate its > "line-relay" ' soon after receiving the string: "ATZ" ? I have seen documentation for some chipsets that shows values of the 'ATZ' command that load settings but do not explicitly cause a reset. However, my experience with the actual devices is that an 'ATZ' command will cause any commands after it in the same line to be ignored, the modem to drop the phone line and reset, and the default settings to be loaded. > I guess that the delay to recgonise the dial-tone is irrelevant if the > line-relay doesn't pull in; or perhaps it is designed to drop-out > again if the dial-tone is not recognised in time ? Here again, my experience is not exhaustive, but the modem typically will connect to the line and wait seconds for dial tone to be recognized. If dial tone is not recognized, the phone line is dropped and the error is reported. I have dealt with many situations that require S6 to be set to a value greater than default ('2'). The most common is when using a phone line that is provisioned with any of several special features that are indicated to the user with an interrupted ("stutter") dial tone: voice mail audible message waiting signal, forward activated, data protection activated, DND activated, etc. I typically include 'S6=4' in modem initialization strings. Occasionally, I have had to set it as high as '8' to allow the modem to use the line with whatever features are on it. Paul A Lee                     Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer   [Voice & Transmission]        Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 Tell your senator you support Senate Bill 877 to CAN-SPAM . Find him/her at http://www.senate.gov/. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze Date: 23 Apr 2003 14:34:56 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Monty Solomon wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Anywhere* it is legal and lawful for a > *LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER* to stand and observe what is going on, it is > lawful for a mechanical eye to do the same thing. Yes, but the question is whether it is beneficial. The police officer on the beat not only can watch what is going on, but he can also respond. The TV camera cannot respond, it can only help inform someone else who will later on. My worry is that police departments are using television cameras as a poor substitute for actually sending police officers out onto the streets and this is bad. > If it is lawful to have a police officer on every public street > corner in the United States (although admittedly it is not practical > or effective where the money to do so is concerned) then a camera > can be there instead. This is true. But putting cameras on every corner just makes people feel uncomfortable. Putting police officers on every corner might also make people feel uncomfortable too, of course. They are both bad ideas for the same reason, even though they are perfectly legal. > I do not like the idea myself, but logic would dictate it > is an acceptable form of policing. People who want to scream about > constitutional violations should first read the damn thing. Not everything constitutional is a good idea, though. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:28:46 -0700 In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Dave and the other guys who have > responded in this thread point out that in larger, more dense > metropolitan areas, the citizens are likely to use up more of > the possible 'number combinations' than are the citizens in the > lesser populated areas. PAT] It is almost a badge of distinction these days to live in a major metropolitan area and have an area code that actually looks like an area code and a prefix that looks like a prefix. I'll be enjoying that until my area code changes to "669" as it will in the near future, thanks to the ninnies who scuttled overlays in California. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 10:49:42 -0600 Subject: Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Tue, 22 Apr 2003 23:31:14 -0400 (EDT), John Higdon wrote: >> And if anyone at one of these places had that kind of slack time in >> their jobs to do that, they were fired back in 1998. > The ONLY people that would be able to sit around making analog dubs at > today's radio stations might be interns. However, entrusting analog > dubbing (which requires meticulous level setting, determining start, > end and cue points, and labelling), producing a recording that will be > in the system indefinitely and heard over and over again to a high > schooler, does not float the boat of many music and program directors. In January 1995, during my second year of "radio school" (the Cinema, Television, Stage & Radio Arts program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), I was assigned to a three-week practicum at MIX-105 in lovely (and bitterly cold at the time) Vernon, British Columbia. I got to do a little bit of everything at that radio station, including some of the dubbing you mentioned. They had a combination of systems. In the on-air booth, they had a pair of Denon professional CD players, plus one Sony "consumer" CD player just in case (I think it dated back a ways and at one time THIS was the only CD player they had). They also had a 1000-disc changer system, and the vast majority of their music was played directly from CD. But they also had just recently installed a new system -- I can't tell you anything about it, as I just don't know -- that allowed them to "record" music directly to hard drive. The server was in the basement and had a whopping 20 gigabytes of storage -- impressive in those days, but it was nearly always running out of space because they were storing full-length songs, commercials, and the like, in uncompressed form. While they weren't converting their old CD collection into hard drive files, they were putting all new songs that they were adding to their library into this system. As the practicum guy, I got to spend hours in the studio, sticking discs into another Sony "consumer" CD player and recording directly to hard drive (across the network) in an analog fashion. Set the levels ahead of time. Cue the disc. Click "record" a fraction of a second before hitting "play". And hit "stop" the instant the last strains of the music ended. You wanted to get it all done in one go, because editing the file (ie: if there's too much silence at the beginning) was a serious pain in the ass. The editing software was there, but we're talking about ENORMOUS files being manipulated across a 10-base network. Hopefully by now they've moved to something a bit more advanced, but that's how it was done a mere 8 years ago. Granted, this was a small-market station, one of two in a city of about (I think) 60,000 people, but there ya go. > Furthermore, the preferred way to transfer a CD is digital ripping. > Any CDs that still permit that method will still be added to the > library in that manner. So analog dubbing would require that the > station maintain two separate modes for entering songs into the > library. > We all know that the Internet music sharers will right readily analog > dub the new CDs to MP3s and put them up on the web sites as they always > have. The bottom line is that all the record companies will accomplish > with their new scheme is to inconvenience its paying customers and to > restrict airplay for new songs. If the record companies thing for one > second that this move will even slow down the trading of songs on the > net, they are even more deluded that I thought originally. I think it's something that's easily rectified. At MIX-105, the music director would receive a pile of CD's every day. Lots of it she'd literally toss out (or give away to whoever in the station wanted 'em), because it didn't fit our format (a mix of retro 80's "new wave" and rock, plus modern rock and dance tracks, even a bit of country). Why they were sending discs that clearly didn't fit our format, I just don't know, but there ya go. The discs were "consumer" discs -- they were the exact same disc that you'd buy in the stores. Assuming this practice has continued, the problem you've mentioned (being unable to digitally rip from CD's) would definitely be a serious problem. But what's stopping the record labels from creating a separate pressing of "radio station only" discs that are only sent to radio stations and contain no copy protection? Seems trivial to me. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: shpat01@yahoo.com (shpat01) Subject: MCI Sucks!!!! Date: 23 Apr 2003 11:17:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I cancelled my telephone line two months ago, and the cancellation did not go through for another month. When I received a full month's bill (and not the prorated bill), I called up the customer service, and she said, that she will have to take the cancellation order again, and that I have to pay the bill in full, and I should keep checking if the line has been disconnected, and then call back the customer service to get a credit on my account. Today, I called MCI customer service, and they said that the financial department can give me a refund, and they cannot help. The financial representative transferred me back to the customer service department, saying they cannot help me, and the customer service should be able to help me. They kept transferring me back and forth, I kept repeating the same story everytime I was transferred, finally the seventh time, the representative told me that they cannot give me a credit, because the last invoice is not pro-ratable. This is unbelievable, because on my first line, they did send me a pro-rated bill. I think MCI is collecting money from people using these kind of tactics, and trying to come out of bankruptcy. I hope that the company is doomed for ever. Speaking of their accounting, none of the representatives have any clue of what's going on in the system. They kept sending me someone else's bill, and that account was disconnected a long time ago!! I had to make a lot of phone calls to get that issue fixed. Please stay away from MCI, and save your precious time and money (and peace of mind). [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: MCI was literally the *first* of the alternate long distance carriers to AT&T (whom everyone, it seems mostly hated) back in the late 1960's. In those days, it was _M_icrowave _C_ommunications, _I_ncorporated. MCI was dearly loved by the same people who bitterly hated AT&T. For the first few years of the company's existence, it successfully traded on the hated reputation the 'Bell System' had. MCI was fond of getting subscribers by lying to them and telling them how their (MCI's) rates were so much lower than AT&T's. In companies, they would tell that lie, and if the person in charge of the phone system did not buy it, or disputed the 'facts' as they were presented, the MCI rep would demand to speak to that person's supervisor, and they would continue working up the ladder until they found someone stupid enough to believe them and order the change over to MCI 'service'. Since there was so much general dislike of the Bell System (no paragon of good, friendly, reliable customer service either in those days), if the MCI rep even slightly told an accurate story (or half-truth is more like it), the account would soon be theirs. Then a couple years later, Sprint came along. In those days, both MCI and Sprint only had long distance service, and then only in limited territories, mostly along the east-coast corridor, but very soon both of them 'came as far west' as Chicago, circa 1970. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 21:17:09 GMT In article , kb4mdz@earthlink.net says: > What was unique about it was the cashier system; instead of the pneumo > tubes, each sales station had a little 'trolley' to the cashier in the > center back of the store. You made your selections, the sales clerk > wrote up the slip and put it and your money into a little basket in > the trolley. They then yanked the pull chain, the basket went up to > the track at the ceiling, and the trolley whizzzzzzzed along its track > to the main cashier, who completed the slip and made your change, set > it back in the trolley and sent it whizzzzzzing back to your clerk. I recall that the Ann & Hope store in Cumberland, RI had a carriage trolley for getting from the 1st to 2nd floor. > And to keep the post relevant to telecom, the local Bell office had > only 5-digit (Rotary!) dialing into the early 1970's, I think, before > they got SS-whatever. North Kingstown, RI (401)-267 and (401)-268 was on an SxS switch until the mid to late 80's. It had five digit dialing also. ------------------------------ From: chipps@chipps.com (Ken) Subject: Need Information for Students on What a Tariff Is Date: 23 Apr 2003 14:27:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I need some references that students can look at on what a tariff is, why we have tariffs, what they do, and so on. Does anyone have a list of books and articles that discuss the background to tariffs and the philospohy behind them? ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #406 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 24 19:36:59 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3ONaxN13488; Thu, 24 Apr 2003 19:36:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 19:36:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304242336.h3ONaxN13488@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #407 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Apr 2003 19:37:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 407 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nortel Networks Reports Results for First Quarter of 2003 (M Solomon) Wi-Fi's Broken Promise (Monty Solomon) Habla usted Clear Channel? (Monty Solomon) New York Has a Number to Call: 311 (Monty Solomon) Apple Announcements to be Broadcast Live Via Satellite (Monty Solomon) Surveillance Nation-Part Two (Monty Solomon) EPIC Alert 10.08 (Monty Solomon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase ('nuther Bob) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John Higdon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John R. Levine) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Dave Phelps) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Fred R. Goldstein) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 08:49:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nortel Networks Reports Results for First Quarter of 2003 TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2003--Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT): -- Revenues: US$2.40 billion, down sequentially approximately 5% -- Net earnings of US$54 million; US$0.01 per common share -- Strong cash position of US$4.0 billion, up sequentially over US$100 million Nortel Networks Corporation (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) today reported results for the first quarter of 2003 prepared in accordance with United States generally accepted accounting principles, "GAAP." Commencing with this presentation of its first quarter 2003 results, Nortel Networks will no longer provide pro forma earnings (which is a non-GAAP financial measure). First Quarter 2003 Results Revenues were US$2.40 billion for the first quarter of 2003 compared to US$2.91 billion in the same period in 2002. Nortel Networks reported net earnings in the first quarter of 2003 of US$54 million, or US$0.01 per common share, compared to a net loss of US$841 million, or US$0.26 per common share, in the first quarter of 2002. Net earnings in the quarter included US$190 million of net earnings from discontinued operations -- net of tax, US$134 million of special charges for restructuring and an aggregate US$36 million (net of tax) for the amortization of acquired technology and deferred stock option compensation associated with acquisitions. The company's reported results also included approximately US$80 million of favorable impacts associated with reductions in accruals principally related to: the wind-down of integration activities of previously acquired companies, operations originally structured as joint ventures, and miscellaneous tax matters; which were more than offset by costs related to the return to profitability bonus plan for employees and stock-based compensation expense. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33939989 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:49:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wi-Fi's Broken Promise So far, its vision for the future has remained so-so. BY TOM KRAZIT, IDG NEWS SERVICE IF THE HYPE IS to be believed, the widespread adoption of the wireless Internet will change the way PCs, handhelds and websites are sold, and will alter how computer users live, work and play. What's interesting is that the hype persists. Maybe it's the lack of much else to cheer about in IT these days. Vendors are offering a future vision of "hot spots" everywhere so that home computer users move unencumbered from room to room while mobile workers can keep plugging away from airports, restaurants and, according to Intel's latest marketing blitz, football stadiums and swimming pools. But even members of the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit consortium of vendors involved in the wireless market, acknowledge that obstacles must be cleared before wireless networking becomes part of the mainstream corporation's IT budget, or part of a consumer's monthly communications bill. What's the Problem? http://www.darwinmag.com/read/040103/wifi.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 02:34:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Habla usted Clear Channel? If the FCC allows the two biggest Spanish-language media companies in the U.S. to merge, it'll create a media conglomerate that will dwarf all competitors -- and could help GOP-friendly radio titan Clear Channel deliver Hispanic votes for Bush in '04. Editor's note: Seventh in a series on the consolidation of power and ownership in the media landscape. By Eric Boehlert April 24, 2003 | How do you say Clear Channel in Spanish? Pending FCC approval, a new consolidated Spanish language media, music, and radio powerhouse may soon be born. The $2.4 billion deal between Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation and Univision Communications -- already the market leader in Spanish-language TV, cable, and music -- would create a new company that controls nearly 70 percent of Spanish-language advertising revenue in the United States. The deal is big and contentious, and involves politics, music and media -- and, to make matters even more interesting, Clear Channel, the U.S. radio station conglomerate, has a starring role. Clear Channel is HBC's largest shareholder, and the company has been accused by opponents of the deal of maneuvering illegally behind the scenes to exert control over HBC, as well as spreading rumors of drug use about the CEO of HBC's chief competitor. Clear Channel and Univision boast many similarities. Neither is known for the originality of its programming. Both are run by conservative, politically active billionaire Republicans, and both exert tremendous, near-monopoly power in their markets. In fact, if the merger goes through, Univision's power in the Spanish-speaking world would dwarf what Clear Channel has achieved in the radio and concert business over the past five years. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/04/24/univision/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 02:41:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New York Has a Number to Call: 311 By JENNIFER STEINHAUER The telephone operators at the city's 311 center had the alternate-side-of-the-street parking rules down pat. They knew what to do with a complaint about a broken traffic light. Marriage license issue? Loud car alarm? Recycling laws? Check! Check! Check! But then, there was the chicken. A woman in the Bronx had one living in her hallway, and she was none too happy about it. It seems she and her landlord had divergent views on all matters of rent and heat, a dispute that manifested itself in the landlord placing a rather menacing bit of fowl at her front door. The operator typed into the computer: "Chicken on stoop." The results were quickly forthcoming. What the lady had was an agricultural problem, and she was referred to the Department of Health. Of the array of changes undertaken by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg since he took office 15 months ago, few are as ambitious as his insistence on overhauling the way city residents receive information from their government. Appalled to learn during the campaign that there was no central clearing house where residents could call with their questions - there were over 40 call centers and help lines in the city connected to dozens of different agencies - Mr. Bloomberg decided after he was elected that he would set up a single line people could call to get answers to all questions pertaining to government, and to lodge their complaints. Similar systems exist in cities like Chicago, Baltimore and Dallas. Today, as many as 32,023 callers a day find their way to 311, which quietly went live in March. (The average daily volume is 8,385 calls.) New Yorkers get there either by dialing directly or because they have been redirected through another city hot line that will soon be obsolete. ... http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/23/nyregion/23PHON.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 08:43:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple Announcements to be Broadcast Live Via Satellite CUPERTINO, Calif., April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WHAT: Live satellite broadcast of Apple(R) announcements presented by Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO WHEN: Monday, April 28, 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT The presentation will be available via satellite at the following coordinates: Ku-band -- Telstar 5/Transponder: 25 K -- Orbital Slot: 97 degrees west -- Uplink Frequency: 14444.0 MHz -- Downlink Frequency: 12144.0 MHz -- Polarity: Vertical down -- Audio subcarriers: 6.2 and 6.8 C-band -- Galaxy 3C/Transponder 1 C -- Orbital Slot: 95 degrees west -- Uplink Frequency: 5945 MHz -- Downlink Frequency: 3720 MHz -- Downlink Polarity: Horizontal down -- Audio subcarriers: 6.2 and 6.8 - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33942542 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:42:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Surveillance Nation-Part Two In pursuit of security and service, we are submitting ourselves to a proliferation of monitoring technologies. But a loss of privacy is not inevitable. By Dan Farmer and Charles C. Mann May 2003 http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/farmer0503.asp Surveillance Nation Webcams, tracking devices, and interlinked databases are leading to the elimination of unmonitored public space. Are we prepared for the consequences of the intelligence-gathering network we're unintentionally building? By Dan Farmer and Charles C. Mann April 2003 http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/farmer0403.asp ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:45:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 10.08 ======================================================================= E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================= Volume 10.08 April 23, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_10.08.html ======================================================================= Table of Contents ======================================================================= [1] Coalition Alleges Violations of Children's Privacy Law [2] FOIA Documents on ChoicePoint Spark International Inquiries [3] EPIC Establishes Privacy Threat Index [4] Online Petition Drive Continues to Urge Accuracy for FBI Database [5] Privacy and First Amendment Symposium: 5/9/03, Oakland, CA [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: The File: A Personal History [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_10.08.html ------------------------------ From: 'nuther Bob Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 11:38:44 -0400 On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 17:22:37 -0400, Fred R. Goldstein wrote: > Note that the Mass. DTE is atypically close to the ILEC. They're > sometimes called a "subsidiary of Verizon" or "Verizon's outside > counsel". They key factor in all of this. Like most gov't committees in MA, they are a bunch of politically connected hacks who serve only to collect a salary and "benefits" while never serving the public interest in any way. Bob ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 18:48:00 -0700 In article , John Stahl wrote: > I was wondering what the reference to "the ILEC" is in this article > about SBC, in: "The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC > loses ..." > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". How about "incumbent Local Exchange Carrier", which is how it is commonly used in this neck of the woods? > Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell > Operating Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) who is the major > telephone company in MA, is not an ILEC in that state or any state it > operates in; in fact there is only one ILEC listed (by TANE - > Telephone Association of New England) in the state of MA. It isn't an RBOC, and that's for sure. I don't think there are any RBOCs left, since the term referred one of the Regional Bell Operating Companies that were spun off from AT&T after divestiture. Verizon (formerly GTE) was definitely NOT one of those. > Telephone companies like Taconic Telephone and Hancock Telephone in > New York are called ILEC's because of their size and that they are > independent operators with franchised physical territories in NY where > Verizon has never (and probably will never) operate in.ILEC's have > given service in all of those areas where Ma Bell never wanted to > service and they have done this for over one-hundred years. Yes, those would be the Incumbent Local Exchange Companies for the areas they serve, but being associated (or not) with the former Bell System has nothing to do with it. > The acronyms listed on many Internet teleco sites and in the > publications are: > LEC - Local Exchange Carrier - the BIG guys like the RBOC's - > Verizon, SBC, etc.. I wouldn't even classify SBC as an RBOC. It is a conglomeration of several RBOCs. > ILEC - Independent Local Exchange Carrier - like Taconic, Berkshire and > Delhi Telephone - the small franchised territory guys who supply regular > residential/business telephone service. A term that means nothing in post-divestiture times. That's why it doesn't mean that. > CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - like Choice One, AT&T, > PaeTec and other telephone carriers "created" as result of the Telecom > Act of 1996 to compete with the LEC's (they never really got into the > ILEC markets as they are too small for them to make any money in!) Ah, you sort of got one right! > Hope this helps to get the acronym straight! Well, it does give us an insight into your way of thinking. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 02:42:40 GMT In article , aljon@stny.rr.com says: > I was wondering what the reference to "the ILEC" is in this article > about SBC, in: "The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC > loses ..." > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell > Operating Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) who is the major > telephone company in MA, is not an ILEC in that state or any state it > operates in; in fact there is only one ILEC listed (by TANE - > Telephone Association of New England) in the state of MA. > Telephone companies like Taconic Telephone and Hancock Telephone in > New York are called ILEC's because of their size and that they are > independent operators with franchised physical territories in NY where > Verizon has never (and probably will never) operate in.ILEC's have > given service in all of those areas where Ma Bell never wanted to > service and they have done this for over one-hundred years. > The acronyms listed on many Internet teleco sites and in the > publications are: > LEC - Local Exchange Carrier - the BIG guys like the RBOC's - > Verizon, SBC, etc.. > ILEC - Independent Local Exchange Carrier - like Taconic, Berkshire and > Delhi Telephone - the small franchised territory guys who supply regular > residential/business telephone service. ILEC - Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. Used all the time in the PUC unit of the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 03:12:37 GMT On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 16:24:48 -0400, John Stahl posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > I was wondering what the reference to "the ILEC" is in this article > about SBC, in: "The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC > loses ..." > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell > Operating Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) who is the major > telephone company in MA, is not an ILEC in that state or any state it > operates in; in fact there is only one ILEC listed (by TANE - > Telephone Association of New England) in the state of MA. TANE and the independents can use whatever terminology they want, but the acronyms generally used in the industry and FCC, based in large part on their usage in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, are: LEC = local exchange carrier - a company providing local wireline service - includes both incumbent telephone companies, such as the RBOCs' LEC subsidiaries and independent (non-RBOC) LECs, and competitive local exchange carriers - pronounced "LECK" ILEC = incumbent local exchange carrier - a traditional telephone company (RBOC or independent) - pronounced "EYE-LECK" CLEC = competitive local exchange carrier - a newcomer that provides local wireline service in competition with the ILEC - pronounced either "KLECK" or "SEE-LECK" (this term is not in the Telecom Act) Telecommunications carrier = a provider of telecommunications service, such as a LEC (any flavor), an interexchange carrier (long-distance company), a CMRS (wireless) carrier, or a handful of other providers IXC = interexchange carrier (long-distance company) - pronounced as initials (this term is not in the Telecom Act) CMRS or wireless carrier = a commercial provider of mobile service (optionally including long-distance service), such as cellular or PCS - specifically excluded from the definition of LEC unless and until the FCC determines otherwise - pronounced as initials (in the Telecom Act, this is called "commercial mobile service"; the FCC added the word "mobile") > Telephone companies like Taconic Telephone and Hancock Telephone in > New York are called ILEC's because of their size and that they are > independent operators with franchised physical territories in NY where > Verizon has never (and probably will never) operate in.ILEC's have > given service in all of those areas where Ma Bell never wanted to > service and they have done this for over one-hundred years. They are called "independents" in the world of the FCC, where ILECs are incumbents, including the RBOC LEC subsidiaries. Among the independents, perhaps the term ILEC is used at variance from the way it is used in the Telecom Act. > The acronyms listed on many Internet teleco sites and in the > publications are: > LEC - Local Exchange Carrier - the BIG guys like the RBOC's - > Verizon, SBC, etc.. > ILEC - Independent Local Exchange Carrier - like Taconic, Berkshire and > Delhi Telephone - the small franchised territory guys who supply regular > residential/business telephone service. Again, from the Telecom Act perspective and the way the term is used among RBOCs, large independents, and the FCC, the RBOCs' telephone operations are the ILECs for about 80% of the nation's population. > CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - like Choice One, AT&T, > PaeTec and other telephone carriers "created" as result of the Telecom > Act of 1996 to compete with the LEC's (they never really got into the > ILEC markets as they are too small for them to make any money in!) > Hope this helps to get the acronym straight! Clear as mud. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ Date: 24 Apr 2003 05:01:58 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". Nope, it's Incumbent Local Exchange Carrrier, the telco that used to be the monopoly telco before the invention of CLECs. > Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell Operating > Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) It's all of those, but it's also the ILEC in most of the northeastern US and all the ex-GTE areas. > Telephone companies like Taconic Telephone and Hancock Telephone in > New York are called ILEC's because of their size ... NO, they're ILECS because they used to be the monoply telco in Chatham, Hancock, etc. > CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - like Choice One, AT&T, > PaeTec and other telephone carriers .... It's possible but at the moment uncommon for the ILEC in one area to set up as a CLEC in another area and go poach customers. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 01:06:06 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , aljon@stny.rr.com says: > I was wondering what the reference to "the ILEC" is in this article > about SBC, in: "The Commonwealth has already determined that the ILEC > loses ..." > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell ILEC is Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:37:51 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase At 4/23/2003 07:00 PM -0400, John Stahl wrote: > I was thought that ILEC is the acronym for "Independent Local Exchange > Carrier". Now Verizon (usually called a RBOC or Regional Bell > Operating Company or LEC or Local Exchange Carrier) who is the major > telephone company in MA, is not an ILEC in that state or any state it > operates in; in fact there is only one ILEC listed (by TANE - > Telephone Association of New England) in the state of MA. No, that is terribly out of date. "ILEC" is a federally-recognized term meaning "incumbent local exchange carrier", defined as the certificated monopoly LEC as of 1996, or its successor. > ... The acronyms listed on many Internet teleco sites and in the > publications are: > LEC - Local Exchange Carrier - the BIG guys like the RBOC's - > Verizon, SBC, etc.. No, LEC is the broader term including ILECs and CLECs of all stripes. The Telecom Act in Section 251 makes distinctions between ILEC and CLEC. > ILEC - Independent Local Exchange Carrier - like Taconic, Berkshire and > Delhi Telephone - the small franchised territory guys who supply regular > residential/business telephone service. No, those are sometimes referred to as "IOCs", for "Independent Operating Companies", but never, ever ILECs where "I" is "independent". They are of course ILECs just like the Bells. Some of them are called "RLECs", for Rural LECs. > CLEC - Competitive Local Exchange Carrier - like Choice One, AT&T, > PaeTec and other telephone carriers "created" as result of the Telecom > Act of 1996 to compete with the LEC's (they never really got into the > ILEC markets as they are too small for them to make any money in!) Some CLECs do compete with independent ILECs. I have clients who do. Big NYSE-traded CLECs mostly avoided rural areas, but little CLECs often live there. But it is often hard. First off, unbundled network element rates (things like loops and T1s) in IOC areas are usually much higher than in RBOC areas. For instance the highest unbundled loops in some rural IOC areas are over $100/month, and those would compete with $10/month ILEC POTS service! (A more common rate is $30-45.) Second, "small rural" ILECs are exempt from most competition (not all) unless the state affirmatively rules to overturn the exemption (which usually happens on request). That doesn't cover the biggest rural chains like Sprint-Local, but impacts lots of areas. Telephone cooperatives are even more protected against competition. __ Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #407 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 24 21:34:37 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3P1YaZ14991; Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:34:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:34:37 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304250134.h3P1YaZ14991@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #408 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:34:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 408 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson CDT Appeals Pennsylvania Attorney General's Secrecy (Monty Solomon) CDT Headline: Proposed State Legislation Raises Questions (M Solomon) Re: Greenies (Gerry Belanger) Re: Surprise International Calling Card Bill (John Higdon) Re: Anyone Familiar With McLeodUSA's Dynamic PRI Service? (J Kelly) Modem to Measure Line Echo (Paul) Call Detail Records (Blake Sount) Re: AOL Time Warner Reports First Quarter 2003 Results ('nuther Bob) SBC Fraud Detection (Joel Garry) Norvergence (Chip130@aol.com) Automatic Number Identification System on the Intuity Conversant (rtdos) AT&T Local Access Charge (Scott Dorsey) EBay Goes to Court (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze (Paul Wallich) Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (Oliver Penn) Re: MCI Sucks!!!! (Steven J. Sobol) Re: MCI Sucks!!!! (Al Gillis) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:32:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CDT Appeals Pennsylvania Attorney General's Secrecy CDT has appealed the refusal by the Pennsylvania Attorney General to disclose the Internet web sites that he has blocked under a controversial state law. Since mid-2002, the Attorney General has issued over 300 secret censorship orders, with no judicial oversight or public review, requiring ISPs to block web sites that allegedly contain child pornography. Those orders also result in the blocking of hundreds or thousands of legitimate web sites that share the same "IP address" as the illegal sites. CDT assisted in the filing of a request under Pennsylvania's "Right to Know" law seeking to force the Attorney General to make his actions public. The Attorney General denied that request on April 1, and CDT has appealed, arguing that the Attorney General cannot continue to shield the censorship orders from public scrutiny. April 21, 2003 CDT Report on Penn. ISP Liability Law, Feb. 2003 [pdf] http://www.cdt.org/speech/030200pennreport.pdf Pa. Attorney General's Denial of "Right to Know Law" Request, Apr. 1, 2003 [pdf] http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennsylvania/030401pennsylvania.pdf CDT Administrative Appeal of Denial, Apr. 22, 2003 [pdf] http://www.cdt.org/speech/pennsylvania/030422appeal.pdf ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:31:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: CDT Headline: Proposed State Legislation Raises Consumer Questions In recent weeks, a number of state legislatures have come under pressure to pass controversial statutes that could substantially affect what consumers are able to do with audiovisual equipment, computer equipment, and content they purchase. Currently under consideration in Georgia, Colorado, Massachusetts, and elsewhere, the proposed state legislation has the goal of preventing theft-of-service for cable and other communications service operators, but would have the effect of eliminating important consumer and research protections written into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Numerous consumer groups have raised concerns that, if states continue to pass such legislation, they will significantly undermine consumers' flexibility in the digital world. April 21, 2003 Electronic Frontier Foundation resource page: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/states/ Public Knowledge resource page: http://www.publicknowledge.org/education/super-dmcas.php Prof. Ed Felten's (Princeton University) personal page of resources: http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/superdmca.html Digital Millennium Copyright Act [pdf]: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pdf ------------------------------ From: glb1202@cognitronics.com (Gerry Belanger) Subject: Re: Greenies Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:51:28 GMT In article , Manny Olds wrote: > The classic APC was aspirin, Paracetamol (now known as acetaminophen, aka > Tylenol), and caffeine. Checking my Excedrin bottle... Acetaminophen 250mg, check; Asprin 250mg, check; Caffeine 65mg, check. This same formulation is in the Zee Medical First Aid cabinet at work, called "Pain Aid ESF" (Extra Strength Formula). Gerryb Address valid til the spam drowns it. ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Surprise International Calling Card Bill Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 17:09:51 -0700 In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sprint lies about almost > everything. Let that be a lesson to you! PAT] I think they all do. We all know that MCI never tells the truth, and Cingular is now on the list of liars. Remember that they quoted $0.99/minute for calls on a mobile phone back to the US. The actual charge was $2.49/minute. This was not a mistake on our part; they lied about it. In talking to a number of other Cingular customers, I found out that it is policy to lie about the rates. Of course, calls to Cingular all had the same bottom line: "You must have misunderstood; pay up." John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The rule should be that all you people *automatically* tape record *each and every* phone call with one of the customer disservice representatives you speak with. After all, they all give permission to do so these days by telling you the call MAY be recorded for 'quality assurance purposes'. So start recording and hold them to the quality they claim to be so good at. All they'll be able to say at that point was 'the rep made a mistake; the charges are tarriffed, so you have to pay them anyway'. Don't expect them to keep on forgiving the charges based on errors made by customer reps. But at least they won't be able to pretend like YOU are the dimwitted fool who does not know anything (which is how they talk about their customers behind their backs anyway.) PAT] ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Anyone Familiar With McLeodUSA's Dynamic PRI Service? Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 20:06:04 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com All I know about McLeod USA is that they can't even get a POTS line to work right. Mine was royally screwed for a month and then I switched back to Qworst. Several other people I know that tried them reported the same thing. I also believe that they are still in bankruptcy. On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 09:36:03 -0700, Scott Ables wrote: > Has anyone any experience with McLeod's Dynamic PRI service? > I'm wondering what they mean when they say they offer dedicated data > on a PRI. Is it really just nailed up circuit switched data or are > they really DACCsing data onto the T1 and pulling it off prior to > delivering the PRI to the PBX??? > What CPE do they use? > How's it work, how well is it supported, is it reasonably priced? > TIA > scott.ables@integratelecom.com ------------------------------ From: rol@newyork.com (Paul) Subject: Modem to Measure Line Echo Date: 24 Apr 2003 06:25:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hello, Unimodem specifications v1.0 states that the command : AT#UD and AT#UG should report keys 14 : Near echo loss 15 : Far echo loss 16 : Far echo delay This is mentioned as Rec10 : Recommended for all implementations. The modems I've tested are reporting these values as always 0, which doesn't permit to know if it is because the info is not know, or because the line is OK. Could someone tell me of some modems which are known to measure and report these, and if possible modems working in Europe ? Please email me : rol@newyork.com Best regards, Roland ------------------------------ From: vhuertas@indra.es (Blake Sount) Subject: Call Detail Records Date: 24 Apr 2003 06:26:49 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi all, Does anybody know if there is a standard format for the CDR files? I mean, name of fields, length and type of data (strings of characters or numbers), etc. Thank you very much. Vic ------------------------------ From: 'nuther Bob Subject: Re: AOL Time Warner Reports First Quarter 2003 Results Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 11:38:43 -0400 On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 13:38:04 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > EBITDA Increases 14% to $2.0 Billion; Operating Income Rises 9% to > $1.2 Billion > Free Cash Flow Totals $1.0 Billion; > Cash Flow from Operations Amounts to $1.5 Billion > > AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL) today reported financial results > for its first quarter ended March 31, 2003. Interested readers might want to check out the SEC investigation into the alleged mis-stating of advertising revenues by $400 million. See the NY Times Monday/4-21 edition for the full story. Bob ------------------------------ From: joel-garry@home.com (Joel Garry) Subject: SBC Fraud Detection Date: 24 Apr 2003 11:43:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi all! I was wondering if anyone knew details of how SBC fraud detection works. This is what happened: I'm a landlord (go ahead and boo). OK, so a tenant who had lived there for many years before I was involved, paying the rent and generally being quiet, suddenly flaked out, stop paying rent and bills, etc. Eventually I evicted him, got a default judgment. Painted the place, cleaned the carpet, generally got it nice, rented it to some new people (who speak little English and are related to the tenants next door); huge March storm comes and floods the place out before they move in. OK, takes me a couple weeks to fix the disaster, then they move in. Now it's a few weeks later. I get a call, SBC has cancelled their phone service. They get across to me it was something about the previous tenant. So I call SBC and ask. I'm told they set off the fraud detection because they called the same non-business telephone number as the previous tenant. Then I'm told (this call by me was routed through 4 different people who weren't quite consistent in their stories) that the new people were called by SBC and asked if the old person was there, and someone answered in the affirmative. Now, all this set off little alarm bells in my head. It is possible that the new people actually do know the old person (certainly the people next door did), but why would they call me and ask who it is -- they didn't get the name exactly right? The level of scam sophistication that implies seems out of proportion. More believable would be that there is something screwy with their call matching software (perhaps because the new people asked to start the phone service before the disaster), and/or that some obnoxious fraud person called up and asked in English if someone they never heard of lived there, and a kid answered "yes, let me get my mommie," and then mommie wasn't too cooperative with someone claiming to be from the phone company asking strange questions and demanding payment for a bill from before they moved in. What, if anything, should I do? jg @home.com is bogus For email, lowercase the dash and use compuserve.com. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I assume the only reason or the main reason you want to get involved is as a good neighbor who has a good command of the English language and wants to help these folks. You have bitten off a lot to chew in that case, as it may go on for months and months. First of all, telephone the chairman's office and follow it up with a registered letter to the chairman telling him that these people do not speak English; that they have no knowledge of any fraud (I am *assuming* the people next door were not in on it) and that you are expecting the phone service to be restored immediatly. Don't mess around talking to any customer service reps; they are idiots for the most part. (But you do not have to and should not say that in any letters or phone calls to the chairman's office.) Advise the chairman's office that you are also filing an immediate appeal with the commission (in your state) which handles telephone service, and that essentially you will see his people in court. Tell him also that the company taking advantage of foreign-speaking people in this way is outrageous, and you may be writing to the television and radio stations about it to 'see how they can be of help'. I can assure you that will get their phone back on promptly. That is, unless the new tenants didn't quite give you the entire, truthful account of the matter, in the proper context. Please make sure *YOU* don't get egg on your face in this matter. In the interim, consider getting them a cellular phone to use. Get it in your name; you get the bills; you pay the bills. Tell them their monthly rent payment is going to be increased by the amount of the cellular phone bill (let's say thirty dollars per month) and that the first thirty dollars each month they put your hands is for the phone bill; they have not started paying the rent (for legal reasons) until the phone charges are paid each month. The reason for this is that if these folks are not as honorable as you would like, they may try to stiff you on the phone bill **and you have no easy and effective recourse** against that. On the other hand, if their monthly 'rent' payment is short thirty dollars (or however much) each month (or some month) you can resort to eviction under your state laws. Mark their receipts plainly 'for rent' and 'for phone service'. Insist to them "I get no RENT money each month until I get the PHONE bill money". Once this matter is resolved, if it is, then get the cell phone turned off or keep it for yourself to use, etc. If SBC comes to realize the error of their ways, they'll have their phone service back in a hurry. If -- God forbid -- SBC knows what they are talking about and sticks to their guns, you'll have to take a different approach. **Make certain your tenants are not lying to you or leaving out any pertinent details**. In their defense, SBC is not required under any tariff to provide phone service when they get defrauded in the process. They *are* required to provide phone service to any individual who asks for it otherwise, since they are a common carrier. I knew this phone phreak once in Chicago. He came home from work one day, and a phraud investigator from telco was waiting for him on his front porch. The investigator told him point blank, I have to give you 24 hours notice that your service is being yanked, and this is your notice. Tomorrow at this time, your phone will be dead. Frankly, I hope you are never able to get service again. Illinois politicians and government are *so* corrupt, it only stands to reason the Illinois Commerce Commmission is also. The phreak told me he had to hire some shyster lawyer to go speak for him at the Commission, pay about six hundred dollars to the lawyer to be 'spread around' in order to get his phone service turned back on three or four days later. Let us know what you decide to do and how it turns out. I guess the 'former tenant' must have been a real loser. I repeat, make sure these new people are being totally straight with you. No attorney likes getting up in court and hearing things from the other side that his client should have been honest enough to tell him first. As to your initial question 'how do fraud control algorythyms work' or words to that effect, they work pretty well. The new and improved ESS tells authorities a lot of details they could not get in the old days, including who calls whom, for how long, how often, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Chip130@aol.com Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 15:04:14 EDT Subject: Norvergence Does anyone have any info on Norvergence and their Fast Data hardware system? ------------------------------ From: rtdos@hotmail.com (rtdos) Subject: Automatic Number Identification System on the Intuity Conversant Date: 24 Apr 2003 12:28:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Is it possible to design an application on the Conversant using either scriptbuilder or voice@work so that when a particular number is dialed the conversant (using recorded speech) can give the caller the extension they are dialing from and if it is an outside line simply to tell the caller it is an outside line (but don't give the caller the number but only if it is an inside number or extension number) and then hang up? What would I need to ADD to my conversant to write this application myself? Any tools ? Jeff http://www.rtdos.com http://groups.msn.com/telcomadmin (formerly http://groups.yahoo.com/group/telcomadmin) ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 24 Apr 2003 16:12:46 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. They give me a telephone number to call and ask for more information, at 1-800-333-5256. Now, what is the problem? The problem is that I have AT&T selected only as my out of state long-distance carrier and all of my in-state calls are handled by a small carrier that is much cheaper. But now AT&T is going to charge me a subsidy to operate a service that I'm not ordering or receiving from them? So, I call the number ... and it consists entirely of recorded messages, none of which answer any of my questions ... and no way to get out and talk to a human being. Anybody have any clue what is going on here? Do I need to contact the PUC? --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Instead of contacting the PUC you need to get rid of AT&T and choose some other carrier (such as the inexpen- sive one you use for your in-state calls). PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 14:18:44 -0600 From: Joey Lindstrom Subject: eBay Goes to Court Reply-To: joey@garynuman.info NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Online auction house eBay, one of the last remaining winners from the dot-com bubble, is going on trial over the very foundation of its success: the programs and procedures that run the popular cyber-bazaar. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/04/24/72473-ap.html ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 16:51:32 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Anywhere* it is legal and lawful for a >> *LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER* to stand and observe what is going on, it is >> lawful for a mechanical eye to do the same thing. > Yes, but the question is whether it is beneficial. The police officer > on the beat not only can watch what is going on, but he can also > respond. The TV camera cannot respond, it can only help inform > someone else who will later on. The cop on the beat also can't generally be called by random third parties to testify about observations of events that had no criminal behavior attached to them. Traffic cameras can show who is in a car with whom, outdoor surveillance video can be analysed to determine when houses or appartments are occupied or empty, and some of what is going on inside. Automated tollbooth records are already being used in lawsuits; just take that and run with it. Unless you can somehow figure out how to take video surveillance and sanitize every bit of information that doesn't have to do with a crime, it's an enormous stream of privacy-violating data just waiting to be tapped. paul ------------------------------ From: ccis4sofi@yahoo.com (Oliver Penn) Subject: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: 24 Apr 2003 14:15:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I can only find one previous posting in this group on this subject. It was more conjecture than information. I live in what must be one of the smallest markets where DSL is available. Speeds vary but generally, it is not very fast. Vonage home page testing says I need to use their speed booster. Only news papers seem to cover it. The Dallas Morning News writer "After testing the service for several weeks ..." recently said it was simple. Do any of the knowledgable telephone folks in this group have any recent personal experience with this service, especially with 'slow' DSL connections? Oliver(recovering telephone guy)Penn Gun Barrel City, TX ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: MCI Sucks!!!! Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 23:16:50 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From shpat01 (shpat01@yahoo.com): > Today, I called MCI customer service, and they said that the financial > department can give me a refund, and they cannot help. The financial > representative transferred me back to the customer service department, > saying they cannot help me, and the customer service should be able to > help me. They kept transferring me back and forth, I kept repeating > the same story everytime I was transferred, finally the seventh time, > the representative told me that they cannot give me a credit, because > the last invoice is not pro-ratable. This is unbelievable, because on > my first line, they did send me a pro-rated bill. File a complaint with your state Public Utilities Commission. I am lucky in that Ohio's PUC has been able to get a couple telephone-related issues resolved favorably for me. Also file a complaint with your state Attorney General. > Please stay away from MCI, and save your precious time and money (and > peace of mind). Well, duh! Steve Sobol/CTO/JustThe.net LLC/Mentor On The Lake (Cleveland), OH/888.480.4NET "This country has a strong ethical foundation, but... I hesitate to say that erosion has set in, but it is clear that more and more of what we are is being built on sand and not on that foundation." - G. Waleed Kavalec, in SPAM-L ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: MCI Sucks!!!! Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 19:54:32 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Microwave Communications, Inc. is certainly the first name of that company and, at one time, just when they began to see revenues that peeked a little above the red some wags on the inside maintained that MCI stood for "Money Comin' In!" shpat01 wrote in message news:telecom22.406.14@telecom-digest.org... > I cancelled my telephone line two months ago, and the cancellation did > not go through for another month. When I received a full month's bill > (and not the prorated bill), I called up the customer service, and she > said, that she will have to take the cancellation order again, and > that I have to pay the bill in full, and I should keep checking if the > line has been disconnected, and then call back the customer service to > get a credit on my account. > Today, I called MCI customer service, and they said that the financial > department can give me a refund, and they cannot help. The financial > representative transferred me back to the customer service department, > saying they cannot help me, and the customer service should be able to > help me. They kept transferring me back and forth, I kept repeating > the same story everytime I was transferred, finally the seventh time, > the representative told me that they cannot give me a credit, because > the last invoice is not pro-ratable. This is unbelievable, because on > my first line, they did send me a pro-rated bill. > I think MCI is collecting money from people using these kind of > tactics, and trying to come out of bankruptcy. I hope that the company > is doomed for ever. > Speaking of their accounting, none of the representatives have any > clue of what's going on in the system. They kept sending me someone > else's bill, and that account was disconnected a long time ago!! I had > to make a lot of phone calls to get that issue fixed. > Please stay away from MCI, and save your precious time and money (and > peace of mind). > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: MCI was literally the *first* of the > alternate long distance carriers to AT&T (whom everyone, it seems > mostly hated) back in the late 1960's. In those days, it was _M_icrowave > _C_ommunications, _I_ncorporated. MCI was dearly loved by the same > people who bitterly hated AT&T. For the first few years of the > company's existence, it successfully traded on the hated reputation > the 'Bell System' had. MCI was fond of getting subscribers by lying > to them and telling them how their (MCI's) rates were so much lower > than AT&T's. In companies, they would tell that lie, and if the > person in charge of the phone system did not buy it, or disputed the > 'facts' as they were presented, the MCI rep would demand to speak to > that person's supervisor, and they would continue working up the > ladder until they found someone stupid enough to believe them and > order the change over to MCI 'service'. Since there was so much > general dislike of the Bell System (no paragon of good, friendly, > reliable customer service either in those days), if the MCI rep even > slightly told an accurate story (or half-truth is more like it), the > account would soon be theirs. Then a couple years later, Sprint came > along. In those days, both MCI and Sprint only had long distance > service, and then only in limited territories, mostly along the > east-coast corridor, but very soon both of them 'came as far west' > as Chicago, circa 1970. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #408 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 24 23:50:49 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3P3onE16566; Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:50:49 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:50:49 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304250350.h3P3onE16566@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #409 TELECOM Digest Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:51:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 409 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Difference in Allones and AIS in e1/t1 Testing (kris) Re: Wi-Fi's Broken Promise (dold@Wi-FiXsXBr.usenet.us.com) What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? (AES/newspost) Public Session on Privacy in Government Systems (Monty Solomon) American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign News Sites (Monty Solomon) SBC Communications Reports First-Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? (Higdon) Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? (Ellers) Re: Area Code Statistics (Justin Time) Re: Area Code Statistics (nmclain@annsgarden.com) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Alan Fowler) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Mike O) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Dale Farmer) Re: MCI Sucks! (John Higdon) Re: E-Bay Goes to Court (John Higdon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Garrett Wollman) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Dave Phelps) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cvkris@rediffmail.com (kris) Subject: Difference in Allones and AIS in e1/t1 Testing Date: 24 Apr 2003 16:38:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Can I get the possible reasons for "allones" signal in E1 frame. What is the possibility for getting it in a loopback? ------------------------------ From: dold@Wi-FiXsXBr.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Wi-Fi's Broken Promise Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:54:14 UTC Organization: a2i network Monty Solomon wrote: > So far, its vision for the future has remained so-so. > BY TOM KRAZIT, IDG NEWS SERVICE > IF THE HYPE IS to be believed, the widespread adoption of the wireless > Internet will change the way PCs, handhelds and websites are sold, and > will alter how computer users live, work and play. Has this guy not looked around? The reason that the commercial rollout of hot spots is so slow is because no one wants to pay for what they can get for free. When I moved recently, I had a delay in getting DSL hooked up at my house. I just drove around the block, and found 10-15 Wireless networks, a couple of them with strong enough signal to connect from my upstairs bedroom. I think the pay per minute services will eventually fail, except in captive markets like airports. Other than that, I expect pay listing services to thrive, and more and more places like MacDonalds to appear, where a paying customer is entitled to free internet access for a while, kind of like validated parking. I don't expect to pay $39.95 a month for an occasional connection to a Starbucks coffee shop, when I already have DSL at home. Wireless might get tacked on as a service from your regular ISP, the way dialup is today. ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 20:28:42 -0700 I have DSL service between my home and Stanford University's campus network, with the actual service provided by SBC/Pac Bell; my wife and I use it to access our separate accounts ("User ID's") on the Stanford campus net. A non-Stanford family member now wants to go direct to AOL via the Internet using the same DSL connection, without going through Stanford or piggybacking on either of our Stanford accounts. Is this feasible, or meaningful? I understand how DSL works technically, but I'm not up to speed on just what it connects to at the other end. Does DSL always connect only to a single ISP (presumably Stanford in this case) at the far end, and you have to go through that ISP to access the broader web? Or is it somehow "on the Internet" in a broader fashion, and one can connect directly to other sites? (I know, I know, why don't I ask Stanford or SBC about this? Answer: We're way beyond the distance limit for DSL -- about 25,000 feet to be exact. Stanford guys have been extraordinarily helpful in getting our service working, and I'm reluctant to pester them about anything more, at least until I get myself better educated; and the SBC guys have been pressed hard to get and maintain a particularly clean line for us, and I don't want to rattle their cages either -- they might just cut us off.) "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834-1902) "Dependence on advertising tends to corrupt. Total dependence on advertising corrupts totally." (today's equivalent) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have DSL from SBC also, but in my case I am only six blocks from our community telephone central office. I also have the same thing your family member is talking about, with AOL. I do not use AOL to browse or surf the net (I could, but that would be redundant since I have SBC Global.) But I do like to chat occassionally on line, so I use AOL's pricing plan called 'BYOA' (Bring Your Own Access) which only costs about five dollars per month. If all your party wants to do is chat via AOL, then the AOL Messenger is totally free. The five bucks or so per month is if you want email to go with it or check out other AOL features. Truth be told however, I could use the five dollars per month on other things and am thinking seriously about quitting that and going exclusively with Yahoo Messenger which is totally free. As to your question, 'what does DSL connect to on the other end', well it connects to an ISP. In this case SBC is probably your ISP, just as they are my ISP. You then either direct your ISP (through key strokes) to connect you with the university network just as I instruct my ISP (through key strokes) to connect me with MIT when I wish to work on this Digest. But SBC Global does not care who I connect with. Instead of connecting to MIT to work on the Digest, maybe I choose to connect with Yahoo to use the Instant Messenger or maybe I pick up my personal email at my personal account for same. Or maybe I look at some other sites, etc. I doubt they care who you connect with either. Now AOL is an ISP also, albiet a more fancy one. AOL will let you call in and use their system. Using the system does not cost that much, its the telephone lines that cost. So AOL says, yeah, you can hook up to us, surf the net, visit in our 'community', etc, but all the local phone lines we run all over the world have to be paid for, that will be $19.95 per month, thank you. However, if you get here on your own, i.e. 'Bring your own access' it will only cost you five dollars per month. (The difference between the actual cost of using the AOL ISP and using the AOL telephone lines into your community.) The only difference, I think, would be that when family member sits down at the computer, family member would instruct the ISP (SBC) through key strokes to connect her/him to AOL instead of the University net. And off they would go to AOL just as off you go to the University net. In fact, if SBC Global at your end is like SBC Global here, this person could have her own user name and email box @sbcglobal.net for no extra charge. I get ten names and ten boxes if desired. Now all this assumes that SBCGlobal is your ISP or internet service provider. If in fact your university has a deal with SBC where you are 'hard wired' through SBC direct to the university net so that when you sit down at the computer the first thing you see is a prompt from the university net without asking for anything at all, then it would appear that Stanford is your 'ISP' and all deals are off. Exactly *how* do you get to the university network? If you are dealing with Stanford DIRECTLY for internet connectivity, then you will need to ask them about their policies, etc. But if you are dealing with SBC and then in the course of a day's time sit at the computer and say in effect 'give me the university network' then it is no one's business at Stanford what your family does with your connection otherwise, and AOL does come cheap if you 'BYOA'. Give us a few more details on this please. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 10:33:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Public Session on Privacy in Government Systems CDT and the Council for Excellence in Government hosted a public event on important new federal government privacy rules that are expected to be issued in May as part of the Bush Administration's E-Government Act implementation. The new Chief Privacy Officer for the Department of Homeland Security and representatives from the Office of Management and Budget previewed the rules at this public event. April 23, 2003 Video of the event [Real Player required] Hour #1 http://www.cdt.org/egov/030423egovforum1.ram Hour #2 http://www.cdt.org/egov/030423egovforum2.ram Policy Post 8.25 "New Law to Require Privacy Impact Assessments for U.S. Agencies Nov. 11, 2002 http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_8.25.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 08:45:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign News Sites Aljazeera.net Skyrockets 1200 Percent, While BBC More Than Doubles Its Online Audience in the U.S. NEW YORK, April 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, shows that American surfers flocked to foreign news sites in March 2003 for additional and alternative coverage of the war in Iraq. Aljazeera.net experienced a 1,208 percent increase in traffic in March 2003, drawing more than one million surfers from the U.S. (see Table 1). About a third of these surfers, or 328,000, visited the English version of the site, which launched last month. British news site, BBC World Service surged 158 percent to 5.3 million surfers in March, attracting 3.2 million more unique visitors since February 2003. Both Aljazeera.net and BBC World Service drew predominantly male visitors comprising nearly 70 percent of the sites' total audience. Traffic to Reuters.com jumped 72 percent month-over-month, posting more than 2.1 million visitors. Like many other news sites, Reuters launched special streaming media content and coverage during the war. Newsmax.com and Fox News followed, increasing site traffic 51 and 43 percent, respectively. CNN and MSNBC, the two biggest online news sources in the U.S. continued their dominance in the overall unique audience rankings, attracting 26.2 and 24.3 and million unique visitors in March, with both sites increasing traffic by nearly a quarter over the previous month. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33942485 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Speaking of twelve hundred percent increases in traffic, do any of the old timers here remember that month in 1993 (at the very end of the 'golden age of the internet' when a fourteen *thousand* percent increase in traffic in internet web sites was reported as everyone -- literally everyone -- started 'discovering the new thing called the Web'. I think the first .com sites started coming on line in 1993. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 08:48:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: SBC Communications Reports First-Quarter Earnings SBC Communications Reports First-Quarter Earnings Per Diluted Share of $1.50; $0.74 Before Cumulative Effects of Accounting Changes SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2003-- Company Records Best-Ever Quarterly Growth in DSL and Long Distance: Adds 270,000 DSL Internet Subscribers and 1.5 Million Long-Distance Lines in First Quarter Reaches California Long-Distance Retail Line Penetration of 13 Percent for Consumer, 10 Percent Overall by April 21 SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC) today reported first-quarter results that reflect robust growth in DSL and long-distance subscribers despite continued revenue pressure and access line loss due to the economic and competitive environments. For the three months ended March 31, 2003, SBC reported earnings per diluted share of $0.74 before the cumulative effects of accounting changes and $1.50 after the cumulative effects of accounting changes. This compares with first-quarter 2002 results of earnings per diluted share of $0.48 before the effects of accounting changes and a loss per diluted share of $(0.06) after the effects of accounting changes. First-quarter 2003 results include an after-tax gain of $0.32 per diluted share related to the sale of SBC's interest in Cegetel, a joint venture that owns 80 percent of a French wireless company. Accounting changes are discussed in detail below. First-quarter reported revenues totaled $10.3 billion, compared with $10.5 billion in the year-ago period. These figures do not include proportionate results from Cingular Wireless, the nationwide wireless company that is 60 percent owned by SBC. Cingular's revenues for the quarter were $3.6 billion, up 1.3 percent from the prior-year period. Revenues also were affected by an accounting change discussed below. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33941129 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 16:59:17 -0700 In article , Joey Lindstrom wrote: > But what's stopping the record labels from creating a separate > pressing of "radio station only" discs that are only sent to radio > stations and contain no copy protection? Seems trivial to me. And what would stop folks at the radio stations from duplicating those discs (without the "for radio station use only" warning, of course)? Remember, the 1000th generation copy of one of those discs is identical to the original. The record companies are perfectly aware of this. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nothing would prevent it from happening, except that unlike your common garden-variety hacker/hustler sitting at his computer at home with only possibly a very thin line around his conscience to prevent massive rip offs, the radio station people are also presumably in business to make money and where they might go for something that would make it administrativly easier on them to do their jobs, they are far less likely to be interested in biting the hand which is feeding them (free records to play for their audience who hear the sponsor messages, etc). But the record companies could try Joey's suggestion to see if some sort of 'happy medium' could be reached, assuming of course the companies were realistic enough to know there would still be a little bit of 'leakage' of 'radio station play' copies of their things; hopefully a lot less than the general public. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 21:49:32 -0400 Joey Lindstrom wrote: > But what's stopping the record labels from creating a separate > pressing of radio station only" discs that are only sent to radio > stations and contain no copy protection? Seems trivial to me. But those discs would quickly be taken home, ripped, and posted all over the place. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my other message in this issue. YES that would happen a little. To what extext is debateable, compared to the 'general public'. After all, radio stations are in business to make money also, which I would think means among other things, taking some care in how many people can hear the music other than hearing it over YOUR airwaves along with YOUR sponsor's messages, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: 24 Apr 2003 07:12:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Dave Close wrote in message news:: >> How many millions of people does one area code serve? >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: ... >> But slightly under eight million number 'combinations' are possible >> per area code. I'll roughly guess that six million 'people' can be >> served. PAT] > Not around here. The population of the Los Angeles Area is around 12m > and we have at least nine area codes, more depending on where you draw > the line. So around here, at least, one area code doesn't serve much > more than 1m people. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Dave and the other guys who have > responded in this thread point out that in larger, more dense > metropolitan areas, the citizens are likely to use up more of > the possible 'number combinations' than are the citizens in the > lesser populated areas. PAT] There are other reasons more numbers are used in densly populated areas other than the assumption 'citizens are more likely to use up more.' The governmental body I consult to has 60K plus numbers in their centrex and they have run out of numbers with a little over 25,000 employees. A lot of the problem is due to hunt groups that hide behind a single number. As an example, our voice mail system has over 150 terminals hiding behind a single pilot number or the hundreds that can be assigned on DIDs. Then there are several call centers, mostly inbound. By the time you put a phone in most conference rooms, on tables in reception areas and begin to add in all the fax numbers and other digital/analog dial-up data lines - well, you get the picture! And that doesn't even begin to touch the point-to-point data circuits that aren't assigned a number but carry a circuit ID instead. Rodgers Platt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but ... the back lines in hunt groups do not have to have 'legitimate looking' numbers assigned to them. Many hunt groups other than a listed directory number have things like 174-xxxx and 175-xxxx as the 'numbers' for the back lines. No one is supposed to be dialing direct into those numbers anyway. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003 21:09:05 -0600 From: nmclain@annsgarden.com Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics joe@obilivan.net wrote: > And, there are places like Lone Pine, California that > take 10,000 numbers to serve 500 lines. Or even smaller: in Nelson, Nevada, all numbers are in the format 702-291-00XX. So there are, at most, 100 active numbers. Neal McLain nmclain@annsgarden.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They have some of those here in Kansas also. But then the breakdown is continued to the next digit (at least here). For example 620-289-4xxx (Tyro, Kansas) is not the same as 620-289-5xxx (another wide space in the road elsewhere close by. PAT] ------------------------------ From: amfowler@melbpc.org.au (Alan Fowler) Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 07:12:09 GMT Organization: Whitethorn Software Chuk Gleason wrote: > Actually, Pneumo tubes are still in common use many places; I've seen > them at the Home Depot store in Cary, NC (just outsida Raleigh) from > the cash registers to um, I've never asked where they go to. I'm > guessing other departments like Millwork, etc. Still works like a > champ. > Now for a _real_ blast from the past: In the small town of Gowanda, > NY, about 35 miles south of Buffalo, there was a clothing store named > "Himelein's"; I don't know when it was started, but it was in business > into the 1970's certainly. (For reference, I graduated high school in > 1976). In looking back at across the reaches of time, it was really > quite 'big' - it was two store-front widths. As I remember it, it had > those 'classic' details like pressed tin ceiling, probably wooden > floors, and ancient wooden display cases around the perimeter. In my > memory's eye, they were ancient even then! > What was unique about it was the cashier system; instead of the pneumo > tubes, each sales station had a little 'trolley' to the cashier in the > center back of the store. You made your selections, the sales clerk > wrote up the slip and put it and your money into a little basket in > the trolley. They then yanked the pull chain, the basket went up to > the track at the ceiling, and the trolley whizzzzzzzed along its track > to the main cashier, who completed the slip and made your change, set > it back in the trolley and sent it whizzzzzzing back to your clerk. > It was very impressive to many young kids! These were still in use in Melbourne in the 1960's, and I think 1970's. > As with so many quaint things, it was not labor or monetarily > efficient, and in a larger sense perhaps helped the demise of the > store (the 60's and 70's influx of big-box discount retail a la' > K-Mart, etc. notwithstanding!) > 4/22/03 11:26:43 PM, editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: >> From: Gordon S. Hlavenka >> Subject: Pneumo Tubes (was Re: Step-by-step Demonstrator Box From 1895) >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Pneumatic air tubes were a very common >> way to move small amounts of paper between offices even as late as >> 1990. A department store I did some work for in downtown Chicago ... Pneumatics tubes were used in Melbourne, Australia for many years to dispatch telegrams to BIG customers. Alan. ------------------------------ From: modorney@aol.comIgnoreMe (Mike O) Date: 24 Apr 2003 20:35:43 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes > each sales station had a little 'trolley' to the cashier in the > center back of the store. You made your selections, the sales clerk > wrote up the slip and put it and your money into a little basket in > the trolley. They then yanked the pull chain, the basket went up to > the track at the ceiling, and the trolley whizzzzzzzed along its track > to the main cashier, who completed the slip and made your change, set > it back in the trolley and sent it whizzzzzzing back to your clerk Wallace Armour Hardware, Erie Boulevard, Schenectady, NY had the same system. Cheers, Mike O ------------------------------ From: Dale Farmer Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 20:42:19 -0400 Organization: Furry green fuzz in the back of the refrigerator Chuk Gleason wrote: > Actually, Pneumo tubes are still in common use many places; I've seen > them at the Home Depot store in Cary, NC (just outsida Raleigh) from > the cash registers to um, I've never asked where they go to. I'm > guessing other departments like Millwork, etc. Still works like a > champ. These tubes are standard in Home Depot stores, and most of the warehouse type stores. ( Costco, etc. ) They make it very easy for a cashier to toss excess cash and so on back to a central cash handling room. That way when there is a robbery, there is far less amount of cash at risk, and thus less incentive for robbers to hit them. They also make easy management practices and processes so it is far more difficult for any single employee to skim cash and remain undetected. The routing boxes that allow a carrier to go to it's chosen destination are interesting. Much more so in a hospital or some such where you have lots of possible destinations from a given station. unlike a retail store where everything is coming from or going to a central cashroom. --Dale [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When there were many possible destinations for the carrier tubes, there had a be a 'tube exchange' or central routing area for them, like the Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago had. A person who worked in the basement 'tube receiving' area would see a tube on the conveyor belt coming at him, he would very quickly glance at it (the carrier tubes were clear plastic) and detirmine its destination, then shove it back up another tube to where it was to go. At the Hilton Hotel in Chicago the basement tube exchange had about two hundred 'inbound airtubes' which would fall down on the conveyor belt from various areas, and in another close by area (like the tube operator could turn around in his swivel chair) the outbound airtubes. He'd grab it off the conveyor belt, glance at it for a second or two which was usually long enough, then put it in his other hand, lean over in his swivel chair and stuff it in the proper outbound airhole. Occassionally the balance of tubes got out of whack; some locations had none, while other locations hoarded their empty tubes for future use. In those cases, the bereft of tubes people would (if they had at least one spare tube) put a note in it saying 'send me a few tubes' and shortly thereafter the guy in the exchange would stuff a few one after another up the person's hole who had asked for them. If the tube man himself ran out of any extras, he'd use the phone to call the various floor housekeepers and tell them to send the excess tubes back to me then a few seconds later with a crash several empty tubes would fall out of the holes onto the conveyor belt and the tubeman would replenish his stock. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: MCI Sucks!!!! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 18:50:16 -0700 In article , Al Gillis wrote: > Microwave Communications, Inc. is certainly the first name of that > company and, at one time, just when they began to see revenues that > peeked a little above the red some wags on the inside maintained that > MCI stood for "Money Comin' In!" My pet name is Mega-Criminal Infestation. The company: charges more than it quotes the customer, charges for services never rendered, charges for services that have been disconnected, virtually invented the practice of "slamming", and has been found to have been cooking the books at the corporate level, cheating not only its customers but its stockholders as well. Why anyone would ever do business with this company for any reason whatsoever is beyond me. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: eBay Goes to Court Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 18:57:19 -0700 In article , Joey Lindstrom wrote: > NORFOLK, Va. (AP) -- Online auction house eBay, one of the last > remaining winners from the dot-com bubble, is going on trial over the > very foundation of its success: the programs and procedures that run > the popular cyber-bazaar. I hope they win. It was gratifying to learn that they intend to stay here in town. If I worked for eBay, I could walk to work every morning. Be that as it may, the signs of the times were quite apparent a couple of months ago. I had to pop into the supermarket for some food items and discovered the streets jammed with traffic. Turns out that eBay posted openings for 100 programming people. Over five thousand showed up. It wasn't that long ago that a call for 100 programmers wouldn't attact five people. How times change. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 03:18:28 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , John Higdon wrote: > It isn't an RBOC, and that's for sure. I don't think there are any RBOCs > left, since the term referred one of the Regional Bell Operating > Companies that were spun off from AT&T after divestiture. Verizon > (formerly GTE) was definitely NOT one of those. Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and NYNEX) was definitely two of those. It still legally *is* New England Telephone Company here in Massachusetts, according to the fine print on the back of my statement. -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | [G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu | chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of| seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 22:31:10 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , kludge@panix.com says: > I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that > since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin > receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the > cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, and interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you are right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have a single LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of intra-state and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier pre-selection AFAIK. -- Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #409 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 25 15:31:46 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3PJVkV21466; Fri, 25 Apr 2003 15:31:46 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 15:31:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304251931.h3PJVkV21466@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #410 TELECOM Digest Fri, 25 Apr 2003 15:32:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 410 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Firewalls and Internet Security", Cheswick (Rob Slade) Re: Call Detail Records (Burris) Re: Call Detail Records (David Esan) Re: Area Code Statistics (Justin Time) Re: Area Code Statistics (Greg Monti) Re: Area Code Statistics (Mark Roberts) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (John Higdon) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Bob Goudreau) Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Play? (John Higdon) Re: American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign Sites (G Mitchell) Why Do Some Businesses Use SAT Instead of Landline Networks? (Al Dykes) Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Techniques (Charles Cryderman) ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates (Stanley Cline) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Mark Brader) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (joe@obilivan.net) Re: SBC Fraud Detection (joe@obilivan.net) Spam Disguised as News: It's Here! CHEAP PHONE CARDS! (Grace Tomeh) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 08:36:54 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Firewalls and Internet Security", Cheswick/Bellovin BKFRINSC.RVW 20030321 "Firewalls and Internet Security", William R. Cheswick/Steven M. Bellovin/Aviel D. Rubin, 2003, 0-201-63466-X, U$49.99/C$77.99 %A William R. Cheswick ches@cheswick.com %A Steven M. Bellovin smb@stevebellovin.com %A Aviel D. Rubin avi@rubin.net %C P.O. Box 520, 26 Prince Andrew Place, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2T8 %D 2003 %G 0-201-63466-X %I Addison-Wesley Publishing Company %O U$49.99/C$77.99 416-447-5101 fax: 416-443-0948 %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/020163466X/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/020163466X/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/020163466X/robsladesin03-20 %P 433 p. %T "Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, Second Edition" As the first work to deal seriously and completely with the topic, the first edition of "Firewalls and Internet Security" was one of those classics that get known only by the last names of the authors, so as not to leave any possibility of confusion with books whose titles may be similar. When such a long time has elapsed between editions of a work such as this, it is more than possible that the field has moved on far enough that a minor updating of the material is simply not feasible. The authors are quite well aware of the new territory: where useful, the original structure has been retained, but otherwise, the book has essentially been rewritten. A huge undertaking, but the only practical course, in the circumstances. Part one establishes a starting point. Chapter one, an introduction, presents a number of basic, but worthwhile, security concepts. The operations of various components of the TCP/IP protocol suite are discussed, with the most serious security vulnerabilities helpfully highlighted, in chapters two (lower layers) and three (upper layers). The authors' thoughts on the security of the Web are amply expressed in the title of chapter four: "The Web: Threat or Menace?" Part two outlines the threats to networked machines. Chapter five describes a number of different types of attacks. A variety of tools for determining security weaknesses are listed in chapter six, alongside discussions of the relative costs/benefits of disclosure versus security by obscurity. Part three details security tools and utilities. Chapter seven reviews authentication concepts and techniques. Various network security systems are described in chapter eight. Part four gets us to firewalls and virtual private networks (VPNs) themselves. Chapter nine outlines the different types of firewalls. Basic filtering concepts are examined in chapter ten. Considerations for constructing and tuning your firewall are in chapter eleven. Tunnelling and VPNs are discussed in chapter twelve. Part five extends the isolated technology of firewalls into the application of protecting an organization. Network layout, and the implications thereof, is reviewed in chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen deals with hardening of hosts. Chapter fifteen is a rather terse look at intrusion detection. Part six is entitled "Lessons Learned." The detection and tracing of "berferd" is described in chapter sixteen, along with the taking of the "CLARK" machine in chapter seventeen. In chapter eighteen, Kerberos and IPSec are used as examples of approaches to security of insecure networks. Chapter nineteen finishes with some ideas for work that yet needs to be done to help with the security of the Internet. The place of firewalls in regard to network security has broadened considerably in the past decade. This book does reflect that reality. Unfortunately, that breadth of topic has come at the expense of some depth in coverage. The result is a book that is definitely worthwhile as an introduction to the field, but which may no longer be suitable as a working reference. I must admit that, for some time, I have been recommending Chapman and Zwicky (cf. BKBUINFI.RVW) over Cheswick and Bellovin's original text, since "Building Internet Firewalls" seems to have the edge in terms of practicality. Upon reviewing this new edition of the classic, I would have to stick to that recommendation. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994, 2003 BKFRINSC.RVW 20030321 rslade@sprint.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com "If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on." - Richards' 2nd Law ============= for back issues: [Victoria Freenet] site http://victoria.tc.ca/int-grps/books/techrev/ or http://www.victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev an alternate site has been provided by CuD and NIU at: http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ CISSP refs: [Victoria Freenet]mnbksccd.htm Security Dict.: [Victoria Freenet]secgloss.htm Security Educ.: [Victoria Freenet]comseced.htm Book reviews: [Victoria Freenet]mnbk.htm [Victoria Freenet]review.htm Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/ Security Educ.: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comseced/ Review mailing list: send mail to techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com ------------------------------ From: burris Subject: Re: Call Detail Records Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 10:53:07 -0400 Blake Sount wrote: > Hi all, > Does anybody know if there is a standard format for the CDR files? > I mean, name of fields, length and type of data (strings of characters > or numbers), etc. > Thank you very much. From my days, I remember that every switch had its own CDR format, but within the framework, it was somewhat programmable. burris ------------------------------ From: david_esan@hotmail.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: Call Detail Records Date: 25 Apr 2003 08:28:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ vhuertas@indra.es (Blake Sount) wrote in message news:: > Hi all, > Does anybody know if there is a standard format for the CDR files? > I mean, name of fields, length and type of data (strings of characters > or numbers), etc. The short answer is no. The company that I work for writes software to make reports from the CDR. They have a full time person just writing the interface portion for each switch. The format is different between companies that produce the switches, between models, between options within the models. Some are fairly straight forward and some give people a headache just wondering what the programmer was thinking when he wrote the code. ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: 25 Apr 2003 06:44:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) wrote in message news:: > There are other reasons more numbers are used in densly populated > areas other than the assumption 'citizens are more likely to use up > more.' The governmental body I consult to has 60K plus numbers in > their centrex and they have run out of numbers with a little over > 25,000 employees. A lot of the problem is due to hunt groups that > hide behind a single number. As an example, our voice mail system has > over 150 terminals hiding behind a single pilot number or the hundreds > that can be assigned on DIDs. Then there are several call centers, > mostly inbound. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, but ... the back lines in hunt > groups do not have to have 'legitimate looking' numbers assigned > to them. Many hunt groups other than a listed directory number have > things like 174-xxxx and 175-xxxx as the 'numbers' for the back lines. > No one is supposed to be dialing direct into those numbers anyway. PAT] That's true in a lot of cases Pat, but it is not always the case. We have had some huntgroups set up here for years that have assigned numbers to the terminals so you can dial each individually. The voicemail system I mentioned actually has over 150 "real" numbers assigned so the individual terminals can be tested. We have had problems with RNA (Ring, No Answer) and have gone to the practice of dialing the individual terminals to determine which ports are failing on the platform. The LEC (I won't mention them by name, but their name has a V in it) often only assigns fictious numbers on hunt groups coming over a hi-cap such as a T-1 or PRI. If we feed an EKSU with a hi-cap, then the terminals on the hi-cap are fictious, but the DIDs assigned to that hi-cap aren't. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: Greg Monti Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 00:40:26 -0400 On 23 April 2003, joe@obilivan.net wrote: > And, there are places like Lone Pine, California that take 10,000 numbers > to serve 500 lines. It's even less efficient that you indicate. According to http://www.areacode-info.com , the Lone Pine CA rate area has, get this, four prefixes, setting aside 40,000 numbers for those 500 residences: Prefix search Lone Pine, CA Prefixes found: 4 NPA-NXX SWITCH OCN LATA 760-264 LSANCAVADS2 8827 FOCAL COMM CORP CA 730 760-614 BSHPCAAW1MD 5024 WESTERN WIRELESS-CA 730 760-875 LSANCARC5KD 7379 PAC-WEST TELECOMM 730 760-876 LNPNCAXFRS5 2302 VERIZON CALIFORNIA 730 The vast majority of the users in the town are, I'm sure, connected to 760-876 numbers operated by Verizon (nee GTE). The other three companies, two of whom appear to be landline-based (not wireless), each have a prefix "just in case" they someday get a customer in Lone Pine. Their switches are not located in Lone Pine and they don't need to be. Focal's and Pac-West's switches appear to be physically in Los Angeles. Western Wireless' switch is in Bishop. Those numbers are set aside for Lone Pine and cannot be used by Los Angeles or Bishop customers (unless one of those customers, for some reason, wants a foreign exchange line that makes it look like he's in Lone Pine). Later, our Moderator noted: > Liberal, Kansas a bit to the south in a different county has its own > exchange which is pretty full Don't look now, but Liberal has 11 prefixes, occupying 110,000 phone numbers. Liberal, KS Prefixes found: 11 NPA-NXX SWITCH OCN LATA 620-309 LBRLKS04DS1 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-370 ULYSKS03CM0 1764 ELKHART TEL CO INC 532 620-391 DDCYKSAYCM0 6710 RCC HOLDINGS, INC. 532 620-482 LBRLKS04DS1 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-604 LBRLKS04XMD 8983 KMC TELECOM III KS 532 620-621 DDCYKSAY1MD 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-624 LBRLKS04DS1 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-626 LBRLKS04DS1 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-629 LBRLKS04DS1 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-655 MNRGKSABCM1 8704 ALLTEL KANSAS - KS 532 620-690 DDCYKSADAMD 6944 PANHANDLE TELECOMM 532 > like our Independence, and its 620-331 Independence, KS Prefixes found: 10 NPA-NXX SWITCH OCN LATA 620-205 INDPKSMADS0 6267 UNITED STATES CEL KS 532 620-330 INDPKSMADS0 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-331 INDPKSMADS0 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-332 INDPKSMADS0 9533 SOUTHWESTERN BELL 532 620-454 PSBGKSAQ1MD 6934 AIRPHONE, INC. 532 620-577 WCHTKSMBX3Y 2240 LEVEL 3 COMM-KS 532 620-714 WCHTKSMR00W 8983 KMC TELECOM III KS 532 620-715 WCHUKSHHDS0 7187 ADELPHIA BUSINESS KS 532 620-779 MNRGKSABCM1 8704 ALLTEL KANSAS - KS 532 620-926 PRSSKSBLAMD 6677 DOBSON CELL SYS INC 532 Fortunately, explosive prefix growth like this has ground to a virtual halt. But anybody who has a prefix assigned to them is holding on to it unless regulators take it away. Greg Monti, New York, New York, USA gmonti@mindspring.com greg.monti@verizon.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, you say Liberal has 11 prefixes for a community of seventeen thousand people, but Independence has 'only' ten prefixes for eight or nine thousand people. That is rather amazing. In the above list, 620-926 (shown as 'Dobson') is the Dobson Cellular tower in Liberty, a town of a couple hundred people a few miles east of here. But the town of Liberty is mostly 620-485-3xxx. There is no city government as such in Liberty; the phone book tells me to refer to 'Montgomery County' listings, all of whose numbers are without exception 620-330, even if they are in Coffeyville, Caney or Independence. I think 620-330 is a 'wide area' prefix allowing free calls to it from anywhere in the county. Cingular cell phones are on 620-330 also. City of Independence government is on 620-332 and other cellphones are on 332. *EVERYONE ELSE* in town is on 620-EDison-1. Oh yes, the Arco Corporate building at 8th and Myrtle (which is now officially called 'Independence Corporate' since Arco moved out of town and went bankrupt; they made a donation of the entire building to the city) is also on 332. All the tenants in there have 620-332 phones, since most tenants there are government or quasi government agencies. I have never heard anyone refer to it by the true name, 'Independence Corporate'; most people just say "I am going over to the Arco Building for whatever reason." It has not been 'Arco' for many years. The one tenant there who does not have 620-332 is our local ISP, TerraWorld.net and he has a couple of 332 numbers but his dialups are all on 331. He, by the way, also has the 620-205 number referred to in Greg's list above, since he has been trying (not too successfully) for a few months now to start an alternate to SWB called 'Prairie States Telephone Company.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 03:38:22 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters John Higdon had written: > It is almost a badge of distinction these days to live in a major > metropolitan area and have an area code that actually looks like an > area code and a prefix that looks like a prefix. I think even better is to be able to trace the prefix back to its named version. I was able to do that in Kansas City (EMerson 1) and Chicago (RAVenswood 8) but not in San Francisco with a 701- prefix. (My current phone number does have a prefix that looks like a prefix ... as does my cell phone number.) When I was back in Missouri for a funeral last month, I did a little research on the town where the Robertses settled back before the Civil War. (They had very tiny phone numbers then. :) I knew that there had been an area code change back when those changes were rare. It turns out that the town itself, Centralia, did not have an area code change, but two neighboring exchanges which were in the Centralia extended calling area *did* move from 816 to 314 in 1971. Oddly, that also forced Centralia to change its prefix from the magnificent sounding "EMpire 2" that it had acquired in 1954 to the nameless 682 that it has today. In return, Centralia finally got DDD. > I'll be enjoying that until my area code changes to "669" as it will > in the near future, thanks to the ninnies who scuttled overlays in > California. I just wonder why we don't give it up, go to 10-digit dialing everywhere, and forget about the leading "1". Oh, oh, I bet *that* has been discussed here before ... Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let's see, have we discussed that in the past? . By the way RAVenswood-8 in Chicago also can be used to spell PATrick and I had 312-PATRICK as my phone number many years ago (like in the sixties) when I lived in that town. I guess RAVenswood 8-7425 spells 'Patrick', right? I wish I had held on to that number. All that has changed in that area is the area code. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:00:31 -0700 In article , wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote: > Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and NYNEX) was definitely two of > those. > It still legally *is* New England Telephone Company here in > Massachusetts, according to the fine print on the back of my > statement. And of course the venerable New York Telephone is now Verizon, NYT formerly being part of "The Nationwide Bell System". I forgot about that. But generally speaking, Verizon is the descendent of GTE in most areas, GTE NOT being part of Bell. GTE was very much considered the anti-Bell. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 06:22:54 PDT From: Bob Goudreau Reply-To: BobGoudreau@nc.rr.com Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article , John Higdon > wrote: >> It isn't an RBOC, and that's for sure. I don't think there are any RBOCs >> left, since the term referred one of the Regional Bell Operating >> Companies that were spun off from AT&T after divestiture. Verizon >> (formerly GTE) was definitely NOT one of those. > Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and NYNEX) was definitely two of > those. You're both right, of course; Verizon was formed when Bell Atlantic bought GTE a few years after purchasing Nynex. But Garrett is more correct, since GTE was merely the tail to BA's dog (BA had more revenue and subscribers, and as the purchasing company, subsumed GTE). And for the topic in question, the NET-->Nynex-->BA-->Verizon link is what matters, since NET (not GTE) was the ILEC in most (all?) of Massachusetts. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 21:08:27 -0700 In article , Ed Ellers wrote: > Joey Lindstrom wrote: >> But what's stopping the record labels from creating a separate >> pressing of radio station only" discs that are only sent to radio >> stations and contain no copy protection? Seems trivial to me. > But those discs would quickly be taken home, ripped, and posted all > over the place. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: See my other message in this issue. YES > that would happen a little. To what extext is debateable, compared to > the 'general public'. After all, radio stations are in business to > make money also, which I would think means among other things, taking > some care in how many people can hear the music other than hearing it > over YOUR airwaves along with YOUR sponsor's messages, etc. PAT] But radio stations, particularly in the age of consolidation, are run by kids. The kids don't have any such concerns. You can have all the warnings you want, but there is no way station management can control what gets duplicated and slipped out the door. The incentive to do this would be greatly reduced if the product the customer now pays good money for could be ripped and copied for use in various players, but the companies are making their own beds by hamstringing their customers. You can trust that if the free product sent to radio stations is superior to the crippled product that is SOLD to the sucker customers, there will be substantial leakage. Furthermore, this practice would require two separate CD press runs, which is actually sort of expensive for ONE album release. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign News Sites Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 09:47:06 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Speaking of twelve hundred percent > increases in traffic, do any of the old timers here remember that > month in 1993 (at the very end of the 'golden age of the internet' > when a fourteen *thousand* percent increase in traffic in internet > web sites was reported as everyone -- literally everyone -- started > 'discovering the new thing called the Web'. I think the first .com > sites started coming on line in 1993. PAT] dec.com was created 30 September 1985; ibm.com was created 19 March 1986 as was sun.com. Obviously they did not have web sites at those times, but they might have been running that brand new information service called gopher. -- George Mitchell (obfuscated email address) ------------------------------ From: adykes@panix.com (Al Dykes) Subject: Why do Some Businesses use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline Networks? Date: 25 Apr 2003 10:43:58 -0400 Organization: PANIX -- Public Access Networks Corp. I drove along what seemed like 20 miles of auto dealerships and major brand gas stations yesterday and, as usual, saw Sat dishes on all of these establishments. I began to wonder how much data a gas station/24-hour Mart really needs to exchange daily, let alone the need for any "real time" networking. And also, why a national frame relay network isn't being used. What's the tradeoff between a Sat network and a frame network, and what data to these businesses send daily? I'd guess once you've justified a full time bidirectional network you could bring the credit card clearing system in-house and save bucks, but by itself wouldn't be a justification. Just curious. Al Dykes adykes@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Twenty miles of auto dealerships and gas stations, eh? You must have been driving down Western Avenue in Chicago then. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Techniques Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:36:07 -0400 Master TD Editor, First I wish to say, good to see you back on the air Pat. I have missed reading the digest and was very worried the reason I wasn't getting it was due to a health issue with you. Glad to see that was not the case. Anyway, your comment in V22#404 on "Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze" > A police officer cannot stand in your bedroom and observe you, but > he certainly can stand on a street corner or by a cash register in a > store; anywhere there is not or should not be any 'expectation of > privacy', or anywhere no judicial 'search warrant' has been issued > is perfectly fair game for the placement of a camera for others to > watch. In actuality a Police Office can not just choose to stand next to a cash register in a store to monitor everyone, at least not with out permission of the owner or manager. On the other hand they, the owner or manager, can install a camera above recording what transpires. What I would want is a statement at the entrance of the store that recording devise are present and in use. This way I can make an informed decision to enter and conduct business or not. Now some would say that is not a good idea because it would also warn potential "bad guys" and discourage them as well. I would see this as a good thing myself. We citizens need to understand and remember, the "Constitution of the United States" governs what the government can do, not private citizens or businesses. Again I am happy to see you are still well (as well as that can be). Chip Cryderman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have been informed -- politely in some cases and not so politely in others -- that I am one sick puppy. My deseased brain is gradually getting the best of me. You are correct in your example: Cash registers in stores are not public areas. They are the property of the store owner. I should have said the Police Officer cannot stand and view without permission in any private area (like bedrooms, etc). As a member of the public, however, he can stand without any invitation or permission in any public space to observe things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:47:43 -0400 Organization: Roamer1 Communications - Dunwoody, GA, USA Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On 24 Apr 2003 05:01:58 -0000, johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote: > It's possible but at the moment uncommon for the ILEC in one area to > set up as a CLEC in another area and go poach customers. It's certainly uncommon with the RBOCs (with the notable exceptions of SBC's SBC Telecom; Verizon's Verizon Avenue, which provides services to residents of apartment communities in some non-VZ cities such as Atlanta; and BellSouth, which provides service to a few large business customers in independent areas in AL, FL, KY, and NC) and very small independents, but it's quite common with mid-sized independents: - TDS's TDS Metrocom: CLEC in many Midwestern cities, including their HQ city of Madison, WI - ALLTEL: CLEC in various Plains and Southeastern cities, usually those adjacent to large ALLTEL ILEC or wireless markets, such as Charlotte and Omaha, and of course ALLTEL's HQ city of Little Rock - Commonwealth Telephone's CTSI: CLEC in most of PA - CT Communications of Concord NC: CLEC in much of NC as well as the Discover Mills mall (only) in suburban Atlanta (Mills Corp. has another mall in CT's ILEC area in NC, and lots of fiber runs down I-85 between the Charlotte and Atlanta areas ;) ) - Ben Lomand RTC in middle TN: CLEC in the city limits of McMinnville and Sparta, where Frontier provides service (Ben Lomand only got the unincorporated areas around those towns way back when -- but you wouldn't know it from looking at where their McMinnville ILEC CO is; it's *inside* the city limits, two blocks from Frontier's CO!) - EATEL in Louisiana: CLEC in most of Louisiana, and IIRC bought a failed CLEC that served other states (Actel) as well - etc. Then there's the *really* odd situation of companies that are primarily CLECs owning ILECs; I can think of only two such cases off the top of my head: - Illinois Consolidated (before McLeodUSA spun them off, that is) - Interstate/Valley Telephone in the West Point GA/Lanett AL area is owned by Knology, a major Southeastern cable overbuilder (yes, Knology itself provides cable in competition with Charter in the area, but doesn't compete against IVT for phone customers since, after all, they're the same company) -SC Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 04:14:06 GMT In article , tippenring@deadspam.com says: > In article , kludge@panix.com > says: >> I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that >> since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin >> receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the >> cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. > It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier > selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, and > interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you are > right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have a single > LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of intra-state > and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier pre-selection AFAIK. RI only has 401 at the moment. But the business district of Providence is about to undergo a building boom, there are 12-15 parcels that have proposed projects, and one definite is GTECH's world headquarters that had formerly been in West Greenwich. That means lots more phone lines. At last count, there are 592 exchanges defined and there had been a filing with NANPA that was rescinded in 2002, when the economy started souring. But it'll come back, I figure they'll have to do something in a couple years. Right now my in-state LD only default to Verizon, but if I try to dial outside that region with 1+10D I get a message that tells me it's not set up for that. I use a dial-around for out of state LD and sometimes for in-state because it'd be cheaper than making a 100 minute call at .07 a minute with Verizon. About the only time a Verizon toll gets rung up is if I or my SO dial a number we're unfamiliar with since 7D toll dialing is in effect here. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 01:13:48 EDT From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) > Actually, Pneumo tubes are still in common use many places ... On the subject of pneumatic transportation, some readers might find my article of interest. (There's nothing particularly telecom-related in it, though.) Mark Brader, "It is impossible. Solution follows..." Toronto, msb@vex.net -- Richard Heathfield ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 05:12:27 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications I've had Vonage for about two months now and I love it. Then again, I am on a cable modem, which exceeds Vonage's uplink requirements. Your DSL must be bad, because (if I recall correctly) Vonage wants about 100 kb uplink. The worst DSL is suppose to do 128 kb uplink. The quality of Vonage in my situation is as good as any wireline phone. On some calls I hear a faint echo of my voice with a slight delay, but the other party does not hear it. Most of the time, though, it is just fine although there may be a tad delay. But, not as noticable as a satellite long distance connection. And, no access charges, no surcharges, etc, etc. Just $1.35 federal access charge and $4.99 for a virtual number that I elected to add to my primary number. Oliver Penn wrote: > I can only find one previous posting in this group on this subject. > It was more conjecture than information. I live in what must be one > of the smallest markets where DSL is available. Speeds vary but > generally, it is not very fast. Vonage home page testing says I need > to use their speed booster. > Only news papers seem to cover it. The Dallas Morning News writer > "After testing the service for several weeks ..." recently said it > was simple. > Do any of the knowledgable telephone folks in this group have any > recent personal experience with this service, especially with 'slow' > DSL connections? > Oliver(recovering telephone guy)Penn > Gun Barrel City, TX ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: SBC Fraud Detection Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 05:17:19 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > ... to your initial question 'how do fraud control algorythyms work' > or words to that effect, they work pretty well. The new and improved > ESS tells authorities a lot of details they could not get in the > old days, including who calls whom, for how long, how often, etc. PAT] I read where the feds are concerned about Vonage because the calls are untraceable provided the Vonage caller blocks Caller ID. Thus, I doubt Vonage is being a Mother Hen (as in chicken s**t) like SBC is doing. ------------------------------ From: phonecardsusa@takoe.com (Grace Tomeh) Subject: Spam Passing as a Nes Item: It's Here! CHEAP PHONE CARDS! Date: 24 Apr 2003 21:49:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Calling rates start from $0.03 per minute. No connection fee! Toll-Free order line: 1-888-560-2251. Online order: http://www.phone-cards-usa.com/ ; http://cheap-phone-cards.netfirms.com/ ; http://www.callingcards4us.com/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I thought you would all appreciate this closing 'news item' for today. I got at least a dozen copies of it in my mail yesterday. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #410 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 26 16:19:50 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3QKJnB27587; Sat, 26 Apr 2003 16:19:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 16:19:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304262019.h3QKJnB27587@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #411 TELECOM Digest Sat, 26 Apr 2003 16:20:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 411 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Area Code Statistics (Steven J. Sobol) Re: Area Code Statistics (Mark Roberts) Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase (Mark Roberts) Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? (John R. Levine) Re: American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign Sites (Scott Dorsey) Re: (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Linc Madison) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Al Iverson) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Steve Michelson) Re: States and LATAs, was Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (John R. Levine) Re: Wire Recorders (Martin McCormick) Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates (G Wollman) Looking For Hands Free Telephone System For Entire House (OK) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 19:44:36 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Greg Monti (gmonti@mindspring.com): > On 23 April 2003, joe@obilivan.net wrote: >> And, there are places like Lone Pine, California that take 10,000 numbers >> to serve 500 lines. > It's even less efficient that you indicate. According to > http://www.areacode-info.com , the Lone Pine CA rate area has, get > this, four prefixes, setting aside 40,000 numbers for those 500 > residences: > Prefix search > Lone Pine, CA > Prefixes found: 4 > NPA-NXX SWITCH OCN LATA > 760-264 LSANCAVADS2 8827 FOCAL COMM CORP CA 730 > 760-614 BSHPCAAW1MD 5024 WESTERN WIRELESS-CA 730 > 760-875 LSANCARC5KD 7379 PAC-WEST TELECOMM 730 > 760-876 LNPNCAXFRS5 2302 VERIZON CALIFORNIA 730 Let's call a spade a spade. At least ten thousand of those numbers are allocated to CellularONE (Western Wireless). I'll accept that maybe having Focal *and* that other company providing *landlines* in addition to Verizon is overkill, though. Steve Sobol/CTO/JustThe.net LLC/Mentor On The Lake (Cleveland), OH/888.480.4NET "This country has a strong ethical foundation, but... I hesitate to say that erosion has set in, but it is clear that more and more of what we are is being built on sand and not on that foundation." - G. Waleed Kavalec, in SPAM-L ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 20:55:54 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters nmclain@annsgarden.com had written: > joe@obilivan.net wrote: >> And, there are places like Lone Pine, California that >> take 10,000 numbers to serve 500 lines. > Or even smaller: in Nelson, Nevada, all numbers are in the format > 702-291-00XX. So there are, at most, 100 active numbers. Then there is the case of Centerville, Iowa, population around 6,000 for about the last forty years. When I was living there, there were phone numbers of the following form: 856-2xxx, 856-3xxx, 856-6xxx, 856-8xxx, 856-9xxx. You never saw phone numbers of the form 856-4xxx or 856-5xxx. In town, dialing the last five digits was sufficient. To dial neighboring exchanges, seven-digit dialing was required. Three of those exchanges were 647-xxxx, 649-xxxx, and 658-xxxx. After I moved away, sometime in the 1970s, Centerville opened up the 437-xxxx prefix. I always had wondered why a town of that size needed two exchanges so early on. But recently, I think I figured it out. Centerville may have needed more phone numbers, evidently, but if five-digit dialing were preserved, 856-4xxx and 856-5xxx could be confused with the nearby exchanges. 6-4xxx could be a Plano or Mystic number that was incomplete, or it could be a Centerville number that was complete. So, I think, 437-xxxx was opened up to provide more numbers and, presumably, to preserve five-digit dialing without causing collisions with the 6-4xxx or 6-5xxx series. I don't know if Centerville still had five-digit dialing by that time. But if it did, 437-nxxx would work as long as n != 2 (because there was a neighboring 724- exchange) and five-digit dialing would still work. It doesn't answer the question of why 6-0xxx, 6-1xxx, or 6-7xxx wouldn't have worked, but I am assuming the mechanical switches for that exchange may have had limitations. For example, long-distance dialing access would be "11", "12" or even "13" depending on some arbitrary factor unbeknowst to subscribers of the Iowa State Telephone Company (later Continental). Well, as Anne Elk would have said, "That is my theory, this is mine" and it may make just about as much sense. Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: Massachusetts Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 20:26:59 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters Bob Goudreau had written: > Garrett Wollman wrote: >> John Higdon wrote: >>> It isn't an RBOC, and that's for sure. I don't think there are any RBOCs >>> left, since the term referred one of the Regional Bell Operating >>> Companies that were spun off from AT&T after divestiture. Verizon >>> (formerly GTE) was definitely NOT one of those. >> Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic and NYNEX) was definitely two of >> those. > You're both right, of course; Verizon was formed when Bell Atlantic > bought GTE a few years after purchasing Nynex. But Garrett is more > correct, since GTE was merely the tail to BA's dog (BA had more > revenue and subscribers, and as the purchasing company, subsumed GTE). GTE/Verizon has also bailed out of entire states, particularly in the Midwest. GTE exited Iowa even before the Verizon merger; Verizon ditched all its Missouri operations last year. Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 ------------------------------ Date: 25 Apr 2003 20:07:01 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA In article was written: > I have DSL service between my home and Stanford University's campus > network, with the actual service provided by SBC/Pac Bell; ... > A non-Stanford family member now wants to go direct to AOL via the > Internet using the same DSL connection, without going through Stanford > or piggybacking on either of our Stanford accounts. > Is this feasible, or meaningful? Sure. When you're on the net, you're on the net, and it doesn't really matter what ISP makes the connection for you. It's mostly a historical coincidence that people usually get their e-mail account from the same provider where they get their dialup or broadband access. AOL is an odd (albeit popular) hybrid of a proprietary online service and an ISP. As Pat suggests, your family member can connect to AOL's online service over your existing account. It's one of the options on the AOL initial connection screen. I do something similar for my AOL account and it works great. If she primarily connects that way, she can switch from the usual unlimited dialup to "bring your own access" which is half the price. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well John, it was and still is not plain to me if SBC puts him 'on the net' whereupon he types something and *then* gets connected to Stanford or if SBC merely carries his traffic over to Stanford who then deals with him entirely. As I said, and you agreed, if he is in fact on SBC and happens to choose Stanford to do some work, that's one thing. As I said and you also agreed, in that case let his family member do as they please, and let them take an alias name for email as well at no extra charge. That is what I do. SBC Global takes me from here in Independence to Wichita which is their local ISP. From there, as I choose, I go to AOL, various web sites or whatever. Mostly however I use 'ssh' (I used to use telnet but the admins at LCS/MIT asked me to begin using 'ssh' which is more secure these days) to go to 'ssh massis.lcs.mit.edu -lptownson' which is to say I use a secure form of telnet to login to massis under my user name where I then work on the Digest using the Unix computer at LCS/MIT. If that is what our correspondent does then god bless his family member. Let then tap whatever keys are needed to wake up the modem and network, and go wherever the person wants. What he may have meant however was that when he sits down at the computer, Stanford, via SBC, hands him a Stanford.edu prompt right off the bat, and he wanted to know how to let his family member go to wherever (like AOL) from there. Now, I could do that also ... I could use the massis.lcs.mit.edu> prompt and do lynx and go looking around all over. But I do not usually do that. My status here at massis is that of guest user to work on the Digest, and I am not going to impose on the admins here by using LCS/MIT to go off their net to other sites. I could; I have, but not routinely. And getting a separate email name/box would be out of the question. I would have to do it as 'ptownson'. Maybe that is our correspondent's problem also: he is 'essentially' using a Stanford account, and limited by Stanford's rules as to *who* can use the computer and *where* they may connect and *what* commands they may issue, and who they can be, username-wise. I don't know. I hope, for the sake of his family member it is the former, and (if Stanford is paying the bill) they are somewhat 'loose' about others in the family using the system. No one can tell *me* what to connect with on a computer I pay to maintain, but as soon as I tell SBC I want to connect (telnet, ssh) to LCS/MIT then I become obligated to follow *their* rules. Maybe our corresponent will clarify this for us a little: who pays for the computer; who pays for the connection. That will help us to make some definite rules. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: American Web Surfers Boost Traffic to Foreign News Sites Date: 25 Apr 2003 17:24:18 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , George Mitchell wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Speaking of twelve hundred percent >> increases in traffic, do any of the old timers here remember that >> month in 1993 (at the very end of the 'golden age of the internet' >> when a fourteen *thousand* percent increase in traffic in internet >> web sites was reported as everyone -- literally everyone -- started >> 'discovering the new thing called the Web'. I think the first .com >> sites started coming on line in 1993. PAT] > dec.com was created 30 September 1985; ibm.com was created 19 March > 1986 as was sun.com. Obviously they did not have web sites at those > times, but they might have been running that brand new information > service called gopher. And of course these guys (at least DEC) had stuff on the net before there were fully qualified domain names. "TELNET DECWRL" was no problem since we had DECWRL in the hosts file that we got monthly from the NIC. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 17:55:32 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: American Web Surfers Who Boost Traffic George Mitchell wrote, > dec.com was created 30 September 1985; ibm.com was created 19 March > 1986 as was sun.com. Obviously they did not have web sites at those > times, but they might have been running that brand new information >service called gopher. No, we didn't do Gopher at DEC. Before 1985 there were host names, not domain names; DEC's ARPAnet (the civilian part of Uncle's Internet) members included DEC-MARLBORO (a big TOPS-20 machine in Marlborough, MA), DECVAX (in Nashua, NH) and I think DECWRL in Palo Alto. Maybe a couple more. The rest of us at DEC could get email passed through these. Internal networking at DEC was far advanced by 1985, being based on DECnet Phase IV. As implemented on VMS (it also ran on lots of other OSs, including Unix), this was more transparent than TCP/IP-based networks. While it used a fixed host table, not a name service, you could access a remote file by just prepending the node name thusly (using an example the node DONJON): DONJON::USER$1:[FGOLDSTEIN]THE_FILE_NAME.HERE . That worked for COPY, and also for most file-opening operations, sort of the way SMB operates on PC networks nowadays. We didn't have a "web", but DEChies spent inordinate amounts of time using NOTES. No, that's not the ugly Lotus hack which was developed later by somebody who had worked on the DEC thing. DECNOTES was a "computer-mediated conferencing" system that, like Usenet, permitted freewheeling discussion, but which kept the whole discussion (a "notesfile") on one server, with moderators who could control access and delete if necessary. There were thousands of internal Notesfiles by the late 1980s on all sorts of topics, some of them actually related to work. It was also a tool for product developers, since it provided a very good way to post questions, make comments, share ideas, etc., while, in the case of software, the source code itself remained in a separate network repository using, say, CMS (an RCS-like utility). In some respects today's Internet has less utility than DECnet had then. Of course neither corporate networks nor Uncle's Internet permitted either advertising or spam. But abUsenet was already pretty smelly. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: Linc Madison Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 16:36:39 -0700 Organization: LincMad.com Consulting Reply-To: Telecom@LincMad.com In article , wrote: > In article , > tippenring@deadspam.com says: >> In article , kludge@panix.com >> says: >>> I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me >>> that since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I >>> will begin receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to >>> help pay for the cost of carrying in-state long distance and local >>> toll calls. >> It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier >> selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, >> and interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you >> are right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have >> a single LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of >> intra-state and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier >> pre-selection AFAIK. > RI only has 401 at the moment ... Actually, Rhode Island has only 130 at the moment. We're talking about LATAs, which are completely independent of area codes. All of Rhode Island is in LATA number 130, and I didn't see any spillover into Massachusetts or Connecticut. All of Delaware is a single LATA, but that LATA also includes a small portion of Pennsylvania, including an insignificant little town called "Philadelphia." In fact, the unfortunate folks in Delaware live in a LATA that is called "the Philadelphia LATA." Many long-distance companies ask you if you want to designate them as your "state-to-state" carrier and/or your "in-state" carrier, but what they really mean is your inter-LATA and intra-LATA carrier. For example, if you live in Brainerd, Minnesota, and you have XYZ as your "state-to-state" carrier (really inter-LATA), but PDQ as your "in-state" carrier (really intra-LATA), you will use XYZ to call Minneapolis, but PDQ to call Fargo, North Dakota, if you dial both as one-plus calls without a carrier code. The Fargo-Brainerd and Philadelphia LATAs are rather extreme examples of LATAs that straddle state lines, but there are also many other places where one or two small towns are in the LATA of the adjacent state. The Los Angeles LATA includes a small part of Arizona. As for New Jersey, it has three entire LATAs: north Jersey, Trenton- Camden, and Atlantic City. California has ten LATAs, some of which include only part of one area code, but others with all or part of several area codes. The San Francisco LATA includes all of 408, 415, 510, 650, and 925, plus almost half of 831 (Santa Cruz, but not Monterey or Salinas), and ALMOST all of 707. However, the town of Dixon is in area code 707 but in the Sacramento LATA. As to the "in-state connection fee," my guess would be that it is a fee that is charged by the state through your designated Primary Interexchange Carrier, irrespective of your in-state usage. In the same way, the "FCC access charge" on your phone bill is a fee that is charged for your being connected to the interstate network, whether or not you actually use the network for any toll calls (incoming or outgoing). You may be able to get a better deal by switching carriers -- different companies have different strategies for recovering some of the fees that the government charges them -- but be sure to read the fine print. www dot LincMad dot com / Telecom at LincMad dot com Linc Madison * San Francisco, California ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 03:48:35 GMT On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 22:31:10 -0500, Dave Phelps posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > In article , kludge@panix.com > says: >> I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that >> since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin >> receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the >> cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. > It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier > selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, and > interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you are > right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have a single > LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of intra-state > and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier pre-selection AFAIK. I think Nevada has only a single LATA. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Al Iverson Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Organization: Radparker & Associates Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 23:47:32 -0500 In article , Dave Phelps wrote: > In article , kludge@panix.com > says: >> I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that >> since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin >> receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the >> cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. > It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier > selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, and > interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you are > right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have a single > LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of intra-state > and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier pre-selection AFAIK. Minnesota must have only a single LATA, because that's how my phone service with Qwest seems to be set up. To me it's just another kind of long distance. And oddly (blame it on the tariffs?), it's more expensive than out-of-state LD. (Another reason to only use your cell phone.) Al Iverson -- http://www.spamresource.com Disclaimer: All of my opinions are mine alone. ------------------------------ From: Steve Michelson Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 09:08:17 -0400 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises In NJ, there are: local calls, local toll calls, in-state long distance calls, and inter-state long distance calls. Whoever you select for your inter-state long distance calls will also serve as your in-state long distance calls. You can select a separate carrier for your "local toll" calls, which are calls to areas "outside your local calling area but not considered long distance." So you could actually have three different cariers: your local carrier, your local toll carrier, and your long distance carrier. Incidentally, LATAs do not necessarily correspond directly to area codes. You could have multiple LATAs within an area code, as NJ does. You could also have multiple area codes within a LATA, due to area code splits or overlays. Dave Phelps wrote in message news:telecom22.409.17@telecom-digest.org: > In article , kludge@panix.com > says: >> I have just received a little white card in my mail telling me that >> since I am a customer of AT&T long distance services that I will begin >> receiving a $1.95 in-state connection fee in order to help pay for the >> cost of carrying in-state long distance and local toll calls. > It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier > selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, and > interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you are > right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have a single > LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of intra-state > and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier pre-selection AFAIK. > Dave Phelps > Phone Masters Ltd. > deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: states and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 25 Apr 2003 16:01:37 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If your state is in a single LATA, then you are right, but I don't > know if there are any states that only have a single LATA. Maybe NJ > or RI? There are quite a few. NJ has three LATAs, but in the east, ME, VT. NH, and RI are each one LATA, CT is effectively one LATA although most of it is SNET which was technically non-Bell. In the west, SD, WY, and NM are each one LATA. Delaware is less than a LATA, since the whole state is in the Philadelphia PA LATA. I agree that the best way to avoid AT&T's new charge is to switch to a phone company that acts like it wants your business. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: martin@okstate.edu (Martin McCormick) Subject: Re: Wire Recorders Date: 25 Apr 2003 15:43:21 -0500 Organization: Oklahoma State University Stillwater, OK Net-ops I haven't been on the telecom list for a very long time but I am both glad to hear that Pat is back and sorry about the obstacles that nature has put in the way. I have been slowly transferring recordings from open-reel tape and vinyl to CD and have been reading several messages with fond recollection. In the mid sixties, I got my hands on an old RCA wire recorder that had been a cartridge loader type. There was this huge heavy metal box that loaded in to the mouth of the machine. The box had the two spools of wire that passed through what resembled a tape head except that it had a groove on the top to guide the wire which was very fine and reminded me of fishing line, only made of stainless steel. When I got the machine, the cartridge was a hopeless rat's nest of tangled wire so I never got to see what the system may have been like in better days, probably late 40's. The cartridge was an early attempt at convenience and the steel wire must have been coated with iron oxide since stainless steel isn't particularly diamagnetic. One day, I did do a very weird experiment. I took a scrap of the mess of wire that was in the ruined cartridge and held it against the head of a little portable tape recorder as I pulled the wire along. I could hear a little snippet of the last recording ever to be laid down on that ill-fated cartridge. I had gotten the old recorder from the school I was attending and someone told me that it had been used for Morse Code practice in the amateur radio club. Sure enough, the piece of wire I dragged across the head of the tape recorder had a few dits and daws of Morse on it. It has been about 40 years since I dismantled that machine after many hours of playing with what was left of it so I don't remember many of the details. It did have a bias oscillator and there had to have been some sort of capstan device to keep the wire speed uniform as it went from spool to spool. The rewind function must have been at about the same speed as normal play and record for I remember that the motor just rocked back and forth on its mounts and was pressed against either the supply or the take-up spool in that cartridge. There was also some kind of automatic shutoff that kept the mechanism from continuing to pull on the wire when it got to the end because there was a pair of micros witches in the cartridge holder that would stop the motor if you moved the actuator hard left or hard right. At the time, my classmates thought I was stupid to take home an old broken wire recorder, but it was a tremendous learning experience, much of which kind of stays with me today as far as understanding why things were done the way they are in magnetic recording. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Network Operations Group ------------------------------ From: wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 21:15:48 +0000 (UTC) Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Stanley Cline wrote: > Then there's the *really* odd situation of companies that are > primarily CLECs owning ILECs; I can think of only two such cases off > the top of my head: I think Broadwing (Cincinnati Bell) would be the most obvious. I don't recall the corporate history enough to know how that company came about. -- Garrett A. Wollman |[G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu |chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of|seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ Reply-To: O K From: O K Subject: Looking For Hands Free Telephone System For Entire House Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 14:29:22 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Hello, I am seeking a product or vendor that sells a hands free telephone system either through an intercom system or a set of speakers and microphones place throughout the home, where I would be able to be anywhere in the home and be on a hands free system whenever the telephone rings. I have seen one such system, but I can't get a reply from the supplier. Please remove the * from the email address to email directly. -thanks, Owen ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #411 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 26 17:17:14 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3QLHEa28919; Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:17:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:17:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304262117.h3QLHEa28919@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #412 TELECOM Digest Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:17:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 412 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EFFector 16.10: EFF Opposes State Level "Super-DMCAs," (Monty Solomon) Court Gives Hollywood Broad Powers to Violate Privacy (Monty Solomon) Win for Makers of Morpheus and Grokster (Monty Solomon) Thoughts On Apple's Music Plans (Monty Solomon) DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV (Monty Solomon) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (J Kelly) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (John R. Levine) Why Vonage Not Verizon? (Carlo Coggi) Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates (David Jensen) Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates (Steven Sobol) Re: Call Detail Records (Al Gillis) Re: SBC Fraud Detection (tonypo@sdc.cox.net) Re: Why do Some Businesses use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? (Reed) Re: Praise for Cingular Rescinded (David Jensen) Re: [CISSP_PNW] REVIEW: "Firewalls and Internet Security", (D. Youatt) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 23:30:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 16.10: EFF Opposes State Level "Super-DMCAs," Supports EFFector Vol. 16, No. 10 April 20, 2003 ren@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 249th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Opposes State Level "Super-DMCAs" * EFF Supports Unlicensed Spectrum * Editorial: Finding a Better Way with P2P * Deep Links (6): Security Panel Cancelled on DMCA Threat * Staff Calendar: EFF at O'Reilly Emerging Tech Conference * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/HTML/effect16.10.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 23:36:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court Gives Hollywood Broad Powers to Violate Your Privacy The D.C. District Court today ruled that alleged copyright infringers are to be deemed guilty until proven innocent. Judge Bates agreed with RIAA that copyright holders can issue subpoenas to ISPs to demand identifying information about any Internet users based upon a mere allegation of infringement, with no notice to the user or judicial review of the claim required. In his second decision in support of the RIAA, Judge Bates rejected the arguments of Verizon, supported by 28 consumer and privacy groups and 18 ISPs and ISP organizations, that this sweeping new power violated the First Amendment right to anonymity and privacy rights of Internet users. He also rejected the argument that the law violated the constitutional requirement that private parties can only use subpoenas to get private information about ordinary citizens in the context of a current or imminent lawsuit. The ruling is available here. http://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/03-ms-0040.pdf http://www.eff.org/news/breaking/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 23:40:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Win for Makers of Morpheus and Grokster Court Rejects Entertainment Industry Copyright Claims Related: Order granting defendants' motions for summary judgement http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/030425_order_on_motions.php http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/030425_order_on_motions.pdf ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 00:00:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Thoughts On Apple's Music Plans Arik Hesseldahl, 04.25.03, 10:06 AM ET NEW YORK - Next Monday all the speculation and rumors concerning Apple Computer's new music service will come to an end. At an event at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Chief Executive Steve Jobs will either become a big-shot record executive -- and possibly take a stake in Vivendi Universal's (nyse: V - news - people ) Universal Music unit -- or he won't. What is known is that Apple (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) will launch some kind of music download service and will probably bring a few new models of the iPod music player to go with it. As is his usual pattern, Jobs has made a point about being both vague and evasive concerning questions about the forthcoming service. (We confirmed Apple's plans on April 11; see "Apple Wants Vivendi To Dance.") At an Apple shareholders meeting in Cupertino, Calif., Jobs was quoted by Reuters as saying in response to a shareholder question, "There have been a lot of rumors in the last few weeks. Many of them are not true, and some of them are true." That followed his unusual denial about talks with Vivendi that wasn't really much of a denial at all. By name recognition alone, it would seem Apple's service will instantly become the big Kahuna of online music services. When we caught up with Mike Bebel, CEO of Pressplay, the online music-service joint venture operated by Sony (nyse: SNE - news - people ) and Universal, he insisted that Apple's entry into the space will bolster the fortunes of his service, as well as others like America Online's (nyse: AOL - news - people ) MusicNet and Listen.com's Rhapsody, which RealNetworks (nasdaq: RNWK - news - people ) paid $36 million for earlier this week. http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/25/cx_ah_0425tentech.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 15:31:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV By Phillip Swann TVPredictions.com has learned that DIRECTV is planning to launch an HDTV channel package that would cost approximately $10 a month. The package would include ESPN HD, HDNet and HDNet Movies, and The Discovery HD Theater channel. Robert Mercer, a DIRECTV spokesman, confirmed late Thursday (April 24) that the satcaster is considering launching a monthly package of HD channels. The monthly fee would be big news because non-premium HDTV channels -- until now -- have been available for free on DIRECTV. http://www.tvpredictions.com/directvhdtv.html ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 20:32:12 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Fri, 25 Apr 2003 05:12:27 -0700, joe@obilivan.net wrote: > I've had Vonage for about two months now and I love it. Then again, I > am on a cable modem, which exceeds Vonage's uplink requirements. Your > DSL must be bad, because (if I recall correctly) Vonage wants about > 100 kb uplink. The worst DSL is suppose to do 128 kb uplink. Here in Independence, Iowa I can choose from one of two cable modem providers in my town (Mediacom, the big regional one in Iowa, or the Municipal Utilities' service). Both have uploads capped at 128kbps, the city owned system has a max downlink of 384 kbps (what a joke). No DSL available from our ILEC (Qwest). I would love to try Vonage, but I doubt it would work all that well with the speeds I see for uploads. Actual uploads seem to peak at 112 kbps on a good night, but are more like 70 most nights. ------------------------------ Date: 26 Apr 2003 00:52:00 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I can only find one previous posting in this group on this subject. > It was more conjecture than information. I live in what must be one > of the smallest markets where DSL is available. Speeds vary but > generally, it is not very fast. Vonage home page testing says I > need to use their speed booster. Vonage needs 40K to 50Kb upstream, and it'd be a really pitiful DSL that couldn't provide that. My Vonage phone works great on my sister's DSL connection provided by the tiny independent Shoreham Telephone Co. in western Vermont. The delay introduced by the connection is more of an issue than the raw connection speed. There's really no way to find out how usable it is other than to try it. Vonage offers a 30-day money back guarantee. so if anyone's interested, send me a note and I can tell them to send you a $40 signup coupon (applied if you keep the service.) Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ Subject: Why Vonage Not Verizon? From: noemail@forme.com (Carlo Coggi) Organization: Organization Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 11:03:02 GMT I live in Manhattan and have had the same easy-to-remember MUrray Hill (68x) exchange home phone number for several years. I will be moving a few dozen blocks uptown in a few weeks and would like to retain this number. Verizon says that they cannot let me retain my number if they move more than a few blocks beyond the specific geographic neighborhood I live in. But when I entered my number on Vonage's online registration page, I was told that I could retain my number if I switched to Vonage. I called Verizon back and spoke to someone else who repeated that I couldn't retain my number out of my neighborhood. When I mentioned that I could keep it with Vonage, the rep didn't know what that was, and said that Verizon could not match the offer because their (unnamed) technology would not let them accomplish this. I wonder why ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have **very seriously** thought about getting Vonage and giving it a 'test run' to see how worthwhile it would be. There are no area codes for Kansas on the Vonage system, in fact none in this part of the country at all. Plus, I would have to keep my SWB line to have the DSL to use Vonage, and I always have my cell phone to use for 'long distance' (anywhere outside of the city of Independence) calls. And there is the financial aspect of it as well ... do I *really* need another $40 bill each month to make calls, when local (inside Independence) calls are unlimited and free each month. I could go to cable service (I already have cable TV and adding internet/modem service would not be that much more expensive. But I feel sort of queasy about cable modem service; having heard some bad things about it in general. *Supposedly* my DSL bill is going to be reduced by $20 starting this month since I also have a Cingular phone (which is owned by SBC) and if you have Cingular cell service you get a discount on your DSL bill. I'll watch and see if that happens or not. If any readers feel like making a 'donation' of a Vonage phone system account in my name I will happily accept it and report on its workings. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Jensen Subject: Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 11:24:48 -0500 Organization: Jensen Family Reply-To: david@dajensen-family.com In comp.dcom.telecom, Stanley Cline wrote in : > On 24 Apr 2003 05:01:58 -0000, johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote: >> It's possible but at the moment uncommon for the ILEC in one area to >> set up as a CLEC in another area and go poach customers. > It's certainly uncommon with the RBOCs (with the notable exceptions of > SBC's SBC Telecom; Verizon's Verizon Avenue, which provides services > to residents of apartment communities in some non-VZ cities such as > Atlanta; and BellSouth, which provides service to a few large business > customers in independent areas in AL, FL, KY, and NC) and very small > independents, but it's quite common with mid-sized independents: > - TDS's TDS Metrocom: CLEC in many Midwestern cities, including their > HQ city of Madison, WI Though almost all of their offices are in the former Mid-Plains service area. When they first set up Metrocom, it competed against Ameritech and Mid-Plains. TDS Telecom bought Mid-Plains, er, Chorus, a few years ago, so TDS appears to have been in the position of competing with itself -- at least for a time (Metrocom's service map says they offer service in a number of TDS Telecom locations, but I doubt that is the case). >- ALLTEL: CLEC in various Plains and Southeastern cities, usually > those adjacent to large ALLTEL ILEC or wireless markets, such as > Charlotte and Omaha, and of course ALLTEL's HQ city of Little Rock >- Commonwealth Telephone's CTSI: CLEC in most of PA >- CT Communications of Concord NC: CLEC in much of NC as well as the > Discover Mills mall (only) in suburban Atlanta (Mills Corp. has > another mall in CT's ILEC area in NC, and lots of fiber runs down > I-85 between the Charlotte and Atlanta areas ;) ) >- Ben Lomand RTC in middle TN: CLEC in the city limits of McMinnville > and Sparta, where Frontier provides service (Ben Lomand only got the > unincorporated areas around those towns way back when -- but you > wouldn't know it from looking at where their McMinnville ILEC CO is; > it's *inside* the city limits, two blocks from Frontier's CO!) >- EATEL in Louisiana: CLEC in most of Louisiana, and IIRC bought a > failed CLEC that served other states (Actel) as well >- etc. > Then there's the *really* odd situation of companies that are > primarily CLECs owning ILECs; I can think of only two such cases off > the top of my head: >- Illinois Consolidated (before McLeodUSA spun them off, that is) >- Interstate/Valley Telephone in the West Point GA/Lanett AL area is > owned by Knology, a major Southeastern cable overbuilder (yes, > Knology itself provides cable in competition with Charter in the > area, but doesn't compete against IVT for phone customers since, > after all, they're the same company) > Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ > "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might > be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:19:55 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Garrett Wollman (wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu): >> Then there's the *really* odd situation of companies that are >> primarily CLECs owning ILECs; I can think of only two such cases off >> the top of my head: > I think Broadwing (Cincinnati Bell) would be the most obvious. I > don't recall the corporate history enough to know how that company > came about. IXC merged with Cincinnutty Bell. IXC was the CLEC, of course. Steve Sobol/CTO/JustThe.net LLC/Mentor On The Lake (Cleveland), OH/888.480.4NET "This country has a strong ethical foundation, but... I hesitate to say that erosion has set in, but it is clear that more and more of what we are is being built on sand and not on that foundation." - G. Waleed Kavalec, in SPAM-L ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Call Detail Records Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 20:29:07 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Hi Vic, The beauty of Standards is that there are so many to pick from! The same thinking, of course, applies to PBX/Key System CDR outputs. Even within my Nortel "Option" series switches (Option 11c, Option 61c, Option 81c) there are a few different ways the data stream can be put out -- The governing factors are software release and numerous selectable options in the system software. If you describe exactly what system you're interested in (by manufacturer and model as well as by software package identification and release number) someone here would likely be able to help you. Al Blake Sount wrote in message news:telecom22.408.7@telecom-digest.org: > Does anybody know if there is a standard format for the CDR files? > I mean, name of fields, length and type of data (strings of characters > or numbers), etc. > Thank you very much. > Vic ------------------------------ From: tonypo@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: SBC Fraud Detection Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 01:29:58 GMT In article , joe@obilivan.net says: >> ... to your initial question 'how do fraud control algorythyms work' >> or words to that effect, they work pretty well. The new and improved >> ESS tells authorities a lot of details they could not get in the >> old days, including who calls whom, for how long, how often, etc. PAT] > I read where the feds are concerned about Vonage because the calls are > untraceable provided the Vonage caller blocks Caller ID. Thus, I > doubt Vonage is being a Mother Hen (as in chicken s**t) like SBC is > doing. Maybe -- they're more than likely using TCP as opposed to UPD so it's a connection oriented service. As such, it can be tapped/traced at will. ------------------------------ From: Reed Subject: Re: Why do Some Businesses Use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 22:14:53 -0600 At the auto dealer I work at, we use one manufacturer's sat network for all manner of uses. Parts lookup and ordering, car warranty status, key cutting codes, software updates for on-board car computers, training, tech bulletins, recall info, ordering new cars for the showroom, finding another dealer with a specific car in stock, etc etc. Basically anything that in the past would have required large paper books, or a phone call. BTW, credit cards are done on a POTS line. However the sat is planned to be shut down soon in favor of Internet-based access to the same resources, with some form of VPN for safety. We do this with two other manufacturers now. Sat networks in general are a legacy from the days when building a large (ie every Ford dealer, 7-11, or Shell station in the world connected to "corporate") private network based on leased land-lines (pre-frame relay) was more expensive than a sat based network. In some ways, sats could be considered "frame relay in the sky", given the nature of the satellite backbone sharing, and protocol spoofing. Bear in mind also, that large corporate networks tend to change technologies slowly. The imbedded costs are such that "if it works, leave it alone". To make a big change, the payback time has to be very short. --reed Al Dykes wrote: > I drove along what seemed like 20 miles of auto dealerships and major > brand gas stations yesterday and, as usual, saw Sat dishes on all of > these establishments. > I began to wonder how much data a gas station/24-hour Mart really > needs to exchange daily, let alone the need for any "real time" > networking. And also, why a national frame relay network isn't being > used. > What's the tradeoff between a Sat network and a frame network, and > what data to these businesses send daily? > I'd guess once you've justified a full time bidirectional network you > could bring the credit card clearing system in-house and save bucks, > but by itself wouldn't be a justification. > Just curious. > Al Dykes > adykes@panix.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Twenty miles of auto dealerships and > gas stations, eh? You must have been driving down Western Avenue > in Chicago then. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Jensen Subject: Re: Praise for Cingular Rescinded Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 11:04:46 -0500 Organization: Jensen Family Reply-To: david@dajensen-family.com In comp.dcom.telecom, bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) wrote in : > In article , Jack Hamilton > wrote: >> John Higdon wrote: >>> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Let that be a lesson to you to *tape- >>> record* phone calls with customer service reps as needed, especially >>> the dingbat ones. Of course you have to notify anyone you are tape >>> recording, and typically that will put them on their best behavior as >>> well. >> Wouldn't their recording which says "calls may be recorded for quality >> purposes" cover that? "May" sounds like it's giving permission. >> Jack Hamilton >> jfh@acm.org >> If men are to wait for liberty until they become wise and good in >> slavery, they may indeed wait for ever. - Lord MacCaulay >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, 'may' does sound like permission >> is given, but *be certain to get that recorded statement on the start >> of your own recording so they cannot later claim they did not give >> permission. > Even if you take it as "we will (possibly) record this call", it is > likely sufficient. To wit: > If one party has 'served notice' of intent to (possibly) record the > conversation, then _no_one_ on *that* side of the conversation has > any "expectation of privacy". They _already_ know (or *should* know) > that the call is subject to being recorded. Why not demand that Cingular provide a copy of the tape they made of the first conversation? "I'd hate to sue you, but I understand that you record all of your CSR calls, please provide a copy of this one so we can get this straightened out." >> And 'quality purposes' sounds to me like you are trying >> to assure the customer service rep has been properly trained. You want >> to know one way to *absolutely assure* that a customer service rep >> gets very annoyed at you? When they first answer the call, you should >> ask, 'may I please speak to someone who has been trained to answer the >> phones and deal with customers?' Say it politely, and always thank them >> in advance for calling someone 'like that' to the phone. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can make all the demands you wish for copies of the tape which was made of the first conversation, but those demands would be in vain; they simply would not provide them, and most likely have an excuse such as 'we record over them on a regular basis'. Better just to make your own copy. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 14:05:13 -0700 From: David Youatt Reply-To: youattd@ieee.org Subject: Re: [CISSP_PNW] REVIEW: "Firewalls and Internet Security", Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah wrote: > "Firewalls and Internet Security", William R. Cheswick/Steven M. > Bellovin/Aviel D. Rubin, 2003, 0-201-63466-X, U$49.99/C$77.99 Great book by true experts, but I prefer Zwicky's "Building Internet Firewalls" -- http://www.bookpool.com/.x/mmq8pj3n1n/sm/1565928717 # Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates; 2nd edition (January 15, 2000) # ISBN: 1565928717 Also, if you buy lots of tech books, check prices at www.bookpool.com, and no sales tax if you live in WA. Or let www.bestbookbuys.com find the best price from several booksellers for you. -- David Youatt, youattd@ieee.org, +1 (425) 868-1927 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization End of TELECOM Digest V22 #412 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 26 20:47:06 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3R0l5x04130; Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:47:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:47:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304270047.h3R0l5x04130@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #413 TELECOM Digest Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:47:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 413 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nevada, LATAs (was Re: AT&T Local Access Charge) (Mark J Cuccia) Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? (CCIE8122) Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? (AES/newspost) Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? (John R. Levine) Re: Area Code Statistics (John R. Levine) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Linc Madison) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (John R. Levine) Re: Why do Some Businesses Use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? (C. Dold) Re: States and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge (Clarence Dold) Re: Praise for Cingular Rescinded (John Higdon) Looking for Hands Free Telephone System for Entire House (O K) Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV (John Higdon) It's Bound to Scare You, Boy / Intellectual Property Today (M. Solomon) Last Laugh! Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (John Higdon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:27:36 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Nevada, LATAs (was Re: AT&T Local Access Charge) Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > Dave Phelps posted the following: >> It's interesting that you mention in-state vs out-of-state carrier >> selection. AFAIK, you can't do that. You have an intralata carrier, >> and interlata carrier. If your state is in a single LATA, then you >> are right, but I don't know if there are any states that only have >> a single LATA. Maybe NJ or RI? In any case, there is no concept of >> intra-state and inter-state when it comes to LD carrier >> pre-selection AFAIK. > I think Nevada has only a single LATA. No, Nevada is two significant LATAs: 720 Reno NV - which covers most of the state (central and northern) and 721 "Pahrump NV", which covers the southern portion. Note that 721 for southern Nevada is an 'odd' number. When the LATA numbering scheme was originally developed by AT&T and the DOJ some 20+ years ago in preparation for 1984's divestiture, the initial draft had all LATAs end in an even number. Later on, there were some "adjustments" made to the numbering scheme, and additionally carved out LATAs (or renumberings to some 'independent' 9NX LATAs) were given odd numbers inserted between two previously assigned even numbers. The LATA scheme also follows a format to identify the RBOC region as of 1984's divestiture: 1NX for NYNEX (now VeriZon in the northeast) 2NX for Bell Atlantic (now VeriZon in the mid-Atlantic) 3NX for Ameritech (now part of SBC) 4NX for BellSouth 5NX for Southwestern Bell (now known simply as SBC) 6NX for US West (now part of Qwest) 7NX for Pacific Telesis (now part of SBC) - California Pac*Bell; NV*Bell LATAs and "pseudo" LATAs for points outside of the continental US (Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and later Guam, Saipan/Mariana Islands, and soon American Samoa, all being "US" points, do indeed fall within LATAs according to US Federal Government telecom regulations), including Canada, the non-US-but-still-NANP Caribbean, Mexico (even though not part of the NANP itself) all have 8NX format "LATA" codes. I think there has even been used a 'pseudo' LATA code for internal telco paperwork/database purposes called "International" or "Overseas", of the 8NX format. LATA-like regions for non-Bell telcos, within the continental US, have been assigned 9NX format LATAs. The "semi" Bell telco of Southern New England Telephone (now part of SBC) for virtually all of the state of Connecticut, has been assigned LATA 920; the "semi" Bell telco of Cincinnati and Suburban Bell Telephone, has been assigned LATA 921, which covers a small part of Kentucky and an even smaller part of southeastern Indiana, as well as the Cincinnati Metro southwestern tip of Ohio. Other rather large CONUS-based indep telcos with their own 9NX LATAs include Talahassee FL (Sprint-Centel), Tamapa FL (VeriZon-GTE), Ft.Myers FL (Sprint-United), Palm Springs CA (VeriZon-GTE), San Angelo TX (VeriZon-GTE), etc. Note that the middle digit of a LATA is 'N', which is any digit '2' thru '9', NOT counting '0' or '1'. This was also done at the time so as to avoid confusion with Area Codes, which at the time had only '0' or '1' in the middle-digit. Note that LATA codes are NOT used by the switching/routing equipment. They are NOT dialed by customers, operators, nor switching equipment. They are strictly for administrative paperwork/database organizational purposes, for billing, and network routing/switching *documentation* purposes. Southern Nevada (aka "Pahrump") is predominantly serviced by Centel, now part of the LEC side of Sprint. This is an independent telco. I seem to think that in 1982 or so, Las Vegas NV and vicinity was going to be assigned a 9NX series LATA code for independent Centel. However, it was later decided to classify this LATA as a "Bell" LATA. Pacific*Telesis' Nevada*Bell Reno NV LATA was/is #720. LATA #722 was already assigned to Pacific*Telesis' Pacific*Bell San Francisco CA LATA with all following 7NX LATAs also assigned to California (Pacific*Bell). Thus, the southern NV LATA (Las Vegas, but named "Pahrump" whose I-LEC, 'I' for *INCUMBENT* LEC, is a 'Bell' town) is numbered as a Nevada*Bell LATA. Something interesting, but not necessarily unique about the Vegas or Pahrump LATA, is that there are Bell central offices/remotes, which "home on" a *NON* Bell telco's tandem for network access, operator services, and such! The Nevada*Bell (now SBC) towns of Pahrump (and its remotes of Indian Springs and Sandy Valley which being in Clark County retained NPA 702, and remotes of Lathrop Wells and Beatty being in southern Nye County split off to new NPA 775 in 1998; Pahrump itself is in southern Nye County and split to NPA 775 back in 1998 as well) are all within the Pahrump/Vegas LATA 721. They are all "Bell" ratecenters. But they get basic LEC operator services as well as network access and intra-LATA tandem access from SPRINT (CENTEL) in Las Vegas! And this "Bell homing on an indepedent" in the southern Nevada area *pre-dates* the 1984 divestiture. There are a handful of other situations where Bell end-offices home on a non-Bell tandem/operator platform for intra-LATA and network access, but not many. And most/all pre-date 1984. So, as for Nevada's LATAs, there are these two significant LATAs, 720 Reno NV and 721 Vegas/Pahrump NV. I think that the Reno LATA also extends "slightly" into California. The Vegas/Pahrump LATA also extends slightly over into Sandy Valley CA (which gets dialtone from Sandy Valley NV remote off Pahrump NV host). Portions of LATAs from Utah, Idaho, and Arizona, and possibly Oregon, extend slightly into Nevada as well. I think that the Reno NV LATA might also extend slightly over to adjacent states as well. The basic thing to understand is, is that LATA, NPA (Area Code), and state lines/regions do *NOT* necessarily correlate neatly and nicely. There are zigzags and overlaps of these all over. There are LOCAL calling areas in some places which cross between two LATAs. There are remotes in one LATA which are hosted by main switches in adjacent LATAs. In New England Telehone (VeriZon) territory, for the most part, the LATA boundaries are EXACTLY along the state lines. However, there are central offices which provide dialtone to customers in the adjacent state. Those customers do have their own state-based NPA-NXX code and ratecenter name, and they are associated with the LATA of their actual state. But the central office switch actually providing them with dialtone is physically in a different LATA! For administrative purposes, a "dummy/secondary" CLLI code has to be assigned to that c.o.switch for the adjacent state ratecenter/c.o.code. There are waivers/exceptions in routing/switching/network/translations to compensate for such; these days, for the most part most independent telcos, the CLECs, and wireless carriers are not necessarily subject to LATA boundary requirements as the ILEC Bells are. Many CLECs and wireless telcos seem to completely ignore LATA boundary setups when configuring their basic network -- i.e., a single central office switch can provide service for customers throughout an entire state, although those customers are actually located within different ratecenters AND LATAs. Of course, unique NPA-NXX c.o.codes have to be assigned for each and every ratecenter where customers are located served from that single c.o.switch. LATAs have provided an administrative purpose, and may continue to do so for a while, but as more and more service providers are directly competing against each other in virtually all aspects of telecom service, it may be that LATAs or the concept of LATAs will become obsolete over time. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 16:13:45 -0600 From: CCIE8122 Subject: Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Organization: Computer Solutions > I have DSL service between my home and Stanford University's campus > network, with the actual service provided by SBC/Pac Bell; my wife and > I use it to access our separate accounts ("User ID's") on the Stanford > campus net. > A non-Stanford family member now wants to go direct to AOL via the > Internet using the same DSL connection, without going through Stanford > or piggybacking on either of our Stanford accounts. > Is this feasible, or meaningful? I understand how DSL works > technically, but I'm not up to speed on just what it connects to at > the other end. Does DSL always connect only to a single ISP > (presumably Stanford in this case) at the far end, and you have to go > through that ISP to access the broader web? Or is it somehow "on the > Internet" in a broader fashion, and one can connect directly to other > sites? I can tell you exactly how this works, as I have set it up for several customers myself. The DSL subscriber line (your line into the home) (almost always provided by the LEC -- in your case PacBell) connects to the LEC's DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM), which aggregates all of the subscriber lines in a given area onto the carrier's ATM network. At the host end (ISP), an ATM circuit (typically an ATM DS-1 or an ATM PVC on an existing ATM DS-3) is provisioned and is mapped to a PVC on an ATM T-1/T-3 at the ISPs premises. Individual users are logically mapped to a given host, and virtual circuits tie the subscriber to the host. The host serves as the ISP for the subscriber and buys separate bandwidth to the Internet (I have seen this done on the same ATM DS-3 as a separate PVC or on separate dedicated circuit to a tier-1/2 ISP). In your case, it all depends on if Stanford is the host, or if PacBell or someone else is the host. You will be a bill to PacBell (typically in the $20-$40 range) for the line, and you will pay a bill to the ISP (typically $10-30, depending upon speed). If PacBell is the ISP, you will pay in one aggregated bill. So the question is, does the PacBell bill include the Internet service, or just the access (line)? If the former, then you are likely accessing Stanford via VPN or some other authentication means, or just accessing their public site. If the latter, and if Stanford is indeed the ISP (in which case they might be building the ISP service into the cost of tuition and just requiring you to pay for the line), then you can still access AOL, etc. but it will be across the Stanford network. Stanford likely does not have a problem with this, as they are likely pretty liberal in terms of what they will allow you to access (I am reasonably certain AOL falls within this umbrella). Nevertheless, you would do well to check their access policies. HTH kr ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 14:04:42 -0700 > In article was written: >> I have DSL service between my home and Stanford University's campus >> network, with the actual service provided by SBC/Pac Bell; ... >> A non-Stanford family member now wants to go direct to AOL via the >> Internet using the same DSL connection, without going through Stanford >> or piggybacking on either of our Stanford accounts. >> Is this feasible, or meaningful? Responding to my own post: * Thanks to John Levine and the Moderator for discussion. * My DSL link at home might be more or less nonstandard, since I had to order it and pay for it through Stanford, not SBC. * In fact, however, to quote a helpful Stanford Networking guy, my connection is "bare naked on the net", i.e. my family member is able to go direct to AOL, without going through Stanford. * At the same time I never see any kind of Stanford prompt, or have to explicitly"go to" or log into Stanford myself. But, there's some kind of Stanford-provided security software named MacLeland which I have to have on my laptop to access Stanford stuff -- via DSL or even if I connect to a Stanford net access point in my office on campus. Apparently it handles whatever it handles -- including Kerberos, whatever that is. "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834-1902) "Dependence on advertising tends to corrupt. Total dependence on advertising corrupts totally." (today's equivalent) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Kerberos is a type of security method used when connecting between networks. I am not quite certain how it works. I know that when I connect to LCS/MIT they do require me to use 'ssh' which is a similar thing. No straight telnet, and certainly no more rlogin. Year ago, I had an '.rhosts' file in my directory at mit.edu and it was like speed dialing; just tap a couple keys here and go right in. Hackers ruined that, like they did straight telnet. Now when I use 'ssh' it looks for a secure key on my system. Your family member will need to log in to SBC on your master account of course, but can have her own mailbox at that level as well as on AOL, even using the inexpensive BYOA method for about five dollars per month. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Date: 26 Apr 2003 16:51:05 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> I have DSL service between my home and Stanford University's campus >> network, with the actual service provided by SBC/Pac Bell; ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well John, it was and still is not > plain to me if SBC puts him 'on the net' whereupon he types something > and *then* gets connected to Stanford or if SBC merely carries his > traffic over to Stanford who then deals with him entirely. Stanford gets its Internet connection from Cogentco, not SBC. SBC DSL in California is just like it is in Kansas, it's an ISP through which you can connect to whatever you want on the net. In theory, he could have some complicated virtual private network setup that connects only to Stanford, but that would be much, much more trouble than it would be worth for anyone to set up. Around here people get DSL from various local telcos and ISPs and use them to connect to Cornell, who gets its connection from Broadwing. Same idea. Works great. The only peculiarity is that some of the ISPs, noting that a whole lot of traffic goes from their net to Cornell, arrange a direct local connection so that the traffic doesn't go from Ithaca to Washington DC and back, but that's invisible to the users other than that it makes their connection faster than it would be otherwise. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: 26 Apr 2003 17:30:56 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> Lone Pine, CA >> NPA-NXX SWITCH OCN LATA >> 760-264 LSANCAVADS2 8827 FOCAL COMM CORP CA 730 >> 760-614 BSHPCAAW1MD 5024 WESTERN WIRELESS-CA 730 >> 760-875 LSANCARC5KD 7379 PAC-WEST TELECOMM 730 >> 760-876 LNPNCAXFRS5 2302 VERIZON CALIFORNIA 730 This is the problem that local number portability is supposed to solve. I would be amazed if Focal and Pac-West had as many as a dozen customers in Lone Pine. (Note that the switch code for both starts with LSAN, telling us that the switches are really in Los Angeles, with only a virtual prefix assigned to Lone Pine.) With LNP, those customers can take their VZ (ex-GTE) numbers with them and move them to Focal or Pac-West. For LNP to work, the receiving telco needs only a single prefix anywhere in the LATA, which of course they each already have in Los Angeles. Then they can each give back their Lone Pine prefixes for use elsewhere in 760-land. If the cell companies get their way, you'll be able to port between landline and wireless, too, but I suspect that there really are some Cell One customers there. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Linc Madison Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 14:34:38 -0700 Organization: LincMad.com Consulting Reply-To: Telecom@LincMad.com In article , Steve Michelson wrote: > Incidentally, LATAs do not necessarily correspond directly to area > codes. You could have multiple LATAs within an area code, as NJ > does. You could also have multiple area codes within a LATA, due to > area code splits or overlays. New Jersey has three LATAs: North Jersey LATA: area codes 201/551, 732/848, 908, and 973/862 Trenton/Camden LATA: area code 856, plus part of area code 609 Atlantic City LATA: the remaining part of area code 609 Minnesota, by the way, has five different LATAs, one of which straddles the North Dakota border. Nevada has two LATAs, one for Las Vegas and the other for the rest of the state. STATES THAT ARE AT LEAST VERY CLOSE TO A SINGLE LATA (with some possible minor spillover to or from adjacent states): Alaska Delaware Hawaii Maine New Hampshire New Mexico Rhode Island South Dakota Vermont Wyoming Utah comes close, but the Navaho reservation in the Four Corners area has its own LATAs for the Utah and Arizona parts. Most of Connecticut is in one LATA, but the area around Greenwich is in the New York City LATA. Also, Puerto Rico, the USVI, Guam, and the CNMI have their own separate LATAs. American Samoa will probably be assigned its own LATA. Florida has ten LATAs, but some of them are further divided into sub-LATAs. I've never really understood why they created sub-LATAs instead of just creating more LATAs, nor why they needed to chop the state up into such tiny pieces. Texas has 17 LATAs. Illinois is next with 13. California has 11. Quite a few LATAs have incidental spillovers to adjacent states, but there are a few that confidently straddle a state line: Portland OR: most of OR plus a substantial piece of WA Fargo-Brainerd: almost half of ND plus a big chunk of MN Omaha: substantial pieces of Nebraska and Iowa Philadelphia: all of Delaware and a good chunk of Pennsylvania Washington DC: all of DC, plus pieces of MD and VA In California, the Monterey LATA is only part of area code 831, but the Los Angeles LATA includes all or part of area codes 213, 310, 323, 562, 626, 661, 714, 760, 805, 818, 909, and 949. Area code 760 is split between three LATAs: Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and San Diego. When area code 209 split a few years ago to form 559, the split followed the LATA boundary, and so each area code is now coterminous with its LATA. www dot LincMad dot com / Telecom at LincMad dot com Linc Madison * San Francisco, California ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 26 Apr 2003 17:05:10 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I think Nevada has only a single LATA. Nope. Nevada has LATA 721 for the Las Vegas area and 720 for the rest of the state. LATA 720 also includes three small exchanges in California and one in Oregon. Four small Nevada exchanges are in Idaho LATA 652, but I wouldn't count that as a third NV LATA. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: dold@WhyXdoXSom.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Why do Some Businesses Use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 21:26:45 UTC Organization: a2i network Reed wrote: > Sat networks in general are a legacy from the days when building a > large (ie every Ford dealer, 7-11, or Shell station in the world > connected to "corporate") private network based on leased land-lines > (pre-frame relay) was more expensive than a sat based network. In some > ways, sats could be considered "frame relay in the sky", given the > nature of the satellite backbone sharing, and protocol spoofing. KMart stores did price updates every night to 2300+ stores via broadcast satellite ... one way. This was in the early 90's when the internet wasn't available in most cities, and individual modem transmissions would have taken too long. Around 93 they upgraded to a two-way system so they could get inventory feedback... look what that did to them ;-) ------------------------------ From: dold@statesXand.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: states and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 20:48:20 UTC Organization: a2i network John R. Levine wrote: > I agree that the best way to avoid AT&T's new charge is to switch to a > phone company that acts like it wants your business. In 1983, I was selling "dialers" to route LD and local toll calls. With the minimum usage charges from various LD companies, it sounds like a dialer, feeding a calling-card access point, is almost back to the proper way to go for a small volume home user. Maybe I'm a homebody, but I rarely make calls out of my LATA. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Praise for Cingular Rescinded Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 14:39:35 -0700 In article , David Jensen wrote: > Why not demand that Cingular provide a copy of the tape they made of > the first conversation? "I'd hate to sue you, but I understand that > you record all of your CSR calls, please provide a copy of this one so > we can get this straightened out." Actually, Cingular doesn't see an issue here at all. Even if I was lied to and could prove it, the company's position is that they don't have anything to do with roaming rates (e.g. those in Bahrain) and just collect the charges on behalf of the foreign provider. End of story. So they goofed in quote the rates. The rates are still the rates. Pay up. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: However, you are free to besmirch their character as 'liars' here on the Internet for whatever that will get you. Not that anyone would find that news, which is what the net is supposed to be about. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: O K From: O K Subject: Looking For Hands Free Telephone System For Entire House Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 14:19:12 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Hello, I am seeking a product or vendor that sells a hands free telephone system either through an intercom system or a set of speakers and microphones placed throughout the home, where I would be able to be anywhere in the home and be on a hands free system whenever the telephone rings. I have seen one such system, but I can't get a reply from the supplier. Please remove the * from the email address to email directly. -thanks, Owen ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 15:19:19 -0700 In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Robert Mercer, a DIRECTV spokesman, confirmed late Thursday (April > 24) that the satcaster is considering launching a monthly package > of HD channels. The monthly fee would be big news because > non-premium HDTV channels -- until now -- have been available for > free on DIRECTV. Popular services don't stay "free" for very long. The question is whether such fees constitute another impediment to the rather unimpressive rate of adoption by the public of HDTV. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, they sure don't stay free for very long. Consider Mail Washer as an example. This handy dandy spam fighting tool was free for the longest time, then the guy who wrote it must have sold it to another company which now gives you exactly thirty days to make up your mind what you are going to do, then pay $30.00 or give it up. Unlike some spam fighters which toss out the stuff *they* define as spam (invariably losing some you want in the process), Mail Washer hands it all over to you as single one line entries on your screen with a place to check off what is spam and what you want to blacklist forever. I go click, click, click through my personal mailbox account (as spam ridden as any you have ever seen) and it all disappears then and there. Mail Washer bounces it back to the sender right from the POP server. And believe me, after months of clicking and bouncing, you do eventually start to see a reduction in the spam level. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:40:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: It's Bound to Scare You, Boy / Intellectual Property Today Lawrence B. Ebert Although ElcomSoft was acquitted on December 17, 2002, n2 the DMCA has been getting more use in the time since. One interesting application was that by Lexmark in the case Lexmark International v. Static Control Components, No. 02-571-KSF (E.D. Ky. Dec. 30, 2002) in which Lexmark added a computer chip to its printers to force buyers of its printers to use only the company's brand of replacement toner cartridges. Only when a Lexmark cartridge is used will the chip send an authentication sequence, so that the printer will not run on non-Lexmark cartridges. The defendant allegedly manufactured chips that mimicked the authentication sequence, and Lexmark sued in part under the DMCA. It asserted that defendant's computer chip circumvents the technological measure of authentication and so provides unauthorized access to the printer's copyrighted software. The DMCA prohibits circumventing a technological measure in order to gain access to a copyrighted work. n3 Hewlett-Packard criticized the use of Lexmark of the DMCA. n4 Separately, the subpoena power within the DMCA got attention in an action involving Wal-Mart n5 and then one involving Verizon. n6 Wal-Mart's action invoked a part of the DMCA that allows a copyright holder to ask for "identification of an alleged infringer" without filing a lawsuit first. In the context of the Wal-Mart case, Deirdre Mulligan was quoted: "People are using the DMCA as an extremely flexible tool that gets ISPs (Internet service providers) to take down information. ISPs are not in a position to fight back. It requires resources -- it puts them in a position where they could assume liability. The ability to silence speakers even where the underlying claim does not have any merit is worrying." After the Verizon case, a different provider ominously noted on a board: "Our privacy policy may not be as protective as Verizon's." A poster on a listserv commented: "But on the web can a publisher simply make mistakes 'disappear?' With the DMCA, not only can the publisher remove a story from its web site; it can have it removed from every other web site too." http://www.reedsmith.com/library/publicationView.cfm?itemid=25540 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 15:23:41 -0700 In article , J Kelly wrote: > Here in Independence, Iowa I can choose from one of two cable modem > providers in my town (Mediacom, the big regional one in Iowa, or the > Municipal Utilities' service). Both have uploads capped at 128kbps, > the city owned system has a max downlink of 384 kbps (what a joke). > No DSL available from our ILEC (Qwest). In Independence, IA, you are better connected than a good share of people in Silicon Valley, many of whom have neither access to DSL nor cable modem service at all. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but the people in Silicon Valley are all so backward, culturally and in other sophisticated matters as well. In Independence, Iowa; Independence, Missouri; Independence, Kentucky or even Independence, Kansas -- all major population centers -- the guys are sophisticated and demand the best in communications services; DSL, Cable modem service, even satellite and other types of wireless communications, etc. Tell me this John, do you all there have 1200 baud modems yet, or are you still sending email and surfing the net with acoustic 110/300 baud modems? We even have an internet cafe here, downtown on Pennsylvania Street where you have a sandwhich and a soft drink or coffee while you check your email, etc on a super-speed wideband connection to the net. I hope you guys in Silicon get with the times sometime soon. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #413 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 27 20:05:31 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3S05VA10997; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:05:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:05:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304280005.h3S05VA10997@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #414 TELECOM Digest Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:05:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 414 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (John David Galt) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Robert Code) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Looking For Hands Free Telephone System For Entire House (Gail Hall) Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze (Greg T. Knopf) Re: Call Detail Records (David Clayton) Re: Area Code Statistics (joe@obilivan.net) Re: Area Code Statistics (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? (Ed Ellers) Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (OneNetNut) Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates (Robert Code) Cell Phone Connection to Home/Office Wiring (John Stahl) Re: Last Laugh! Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (J Kelly) Re: Last Laugh! Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (joe@obilivan) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John David Galt Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 19:11:13 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Linc Madison wrote: > As for New Jersey, it has three entire LATAs: north Jersey, Trenton- > Camden, and Atlantic City. California has ten LATAs, some of which > include only part of one area code, but others with all or part of > several area codes. The San Francisco LATA includes all of 408, 415, > 510, 650, and 925, plus almost half of 831 (Santa Cruz, but not > Monterey or Salinas), and ALMOST all of 707. However, the town of > Dixon is in area code 707 but in the Sacramento LATA. If you believe SBC's directory, Dixon is now in the San Francisco LATA. I don't know if this has been formally changed, (can this even be done?) but it wouldn't surprise me if SBC now routes and bills calls as if it were true. Now that SBC provides intralata long distance to California customers, the distinction has pretty much ceased to matter anyway. > In California, the Monterey LATA is only part of area code 831, but the > Los Angeles LATA includes all or part of area codes 213, 310, 323, 562, > 626, 661, 714, 760, 805, 818, 909, and 949. Area code 760 is split > between three LATAs: Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and San Diego. When > area code 209 split a few years ago to form 559, the split followed the > LATA boundary, and so each area code is now coterminous with its LATA. According to SBC's directories, this is not true; 209 is split between the Stockton and Fresno LATAs, while all of 559 is in the Fresno LATA. 661 is also split among three LATAs: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, and San Luis Obispo. Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > I think Nevada has only a single LATA. Nevada has two: Las Vegas and Northern Nevada. The Northern Nevada LATA also includes three towns in California and one in Oregon. One of the included towns in CA is an oddball case: the "Verdi, CA" exchange (actually Farad, CA; there is no town of Verdi on the California side) is in area code 530 but is physically served from the same switch in Verdi, NV, that serves that town's own exchange. I wonder what other cases like this may exist on state lines. Nevada probably has the highest fraction of service by small independent telcos of any state in the US. As in other parts of the country, Ma Bell doesn't seem to have been interested in serving the boonies, and pretty much the whole state is "boonies" outside of Las Vegas and Reno/Tahoe. Nevada is also probably the largest state covered by a single directory (depending how you count -- that is, SBC's directory includes the listings for the entire state, but in independent-telco areas you will see smaller books showing only the local area). ------------------------------ From: Robert Code Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 17:06:19 -0400 Linc Madison wrote: > All of Delaware is a single LATA, but that LATA also includes a small > portion of Pennsylvania, including an insignificant little town called > "Philadelphia." In fact, the unfortunate folks in Delaware live in a > LATA that is called "the Philadelphia LATA." Actually the Philadelphia LATA contains almost all of southeastern Pennsylvania, hardly a small portion, even less so if you are considering population and telephone lines, not land. But I have a question. Let's assume that a caller has selected Verizon for regional calls, and AT&T for all other long distance. Does this mean that this caller in Allentown PA who dials Laurel DE will be billed for Verizon for this call? ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:34:34 GMT On 26 Apr 2003 17:05:10 -0400, John R. Levine posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: >> I think Nevada has only a single LATA. > Nope. Nevada has LATA 721 for the Las Vegas area and 720 for the > rest of the state. LATA 720 also includes three small exchanges in > California and one in Oregon. > Four small Nevada exchanges are in Idaho LATA 652, but I wouldn't > count that as a third NV LATA. I'm glad I hedged by saying "I think." Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Gail M. Hall Subject: Re: Looking For Hands Free Telephone System For Entire House Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 00:04:36 -0400 Reply-To: gmhall@apk.net On Fri, 25 Apr 2003 14:29:22 -0700, in comp.dcom.telecom message , O K wrote: > Hello, > I am seeking a product or vendor that sells a hands free telephone > system either through an intercom system or a set of speakers and > microphones place throughout the home, where I would be able to be > anywhere in the home and be on a hands free system whenever the > telephone rings. I have seen one such system, but I can't get a reply > from the supplier. It seems to me that a cordless hands-free phone with a headset would work better than the kind of system you are talking about. I have a terrible time hearing people when they are using a speakerphone because of all the background noise that comes over the phone. People don't want to get up close to the speaker on their speakerphone, so their voices aren't as clear as they are on a normal handset or headset. Depending on what your environment is like, I suspect you might have trouble hearing the caller on the other end of the line when you depend on speakers and you expect to be "anywhere" in the house, including across the room from the speaker. Then there is the matter of privacy. With your plan, you would have to be careful what you and the other party talk about whenever someone else is in your house, and other people in your house would have what amounts to a broadcast of their conversations to the other party. I have a Plantronics headset phone, but it is hard-wired. It lets me work with my hands and talk on the phone at the same time. That really saves wear and tear on my neck! My son bought a cordless version of a headset phone. The phone part clips on to his belt, and he wears the headset. He can be in the basement of his shop or up on the main floor working with his hands, and I have no problems hearing him when he is talking to me on that phone. The conversation is not heard all over the shop, either. I think his headset phone is a Plantronics, too, but I'm not sure. Since it is cordless, he can be anywhere in his shop or the basement, the size being comparable to a person's house. There is no problem with extraneous sounds coming into his ear or out to the party on the other end, and certainly no problem with feedback because of microphones picking up sounds from speakers in the room. Going down memory lane: The first push-button phone I ever saw operated was used by a local Realtor around 1962. He had a headset and "dialed" numbers using buttons on the phone instead of the normal dial. He used this phone because he was basically a paraplegic, although he had enough use of his hands to push the buttons on the phone and could hold a pen to do some writing. It's interesting to me that some of the devices developed for people with disabilities do end up being made available to the general public. Gail in Ohio USA ------------------------------ From: greg t. knopf Subject: Re: Now Digital, Spy Camera Technology Widens Gaze Date: 27 Apr 2003 06:43:48 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Reply-To: gtknopf@concentric.net > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: *Anywhere* it is legal and lawful for a > *LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER* to stand and observe what is going on, it is > lawful for a mechanical eye to do the same thing ... anywhere > there is not or should not be any 'expectation of privacy', or > anywhere no judicial 'search warrant' has been issued is perfectly > fair game for the placement of a camera for others to watch. Which is interesting, but what we really want to know is whether it is legal for a moderator of a tech newsgroup, let's say, to set up a camera to broadcast to the world a view of the romantic arts as practiced by a young neighborhood Casanova and his ladyfriend. Just wondering, greg gtknopf@concentric.net [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In your example, whether or not the person is a moderator of a newsgroup is not of consequence. *Any person* who wishes to legally set up such a camera view needs to have the permission of the participants prior to placing the display on public view. And, I suppose, the person would need to at least pay lip service to the 'obscenity laws' in the place where he lives if not as well in the place where the webcast would be viewed. I happen to think it would be in poor taste in the person's position as a newsgroup moderator to place such a view on a website under his direct control for example, if I were to devote a place in this Digest or on our telecom website for a streaming cam with a sex show. Who the person is does not matter; he needs to have legal permission, and try to show some common sense. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Clayton Subject: Re: Call Detail Records Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 18:01:19 +1000 Organization: Customer of Connect.com.au Pty. Ltd. Reply-To: dcstar@acslink.net.au david_esan@hotmail.com (David Esan) contributed the following: > vhuertas@indra.es (Blake Sount) wrote in message > news:: >> Hi all, >> Does anybody know if there is a standard format for the CDR files? >> I mean, name of fields, length and type of data (strings of characters >> or numbers), etc. > The short answer is no. > The company that I work for writes software to make reports from the > CDR. They have a full time person just writing the interface portion > for each switch. The format is different between companies that > produce the switches, between models, between options within the > models. Some are fairly straight forward and some give people a > headache just wondering what the programmer was thinking when he wrote > the code. Nortel, (I think..) "S", "N" and "E" records....... it hurts my brain just remembering some of these..... :-) Regards, David Clayton, e-mail: dcstar@acslink.net.au Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Dilbert's words of wisdom #18: Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level then beat you with experience. ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 02:50:16 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are lots of examples in the USA > like Lone Pine. Kansas is not a very densely populated state, yet we > have a bunch of area codes. 913 is the Kansas City (Kansas side) metro > area code (816 is for the Missouri side) And, that area used to waste a lot of numbers by permitting permissive dialing across the state line in the metro area. It was 7-digit dialing throughout the area. Thus, 913-722 in Mission, KS took away 816-722 although there wasn't any 816-722 in service. Washington DC metro area was the same way. I guess it mattered when everyone had to pull a pulse dialer through 10 rather than 7 times per call. ;-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, recall please that the whole system of area code numbering *originally* (like 1950's) was set up with 'short pulls' for the major urban areas. New York = 212, Chicago = 312, Detroit = 313, Los Angeles = 213, San Francisco = 415, Washington DC = 202 (which is a bit more than New York or Chicago but still much fewer than Newfoundland = 709 and Hawaii = 808 and Alaska = 907. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:33:03 GMT On 26 Apr 2003 17:30:56 -0400, John R. Levine posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > This is the problem that local number portability is supposed to > solve. I would be amazed if Focal and Pac-West had as many as a dozen > customers in Lone Pine. (Note that the switch code for both starts > with LSAN, telling us that the switches are really in Los Angeles, > with only a virtual prefix assigned to Lone Pine.) Actually, this is the problem that number pooling is supposed to solve. (Except that Lone Pine isn't in a top-100 MSA, so number pooling isn't mandatory there.) Number pooling would allow a single central office code to be used to serve up to 10 carriers' customers. Number portability would allow one carrier to get another carrier's customers, but a carrier is unlikely to be interested in making the investment needed to accomplish this if they don't have any local numbers, either from a pool or from its own central office code, because it wouldn't be able to sign up new customers or sell new lines, only target switchers. > With LNP, those customers can take their VZ (ex-GTE) numbers with them > and move them to Focal or Pac-West. For LNP to work, the receiving > telco needs only a single prefix anywhere in the LATA, which of course > they each already have in Los Angeles. Then they can each give back > their Lone Pine prefixes for use elsewhere in 760-land. Currently, LNP applies only to carriers with numbers in a given rate center, not a LATA. While it may be technically possible to port numbers across rate center boundaries, it's not required. VZ wouldn't have to port a customer's number to a carrier with numbers only in LA. Moreover, LA is in a different area code from Lone Pine, I believe. It's certainly in a different rate center. Thus, if Jane Smith did port her number from VZ to one of the CLECs with a presence only in LA, she would suddenly find that she must pay intraLATA toll to call her neighbors -- assuming VZ was willing to port the number out, which they would be very unlikely to do. In fact, wireline carriers' unwillingness to port numbers out of a rate center even to the adjacent rate center is at the root of the wireless carriers' FCC pending number portability petition. > If the cell companies get their way, you'll be able to port between > landline and wireless, too, but I suspect that there really are some > Cell One customers there. The FCC already requires LNP between landline and wireless, starting November 24, 2003, in the top 100 MSAs. I think it starts a year later for areas outside the top 100, where there is a bonafide request. Cell companies don't particularly want LNP at all, but if they have to do LNP they want it to work for porting numbers from landline to wireless in reality. Unfortunately, wireless carriers tend to draw numbers only from a few rate centers, so under the current rules only wireline numbers in those rate centers have to be ported on request. The cross- rate-center porting problem is what they are seeking to get solved in their pending petition. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 02:49:53 GMT Carlo Coggi wrote: > I live in Manhattan and have had the same easy-to-remember MUrray > Hill (68x) exchange home phone number for several years. I will be > moving a few dozen blocks uptown in a few weeks and would like to > retain this number. Verizon says that they cannot let me retain my > number if they move more than a few blocks beyond the specific > geographic neighborhood I live in." Because you'll have moved into an area served by a different central office. > But when I entered my number on Vonage's online registration page, I > was told that I could retain my number if I switched to Vonage. Vonage's switch probably serves all of Manhattan -- not too difficult, since they use the Internet to connect to their customers rather than running physical facilities out of central offices. That's also how Vonage can give you local service *in another city,* because your adapter box would just be pointed to a different switch's IP address. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 03:41:45 GMT On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 11:03:02 GMT, Carlo Coggi posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > I live in Manhattan and have had the same easy-to-remember MUrray Hill > (68x) exchange home phone number for several years. I will be moving a > few dozen blocks uptown in a few weeks and would like to retain this > number. Verizon says that they cannot let me retain my number if they > move more than a few blocks beyond the specific geographic > neighborhood I live in. I bet you could pay for an FX (foreign exchange) line and keep your number, but this would cost quite a bit and probably wouldn't be worth it. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually an FX line is based on mileage 'as the crow flies' and would not be that much in this particular application. In fact, I suspect it would be less than a Vonage type phone *in this application*. PAT] ------------------------------ From: OneNetNut Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:49:47 -0500 Actually there has been a number of discussions about it in the comp.dcom.voice-over-ip newsgroup. Mainly positive. On 24 Apr 2003 14:15:34 -0700, ccis4sofi@yahoo.com (Oliver Penn) wrote: > I can only find one previous posting in this group on this subject. > It was more conjecture than information. I live in what must be one > of the smallest markets where DSL is available. Speeds vary but > generally, it is not very fast. Vonage home page testing says I need > to use their speed booster. > Only news papers seem to cover it. The Dallas Morning News writer > "After testing the service for several weeks ..." recently said it > was simple. > Do any of the knowledgable telephone folks in this group have any > recent personal experience with this service, especially with 'slow' > DSL connections? > Oliver(recovering telephone guy)Penn > Gun Barrel City, TX [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I decided to try Vonage out for a month or so and see how it would work. Trouble is, they had no numbers at all in any area code here in the area I live in. I wound up taking a number in 415 since I thought I could use that. I do not know why, however they could not have placed a few numbers in *each area code* rather than a cluster of them on the east and a cluster of them on west coast. I only signed up for the real cheap 500 minute plan since I do not think I ever spend 500 minutes in a month's time on any phone calls. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Robert Code Subject: Re: ILECs Becoming CLECs, was Re: MA Local Telephone Rates Increase Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 18:08:09 -0400 Steven J. Sobol wrote: > From Garrett Wollman (wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu): >>> Then there's the *really* odd situation of companies that are >>> primarily CLECs owning ILECs; I can think of only two such cases off >>> the top of my head: >> I think Broadwing (Cincinnati Bell) would be the most obvious. I >> don't recall the corporate history enough to know how that company >> came about. > IXC merged with Cincinnutty Bell. IXC was the CLEC, of course. And don't forget that IXC was an IXC too. :) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:18:39 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Cell Phone Connection to Home/Office Wiring With more and more people shutting off their land line phones (last estimate was 18% of cell phone owners) in favor of exclusive use of their cell phones, there must be "gadgets" available which the cell phones can be dropped into at home or office, to allow using the home/office internal wiring to extend the cell phone "signal" to the internal wired extensions. Does anyone know of a "gadget" described above for all cell phone manufacturers' phones (Motorola, Samsung, Kyocera, etc.)? I have found only one such device called the CellSocket (www.cellsocket.com) but it only seems to be made for the most popular Nokia phones. Thanks for your help. John Stahl Telecom/Data Consultant Aljon Enterprises [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have suggested to Mike Sandman that if someone were to make a 'ribbon connector' type thing with a cell- socket type device so that all phones could be used with it (and possibly add a couple dip-switches to make some programming changes as needed) I am sure it would sell rather well. PAT] ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:34:04 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 15:23:41 -0700, John Higdon wrote: > In article , J Kelly > wrote: >> Here in Independence, Iowa I can choose from one of two cable modem >> providers in my town (Mediacom, the big regional one in Iowa, or the >> Municipal Utilities' service). Both have uploads capped at 128kbps, >> the city owned system has a max downlink of 384 kbps (what a joke). >> No DSL available from our ILEC (Qwest). > In Independence, IA, you are better connected than a good share of > people in Silicon Valley, many of whom have neither access to DSL nor > cable modem service at all. It sure took awhile. When I moved here 5 years ago we had one internet provider who wanted $40 for 28.8 access. they had no idea what X2 or 56K was, which I had grown accustomed to using (and for only 19.95/mo) when I used ibm.net for my ISP in my previous town. A little under two years ago the city's system came online, and then about a year later Mediacom (which had formerly been ATT Broadband) added internet to their system. AT&T Broadband and TCI before them had been promising internet "in about 30 days" for well over two years before it actually happened. But then the city had said in November of 97 that their internet and cable tv would be going "in August". They failed to mention of what year as it was early 2001 before I was able to get either. We are now blessed to have access to two high speed internet services for this little town of about 6,000 people in podunk Iowa. Thanks to competition my 1500/128 cable modem service costs me $39.95/mo. It would be $10 less if I subscribed to Mediacoms basic cable tv, but I use DishNetwork instead. The city gets $44.95 for 384/128 with a $10 discount for having cable. They have about 97% of the high speed subscribers for some odd reason, probably because Mediacom hasn't really bothered to market the fact that their service is available. ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 14:08:03 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications John Higdon wrote: > In Independence, IA, you are better connected than a good share of > people in Silicon Valley, many of whom have neither access to DSL nor > cable modem service at all. > John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS > +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yeah, but the people in Silicon Valley > are all so backward, culturally and in other sophisticated matters as > well. In Independence, Iowa; Independence, Missouri; Independence, > Kentucky or even Independence, Kansas -- all major population centers > -- the guys are sophisticated and demand the best in communications > services; DSL, Cable modem service, even satellite and other types of > wireless communications, etc. Tell me this John, do you all there have > 1200 baud modems yet, or are you still sending email and surfing the > net with acoustic 110/300 baud modems? We even have an internet cafe > here, downtown on Pennsylvania Street where you have a sandwhich and a > soft drink or coffee while you check your email, etc on a super-speed > wideband connection to the net. I hope you guys in Silicon get with > the times sometime soon. PAT] John probably knows very well the problem in much of the high-tech, high-income Silicon Vally area lies with SBC, aka Pacific Bell, aka Specific Hell. The outside plant (read copper) is so old and frazzled in many places such as Palo Alto and Menlo Park. And, SBC isn't about to spend the millions required to fix it to work DSL, so long as it provides acceptable voice. SBC has, however, made sure the business districts of places like Menlo Park and Palo Alto have direct fiber feeds to provide DSL. I have a friend who lives two blocks from downtown Menlo Park and DSL is simply not in the cards. Yet, in the store fronts in the business district two blocks away, DSL is alive and well. As to cable modem service, those communities settled with crummy cable service providers. I told my friend he could order a fractional T3; that SBC would be required to provide that under tariffs. ;-) ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #414 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 27 22:31:47 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3S2Vlw12811; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:31:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:31:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304280231.h3S2Vlw12811@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #415 TELECOM Digest Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:32:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 415 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson 5- vs. 7-Digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) (nmclain@annsgarden.com) Nevada's Printed Telephone Directories (Mark J Cuccia) Spread of Buggy Software Raises Questions (Monty Solomon) Re: Pneumo Tubes (Carl G Knoblock) Re: States and LATAs, was Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (Steven Lichter) Re: Why do Some Businesses Use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? (Mike M.) Telecom-digest.zzn.com Down? (Michael Spencer) Re: Area Code Statistics (John R. Levine) Re: AT&T Local Access Charge (John R. Levine) Southeastern PA and the State of DE (Mark J. Cuccia) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:54:11 -0600 From: nmclain@annsgarden.com Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: 5- vs. 7-digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) Mark Roberts Then there is the case of Centerville, Iowa, population around > 6,000 for about the last forty years. > When I was living there, there were phone numbers of the following > form: > 856-2xxx, 856-3xxx, 856-6xxx, 856-8xxx, 856-9xxx. > You never saw phone numbers of the form 856-4xxx or 856-5xxx. > In town, dialing the last five digits was sufficient. To dial > neighboring exchanges, seven-digit dialing was required. Three of > those exchanges were 647-xxxx, 649-xxxx, and 658-xxxx. > After I moved away, sometime in the 1970s, Centerville opened up the > 437-xxxx prefix. I always had wondered why a town of that size needed > two exchanges so early on. But recently, I think I figured it out. > Centerville may have needed more phone numbers, evidently, but if > five-digit dialing were preserved, 856-4xxx and 856-5xxx could be > confused with the nearby exchanges. 6-4xxx could be a Plano or Mystic > number that was incomplete, or it could be a Centerville number that > was complete. > So, I think, 437-xxxx was opened up to provide more numbers and, > presumably, to preserve five-digit dialing without causing collisions > with the 6-4xxx or 6-5xxx series. I don't know if Centerville still > had five-digit dialing by that time. But if it did, 437-nxxx would > work as long as n != 2 (because there was a neighboring 724- exchange) > and five-digit dialing would still work. > It doesn't answer the question of why 6-0xxx, 6-1xxx, or 6-7xxx > wouldn't have worked, but I am assuming the mechanical switches for > that exchange may have had limitations. For example, long-distance > dialing access would be "11", "12" or even "13" depending on some > arbitrary factor unbeknowst to subscribers of the Iowa State > Telephone Company (later Continental). I'll propose a hypothesis. The Centerville situation you describe is remarkably similar to the hypothetical step-by-step (Strowger) office described by AT&T in "Notes on Distance Dialing" [1]. This publication describes "digit absorbing selectors" -- first selectors having specified levels designated A or AR: A = The selector absorbs the specified digit once only; on the next digit, it "trunks on all levels." This digit must be dialed once (and only once) in order to reach certain specified second digits. However, it is absorbed (ignored) for any other second digit. AR = The selector absorbs the specified digit repeatedly unless a digit has been absorbed previously on a level designated "A". If my hypothesis is correct, Centerville had a step-by-stop office in which the first selector was configured as follows: "5" was type AR, meaning that you could dial 5 repeatedly before dialing anything else (e.g., 555556-2xxx would reach 856-2xxx; 5555555555555550 would reach the operator). "6" was type A, meaning that you had to dial 6 once (with or without any previous 5s or 8s) in order to reach the 6-2xxx, 6-3xxx, 6-6xxx, 6-8xxx, and 6-9xxx local numbers or 658-xxxx numbers in a neighboring community. But 6-4... would reach numbers beginning with 4; 6-0 would reach the operator; etc. "8" was type AR, meaning that you could dial 8 repeatedly before dialing anything else (e.g., 8888886-3xxx would reach 856-3xxx). Or, for that matter, 5858585858586-2xxx would reach 856-2xxx, or 5555588885858858885888888586-0 would reach the operator. Therefore, the dialing plan would have been as follows. In this list: [N] is a footnote reference. <85> are the two "AR" digits (although any combination of 5s and 8s could be substituted, or they could be omitted altogether). (6) is the "A" digit (required if the second digit is 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, or 9; absorbed and ignored if the second digit is 1, 4, 7, or 0). <85>(6)11... Long distance <85>(6)12... Long distance <85>(6)13... Long distance <85>(6)1N ??? [2] <85>(6)2xxx Local numbers in form 856-2xxx <85>(6)3xxx Local numbers in form 856-3xxx <85>(6)437-xxxx Local numbers in form 437-xxxx [3] <85>(6)47-xxxx Nearby numbers in the form 647-xxxx [4] <85>(6)49-xxxx Nearby numbers in the form 649-xxxx [4] <85>(6)58-xxxx Nearby numbers in the form 658-xxxx [5] <85>(6)6xxx Local numbers in form 856-6xxx <85>(6)7... Blank level (or possibly 724?) <85>(6)8xxx Local numbers in form 856-8xxx <85>(6)9xxx Local numbers in form 856-9xxx <85>(6)0 Operator All of this is, of course, just hypothesis, so further comments are welcome! Similar situations existed in small and mid-sized communities throughout the Bell System during the 50s, 60s, and 70s [6]. A final question would be: how is a first selector configured for A and AR levels? I don't know the answer to this one; perhaps Roger Conklin or Joe Stevens can explain it to us. Footnotes: [1] Appendix A, Section 4, "Typical Trunking Diagrams for Step-by-Step Offices." "Notes on Distance Dialing." AT&T Engineering and Network Services Department, Systems Planning Section, 1975. [2] Possibly other codes such as information, revertive calling, etc? [3] The choice of this particular NXX code (437) would have allowed the introduction of new numbers in Centerville before the 856 step-by-step equipment was replaced with newer equipment (crossbar or ESS). However, I would surmise that the 437 equipment itself was either crossbar or ESS (to the best of my knowledge, by "sometime in the 1970s" Bell was no longer installing any new step-by-step equipment). So seven-digit dialing would have been required for any local call from a 437 number even if 856-to-856 calls remained 5-digit. [4] Which means that you could have reached 647-xxxx or 649-xxxx numbers from Centerville by dialing only the last six digits. Did you ever try this? [5] In this case, the full seven-digit number (including the 6) would have been required. Omitting the 6 would cause 5 (the AR level) to be the first digit, so it would have been absorbed and ignored. [6] One example: Ann Arbor, Michigan. In Ann Arbor, 6 was type AR and 8 was type A. My previous post about this situation is in the archives at . Neal McLain nmclain@annsgarden.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:42:49 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Nevada's Printed Telephone Directories John David Galt wrote: > Nevada is also probably the largest state covered by a single directory > (depending how you count -- that is, SBC's directory includes the > listings for the entire state, but in independent-telco areas you will > see smaller books showing only the local area). Not true. The SBC (formerly Nevada*Bell) directory lists all SBC/NV*Bell ratecenters throughout the state, the bulk of them being in NPA 775 *and* in LATA #720 the "Reno NV" LATA (covering the central and northern part of the state), as well as the five SBC (NV*Bell) ratecenters in the southern part of the state, which is within Sprint-Centel's LATA #721 "Pahrump NV" which really should be called the Sprint-Centel Las Vegas LATA. These five SBC-NV*Bell ratecenters all actually "home" on independent Sprint-Centel in Vegas: In southern Nye County (NPA 775): Pahrump NV (host) Lathrop Wells NV (remote off Pahrump) Beatty NV (remote off Pahrump) In Clark County (NPA 702): Indian Springs NV (remote off Pahrump) northwest corner tip of Clark Cnty Sandy Valley NV (remote off Pahrump) southwestern corner of Clark County. And Sandy Valley CALIFORNIA (NPA 760) getting dialtone from Nevada's Sandy Valley NV remote off Pahrump. All of the five (six if you count the CA side of Sandy Valley) are within the southern NV LATA #721 (officially classed as a 'Bell' LATA and named 'Pahrump', but really handled by Sprint-Centel and should be named the 'Las Vegas' LATA). AFAIK, the SBC-NV*Bell directory does *NOT* contain any listings for the region of Sprint-Centel Las Vegas. Sprint-Centel publishes its *OWN rather large directory for its region, for the most part all "EAS" (local" wrt itself. There is the independent telco of Moapa Valley Telco just to the northeast of Vegas Metro. I don't know offhand if they print their own directory, neither do I remember offhand if Moapa Valley Telco is listed in Sprint-Centel's directory. I don't think that SBC-NV*Bell necessarily includes these listings. Some of the other independents in Nevada do print their own directories, such as Lincoln County Telco. I seem to remember that (SBC) NV*Bell's directory did *NOT* include listings for Lincoln County Telco in years past. And of course, there are other stateline situations where Nevada ratecenters and customers (both NPA 702 in southeastern NV, and NPA 775 in the rest-of-the-state) are served out of (indep.telcos in) adjacent state (Bell) LATAs, either Qwest-LEC (USWest) or maybe SBC-Pac*Bell from CA. I don't know if any of these are necessarily included in the SBC-NV*Bell directory. But I seriously doubt that the SBC-NV*Bell directory now includes the Sprint-Centel Las Vegas Metro listings, as this directory itself is quite large, and had never previously been included in the "Bell of Nevada" directory. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 15:02:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spread of Buggy Software Raises Questions By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- When his dishwasher acts up and won't stop beeping, Jeff Seigle turns it off and then on, just as he does when his computer crashes. Same with the exercise machines at his gym and his CD player. "Now I think of resetting appliances, not just computers," says Seigle, a software developer in Vienna, Va. Malfunctions caused by bizarre and frustrating glitches are becoming harder and harder to escape now that software controls everything from stoves to cell phones, trains, cars and power plants. Yet computer code could be a lot more reliable _ if only the industry were more willing to make it so, experts say. And many believe it would help if software makers were held accountable for sloppy programming. Bad code can be more than costly. Sometimes it's lethal. _A poorly programmed ground-based altitude warning system was partly responsible for the 1997 Korean Air crash in Guam that killed 228 people. _Faulty software in anti-lock brakes forced the recall of 39,000 trucks and tractors and 6,000 school buses in 2000. _The $165 million Mars Polar Lander probe was destroyed in its final descent to the planet in 1999, probably because its software shut the engines off 100 feet above the surface. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33972514 ------------------------------ From: Carl G Knoblock Subject: Re: Pneumo Tubes Organization: Retired Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 01:44:26 GMT In article , Dale Farmer wrote: > Chuk Gleason wrote: >> Actually, Pneumo tubes are still in common use many places; I've seen >> them at the Home Depot store in Cary, NC (just outsida Raleigh) from >> the cash registers to um, I've never asked where they go to. I'm >> guessing other departments like Millwork, etc. Still works like a >> champ. > These tubes are standard in Home Depot stores, and most of the > warehouse type stores. ( Costco, etc. ) They make it very easy for a > cashier to toss excess cash and so on back to a central cash handling > room. That way when there is a robbery, there is far less amount of > cash at risk, and thus less incentive for robbers to hit them. Most banks around Omaha still use them for driveup service. The lane next to the building will use a drawer, the rest are service by tubes and cameras. One local Credit Union, in it's newest buildings, has replaced the live teller counter with Pneumo tubes and monitors. You put your request and ID in a tube and send it off, and when a teller gets it, she turns on the monitor at your station and talks to you. When she is done, she returns the tube with your money or receipt or form to sign, and the monitor goes to some other display until she's needed again. A withdrawal typically takes two round trips, just like the drive through. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had not considered the bank drive up windows but our two banks here, Commerce Bank and First National use pneumo at their drive ups. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevenl11@aol.com (Steven Lichter) Subject: Re: States and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 26 Apr 2003 18:52:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote in message news:: >> If your state is in a single LATA, then you are right, but I don't >> know if there are any states that only have a single LATA. Maybe NJ >> or RI? This is a little off the subject, but many years ago GTE had a switch located in Huntington Beach, Ca. It was a 2 area code and 2 switch; both steppers. They were 53 in one and 72 in the other. This was very interesting and we used to get a lot of people who wanted to see it. It was also a great learning experiance for me. A couple of years ago I got a chance to go back there doing contract work, it was not a NT switch, still 2 area codes, one for North Orange county and the other for the LA side of Huntington Harbor. The only good spammer is a dead one!! Have you hunted one down today? (C) I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot in Hell company ------------------------------ From: mhmallory@hotmail.com (Mike M.) Subject: Re: Why do Some Businesses Use SAT Dishes Instead of Landline? Date: 26 Apr 2003 21:21:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Reed wrote in message news:: > At the auto dealer I work at, we use one manufacturer's sat network > for all manner of uses. Parts lookup and ordering, car warranty > status, key cutting codes, software updates for on-board car > computers, training, tech bulletins, recall info, ordering new cars > for the showroom, finding another dealer with a specific car in stock, > etc etc. Basically anything that in the past would have required large > paper books, or a phone call. BTW, credit cards are done on a POTS > line. > However the sat is planned to be shut down soon in favor of > Internet-based access to the same resources, with some form of VPN > for safety. We do this with two other manufacturers now. > Sat networks in general are a legacy from the days when building a > large (ie every Ford dealer, 7-11, or Shell station in the world > connected to "corporate") private network based on leased land-lines > (pre-frame relay) was more expensive than a sat based network. In some > ways, sats could be considered "frame relay in the sky", given the > nature of the satellite backbone sharing, and protocol spoofing. > Bear in mind also, that large corporate networks tend to change > technologies slowly. The imbedded costs are such that "if it works, > leave it alone". To make a big change, the payback time has to be very > short. > --reed > Al Dykes wrote: >> I drove along what seemed like 20 miles of auto dealerships and major >> brand gas stations yesterday and, as usual, saw Sat dishes on all of >> these establishments. >> I began to wonder how much data a gas station/24-hour Mart really >> needs to exchange daily, let alone the need for any "real time" >> networking. And also, why a national frame relay network isn't being >> used. >> What's the tradeoff between a Sat network and a frame network, and >> what data to these businesses send daily? >> I'd guess once you've justified a full time bidirectional network you >> could bring the credit card clearing system in-house and save bucks, >> but by itself wouldn't be a justification. >> Just curious. >> Al Dykes >> adykes@panix.com >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Twenty miles of auto dealerships and >> gas stations, eh? You must have been driving down Western Avenue >> in Chicago then. PAT] A few reasons that stick out. 1) Reliability - If there is a network failure that occurs in a public switched network provider (Non-SONET), a satellite based network is the most cost efficient alternative, especially for "burst type data" a retailer usually transmits. 2) Security - Combine a encryption scheme with a private keyed satellite receiver, and data is virtually theft proof and or unalterable. 3) A satellite based network is a closed network, unlike the internet which travels a public switched network. 4) Cost - satellite infrastructure is a good low cost network soloution for point - to - point POS. The majority of network technology, private lines (56K, ISDN, POTS), T1's, SONET, Frame Relay, ATM, VPN's, etc. traverse a public network. This is why all of a sudden, it has alarmingly occurred to the public utilities providers and even the military how easy a terrorist could take over command and control of there systems. I do not suggest your local gas station maintains a satellite based network for these reasons, but I'm sure security was a requirement for their system developers, who usually base their security model after the military. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 20:49:25 EDT From: Michael Spencer Subject: Telecom-digest.zzn.com Down? Hi Pat -- I've been unable to use the email service you set up at zzn.com. I've been using it occasionally since soon after you announced it and it has worked fine. Now I can connect and log in but get an "Ooops!" message in response to the login. Same result trying to create a new account. If they're undergoing an overhaul or are down permanently, perhaps you could announce that in the Digest in order to avoid confusion. It may be a bit belated to say it but it's nice to have you back at the helm. Best, Mike Spencer mspencer@ceci.mit.edu [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for your kind words. I do not really know what the folks at telecom-digest.zzn.com are doing these days. I think they do require you to accept their cookies if you want to log in these days. I know it will not let me in either, since as a general rule I just do not accept cookies or else I dump them as soon as I get them. Those accounts were good while they lasted, but like most things on the net these days, they became very spam-ridden. If you can turn on your cookie acceptance and get in, then let me know. PAT] ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: 27 Apr 2003 20:56:21 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> This is the problem that local number portability is supposed to >> solve. I would be amazed if Focal and Pac-West had as many as a dozen >> customers in Lone Pine. (Note that the switch code for both starts >> with LSAN, telling us that the switches are really in Los Angeles, >> with only a virtual prefix assigned to Lone Pine.) > Actually, this is the problem that number pooling is supposed to > solve. Number portability would allow one carrier to get another carrier's > customers, but a carrier is unlikely to be interested in making the > investment needed to accomplish this if they don't have any local > numbers, either from a pool or from its own central office code, > because it wouldn't be able to sign up new customers or sell new > lines, only target switchers. Porting and number pooling both address this problem. My impression is that CLECs have numbers in tiny little towns not because they expect to sign up customers there, but because they want to be able to provide local calling everywhere in the LATA for ISP dialup modem banks and the like. Porting would be fine for that, particularly if they change the rules so that you can port a newly assigned number, not just one that's already in service. >> With LNP, those customers can take their VZ (ex-GTE) numbers with them >> and move them to Focal or Pac-West. For LNP to work, the receiving >> telco needs only a single prefix anywhere in the LATA, which of course >> they each already have in Los Angeles. Then they can each give back >> their Lone Pine prefixes for use elsewhere in 760-land. > Currently, LNP applies only to carriers with numbers in a given rate > center, not a LATA. While it may be technically possible to port > numbers across rate center boundaries, it's not required. Don't confuse a rate center with a switch location. Focal's numbers in the Lone Pine rate center are switched in Los Angeles, whether they're ported or in Focal's own block. > It's certainly in a different rate center. Thus, if Jane Smith did > port her number from VZ to one of the CLECs with a presence only in > LA, she would suddenly find that she must pay intraLATA toll to call > her neighbors -- Really? That's not my understanding of the way that LNP works. Whatever rate center the number started in, it stays in. For example, my Vonage phone has an Ithaca NY 607-330 number, even though it's on Paetec's switch which is physically in Syracuse (in AC 315, but that doesn't matter.) If I had an Ithaca Verizon number, I could have ported it to the Vonage service, where it would be switched in Syracuse, but still in the Ithaca rate center. In North America, LNP works by looking up each dialed number in a shared database to get a routing number. If the number hasn't been ported, the routing number is the same as the dialed number. If it has been ported, the routing number is the location routing number (LRN) for the new provider's switch, a number chosen from a prefix assigned to the new switch. Then the call is routed using the routing number, but it's still billed to the caller based on the dialed number. There is nothing I see in the design of number portability that requires that the dialed number and routing number be in the same rate center. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 27 Apr 2003 20:25:20 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> All of Delaware is a single LATA, but that LATA also includes a small >> portion of Pennsylvania, including an insignificant little town called >> "Philadelphia." ... > Actually the Philadelphia LATA contains almost all of southeastern > Pennsylvania, hardly a small portion, even less so if you are > considering population and telephone lines, not land. It's a joke, son. > But I have a question. Let's assume that a caller has selected > Verizon for regional calls, and AT&T for all other long distance. > Does this mean that this caller in Allentown PA who dials Laurel DE > will be billed for Verizon for this call? Yes indeed. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 21:00:12 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Southeastern PA and the State of DE Robert Code wrote: > Linc Madison wrote: >> All of Delaware is a single LATA, but that LATA also includes a small >> portion of Pennsylvania, including an insignificant little town called >> "Philadelphia." In fact, the unfortunate folks in Delaware live in a >> LATA that is called "the Philadelphia LATA." > Actually the Philadelphia LATA contains almost all of southeastern > Pennsylvania, hardly a small portion, even less so if you are > considering population and telephone lines, not land. > But I have a question. Let's assume that a caller has selected > Verizon for regional calls, and AT&T for all other long distance. > Does this mean that this caller in Allentown PA who dials Laurel DE > will be billed for Verizon for this call? (in a SINGLE word) ... YES! That said, that "should" be my shortest post to TELECOM-Digest, EVER! :) But I'll add some more descriptive info below: If that customer has selected VeriZon (Bell Atlantic, formerly Bell of Pennsylvania, or Delaware's Diamond State Telephone, the original BOC names, depending on the state), the ILEC (Incumbent) for their in-TRA-LATA toll carrier, YES, calls between Allentown PA and Laurel DE will be billed by VeriZon, unless the caller uses a 101-XXXX+ dialaround CAC before dialing 1+ on such in-TRA-LATA toll calls. Afterall, calls between/within the state of Delaware and southeastern PA, at least when considering VeriZon's operations, are "local-toll" (as far as I'm concerned, an oxy-moronic term, as how can something be toll 'and' local at the same time!), or more properly referred to within the US telco industry since 1984 as in-TRA-LATA toll. Of course these days, you aren't necessariy "locked" into using VeriZon ILEC (Incumbent) in-tra-LATA toll for these calls anymore, as you now can use 101-XXXX+ CAC codes to 'dialaround', upfront default 'PIC' someone you prefer if other than VeriZon, use cards via providers OTHER than VeriZon on 1-800-type dialups or 950- dialups, use cellular providers other than VeriZon, use CLECs that don't necessarily 'default' to VeriZon for *ANY* type of toll call, etc. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #415 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 28 02:02:13 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3S62DB14859; Mon, 28 Apr 2003 02:02:13 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 02:02:13 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304280602.h3S62DB14859@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #416 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Apr 2003 02:02:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 416 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson "Cyber War!" (Monty Solomon) Rise of the Spam Zombies (Monty Solomon) DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty (Monty Solomon) London's Soho to Get Blanket 802.11 Cover For Voice, Data (M Solomon) Can Westminster Really Set up a WiFi Zone in a Month? (Monty Solomon) Auditing Web Site Authentication (Monty Solomon) Sometimes, it All Works Out in the End ... (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? (Gary Breuckman) Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV (Gary Breuckman) Example of Mail Washer Returned Mail: User Unknown (Patrick Townson) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 01:03:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: "Cyber War!" Excerpt from PBS Previews FRONTLINE Thursday, April 24, 2003 (9-10:00 pm) A new form of warfare has broken out, and the battleground is America's technological infrastructure -- the power grid, the water supply, the complex air traffic control system and the nation's railroads. This documentary investigates just how real the threat of war in cyberspace is and reveals what the White House knows that the rest of us don't. (CC, Stereo) At the companion site, watch the entire program online, hear the thoughts of a "Master Hacker," submit your questions to a panel of computer security experts, view a timeline of recent major attacks and much more. http://pbs.org/frontline/ (Available Thursday, April 24) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:44:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rise of the Spam Zombies By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Pressed by increasingly effective anti-spam efforts, senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail are resorting to outright criminality in their efforts to conceal the source of their ill-sent missives, using Trojan horses to turn the computers of innocent netizens into secret spam zombies. "This is the newest delivery mechanism," says Margie Arbon, director of operations of anti-spam group MAPS. "I've been looking for it for a year, and in the last couple of months people have actually found Trojans that are doing it ... They're carrying their own SMTP engines. Failing that, they install open proxy software." One of those programs popped up last week. Named "Proxy-Guzu," when executed by an unwitting user the Trojan listens on a randomly-chosen port and uses its own built-in mail client to dash off a message to a Hotmail account, putting the port number and victim's IP address in the subject line. The spammer takes it from there, routing as much e-mail as he or she likes through the captured computer, knowing that any efforts to trace the source of the spam will end at the victim's Internet address. Trojan horses generally rely on their wielder's ability to trick innocent people into executing them. Proxy-Guzu, naturally, arrives as spam -- in one sighting the program was offered as a naughty peek at an online webcam. One early victim of the malware, posting to an anti-virus message board, says he detected it only when his desktop firewall program alerted him to large quantities of outgoing e-mail messages sent to unfamiliar addresses, with subject lines like "Don't tell your parents about this!" and "your bill." http://www.securityfocus.com/news/4217 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:41:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty A plea agreement is reached in the case of the college student who knew too much, while elsewhere DirecTV lawyers move against a message board poster for giving hacking advice to satellite pirates. By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus Apr 24 2003 12:23PM A 19-year-old University of Chicago student accused of leaking the secrets of DirectTV's most advanced anti-piracy technology to hacker websites has agreed to plead guilty to violating the rarely used 1996 Economic Espionage Act. Igor Serebryany is scheduled to appear Monday in federal court in Los Angeles to enter a guilty plea, in a plea agreement reached between defense attorneys and prosecutors last week, lawyers for both sides confirmed Wednesday. http://www.securityfocus.com/news/4173 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The damn fools! Why don't they make it a law you cannot show a bank robbery dramatization on television then? After all, there are a lot of bank robberies, some of them *may* have been caused by someone reading the instructions for same on a message board somewhere. Why aren't all television crime shows eliminated and the producers/writers of same arrested since who knows ... some crime somewhere may have been caused by someone who viewed the program. So here is a guy who told on a message board somewhere how to hack Direct TV and they got him. Is the real problem that Igor is smart enough to figure those things out while the prosecutors are well ... stupid prosecutors who needed someone to keep their criminal count up? But of course, prosecutors are not going to try that sort of stunt on CBS or NBC. They have lawyers and would fight back. Better to take some college student who can't afford to fight the evil that lurks in the prosecutors of America. Makes me sick to think about sometimes. Hackers are not the bad guys; prosecutors are! PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:46:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: London's Soho to Get Blanket 802.11 Cover For Voice, Data By Tony Smith London's City of Westminster Council is to bring 802.11b wireless networking to the streets of Soho. The scheme, dubbed the Westminster 4G project, will initially provide Wi-Fi connectivity for council operatives and remote systems. But in a direct challenge to ISPs and the UK's wired and mobile telcos, the Conservative-led Council plans to extend the network to provide data and voice services to the public. Westminster 4G, due to be rolled out next month, will see a number of "smart boxes" installed throughout the Soho district of central London. Greek Street, Old Compton Street and Dean Street will be among the first to be given blanket Wi-Fi coverage, project leader and West End ward councillor Ian Wilder told The Register. New York City embarked on a similar scheme last year when it rolled out Wi-Fi access in the Bryant Park area and other zones. The Westminster plan will allow parking meter attendants, cleaners, noise inspectors and other council workers to access council systems via 802.11-equipped handheld terminals in real-time, in the field. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/59/30404.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:50:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Can Westminster Really Set up a WiFi Zone in a Month? By Guy Kewney Posted on 26/04/2003 at 21:45 Wireless experts are deeply sceptical over leaked plans from Westminster council, London, to establish a blanket voice and data zone in the West End, particularly, the Soho area. Not just the time-scale is being questioned. The story, broken by The Register's Tony Smith, says that Westminster 4G is due to be rolled out next month. Conservative councillor Ian Wilder, who is best known for his campaigning to "clean up" the sex business in Soho, predicted that a number of WiFi nodes, or "smart boxes" will installed throughout the Soho district of central London. Greek Street, Old Compton Street and Dean Street will be among the first to be given blanket Wi-Fi coverage. But rival WiFi providers have expressed dismay at the prospect, predicting that access point overload will quickly follow. There are already dozens of freelance WiFi zones in the area, including Starbucks and BT OpenZone nodes, not to mention even more accidental access points provided by employees in the area, who have installed their own access points on corporate LANs. Richard Lander of WiFi Mesh company, LocustWorld, said that the prospect of seeing the council successfully roll out a wide-area wireless project in a month was "far-fetched." Other experts remembered the chaos of this year's big computer exhibition, CeBIT, in Hanover - where too many WiFi access points were installed, reducing the bandwidth from a theoretical 11 megabits per second, to about 10K - slower than a GPRS cellphone. And even a well-organised wireless zone can be sabotaged by the thoughtless rollout of just one rogue access point which shares a channel with a neighbouring one, as was shown at the recent Microsoft mobile developer conference at Disneyland Paris. http://www.newswireless.net/articles/030426-westminster.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 00:55:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Auditing Web Site Authentication by Mark Burnett Consider this scenario: you build a Web site that requires some kind of user log-in. You allow users to create usernames and passwords and require a valid username and password to get in to your site. But is your Web site authentication scheme secure? Every time I register at a site, I marvel at the consistently laughable - sometimes pathetic - security among even the world's largest Web sites. As the Web becomes more a part of our personal lives, the threat of fraud and identity theft grows accordingly. Inadequate user security is a problem that Web developers must address. Perhaps it is lack of standards. Perhaps it is a lack of auditing. This article addresses both of those issues by establishing a standard audit procedure by which to measure your own security. Test this list of questions against your own Web site's authentication scheme and see how it stands. http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1688 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 23:04:10 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Sometimes, it all works out in the end... I have a box (an Extendnet 4000, if you care) that acts as a webserver, mailserver, firewall, NAT/DHCP server, etc. Under the hood it's some flavor of *nix and a bunch of scripts so you can administer everything through a webpage ... it has (2) ethernet cards and an internal modem. You plug it into your broadband and LAN, and if the broadband goes down it will use the modem for dial-backup. In January I relocated from (630-691) to (630-832). I had been getting DSL from Qwest, but they said my new address was too far from the CO so they couldn't transfer the account. This even though the new address is about 2000 feet _closer_ to its CO than the old one. Qwest serves the new CO as well but has changed their rules about loop length, apparently -- they also told me they couldn't provide service at the existing address which they were currently serving :-) SBC (nee Ameritech (nee Illinois Bell)) wanted a $200 setup fee which the sales rep said they never waive. So I just let my 4000 box work the dialup for me while I waited for decent DSL to turn up in my area. Last Tuesday (4/22), I got around to paying the March bill for the new modem line. It showed 420 calls placed which seemed awfully high. So I started poking around, and discovered the 4000 was still set to "always connected" mode -- so the dial schedule I'd programmed in was not being used. Oops -- I fixed that. But I was motivated by the $45 phone bill to look at DSL again, and now SBC is running a $29/mo with no setup fee promotion. It's a dynamic IP, but since it's cheaper than dialup I'll live with it. I made the call, and they said they'd ship the self-install kit and the line would be provisioned on 4/29. Wednesday evening my dialup ISP () cut off my "unlimited" account for excessive usage. I can't really complain about this, because it's up to me to make sure my stuff is properly configured and they do explain upfront that "unlimited" doesn't mean you can nail up their modem 24/7. Interesting coincidence on the timing, though. Fortunately, I keep a $4.95/month AOL account and my mail is routed through Namesecure, so I was only bouncing for about two hours. Namesecure has their bad points, notably a complete absence of telephone support. But they do have the advantage of being cheap, plus this is an example of when they will save your butt: I had three different ISPs in as many days, and the only interruption to my email was the brief period I didn't yet know I had a problem. But AOL is not suitable for regular use, mainly it's a cheap way to get web hosting. (I host 4 banner-free websites at AOL for $4.95/month, and I _could_ be hosting 7.) Joi said they'd turn the account back on Thursday, but then on Thursday morning they said it wouldn't be back until the 29th -- another amusing coincidence. My pending SBC/Yahoo DSL includes unlimited dialup access, but that can't be used until the DSL account is activated, which won't be until Tuesday. I needed an alternate ISP, fast. Thursday around noon I was signed on to AOL looking for cheap dialup access when an Ameritech truck pulled up. (Apparently they haven't put all the SBC decals on yet.) The tech got out, said he was here "to test my new DSL", and headed for the demarc. The self-install kit had arrived that morning, so I went ahead and hooked it up. Guess what? Sync! Now, the SBC/Yahoo installation CD loads up a connection manager, who knows how much spyware, and a whole bunch of other extraneous software. Not a problem -- I put a sacrificial Windows installation on a scratch hard drive, loaded all the SBC/Yahoo crap on it, and got my account configured. Then I moved the DSL over to the 4000 where it happily commenced to chugging bits, and I put my regular drive back in. Monday (4/28) I'll cancel the Joi dialup account and put in a disconnect order for the modem's phone line (no, that's not the pair with the DSL on it :-) I went from 56Kbps for about $50/month to 600+Kbps for about $30/month -- and SBC got it installed less than 48 hours after the order was placed, 5 days ahead of schedule! Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Grammar and spelling flames welcome. Yes, that's really my email address. Don't change it. ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:23:33 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 11:03:02 GMT, Carlo Coggi posted the following to > comp.dcom.telecom: >> I live in Manhattan and have had the same easy-to-remember MUrray Hill >> (68x) exchange home phone number for several years. I will be moving a >> few dozen blocks uptown in a few weeks and would like to retain this >> number. Verizon says that they cannot let me retain my number if they >> move more than a few blocks beyond the specific geographic neighborhood >> I live in. > I bet you could pay for an FX (foreign exchange) line and keep your > number, but this would cost quite a bit and probably wouldn't be worth > it. You could probably get 'remote call forwarding' on your old line and have calls forwarded to your new number. That way you could continue with the old number as long as you wanted, and when you decided that everyone was using your new number you could drop the forwarding. Depending on the distance you moved, this could be less than a foreign exchange line -- but you are actually paying for two numbers (old and new) and the forwarding. Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 03:33:39 GMT In article , zyxNOSPAM@camsul.com says: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Actually an FX line is based on mileage > 'as the crow flies' and would not be that much in this particular > application. In fact, I suspect it would be less than a Vonage type > phone *in this application*. PAT] Well -- way back when I lived right on the line between what would give me a Providence rate-center phone number, or a Pawtucket rate-center phone number. Providence can call Warwick without a toll, Pawtucket can't. Still that way to this day. In any case most of my calling was to Warwick and points beyond so I got an FX. The CO's were < 1 mile as the crow flies but I got whacked an outrageous per month fee on top of mileage. I'm hoping services like Vonage force the incumbents into re-thinking the way they do business. Digital switches don't give a rats ass what yur phone number is, it could be 111-2345 for all that matters, and doesn't SS7 work within LATA boundaries too? It would probably mean software or firmware upgrades for switches and it's going to come down to that eventually. The Bell companies are well known for crying wolf all the time. ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:34:47 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com > Mail Washer bounces it back to the sender right from the POP server. And > believe me, after months of clicking and bouncing, you do eventually > start to see a reduction in the spam level. PAT] This is, I believe, wishful thinking on your part :) - at least in reference to bounces. Maybe it learns locally and so you see less. Bounces NEVER (well, mostly never) go back to the originator, they are all sent with fictitious FROM addresses. The only time the spammer might notice bounces are when the email is immediately rejected by the ESMTP host system, such as with "User unknown" -- the host never accepts the message, cuts them off in midstream with an error after seeing the recipient header. In many cases, though, including your example, your ISP's host will accept the mail. It will try to send a bounce message later, but of course that never gets to the sender. Gary Breuckman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct if we make the assumption that all spam comes from forged, nonsensical addressses. However, I see quite a bit from addresses that are good -- I just don't want the mail because it is crappy nonsense. *I know* a lot of the spam is going to just bounce off to somewhere and float around then get bashed; but bashed by someone other than me. It is just easier (as Mail Washer allows) to tap the mouse once and bash a piece of mail 'bouncing' it somewhere so it is out of my hair. Its like the old saying it is better to light a candle (even if it barely gives any light at all) rather than curse the darkness. If I let all that spam overload my Outlook Express inbox then had to go back and delete it all to the 'deleted' box then go again to the deleted box and say I want to get rid of it and then confirm that I wanted to get rid of it, thats 3 or 4 mouse clicks where I can make one click do it all, and if some of it accidentally reaches the true sender so much the better. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:49:48 -0600 From: Mail Delivery Subsystem Subject: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is an example of what bounced mail through Mail Washer looks like. I was here on massis and sent myself a letter to my personal account where I have Mail Washer installed. I just sent a one line message saying 'bounce this back to massis on reciept.' I sent it, it got to my personal account a few seconds later. About an hour later I went on my own account and found it. Mail Washer not only gives an authentic looking bounce, it also diddles with the Date line to make it appear the bounce occurred immediatly on receipt. If you study the bounce long enough you will see some evidence it may have been dummied up but what spammer has the time to look that long and hard. Anyway, here is what I got back after bouncing the 'spam'. PAT] ****************************** This is a MIME-encapsulated message --TCQ30335.1051401600/mx1.sbcglobal.net The original message was received at Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:49:48 -0600 from massis.lcs.mit.edu [18.24.10.21] ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- (expanded from: ) ----- Transcript of session follows ----- mail.local: unknown name: ptownson 550 ... User unknown --TCQ30335.1051401600/mx1.sbcglobal.net Content-Type: message/delivery-status Reporting-MTA: dns; mx1.sbcglobal.net Received-From-MTA: DNS; massis.lcs.mit.edu Arrival-Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:49:48 -0600 Final-Recipient: RFC822; X-Actual-Recipient: RFC822; ptownson@sbcglobal.net Action: failed Status: 5.1.1 Last-Attempt-Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 22:49:48 -0600 --TCQ30335.1051401600/mx1.sbcglobal.net Content-Type: message/rfc822 X-Apparently-To: ptownson@sbcglobal.net via web80101.mail.yahoo.com; 27 Apr 2003 20:49:44 -0700 (PDT) Return-Path: Received: from vm4-ext.prodigy.net (207.115.63.115) by mta814.mail.yahoo.com with SMTP; 27 Apr 2003 20:49:43 -0700 (PDT) X-Originating-IP: [18.24.10.21] Received: from massis.lcs.mit.edu (massis.lcs.mit.edu [18.24.10.21]) by vm4-ext.prodigy.net (8.12.9/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h3S3nh6q102280 for ; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 23:49:43 -0400 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3S3ngP13249 for ptownson@sbcglobal.net; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 23:49:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 23:49:42 -0400 (EDT) From: TELECOM Digest Editor Message-Id: <200304280349.h3S3ngP13249@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@sbcglobal.net Subject: testing the bounces just going to bounce this when it gets to sbcglobal. --TCQ30335.1051401600/mx1.sbcglobal.net-- ************************* So Mail Washer does not do a bad job of 'pretending' to bounce mail sent to a bad address ... I'll grant you that does depend on the original sender using a good address to start with, and some do. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #416 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 28 17:06:02 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3SL61d19304; Mon, 28 Apr 2003 17:06:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 17:06:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304282106.h3SL61d19304@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #417 TELECOM Digest Mon, 28 Apr 2003 17:06:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 417 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #380, April 28, 2003 (Angus TeleManagement) New Mobile Services Are on the RUN, From Mobile to Internet (A. Larsson) Spam Email Conferences (and msg to John R Levine) (AES/newspost) Re: Alternatives, was Re: AOL Blacklists Known Dynamic IP (Robt Bonomi) Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Play? (J Lindstrom) Re: Area Code Statistics (joe@obilivan.net) Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? (joe@obilivan.net) Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned Mail: User Unknown (tonypo1@sdc.cox) America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo! Join Forces Against Spam (Solomon) Apple Announcements to Be Broadcast Live Via Satellite (Monty Solomon) Wi-Fi Comes To The Office Phone (Eric Friedebach) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:34:33 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #380, April 28, 2003 *********************************************************** TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 380: April 28, 2003 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** BELL CANADA: http://www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: http://www.cisco.com/ca/letstalk ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: http://www.cygcom.com ** ERICSSON CANADA: http://www.ericsson.ca ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: http://www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: http://www.primustel.ca ** Q9 NETWORKS: http://www.Q9.com ** TELUS: http://www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Committee Recommends End to Foreign Ownership Limits ** Nortel Reports First Quarter Profit ** SARS Scare Delays Telecom Events ** TeraGo Completes Network in Four GTA Regions ** Fido Offers a Free Day Each Week ** Telus to Provide On-Line PC Backup ** Aliant Retires Provincial Telco Names ** Lucent Losses Continue ** Avaya Reports Reduced Loss ** Profits Continue at BCE Emergis ** AT&T Profit Beats Expectations ** Aliant Withdraws Mobile Radio Service ** Telus, BCE Results This Week ** IP-PBXs at the Tipping Point ============================================================ COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS END TO FOREIGN OWNERSHIP LIMITS: The House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry will table its report on foreign ownership limits for telecom companies today. The report, which was leaked to the press on Friday, recommends that the limits be entirely eliminated for both telecom carriers and broadcast distribution (cable) companies. (See Telecom Update #359) NORTEL REPORTS FIRST QUARTER PROFIT: Nortel Networks says it had net income of US$54 million in the first three months of 2003, its first profit in 13 quarters. Revenue was $2.4 billion, down 15% from last year. ** Nortel's wireless division produced 40% of the company's revenue; Enterprise accounted for 26%. SARS SCARE DELAYS TELECOM EVENTS: The WHO travel advisory about Toronto is causing telecom organizations to cancel or delay events in the city. We received three announcements last week: ** CANARIE's IWAY Awards gala, scheduled for April 28, has been delayed to September 22. ** The Canadian Cable Television Association has postponed its Cable Summit, which was to be held in Toronto April 27-29, to a future date. ** Telus has postponed its Investor Forum, planned for May 6. TERAGO COMPLETES NETWORK IN FOUR GTA REGIONS: TeraGo Networks, a wireless Internet access provider, says it has finished its network in downtown Toronto, Richmond Hill, Markham, and Vaughan, and has established links to 23 major Toronto office towers. It expects to finish its GTA network this spring. FIDO OFFERS A FREE DAY EACH WEEK: Microcell's new Freeday package offers Fido wireless free local calls on a day of the week chosen by the customer plus 250 anytime minutes for $25 a month. TELUS TO PROVIDE ON-LINE PC BACKUP: Telus and Massachusetts- based Connected Corporation have teamed up to offer a data backup service for desktop and laptop computers. A corporate version serves 10 or more PCs at $36.95/month. ALIANT RETIRES PROVINCIAL TELCO NAMES: The four Atlantic telcos, NewTel, IslandTel, MNT&T, and NBTel, merged in 1999, but kept their separate provincial identities. That's now changing: the telco will operate as Aliant in all four provinces, and has launched a region-wide campaign to promote the brand. LUCENT LOSSES CONTINUE: January-March 2003 was Lucent Technologies' 12th consecutive money-losing quarter. The company lost US$351 million in the three months. Revenues were down 32% from the same quarter last year. ** COO Bob Holder will leave Lucent this summer; CEO Pat Russo will add his duties to her job description. AVAYA REPORTS REDUCED LOSS: Avaya had first quarter revenue of US$1.08 billion, up 1.3% from the previous quarter and down 15.5% from the same quarter last year. The net loss was $16 million, compared to $121 million the previous quarter. PROFITS CONTINUE AT BCE EMERGIS: BCE Emergis had first quarter revenue of $124.1 million, down 5% from the previous quarter and 6% from a year ago. Net income was $4.8 million, compared with $6.4 million the previous quarter. AT&T PROFIT BEATS EXPECTATIONS: AT&T Corp. reports earnings of US$0.73 a share for the first quarter, well above analysts' expectations. The company's total earnings were US$571 million compared to a $975 million loss last year. Revenue was down 5.9%. ALIANT WITHDRAWS MOBILE RADIO SERVICE: The CRTC has approved Aliant's application to withdraw its obsolete public mobile telephone service in Newfoundland. Aliant must reimburse each remaining subscriber $2,000 to ease conversion to satellite or cellular service. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2003/o2003-159.htm TELUS, BCE RESULTS THIS WEEK: Telus and BCE are both releasing their first quarter results on Wednesday, April 30. IP-PBXs AT THE TIPPING POINT: "For PBX buyers, the issue now is not whether the conversion will take place, but how to plan for and manage it." In the current issue of Telemanagement, John Riddell examines how the IP-PBX debate has shifted from "whether" to "how and when." ** Also in this issue: Telemanagement's exclusive 2003 Area Code Guide; Call Centre managers discuss their major challenges in 2003; and details on six projects to deploy public wireless Internet access in various parts of Canada. Telemanagement is available only by subscription. For more information on Canada's #1 source for expert, independent telecom analysis and guidance, call 800-263-4415 ext 500 or go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: andersx@home.se (Anders Larsson) Subject: New Mobile Services on the RUN, From Mobile Opertors to Internet Date: 28 Apr 2003 09:48:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Anyone who has followed the recent development in the mobile business, finds a very interesting development. SMS has for many years been a clear GSM operator ballpark, outside reach of the Internet community. Occationally an operator has opened up to let sites send SMS, but still in full control of the whole chain, from charging to delivery. With MMS, thought of as a replacement to SMS, things are starting to change. Anyone with an Internet site can, with the right skills and equipment, start an MMS service. Initially they are facing staggering problems with economy of scale when running heads-on against players having 100 million paying subscribers. Still we find numerous companies going for this, with obvious success, like www.nowmms.com and www.zidango.com Moreover, one can easily imagine other services of interest for users with recent color phones. http://www.phoneimage.com , www.matrixm.com and the likes offering consumer color pictures for phone downloads find themselves swamped by users. Again, users interact with parties in the Internet community as direct interface, and not with the GSM operator as before. The operator became a bitpipe instead of the supplier of the actual service, more similar to how fixed Internet works in most countries. Successful exceptions are companies like AOL and MSN, who in the fixed Internet world target both access and the actual content. How mobile operators' service departments will succeed in competition with Internet community is open to see. Latest step in the evolution are meta-services like PixConnector http://pixconnector.com offering any webmaster possibility to add support for selling color phone pictures on his/her site in only minutes!! This is our analysis of how services will develop, and we are proud to be first to offer this to the Internet community. How this will end, is yet to be seen! M.Sc. MBA. Anders Larsson, PixConnector founder http://pixconnector.com ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Spam Email Conferences (and msg to John R Levine) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:11:55 -0700 The Federal Trade Commission is sponsoring a 3-day open-to-the-public "FTC SPAM FORUM" with many panels and discussion groups on April 30 to May 2 in Washington DC. Agenda is at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/spam/agenda.htm One of the volunteer panelists chosen by the FTC to participate on one of the panels is Dr. John R. Levine, who I believe is a frequent poster to this newsgroup. One of the panel moderators, including I believe for Dr. Levine's panel, is an FTC attorney Brian Huseman. Dr. Levine, I'd just like to pass along that I made an ultimately unsuccessful search to find an email address for Brian Huseman on the FTC website -- or an email address for public input to the panels -- so that I could send a brief email memo to the members of your panel. Either I didn't look carefully, or he keeps his email address resolutely unlisted. (Also contacted Prof. Judge, who's on your panel, and discovered he had no list of panel addresses either.) An interesting thing I did find, however, was a link to what appears to be a "conference and trade show for spammers", namely the "ClickZ E-Mail Strategies Spring 2003 Conference and Expo, New York City, May 20-22" http://www.jupiterevents.com/email/summer02/index.html "Attend this conference and you'll have the marketing and production insight needed to launch effective e-mail campaigns and the tools to measure your success." Turns out Brian Huseman is a featured speaker in one of the sessions at *this* conference, specifically (from their web site): ------------------------------- 3:30pm - 4:30pm Spam Panel "The landscape is changing quickly. Roadblocks are going up fast. If it's not the ISPs, it's the spam filters, the e-mail clients, even the government. Catch up on the latest threats to legitimate e-mail marketing and learn how to overcome them." Moderator: Ben Isaacson, Principal, The Isaacson Group Speakers: Brian Huseman, Attorney, Federal Trade Commission Enrique Salem, CEO, Brightmail Brian Zwit, Director, Integrity Assurance, AOL -------------------------------- Interesting language there: "Roadblocks . . . threats to legitimate e-mail marketing ... **learn how to overcome them**". I don't wish to be paranoid, but I wonder if you might explore with Mr. Huseman if you have the chance, just whose side is he on? --Tony Siegman Professor A. E. Siegman McMurtry Professor of Engineering Emeritus Stanford University "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834-1902) "Dependence on advertising tends to corrupt. Total dependence on advertising corrupts totally." (today's equivalent) ------------------------------ Organization: Not Much Subject: Re: Alternatives, was Re: AOL Blacklists Known Dynamic IP Blocks From: bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:43:35 GMT In article , Ron Bean wrote: > Somewhere in science fiction, there's a character whose front door has > a sign on it that says "If you want to talk to me, put a $10 bill in > the slot. If I decide the conversation was worth my time, I'll refund > your money." [1] [[.. munch ..]] > [1] I thought it was Jubal Harshaw in "Stranger in a Strange Land", > but I can't find the reference just now (in any case, it sounds like > something Heinlein would come up with). If someone else doesn't > remember this, I may be forced to read the whole book again ... To put an end to this one, the scene IS in "The Cat who walks through Walls". It's the 'answering message' on Gwendolyn Novak's doorbell, when Colin Campbell comes by to find out why she left from their date, without him. Very early in the story. The message was (*NOT* verbatim), "you can record a message, and I'll check it later, or make a 10 'credit' transfer to disturb me now. If I decide the interruption was worthwhile, I'll refund the money. " I do not recall anything similar in any other RAH novel, including "stranger", which I admit to having read at an age when I didn't know better.. It's possible he used it in some 'short story' that I'm not familiar with, but I think I've read *all* the ones that have made it to book/anthology form. ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 13:17:52 -0600 Subject: Re: Can Copy Protected CDs Hurt Artists by Limiting Radio Play? Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Thu, 24 Apr 2003 23:50:49 -0400 (EDT), Johnny & Patty wrote: > In article , Joey Lindstrom > wrote: >> But what's stopping the record labels from creating a separate >> pressing of "radio station only" discs that are only sent to radio >> stations and contain no copy protection? Seems trivial to me. > And what would stop folks at the radio stations from duplicating those > discs (without the "for radio station use only" warning, of course)? > Remember, the 1000th generation copy of one of those discs is identical > to the original. > The record companies are perfectly aware of this. > John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS > +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nothing would prevent it from happening, > except that unlike your common garden-variety hacker/hustler sitting > at his computer at home with only possibly a very thin line around his > conscience to prevent massive rip offs, the radio station people are > also presumably in business to make money and where they might go for > something that would make it administrativly easier on them to do > their jobs, they are far less likely to be interested in biting the > hand which is feeding them (free records to play for their audience > who hear the sponsor messages, etc). But the record companies could > try Joey's suggestion to see if some sort of 'happy medium' could be > reached, assuming of course the companies were realistic enough to > know there would still be a little bit of 'leakage' of 'radio station > play' copies of their things; hopefully a lot less than the general > public. PAT] Pat's correct here. But just to lob another grenade into this debate: there are lots and lots of options. All of the music companies are working on "rights-managed" systems that allow you to play a song (even burn it to disc) under "controlled" circumstances. Well, most (if not all) of these radio stations have internet connections, so they could get their music delivered directly from the record labels, using a system that would not permit "other" use of the music. Now, I know that no such system can be foolproof but if it's robust enough, it will eliminate most of the small amount of casual copying that John hypothesizes. And, it allows them to continue selling these lousy "copy protected" discs to the unsuspecting sheep, er, public, while not offending the radio stations. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 03:37:40 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications joe@obilivan.net wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, recall please that the whole > system of area code numbering *originally* (like 1950's) was set up > with 'short pulls' for the major urban areas. New York = 212, Chicago > = 312, Detroit = 313, Los Angeles = 213, San Francisco = 415, > Washington DC = 202 (which is a bit more than New York or Chicago > but still much fewer than Newfoundland = 709 and Hawaii = 808 and > Alaska = 907. PAT] The 212 vice the 808 was indeed to save on pulls, but unlike inter-NPA seven-digit permissive dialing it didn't waste numbers. And, it had the side benefit of additional revenue for Ma and Pa Bell when someone in Philly dialed 213 by mistake instead of 212. ;-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Uh, not really. In those 'golden days' of the old Bell System, refunds and credits for misdialed and 'wrong' numbers were extremely easy to come by. Dial 213 when you meant to dial 312 or 212? Just tell the operator or the business office. Meant to call me (locally) and got him instead since I had moved and changed my number? That's cool, just tell the operator or the business office and credit would be forthcoming. Operator dropped coins when she should have returned them? That's fine also; if you are gonna be calling again later today just tell the next operator that you have 25 cents credit coming from operator (number). Not everyone would do that when they had 'wasted some money in the phone on a wrong number' but many people would. Bell gave truckloads of money away based on the say-so of customers, as a goodwill gesture. It is true, Bell also made truckloads of money, but that was offset a little by their insistence *in those days* that the customer-subscriber was always right, and money would resolve the issue. Does anyone here remember when automatic dialing first started (besides me)? Subscribers -- especially the old people -- would crab and complain that they 'got so nervous' and were likely to make mistakes when they dialed. Or maybe their eyesight was bad and the 'little numbers on the round dial were too hard for them to read and use'. Bell's answer was always the same: 'not to worry, we will make it right for you, just dial the operator or call the business office and tell us what happened.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: Why Vonage Not Verizon? Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 03:32:39 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Carlo Coggi wrote: > I live in Manhattan and have had the same easy-to-remember MUrray Hill > (68x) exchange home phone number for several years. I will be moving a > few dozen blocks uptown in a few weeks and would like to retain this > number. Verizon says that they cannot let me retain my number if they > move more than a few blocks beyond the specific geographic > neighborhood I live in. > But when I entered my number on Vonage's online registration page, I > was told that I could retain my number if I switched to Vonage. > I called Verizon back and spoke to someone else who repeated that I > couldn't retain my number out of my neighborhood. When I mentioned > that I could keep it with Vonage, the rep didn't know what that was, > and said that Verizon could not match the offer because their > (unnamed) technology would not let them accomplish this. > I wonder why ... It's all about local number portability. The FCC mandated it so you could keep your number when you switched to a competitive carrier, not when you stay with the primary wireline carrier and move your location. The primary wireline carrier could invoke LNP for moves, but they view that as a floodgate they do not want to open. So far as the Verizon rep not knowing about Vonage, likely no one below the rank of "general" around there has heard of it. ;-) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have **very seriously** thought > about getting Vonage and giving it a 'test run' to see how worthwhile > it would be. There are no area codes for Kansas on the Vonage system, > in fact none in this part of the country at all. Plus, I would have > to keep my SWB line to have the DSL to use Vonage, and I always have > my cell phone to use for 'long distance' (anywhere outside of the > city of Independence) calls. And there is the financial aspect of it > as well ... do I *really* need another $40 bill each month to make > calls, when local (inside Independence) calls are unlimited and free > each month. I could go to cable service (I already have cable TV and > adding internet/modem service would not be that much more expensive. > But I feel sort of queasy about cable modem service; having heard some > bad things about it in general. > *Supposedly* my DSL bill is going to be reduced by $20 starting this > month since I also have a Cingular phone (which is owned by SBC) and > if you have Cingular cell service you get a discount on your DSL bill. > I'll watch and see if that happens or not. If any readers feel like > making a 'donation' of a Vonage phone system account in my name I > will happily accept it and report on its workings. PAT] I have had cable modem service for four years and love it. It is much faster than basic DSL, and it permitted me to pickle a second phone line when I went to vonage. I guess the reliability of cable modem service depends upon the carrier. I do agree, though, I would not want Vonage as my primary "wireline" connection, for any number of reasons that go well beyond having it connected through my cable modem. Having said that, one of the many pluses for Vonage is being able to plug it into any broadband connection so, in effect, you can take your free phone with you on a trip provided broadband is available at your destination. ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 13:16:02 GMT In article , MAILER- DAEMON@sbcglobal.net says: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is an example of what bounced > mail through Mail Washer looks like. I was here on massis and sent > myself a letter to my personal account where I have Mail Washer > installed. I just sent a one line message saying 'bounce this back > to massis on reciept.' I sent it, it got to my personal account a > few seconds later. About an hour later I went on my own account and > found it. Mail Washer not only gives an authentic looking bounce, > it also diddles with the Date line to make it appear the bounce > occurred immediatly on receipt. If you study the bounce long enough > you will see some evidence it may have been dummied up but what > spammer has the time to look that long and hard. Anyway, here is > what I got back after bouncing the 'spam'. PAT] MailWasher is a great program but it hasn't stemmed the flow of tide just yet. And Rhode Island has FINALLY set a commercial anti-SPAM law into place. It specifies that the email MUST have a valid reply address or toll free number for removal from the list. Most SPAM has neither. But the more egregious violators among them (University of Phoenix is one, even though I've sent email to their remove line AND called them numerous times to get me off their list.) I usually download and track down. At $100 per incident it's not worth my time do so. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 09:59:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: America Online, Microsoft and Yahoo! Join Forces Against Spam DULLES, Va. & REDMOND, Wash. & SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 28, 2003-- Industry Leaders Together Tackle the Problem of Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail To Help Consumers Fight Spam America Online (NYSE "AOL"), Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq "MSFT") and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq "YHOO"), today announced their commitment to work together and with other industry stakeholders to help fight "spam." Spam is unsolicited commercial e-mail, often sent by fraudulent means, that compromises the quality of consumers' online experience and burdens consumers and businesses worldwide. The announcement these three companies have made today is a first step toward a broader online industry effort to address spam. The group will initiate an open dialogue that will include organizations across this industry to drive technical standards and industry guidelines that can be adopted regardless of platform. The group will initially focus on four key areas to combat spam: - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33979738 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:01:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple Announcements to Be Broadcast Live Via Satellite What: Live satellite broadcast of Apple(R) announcements presented by Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO When: Monday, April 28, 10:00 a.m. PDT/1:00 p.m. EDT The presentation will be available via satellite at the following coordinates: Ku-band * Telstar 5/Transponder: 25 K * Orbital Slot: 97 degrees west * Uplink Frequency: 14444.0 MHz * Downlink Frequency: 12144.0 MHz * Polarity: Vertical down * Audio subcarriers: 6.2 and 6.8 C-band * Galaxy 3C/Transponder 1 C * Orbital Slot: 95 degrees west * Uplink Frequency: 5945 MHz * Downlink Frequency: 3720 MHz * Downlink Polarity: Horizontal down * Audio subcarriers: 6.2 and 6.8 - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33978951 ------------------------------ From: Eric Friedebach Subject: Wi-Fi Comes To The Office Phone Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 10:39:15 -0500 Organization: Purity Of Essence/Plant Operational Error Reply-To: Eric Friedebach Arik Hesseldahl, 04.28.03, Forbes.com NEW YORK - If your company has already gone ahead and deployed a Wi-Fi wireless network around its offices, then it's no big surprise how folks with notebook computers and the occasional PDA can break away from their desks without losing touch with e-mail and Web access. The idea is that the time away from your desk need not mean you're out of touch -- at least with whatever communication comes to you via computer. But wander from your desk long enough and chances are high that you'll come back to a telephone with that red voice-mail light glowing, meaning you've missed a call. Many companies are swapping out their old telephone PBX system for voice-over Internet protocol (VOIP) phones, which essentially reduce the sound of a voice to packets of data. With a Wi-Fi network, VOIP can go wireless--and that is exactly what a new device announced today by Cisco Systems is intended for. While they look like rather unremarkable cellular phones, Cisco's line of Wi-Fi-enabled handsets allow you to wander away from your desk without having to leave your desk phone unattended. http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/28/cx_ah_0428tentech.html Eric Friedebach ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #417 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 29 19:43:59 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3TNhxl26028; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:43:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:43:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304292343.h3TNhxl26028@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #418 TELECOM Digest Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:44:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 418 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: 5- vs. 7-digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) (Mike O) Re: 5- vs. 7-digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) (Mark Roberts) Re: Area Code Statistics (Mark Roberts) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (John McHarry) Exclusive: The First Great Legal Online Music Service (Monty Solomon) Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown (Dave Phelps) Re: Cell Phone Connection to Home/Office Wiring (Michael D. Sullivan) I Have Seen the Future of Music and its Name is iTunes (Monty Solomon) XM Satellite Radio comes to the PC (Monty Solomon) Cellphone Pact Stalls in Tunnel (Monty Solomon) Cisco Phone Will Use WiFi (Monty Solomon) RCN Launches Video-on-Demand Service (Monty Solomon) Music Lessons (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: modorney@aol.comIgnoreMe (Mike O) Date: 28 Apr 2003 20:25:27 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: 5- vs. 7-digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) >> You never saw phone numbers of the form 856-4xxx or 856-5xxx. >> After I moved away, sometime in the 1970s, Centerville ... I vaguely remember a "rule" the phone company had when they made area codes available to the public dial system (1960?) . The primary rule was that the exchange (prefix) could not have a zero or one, that was reserved for area codes. But, they also said that future area codes (when they ran out of zero and one, in a projected 25 years) would use 2 and 3, as the center digit. Then 4 and 5, etc. I don't know how valid this was, or if it was just an ":urban legend" from that era, but it may shed some light on numbering schemes. Cheers, Mike [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Area codes began being used in the 1950's in a few places, even while many places were still entirely manual in operation. The rule was no zeros or ones as the middle digit in prefixes, and no zeros as the right, or last digit in a prefix. That's largely because the early or original area codes all had zeros or ones as the middle digit. There was also a rule that states which had only one area code for the entire state had a number which used zero as the middle digit; a second or subsequent area code in the same state had one as the middle digit. PAT] ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: 5- vs. 7-digit Dialing (was Area Code Stats) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:32:41 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters nmclain@annsgarden.com had written: > Mark Roberts > Then there is the case of Centerville, Iowa, population around >> 6,000 for about the last forty years. >> When I was living there, there were phone numbers of the following >> form: >> 856-2xxx, 856-3xxx, 856-6xxx, 856-8xxx, 856-9xxx. >> You never saw phone numbers of the form 856-4xxx or 856-5xxx. [...] >> So, I think, 437-xxxx was opened up to provide more numbers and, >> presumably, to preserve five-digit dialing without causing collisions >> with the 6-4xxx or 6-5xxx series. [...] >> It doesn't answer the question of why 6-0xxx, 6-1xxx, or 6-7xxx I forgot to mention that there were special service codes beginning with "7": "71" for directory assistance, "70" for repair service, "75" for the mobile operator. > I'll propose a hypothesis. Thanks, very interesting. There is one minor fly in the ointment in that this wasn't a Bell area (it was Continental by then). But I would think the 437 exchange would have had newer equipment. > [3] The choice of this particular NXX code (437) would have allowed the > introduction of new numbers in Centerville before the 856 step-by-step > equipment was replaced with newer equipment (crossbar or ESS). However, > I would surmise that the 437 equipment itself was either crossbar or ESS > (to the best of my knowledge, by "sometime in the 1970s" Bell was no > longer installing any new step-by-step equipment). So seven-digit > dialing would have been required for any local call from a 437 number > even if 856-to-856 calls remained 5-digit. This reminds me of the situation that prevailed in my GTE hometown in Missouri, where the original three exchanges of GIbson 2, 3, and 9 were surrounded by newer exchanges starting in 1971. Until the whole mess was swept away in 1986, 442, 443, and 449 customers could reach each other with the last five digits only. The other exchanges were started with "4", "6", or "8". Customers in the newer 445 exchange had to dial all seven digits for all local calls. The peripheral exchanges sometimes had trouble dialing each other. Even into the early 1980s, I remember having to resort to having an operator complete calls between 445 and 474 numbers. There was also an unusual number for time and temperature: 655. For customers in the "6" exchanges, that number was instead 446. Both were replaced in 1986 by 449-0655. Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:19:41 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters joe@obilivan.net had written: > And, that area used to waste a lot of numbers by permitting permissive > dialing across the state line in the metro area. It was 7-digit > dialing throughout the area. Thus, 913-722 in Mission, KS took away > 816-722 although there wasn't any 816-722 in service. Actually, it didn't. (See counterexamples below.) It just meant that 816-722 couldn't be part of the Kansas City metropolitan dialing area. With the 816 area extending at one time all the way from the Missouri River to the Mississippi River, the seven-digit dialing within the Kansas City MCA didn't have an effect on the larger 816 area. (Likewise for 913.) Counterexample: 816-842 (VIctor 2) in Kansas City 913-842 (now 785-842) in Lawrence Another counterexample: 816-385 (now 660-385) in Macon, Mo. 913-385 in Overland Park, Ks. (KC Metro) [that exchange opened up circa 1994] This, however, did present a problem for cellular users whose phones were domiciled in the Missouri part of the Kansas City MCA. (Cellular One would ask, "do you want a Kansas number or a Missouri number?") Even though Lawrence and Topeka were in the local calling area for the cell phone, the minute you crossed the Johnson-Douglas county line and went into Douglas county, you had 10-digit dialing for everything in the local calling area, including the Kansas City numbers that normally would have been seven digits. But if you were in Johnson county, even if you had a "Missouri" phone, it was seven digits for all the Kansas City numbers. Confusing, eh? All ten digits would work, too. I assume that, nowadays for cell phones in that area, it's basically ten digits all the time unless you're in your home area code calling another number in that area code. Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: First of all, the Chronicle should try to verify what they print before they print inaccurate stories like your .signature quote. For second, cellular phones from Cingular here in Independence can use seven digit dialing anywhere in area 620 but need ten digit dialing anywhere else (assuming the phone is registered here in 620). PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:49:33 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I decided to try Vonage out for a > month or so and see how it would work. Trouble is, they had no > numbers at all in any area code here in the area I live in. I wound > up taking a number in 415 since I thought I could use that. I do > not know why, however they could not have placed a few numbers in > *each area code* rather than a cluster of them on the east and a > cluster of them on west coast. I only signed up for the real cheap > 500 minute plan since I do not think I ever spend 500 minutes in a > month's time on any phone calls. PAT] I think the reason for the clustering of numbers is that they have to act as a CLEC in the areas of the numbers. This probably requires a physical presence, at least a trunk interface, in each of those areas. The natural way to do this is to build out from the larger markets. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not have the Vonage phone yet, but they said it would be here 'any day now'. I'll give a better report on it once I have it in hand. I am wondering one thing however. Do I plug it directly into the Linksys router box (as though it were a computer on its own) or do I / can I plug it into the USB hub of an existing computer? If I can do it either way, which is best, and why? PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Exclusive: The First Great Legal Online Music Service Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 18:52:21 -0400 Now hear this, music fans! With today's introduction of the iTunes Music Store, Steve Jobs talks to FORTUNE about the service, and what it means for the future of the record biz. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447333,00.html How the iTunes Music Store Works http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447310,00.html Review: The New Class of iPods The latest models are sleeker but have bigger storage capacities, and they add new ways to organize all those tunes--plus contacts, calendar, and to-do lists. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447317,00.html More Gifts for New Grads http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447260,00.html Behind the iTunes: Which Celebs Are Fans? Artists including Sheryl Crow, Christina Aguilera, and Dr. Dre go on the record about Apple's new music service. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/specials/2003/0512/app_crow.html Will Apple Lead the Digital Music Pack? http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,447323,00.html ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 21:32:19 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , MAILER- DAEMON@sbcglobal.net says: > Mail Washer not only gives an authentic looking bounce, > it also diddles with the Date line to make it appear the bounce > occurred immediatly on receipt. There isn't much point in bouncing spam because most of the time the from field is garbage, or worse, is some innocent person's live email address. Just imagine what would happen if I sent 1M spams with the from line of ptowson@sbcglobal.net (intentionally misspelled). Mailwasher would send you the bounces. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is all the 'point' in the world to bounce spam back to the alleged 'sender'. If the alleged sender does not exist, then the bounces will eventually just vanish on the network somewhere. If the alleged sender *does* exist, then *he* can throw them out. If the alleged sender is in fact the real sender then maybe he will get discouraged seeing so much trash come back in his account maybe he will stop the odious practice of sending spam. If you sent out a million spams with my name and real address as the sender that would be quite a waste of time, wouldn't it? Don't you want to get the money from the sales of your spam-product you could not get if there was no way to reach you? Believe me you, if there was anywhere in the spam the slightest hint of your name/address/phone number, I would figure it out somehow, and you would think at least twice before doing it *to me* again. And Mail Washer makes it all so super easy. Just screens full of one line messages including the name and email address (allegedly) of the sender, and click, click, click next to each one. They go onto your blacklist and disappear. There is even an option in the set up to click if you want *your personal blacklist* to be abolished right from the pop server and not even bother to show them to you at all. I do not use that option, since it is sort of dangerous in my opinion. Its perfectly okay with me to just spend a few seconds 'clicking them off' before instructing the pop server to bounce them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Cell Phone Connection to Home/Office Wiring Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 03:59:27 GMT On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 22:18:39 -0400, John Stahl posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > With more and more people shutting off their land line phones (last > estimate was 18% of cell phone owners) in favor of exclusive use of > their cell phones, there must be "gadgets" available which the cell > phones can be dropped into at home or office, to allow using the > home/office internal wiring to extend the cell phone "signal" to the > internal wired extensions. > Does anyone know of a "gadget" described above for all cell phone > manufacturers' phones (Motorola, Samsung, Kyocera, etc.)? I have found > only one such device called the CellSocket (www.cellsocket.com) but it > only seems to be made for the most popular Nokia phones. Telular Corporation holds a patent on interfacing a cellphone to a standard telephone set, US Pat. No. 4,658,096, which expires 9/18/2004, and several related patents. Telular also holds U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,616, which "allows the easy adaptation of an unused telephone line as a cellular line for use throughout the wired facility," according to the annual report at http://www.telular.com/profile/01ar.pdf. It also holds a patent on determining end-of-dialing determination in an interface between a standard telephone and cellphone, U.S. Pat. No. 6,035,220. Telular has licensed its patents to Motorola, Ericsson, Andrew, and Axesstel. The licensing deal with Andrew was supposed to lead to the marketing of "docking stations" like the one you mention. http://www.telular.com/profile/press_display.asp?ID=87. A startup company named Vox2 made a docking station and won an infringement action brought by Telular. http://www.fr.com/practice/update9.cfm. There are apparently a number of docking station or cellular/RJ-11 adapter solutions, according to http://www.sinesys.com/pages/rfc1_wireless.html. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have suggested to Mike Sandman that > if someone were to make a 'ribbon connector' type thing with a cell- > socket type device so that all phones could be used with it (and > possibly add a couple dip-switches to make some programming changes > as needed) I am sure it would sell rather well. PAT] Mike Sandman is no doubt familiar with Telular's patent position and doesn't want to pay a $1M licensing fee (like Andrew) or defend an infringement action. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 00:59:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: I Have Seen the Future of Music and its Name is iTunes Apple's new online music-buying system is everything Napster promised to be -- cheap, easy and, best of all, legal. By Farhad Manjoo April 29, 2003 | Hunter S. Thompson never actually said that "the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs." The quip, from Thompson's 1988 "Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s," was in fact meant to describe the TV business. But in a post-Napster world, one in which both musicians and music lovers have come to harbor a deep animosity toward record labels, the Thompson misquote has taken on the patina of truth -- which is why, in his introduction of a new online music-buying service on Monday in San Francisco, Apple CEO Steve Jobs elicited a rousing response by flashing the quote up on the giant video screen behind him. Probably the only folks in the room who weren't applauding were the industry executives in attendance, but they, too, might have been OK with Jobs' insults. Indeed, the execs ought to have been pleased with Apple's geek-chic CEO: That's because Jobs is being nice enough to save the music business from itself. The music service Jobs unveiled is a delight. Called the iTunes Music Store, the service -- it's available only on Apple machines for now but will be ready for Windows "by the end of the year" -- is fully integrated into the company's jukebox software. Users can search for songs to purchase in the same way they'd look for songs they already have on their machines. The system is foolproof: You type in a name, a song comes up, and you press a button to buy it. That's it. You're in the hole for 99 cents for each song you download ($10 for each album), but you see none of the transaction details; all the purchases are "one-click." And here's the stunning thing: Once you've bought a song, you own it. You can do (pretty much) whatever you want to do with the songs you download, including burning them to CDs, transferring them to iPods, or sending them to other Macs. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/04/29/itunes/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 08:57:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: XM Satellite Radio Comes to the PC By Ben Charny Staff Writer, CNET News.com XM Satellite Radio made its 101 channels available to personal computers Monday, unleashing new competition for the recording industry, which is now streaming music into millions of homes via the Web. The world's largest satellite-radio provider began selling the XM PC Receiver, which connects to most PCs and lets them access broadcasts from XM's two satellites, said XM spokesman Chance Patterson. The device is available for $70 at PC Connection or directly from XM. Access to XM's programming costs an additional $10 per month. XM's programming faces enormous competition as it becomes available on the personal computer. Downloading music has become a staple for homes, thanks to free file-swapping software from Napster and now Kazaa. Also, major record labels have launched their own download services, while PC makers like Apple plan to make streaming music a regular part of their offerings. http://news.com.com/2100-1041-998599.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 09:14:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cellphone Pact Stalls in Tunnel @LARGE By Scott Kirsner, 4/28/2003 The official name for the new highway underneath Boston may be the Liberty Tunnel, but I've been calling it by a different name: the Chasm of the Dropped Calls. As soon as you cruise through the portal to our new $14 billion basement, your cellphone signal fades and then disappears entirely. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority originally expected wireless service in the tunnel to be online by this summer or early fall, but we could wind up waiting longer as the major wireless carriers haggle with the Turnpike Authority over how much they will pay for the privilege of putting antennas inside the I-93 and I-90 tunnels. Here's where the negotiations stand: The six major wireless carriers (Nextel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Cingular) feel like the Turnpike Authority is trying to shake them down, charging fees that are more than double what they paid to gain access to the Ted Williams Tunnel. The Turnpike Authority wants a $100,000 nonrefundable application fee from each carrier and a $500,000 application review fee from the group of six. Add to that $500,000 a year in lease fees from each carrier that eventually provides service in the I-93 and I-90 tunnels -- not to mention the $10 million cost of installing the distributed antenna system, which the carriers would share. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/118/business/Cellphone_pact_stalls_in_tunnel+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 09:18:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cisco Phone Will Use WiFi Market foreseen for roving workers By Peter Svensson, Associated Press, 4/28/2003 NEW YORK -- Cisco Systems Inc. is planning to market a mobile phone in June that uses the popular WiFi wireless technology. The phone is intended for those who move around frequently in the workplace, like nurses and warehouse workers, the San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco said. It is not the first phone to use WiFi, but the announcement from networking giant Cisco bolsters the already considerable momentum behind the wireless technology, which allows computers to connect to the Internet within 100 yards of base stations. The Cisco Wireless IP Phone 7920 can use such base stations to connect to phone networks that use the local wired data network instead of regular phone lines. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/118/business/Cisco_phone_will_use_WiFi+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 09:40:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RCN Launches Video-on-Demand Service BUSINESS IN BRIEF By Globe Wires and Staff, 4/29/2003 RCN Corp. has activated its video-on-demand cable television service in Framingham, Natick, and Needham, moving to beat cable giant Comcast Corp.'s planned launch of similar services this year. RCN said it expects to add video-on-demand services in the rest of its Greater Boston markets, including parts of Boston and 11 other suburbs, over the next several weeks. The ''Impulse on Demand'' service includes movie rentals for $4 for 24 hours and other programming for $3, ordered through an on-screen menu. (Peter J. Howe) http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/119/business/RCN_launches_video_on_demand_service+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 15:23:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Music Lessons Record companies and the courts are coming to terms with the fact that the online music genie is out the bottle, writes Neil McIntosh Are the record labels finally being forced to join us all in the 21st century? Certainly, the last seven days have brought some evidence to suggest that might be the case. First, EMI announced an apparently impressive music download service last week, with tens of thousands of albums and artists being made available. Better still, the new service comes without many of the strings attached to the first generation of legitimate music download services, which have been less than resounding in their success. The timing of EMI's announcement was perhaps calculated to steal a little of the thunder from another announcement, expected today from Apple. Steve Jobs is expected to unveil a music download service backed by all five major music labels, offering a per-track (rather than subscription-plus-fee) pricing structure. But it was also a recognition that music consumers want to download songs, and will do it illegally if they are not offered a legit alternative that's also comprehensive and reasonably-priced. EMI's new offering looks set to become the first to come close to fulfilling those criteria. The second piece of evidence that times are changing came from a courtroom in Los Angeles on Friday. There, a judge decided that the online file-swapping services Streamcast and Grokster - two networks that let computer users see the public folders of fellow users, and copy files between themselves - should not be outlawed simply because users can use them to share copyright material. http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/comment/story/0,12449,945103,00.html ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #418 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 29 20:50:02 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3U0o2727370; Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:50:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:50:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304300050.h3U0o2727370@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #419 TELECOM Digest Tue, 29 Apr 2003 20:50:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 419 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Jim Evans) Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV (dold@DIRECTVXPl.usenet.us.com) Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty (dold@DirecTVXMo.usenet.us.com) Caller ID Box Problems (Jim Talbert) PalmSource Joins CTIA and Announces New Wireless Services (SDRagtop) Spontaneous Technology Joins Symbian Platinum Partner Program (SDRagtop) PalmSource and Spontaneous Technology For Mobile Operators (SDRagtop) Verizon Wireless And Spontaneous Technology Relationship (SDRagtop) Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation (John Higdon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jim evans Subject: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 14:59:20 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please direct me to the appropriate group for this question. I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages everytime I return home. So I have two questions. 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? Thanks. Have a home upkeep question? Try my help page. It's sort of an alt.home.repair FAQ. http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'dcom' in comp.dcom.telecom goes *way back* to the early days of Usenet in the early 1980's. It refers to 'data communications', and in the original style of Usenet nomenclature where the general name came first and the specifics came later in the name, the group is for discussions *generally* about COMPuters, and more specifically about DataCOMmunications even more specifically about TELECOMmunications. That's how the newsgroup got its name back in the middle 1980's. So the short answer would be, 'yes, you came to the right place.' Yes, there are devices like you want. Its up to you to jerry-rig the device, but you can notify telco you want 'visual notification on voicemail. I think the default is the audible 'stutter dial tone' which is very common. On a voicemail thing I had once, we had phones with visual notification of messages. But you have to ask telco for that feature (instead of stutter dial tone) once you get the device ready to go, I assume with a relay that would bring in a bright light or a sounder, which ever you wanted. I think Radio Shack has a device something like it also. What telco does is arrange to trip the relay (or power it, etc) when you have a voicemail message. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@DIRECTVXPl.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: DIRECTV Plans Monthly Fee for HDTV Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:33:18 +0000 (UTC) Organization: a2i network John Higdon wrote: > In article , Monty Solomon > wrote: >> Robert Mercer, a DIRECTV spokesman, confirmed late Thursday (April >> 24) that the satcaster is considering launching a monthly package >> of HD channels. The monthly fee would be big news because >> non-premium HDTV channels -- until now -- have been available for >> free on DIRECTV. > Popular services don't stay "free" for very long. The question is > whether such fees constitute another impediment to the rather > unimpressive rate of adoption by the public of HDTV. I think it was just a teaser anyway. There was only one free DTV channel in HDTV, 199, plus one PPV, one HBO, one Showtime. Perhaps that was a precursor, and that an actual HDTV package would have some more channels available. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA ------------------------------ From: dold@DirecTVXMo.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:37:06 UTC Organization: a2i network Monty Solomon wrote: > some college student who can't afford to fight the evil that lurks > in the prosecutors of America. Makes me sick to think about > sometimes. Hackers are not the bad guys; prosecutors are! PAT] Pat ... If I recall correctly, this kid was a clerk at a law firm, and was making copies of documents that belonged to DirecTV, that he knew would be valuable to hackers. That seems like direct criminal intent to my simple mind. Seems more like publishing the security codes to the bank alarms, after becoming privy to them as an employee, than your "making a movee" allegory. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If he was a clerk in a law firm, and therefore an employee of the firm and in effect the client, then he of course had a responsibility to the client. Violating that trust by talking about the client's affairs *probably* should have been treated as a civil matter rather than a criminal matter. Maybe it could be treated as a criminal thing. But the fact remains that some people want to treat the Internet as somehow different than other things in real life. If something is not against the law to do on television then it should not be against the law to talk about or do on Internet. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jtalbert@bellsouth.net (Jim Talbert) Subject: Caller ID Box Problems Date: 29 Apr 2003 08:27:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I have several Caller ID boxes on my two lines. Some capture info on every call but others capture info on half or fewer of the incoming calls. When the BellSouth Premium Systems boxes miss calls, they either display NO DATA, ERROR or nothing. BellSouth can't find anything wrong with the Caller ID signal coming into my home, but the tech monitored fewer than 5 calls which he made himself (calls made from one line to the other are almost always captured). The tech told me that some brands of boxes are not compatible with others. Does anyone know how I can determine why some of my boxes are missing call data? Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had a caller ID box like that at one time. I had two lines and one box. So in the middle I put one of the Radio Shack 'auto switch' things which take either of two ringing lines and funnels the call into a single phone (and whatever) is attached to that phone (such as caller ID box). Now and again, the Radio Shack 'auto switch' did not wake up in time to get all or any of the caller ID data. Also, you have to remember that various phones and devices on the line take 'RENs' and telco only puts out a certain amount of RENs and if the ringing voltage is too feeble on some calls the boxes won't wake up in time either. I now have a situation where I have three phones in my house and three caller ID boxes on one line. If the central office gives me a *good, healthy ring signal* on the first ring, they all work okay. Now and again I guess I come in 'on the middle' of a ringing signal and one of the boxes will not 'be awake' at the point the data gets passed. Take all the boxes off the line and all the phones except one of each. Try it and see if you find a box that usually fails or conversely, never fails. Remove it and try the next box the same way. I bet they will all work okay every time. When you get into multiple instruments on the same line, and multiple peripherals as well, things get flaky sometimes. Even a phone getting some fractional portion of a full ringing signal is okay if the voltage is present. But put fractional parts of the ringing signal (on the first ring) combined with lesser than required voltage to wake up the boxes and you will miss the data transmission being sent. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sdragtop@yahoo.com (SDRagtop) Subject: PalmSource Joins CTIA and Announces New Wireless Services Date: 29 Apr 2003 09:07:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ PalmSource, Inc., provider of the world's most popular operating system for handhelds and smartphones and the Palm OS subsidiary of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), has joined CTIA's Wireless Internet Caucus (WIC) and Leadership Council. The company has also formed new relationships that further align Palm OS with the needs of leading wireless operators and their customers. PalmSource has signed a memorandum of understanding with QUALCOMM to allow over-the-air delivery of Palm OS applications to wireless Palm Powered devices using QUALCOMM's BREW Distribution System (BDS) over-the-air delivery platform. Furthermore, PalmSource and Spontaneous Technology will collaborate to enable secure wireless HotSync of data on Palm Powered devices via the Spontaneous Virtual Private Network (sVPN) solution. PalmSource has consistently been a leader in creating easy-to-use, efficient operating system software that drives the development of smartphones and other mobile devices. Three of the top six smartphone vendors in the world - Handspring, Kyocera and Samsung - build devices powered by Palm OS. Palm OS commands an estimated 89 percent of the U.S. market for smartphones and 28.5 percent share of the worldwide market (IDC, converged handheld devices, Q3 2002). More than 25 million Palm Powered devices have been sold worldwide and over 17,000 applications have been created for Palm OS - far more than for any other wireless platform. As a member of CTIA's Wireless Internet Caucus and Leadership Council, PalmSource will work with other industry leaders to accelerate wireless growth in the United States. WIC meets several times a year to find common solutions to the challenges facing the wireless industry and its customers. Albert Chu, vice president of business development, will represent PalmSource in the WIC Leadership Council, which serves as the organization's governing body. PalmSource and QUALCOMM signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which the companies will work together to enable over-the-air downloads of Palm OS applications to Palm Powered devices using the BREW Distribution System. PalmSource president and CEO, David Nagel, will participate in a QUALCOMM press conference at CTIA Tuesday, March 18 at 2 PM in Room 253. PalmSource and Spontaneous will work together to develop an sVPN for Palm OS, enabling wireless operators to provide enterprise customers with a secure wireless connection to a desktop computer to access applications from a wireless Palm Powered handheld. For those enterprises deploying the Spontaneous solution on Palm Powered devices, sVPN will be initially integrated within the easy-to-use HotSync function that is built into Palm OS. The solution removes traditional barriers to entry that wireless operators face in working with an enterprise client's existing applications. PalmSource is collaborating with Samsung Telecommunications America's Mobile Intelligent Terminals (MITs), to provide corporations with seamless and secure access to mission-critical business applications, enterprise data, corporate e-mail, Internet and Intranet content on Palm Powered Samsung SGH-i330 and SGH-i500 smartphones. The ability to view and update critical information in real-time will increase employee productivity and maximize return on IT investment. PalmSource will demonstrate secure access to corporate networks, e-mails, Internet and Intranet content on Palm Powered MIT devices in the Samsung booth, Hall S-4265, at CTIA. PalmSource licensee Samsung Electronics introduced the MITs SGH-i500, the world's first GSM-based next-generation smartphone running on Palm OS 5. By incorporating PalmSource's newest operating system, the Samsung GSM smartphone delivers a superior user interface with increased security, wireless networking and multimedia capabilities such as a 330,000-pixel CMOS digital camera and a media pack for video, audio and imaging. PalmSource has introduced the "Beam-Me-App" program that makes it easy and convenient for customers of Palm Powered mobile devices to buy Palm OS applications. Operators can beam customers their choice of applications via beaming Jacks located in their retail stores. Giving customers easy access to over 17,000 applications will give operators a new source of revenue in software sales and allow customers to find solutions that meet their individual needs. Other PalmSource Licensees and Partners exhibiting at CTIA include: Intel - booths 4959 and 3866 Kyocera - booth 5157 Motorola Semiconductor - booth 1555 Palm Solutions Group - booth 5369 About PalmSource, Inc. PalmSource is the company behind Palm OS, the world's most popular operating system for handhelds and smart phones. Licensed by industry leaders -- including Acer, AlphaSmart, Fossil, Garmin, GSL, Handera, Handspring, HuneTec, Kyocera, Legend, Palm, Samsung, Sony, Symbol, and Palm OS Ready Partners including ATI, Intel, MediaQ, Motorola, Samsung, Texas Instruments --Palm OS has been shipped on more than 25 million handhelds and smart phones, and given rise to a huge community of users, enterprises, developers and manufacturers, who together make up the Palm Economy. PalmSource's new headquarters is located at 1240 Crossman Ave. in Sunnyvale, Calif. PalmSource is a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM). More information about PalmSource, Inc., is available at www.palmsource.com.. ------------------------------ From: sdragtop@yahoo.com (SDRagtop) Subject: Spontaneous Technology joins Symbian Platinum Partner Program Date: 29 Apr 2003 09:07:12 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ http://www.symbian.com/news/2003/pr030429l.html Spontaneous Technology joins Symbian Platinum Partner Program Spontaneous sVPN provides simple, secure end-to-end enablement of enterprise applications for Symbian OS phones Salt Lake City UT / London, April 29, 2003 Spontaneous Technology (SponTec), a leading provider of secure, carrier-grade, enterprise mobility solutions, today announced it had joined the Symbian's Platinum Partner Program to support the emerging market for advanced mobile phones used by mobile professionals. Available through mobile operators and service providers later this year, SponTec's Virtual Private Network (sVPN) software will deliver dynamic real-time, two-way access to virtually any enterprise application for users of Symbian OS phones. In addition to the seamless interoperability with existing applications, one of the most compelling benefits of the sVPN solution is the extremely simple setup process, eliminating the need for modifications to firewalls, proxies and network configurations. This approach promotes rapid end user utilization and enterprise acceptance. "As a member of the Symbian Platinum Program, SponTec is bringing its industry leading sVPN technology to the Symbian community and will enable users of Symbian OS phones to access corporate data and applications securely and efficiently through existing corporate network infrastructure," said Jerry Panagrossi, Vice President, Ecosystem Development, Symbian, North America. "We are very excited by the productivity gains that mobile professionals and IS departments will enjoy through the use of SponTec's sVPN technology." The Symbian Platinum Program is comprised of companies that have technologies or strategic positions that are key to the success of Symbian OS. SponTec's sVPN platform removes the complex issues faced by mobile operators when delivering secure, easy to use, scalable access to existing enterprise applications. "We are delighted to work with Symbian's industry leading partners and look forward to removing the obstacles faced when mobilizing enterprise applications on behalf of our mutual customers," said Jeff Lindauer, Spontaneous Technology's President & CEO. "Our sVPN solution delivers the secure flexibility the market demands and end users require." SponTec's sVPN solution will be marketed through the Symbian Platinum Program and Product Showcase CD to licensees and network operators later this year. About Spontaneous Technology Spontaneous Technology's highly secure solution allows mobile carriers to extend existing corporate applications to any wireless device and operating system, including Microsoft (NT & Pocket PC), SUN (Solaris, Java, J2ME) Symbian and Palm, without any incremental capital expenditures. The company is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah and is backed by Smart Technology Ventures, Dominion Ventures, SunAmerica Ventures, Bluevector LLC, Thomas Weisel Partners, and Hewlett Packard Company (HPQ). For more information, please visit www.spontec.com About Symbian Symbian is a software licensing company which develops and licenses Symbian OS, the global open industry standard operating system for advanced, data-enabled mobile phones. Symbian has licensed Symbian OS to the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. Publicly announced products based on Symbian OS include the BenQ P30, Samsung SGH-D700, Siemens SX-1, NTT DoCoMo FOMA F2051 built by Fujitsu, Sony Ericsson P800 Smartphone, Nokia 9200 Communicator range as well as the 7650, 3650 and N-Gage. Symbian has its global headquarters in London, United Kingdom with development sites in Europe and Asia. Symbian's shareholders are Ericsson, Panasonic, Motorola, Nokia, Psion, Samsung, Siemens and Sony Ericsson. For further information about Symbian, please see www.symbian.com ------------------------------ From: sdragtop@yahoo.com (SDRagtop) Subject: PalmSource and Spontaneous Technology For Mobile Operators Date: 29 Apr 2003 09:08:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ http://www.palmsource.com/press/2003/031803_3.html PalmSource and Spontaneous Technology to Give Mobile Operators Wireless Solutions for the Enterprise Spontaneous sVPN will let wireless Palm Powered devices sync with corporate networks and applications CTIA, NEW ORLEANS, La., March 18, 2003 -- PalmSource, Inc., provider of the world's most popular operating system for handhelds and smartphones, and the Palm OS subsidiary of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), and Spontaneous Technology, Inc. (SponTec) today announced a collaboration to develop, with intent to co-market, software that enables Palm Powered users to connect to corporate computing networks wirelessly. These solutions make it easier for mobile operators to give their customers secure wireless access to enterprise applications. SponTec's Virtual Private Network (sVPN)TM software will be integrated with HotSync, the Palm OS software that communicates between a handheld and a desktop computer. This combination will give enterprise customers access to corporate applications and enterprise data behind the firewall from any wireless Palm Powered device anywhere at any time through a mobile operator's 2.5G/3G wide area data network. Because any Palm OS application that syncs can work with sVPN, wireless access can be rolled out quickly and easily. sVPN will be available in Palm OS supported languages for those companies that choose to deploy this solution to employees around the globe. "Enabling secure HotSync for wireless users will provide mobile operators opportunities to generate new business with enterprise customers," said Albert Chu, vice president of business development, PalmSource. "Enterprise customers will experience an increase in productivity by being able to wirelessly and securely access mission-critical enterprise data via smartphones and other mobile devices. With over 25 million Palm Powered devices sold and 59 percent enterprise market share, this is also a compelling way for operators to enhance the wireless experience of Palm Powered enterprise users." "Combining the power and ease-of-use of Palm OS with our technology delivers a compelling solution for Palm Powered mobile devices that will increase productivity in the workplace," said Jeff Lindauer, CEO of Spontaneous Technology. "The simplicity and spontaneity of sVPN allows us to provide a powerful extension of the HotSync experience to the 'un-cradled' device." SponTec's sVPN makes all synchronized information readily available, providing users complete wireless access to their e-mail, file attachments, PIM functions, and existing third-party applications. Users can easily interact with their synchronized information while connected or when offline. They can also resynchronize automatically at scheduled intervals or on demand. sVPN adheres to rigorous enterprise security policies and extends them to the wireless device, providing users with a secure and robust answer to the need for mobile access to corporate data through an easily integrated and administered solution. Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm Powered is a trademark of PalmSource, Inc., a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright 2003 PalmSource, Inc. All rights reserved ------------------------------ From: sdragtop@yahoo.com (SDRagtop) Subject: Verizon Wireless And Spontaneous Technology Announce Relationship Date: 29 Apr 2003 09:11:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ http://news.verizonwireless.com/news/2002/08/pr2002-08-01b.html Media Contact Info Jeffrey Nelson jeffrey.nelson@verizonwireless.com 908-306-4824 BEDMINSTER, NJ and SALT LAKE CITY Verizon Wireless and Spontaneous Technology today announced a multi-year agreement to license ST's leading-edge software that provides VPN support for Verizon Wireless customers. Terms were not disclosed. ST addresses both voice and data applications, regardless of format or repository, allowing users seamless, ubiquitous and secure access to corporate information, which sits behind the firewall. Jim Straight, vice president of wireless data and Internet services for Verizon Wireless, said, "Our customers are increasingly relying on our wireless services to keep them connected and to boost productivity. Spontaneous Technology's simple and secure software will help ensure Verizon Wireless customers have that access." ST's technology provides easily administered software that allows enterprises to extend secure access to applications behind the corporate firewall. Using ST's software, authorized users can remotely and securely access critical information, such as corporate e-mail, enterprise applications and intranet information. "We're pleased to be able to work with Verizon Wireless to provide this secure application for their customers," said Spontaneous CEO Jeff Lindauer. "Ours is a cost effective solution that provides access to the services customers are demanding by remotely and securely enabling corporate applications over a wireless network. Our relationship with Verizon Wireless demonstrates that Spontaneous can play a robust and critical role in this important solution." About Spontaneous Technology Spontaneous Technology provides software for the spontaneous and secure remote enablement of corporate applications and supports multiple platforms, including Palm, PocketPC, WAP, J2ME, and next generation voice networks. ST delivers these services to telecommunications carriers, service providers, and their customers. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, UT, ST is a privately held company and is backed by Smart Technology Ventures, Dominion Ventures, SunAmerica Ventures, Bluevector LLC, Thomas Weisel Partners, and Hewlett Packard Company. Find more information on the Web at http://www.spontec.com. About Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless is the nation's leading provider of wireless communications. The company has the largest nationwide wireless voice and data network and 30.3 million customers. Headquartered in Bedminster, NJ, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). Find more information on the Web at http://www.verizonwireless.com. ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 09:08:41 -0700 If I read the following posted by someone else, I wouldn't believe it ... not for one second. But here goes: For some period of time, the junk telemarketing calls from none other than SBC have been overwhelming. I have sometimes had three in a given evening. My Privacy Manager intercepts them and they announce themselves as "SBC Pacific Bell". Well, since I have lots of telephone service and that service is very important to me, I take the call. It invariably turns out that SBC is trying to sell me DSL or long distance or some sort of feature package. Finally, after having quite enough, I rejected one of those calls with the "tell the caller to remove you from the telemarketing list" option ("4", I believe). Now, here comes the incredible part. This is an excerpt from a recent SBC order confirmation (sent via email): quote: MONTHLY SERVICE RATES Activity Telephone Quantity Description Monthly Rate Number ADD 408-264-4115 1 Cust Requests No Sales Calls 0.00 end quote What can I say? Do you suppose that not wanting to be bothered with sales calls carries a USOC code? I'm blown away. I guess I should just be happy that this "feature" carries no monthly charge! John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #419 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 30 00:33:59 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h3U4Xwe00681; Wed, 30 Apr 2003 00:33:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 00:33:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200304300433.h3U4Xwe00681@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #420 TELECOM Digest Wed, 30 Apr 2003 00:33:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 420 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NPA and C.O. Code Numbering Rules Over the Years (Mark J Cuccia) Re: Area Code Statistics (Joseph) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Joseph) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Mark Roberts) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Robert Johnson) Re: I Have Seen the Future of Music and its Name is iTunes (John Higdon) Phone Book to List Cell Numbers (jkelly@newsguy.com) Re: Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation (Andrew Bell) Re: Alternatives, was Re: AOL Blacklists Known Blocks [Heinlein] (Bean) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 21:06:51 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: NPA and C.O. Code Numbering Rules Over the Years Mike O. wrote: > I vaguely remember a "rule" the phone company had when they made area > codes available to the public dial system (1960?). The primary rule > was that the exchange (prefix) could not have a zero or one, that was > reserved for area codes. But, they also said that future area codes > (when they ran out of zero and one, in a projected 25 years) would use > 2 and 3, as the center digit. Then 4 and 5, etc. I don't know how > valid this was, or if it was just an "urban legend" from that era, > but it may shed some light on numbering schemes. And Pat added: > Area codes began being used in the 1950's in a few places, even while > many places were still entirely manual in operation. The rule was no > zeros or ones as the middle digit in prefixes, and no zeros as the > right, or last digit in a prefix. That's largely because the early or > original area codes all had zeros or ones as the middle digit. There > was also a rule that states which had only one area code for the entire > state had a number which used zero as the middle digit; a second or > subsequent area code in the same state had one as the middle digit. What Pat says is "essentially" true ... but here is MUCH more detail and history, as one would expect coming from me! :-) It was October 1947 when Bell Labs and AT&T "finalized" the plan for area codes to be used initially in Nationwide Operator Toll Dialing, and ultimately Customer Direct Distance Dialing. There were preliminary plans hashed out in the immediate postwar years of 1945-47, which the final plans developed further. The Oct.1947 "rule" was that states/provinces with ONE and ONLY ONE area code would have a '0' in the middle. State/provinces with multiple area codes would have a '1' in the middle. Larger metro areas which were expected to have a large volume of incoming calls would have "lower digit" / "shorter dial-pull" / "fewer dial-pulse" formatted area codes. Of course, Washington DC (a single 'state-like' entity has fourteen pulses, a longer "pull" of the '0' in the middle, but because there was ONE area code for the DC state-like entity, the original rule of having a '0' as the middle digit applies. Similarly, NJ had only ONE area code as of Oct.1947, 2-0-1, with thirteen pulses, a longer pull of '0' in the middle (ten-pulses), but the state had ONLY ONE area code, thus the middle-digit of '0'. BUT... of the N0X format area codes, these area codes are two of the "lowest/shortest/fewer"... At that time, many operator "dials" still sent out dialpulses, whether they used a rotary dial or a "keyset", thus fewer dialpulses were desirable for frequently called area codes / locations. Also at the time, there no area codes were of the N09 format. The first N09 area codes first began around 1957, ten years after the finalized format of area codes was announced in Oct.1947. There *NEVER* have been any Area Codes (nor "POTS" office codes) of the N11 format, as N11 had already been in use as 3-digit special purpose codes (411 Information, 611 Repair, etc) in Panel/Crossbar cities. These codes are still in use for these special purposes today, although in the 1980s/90s, *some* telcos (mainly Pac/NV*Bell in CA/NV and GTE-BC Tel in British Columbia) were known to have used 7-digit special "local-only" numbers for Business Office and Repair *specific departments* (i.e., resi, business, coin, payment arrangments, new orders/features, etc), as 611-XXXX and 811-XXXX. There were NO area codes of the N10 nor N00 format in the 1940s/50s. The N10 format codes first were used for Telco Dial-TWX for new 4-Row Keyboard 7/8-level ASCII 100-speed TWX, starting in the early 1960s. 3-Row Kybd 5-level Baudot 60-speed TWX which had existed since 1931 was automated at the same time by adding modems and dials to the TTYs and integrating them into the DDD telephone network by giving them POTS-like telephone numbers using "POTS" area codes. 3-Row TWX began to disappear as 4-Row TWX devloped. Western Union took over the marketing of TWX by US Federal Government orders in the early 1970's but it wasn't until 1981 when TWX in the US was completely removed from the US-portion of the DDD telephone network and instead completely re-routed over Western Union's own Telex network. The N10 format codes no longer had *ANY* meaning on the US-part of the DDD telephone network (although WUTCO still had TWXes numbered with N10 format codes on the WUTCO Telex-I/II network), but it wasn't until the early 1990s when Bellcore first assigned real POTS telephone area codes of the N10 format. The first use of N00 area codes was with 800 (InWATS toll-free) in the mid-1960's. The N00 format has continued to be used for "special" non-geographic NANP-wide functions. 900 for PAY-per-call, 700 for carrier services, 600 for Canadian services, 500 for personal numbering. This N00 format has since become a subset of the NZZ format, where the middle and third digits are "identical" for an even broader format of (future) special function codes. Current uses of the broader NZZ format are used for the additional toll-free codes 888, 877, 866, and future 855, 844, 833, 822. Central Office codes (the 'D-E-F' position of a ten-digit number) never had '0' or '1' as their middle or 'E' position digits in the "old" days. This is why area codes were initially chosen to be N0X and N1X format, so that one could dial just seven or just ten, and the (crossbar) equipment could tell by the second digit dialed whether to expect seven or ten-digits total. One of the reasons that there were hadn't been any N0X nor N1X format c.o.codes was that there were no letters on the '0' or '1', back when 2L-5N exchange-name dialing was in use. Also, NN0 format office codes were HIGHLY DISCOURAGED for DECADES, initially because the '0' (zero) third digit might be confused with the letter 'O' (oh). But this "rule" wasn't always adhered to completely. The Los Angeles Metro Area even as far back as the 1930s had some "EXchange" name plus '0' (zero) office codes! New Orleans had a temporary use (1959) of "WHitehall-0" (940). The first use of area codes by Operators in Operator Toll Dialing that I've seen documented, was in early 1949, when San Francisco/Oakland Bay area operators with AT&T/Pacific Telephone were able to *DIAL* (or 'key') directly to NYCity and some other east coast major cities, as NPA+2L-5N. The first documented/known use of CUSTOMER dialing with area codes began in Nov.1951 from Englewood and Teaneck NJ, where they could dial about fifteen major metro areas throughout the US. (There are articles and reports in the TELECOM Digest Archives on the Englewood DDD experiment that started in November 1951). In the late 1950's, as the postwar cultural and technological boom was in high year in the US (and Canada), AT&T was beginning to become worried that they might run out of "numbering/code" resources. There are documents in the TELECOM Digest Archives that I transcribed back in 1996, from that late 1950's time-frame describing the worries of AT&T. More and more manual central offices were being cut-over to dial. There was the baby-boom and suburban expansion ... fewer customers of party-lines ... radiotelephony and automated paging was becoming common among the wealthy and business types who relied on such ... PBXes and Centrex was becoming automated and "integrated" into the basic numbering plan, where each and every hotel room, hospital room, office desk, etc. would have a "real" POTS 7/10 digit telephone number for direct-in-dialing ... Business (and residential customers) were having multiple lines, in many businesses, even back in the 1950's, there were now dial-in "dataphones" -- i.e., computer modems ... and so forth. All of these new technologies were "hinted at" in the 1940's, but nobody could predict the virtual explosion of these happening as such in the 1950's. Bell decided that it would get rid of "EXchange name" dialing and go to ANC (All Numeric Calling), which took twenty years in some areas to convert to ... but also, in the late 1950's/early 1960's, it was decided that "by the 1970s especially in NY and Los Angeles", there would need to be N0X and N1X format c.o.codes so that 212 (NY) and 213 (Los Angeles) could have longer lives, and that "by the 1990s" there would need to be NNX format Area Codes as all of the N0X and N1X format area codes might be used up. These predictions of the late 1950's mostly came true "on schedule". Los Angeles did adopt N0X and N1X format c.o.codes in the early 1970's, New York City adopted such "interchangeable" office codes in the early 1980's, and other major metro areas adopted these format c.o.codes throughout the 1980's and continuing. NNX format area codes were added to the N0X and N1X format to form the more generalized NXX format for area codes by Jan.1995, again, more-or-less "on schedule". INITIALLY, in the early 1960's, the "assignment order" for new NNX format area codes would have been to use NN0 format area codes. Remember I mentioned earlier that AT&T *HIGHLY DISCOURAGED* the use of NN0 codes for c.o.codes for DECADES. This turned out to be somewhat of a 'blessing' because many areas really didn't add many NN0 format c.o.codes over the decades, even during more recent ones, prior to 1995. Also, if you look at all new (post-1995) NNX format area codes, MOST of them, or the largest block of them at least, are of the N-N-0 format when compared with N--N--other-last-digit formats. In the 1960's/70's/80's, there was to have been a "specific order" of assigning NN0 format area codes when they were expected to first be needed in the 1990's. After the 63 NN0 codes (950 was *NOT* to be assigned as an "area code" since it has a universal function as a special c.o.code for dial-up access to "other common carriers") were assigned/activated as area codes, then OTHER NNX codes could then be used, but there was no special "ordering" of them. The "order" of assignments for NN0 area codes had been published in several AT&T/Bell System publications, including Notes on the Network/Distance Dialing (1968, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1986), and in several Bell System Letters and Bell System Practices of the 1960s/70s timeframe. Here is the assignment order as was *originally* intended back in the 1960s/70s/80s, from first thru sixty-third; the additional notes are what has happened to that area code numeric since 1995: 260 (which was assigned to part of IN's 219 3-way split in 2002) 480 (which was assigned to part of AZ's 602 3-way split in 1999) 520 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 602 AZ) 590 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 650 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 415 CA) 220 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 440 OH ??) 250 (which was assigned to 1996's split of 604 BC) 490 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 660 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 816 MO) 680 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 315 NY ??) 720 (which was assigned to 1998's overlay of 303 CO) 730 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 618 IL ??) 850 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 904 FL) 940 (which was assigned to part of TX's 817 3-way split in 1997) 230 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 626 CA ??) 240 (which was assigned to 1997's overlay of 301 MD) 290 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 470 (assgnd- future addtnl overlay to existing Atlanta Metro overlays) 550 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 702 NV ??) 580 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 405 OK) 740 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 614 OH) 930 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 812 IN ??) 450 (which was assigned to 1998's split of 514 PQ) 760 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 619 CA) 880 *** see note below *** 570 (which was assigned to 1998's split of 717 PA) 380 (assigned for future date-not-defined overlay of 614 OH) 460 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 204 MB ??) 980 (which was assigned to 2001's overlay of 704 NC) 860 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 203 CT) 960 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 990 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 970 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 303 CO) 350 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 209 CA ??) 540 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 703 VA) 820 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 805 CA ??) 840 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 512 TX ??) 690 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 770 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 404 GA) 890 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 320 (which was assigned to 1996's split of 612 MN) 370 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 790 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 280 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 240 MD ??) 640 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 609 NJ ??) 750 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 808 Hawaii ??) 270 (which was assigned to 1999's split of 502 KY) 430 (which is this year's, 2003's overlay to 903 TX) 630 (the 1995 overlay to Chicago for cellular, 1996 split of 708 IL) 670 (assgnd to Saipan/Mariana Isl's incorporation in the NANP in 1997) 560 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 907 Alaska ??) 330 (which was assigned to 1996's split of 216 OH) 340 (assigned to US Virgin Isls split from 809 in 1997) 390 NOT ASSIGNED (see below) 620 (which was assigned to 2001's split of 316 KS) 830 (which was assigned to part of TX's 210 3-way split in 1997) 920 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 414 WI) 360 (which was assigned to 1995's split of 206 WA) 440 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 216 OH) 780 (which was assigned to 1999's split of 403 AB) 870 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 501 AR) 420 (not assigned; ?? potentially reserved for relief of 808 Hawaii ??) 530 (which was assigned to 1997's split of 916 CA) In the early 1990s, Bellcore and the NANP Telco industry forums decided that with 1995's need to introduce "interchangeable" (i.e., NNX format) area codes, that instead of just starting off with NN0, that rather they'd go with the full batch of NNX at the start. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are more N-N-0 ones than other N-N- other-last-digits. Also, by 1994, the ATIS-INC-ICCF (industry forums) and (Bellcore) NANPA decided that N9X format codes would be reserved for expansion purposes whenever the NANP would need to go to something longer than ten-digits, and that the 96X and 37X formats would be reserved as well for some future need (presently undefined) which might require a complete block of ten-consecutive codes. A note about 880: In 1995, Bellcore-NANPA assigned 880 for use by foreign (non-NANP) overseas customers to be able to call (at charge) NANP-based 800 "toll-free" numbers, by "replacing" the 800 with 880, as +1-880-seven-digits. (881 was also assigned as a "replace" code for international calling party pays to call NANP 888 "toll-free" in 1996, and 882 was assigned in 1998 as the international calling party pays replace code for NANP 877 "toll-free". There was never assigned such a "replace" code for NANP 866 "toll-free" nor for any future NANP toll-free SAC codes. And the ATIS-INC forum wants to actually *RECLAIM* 880, 881, 882 from their current defined uses, and the international caller "might" thus call NANP "toll-free" numbers (whether for free or at charge) using the "regular" 800/888/877/etc. code in +1/NANP. The currently intended future use of 880, 881, 882, 883, 884, 885, 886, 887, and then 889, is for FUTURE (post 855 then 844 then 833 then 822) NANP toll-free numbers. There is of course, a *LOT* more that I could go "on-and-on ad-nauseum" about, but I'll close out here with a transcribed chart of the original eighty-six NPA (area code) assignments of the original "finalized" draft plan of October 1947, some 55+ years ago. Also, DISCLAIMER ... I certainly HOPE that my typing here has mostly been correct, and hope that I do NOT have any significant/factual errors due to any possible typo's ... So, without further ado, here is the 1947 area code chart, broken down into N0X and N1X: N0X Form, States/Provinces with ONE and ONLY one code assigned (40 codes assigned) 201 NJ 301 MD 401 RI 501 AR 601 MS 701 ND 801 UT 901 TN 202 DC 302 DE 402 NE 502 KY 602 AZ 702 NV 802 VT 902 mrtm.prv. 203 CT 303 CO 403 AB 503 OR 603 NH 703 VA 803 SC 204 MB 304 WV 404 GA 504 LA 604 BC 704 NC 205 AL 305 FL 405 OK 505 NM 605 SD 206 WA 306 SK 406 MT 207 ME 307 WY 208 ID N1N Form, States/Provinces with several codes assigned (46 codes assigned) 212 NY 312 IL 412 PA 512 TX 612 MN 712 IA 812 IN ------ 213 CA 313 MI 413 MA 513 OH 613 ON 713 TX ------ 913 KS 214 TX 314 MO 414 WI 514 PQ 614 OH ------ 814 PA 914 NY 215 PA 315 NY 415 CA 515 IA ------ 715 WI 815 IL 915 TX 216 OH 316 KS 416 ON ------ 616 MI 716 NY 816 MO 916 CA 217 IL 317 IN ------ 517 MI 617 MA 717 PA 218 MN ------ 418 PQ 518 NY 618 IL ------ 319 IA 419 OH US: 48-states/DC, Canada: nine-provinces (also NF/LB) -- are the ONLY parts of the NANP at this time (Alaska, Hawaii, Caribbean, Mexico, Pacific Islands, etc, not intended to have area codes until years later) *NO* codes of the form N09, N00, N10, or N11 assigned at this time; N11 reserved for 3-digit local service codes (*NO* special functions of TWX, toll-free, etc, at this time) Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In addition to its regular place in the back issues files of the Digest, this special report by Mark will be filed in the telecom-digest.org/history area of the web site for review by interested parties. Thank you, Mark, for your usual, excellent presentation. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:14:09 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:19:41 -0000, markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) wrote: > I assume that, nowadays for cell phones in that area, it's basically > ten digits all the time unless you're in your home area code calling > another number in that area code. I've found with my T-Mobile service that if I dial 7 digits that I'll reach numbers in my local (Seattle area code 206) calling area no matter where I am in the US or Canada! Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you know why that is? My AT&T cell phone (Nokia 5165) does the same thing. That's not some brilliant job of routing calls by telcos; the Nokia 5100 series of phones (at least, maybe certain other cell phones as well) has something built in the software which if it only gets seven digits when dialed it automatically prepends the area code it is registered in to the start of the dialing string. So does my Cingular Wireless phone (also a Nokia 5165). What kind of phones do they give you for T-Mobile? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:25:25 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 14:59:20 -0500, jim evans wrote: > I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please > direct me to the appropriate group for this question. > I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages > everytime I return home. So I have two questions. > 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that > there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on > some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. > 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a > box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? Try http://www.sandman.com or http://www.hello-direct.com Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Of course! I should have remembered that Mike has those things available also. PAT ------------------------------ From: markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 03:13:43 -0000 Organization: 1.94 meters jim evans had written: > 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that > there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on > some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. I thought Radio Shack had them, but I can't find them in the online catalog. The catalog number of the ones I have is 43-163. Perhaps an RS local to you may be able to help. Mark Roberts | "In 2001, Google bought the Usenet discussion forums." Oakland, Cal.| -- Associated Press dispatch published in the NO HTML MAIL | San Francisco Chronicle, 2-19-2003 ------------------------------ From: Robert Johnson Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:56:35 -0700 Most Telco's include the FSK chirp with Voicemail, you rarely have to ask for it ... on a related note, I am looking for a device that will see the FSK chirp, then simply throw a relay, so I can hook it up, to the Hold Lamps in my Key System. Robert > From: jim evans > Subject: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? > Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 14:59:20 -0500 > Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com > I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please > direct me to the appropriate group for this question. > I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages > everytime I return home. So I have two questions. > 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that > there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on > some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. > 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a > box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? > Thanks. > Have a home upkeep question? Try my help page. > It's sort of an alt.home.repair FAQ. http://www.factsfacts.com/MyHomeRepair > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'dcom' in comp.dcom.telecom goes > *way back* to the early days of Usenet in the early 1980's. It refers > to 'data communications', and in the original style of Usenet nomenclature > where the general name came first and the specifics came later in the > name, the group is for discussions *generally* about COMPuters, and > more specifically about DataCOMmunications even more specifically > about TELECOMmunications. That's how the newsgroup got its name back > in the middle 1980's. So the short answer would be, 'yes, you came to > the right place.' Yes, there are devices like you want. Its up to > you to jerry-rig the device, but you can notify telco you want 'visual > notification on voicemail. I think the default is the audible 'stutter > dial tone' which is very common. On a voicemail thing I had once, we > had phones with visual notification of messages. But you have to ask > telco for that feature (instead of stutter dial tone) once you get the > device ready to go, I assume with a relay that would bring in a bright > light or a sounder, which ever you wanted. I think Radio Shack has a > device something like it also. What telco does is arrange to trip the > relay (or power it, etc) when you have a voicemail message. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: I Have Seen the Future of Music and its Name is iTunes Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 17:58:45 -0700 In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Apple's new online music-buying system is everything Napster promised > to be -- cheap, easy and, best of all, legal. As an Apple person, I less than impressed. > The system is foolproof: You type in a name, a > song comes up, and you press a button to buy it. That's it. You're in > the hole for 99 cents for each song you download ($10 for each album), > but you see none of the transaction details; all the purchases are > "one-click." Some albums are only available on a "per song" basis. For instance, the soundtrack album for the motion picture "The Red Violin" has twenty tracks. At $0.99 each, that is nearly twenty bucks for a compressed digital download. No CD, no booklet, just compressed data audio on your hard drive. > And here's the stunning thing: Once you've bought a song, > you own it. At least as long as you have an Internet connection and the iTunes Music Store stays in business. You see, each computer must be specifically authorized by the mother ship to play the tunes you bought (up to three simultaneously). No mothership, no tunes. Fourth computer? Nope. > You can do (pretty much) whatever you want to do with the > songs you download, including burning them to CDs, Real, fully-compliant Red Book audio CDs? Somehow, I doubt it. > transferring them to iPods, Only the new iPods introduced yesterday, that is. The older ones (the only ones out there in anyone's hands at this point) cannot play Apple's proprietary AAC format, which is how the songs are released (so they can keep a leash on you). > or sending them to other Macs. Two other Macs, to be specific. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 18:19:37 PDT From: jkelly@newsguy.com Subject: Phone Book to List Cell Numbers By TISH WILLIAMS Register Staff Writer Bid farewell to numbers hastily jotted on a cocktail napkin or a hand. Cell phone numbers are getting listed, just like regular phone numbers. Local telephone directory provider QwestDex allows adventurous cellular phone users -- with or without an existing land line -- to get their mobile phone numbers listed for $1.50 a month. http://desmoinesregister.com/business/stories/c4780940/21125743.html ------------------------------ From: Andrew Bell Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Hillarious SBC Order Confirmation Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 21:26:30 -0400 John Higdon treated us to: > Subject: Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation > Organization: Green Hills and Cows > Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 09:08:41 -0700 > What can I say? Do you suppose that not wanting to be bothered with > sales calls carries a USOC code? Yep. Bell Canada lists "telemarketing exclusion code" as a separate USOC on my equipment record as well. What's even better is that they've never once violated it - AND, I can't remember ever receiving a call from a competing LD provider on that line, either. "Charities", financial services, credit cards, yes, but never phone services. All ya gotta do is ask -- it works for a lot of things. For instance, you know how most merchant credit cards come with 47 lbs of crap in each bill? Call 'em up -- request that your account be flagged "no inserts" -- and Vi-Ola, just the bill next month. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 18:53:31 -0500 From: Ron Bean Subject: Re: Alternatives, was Re: AOL Blacklists Known Dynamic [Heinlein] bonomi@c-ns (Robert Bonomi) writes: > To put an end to this one, the scene IS in "The Cat who walks through > Walls". Heh ... Since I'm the one who asked the question, I think I can say with some confidence that this is not the book I remembered. 1: I've never read that book (I've looked at it since it came up here, and I would have remembered the plot). 2: It's a recorded message rather than a sign (with a fake theatrical scream at the end-- obviously she's playing a joke on him). 3: It's a female character, the one I remembered was male (and it wasn't a joke). 4: It involves some kind of computer terminal by the door, rather than a bill slot. > I do not recall anything similar in any other RAH novel ... It's very possible that it wasn't Heinlein. So, it remains a mystery. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. 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We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #420 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 30 20:29:22 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h410TLk07704; Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:29:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:29:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305010029.h410TLk07704@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #421 TELECOM Digest Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:29:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 421 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson BellSouth Phasing Out 557, 780 Special CO Codes (Mark J Cuccia) Area Codes Article - A Few Clarifications (Mark J Cuccia) Re: Caller ID Box Problems (Jim Talbert) Spamola (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned Mail: User Unknown (Paul Timmins) Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown (Dave Phelps) US Payphone Wiring? (E. Fudd) urTALKING.com Never Sent Me My Pin Numbers (Trebor) Messages When Dialing ... (Pen) Last Laugh! More on SBC and AGBell (jmayson@nyx.net) This Digest is Brought to You by You: Monthly Share Day (P. Townson) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 08:10:26 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: BellSouth Phasing Out 557, 780 Special CO Codes I had been informed a few months ago, that BellSouth is in the process of "phasing out" the use of several "special" c.o.codes from its 9-state territory. These "special" c.o. codes were dialable from ONLY within a BellSouth LATA, and may or may not necessarily have been dialable: - from within independent territory within a BellSouth LATA, - from non-telco payhones (i.e., COCOTs -- they may have blocked dialing the prefix or they may have allowed dialing such usually free prefies but at a charge, and an exhorbitant charge at that!) - from PBXes which did their own internal translations of everything dialed - from wireless phones/providers (Cellular, PCS, etc) - from landline CLECs and such ... USUALLY, these special prefixes were *NOT* dialable from "outside" over most/all LD carriers, even though one may have dialed a BellSouth region Area Code followed by the prefix and four digits. These prefixes are considered "oddball" prefixes by Telcordia-TRA and other industry members when reported in NANP-based numbering/routing/etc. documentation. Some of these "oddball" or "special purpose" prefixes are reserved US/Canada-wide (or even NANP-wide), and in a few cases may be arranged to be dialed "universally" from outside (i.e., 555). The other prefixes which are "universal" in reservation/assignment (but not necessarily dialable from "outside") would include 950, 976, 958, 959, 700 (as a local c.o.code prefix for verifying the in-TRA-LATA PIC as (1)-(home/adjacent-NPA)-700-4141), and the eight N11s codes. But throughout the US/Canada, many incumbent local telcos (ILECS) both Bell and independent, for YEARS (decades) have had various special function prefixes, usually dialable only within a local or regional area, thus "blocked" from access from outside. BellSouth has had several of these scattered across the board and throughout the nine-state area. Such have included 203, 204, 930, 530, 440, and possibly a few others. Some are only dialable or useable within the five South Central Bell states (KY/TN/AL/MS/LA), some only within the four Southern Bell states (NC/SC/GA/FL), and others available within all nine-states. The codes listed above were for "single number access" type translations service (Canada has used the 310 prefix in all Canadian area codes for similar type service; also, the NANP industry has been trying to expand the non -1212 line number ranges of the 555 prefix for such "single access number" services, similar to one way the 950 prefix could be defined, although 950 is specifically toll-free coin-free to the calling party at the phone they are dialing from, and 950 is also ONLY for accessing LD carriers and similar entities) ... BellSouth *itself* has used two additional "oddball" prefixes for internal official numbers/lines/departments. In the five South Central Bell states (KY/TN/AL/MS/LA), there has been 557-xxxx, and in the four Southern Bell states (NC/SC/GA/FL), there has been 780-xxxx. These prefixes had to be "reserved" in every area code in such states, so that they wouldn't be assigned to "POTS" functions. There was no real problem with these codes in "happier" days, as Telco was the "only game in town", owned all the payphones, worked closely with independent telcos in adjacent areas, worked with PBX owners, radio common carriers (mobile providers), etc. And even back then, if for some reason, one couldn't dial 557-xxxx or 780-xxxx, one could always call telco '0' Operator to reach Business Office, Repair, etc. Also, there have long been 'backup' (state-specific) 800 (and now 888/877/866) numbers that BellSouth has used for such official/internal departments (Business Office, Repair, Annoyance Call Bureau, etc). However, with more problems from PBXes, COCOTs, cellulars, and competitive and regulatory concerns as well, BellSouth is discontinuing *ALL* "non-standard" "oddball" prefixes in its nine-state area, *including* the 557 (SCBell) and 780 (So.Bell) "official" (B.O., Repair, etc) prefixes. Some parts of Florida have *already* discontinued them. Other parts of FL and other states in BellSouth are discontinuing them over the next months to next year. The latest BellSouth bill I received has an insert saying that the 557-xxxx numbers are discontinued (although I think there's another six-months to a year where they will still work), and replaced by ten-digit toll-free 800/888/etc. type numbers. Many other telcos throughout the US are doing this too, discontinuing the use of 611 and 811, or their "oddball" 7/10 digit "POTS-looking but still special" numbers, in favor of more universally recognized but carrier/region specific distinct 800/888/877/etc. numbers. One can remember when travelling to dial a regular 800-type number to check the bill/etc. back home, without any worry about originating access location not being able to dial (BellSouth-NPA)+557/780-xxxx, or cellular companies not recognizing the codes, or payphones blocking such codes, or PBX worries, etc. And except for airtime/roaming charges, the use of 800/888/etc. is supposed to be toll-free! I'm not transcribing my own South Central Bell "Louisiana-specific" list here ... but www.bellsouth.com should have many state-specific 557/780 numbers and what the new 800/888/877/etc. numbers are supposed to be. There are also several other specific "unlisted" 780 and 557 numbers for more internal/specific departments of BellSouth as well, which are also having to convert to regular toll-free 800/etc. type numbers -- actually they probably always (or for a long time) have had such 800/etc. numbers, but are now having to migrate all promotion to these 800/etc. numbers. Ultimately, NANPA/Neustar will be able to "reassign" such codes as 504-203, 504-530, 504-557, 305-780, 305-203, 305-780, 404-780, etc. One of the problems with having such codes in "some" area codes meant that every time there was an area code split or overlay in the nine-state territory, then BellSouth would have to have the code(s) PROTECTED (duplicated) in the new area code ... competition and regulatory weren't always "happy" that BellSouth or the ILEC got such "special" treatment for such non-standard "oddball" codes. NOTE: in south-west FL, 813, 941, 863, 737, 239 are all VeriZon (GTE) and Sprint-LEC (United) with *NO* BellSouth, and thus never had the "BellSouth-specific" oddball NXX codes. This is the Tampa/St.Peters- burg and Sarasota, Clearwater, etc. area of GTE (now VeriZon), and Ft.Myers and such further south in southwest FL, region of United (now called Sprint-LEC). Similarly, northeastern NC, when 252 split from 919 in 1998, the new 252 code serves *ONLY* Sprint-LEC (United's Carolina Tel & Tel) and some other small independents with *NO* BellSouth (Rocky Mount NC/etc), and thus never had any need for "BellSouth-specific" oddball NXX codes. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know of only one such 'special' CO code here, but there may have been more. 620-870 was designated as a special toll-free code for use by cellular carriers in southeast Kansas. Cingular Wireless was using it for quite awhile. There was no charge to call it in s.e. Kansas. Then one day Cingular said to me they were 'phasing out the special deal they had with SWBell on 870' and I could keep it if I wanted, but there would be a charge to people calling it (or like me, forwarding to my cellular phone from my landline phone) if I kept on using it after last October. I think the way it had been, Cingular was paying all the charges for calls in or out of 620-870. So I went over to their office downtown, and it was all a very routine, no charge for me transaction. The lady checked a list of available numbers (they were simply assigning them in rotation beginning at 330-3000 (where the Montgomery County Sheriff's centrex service ends at [it runs from 330-1000 to 330-2999]) and she said here is your new number. She called Texas or somewhere, and told them, and the voicemail stayed the same. Nothing changed, just the number, from 870-xxxx to 330-xxxx. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 00:12:49 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Area Codes Article - A Few Clarifications I just want to make a couple of clarifications to my recent (long) post regarding Area Code and c.o.code format history, as I forgot to specify this previously: > The Oct.1947 "rule" was that states/provinces with ONE and ONLY ONE > area code would have a '0' in the middle. State/provinces with multiple > area codes would have a '1' in the middle. (and the two charts -- the N0X and N1X charts -- that I posted towards the end of my post, showing the Oct. 1947 assignments) There were a few NPA splits in the late 1940s/early 1950s -- actually I don't think that the "network" was specifically modified as much as the paperwork and drafting/planning was "changed" for future implementation. But N1X states which already had two/more NPA codes were having one of their N1X area codes split in two, and the new code was also an N1X format code: 1948? 1949? 317 for central/northern Indiana split off the new 219 for the northern third of the state. 1950 816 for western Missouri split off the new 417 for the southwestern portion of the state. 1951 914 covered the Westchester/etc. *AND* the Long Island parts of New York state (outside of NYCity itself with 212). But this year, 516 split from 914, the new code covering the non-NYCity part of Long Island. 1951 213 covered the southern third of California, but this year, 213 "shrunk" down to Los Angeles Metro itself "only", with the remainder of the southern third of state splitting to the new 714 code. 1951 415 covered the central third of California, but for the Englewood NJ customer DDD trials, 318 was temporarily assigned for San Francisco and west-bay / north-of-Golden Gate communities to be dialed from Englewood, while Oakland and east-bay were still identified with 415 to be dialed from Englewood. 1953 the 519 region of Ontario was created, carved out of the 'original' 416 code's territory. 1953 817 was carved out of 214 in Texas, where 214 was retained by Dallas and northeastern TX while the new 817 was used for Ft.Worth/etc. and north central TX. However, in 1953, two N0X states were split. Florida 305 split off the new 813 for the "independent" western coast; Oklahoma 405 split off the new 918 code for the southwestern part (and northwest and southeast parts) of the state. Note that in both cases, the NEW code in the previous single-code state is an N1X format code. And also, in 1954, there are splits of BOTH N1X states and previously single-code N0X states, in both cases, the new codes can be from the N0X format. So, the N0X single-code states/provinces vs. N1X multi-code states/prov's "rule" no longer really applied as "rigidly". There was still the fact that if a state or province had ONE code, it was an N0X code, while if a state had an N1X code, it had multiple (two or more) codes. but the "converses" of each statement no longer applied. > Also, if you look at all new (post-1995) NNX format area codes, MOST > of them, or the largest block of them at least, are of the N-N-0 > format when compared with N--N--other-last-digit formats. and: > However, as I mentioned earlier, there are more N-N-0 ones than > other N-N- other-last-digits. Just to clarify some of this ... There ARE certainly MORE overall assigned NNX format codes (outside of NN0) than there are assigned NN0 format codes, BUT ... at this point in time, it still holds true that: there are more assigned NN0 codes than there are assigned NN1 codes, there are more assigned NN0 codes than there are assigned NN2 codes, there are more assigned NN0 codes than there are assigned NN3 codes, and so forth ... But eventually, this statistic might change as well. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu ------------------------------ From: Name Withheld at Reader's Request Subject: Re: Caller ID Box Problems Date: 30 Apr 2003 07:29:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ name withheld@bellsouth.net (name withheld) wrote in message news:: > I have several Caller ID boxes on my two lines. Some capture info on > every call but others capture info on half or fewer of the incoming > calls. When the BellSouth Premium Systems boxes miss calls, they > either display NO DATA, ERROR or nothing. BellSouth can't find > anything wrong with the Caller ID signal coming into my home, but the > tech monitored fewer than 5 calls which he made himself (calls made > from one line to the other are almost always captured). The tech told > me that some brands of boxes are not compatible with others. > Does anyone know how I can determine why some of my boxes are missing > call data? > Thanks. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I had a caller ID box like that at > one time. I had two lines and one box. So in the middle I put one > of the Radio Shack 'auto switch' things which take either of two > ringing lines and funnels the call into a single phone (and whatever) > is attached to that phone (such as caller ID box). Now and again, > the Radio Shack 'auto switch' did not wake up in time to get all or > any of the caller ID data. Also, you have to remember that various > phones and devices on the line take 'RENs' and telco only puts out > a certain amount of RENs and if the ringing voltage is too feeble > on some calls the boxes won't wake up in time either. I now have a > situation where I have three phones in my house and three caller ID > boxes on one line. If the central office gives me a *good, healthy > ring signal* on the first ring, they all work okay. Now and again > I guess I come in 'on the middle' of a ringing signal and one of > the boxes will not 'be awake' at the point the data gets passed. > Take all the boxes off the line and all the phones except one of > each. Try it and see if you find a box that usually fails or > conversely, never fails. Remove it and try the next box the same > way. I bet they will all work okay every time. When you get into > multiple instruments on the same line, and multiple peripherals as > well, things get flaky sometimes. Even a phone getting some fractional > portion of a full ringing signal is okay if the voltage is present. > But put fractional parts of the ringing signal (on the first ring) > combined with lesser than required voltage to wake up the boxes and > you will miss the data transmission being sent. PAT] Pat, I thought of two more things after my last post. On one of the BellSouth boxes that hardly works at all, yesterday I received the first partial ID I have ever seen. The name was complete but the number was displayed as "205-95_-___6". The second thought is, can I stop my e-mail address from being displayed on these posts? I get a TON of spam and I think much of it is a result of having my address appearing on the Internet. Thanks. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sort of after the fact, this time around I deleted your name for whatever good it will do. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 09:10:12 -0600 Subject: Spamola Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:43:59 EDT, editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is all the 'point' in the world > to bounce spam back to the alleged 'sender'. If the alleged sender > does not exist, then the bounces will eventually just vanish on the > network somewhere. If the alleged sender *does* exist, then *he* can > throw them out. If the alleged sender is in fact the real sender then > maybe he will get discouraged seeing so much trash come back in his > account maybe he will stop the odious practice of sending spam. If you > sent out a million spams with my name and real address as the sender > that would be quite a waste of time, wouldn't it? Don't you want to > get the money from the sales of your spam-product you could not get > if there was no way to reach you? Believe me you, if there was > anywhere in the spam the slightest hint of your name/address/phone > number, I would figure it out somehow, and you would think at least > twice before doing it *to me* again. And Mail Washer makes it all so > super easy. Just screens full of one line messages including the name > and email address (allegedly) of the sender, and click, click, click > next to each one. They go onto your blacklist and disappear. There > is even an option in the set up to click if you want *your personal > blacklist* to be abolished right from the pop server and not even > bother to show them to you at all. I do not use that option, since > it is sort of dangerous in my opinion. Its perfectly okay with me to > just spend a few seconds 'clicking them off' before instructing the > pop server to bounce them. PAT] I think you're missing the point, Pat. You are assuming that a spammer has a vested interest in making sure the "From" and/or "Reply To" fields in the spam they send point to a valid address, so that they can field replies from people interested in whatever garbage they're peddling. That just ain't the case. They know they only get a 0.01% (or whatever the actual number is) positive response rate, and a *LOT* of negative reaction. Imagine yourself as a spammer: you've just sent out a million spams with your valid return address in the FROM field. You get maybe 100 interested replies, but you get about 400,000 indignant replies from people outraged at your tactics. Worse yet - let's say the SUBJECT line of your spam was something like "make money fast". Nearly every SUBJECT line in all of this return email is something like "Re: make money fast". How do you tell which of these replies are the "good" ones and which should be thrown out, without actually *READING* each one? Too much like work and suddenly it's not worth your time and effort. No, if you're a smart spammer, you include whatever contact information you're going to include right in the text of the message itself, and INTENTIONALLY obfuscate the FROM and/or REPLY TO fields. You include a URL that someone can surf to, or if you're feeling particularly risque you might even include a valid email address. Or a phone number (and if you're particularly stupid, a toll-free phone number). Sometimes I see nothing more than a snailmail address. Either way, it becomes a lot MORE WORK for the indignant, offended people to get their negative feedback to you, and thus most just won't bother (after all, we got lots of spams each day, just delete it and move on!), but it's just as easy for the few sheep who actually WANT this garbage to follow the instructions given in the spam as it is to reply to the spam itself. As a long time spammer, though, you've discovered that sometimes if you send out spams with obviously-phoney email addresses in the "from" field (ie: sa8ofas87fgtas@hotmail.com), lots of your spam won't get through. So what you wanna do is pick a *WORKING* email address to put in that field. Not your own of course -- who wants all that nasty hatemail? Some other poor schmuck's email address will do fine. And so you pick one (or several, on a rotating basis) out of your list of email addresses harvested from various sources, and use that in the FROM field. Then when Mail Washer and other anti-spam systems "bounce" the message, all of those bounces will go to the poor schmuck, and not to you. Pretty cool huh? No Pat, I'm afraid I have to agree with what others have said on the subject of Mail Washer. It may help you PERSONALLY in filtering out the spam that you download into your inbox, but it does pretty much nothing at all in terms of reducing the amount of spam that gets sent your way -- and does a *LOT* of damage to those poor unsuspecting schmucks. It's actually making the problem *WORSE*. Now, I don't have Mail Washer so I don't know what options it has, but if I were using it, I would configure it (if possible) to not "bounce" those spam messages, but to simply delete them unread. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You can configure it as you suggested. In addition to a place to check where 'all blacklisted addresses should automatically bounced, never presented/seen' there are other check boxes for all blacklisted addesses such as 'destroy but do not bounce' and 'handle manually', which is what I use. Then when it calls at the various POP sites for your mail, you get one or more screens consisting of one line entries for each piece of mail. A date/time, sender, most of that line is the first line of text, and three check boxes for your use: delete, bounce and blacklist. It makes suggestions in the form of autochecking the boxes, based on how you previously handled messages from that sender. You just click the boxes of your choice -- delete, bounce or blacklist -- tell mail washer to process the mail, then go on to your normal mail program such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Any items that have no check marks next to them are considered 'good, desirable mail' and presented via your mail program. Those that you 'delete' are deleted at the POP server (almost like going to the post office and tossing most of it in the big garbage can they always have in the lobby before you even leave the area). 'Bounce' tells Mail Washer to go back to the pop server, diddle up the mail and mark it 'user unknown' and return it if possible. 'Blacklist' says you don't even want to see anything from that address again. You use the checkboxes in any order desired. When everything is checked (or not) then Mail Washer proceeds to start your mail program and get the (in my case) relatively few items you actually want from the pop servers and presents them, opened and ready to read. Mail Washer can remember what you blacklist, and unless you check the master box saying auto destroy this sender or auto bounce this sender at all times, then on your next mail call a new item from the same spammer will also be there, but with a checkmark already in place 'since that is what you said last time about this guy'. For all of you who weep and wail about 'the poor guy whose name got used as a valid from address who gets stuck with all the bounces', what suggestions do you have to offer whan a spammer does a 'dictionary style attack'. He uses some valid return address, then his spamware program proceeds to address email to 'a', 'aa', 'aaa' and onward to 'zzz9999' and every dictionary entry in between? You know that 99 percent of those are going to bounce and fly back in the box of some real, unsuspecting victim. My suggestion would be that the 'poor unsuspecting victim' also use Spam Assassin or Mail Washer or a similar thing to treat *his* mail before he sees it. Yes, I know. If everyone used Mail Washer to bounce unwanted spam, before long all the POP servers in the world would be doing nothing but tossing Mail Daemons back and forth at each other all the time. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Mail Washer, Mail Daemons, etc. From: Paul Timmins Organization: Timmins Technologies Date: 30 Apr 2003 00:18:31 -0400 On Tue, 2003-04-29 at 19:43, someone argued with editor@telecom-digest. org about bouncing spam: > There isn't much point in bouncing spam because most of the time the > from field is garbage, or worse, is some innocent person's live email > address. > Just imagine what would happen if I sent 1M spams with the from line of > ptowson@sbcglobal.net (intentionally misspelled). Mailwasher would send > you the bounces. > Dave Phelps > Phone Masters Ltd. > deadspam=tippenring As I sit and watch the moderation inbox of a discussion list I moderate fill with bounce messages from some jerk's spam run where the list posting address was set as the "sender" of the spam, I not only agree, I would mention that I would be upset if I knew people were intentionally sending these bounces (as it's obvious that a list about Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder isn't going to be trying to get people to "become an eBay insider!") Another point that should be made is that real bounce messages go to the envelope sender, not the "From:" header specified in the mail, so your bounces aren't even necessarily going to the same place that a real bounce would, and you're simply wasting time and effort by bouncing them. Paul Timmins paul@timmins.net / http://www.timmins.net/ H: 313-586-9514 / C: 248-379-7826 / DC: 130*116*24495 AIM: noweb4u / Callsign: KC8QAY [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you want to get upset with someone, try getting upset with the person who originated the spam, not the people who are drowning in it. If half of one-tenth of one iota of a percent of the spam I bounce back to the sender **actually reaches the true sender** then my percentage is probably higher than that of the spammer who started the vicious circle. I know what you guys are saying, that we should all share the burden of spam by blacklisting and dumping out our 'fair share' of it rather than throwing out our trash from the car window as we speed along down the main drag through town sending it flying everywhere but back to the true sender. I guess I am just not a socially responsible netizen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 00:50:40 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , tippenring@deadspam.com argued with the moderator: > If the alleged sender *does* exist, then *he* can throw them out. You would be willing to do that with, say 10,000 bounces (just a 1% bounce rate) to your email? > If the alleged sender is in fact the real sender then > maybe he will get discouraged seeing so much trash come back in his > account maybe he will stop the odious practice of sending spam. When was the last time you saw a legitimate from: line in the header? They are virtually always fake. The URLs in the spam are the usual contact methods. > If you sent out a million spams with my name and real address as the > sender that would be quite a waste of time, wouldn't it? Don't you > want to get the money from the sales of your spam-product you could > not get if there was no way to reach you? As I mentioned above, most spam has URLs to click on. Mailwasher does not make sending bounces to the true source of the email easier, it just makes you feel like you're doing something productive. Mailwasher is a good tool. I tried it for a couple of months as a filter. Now I'm using SAProxy (http://saproxy.bloomba.com/) because it is a fairly transparent filter. I've been quite pleased with it. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you read my entire message? I said if X number of spams were sent out under my name, and X-1 of the recipients complained about it, I am *certain* at least X-2 of the recipients would return the whole damn thing to me with a piece of their mind. Of those, I would patiently read though the spam to find some legitimate name/address somewhere therein, and then it would be better if that spammer had never heard of computers, let alone buy or steal one to be abused. Forget about 'From ' or 'From:' addresses since so often they mean nothing. Somewhere in that piece of trash is going to be a URL or a valid address of some kind or a phone number or whatever. PAT] ------------------------------ From: post2rame@yahoo.com (E. Fudd) Subject: US Payphone Wiring? Date: 29 Apr 2003 23:57:13 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ The telephone wiring of a bar was vandalized. These jokers cut all the wiring. I managed to move and rebuild everything except the payphone circuit. There are two transformers nearby associated with the payphone circuit. Anyone willing to post a diagram for an SBC payphone? Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: sshopper@udude.com (Trebor) Subject: urTALKING.com Never Sent me my Pin Numbers Date: 30 Apr 2003 11:13:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I ordered two phonecards from URTalking.com over a week and a half ago. They have never sent me the pin numbers and have never responded to my many emails. Ironically: their website said "Real-time PIN delivery". Their one confirmation email negated this, saying "Please allow 12 hours for pin number". Yet it's been over 200 hours and still no pin numbers. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has your bank card yet been charged for the 'service'? Try the (usually) toll-free number associated with the charge on your bank account. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Pen Subject: Messages When Dialing Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 18:59:35 GMT Does anybody have a list of the different list of messages, and what they mean? Example, if I get a "... number has been temporarily disconnected" message I know that this means the number is down, usually due to billing issues, but it is still a good number, and to try calling back later ... How about the "number is not in service" etc? Thanks! Penelope ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 13:57:40 -0500 From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Last Laugh! More on SBC and AGBell Organization: Nyx Net, Free Internet access (http://www.nyx.net/) http://www.valdosta.edu/spec/20010322/opinion4.html ... there was actually more spoken by Bell during that first phone call: Mr. Watson, come here; I want you ... I want you now! I want you, oh, so very badly! I want you like I've never wanted anyone before! Watsey-poo, my strapping young lad, get in here quickly! Whats taking so long? Hey, don't forget to slip into that sexy little outfit I ... unfortunately, at this point, the call was mysteriously disconnected and we shall never know the outcome. http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/5883/history.html Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone. His first words to Mr. Watson are, "What are you wearing?" Mr. Watson replies, "A lab coat, sir." As you can see, SBC does have very legitimate concerns. Yes, this is my ill attempt at humor. Carry on. John Mayson ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: This Digest is Brought to You by You; Shareware Day Message Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 19:00:00 CDT Today is the time each month we take a break from the messages here to ask each of you readers to **get involved** in helping to produce the Digest with your kind and generous offerings of financial support. This Digest is SHAREWARE, not FREEWARE, and it has existed for the past 22 or so years as a labor of love by the people who like to see everyone have knowledge about the workings of 'the telephone company'. Your monthly or frequent contributions financially make a lot of difference in my life. I realize not everyone wants to read each and every article in each issue, and that is quite okay. You read what you want, and if anything you find here benefits you personally in some way or another, then please reciprocate as you find appropriate. If you make any donation, and request it, I will send you a CD of the Telecom Archives; a CD full of the past 22 years of the Digest along with the dozens of special reports and other features that have been presented over the years. When you make any donation, just be certain to include your *street mailing address* and request a copy of the archives CD if you want it. 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It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #421 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 1 00:34:57 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h414Yv109030; Thu, 1 May 2003 00:34:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 00:34:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305010434.h414Yv109030@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #422 TELECOM Digest Thu, 01 May 2003 00:35:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 422 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Rash of 911 Wireless Calls After Crash (Monty Solomon) Apple's Music: Microsoft's Sour Note? (Monty Solomon) Dell to March Deeper Into Wireless (Monty Solomon) PayPal Turns Off the Red Light (Monty Solomon) America Online Now Blocks Over 2.3 Billion Spams Per Day (Monty Solomon) Sony Music Entertainment Achieves Music Industry First (Monty Solomon) Tivo, Eyeing Life as Media Outlet, Taps TV Veteran (Monty Solomon) TiVo Video Extraction With Mac OS X (Monty Solomon) Apple's New Service Beats Illegal Free Sites (Monty Solomon) Record Labels' Latest Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalist (Solomon) Music Swappers Get a Message on PC Screens: Stop It Now (Monty Solomon) Smut Trading Outstrips Tune Swaps (Monty Solomon) I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes (Ted Koppel) Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty (Paul A Lee) Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty (Stretch) Re: Phone Book to List Cell Numbers (unspammable-3107@workbench.net) Cheapest Long Distance Call Card Rates From Europe to US (Aaron Epstein) Re: States and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge (David Esan) Assistance - Aspect or Rolm (Gremlin) Share Day for May (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:01:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rash of 911 Wireless Calls After Crash By Jennifer Rosinski FRAMINGHAM -- More than a dozen wireless calls flooded the state police 911 answer center in Framingham within two minutes of a car crash that killed a Shrewsbury man and left three others injured, state police said. The answer center was one of two to handle wireless calls in the state until yesterday, when a third opened in Middleboro to handle calls from Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable counties. Answer centers often receive numerous wireless 911 calls reporting the same incident for up to a half-hour after they first occur, said Blair Sutherland, director of telecommunications for the state police. In 2002 alone, the Framingham answer center received 1.4 million wireless 911 calls or about 4,000 a day, state police said. All wireless 911 calls are routed to state police answer centers. The total wireless 911 calls received by state police has increased 30 percent each year for the last five years. That wireless 911 call total includes non-emergencies, state police said. More than 25 percent of all wireless 911 calls received each year are accidental or unintentional. State police dispatchers have received wireless 911 calls asking why traffic is backed up, the time of the next Red Sox game and what to do if you've received the wrong kind of hamburger at Wendy's and the store refuses to make an exchange. Wireless 911 does not provide state police with the same data as a 911 call placed from a residential or work phone, state police said. Wireless 911 calls provide dispatchers with the phone number, location of the first cellular tower that received the call and whether the caller is north, south, east or west of the tower. http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/local_regional/wireless04302003.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:21:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple's Music: Microsoft's Sour Note? By Joe Wilcox and Evan Hansen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Apple Computer's new music service could help shift the battle to control digital media away from Microsoft's proprietary file formats, according to analysts. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple on Monday launched the new service, which makes a catalog of about 200,000 songs from all major record labels available for download to a computer. Liberal licensing terms mean the songs also can be burned to CDs or moved to portable music players, such as Apple's iPod. Apple charges an average of 99 cents per song. While some record labels have called the music service an "experiment," analysts see huge potential for Apple to stall or potentially derail Microsoft's own digital media strategy if, as expected, it brings the service to Windows as well as the Mac. http://news.com.com/2100-1027-998880.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:22:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Dell to March Deeper Into Wireless By Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com SAN FRANCISCO--Dell Computer will expand deeper into the wireless market as part of its overall goal of increasing annual revenue to $60 billion in the next few years, according to company President Kevin Rollins. Speaking Wednesday at Merrill Lynch's Hardware Heaven conference here, Rollins said that Round Rock, Texas-based Dell plans to expand its wireless product portfolio as well as its alliances with wireless device makers. Yesterday, the company said it would resell handheld e-mail devices from Good Technology. http://news.com.com/2100-1011-998982.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:24:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PayPal Turns Off the Red Light By Paul Festa Staff Writer, CNET News.com eBay's PayPal unit will phase out payments for most sexually themed merchandise for sale on eBay and elsewhere. PayPal, the payment service eBay purchased for $1.5 billion in October, this month published its revised policy on processing payment for adult material. Only PayPal members can access the policy statement. The April revision amends a March decision that stopped payment for sexually explicit goods except those listed under eBay's "Mature Audiences." The latest revision includes eBay's merchandise in the virtual ban. http://news.com.com/2100-1019-999002.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:33:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: America Online Now Blocks over 2.3 Billion Spam Emails in One Day DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2003-- At This Rate, AOL is Blocking about 24,000 Spam Emails Every Year from Going to Each Member Account AOL Doubles Amount of Blocked Spam in Only 8 Weeks, Through Industry and Member Collaboration America Online, Inc. the world's leading interactive services company, announced that it has reached the milestone of blocking over two billion spam emails in a single day, when it blocked 2.37 billion spam emails in one day this week, on the eve of the first-ever Federal Trade Commission (FTC) public conference on spam. Crossing this anti-spam threshold comes only eight weeks after AOL announced it was preventing over 1 billion spam emails from getting into its members' email inboxes daily, effectively doubling the volume of blocked spam emails since March 5. By blocking well over 2 billion spam emails daily, AOL is now stopping about 67 spam emails per account per day from landing in the email inboxes of its members. At this rate, AOL's anti-spam filters are preventing more than 24,000 spam emails each year from going to each of its members' accounts, which also works out to blocking 1.6 million junk emails every minute from going through to its members. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34011500 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:35:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony Music Entertainment Achieves Music Industry First Sony Music Entertainment Achieves Music Industry First With Agreement To Deliver Wireless Content for QUALCOMM's BREW(TM) Platform - Apr 30, 2003 10:57 AM (PR Newswire) NEW YORK, April 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sony Music Entertainment, a leading global producer, manufacturer and marketer of recorded music and video, today announced that it is the first major music company to sign an agreement to publish applications and content for QUALCOMM's Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless(TM) (BREW) platform. The Sony Music Mobile Products Group plans to offer a variety of applications and services to subscribers of BREW-enabled services. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34012982 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:36:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Tivo, Eyeing Life as Media Outlet, Taps TV Veteran By Franklin Paul NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - Tivo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO) on Wednesday tapped NBC executive Martin Yudkovitz as president, the latest move by the television recording technology company in its effort to transform into a provider of media services and content. Yudkovitz was key in the creation of cable news networks CNBC and MSNBC as well as MSNBC.com. He accepts the role left vacant in January when Morgan Guenther, Tivo's previous president, resigned. Tivo, whose technology lets viewers pause live TV and automatically record up to 80 hours of shows based upon viewing habits, said Yudkovitz's mandate is increasing deployment of Tivo service and technology through partnerships with satellite and cable TV and advertising partnerships. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34018445 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:52:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Video Extraction With Mac OS X Extracting video from a TiVo Series 1 with Mac OS X http://www.fajkowski.com/tivo/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 20:57:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple's New Service Beats Illegal Free Sites By WALTER S. MOSSBERG For several years now, the music and technology industries have been casting about for a legal Internet music service that might rival the wildly popular bootleg services, like Napster and Kazaa, where songs can be grabbed for free. But the results have been dismal -- until this week. Early services with access to major label catalogs, like MusicNet, pressplay and Rhapsody, have been pathetic. They all require monthly fees, and they mainly stress "streaming" music, which you can listen to, but can't download. They don't sell downloaded songs that remain on your hard disk and can be used freely. Instead, their downloads expire if monthly fees aren't paid. Playback of songs is usually restricted to one or two PCs, and the songs often can't be used on portable music players. The ability to burn songs to CDs is either very limited, or requires a per-burn payment on top of the service's monthly fee. In short, these services treat everyone like a potential criminal, and they take all the joy out of buying and playing music. But, this week, Apple Computer launched the first really useful, and enjoyable, legal music service, the iTunes Music Store (www.applemusic.com). It's an enormous step forward, and the first online music service I can recommend. This new Apple service also is bound by some restrictions insisted upon by the big labels. But these limits are so much more liberal than the ones imposed by the earlier ventures that it's as if the other services never existed. Only Apple is selling major-label downloads that a typical consumer or family can freely use, in any common scenario, without running into restrictions. ... http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20030430.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:01:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Record Labels' Latest Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalists SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Venture capitalists didn't need another reason to avoid high-tech investments -- but two major record labels have given them one anyway. Still seeking retribution for Napster's online file-swapping system, industry giants Universal Music and EMI broke are trying to break new legal ground by suing the venture capital firm that helped finance the revolutionary Internet service. Napster failed last year, but the discord about the service and all the free music that it distributed is far from over. The music industry's latest legal assault would push the boundaries of blame by holding investors liable for the actions of a company and its management. It's a showdown venture capitalists have long dreaded. If the music labels prevail, 'it could destroy the whole venture capital industry,' said J. William Gurley, a general partner at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park. The music labels say they are just looking for justice. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/5744529.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:05:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Music Swappers Get a Message on PC Screens: Stop It Now By AMY HARMON The record industry started another campaign yesterday aimed at making life more uncomfortable for online music-swapping fans. Thousands of people trading copyrighted music online yesterday saw a message appear unbidden on their computer screens: "When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC." The messages, which seek to turn a chat feature in popular file-trading software to the industry's benefit, reflect the latest effort among record executives to limit digital copying of their products. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/business/30MUSI.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:33:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Smut Trading Outstrips Tune Swaps By Noah Shachtman 02:00 AM Apr. 30, 2003 PT By most accounts, Apple's new iTunes music download service is pretty cool -- the first legitimate alternative to the song swapping on Kazaa, Morpheus and other file-trading services. But Apple's move won't slow down the manic expansion of these trading networks. Why not? Here's a one-word answer: porn. Kazaa and company are increasingly trafficking in dirty video clips. And until Apple starts offering up Christy Canyon downloads, the swapping services can sleep easy. http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58665,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:13:17 -0400 From: Ted Koppel Subject: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes I have a SprintPCS phone with the ability to send "short messages" to other people with PCS phones that have messaging capability. What I am not sure of -- and I can't find explained -- is the addressing protocol. For instance: ME (SprintPCS) Recipient's SMS Address 404-nnn-nnnn Sprint PCS 561-nnn-nnnn@sprintpcs.com (seems to work) 404-nnn-nnnn Cingular 561-nnn-nnnn@cingular.com (doesn't work) 404-nnn-nnnn Verizon 561-nnn-nnnn@verizon.net (doesn't work). What's the trick? Ted [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'trick' is if the cellular company is other than your own, 'writing messages' generally will not work. You have to use the feature in the phone called 'send email'. For instance, my Nokia 5165 in MENU-2 you are allowed to send/recieve text messages. One of the sub-menu items therein is 'write messages' and another sub-menu items is 'send email'. You have to use the latter to make it work right, and even if it your own carrier and own territory you can use 'send email' instead of 'write messages' if you wish. Now *maybe* -- I dunno cause frankly I hate typing with my thumb so I don't use it much -- the various carriers are getting around to the point of universal SMS between carriers, however email will always work even if 'messages' will not work. The other thing you have to be careful about is number parsing. Do NOT use dashes or spaces as you did in your examples above. Also be certain to have the carrier's name correct. For example,'cingular.com' is NOT correct. If you were going to SMS me for example, you would address me like this: 6203306774@mobile.mycingular.com Note please that's my cellular number without any dashes or spaces, the 'at' @ sign, 'mobile' dot 'my cingular' (without any spaces) dot com On my old AT&T phone (also Nokia 5165) it is number@mobile.att.net Note the 'net' on the end instead of 'com'. Notice also how many carriers insert 'mobile' after the 'at'@ sign and before the carrier name with a dot after the word 'mobile'. In doing it as 'email', you have to first give the email address (which in the case of another cellular phone will almost invariably be areacodenumber@mobile.companyname.com or net, in the case of 'messaging' you always enter the message first, then it comes back and asks for the number and parses it up nicely automatically as you thumb it in. I do not know about verizon.com but it probably is the same way. Whether they are 'com' or 'net' is a good guess for anyone. Just because their web site is '.com' (like AT&T) does not mean their email server for cell phones is going to be the same way. When I (rarely) do SMS or 'messaging' I can do it from my Cingular Wireless phone to any other Cingular Wireless phone anywhere in the world as a *message*. Ditto my AT&T phone to another AT&T phone. Using my Cingular wireless to my AT&T wireless it has to go as email, even when the two phones are in the same room next to each other and both phones are served from the same tower (Dobson) in Liberty, Kansas. And where 'messaging' is almost instantaeous, email takes all of an extra four or five seconds to go out and come back, since it winds up going through some 'clearing house' arrangement that all cellular carriers subscribe to. Even when I do a message to myself or do an email to myself, that little delay of a few seconds is there in the case of the email version. And you only get 150 *characters* in either case, *including the ten digit 'messaging number' or the somewhat longer 'email address'. Meaning in reality email only gives you around 135 characters. Try this and see if it works for you also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 13:12:23 -0400 In TELECOM Digest V22 #419, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): > ...some people want to treat the Internet as somehow different > than other things in real life. If something is not against the > law to do on television then it should not be against the law to > talk about or do on Internet. That blanket premise overlooks some fundamental ethical and moral distinctions. The inability to recognize those distinctions is a symptom of emotional or social developmental problems that seem to be proliferating. A fictionalized depiction -- even if it includes information and techniques that could be used to break the law -- is still fiction. Moreover, that depiction is usually incidental to a story that includes or implies an ethical or moral evaluation of the act that is depicted. As an example: Say, on a TV show, a person roots through a trash can and finds credit card numbers and accountholder information, which he then uses to purchase access to porn web sites. Nothing illegal about showing that on a TV show, right? Why should there be? Now, say someone posts instructions on a web site on how to dumpster dive for credit card information, including examples of what information to get and what forms to find it on, along with URLs to porn web sites where the credit card info could be used to buy porn access. Still nothing illegal, right? How about if this guy includes an example of where he was able to find credit card information in a trash can on the curb in front of a house? That's not to say he used or even collected the information -- just where he saw it in a trash can. Still not illegal? What if he includes a picture of _your_ trash can sitting in front of _your_ house, along with _your_ address, indicating that's where he found lots of credit card information? Starting to see the difference between a fictional TV show depiction and posting detailed information on the 'net? I agree that, in principle, it should be permissible to post any information that is not actually, directly harmful. Doing so, though, with some kinds of information would be irresponsibly naive, because of how it would likely be used. But why make it illegal? It's based on the same social justification as making it illegal to give booze to a teenager: the reasonable expectation that it's highly likely that something harmful or dangerous will result. There's nothing inherently wrong with a teenager having or even consuming alcohol, but there's an inescapable likelihood that something bad will come to pass in a significant number of instances. As a society, we make the act illegal to galvanize ourselves to that likelihood. (Please don't confuse this with a position one way or the other on fair use or copyright matters. That's a related -- but separate -- issue.) Paul A Lee                     Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer   [Voice & Transmission]        Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 ------------------------------ From: Stretch Subject: Re: DirecTV Mole to Plead Guilty Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:36:40 GMT Organization: Road Runner - Texas wrote in message news:telecom22.419.3@telecom-digest.org: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> some college student who can't afford to fight the evil that lurks >> in the prosecutors of America. Makes me sick to think about >> sometimes. Hackers are not the bad guys; prosecutors are! PAT] > Pat ... If I recall correctly, this kid was a clerk at a law firm, and > was making copies of documents that belonged to DirecTV, that he knew > would be valuable to hackers. That seems like direct criminal intent > to my simple mind. > Seems more like publishing the security codes to the bank alarms, > after becoming privy to them as an employee, than your "making a > movee" allegory. > Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If he was a clerk in a law firm, and > therefore an employee of the firm and in effect the client, then he > of course had a responsibility to the client. Violating that trust > by talking about the client's affairs *probably* should have been > treated as a civil matter rather than a criminal matter. Maybe it > could be treated as a criminal thing. But the fact remains that some > people want to treat the Internet as somehow different than other > things in real life. If something is not against the law to do on > television then it should not be against the law to talk about or > do on Internet. PAT] Pat, Unless you consider every piece of information about you to be public domain, including your medical records, your work products, and everything you've written, then you need to recognize the concept of intellectual property. A 19-year-old is capable of murder, larceny, burglary, embezzlement, and every other crime on the books. Why should it make any difference at all that the crime was highly public in nature, and was done for ego satisfaction, rather than financial gain? Most of us do want the internet to be treated as any venue of commerce and communication. The penalty for hacking a web site should be exactly the same as tossing a brick through the window of a store, or using a slap-hammer on the ignition of a car. If I'm wrong, go ahead and post your social security number, mother's maiden name, bank account location and number, and the passwords to all of your computer accounts. Or explain to me how that would be different, if I'm missing the point. [TELECOM Digest Editor' Note: If I go on television (for example) and give out YOUR social number; YOUR credit report, etc then I have definitly violated YOUR privacy, regardless of whether or not anyone uses that information to their unlawful gain. If I do these things on the Internet the same thing applies. However, if I go on television and say 'here is the way to create a social security number' (and give the algorythym for same) or 'here is the way to create your very own credit card number' (and give the algorythm for same) I would suggest these latter two things are perfectly legal, even if a bit immoral and distasteful, IMO. If I went on television and dramatized a fictional murder taking place or a bank robbery that is also free speech. The difference is that *everyone already knows how to rob a bank, or murder someone.* Everyone already knows how to commit most petty crimes, whether they are dramtized on television or spoken about on the internet. Most people, on the other hand do not know how to create their own social security or credit card numbers. Most people do not know how to hijack a computer to do their bidding for them, even though television makes simple-minded dramatizations of it sometimes. Why is it then, that on television all these crime shows dramatize or purport to show real crimes as the case may be, and the government does not say a word against it? But let someone get on the internet and present a message saying 'here is the algorythm to defeat some satellite television activity' and the government comes down on them. I wonder if it is that the government feels the guys on internet are (by and large) 'too smart for their own good' and more than likely the ones who will commit the 'more sophisticated crimes' that the general public does not know how to pull off. Therefore, we have to keep these internet guys more under our thumb. There are many, many more sophisticated discussions on the net than you would ever see on television, and that is what (in general) makes internet users much more dangerous where the government is concerned. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 02:19:59 -0400 From: unspammable-3107@workbench.net Subject: Re: Phone Book to List Cell Numbers On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 18:19:37 PDT, jkelly@newsguy.com wrote: > Local telephone directory provider QwestDex allows adventurous > cellular phone users -- with or without an existing land line -- to get > their mobile phone numbers listed for $1.50 a month. You know, every time I see something like this it makes me see red. If you are not a customer of the phone company, they charge you extra to be listed in their book. But if you are their captive monopoly customer, they charge you extra to keep your personal information ... YOUR personal information, NOT THEIRS ... out of their book. I wish that some bright class action attorney would bring an action against the phone companies for using the private information of their customers without their express permission, or more to the point, for charging them to omit that information. What I would really like to see is some phone company official forced to state, on the record, whether placing a listing in their directory is a net money-losing proposition or a net money-making proposition for the issuing company. If, as I suspect, every listed name is worth money to them (because it can be sold to other entities), then they ought to be paying their customers for the use of that information. On the other hand, if it does in fact cost them money to include a name (so that each listing is a net loss for them), then there is no justification for charging people extra to leave their name out of the book. In any case, this seems like a great reason to switch to a CLEC or VoIP phone company if you are currently paying for an unlisted number -- generally speaking, neither of those types of companies will try to charge you extra in order to let you keep your private information private! And with all the problems people have these days with identity theft, there is simply no good reason to allow phone companies to continue the traditional practice of charging people extra to remain unlisted. Speaking of VoIP companies, I read that you signed up for Vonage service. I hope you got a referral from an existing Vonage user first, in order to get a free month of service. You might want to check out the online VoIP forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/voip where they talk about Vonage a lot. You will want to plug the device they send you (a Cisco ATA-186) into a router (it only has a network cable connection, NO USB). You and your readers may also want to be aware that in addition to Vonage, there are two other VoIP companies that offer a similar type of consumer-grade VoIP service. One, called VoicePulse, also uses the Cisco ATA-186 as their device. The other, Packet8, uses a proprietary device that is made by their parent company, 8x8. Rather than swamp you with all the details about the differences in the various services, may I suggest you take a look at the page at http://michigantelephone.workbench.net/substitute.html - scroll down the page to the section headed "Option 3" and you'll find a thumbnail comparison of the services. [The From e-mail address is temporary - it works today, but may not work next week!] ------------------------------ From: aaronep@pacbell.net (Aaron Epstein) Subject: Cheapest Long Distance Call Card Rates From Europe to U.S. Date: 30 Apr 2003 07:41:24 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Can anyone suggest the long distance company that has the lowest rates for calling the U.S. from Europe using a calling card? Aaron in N. Hollywood ------------------------------ From: david_esan@hotmail.com (David Esan) Subject: Re: states and LATAs, was AT&T Local Access Charge Date: 30 Apr 2003 08:18:00 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote in message news:: >> If your state is in a single LATA, then you are right, but I don't >> know if there are any states that only have a single LATA. Maybe NJ >> or RI? > There are quite a few. NJ has three LATAs, but in the east, ME, > VT. NH, and RI are each one LATA, CT is effectively one LATA although > most of it is SNET which was technically non-Bell. In the west, SD, > WY, and NM are each one LATA. Delaware is less than a LATA, since the > whole state is in the Philadelphia PA LATA. According to the information that I have there are six states in the US that have only one LATA: Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Hawaii, and Delaware. Washington, DC has only one LATA, but is DC really a state? The states John mentioned as having only one LATA (South Dakota, Wyoming, and New Mexico) in fact each have more than one LATA, having 9, 6, and 4 respectively. Admittedly some of the LATAs are a really small part of the total number of exchanges in the state, but there they are. New Mexico has 4 LATAs. Lata 540 has four entries, all of which are on the border near El Paso, Texas: 826 GUADALUPPK 963 DELL CITY (which according to Mapquest is in Texas) 981 QUEEN 987 TIMBERON Lata 668 has 2 entries, both of which are on the border of Arizona: 358 VIRDEN 557 RODEO Lata 546 has just 451 KENTON. According to Mapquest Kenton is actually in Oklahoma. All the rest of the state (657 exchanges) are in LATA 664. I leave the breakdown of Wyoming and South Dakota to the reader. ------------------------------ From: Gremlin Subject: Assistance - Aspect or Rolm Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 15:08:06 -0500 Organization: The Caverns BBS Reply-To: Gremlin Hello! My employer is trying to sell two rather larger phone systems -- one is Aspect, other Rolm. Would any of you know of a reseller who might buy used systems for either of these manufacturers? Thanks! Jonathan ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 22:44:06 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day for May Here we are coming around to May Day, 2003 ... This is just my monthly reminder that TELECOM Digest is a *shareware* thing; not *freeware*. I have gotten email letters from guys saying 'this Digest is a really great service for the net' and I like seeing those letters. Of course I also get a few letters from guys who are not that enamored of the work I do here, and I can understand that also. No one is going to please all the readers all the time, and that certainly is true of myself. Anyway, I do rely heavily on reader financial assistance to keep this Digest afloat from day to day, and during the summer, contributions do fall off since people have vacation/holiday time coming, etc and they do not get to read as much as they like. Your financial assistance is very greatly appreciated. Your own decision is what you go by to decide how much and how often to contribute. I consider all donations to be a generous act by generous readers. If you make any donation and request a copy of the Telecom Archives CD I will send it to you. The archives CD is a full copy of everything which has appeared here in the 22 years the Digest has been published. In addition, there are numerous technical, historical and other special reports I hope you will enjoy. If that is not enough, the CD has about a half-dozen 'old time radio' shows with a telephone theme, including the Suspense radio production of 'Sorry, Wrong Number' with Agnes Morehead, and a few other shows as well. To get your archives CD please be sure to include a mailing address where it should be sent to. If you send your donation using PayPal you can also use a credit card to pay if you wish. Use any PayPal template or for your convenience there is one to use on the main page of our web site http://telecom-digest.org at the very bottom of the top page. Make payment to 'editor@telecom-digest.org' in whatever amount you feel is appropriate. If you prefer to use snail mail, that is okay also for checks or money orders. Make payable to TELECOM Digest and mail them to: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301-0050 Please let me hear from you via PayPal or snailmail today or sometime this week. Thanks! PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #422 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 2 00:02:54 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h4242sa27708; Fri, 2 May 2003 00:02:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 00:02:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305020402.h4242sa27708@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #423 TELECOM Digest Thu, 1 May 2003 23:59:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 423 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Bay State Tax Glitch Bills Many Who Paid (Monty Solomon) Spam Sent by Fraud Is Made a Felony Under Virginia Law (Monty Solomon) Princeton Student Settles With RIAA Over Swap Site (Monty Solomon) FCC Sees Content Focus of DirecTV-News Corp Review (Monty Solomon) DISH Network to Add HDNet, HDNet Movies (Monty Solomon) Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes (Justin Time) Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes (Joseph) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (jim evans) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Jim Mann) Re: I Have Seen the Future of Music; its Name is iTunes (George Oeser) Verizon SMS (Bill Paris) Re: Area Code Statistics (Joseph) It's Cincinnati Bell Again (The Old Bear) Vonage Users Can Now Activate "FAX" Line on Second ATA Port (J Covert) Re: Last Laugh! Hillarious SBC Order Confirmation (Rich Greenberg) Re: Record Labels' Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalis (C Cryderman) Does My-Line Still Exist? Or Any Substitutes? (M. D. Parker) Share Day for May (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 00:53:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bay State Tax Glitch Bills Many Who Paid Thousands affected; DOR Blames 2 Firms By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff, 4/30/2003 Thousands of Massachusetts taxpayers are receiving bills for taxes they already paid, as the state Department of Revenue admitted yesterday that some tax preparation software it encouraged taxpayers to use is incompatible with its own computer system. The state agency is blaming H&R Block, one of the largest preparers of returns in this state, and Drake Software, a smaller company, for the problem. Yesterday, DOR officials estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 people have received erroneous demands for tax payments and penalties, and acknowledged they are trying to determine whether the problem is even more widespread. The state says the problem stems from the software used by H&R Block and Drake -- two of 15 approved software programs for electronic filing of Massachusetts returns. Both programs ask taxpayers who owe the state money whether they want the payment withdrawn from their bank account. Those who answered 'No' and paid by mailing a check instead were mistakenly treated by the state computer system as if they had declined to make the payment, said Tim Connolly, spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. The other 13 software programs the state approved have an additional checkbox where taxpayers can inform the state that they are sending a check in the mail. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/120/metro/Bay_State_tax_glitch_bills_many_who_paid+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 01:31:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spam Sent by Fraud Is Made a Felony Under Virginia Law By SAUL HANSELL In the toughest move to date against unsolicited commercial e-mail, Virginia enacted a law yesterday imposing harsh felony penalties for sending such messages to computer users through deceptive means. The law would be enforced against those who use fraudulent practices to send bulk e-mail, commonly known as spam, to or from Virginia, a state that is headquarters for a number of major Internet providers, including the nation's largest, America Online. The new statute adds criminal penalties for fraudulent, high-volume spammers. It outlaws practices like forging the return address line of an e-mail message or hacking a computer to send spam surreptitiously. Those found guilty of sending more than 10,000 such deceptive e-mail messages in one day would be subject to a prison term of one to five years and forfeiture of profits and assets connected with these activities. Public outrage at spam is causing states and Congress to start looking at stronger measures against it. The Internet industry estimates that spam represents nearly half of all e-mail sent. And a new report by the Federal Trade Commission yesterday found that two-thirds of spam is sent with either false return addresses or a misleading subject line. Such anger from computer users is even causing some in the industry to support federal legislation, if only to avoid having to deal with a patchwork of state anti-spam laws. More than two dozen states have anti-spam laws, but enforcement problems and low penalties have made many of the laws ineffective. Virginia's governor, Mark R. Warner, said the new law could have a significant effect on spam because half of all Internet traffic flows through the state. The passage of e-mail through Virginia-based Internet service providers, he said, gives state prosecutors the ability to reach the purveyors of spam in other states and jurisdictions, noting that an earlier, weaker state anti-spam law had survived constitutional challenges. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/technology/30SPAM.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 16:04:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Princeton Student Settles With RIAA Over Swap Site PRINCETON, N.J., May 1 (Reuters) - A Princeton University student has settled a suit with the recording industry which claimed he was operating a network for illegal trading of copyrighted songs, attorneys for the student said on Thursday. Attornies Howard Ende and Melissa Klipp said the settlement was reached between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and 18-year-old Princeton University student Daniel Peng. Under terms of the settlement, Peng will make a monetary payment to the recording industry over several years. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34037087 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 18:46:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC Sees Content Focus of DirecTV-News Corp Review WASHINGTON, May 1 (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission will likely center its review of News Corp.'s proposed purchase of satellite television service DirecTV on the combined company's potential power over content distribution, the agency's chairman said on Thursday. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34037222 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 18:52:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DISH Network to Add HDNet, HDNet Movies DISH Network to Add HDNet, HDNet Movies; DISH Network Unveils New SuperDish Technology Capable of Providing Consumers up to 50 HDTV Channels 1 May 2003, 5:07pm ET ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2003--EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) and its DISH Network(TM), a leading provider of satellite television entertainment services, announced today an agreement to offer customers this summer two new high definition TV networks, HDNet and HDNet Movies. EchoStar Chairman and CEO Charles Ergen and HDNet Co-founder and President Mark Cuban are making the announcement at DISH Network's annual Team Summit satellite TV retailer conference here where more than 3,000 attendees gathered for seminars and workshops about new DISH Network products and services. HDNet and HDNet Movies will be available to customers using DISH Network's new SuperDish, unveiled to satellite TV retailers today. The SuperDish, an elliptical 66-centimeter dish, is capable of offering customers access to hundreds of popular DISH Network channels, local channels in new markets, HDTV channels and international programming. The SuperDish is capable of receiving satellite signals from three orbital locations. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34039616 ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes Date: 1 May 2003 06:53:10 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Ted Koppel wrote in message news:: > I have a SprintPCS phone with the ability to send "short messages" to > other people with PCS phones that have messaging capability. What I > am not sure of -- and I can't find explained -- is the addressing > protocol. > For instance: > ME (SprintPCS) Recipient's SMS > Address > 404-nnn-nnnn Sprint > PCS 561-nnn-nnnn@sprintpcs.com (seems to work) > 404-nnn-nnnn Cingular 561-nnn-nnnn@cingular.com > (doesn't work) > 404-nnn-nnnn Verizon > 561-nnn-nnnn@verizon.net (doesn't work). > What's the trick? > Ted > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'trick' is if the cellular company > is other than your own, 'writing messages' generally will not work. > <> Pat, Some of the wireless companies are now exchanging SMS messages sent directly from one phone to another. The routing is handled by the wireless company's SMS servers based on the recipient's phone number. So, it is now possible to send an SMS message directly from your handset on say Sprint to somebody having Cingular or AT&T. Of course, like any SMS message, delivery is not guaranteed and all carriers have an almost unacceptable ratio of delivered to undelivered messages. The operative word in the above paragraph is SOME. I know from one of the account reps who services the government account my phone is through has informed us THEIR company will handle messages to other companies, but I haven't really tried it. Since they took away free SMS messaging, I rarely use it any more. Rodgers Platt [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You gave a good answer with your statements above, 'the operative word is SOME'; 'delivery is not guarenteed'; 'unacceptable ratio of delivered to undelivered messages'. In other words, although it SHOULD work, it mostly doesn't. Now go back and read my message again; I said to use the option called 'send email', which as far as I know, always works as it should. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 09:26:21 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Wed, 30 Apr 2003 21:13:17 -0400, Ted Koppel wrote: > I have a SprintPCS phone with the ability to send "short messages" to > other people with PCS phones that have messaging capability. What I > am not sure of -- and I can't find explained -- is the addressing > protocol. > For instance: > ME (SprintPCS) Recipient's SMS > Address > 404-nnn-nnnn Sprint > PCS 561-nnn-nnnn@sprintpcs.com (seems to work) > 404-nnn-nnnn Cingular 561-nnn-nnnn@cingular.com > (doesn't work) > 404-nnn-nnnn Verizon > 561-nnn-nnnn@verizon.net (doesn't work). > What's the trick? Each mobile operator uses a different form for sending email to its subscribers. AT&T is NPANXXXXXX@messaging.att.com T-Mobile is NPANXXXXXX@tmomail.net Cingular is NPANXXXXXX@my.cingular.com Sprint is NPANXXXXXX@messaging.sprintpcs.com I think the Cingular one is correct, but not 100% sure on that. There is a service from http://www.her.ph which with a simple guide you can send to the major wireless providers. With this service to send to the different providers you send a message to m@her.ph(space)mobile number followed by the correct letter corresponding to the carrier. e.g. to send to 311-555-2368 on AT&T Wireless you'd start your message: m@her.ph 3115552368A Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think Cingular is 'mycingular' without the dot in the middle. But you are also talking about sending 'email' rather than 'messaging'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jim evans Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 09:12:19 -0500 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com On Wed, 30 Apr 2003 03:13:43 -0000, markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark Roberts) wrote: > jim evans had written: >> 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that >> there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on >> some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. > I thought Radio Shack had them, but I can't find them in the online > catalog. The catalog number of the ones I have is 43-163. Perhaps > an RS local to you may be able to help. I'd already checked with the local RS and they say they don't have such a thing. They have lights that alert you that the phone is ringing but not that a message is waiting. I did find one here http://www.hello-direct.com/catalog/Product.jhtml?CATID=15305&PRODID=17550 It's a little pricer than I intended, but if it's the only game in town ... Thanks to all who replied. jim [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It may not be the only game in town. I suggest you also check with mike@sandman.com for possible help. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jim Mann Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 22:52:13 -0400 jim evans wrote: > I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please > direct me to the appropriate group for this question. > I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages > everytime I return home. So I have two questions. > 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that > there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on > some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. > 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a > box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? As the editor noted, Radio Shack does sell such a gadget. Their box works fairly well. It flashes a red LED light when there is new voice mail. It works by checking for the stutter tone a short time after the phone stops ringing. When the phone is later taken off hook and then on hook (say to check voice mail), it will then check a short time later too. There is no need for any special code from the telco, it is entirely operated by the stutter tone. Perhaps there are other ways for the telco to send a signal, but I have not seen any boxes to receive it. (Perhaps there is such an animal integrated into a caller ID box) ------------------------------ From: syn1@mindspring.com (George Oeser) Subject: Re: I Have Seen the Future of Music and its Name is iTunes Date: 1 May 2003 00:27:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ John Higdon wrote in message news:: > Some albums are only available on a "per song" basis. For instance, > the soundtrack album for the motion picture "The Red Violin" has > twenty tracks. At $0.99 each, that is nearly twenty bucks for a > compressed digital download. No CD, no booklet, just compressed data > audio on your hard drive. You forgot to mention that many albums can be purchased as a whole for $9.99, even if they contain more than 10 songs. I was looking at a $9.99 album last night with 18 songs in fact. >> And here's the stunning thing: Once you've bought a song, >> you own it. > At least as long as you have an Internet connection and the iTunes > Music Store stays in business. You see, each computer must be > specifically authorized by the mother ship to play the tunes you > bought (up to three simultaneously). No mothership, no tunes. Fourth > computer? Nope. I can disconnect my computer from the internet and still listen to all the music I have purchased from the iTunes Music store with no problems. You are right that the computer must be authorized, but which computers are authorized has nothing to do with the Music store itself. Let's also not forget that Apple would not have been able to pull this off without limiting what you can do with the file in some way. The labels would have laughed their asses off at him if he would have made the files completely and totally open. At the same time I can think of many things I can't do with the music from the iTunes Music store than I can do with a pre-recorded CD and that makes it hard for me to figure out why anyone would complain about it. >> You can do (pretty much) whatever you want to do with the >> songs you download, including burning them to CDs, > Real, fully-compliant Red Book audio CDs? Somehow, I doubt it. I have burned a couple of CD's of music from the music store and they have played just fine on every CD player I have tried them in, which has been several since I think it is now my duty to show the world how badly Elvis screwed up the song Hound Dog. The iTunes Music store is well worth it if for no other reason than it gives millions of people the ability to access Big Mama Thornton music. >> transferring them to iPods, > Only the new iPods introduced yesterday, that is. The older ones (the > only ones out there in anyone's hands at this point) cannot play > Apple's proprietary AAC format, which is how the songs are released > (so they can keep a leash on you). Sorry, wrong answer. My old 5 gig iPod plays AAC files perfectly, Apple released an update to the iPod software as soon as the opened up the music store, and of course, the update is free. Furthermore AAC is not as widely used as the MP3 format but it certainly isn't proprietary. In fact I was reading about a few MP3 players, besides the iPod, that can play AAC files and if Apple's music store takes off I am sure many more will follow. Oh, I forgot to ask, if you have to be connected to the iTunes Music store to play the songs downloaded from it then how can my iPod play these songs when it isn't connected to my iMac? Wow, I didn't know the update gave my iPod wireless capabilities! Way to go Apple!!! ;-) >> or sending them to other Macs. > Two other Macs, to be specific. Yep, only two other Macs, for a total of three, which is of course two more computers than any of the other legal music download sites will let you play your music on. Of course they normally don't let you buy music, just rent it. Do your research and you will find that while almost none of your complaints apply to the iTunes Music Store they apply perfectly to the OTHER legal download services. You really should consider getting yourself a Mac, I think you would be a much happier person if you did. George Oeser ------------------------------ Reply-To: Bill Paris From: Bill Paris Subject: Verizon SMS Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 07:48:48 -0400 In TELCOM Digest V22 #422, tkoppel@adelphia.net wrote (in part): > 404-nnn-nnnn Verizon > 561-nnn-nnnn@verizon.net (doesn't work). Try NPANXXnnnn@myvzw.com Bill Paris ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 08:42:14 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Tue, 29 Apr 2003 19:14:09 -0700, Joseph wrote: > On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 22:19:41 -0000, markrobt@hotmail.com (Mark > Roberts) wrote: >> I assume that, nowadays for cell phones in that area, it's basically >> ten digits all the time unless you're in your home area code calling >> another number in that area code. > I've found with my T-Mobile service that if I dial 7 digits > that I'll reach numbers in my local (Seattle area code 206) calling > area no matter where I am in the US or Canada! > Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you know why that is? My AT&T cell > phone (Nokia 5165) does the same thing. That's not some brilliant job > of routing calls by telcos; the Nokia 5100 series of phones (at least, > maybe certain other cell phones as well) has something built in the > software which if it only gets seven digits when dialed it automatically > prepends the area code it is registered in to the start of the dialing > string. So does my Cingular Wireless phone (also a Nokia 5165). What > kind of phones do they give you for T-Mobile? PAT] Not to contradict you, but it is not the handset/phone which determines what happens after you enter digits and hit but rather how the carrier has set up what they do with the digits when sent to their switch. So this works with my Nokia as well as any other manufacturer's handsets. It is a network setup issue it is not a handset/phone issue. In actual fact I was reading on a T-Mobile forum that T-Mobile has notified their New York area customers that after a certain date they must dial the full number with 1 + area code and number. As it is now when I dial 7 digits there's some sort of "translation" going on and it gets converted to 10 digits by the carrier's switch. "Kind" of phone isn't really relevant. T-Mobile uses Nokia, Samsung, Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens as well as "PDA" type devices such as RIM Blackberry, T-Mobile "Sidekick", Pocket PC phone edition and Handspring Treo. Of course you are not limited to using their offered or "supported" phones either. If you desired you could use some Panasonic and Bosch models or you could use models of a manufacturer that they don't currently sell. At present I'm using the Nokia 6310i which T-Mobile does not sell. As long as I have a handset that is capable of using GSM at 1900 Mhz I can use any handset I like and switch between any phone every five minutes if that was my desire by just removing my SIM (smart card) and putting it in another handset. But to get back to the permissive 7 digit thing it is not anything related to the handset, but rather how the carrier has their switch set up. If we had mandatory 10 or 11 digit dialing here I would be limited to the way I can dial and only would be able to dial in the manner that my switch allowed the same way as with regular land lines. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I dunno. When I first migrated here to Independence, Kansas I was using my AT&T phone and was considered a 'roamer', albiet a national account on AT&T. On the Greyhound Bus getting here from Chicago, I 'roamed' in a lot of small cellular markets. When we stopped (and I changed busses) in St. Louis, the phone popped up with the 'AT&T' message since it was back in a place where AT&T has service. Then for a couple hundred miles on the next bus, the phone gradually changed from AT&T to 'Extended Area' meaning a carrier AT&T had cut some deal with (meaning Sprint) for service. Then gradually 'extended area' gave way to 'Roam' but I was still able to call Mike Sandman with seven digits since both Mike's office and my phone were registered in area code 630 for Illinois. As we approached Tulsa, OK and time for another bus change, the process reversed with 'extended area' for awhile, then a good strong signal from AT&T, and the handset so indicated AT&T. All around Tulsa it was AT&T, and once the latest bus, a Jefferson Lines bus headed north for Independence, very shortly the 'extended area' came back on. Sitting on the back porch of my (then) mother's house here in Independence, the 'extended area' signal was still on the LED. I called Mike to report I had gotten here, using *seven digits* once again. A point could be raised that since Dobson Cellular Towers (which seems to have a monopoly around here on cell towers, out of Liberty, Kansas) got my call, and 'Dobson' = 'Cell One' and 'Cell One' = Sprint around here it remained a 'network' thing as you said. It could also be raised that when you call the 'Cell One' customer service number, as soon as you even start to say 'I have an AT&T phone account' the lady taps a button on her phone and you are instantly swapped over to AT&T and *their* voicemail menu where you get to wait in *their* queue for a few minutes. But if it is a 'network' thing as you mentioned, then why won't AT&T's 'star-121' news/weather/sports line work when you are not in a 'genuine' AT&T market? If Dobson knows what to do with seven digits when they see an AT&T customer coming at them, (by handing it to AT&T and saying you fill in the missing digits) then why wouldn't they know what to do with star-121 when they see an AT&T customer coming? I used to like star-121 when I was in Chicago on AT&T, and I missed not being able to use it when I got here to 'Extended Area [via Dobson for AT&T]' Kansas. But I was still able to do seven digits to Mike in Chicago. What makes you think its not a software/firmware thing in the phone where if only seven digits are received, then assume the area code is the same as the registered place? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 12:47:59 -0400 From: The Old Bear Subject: It's Cincinnati Bell Again As summarized in today's NewsScan Daily: BROADWING'S WINGS CLIPPED: COMPANY DROPS $4 BILLION PLUS ITS NAME Broadwing Inc. is dropping its name and reverting to Cincinnati Bell, which adopted the Broadwing name in 1999 when it purchased iXC Communications for $4 billion in an attempt to become a player in the broadband industry. Blaming Broadwing's troubles on a slumping economy and the collapse of Internet stocks, the company's chief executive said: "Cincinnati Bell is, and will always be, an excellent company whose outstanding performance has been recently overshadowed by the troubles in our national operations." source: AP/USA Today (1 May 2003) http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-01-broadwing_x.htm NewsScan Daily is a lively summary of information technology news and is distributed FREE via email to its subscribers. To receive NewsScan, send email to NewsScan@NewsScan.com and in the subject line type "subscribe". For more information, see the NewsScan web pages at http://www.NewsScan.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 13:11:11 -0400 (EDT) From: John R. Covert Subject: Vonage Users Can Now Activate "FAX" Line on Second ATA Port Vonage keeps adding new features. Users can now add a so-called "FAX" line on the second ATA port with its own phone number (anywhere). $9.99 per month for 250 mins outgoing US/Canada, unlimited incoming. Prolly has no forwarding, voicemail, other features. Although I bet it can also have virtual numbers. For those of you unaware of this feature on Vonage, you can order any number of virtual numbers in your own or other cities for $4.99 month, allowing unlimited incoming calling at local rates for those callers. Your outgoing calls on a line with virtual numbers (not talking about the new service on the second ATA port) still always appear from the "main" number, and if you have a local ($29.99) rather than nationwide ($39.99) package, your local area is still determined by only your main number. I've had Vonage service since last October and really like it. The addition of 911 service (you register your primary address) has made it even more attractive. Someone claimed that calls were "untraceable" if you used *67. Should not be true; Vonage should still be sending the number and just setting the privacy bit, so *57 should still log it, and Vonage should have records of the IP address used to place each call. /john [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My Vonage package showed up today. After about an hour, I had it online and working. The guy at Vonage I spoke with said they were 'probably, sometime soon' going to allow the second phone port on the back to work for a second voice line as well -- not just Fax. Virtual numbers are a lot like distinctive ring-ring lines. You can get incoming calls on them, but your outgoing calls are still on the registered number. If they do get around to allowing the second port to be used for voice as well, then, said the guy, I could have a second 'actual number' if desired. I will tell more about my new Vonage service in another issue of the Digest sometime soon. But John is correct; it seems like a good deal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Hillarious SBC Order Confirmation Date: 1 May 2003 13:57:17 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Andrew Bell wrote: > All ya gotta do is ask -- it works for a lot of things. For instance, > you know how most merchant credit cards come with 47 lbs of crap in > each bill? Call 'em up -- request that your account be flagged "no > inserts" -- and Vi-Ola, just the bill next month. Don't be so sure about that. My last bill was 7 pages (2 sided) plus one insert. The last 4 pages (2 sheets of paper) of the bill was various BellSouth pitches. Those pages get round-filed when the rest gets file filed. Rich Greenberg Work: Rich.Greenberg atsign worldspan.com + 1 770 563 6656 N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA Play: richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val(Chinook,CGC,TT), Red & Shasta(Husky,(RIP)) Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Record Labels' Latest Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalis Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 15:32:16 -0400 In TD V22, #422 Monty Solomon posted: Ending with: > The music labels say they are just looking for justice. I say join the club, we all wait for that, besides, had they provided a product that was worth the money they wouldn't be having all these problems. But when you buy a CD and 80% is crap, what do they expect. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ Subject: Does My-Line Still Exist? Or Any Substitutes? Reply-To: mdpc@panix.com Organization: Secured Computer Concepts From: mdpc@notforemail.com (M. D. Parker) Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 20:10:56 GMT Howdy ... I remember the My-Line service that was available a long time ago. I was wondering if it is still around and some references to talking to somebody about it. I had used the service in the past and dropped it but I'm finding that such a thing might be useful. If there is no my-line ... anybody got any alternative services that might fit the bill. Thanks Mike Parker mdpc@panix.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They were sold to some other company then eventually went bankrupt. I was really sorry to see them gone. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 22:44:06 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day for May Here we are coming around to May Day, 2003 ... This is just my monthly reminder that TELECOM Digest is a *shareware* thing; not *freeware*. I have gotten email letters from guys saying 'this Digest is a really great service for the net' and I like seeing those letters. Of course I also get a few letters from guys who are not that enamored of the work I do here, and I can understand that also. No one is going to please all the readers all the time, and that certainly is true of myself. Anyway, I do rely heavily on reader financial assistance to keep this Digest afloat from day to day, and during the summer, contributions do fall off since people have vacation/holiday time coming, etc and they do not get to read as much as they like. Your financial assistance is very greatly appreciated. Your own decision is what you go by to decide how much and how often to contribute. I consider all donations to be a generous act by generous readers. If you make any donation and request a copy of the Telecom Archives CD I will send it to you. The archives CD is a full copy of everything which has appeared here in the 22 years the Digest has been published. In addition, there are numerous technical, historical and other special reports I hope you will enjoy. If that is not enough, the CD has about a half-dozen 'old time radio' shows with a telephone theme, including the Suspense radio production of 'Sorry, Wrong Number' with Agnes Morehead, and a few other shows as well. To get your archives CD please be sure to include a mailing address where it should be sent to. If you send your donation using PayPal you can also use a credit card to pay if you wish. Use any PayPal template or for your convenience there is one to use on the main page of our web site http://telecom-digest.org at the very bottom of the top page. Make payment to 'editor@telecom-digest.org' in whatever amount you feel is appropriate. If you prefer to use snail mail, that is okay also for checks or money orders. Make payable to TELECOM Digest and mail them to: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301-0050 Please let me hear from you via PayPal or snailmail today or sometime this week. Thanks! PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #423 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 2 02:00:49 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h4260mn28391; Fri, 2 May 2003 02:00:49 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 02:00:49 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305020600.h4260mn28391@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #424 TELECOM Digest Fri, 2 May 2003 02:01:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 424 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson My New Vonage Account (TELECOM Digest Editor) Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Charles Cryderman) Re: Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation (John David Galt) COWS Herding Off to Iraq (Danny Burstein) 2003 and the 10th Anniversary of Netizen (Ronda Hauben) My Thanks For Your Help (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 01:24:47 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: My New Vonage Account I have decided to try Vonage and see how it works out. After sort of a rough start it is beginning to look like a good deal. I will relate my experiences with Vonage to date. After first reading about it here in this Digest a month or so ago, I put it on the 'back burner' for a few weeks, but then John Levine had a message here last Saturday which induced me to go ahead with it. Most of you probably know by now the basic idea: It is 'voice over IP', a telephone which works on your existing high speed (cable or DSL) internet line. Vonage sends you a Cisco ATA-186 'Analog Telephone Adapter' which plugs into your DSL/Cable modem, or if you prefer, your router box. I have a Linksys router box and plugged the Cisco ATA-186 into one of the four ports on the router box. (The other three ports on the router box are for my computers, etc). I really have to watch my money closely, since my sole source of income comes from Social Security for my disability condition (my deseased brain) each month. So this next point is a bit touchy for me. John Levine sent me a link to an e-coupon good for a month's worth of service. (I mistakenly assumed it would be good for forty dollars, which is how John explained it to me.) Actually it is good for one month's service on either the full unlimited plan which is $39.99 each month or the 'regional plan' with 500 minutes of long distance usage which is $25 per month. I filled in the coupon on line for the $25 regional plan and when it was time to print out the receipt they provided, the receipt showed my credit card would be charged 82 dollars! Then I found out (from reading the reciept) that although the ATA-186 was given to me for 'free' and I did not need to buy a router box since I already have one, they were charging me 30 dollars for an activation fee and 40 dollars for the first month service, and a shipping fee and an FET tax. I did not want the unlimited plan (it *is* a good deal, but I really felt I could not afford the $40, the regional thing with 500 minutes of long distance is more than enough), but that is what I got stuck with based on what was on the sign up screen. Maybe I pressed the wrong button, I am not sure. I talked to John Levine and complained; he said to get in touch with them and ask to have it changed to the regional $25 plan. So that same night -- maybe an hour later -- I sent them email and told them what I wanted. They issued me a 'revised invoice' for $10.29 which was not quite clear to me, but I said okay, that's more my speed. The package arrived Thursday, May 1, four days after the order went in. I checked my bank card on line and found out that it had been charged the $82 as promised, and also charged another $10.29. So now Vonage has $92 of my money, however there were various credits given in the online billing statement from Vonage which when deducted brought me down to a credit balance of -$47 'to be applied next month on the bill'. I really wish they had simply put through a charge for the correct amount instead of the wrong charge then holding over the credit for a month. Since *everything* on Vonage has to be dialed as eleven digits, with one plus areacode and number, I am wondering why they don't just allow ten digit dialing and skip the '1' on the front end. I also wonder if they have an actual 'customer care' department or if they just broker it out to some fullfillment agency to handle their incoming calls. The reason is, the two guys I spoke to on Thursday afternoon 'seemed like' to me they were reading from scripts and they had to stop and look up the answers to a few things now and then. I also complained about the $9.99 plus 30 cents FET (10.29) to change my service plan. The first guy I talked to insisted I had chosen the full plan and the $10.29 fee was to put me on the smaller plan. I insisted to him that I had been on that 'plan' for all of one hour while talking to John Levine and deciding to write them to get a correction; he said it could not be helped, I had to pay the $10.29 anyway. I called back a few minutes later to learn about something else that was not clear; the second guy made sort of an issue out of how he would give me credit for the $10.29 **on a one time only basis** but not to ask for anything like that again. I also mentioned that I had been referred by John Levine with a coupon good for $40 in credit. That was the first I heard that the coupon was only good for a month's service, not necessarily $40. He also said that they had no such customer as 'John Levine', and that I would need to have John's account number to discuss it further. Then he said 'maybe John Levine is one of our sales agents or contractors; we are not obligated to give credit because he promised it.' When he went and looked further he got it straight that what I was asking for was a month's credit as a new referral. The first guy I talked to could not understand at first why I had chosen a California area code 'instead of one around where you live'. I told him there were no Kansas area codes in his system, and one of my two friends with Vonage lived in area 650, so I would have someone to talk to now and then on it. Then he seemed to understand that. I really wonder if their 'customer care' department are real people who are employed by Vonage in customer service work or if they are just commission sales people working for some contractor, etc. So although my first experiences with their customer service were a bit rocky to say the least (holding in a queue for an agent for several minutes; a voice menu of choices to work through before I got anyone, etc), the service itself seems to work pretty well. The audio quality is excellent; the call setup and connection time is fast; the caller-ID works properly, and the 'dashboard' feature of their web site http://www.vonage.com is quite flexible and easy to use. It truely sounds and works just like a 'real telephone'. For people who live in a major metropolitan area and have lots of friends in those areas I would definitly recommend Vonage as a supplement to (or even a replacement for) 'regular telephone service'. I could see where if a person had cable modem service (rather than DSL) they could ditch the telco entirely **if they live in a big city**. Where I get stuck here however, is that I cannot have DSL without having phone service to go with it; without DSL I cannot have Vonage, and as good as Vonage is, it has no service in the middle western part of the USA; no matter what they say about picking through your choice of area codes, I am not going to tell my mother or my friends here in Independence to call me on a 'long distance' (for them) number. Yes, they offer alternate area codes and numbers and may start using port two on the ATA-186 box for voice calls and a 'real' second line, instead of an 'alias' number camped onto the main line. But the only person I would care to talk to in Chicago these days is my brother and he has a cell phone with free long distance anyway, same as I do, and Mike Sandman who also has a cell phone. Maybe I should look at cable modem service from Cable One, our local provider. Then I could get rid of Southwestern Bell totally, but that would not help where my mother or my friends are concerned, since they would still have to call 'long distance' to reach me. Anyway, my first reaction to using Vonage is thumbs up. As John Covert said in the last issue of the Digest it is a very enjoyable service. Now if I could just organize it to my best advantage and save some money in the process ... PAT ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 15:35:53 -0400 Michigan is joining the "Band Wagon" BY MIKE WENDLAND FREE PRESS COLUMNIST May 1, 2003 LANSING -- Michigan appears headed to get a tough new law against spam, including the possibility of prison time for e-mailers who deceive people into opening their junk come-ons. With consumers deluged by pornographic pitches, get-rich-quick schemes and mortgage refinance offers, Michigan legislators are getting the message loud and clear. House and Senate committees met Wednesday to consider anti-spam legislation introduced separately in each house. The hearings came a day after Virginia lawmakers passed a bill making it a felony to send unsolicited commercial messages by e-mail using deceptive addresses or other fraudulent means. Legislative leaders said consensus is likely in Michigan before the end of the year on a measure taking several strong steps against spam, including: Requiring bulk e-mailers to include the letters "ADV:" as the first four characters of all unsolicited commercial messages. Pornographic spam would have to use the letters "ADV: ADULT." Using such phrases would make it easier for consumers to intercept unwanted e-mail. Prohibiting spammers from forging the sender's address in an e-mail header or pretending to be someone else. Creating a do-not-spam list that state residents could sign up for on the Internet. It would function much like a similar list that starting this fall will prohibit telemarketers from calling people with unsolicited offers. Sending spam to people on the list or using misleading statements in the subject line of an e-mail would be a misdemeanor, subject to as much as a year in prison and a $10,000 fine. Forging the sender's address or otherwise intentionally hiding their identity would be a felony, subject to a four-year prison term and a $25,000 fine. Requiring spammers to clearly display their name and correct street address on all their messages. Wednesday's hearings indicated that the measures are likely to sail through with little opposition, as momentum to battle spam was building across state government. A spokesperson for Attorney General Mike Cox told the Senate committee that controlling spam is a top priority in his office. Gov. Jennifer Granholm is also eager to get some anti-spam legislation on the books. While the two bills haven't been formalized and no one from the governor's office spoke at the hearings, the governor "is very, very opposed to spam and looking forward to seeing some specific from the Legislature," said Granholm spokesperson Liz Boyd. Matthew Prince, a computer security consultant who helps corporations filter junk mail, told lawmakers that spam costs Michigan businesses about $350 million a year through lost productivity. He said government and industry studies report that dealing with spam takes as much as 5 percent of a business user's workday. "This is no longer just an irritation. It's a crisis that is totally out of control," Prince said. But there were some red flags being raised. The American Civil Liberties Union voiced concern that the bills would diminish free speech protections and could inhibit political groups and non-profits from using e-mail for fund-raising. "The ACLU is not pro-spam," said Todd Tennis, a Lansing lobbyist. "It does want to curb abuse, but the rights of an individual to express an opinion or use the Internet or new media for political speech must be preserved." Sen. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, sponsor of the Senate anti-spam bill, said he thinks the concerns will be smoothed over and that legislation could be signed into law by early fall, after the separate bills are passed by both houses and the language differences are worked out. But one lawmaker was skeptical about how much impact an anti-spam law will have. "How on Earth will we enforce this when spammers are sending millions and millions of junk messages every day?" said Rep. Joe Rivet, D-Bay City, a member of the House Technology and Energy Committee. "This problem is way bigger than one state." Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.com. ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Last Laugh! Hilarious SBC Order Confirmation Date: Thu, 01 May 2003 21:52:04 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society John Higdon wrote: > Well, since I have lots of telephone service and that service is very > important to me, I take the call. It invariably turns out that SBC is > trying to sell me DSL or long distance or some sort of feature > package. Finally, after having quite enough, I rejected one of those > calls with the "tell the caller to remove you from the telemarketing > list" option ("4", I believe). When I started getting these calls from SBC in 1999, I said the magic words ("Please put me on your do-not-call list"), and got an amazing reply: "Please hold for a service representative" -- as if I were having a new feature added to my line! The first time this happened, I thought it showed incredible nerve to expect me to wait to have this done, and I said a bad word and hung up. When they called again a few months later, though, I knew what to expect and hung on to complete the "order", and got the same confirmation letter that you did. I'm glad they've automated the process; I'll bet you didn't have to wait as long as I did. Now if we can just get them to start accepting voice mail and/or e-mail so that we never have to sit on hold to talk to them ... ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: COWS Herding Off to Iraq Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 01:20:06 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC "Building a modern land-based phone system in Iraq is sure to cost well over $2 billion, experts say, while a nationwide cellular system would probably cost less than $300 million" [snip] Pentagon planners now are scrambling to get a small cellular system going in Baghdad as soon as possible using what are known in the industry as COWs, for cellular on wheels. About 20 of these truck-based transmitters, along with accompanying switching gear, would provide decent coverage in a city the size of Baghdad for several thousand cellular users, experts say. Such a system could be up and running within weeks at a cost of about $10 million. U.S. officials say the Pentagon system will provide service for around 3,000 users ... http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105184093625044600,00.html?mod=telecommunications%5Fprimary%5Fhs (paid subscription) hmm, looks like someone left a copy on a very messy virtual desktop. well, until the vacuum cleaner comes around, try a gander over to: http://www.panix.com/~dannyb/iraqi-cows.wsj danny " wondering if anyone thought of preparing a fleet of 50 COWs, plugging one in to a central office in Kuwait, and then parking one every five miles with a 50 foot tower " burstein Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, none of that (or not as much of it) would have been necessary if the good old USA had not spitefully and deliberatly blown up the telephone exchange building in Baghdad. That was really sickening to read about when it happened. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ronda Hauben Subject: 2003 and the 10th Anniversary of Netizen Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 18:52:12 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Dear Pat, I thought this would be of interest to the readers of comp.dcom.telecom. This year, 2003 is the 10th anniversary of the post of "The Net and the Netizen" by Michael Hauben on Usenet. This research paper introduced the concept of Netizen online and it has since spread around the world. An interesting concentration of the concept of Netizen recently appeared in a paper that is online. Describing e-democracy, the author, Boldur Barbat writes: "To prove it, just some opinions of genuine netizens -- in fact, from the author who coined the term: Michael Hauben (Hauben and Hauben, 1997): Scrutinising the effect of the Net upon the future of politics, the 'ascendancy of the Commons' can be anticipated by reason of the new technologies presenting 'the chance to overcome the obstacles preventing the implementation of direct democracy'. The last chapter -- perhaps the banner of their entire book: 'The Computer as a Democratizer' -- claims that the 'step toward universally available and affordable access' and "uncensored accessible press" demonstrate that 'it is now possible to meet more of Mill's requirements for democracy'. Extending a bit the horizon, the author's defend also Hume's observation that 'arte' leads to intellectual ferment, and, in turn, this ferment 'is the needed support for the development of technology'. Such a flavour acts, in the netizens age as a catalyst for IT." from "Users in Front of ICT's. Facing the Interface" Today, May 1, 2003 was Michael's birthday. In honor of his birthday we want to announce a special issue of the Amateur Computerist on "Netizens Then and Now". The url for the issue is http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACn11-2.pdf We welcome comments on the concept of netizen as it has developed in the past 10 years. With best wishes, Ronda ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 01:36:56 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: My Thanks For Your Help This is just a quick note to say thanks to the several of you who took my share day plea to heart and sent donations in the last couple days. It really helps me a lot. If you still did not help or have not helped in recent months, just a reminder: use PayPal (for example on the main page of http://telecom-digest.org near the bottom of the page) to make a donation. Pay to 'editor@telecom-digest.org'. Or if you prefer, checks/money orders payable to Patrick Townson/TELECOM , PO Box 50, Independence, KS 67301. Now no more until next month, and thanks again! PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #424 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 2 13:47:53 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6/8.11.3) id h42HlqP02196; Fri, 2 May 2003 13:47:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 13:47:53 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305021747.h42HlqP02196@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #425 TELECOM Digest Fri, 2 May 2003 13:48:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 425 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) (Mark J Cuccia) More on NPAs, LATAs, States, BellSouth (Mark J Cuccia) Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown (Dave Phelps) Re: Spamola (Dave Phelps) Re: My New Vonage Account (Ed Marion) Vonage for Business? (Gremlin) VoicePulse vs Vonage (George) Re: Area Code Statistics (Joseph) Re: Record Labels' Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalist (tonypo1) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Barry Margolin) Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes (Clarence Dold) Re: Verizon SMS (Steven J. Sobol) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 07:53:58 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) On Wed 30 April 2003, David Esan wrote: > According to the information that I have there are six states in the > US that have only one LATA: Vermont, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, > Maine, Hawaii, and Delaware. Washington, DC has only one LATA, but is > DC really a state? The "state-like" region called DC which is really not a state (at least it isn't a state at this point in time and has been that way for 200+ years), is indeed all contained within a single LATA (#236), but the Washington DC Metro LATA (#236) DOES CONTAIN nearby areas of northern VA and suburban MD. I notice that you don't include Alaska in your list. Both AK (#832) and HI (#834) are US states that are also indeed *LATAs* (and the LATA and state geography is identical in each case), as far as the FCC/etc. are concerned, even though they are in the 8NX range of LATA codes (8NX for "offshore/international/overseas" locations outside of the continental US). Also in the 8NX range of LATAs are the *US* jurisdictions of Puerto Rico (LATA #820), US Virgin Islands (LATA #822), Guam (LATA #871), the Northern Mariana Islands - Saipan/etc (LATA #870), and soon to also include the US Pacific territory of American Samoa (to be identified as LATA #884). Maybe you don't include Alaska as a "single LATA" due to the locality of Hyder AK? (not Hydaburg AK, located SSW of Juneau AK, but rather Hyder AK located approximately the same distance from Juneau, but in the opposite direction of NNE) ... Hyder AK is one of those "unique border communities". If one does Google/etc. searches for Hyder, the results usually come up with webpages from travellers and vacationers and other "tourism" sites which indicate that the only way to reach Hyder AK (USA) by auto is via Canada. Although I think there's the Alaska Ferry (auto ferry?) which could connect Hyder with the "rest of Alaska" without having to "drive" through Canada. As far as telephone service goes, Hyder AK (USA) gets its dialtone from Stewart BC (Canada), served out of (partially VeriZon/GTE-held) Telus (formerly BC Tel). But there is not even a ratecenter for Hyder AK USA. The NPA+c.o.code that is used by the approx. less than 100 residents and customers in the US side (Hyder AK) is actually that of Stewart BC! 250-636. Some of the webpages of people's vacations involving Stweart BC Canada and Hyder AK USA mention that both US and Canadian currency is equally accepted in Hyder AK (USA), and also that Hyder AK USA is identified by a Canadian (BC) area code, '604'. Those pages or at least the text of the vacation, was done prior to late 1996, as NPA 604 shrunk down to the (mainland) metro area of Vancouver BC "only", with the rest-of-the province splitting off to the new 250 area code. I think that this began in October of 1996. If someone in "CONUS" (and possibly Hawaii and other 'offshore' US points?) places a call to a Hyder AK (USA) number, it will probably be rated/billed and identified as a call to Stewart BC *CANADA*, since it is a 250-636-xxxx number, 250-636 being the NPA-NXX associated with Stewart BC Canada. I *THINK* that Canada and AK have a special arrangement where calls between Hyder AK USA and the "rest-of-the-state" (907) are billed and rated as (US/domestic) in-TRA-state Alaska calls, in US currency. I assume that calls between Hyder AK and (toll parts of) Canada (i.e., things which are in Canada, but toll w.r.t. Stewart BC) are instead billed at in-tra-Canada rates, however if the billed party/number is rather a Hyder AK (USA) customer/line-number, then I think (VZ-GTE) Telus(BC) bills the Hyder AK (USA) customer as US dollars/cents. Also, if one can get to *REAL* Anchorage-Tel-provided 907-555-1212 (rather than some less-than-reliable-as-far-as-I'm-concerned FRAUDULENT D.A. entity contracted to by your LD carrier), Anchorage Tel D.A. will have the Hyder AK USA listings even though they are 250-636-xxxx. I don't know if (VZ-GTE) Telus(BC) still includes the 250-636-xxxx listings in Hyder AK BC anymore if you get thru on 250-555-1212 (and possibly 604/778-555-1212, and maybe even on 403/780-555-1212?), since 250-636 *IS* Stewart BC Canada which is one of (GTE-VZ)Telus'(BC) ratecenters! One "could" make the claim that Canada's "psedo" LATA (#888) also serves Alaska, thus AK wouldn't be considered a single-LATA state! :-) (BTW, Canada had been identified by *several* 8NX range "pseudo" LATAs for many years in the Bellcore/Telcordia TRALERG/TPM/etc. numbering/routing/ rating/etc. documents, one "pseudo" LATA code for each province or incumbent toll-region telco. However, these really had no meaning within Canada, and with mergers/consolidation of the Bell-family and Telus-family incumbents, as well as competition with other CLECs/etc. as well as competition between Bell and Telus, it became more cumbersome for Canada to "identify" the "proper" code of the "pseudo" LATA for all new entries or modifications of Canadian data to the LERG/etc. And as far as Canadian signaling and call-processing overall, within Canada and for calling to points outside of Canada, it was actually using US-like *in-TRA* LATA standards! About two years ago, Canada consolidated all of its dozen or so pseudo-LATA codes/regions into a *single* Canada-wide LATA, #888, which had *previously* been the (pseudo) LATA code for the province of Manitoba). I also have some comments/questions regarding the LATAs of the New England states, but I'll refer to them in detail in a separate posting, possibly later over the weekend. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 08:30:24 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: More on NPAs, LATAs, States, BellSouth In my recent post about BellSouth eliminating several "oddball" c.o. codes that they had provided for years, *including* their own c.o.codes for reaching "official" departments such as Repair, Business Office, Annoyance Call Bureau, "Right Touch" automated customer service, etc. (557-xxxx from SCBell states KY/TN/AL/MS/LA; 780-xxxx from So.Bell states of NC/SC/GA/FL), I wrote: > in south-west FL, 813, 941, 863, 737, 239 are all VeriZon (GTE) and > Sprint-LEC (United) with *NO* BellSouth, and thus never had the > BellSouth-specific" oddball NXX codes. This is the Tampa/ > St.Petersburg and Sarasota, Clearwater, etc. area of GTE (now VeriZon), > and Ft.Myers and such further south in southwest FL, region of United > (now called Sprint-LEC). One of the area codes listed above was a typo. It should *NOT* say 737 but rather 727. 737 is intended to overlay 512 in the Austin/San Marcos TX area at some future TBD date. 727 was a split off from 813 on the west (Gulf) coast of Florida, back in Summer 1998. 727 serves St.Petersburg and points north along the actual Gulf Coast itself. It was originally planned to be an overlay to 813 in early 1998, but regulatory and uninformed of the public b*tched about ten-digit dialing and overlays, and thus 813-relief was changed to the split. The VZ-GTE Tampa/etc. FL LATA is #952, and includes *ALL* ratecenters of NPAs 813 and 727. It also contains *SOME* ratecenters/NXX c.o.codes of NPAs 941 and 863. The Sprint-United Ft.Myers/etc. FL LATA is #939, and includes *ALL* ratecenters of NPA 239. It also contains *SOME* ratecenters/NXX c.o.codes of NPAs 941 and 863. Throughout the 1960s/70s/80s and until 1995, (and starting off in the 1950s as well), NPA 813 was one of the *few* "CONUS" area codes that was *EXCLUSIVELY* non-Bell. All of southwestern FL was non-Bell (GTE in the Tampa area, United Telephone further south in the Ft.Myers area), and made up *all* of NPA 813. NPA 941 split off of 813 back in 1995. As can be seen from the above paragraphs, 813 shrunk-down to GTE/Tampa LATA *only*, while the new 941 NPA split off containing some GTE/Tampa LATA ratecenters as well as *all* of Sprint-United Ft.Myers LATA ratecenters. In 1998, 727 split off from 813 as mentioned above, and since 813 had shrunk down to JUST part of the GTE/Tampa LATA only, then 727 was strictly the GTE-Tampa LATA as well. In 1999, 863 split off from 941. The shrunken down 941 was mostly Sprint-United Ft.Myers LATA ratecenters, but also included some GTE-Tampa LATA ratecenters. The split-off new 863 NPA contained ratecenters in BOTH the GTE-Tampa LATA as well as the Sprint-United Ft.Myers LATA. In 2002, 239 split off from 941. The shrunken down 941 contains ratecenters from BOTH the Sprint-United Ft.Myers LATA as well as ratecenters from the VZ(GTE) Tampa LATA. The new 239 NPA split off with ONLY Sprint-United Ft.Myers LATA ratecenters. > Similarly, northeastern NC, when 252 split from 919 in 1998, the new > 252 code serves *ONLY* Sprint-LEC (United's Carolina Tel & Tel) and > some other small independents with *NO* BellSouth (Rocky Mount > NC/etc), and thus never had any need for "BellSouth-specific" oddball > NXX codes. NPA 252 contains all of the ratecenters Sprint-United-CarolinaTel's LATA #951 as well as some (independent) ratecenters that are in extreme northeastern NC (near the VA stateline and also along the Atlantic coast) but are associated with a Virginia LATA. I think that this ratecenter in question is really a "barrier island" that straddles the VA/NC border OR it might be on a peninsula extending from Virginia but straddles over to the NC side. There are several other non-Bell LATAs in BellSouth states (in addition to the ones mentioned above): LATA #949 Fayetteville NC (Sprint-United Carolina Tel & Tel) LATA #953 Tallahassee FL (Sprint-Centel) LATA #956 Bristol TN/VA Johnston City TN (Sprint-United InterMountain Tel) (This LATA extends a bit over into Virginia). And then the ratecenter of "Offshore LA" (985-444) is handled by the "Offshore Telephone Company", and associated with the "special functions" (pseudo) LATA #999, instead of being associated with BellSouth's LATA #490 (New Orleans/etc. LA). These last named LATAs are not "exclusive" with their area codes. i.e., their Area Codes area also used by BellSouth in adjacent LATAs. In BellSouth territory, it seems to be northeastern NC and southwestern FL area the only areas with LATAs which have area codes that are exclusively serving non-Bell (independent telco) ratecenters. Mark J. Cuccia New Orleans LA USA mcuccia@tulane.edu ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Example of Mail Washer Returned mail: User unknown Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 00:48:38 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to tippenring@deadspam.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Did you read my entire message? I said > if X number of spams were sent out under my name, and X-1 of the > recipients complained about it, I am *certain* at least X-2 of the > recipients would return the whole damn thing to me with a piece of > their mind. Of those, I would patiently read though the spam to find > some legitimate name/address somewhere therein, and then it would be > better if that spammer had never heard of computers, let alone buy > or steal one to be abused. Forget about 'From ' or 'From:' addresses > since so often they mean nothing. Somewhere in that piece of trash > is going to be a URL or a valid address of some kind or a phone number > or whatever. PAT] My point was that you shouldn't use mailwashers bounce feature, because you are the person, worst case, bouncing spam to an innocent bystander. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Spamola Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 01:00:02 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor says: > For all of you who weep and wail about 'the poor guy whose name got > used as a valid from address who gets stuck with all the bounces', > what suggestions do you have to offer whan a spammer does a > 'dictionary style attack'. He uses some valid return address, then > his spamware program proceeds to address email to 'a', 'aa', 'aaa' > and onward to 'zzz9999' and every dictionary entry in between? You > know that 99 percent of those are going to bounce and fly back in the > box of some real, unsuspecting victim. Nothing we can do in that case. Bouncing more doesn't help. I use spamcop a lot. Some people complain that it's too aggressive, but I like it. I don't use it to filter incoming mail yet (like IIRC, mailwasher will do), but I do report spam there for the people that do use the mail filter feature. I like the aggressive nature of spamcop, because it puts pressure on the ISPs to dump spammers. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ Subject: Re: My New Vonage Account From: Ed Marion Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 11:55:20 GMT Organization: Road Runner - Texas Pat: How about publishing your Vonage referral coupon link so that others who are considering signing up for the Vonage service can support your efforts and get some free service too. Best regards, Ed Marion EZX Corp., the EZ-Forms Company Webster (Houston), TeXas, 77598-8177 USA http://www.EZ-Forms.com http://www.PDF.biz Phone: 1-281-754-4689 FAX: 1-281-754-4689 Email: http://ez-forms.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am thinking very seriously about doing just that. But I wanted to explore it for a couple days and make sure it was really worthwhile and not going to be just some fad. I just installed it yesterday and have not looked it over today yet to make sure it is still working correctly (for me), etc. People who have been around here for many years recall all the various times I have tried 'selling' services (remember My-Line, Orange Card, Digital Detective, etc) and know I do not like turning this Digest into my personal bazarre (or do you say bizzare?) or shopping mall, etc. To hear any of the above over the years, many years ago express it, I could sell their crap and retire from here a rich man. One of those 'I got rich working at home at my computer a couple hours per day' people we read about in the SPAM Digest daily. Even the Vonage people have started looking at me sort of hungrily or greedily, with a message saying 'some people have referred over 500 customers and earned **40 years** of free Vonage service! Well, damn! In the past, I got so wrapped up in handling customer service for the Orange Card and My-Line people I did not have time to work on this Digest. Because, you see, if someone uses a service that I referred them to, I'd like to see them happy with the results. Let's see how Vonage works out. If any readers insist on going ahead with a trial of it now and write me, I will send them a free e-coupon for a month's worth of service. Bear in mind it will be the SECOND month of service and they will hit you up with the installation fee, taxes, etc. Also you really do need *fast* internet service and a router would be a good idea unless you want to forever be plugging and unplugging your computer from the SpeedStream modem in order to make calls. It plugs into the router, *not* a USB port. The Cisco ATA-186 is in effect its own little computer. Ask me if you want an e-coupon for it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gremlin Subject: Vonage for Business? Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 08:48:31 -0500 Organization: The Caverns BBS Reply-To: Gremlin Is anyone using Vonage for business? Any reviews? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, Vonage does offer the very same package for 'business use' also at higher prices. It all depends on which button you press on the sign up screen how much you wind up paying (as I found out the hard way when I pressed the most prominent of the 'sign up now' buttons on the screen and it turned out that one was for the $40 full service unlimited package.) I was unable to see where 'business' customers get any more or less features than 'residential' users. And Vonage is pretty generous with features in their $40 package of unlimited use nationally. All the 'ESS-like' features that telco nickles-and-dimes you for, three dollars for this feature, $2.50 for that feature, etc are included in every Vonage package at no extra charge. Vonage says they do not give any discounts or reduced prices on multiple lines. If you have a business and have (let's say) ten telephone 'lines' then you need ten Vonage accounts in order for each phone to get dial tone and make outgoing calls, each at the 'business' rates. I suspect that if some major business of the stature we would call a 'national account' decided to thumb their nose at telco and hand their business over to Vonage that they would be accomodated on their terms, however. Or maybe a university with a zillion phone lines who decided to put their centrex or PBX behind an army of Cisco ATA-186's and hand it over to Vonage, would also get better terms. That's just what Vonage needs, a few breaks in life, and soon they could get just as arrogant and snotty as the 'real' phone companies are now! :) PAT] ------------------------------ From: google@gabtel.com (George) Subject: VoicePulse vs Vonage Date: 2 May 2003 08:57:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I am going to bite the bullet and try VoicePulse. Hey someone has to try it. I see all off the positive reviews about Vonage, but VoicePulse has anonymous call rejection. I have not seen one review of VoicePulse. I am going to try the unlimited residential option. It is $5 less a month than Vonage with most of the same features. One glaring feature that is missing is free call transfer. VoicePulse offers it under the small business option costing $10 more a month. I do not know if I will ever need it so I won't worry about it much. Another missing feature is "refer-a-friend". This almost makes me not want to try it. I will keep my land line but get all of the features removed from it besides call forwarding. Whenever VoicePulse offers switching my number, I will transfer my number and get another line with metered service. Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I will be adventuring into the unknown this afternoon. George [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whatever you do, George, after you have found your way around the Voice Pulse system, *please* write up a detailed review for publication here. The readers here would like having real choices in VOIP, just as they have now in their choices of cellular service, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Area Code Statistics Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 07:37:17 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Thu, 01 May 2003 08:42:14 -0700, TELECOM Digest Editor Noted in response to Joseph : > But > I was still able to do seven digits to Mike in Chicago. What makes > you think its not a software/firmware thing in the phone where if > only seven digits are received, then assume the area code is the > same as the registered place? PAT] Well, a couple different things could be going on here. First of all your Nokia 5165 is a TDMA (IS-136) phone. Perhaps how calls are handled is different in TDMA than it is in GSM. I suspect this is so since with TDMA you have your home, extend and roam indication. With GSM it shows which operator such as T-Mobile, Cingular, Einstein, Microcell etc. that you're using and this will change if you use another operator. Some of the older GSM phones showed roaming indicator to indicate that you were not in your home system. GSM has either your home system showing or the name of any other system. There's no extend. As to how I suspect that it is a network issue rather than a phone/handset issue I can't of course be 100% sure, but using other manufacturer's phones other than my Nokia the behavior is the same. I don't know why network translations would be handled in the phone/handset. Dialing procedures/permissions would most likely be handled in the switch just as it is on land lines. The only difference being that perhaps there is more "wiggle" room for variations with mobile/cellular switches as to what's permitted. For example I am permitted to dial just area code plus number to reach any number in the NANP with the exception that I need to prepend a 1 if I'm calling a toll-free 800/888/877 etc. number. All other calls I can dial any of four different ways. I can dial 7 digits for my local area, 10 digits to any number in the NANP, 1+10 digits to any number in the NANP or +1 and 10 digits to any number in the NANP and all calls will be billed as they should. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Record Labels' Latest Napster Suit Unnerves Venture Capitalis Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 14:38:43 GMT In article , Charles.Cryderman@globalcrossing.com says: > In TD V22, #422 Monty Solomon posted: > Ending with: >> The music labels say they are just looking for justice. > I say join the club, we all wait for that, besides, had they provided > a product that was worth the money they wouldn't be having all these > problems. But when you buy a CD and 80% is crap, what do they expect. So true -- not to mention their general marketing practices. I am encouraged by some of the rulings courts have been handing down, particularly saying that the sharing network authors aren't necessarily responsible. What is worrisome is the new tactic of going after end users. It's why I never left my shares open on any of the file sharing programs. You would think the RIAA would embrace digital technologies -- why not offer the crap up on the net and charge people per track for what they WANT not what your marketing dweebs want to push. I'd expect the fee would be relatively low since a good portion of production infrastructure would be transferred from the record companies to the consumer. We're coming very close to the demise of the record stores as we know them. I for one won't miss them. ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 14:42:35 GMT In article , Charles Cryderman wrote: > But one lawmaker was skeptical about how much impact an anti-spam law > will have. "How on Earth will we enforce this when spammers are > sending millions and millions of junk messages every day?" said > Rep. Joe Rivet, D-Bay City, a member of the House Technology and > Energy Committee. "This problem is way bigger than one state." Yes, it is. I wonder why the Feds haven't gotten on the bandwagon? Virtually all spam is inter-state (and often international), so shouldn't this be within the authority of the federal government? Why are all the states wasting their time enacting their own, conflicting laws instead of pressuring Congress to make one, all-encompassing law? Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. ------------------------------ From: dold@IXNeedXaXS.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 15:29:56 +0000 (UTC) Organization: a2i network Joseph wrote: > AT&T is NPANXXXXXX@messaging.att.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think Cingular is 'mycingular' > without the dot in the middle. But you are also talking about sending > 'email' rather than 'messaging'. PAT] If this is email, then my AT&T is NPANXXnnnn@mobile.att.net I tried @messaging.att.com and it neither went through nor bounced. The @mobile.att.net went through almost immediately. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon SMS Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 16:00:13 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC Bill Paris (telecom-archives@wnybusiness.com) wrote: > In TELECOM Digest V22 #422, tkoppel@adelphia.net wrote (in part): >> 404-nnn-nnnn Verizon >> 561-nnn-nnnn@verizon.net (doesn't work). > Try NPANXXnnnn@myvzw.com Speaking as a Verizon Wireless customer: vtext.com is the domain Verizon Wireless uses for e-mail to SMS-enabled cell phones. Normally it's NpaNxxDDDDDDD@vtext.com. You can, however, visit the vtext.com website and set up an alias. I used to have sjsobol@vtext.com aliased to my numeric Vtext address. Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #425 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 3 00:58:51 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h434wpN19842; Sat, 3 May 2003 00:58:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 00:58:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305030458.h434wpN19842@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #426 TELECOM Digest Sat, 3 May 2003 00:59:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 426 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes (Justin Time) Cheap Internet, Cable and Phone Service Combo? (Skeedo) Re: VoicePulse vs Vonage (George) Vonage 11 Digit Dialing (John Schmerold) Re: Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) (Laura Halliday) Re: Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) (Mark Crispin) Music Biz Buzzing Over iTunes (Monty Solomon) Ooh, Cows! (Joey Lindstrom) Re: COWS Herding Off to Iraq (Paul A Lee) Re: How to Switch to Different ISP Connection For Connect (Jerome Calvo) Apple's iPod Raises Bar for Digital Music Players (Monty Solomon) Suspicion Arises of Phone-Damaging Spam (Monty Solomon) Verizon Quietly Cuts DSL Rates (Monty Solomon) Study: Cell Phones Put Planes at Risk (Monty Solomon) Amazon Makes Bid for Web-Ad Patent (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: I Need a Short Primer on PCS SMS Addressing Schemes Date: 2 May 2003 11:41:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) wrote in message news:: > Ted Koppel wrote in message > news:: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The 'trick' is if the cellular company >> is other than your own, 'writing messages' generally will not work. > Pat, > Some of the wireless companies are now exchanging SMS messages sent > directly from one phone to another. The routing is handled by the > wireless company's SMS servers based on the recipient's phone number. > So, it is now possible to send an SMS message directly from your > handset on say Sprint to somebody having Cingular or AT&T. Of course, > like any SMS message, delivery is not guaranteed and all carriers have > an almost unacceptable ratio of delivered to undelivered messages. > The operative word in the above paragraph is SOME. I know from one of > the account reps who services the government account my phone is > through has informed us THEIR company will handle messages to other > companies, but I haven't really tried it. Since they took away free > SMS messaging, I rarely use it any more. > Rodgers Platt > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You gave a good answer with your > statements above, 'the operative word is SOME'; 'delivery is not > guarenteed'; 'unacceptable ratio of delivered to undelivered > messages'. In other words, although it SHOULD work, it mostly > doesn't. Now go back and read my message again; I said to use > the option called 'send email', which as far as I know, always > works as it should. PAT] E-mail to a cell phone is just as (un)reliable as SMS messaging. Uses the same equipment for the most part. I used to get reports e-mailed to my cell phone and work e-mail address daily. I could go for days and not receive a message on the cell phone, but it would always be there in my mailbox on the computer. Rodgers ------------------------------ From: spamfree@beta.skeedo.com (Skeedo) Subject: Cheap Internet, Cable and Phone Service Combo? Date: 2 May 2003 13:56:41 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Man would I love to have high speed internet, cable and phone all for like $100/month. Please do not suggest Verizon! I hear Comcast might have something like this, but I was unable to find out. Help? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Have you tried contacting Comcast? I know that our local cable service, Cable One, which took over the service from Time Warner in January is now offering cable modem as part of their package. An ample supply of cable television, plus high speed internet is around $50 or so ... then you use a service like Vonage to get the phone part of it. That's your hundred dollars per month more or less. I *really seriously** am thinking about getting cable modem here, then trimming my SWB service down to a bare minimum with a line to use for local incoming calls only. But I think I will wait until the cable modem is up and running, proven good, before dumping the SWB phone and DSL service. PAT] ------------------------------ From: google@gabtel.com (George) Subject: Re: VoicePulse vs Vonage Date: 2 May 2003 14:11:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Forgetaboutit ... They don't have service in Maryland. Then Vonage it is. google@gabtel.com (George) wrote in message news:: > I am going to bite the bullet and try VoicePulse. Hey someone has to > try it. I see all off the positive reviews about Vonage, but > VoicePulse has anonymous call rejection. I have not seen one review > of VoicePulse. > I am going to try the unlimited residential option. It is $5 less a > month than Vonage with most of the same features. One glaring feature > that is missing is free call transfer. VoicePulse offers it under the > small business option costing $10 more a month. I do not know if I > will ever need it so I won't worry about it much. Another missing > feature is "refer-a-friend". This almost makes me not want to try it. > I will keep my land line but get all of the features removed from it > besides call forwarding. Whenever VoicePulse offers switching my > number, I will transfer my number and get another line with metered > service. > Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I will be adventuring into > the unknown this afternoon. > George > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Whatever you do, George, after you > have found your way around the Voice Pulse system, *please* write > up a detailed review for publication here. The readers here would > like having real choices in VOIP, just as they have now in their > choices of cellular service, etc. PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So do you want a Vonage e-coupon to use or have you already signed up? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 17:00:32 -0500 From: John Schmerold Subject: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing If anyone hears of a way to eliminate need to dial 1, I'd appreciate hearing about it. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks, then I'll buy a hotdialler. This seems like overkill for a stupid problem. I don't get why Vonage insists on the 1+ dialling. ------------------------------ From: marsgal42@hotmail.com (Laura Halliday) Subject: Re: Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) Date: 2 May 2003 15:26:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Mark J Cuccia wrote in message news:: > As far as telephone service goes, Hyder AK (USA) gets its dialtone > from Stewart BC (Canada), served out of (partially VeriZon/GTE-held) > Telus (formerly BC Tel). But there is not even a ratecenter for Hyder > AK USA. The NPA+c.o.code that is used by the approx. less than 100 > residents and customers in the US side (Hyder AK) is actually that of > Stewart BC! 250-636. (snip...) A bit of snooping shows that Stewart is 250-636-2xxx, while Hyder is 250-636-9xxx. There have been other cross-border phone setups. Point Roberts, Washington was 604-945 (and part of the Greater Vancouver local calling area) until quite recently. It became 206-945 (now 360-945) when the FCC demanded that BCTel provide all the same bells and whistles regarding long-distance carriers and such that other people in Washington had. BCTel pulled the plug instead. Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre Grid: CN89lg pied a terre..." ICBM: 49 16.57 N 123 0.24 W - Hospital/Shafte ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Hyder AK USA, Stewart BC Canada (States, LATAs) Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 11:26:00 -0700 Organization: University of Washington I can confirm that, as far as the telephone network is concerned, Hyder AK is part of Stewart BC. Both are 250-636. I very much doubt that Hyder is charged or otherwise treated as anything other than part of Stewart by the telephone companies. Canadian currency is the more commonly used currency in Hyder because the bank and most shopping is in Stewart. Just about the only place in Hyder where you must use US currency is the post office. Ferry service to Hyder is off and on; Hyder does not get high priority for ferry service from the state since it is connected to the road system. The road into Hyder hugs the shores of an inlet, with steep cliffs rising above. It's pretty easy to track comings and goings between Hyder and Stewart. There is no US Customs or Immigration facility going into Hyder. Nor is there any law enforcement officer there. If they need one, they radio to Ketchikan for the marshall to come over, but in general problems are handled by the residents quite effectively. Although Hyder's night life is well-known, a substantial percentage of Hyder's population is licensed to own private machine guns ... There *is* a Canadian Customs/Immigration station exiting Hyder. Officially, it's to keep the people of Stewart from smuggling in cheap cigarettes and booze from Hyder. Doubtless the guns are the real reason. Stewart is a very pretty and proper Canadian community. Hyder is freewheeling. Stewart has paved roads; Hyder has gravel roads. Stewart has supermarkets and banks; Hyder has nightlife. Stewart has downtown; Hyder has bears (and does it have bears! One of the best places for bear-watching in Alaska -- I've never failed to see bears there). -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 22:14:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Music Biz Buzzing Over iTunes By Leander Kahney Apple's iTunes Music Store appears to be a smash hit -- opening day downloads equaled the number of songs legally downloaded over a six-month period last year. But all is not rosy. Questions about the size of the store's catalog, its digital-rights management scheme and how to make the store available to international and Windows users dampen the fireworks a bit. Reaction depends on whom you talk to. According to inside sources, the store processed at least 200,000 downloads on Monday, its opening day. The Billboard Daily Bulletin, a music industry newsletter, put the figure at 275,000 downloads in the first 18 hours, citing a source at a major record label. Lee Black, an analyst with Jupiter Research, said he'd also heard unofficially that 200,000 songs were downloaded on opening day. He said if the number is correct, it rivals half the number of legal downloads last year from all the competing online services. An Apple representative declined to give an official figure. But whatever the number, the store appears to have wildly exceeded the music industry's expectations. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,58706,00.html ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 12:42:23 -0600 Subject: Ooh, Cows! Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Fri, 2 May 2003 02:00:49 -0400 (EDT), editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, none of that (or not as much of > it) would have been necessary if the good old USA had not spitefully > and deliberatly blown up the telephone exchange building in Baghdad. > That was really sickening to read about when it happened. PAT] The purpose of an army is to kill people and to break things. The purpose of destroying the telephone exchange buildings was to eliminate the Iraqi leadership's ability to give orders to its military (and eliminate the military's ability to coordinate with itself). In doing so, many many (mostly American) lives were saved. And that makes it worth every penny they'll be spending on rebuilding. Besides, Nortel needs the business. :-) -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'The purpose of an army is to kill people and break things' ... that's odd. I distinctly remember Dubya saying once (in one of his more lucid states of mind) that the purpose of the USA Army was to build and maintain peace and preserve democracy, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: RE: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 12:51:29 -0400 In TELECOM Digest V22 #424, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): > Well, none of that ["Building a modern land-based phone > system in Iraq"] (or not as much of it) would have been > necessary if the good old USA had not spitefully and > deliberatly blown up the telephone exchange building in > Baghdad. That was really sickening to read about ... It wasn't spiteful, but it _was_ deliberate -- and a good military strategy of disrupting enemy communications, command, and control [C3]. Think about what our troops -- and Iraqi civilians -- faced from Iraqi troops and guerillas in urban areas, including Baghdad. The "bad guys" wore civilian clothes and hid in hospitals, schools, mosques, and residences. Can you imagine how much worse it might have been if they could simply phone each other to share intelligence and coordinate attacks? As regrettable as the destruction of the civil infrastructure may be, it usually saves lives and suffering by disrupting the enemy's ability to fight effectively and protractedly. And, as we witnessed, the longer those Iraqi guerillas fought, the more they abused Iraqi civilians and damaged the infrastructure themselves. Paul A Lee Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer [Voice & Transmission] Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 Tell your senator you support Senate Bill 877 to CAN-SPAM . Find him/her at http://www.senate.gov/. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were *easily* ways to handle that dilemma without blowing the whole thing to bits. They could have dis- connected the power to the place, and removed or unhooked the batteries used for backup power, then stationed guards there the time. They did that with all the oil wells didn't they (station guards there all the time to protect them)? They did not blow them up then oblige themselves or others to have to rebuild them later. They put quite a few people (telephone employees) out of work in the process for how ever long it will take to build it back up. It was spite alright, just another way to 'get even'. Consider a case in the USA as an example: in a prison somewhere, there is a riot. Usually the prisoners run the prison, particularly in areas like the switchboard or other 'utility' functions. Now there is a riot, so guards take over the switchboard to prevent prisoners from communicating during the riot. The guards do not destroy the whole switchboard and force the entire rebuilding of it. You know as well as I the complexity and difficulty in building a new telephone exchange and the collateral 'damage' from lack of communications alone. It will be *at least one year or longer* getting telecom back in service there, with the entire building destroyed. Meanwhile, what about the innocent civilians and merchants who have no way to conduct their business, ala New York City for three months **on a real rush basis** in 1975 or Hinsdale, Illinois for two months **on a real rush basis** in 1988. If they had just had people with some modicum of intelligence in charge of that damn war; people who knew enough to pull the batteries and the power and station guards to keep it that way. And did you see that sad picture of the man who is in charge of the large museum there, standing among the total rubble of the ancient artifacts and pictures, etc which the American soldiers pillaged. "My precious things are all ruined" he lamented. Not only was there no reason to destroy the telephone system totally, there was also no reason to destroy the statues and other historical artifacts. That was simply spite by George Bush and the troops under him. PAT] ------------------------------ From: caljer@yahoo.com (Jerome Calvo) Subject: Re: Switch to Different ISP Connection For Continous Connectivity? Date: 2 May 2003 16:19:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Check Amplify.net gears at www.amplifynet.com Jerome Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote in message news:: > Delip Singh wrote: >> Currently DNS resolve mydomain.com to IP address provided by ISP1 and >> all traffic comev via ISP1. How can I make a provision that if link to >> ISP1 is broken, all the traffic can be directed to my webserver via >> ISP2? > The IP address to which a domain resolves is cached by DNS servers > literally around the world. When the IP address for a webserver is > changed, it can take several days before all the caches are updated. To > provide the connectivity you're talking about will require the > cooperation of someone upstream from your webserver; you have to have a > stable IP with solid connectivity someplace. > Probably the simplest solution is to use a "dynamic DNS" hosting > service; they will resolve your domain to one of their servers, so your > DNS remains constant, it's just not one of "your" IP addresses. A small > application runs on your webserver, continually sending to the DynDNS > company's machine; they forward traffic to whatever IP your webserver is > currently broadcasting from. > Just google (note lowercase use of a trademark :-) "dynamic DNS" and > you'll get all the information you need. > > Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com > Grammar and spelling flames welcome. > Yes, that's really my email address. Don't change it. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 23:39:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players Apple's iPod Raises Bar For Digital Music Players By WALTER S. MOSSBERG Apple Computer's iPod portable digital music player has become the gold standard for digital music fans. No other player has been able to match its combination of elegant design, small size and high capacity. But other companies are feverishly working on iPod clones. So, in an effort to stay ahead, Apple this week released a totally redesigned version of the iPod, which is even thinner and lighter than the original version, yet packs in more songs. There are also many other new features, including a new desktop dock to hold the iPod. Like the prior models, these new iPods will work on Windows PCs in addition to Apple's own Macintosh computers. But now, they are compatible with many more Windows computers than the old iPods. The new iPods also work closely and well with Apple's new online music store, the first really good legal music downloading service. (See my review of the service.) They play the new music-file format Apple uses at its store, but can still handle regular MP3 files from any source. I've been testing the new iPod for several days, using a wide variety of music from different sources. I find it to be even better designed and easier to use than the original model. I can still recommend it highly, as I did the first version. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20030501.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 23:52:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Suspicion Arises of Phone-Damaging Spam By Ben Charny Staff Writer, CNET News.com Some AT&T Wireless subscribers believe a text message masquerading as spam is on the loose and damaging cell phones in the United States. The subscribers reporting the problem each owned a Siemens S46 cell phone and said they received the e-mail this week. Even when they did not open the e-mail, which began "Need Help With International Dialing," what some say could be malicious software hidden inside wiped out the cell phones' address book and e-mail capabilities. It remains to be seen whether the subscribers were victims of a deliberate attack, which would be among the first in the United States to involve cell phones, or just bad software inside the devices, a representative of German handset maker Siemens said Friday. The S46 uses some of the same Siemens software in two of the company's cell phone models that are available only in Europe and were disabled in March by a wave of possibly malicious e-mails. The incidents highlight growing concerns about how spam and malicious viruses, once the domain of personal computers only, are beginning to spread to wireless devices. Spam is becoming more commonplace on cell phones, enough to merit attention from this week's Federal Trade Commission Spam Forum in Washington, D.C. But instances of malicious attacks on cell phones are extremely rare, although cell phone networks became vulnerable to such attacks when carriers began selling phones that can download software. The most well-known attack occurred in Japan in 2001 when an e-mail sent to NTT DoCoMo subscribers forced the phone to call a police emergency hotline. http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-999558.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 May 2003 23:57:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Quietly Cuts DSL Prices By Reuters Verizon Communications, the largest U.S. telephone company, has quietly slashed the rate of its high-speed Internet access service by more than 20 percent, an assault on rivals such as cable television companies and America Online, analysts said Friday. Since March 28, customers calling Verizon's service centers have been quoted a price of $34.95 a month for high-speed DSL (digital subscriber line) access, a $10 reduction from previous rates, analysts said. The company plans to widely market the new pricing in the coming weeks, analysts said. ... http://news.com.com/2100-1034-999497.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 00:23:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Study: Cell Phones Put Planes at Risk By Will Sturgeon Special to CNET News.com The U.K.'s air safety regulator has released research about cell phone use on planes, warning of the serious effects that it can have on a plane's navigational equipment. The Civil Aviation Authority research found that standard cell phone use can cause a compass to freeze or to overshoot its actual magnetic bearing. Also, flight deck and navigation equipment indicators can be rendered unstable and inaccurate, and transmissions can interfere with critical audio outputs. Cell phone use has long been banned on airplanes, along with use of many other electrical devices. But passengers have often accused airlines of being over-officious in their enforcement of the ban, even suggesting that it is unnecessary. Many airlines have had experience of passengers who are willing to break the ban in order to make a call. This latest research may frighten passengers into compliance with the rules. In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bans the use of cell phones on airplanes because of worries that calls could interfere with a plane's navigation system. A number of anonymous posters on the Professional Pilots' Rumour Network -- a popular online community for airline pilots and crew -- expressed mixed feeling over the findings. One poster said: "Occasionally during the taxi out, we overhear the characteristic rapid chirping of a mobile phone through our headsets. More often than not, it turns out to be a crew phone, we switch it off, then continue with no ill effects. http://news.com.com/2100-1039-999541.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 00:28:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Amazon Makes Bid For Web-ad Patent By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Online retailer Amazon.com has filed for a patent on a method for auctioning Web advertisements, a move that raises questions about the company's interest in the ad market. The e-commerce giant, which sells limited advertising space on its Web site, recently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark office for a patent that deals with Internet ads. The application was updated Friday. Specifically, the company is seeking a patent for "a method in a computer system for allocating display space on a Web page, the method comprising: receiving multiple bids indicating a bid amount and an advertisement," according to the application. The system continues with "receiving a request to provide the Web page to a user; selecting, based at least in part on review of bid amounts, a received bid; and adding the advertisement of the selected bid to the Web page." http://news.com.com/2100-1024-993904.html ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #426 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 3 16:40:54 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h43KesW23865; Sat, 3 May 2003 16:40:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 16:40:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305032040.h43KesW23865@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #427 TELECOM Digest Sat, 3 May 2003 16:41:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 427 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Ooh, Cows! (John Higdon) Re: Ooh, Cows! (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Danny Burstein) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Dale Farmer) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Can DTMF Decoding be Used to Time Keypress-Down/Up Events? (mrsoft99) Re: Study: Cell Phones Put Planes at Risk (Roy Smith) Finding Answering Machine w/Decent Audio & Longer Access Code (invert) Wanted: Least Expensive, Unlimited Use Blackberry Service (Tom Williams) Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing (Ed Ellers) Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Dave Phelps) Identity Theft Prompts Insurers To Change (Monty Solomon) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (Doug Aspinwall) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 22:13:13 -0700 In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'The purpose of an army is to kill > people and break things' ... that's odd. I distinctly remember > Dubya saying once (in one of his more lucid states of mind) that > the purpose of the USA Army was to build and maintain peace and > preserve democracy, etc. PAT] You can't build something new until you tear down the old. Somehow, I don't think the preservation of an old, obsolete telephone exchange was high on the list of old-regime artifacts that needed to be preserved. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If building something new and modern, i.e. a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure for Iraq was the *real* intent (in other words, a humane activity) there, then the *old* would have been preserved and used while the new one was constructed. Just because you, as an example, have sort of ass-back- wards telecom in Silicon Valley (you have said so yourself) should the entire thing be put out of service, in other words torn down, so a new system could be built? What do you do in the meantime for service while your 'old regime artifact' called early 20th century telecom gets torn down and replaced? I cannot believe no one thought of that before the Americans, in their spite, bombed the old telecom building out of existence. They were not thinking in humane terms 'oh, these poor people, they need modern telecom in their quest for liberty and the American Way ... we better get this old telecom thing out of the way so we can start building a new one.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 18:02:45 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor was obliged to straighten out joey@telussucks.info thinking: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: 'The purpose of an army is to kill > people and break things' ... that's odd. I distinctly remember > Dubya saying once (in one of his more lucid states of mind) that > the purpose of the USA Army was to build and maintain peace and > preserve democracy, etc. PAT] They are trained to kill. I've always thought it was a waste of time to send our troops on peace keeping missions. I wonder if they're including that now in Army and Marine training? How to be cop to the world. And it is any wonder that a good percentage of Guardsmen are law enforcement types in real life? When I worked at the AG's office people were rotating in and out left and right. Who was a former cop, who was a deputy in the dept., and on and on. I also was aware that a few police departments had to scramble because some of their senior staff were activated. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So peace keeping missions are a waste of time? Better just get in there and kill them all; let God sort it out, right? I sure am glad you set me straight on that. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 05:35:46 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Paul A Lee writes: [ lots snipped, just a little left for context ] > it usually saves lives and suffering by disrupting the enemy's ability > to fight effectively and protractedly. And, as we witnessed, the > longer those Iraqi guerillas fought, the more they abused Iraqi > civilians and damaged the infrastructure themselves. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were *easily* ways to handle that > dilemma without blowing the whole thing to bits. They could have dis- > connected the power to the place, and removed or unhooked the > batteries used for backup power, then stationed guards there the > 'damage' from lack of communications alone. It will be *at least one > year or longer* getting telecom back in service there, with the > entire building destroyed. Meanwhile, what about the innocent > civilians and merchants who have no way to conduct their business, > ala New York City for three months **on a real rush basis** in 1975 > or Hinsdale, Illinois for two months **on a real rush basis** in 1988. First, keep in mind that Iraq is a pretty big country, and the destruction in the war, although pretty significant, is also quite localized. While the general media doesn't have much on it, try checking the trade press which has reporters with engineering and technical backgrounds discussing things like, for example, what they've been finding when traveling to hydro electric dams. Pretty much all that stuff is still in place and still working as well as it was six months ago. (Which may or may not be good ... but that's another story. All together. Shirley) Short term disruptions as the engineers or other workers stayed home during the actual fighting have pretty much ended. Second is that a pretty hefty chunk of the Iraqi population was, by Western standards, dirt poor. Telephones were few and far between. As, for that matter, were other modern conveniences. Third is that people are quite resourceful. And tying all of this together take note of the fact that something like a *million* people marched last week, many for hundreds of miles, to that religious observance in Northern Iraq. These people did not (at least in any reportable numbers) get ill or starve to death or get injured or catch dysentary. That speaks to a pretty significant amount of infrastructure, starting with toilets and reasonably clean water and food in place along the route. Admittedly these folk were mostly young and in good health to start with, but it's still a pretty big number. Think of the localized disruptions we'd have in the US if an extra million people suddenly appeared one day in a typical middle sized city such as, oh, Lawrence, Kansas. So in regards to phones, simply installing a few dozen COWs and base stations would overlay Baghdad with a ready-to-go phone network which, for the most part, would be *better* than what was there a year ago. We saw the advantages of cellular in the US post 11-September. Lower Manhattan lost a complete central office and *all* circuits running through it were clobbered. Cellular service had local disruptions as well due, initially, to the loss of physical equipment (some antennae and bases were vaporized) and the circuits that ran through that area. And, of course, the massive amount of extra traffic. But within a couple of hours cellular services everywhere outside the immediate damage zone were back to normal, and within a couple of days to weeks enough COWs and additional base stations were brought into the affected area to make cellular an option for effective service. As opposed to the months it took to get wiring back. (It would have been sooner if disaster plans had been better. For example, there were problems with getting COWs from their grazing grounds to NYC. Most of those have been worked out). One thing I'd love to see is a FEMA/DHS sponsored disaster drill in this country, perhaps with Canadian or Mexican assistance, where we pretend that a mid sized city's phone network is knocked out. We really should have practice with plugging into the nearest working central office (or other similar gateway) and daisychaining fifty COWS 200 miles into the designated city. Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Dale Farmer Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 11:13:27 -0400 Organization: Furry green fuzz in the back of the refrigerator Paul A Lee wrote: > In TELECOM Digest V22 #424, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): >> Well, none of that ["Building a modern land-based phone >> system in Iraq"] (or not as much of it) would have been >> necessary if the good old USA had not spitefully and >> deliberatly blown up the telephone exchange building in >> Baghdad. That was really sickening to read about ... > It wasn't spiteful, but it _was_ deliberate -- and a good military > strategy of disrupting enemy communications, command, and control > [C3]. > Think about what our troops -- and Iraqi civilians -- faced from Iraqi > troops and guerillas in urban areas, including Baghdad. The "bad guys" > wore civilian clothes and hid in hospitals, schools, mosques, and > residences. Can you imagine how much worse it might have been if they > could simply phone each other to share intelligence and coordinate > attacks? > As regrettable as the destruction of the civil infrastructure may be, > it usually saves lives and suffering by disrupting the enemy's ability > to fight effectively and protractedly. And, as we witnessed, the > longer those Iraqi guerillas fought, the more they abused Iraqi > civilians and damaged the infrastructure themselves. > Paul A Lee Voice: +1 717 730-8355 > Sr Telecom Engineer [Voice & Transmission] Fax: +1 717 975-3789 > Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 > Tell your senator you support Senate Bill 877 to CAN-SPAM > . Find him/her at > http://www.senate.gov/. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were *easily* ways to handle that > dilemma without blowing the whole thing to bits. They could have dis- > connected the power to the place, and removed or unhooked the > batteries used for backup power, then stationed guards there the > time. They did that with all the oil wells didn't they (station guards > there all the time to protect them)? They did not blow them up then > oblige themselves or others to have to rebuild them later. They put > quite a few people (telephone employees) out of work in the process > for how ever long it will take to build it back up. It was spite > alright, just another way to 'get even'. Consider a case in the USA > as an example: in a prison somewhere, there is a riot. Usually the > prisoners run the prison, particularly in areas like the switchboard > or other 'utility' functions. Now there is a riot, so guards take over > the switchboard to prevent prisoners from communicating during the > riot. The guards do not destroy the whole switchboard and force the > entire rebuilding of it. You know as well as I the complexity and > difficulty in building a new telephone exchange and the collateral > 'damage' from lack of communications alone. It will be *at least one > year or longer* getting telecom back in service there, with the > entire building destroyed. Meanwhile, what about the innocent > civilians and merchants who have no way to conduct their business, > ala New York City for three months **on a real rush basis** in 1975 > or Hinsdale, Illinois for two months **on a real rush basis** in 1988. > If they had just had people with some modicum of intelligence in > charge of that damn war; people who knew enough to pull the batteries > and the power and station guards to keep it that way. And did you see > that sad picture of the man who is in charge of the large museum > there, standing among the total rubble of the ancient artifacts and > pictures, etc which the American soldiers pillaged. "My precious > things are all ruined" he lamented. Not only was there no reason to > destroy the telephone system totally, there was also no reason to > destroy the statues and other historical artifacts. That was simply > spite by George Bush and the troops under him. PAT] I thought that they blew it during one of the air raids. I don't recall hearing about it being blown up after Bagdhad was captured. The destruction of the museums was done by looters, and as some folks strongly suspect, by Saddam & Co. as a source of untraceable hard currency during the economic embargo after their eviction from Kuwait. The looters just being encouraged to cover up for their depredations. Things like the vaults being opened by someone who knew the combinations for the looters lead to this suspicion. --Dale ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 17:55:03 GMT In article , palee@riteaid.com says: > Think about what our troops -- and Iraqi civilians -- faced from Iraqi > troops and guerillas in urban areas, including Baghdad. The "bad guys" > wore civilian clothes and hid in hospitals, schools, mosques, and > residences. Can you imagine how much worse it might have been if they > could simply phone each other to share intelligence and coordinate > attacks? > As regrettable as the destruction of the civil infrastructure may be, > it usually saves lives and suffering by disrupting the enemy's ability > to fight effectively and protractedly. And, as we witnessed, the > longer those Iraqi guerillas fought, the more they abused Iraqi > civilians and damaged the infrastructure themselves. Exactly -- I was surprised it took them so long to do it. But that's one of the rules of military actions, knock out power and communications. In the case of television -- get the signal off the air and get yours on as quickly as possible. Confusion is the worst thing for any military force as is having a single commander who everyone reports to. Infrastructure will be rebuilt; I'm sure that Lucent, Avaya and Nortel are just chomping at the bit to install new telecom infrastructure, including wireless. Same goes for GE and Westinghouse -- alot of power systems got taken out too. Add to that major manufacturers of pumps, pipes, filtration systems etc. for the mostly destroyed water and sewer systems. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But notice, the oil wells, they simply chose to guard them and drive away the workers who were there. They did not blow them into smithereens. You want to cut off telecom, you pull the power source. You want to control the radio stations, you go in to take them over and make the announcers get away from the microphones. You do not blow those things into pieces then go back and rebuild them. Ditto with the infrastructure. You do not completely destroy it and let people (remember we are mostly talking about civilians here, not the government people) starve and go thirsty for a month afterward, while they wait for the water to be restarted, and go for several months waiting for the radio station to be back on the air or the telephones to start working again. But the oil wells ... well we need that oil, better not tamper with those wells. And Bush, in his arrogance, still wonders why the citizens there continue to 'sass' and fight his troops even though the 'war' is officially over. Why won't 'those people' be grateful for the stale American-style sandwhich the troops gave them to eat while their water supply was being bombed away along with the telephones and the radio station (however rudimentary those things may have been); it was all those people had, and the Americans, in their spite, took all that away as well. As I mentioned to John Higdon elsewhere in this issue, no matter how rudimentary or 'ass-backward' the telecom in Silicon Valley may be *you keep on using what you have until you build something better*. And consider the poor creatures in the beautiful zoo there in Baghdad. What crimes were those animals guilty of that they had to go hungry once their keepers ran off to save their own lives as the troops were approaching? Those animals, their custodians and the zoo should have been protected also, just like the oil wells were. Some of those American troops -- god bless them -- chose to give their own rations to the hungry animals rather than see *them* punished as well, since the animals had no idea what it was all about anyway. Although Dubya would claim otherwise, you cannot completely destroy a country's infrastructure (telecom, radio, plumbing, etc) as happened in Iraq and expect the citizens to rush over and kiss your ass out of gratitude because you saved them from themselves and their leaders. The *Christian Science Monitor* in an article which included pictures of the massive amounts of rubble in the streets there such as the museum, the telecom exchange, the worship places of the people, and the plumbing pipes and (what used to be) a television station commented that, "we used to have to worry about one Bin Laden starting fights with the American 'great Satan'; we suspect now there will be hundreds of Bin Ladens running around all over, because, after all, the Great American Satan prevailed in the minds of the average citizen there." PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrsoft99@yahoo.com (mrsoft99) Subject: Can DTMF Decoding be Used to Time Keypress-Down-U Events? Date: 3 May 2003 05:26:35 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi All, I'm brainstorming a remote control device for an industrial controller. I'm considering a wireless telephone set, and a good modem in a windows system. But I need more info than just buttons 234 were pressed. I need to know when they were pressed and when they were released. Can I use dtmf detection to tell when a button on the telephone keypad has been pressed, that n milliseconds later it still is pressed, and finally when it is released? I either need to poll the dtmf detection (quickly) to get an instantaneous reading of any dtmf tone. Or I need an even to be signaled when the dtmf detection starts, and then stops. I want to do this with visual basic and perhaps TAPI. I suspect that either by design, or by dint of all the hardware and software levels involved, that I can't get the keypress down/up events with the timing resolution I need, which is, say, 100 milliseconds. But I'd sure like to. ------------------------------ From: Roy Smith Subject: Re: Study: Cell Phones Put Planes at Risk Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 09:43:25 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Monty Solomon wrote: > In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bans > the use of cell phones on airplanes because of worries that calls > could interfere with a plane's navigation system. It's actually not the FAA that bans cell phones on planes (even The West Wing got that wrong in a recent episode). There are two different ways in which cell phone use on planes is prohibited, neither of which is directly due to the FAA, i.e. you will not find anything in 14 CFR (commonly known as the Federal Aviation Regulations) which says "no person shall use a cellular telephone in an airplane". First, the FCC bans cell phone use in flight. The driving factor here is not interference with the aircraft's systems, but messing up the cellular call routing algorithms because the increased elevation allows your phone to see many more cell sites than it normally would. Second, the FAA requires aircraft operators to control the use of "portable electronic devices", which means everything from cell phones to laptops, gameboys, and walkmen. The operator is required to allow or disallow use of a specific device or class of devices based on the operator's determination if use of the device poses a risk to the aircraft. The following two URLs provide more details: http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/cellular/operations/aircraft.html http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/acs/ac91211a.pdf ------------------------------ From: invert everything left of the @ to reply <6212hgk@newsguy.com> Subject: Finding Answering Machine w/Decent Audio & Longer Access Code Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 06:56:41 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com -Ladies and gentlement of c.d.t and c.d.t.t: Your assistance is requested in the selection of an answering machine w/ decent audio at playback and with a four digit or longer remote access code. 1. I've bought two of the tapeless devices (Panasonic and Radio Shack), and the sound is actually worse than microcassette models. Tinny, highly distorted, can't make out what the other party told me. 2. Recent reports of overseas crackers changing the OGM to allow the ATT robot operator to accept inordinantly expensive calls make me want a good security code for remote access, yet the Panasonics only have three digit codes and the Radio shacks only a two digit code. Neither is acceptable securitywise. Your thoughtful on-topic responses to this newsgroup will be appreciated. Thank you kindly. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing with the Radio Shack tapeless recorder (it is called Digital Voice Recorder, catalog 14-1193, model DR-83) is the little tiny built in speaker does not do it justice. They should have built it without a speaker. I have one here and use it to make short, quick recordings of things, however you can record up to 90 minutes in total, divided over three 'folders' to put the recordings in. If you take the 'ear' and 'mic' jacks on the top of it and run them to external devices you do get rather decent audio quality (as long as you put decent quality in; the old garbage in, garbage out theory applies. But I have attached the Radio Shack DVR to my Bose radio's 'line out' connection, feeding the 'mic' on the DVR. Then I have played back the recording from 'ear' to the AUX input on the Bose ... the sound quality is rather good. No doubt the Bose on both ends of it contributed greatly to it. But for a tiny thing which fits in the palm of your hand, holding 90 minutes of decent audio quality recorded 'on the fly' so to speak is pretty good. Don't forget the GIGO theory; it matters in the case of RS equipment of that little size. The tiny microphone and tiny speaker in the overall tiny unit really don't help any. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dejausenet@yahoo.com (tom williams) Subject: Wanted: Least Expensive, Unlimited Use Blackberry Service Date: 3 May 2003 02:47:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ My current Blackberry reseller ISP rcn.com dropped Blackberry service and I am looking to replace it ... want to stay with my small Blackberry model 950 ... using it only for regular email; not looking for web or phone combo. I would appreciate suggestions for cost effective plan; was previously on Mobitex system. Please cc any responses to email also. tx tom ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 11:31:34 GMT John Schmerold wrote: > I don't get why Vonage insists on the 1+ dialing. Some areas have mandatory 1+10D dialing; Vonage may be trying to standardize its system rather than having each switch follow local dialing rules. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Isn't that, while an admirable goal, something better handled at each Vonage switch rather than imposing on users? Let the user's dial ten digits, which is logical, then if a community demands a leading 1 (or not) have the Vonage switch insert it (or not). PAT] ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 18:07:06 GMT In article , John@katy.com says: > If anyone hears of a way to eliminate need to dial 1, I'd appreciate > hearing about it. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks, then I'll > buy a hotdialler. This seems like overkill for a stupid problem. I > don't get why Vonage insists on the 1+ dialling. It's too bad that phones never built in a feature to buffer the digits and prepend the local 1+NPA so seven digits would be possible. I've got one of the cheapied RS 900MHz units that stores your area code so CLID is 7 digits for local calls but it doesn't work the other way. ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 11:40:12 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , barry.margolin@level3.com says: > Yes, it is. I wonder why the Feds haven't gotten on the bandwagon? > Virtually all spam is inter-state (and often international), so > shouldn't this be within the authority of the federal government? Why > are all the states wasting their time enacting their own, conflicting > laws instead of pressuring Congress to make one, all-encompassing law? What's the point? The federal government can't enforce the laws it has now. If they enact spam restrictions with civil penalties, not only will the courts be more clogged than they already are, but most spam operations will move overseas (many already are using Chinese servers), and so will be unenforceable anyway. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As has been pointed out here in the past, spammers who wish to do business in the USA have to have some American agent. The way you collect money on fines, in this case is by freezing their bank account or Paypal account, etc. Nothing is perfect, but its a long way from calling it 'unenforceable'. Some of you guys have such a defeatist attitude about spam. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 13:05:00 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Identity Theft Prompts Insurers To Change By DIANE LEVICK, Courant Staff Writer With identity theft on the rise, many health insurers including Aetna and CIGNA are moving to replace members' identification cards with new ones that don't show Social Security numbers. Thieves hijack Social Security numbers to steal money and commit fraud, because the number is a key to opening accounts and obtaining additional information on a person. Many health insurers have long used Social Security numbers as member identification numbers, displaying them on ID cards, checks, statements of benefits paid and other documents. But that's about to change in Connecticut and around the nation because of a new California law and pressure from consumers and companies. http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-memberid.artapr26,0,2182381.story ------------------------------ From: Doug Aspinwall Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 08:13:25 -0400 Organization: Absolutely none whatsoever! (Just ask my wife.) Jim Mann wrote in message news:telecom22.423.9@telecom-digest.org: > jim evans wrote: >> I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please >> direct me to the appropriate group for this question. >> I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages >> everytime I return home. So I have two questions. >> 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that >> there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on >> some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. >> 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a >> box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? > As the editor noted, Radio Shack does sell such a gadget. Their box > works fairly well. It flashes a red LED light when there is new voice > mail. It works by checking for the stutter tone a short time after > the phone stops ringing. When the phone is later taken off hook and > then on hook (say to check voice mail), it will then check a short > time later too. There is no need for any special code from the telco, > it is entirely operated by the stutter tone. > Perhaps there are other ways for the telco to send a signal, but I > have not seen any boxes to receive it. (Perhaps there is such an > animal integrated into a caller ID box) I have a BellSouth Caller ID box, model CI-165, that has two LED's at the bottom. The left one is red and is labeled "New call". The right one is green and is labeled "Voice Mail". Since I still use an answering machine, I don't know if the voice mail indicator works. I think I paid about $10.00 (maybe less) for the box, and I think I got it at Lowe's. Doug Aspinwall n3hzn@selkeith.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #427 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 4 00:39:42 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h444dfL25714; Sun, 4 May 2003 00:39:42 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 00:39:42 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305040439.h444dfL25714@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #428 TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 May 2003 00:40:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 428 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Point Roberts WA and Other Unique Localities (Mark J Cuccia) Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon (Monty Solomon) Re: Ooh, Cows! (John Higdon) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Dave Garland) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Joseph) Re: Switch to Different ISP Connection For Continous Connect (Breuckman) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Dave Phelps) Blogging Survey (Tom Johnson) Re: Cell Phone Dialing, Area Code Statistics (John R. Levine) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 19:36:39 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Point Roberts WA and Other Unique Localities Re: Hyder AK USA / Stewart BC Canada, Laura Halliday wrote: > There have been other cross-border phone setups. Point Roberts, > Washington was 604-945 (and part of the Greater Vancouver local > calling area) until quite recently. It became 206-945 (now 360-945) > when the FCC demanded that BCTel provide all the same bells and > whistles regarding long-distance carriers and such that other people > in Washington had. BCTel pulled the plug instead. First, for those not familiar with the geographic and political/ jurisdictional situation, Point Roberts WA is located just south of the 48th degree latitude and jurisdictionally part of the USA, but it is physically a peninsula off the southwest tip of the mainland of the Canadian Province of British Columbia. The only way to drive between the rest-of-the state of WA (and the US itself) and Point Roberts WA is to drive a "backhaul" route through Canada (British Columbia). I've seen numbering/routing/billing documentation from AT&T dated in the 1970s (and 80s), such as the Distance Dialing Reference Guide, the Operating Rate & Route Guide, and the Traffic Routing Guide, and all references to Point Roberts back then were under NPA 206, as 206-945. (GTE's) BC-Tel *might* have "protected" 604-945 as not to be assigned, so that the BC-Tel switch in Delta/Beachgrove/Ladner BC which provided dialtone to Point Roberts WA could allow seven-digit dialing between the two sides of the border ... the other 604-NNX codes on the BC/Canada side (Delta, Beachgrove, Ladner, etc. BC) were mostly of the 604-94x range as well. Of course, this would all have been (GTE-Automatic Electric) Step back in the "olden" days, and there might have been a time when FIVE-digit dialing was done amongst Ladner/Beachgrove/Delta/etc. BC (Canada) and Point Roberts WA (USA). But even back in the 1970s timeframe, the "official" identity of Point Roberts WA USA was in (western) WA state's NPA of 206 as 206-945, and not under BC's 604 NPA, even though 604-945 might have been "protected" and even "could" work when dialed from outside depending on 3-vs-6-digit translations in toll and tandem switches, etc. About three years ago, I found out from the Whidbey Telephone Company (independent telco) in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, that they took over the operations of Point Roberts WA back in 1988, some fifteen years ago. The main reason that service was transferred from (GTE-held) BC Tel over to Whidbey Telco, was due to federal/state tax records. It seems that BCTel never paid any Washington State taxes, nor any US Federal Taxes for their US (Point Roberts WA) operations. Never mind that they had never been billed by the state or federal government for taxes, but when it was discovered that no taxes were paid, then all h*ll started breaking loose. There were all kinds of state regulatory hearings on how to handle the situation, where maybe (US-based) GTE (of the Northwest, which is quite dominant as an independent LEC in OR/WA/ID) might take over the paperwork (taxes, etc) for the US-side and customers in Point Roberts WA, while still being served for dialtone off a (GTE-held) BCTel c.o.switch in *CANADA*. I don't remember the exact reason why (US) GTE-of-the-Northwest wasn't chosen to take over Point Roberts (so that GTE-held BC-Tel could still provide dialtone), maybe they really weren't "interested"??? But after various state regulatory public hearings, the independent Whidbey Telephone Company in the Puget Sound area was chosen for its bid. They would install a 5ESS-Remote at Point Roberts, to connect with the rest of the network via Whidbey telco's hosts 5ESSes and tandems further south in Puget Sound, via a new Microwave link. This did mean that they would no longer get their dialtone from BC-Tel in Canada. What would this mean for local calling with the Ladner/ Beachgrove/Delta BC ratecenters? (I don't think that Ladner/Beachgrove/ Delta at that time, in 1988, necessarily had local/EAS with all of the Vancouver BC Metro area -- I know that BC-Telus did some MAJOR EAS enhancements in 2000 (or so) for the Vancouver Metro area, which also involved expanding EAS for the Ladner/Beachgrove/Delta BC) There were supposedly some attempts at keeping some kind of link between the new 5ESS-Remote switch in Point Roberts WA with the GTD-5 in Delta BC (which continued to serve the Ladner/Beachgrove/Delta region), but there would also need to be tariffed/documented EAS (on the books) with the Washington State regulatory agency, the "other" Washington (DC, the FCC that is) since this involved "international" telephone service between the US and Canada, and the CRTC. There at least WAS some kind of attempt to allow BC-Tel and Whidbey Telco, to have a trunk connecting the two central offices, "grandfathering" the local service between the two ratecenters, but for various reasons (which weren't all that clear to me when I spoke with reps from Whidbey Telco a few years ago), it all "fell through" probably due to conflicts in settlements policies between the two telcos. Thus, by Summer or Fall 1988, Point Roberts WA USA customers were now getting their dialtone from Whidbey Telco's new 5ESS-Remote located at Point Roberts WA, and there was no longer any local service between Point Roberts WA USA and Ladner/Beachgrove/Delta BC Canada. It has remained that way ever since. Of course, in early 1995, NPA 206, western WA state, was split, with the greater Seattle Metro area retaining 206 (and then subsequently split again in 1997), while the "outer" parts became NPA 360. Point Roberts WA did become 360-945. I did a check of Ray Chow's Canadian (and US) Exchange and Local Calling Area website, http://www.hwcn.org/Information/NEST/technol/communic/lca/ (main page), and Point Roberts WA is served by a *remote* switch owned by Whidbey Telco, and its local calling area is *ITSELF ONLY*, apparently not even (base) EAS with other "nearby" Whidbey Telco ratecenters/ exchanges/c.o.switches. My guess is what "triggered" the "investigations" back in the later 1980s, was that all along through 1984, calls to Point Roberts WA from the US were routed via AT&T Long Lines to the AT&T 4A, later AT&T 4ESS, in Seattle WA and then 206-945 was translated there to route over to (GTE's) BCTel 4A (later DMS-200) in Vancouver BC, and then on to Ladner/ Beachgrove/Delta in British Columbia (Canada). Since the actual called customer was in the USA at Point Roberts WA, the calling (or at least BILLED) customer was charged regular "US" FCC tariffed in-TER-state rates, or if WA-state-regulatory tariffed in-TRA-state rates, instead of international (US-to-Canada schedule-2 rates). AT&T/Pac-NW-Bell and BC-Tel/Trans-Canada-Telephone simply worked out their own internal settlements amongst themselves. Even in the first few years of divestiture, most traffic was still handled by AT&T-Communications in similar manners. But when Equal Access came about, even though Whidbey Telephone and other independents in the US weren't necessarily "required" to provide it on an originating calling basis, all points might need to be routed to in different manners, because of intra-vs-inter LATA, where AT&T wasn't necessarily going to provide their network for intra-LATA "only" calls. The BOCs (and other LECs) were to now build separate "parallel" switching and networks for in-tra-LATA toll calling, separate from the pre-existing AT&T network which would now be used strictly for long-haul or in-TER-LATA calls. And MCI and Sprint, etc. would now have to also rely on the BOCs (or independent LECs in a few LATAs and situations) to terminate calls to all (or most all) points within that LATA. Point Roberts WA was a "unique" case -- on PAPER, it was to be associated with US-West/Pac-NW-Bell's "Seattle WA Metro" LATA. But there were no direct trunks with the AT&T 4E in Seattle, nor direct trunks to the new Pac-NW-Bell LATA tandems in Seattle, nor trunks to any nearby WA state independent (such as Whidbey Telco) with access tandems. Point Roberts WA USA was to be considered a *US* location (rather than associated with any "dummy" or "pseudo" LATAs in Canada)... but it would have required specific and major contractual negotiations between Pac-NW-Bell/US-West with AT&T/MCI/Sprint and GTE's BC-Tel in Canada to "handle" the traffic between Point Roberts WA via Vancouver BC, with the rest-of-the-USA via Seattle WA. This would have been in the 1985/86 timeframe, when most BOCs began to install their *own* LATA tandems and Operator Services LATA TOPS switches, separate from the (inter-LATA) AT&T 4Es and Operator Services TSPS switches. The "unique" situation of how calls to Point Roberts WA were handled must have triggered some questions as to "why", "how long", etc., and then the "tax issue" came up! :( There have been other unique situations such as Point Roberts WA, not necessarily "border towns", although most are near statelines, or involve two different states, but mostly have to do with network access in a post-divestiture world. One such unique case is Fisher's Island NY, an exclusive community on an island just off the northeast tip of Long Island, which had trunked to "the world" (and still does for the most part) via an underwater cable later microwave link with New Haven CT, via SNET later AT&T. Initially, Fishers' Island was to have been included with SNET Connecticut LATA #920. But NY State didn't want a NY based jurisdiction associated with a non-NY-based LATA. Since Fishers' Island did *NOT* trunk via NYNEX in Long Island, it was decided to make the island its OWN LATA, #921. This has caused some problems over the year, since the local c.o.switch on the island is not an "access tandem" for LD carriers. And supposedly, SNET being a LEC, can't "cross LATA boundaries" and provide alternate access for providing any regular Equal Access interim translations/routings. AT&T did choose to place a microwave tower on the island (thus establishing a POP - point-of-presence) for connecting the place with the "rest-of-the-US/NANP/world" -- the underwater cable connecting the island with CT was old and outdated and also owned by SNET rather than AT&T. And for the most part, no other LD carrier really wants to provide "basic" originating access (other than for calling such 800/888/etc. numbers resp'org'd with that LD-carrier, and similar special access situation), nor are they actually required to. Fishers' Island Telco's local c.o.switch has the *capability* for originating equal access, but it is up to the LD carriers to extend their own facilities to the island for such originating access. And they really don't seem to lease off of any of (competitor) AT&T's microwave capacity. It has been "messy" over the years for Fishers' Island because of their unique LATA situation, whenever a new network issue comes up, such as full and complete toll-free number porting via the database, or 500-NXX or 900-NXX or 950 access, or 911, 411, etc. Mostly AT&T and SNET do what they can (legally) to provide proper and full service to Fishers' Island NY, but there have always been special case "human intervention" situations to make sure that the customers there have the basic new or modified network access services that are offered to virtually everyone else in the US without much trouble. It's been about two or three years since I studied the Fishers' Island situation, but I doubt that anything has significantly changed since then. I do know that when NPA 631 split off for Suffolk County LI NY (with Nassau County LI NY retaining NPA 516), Fishers' Island being part of Suffolk County, changed to the new NPA 631. This brought to light some of the "uniqueness" of their access situation, since LD carriers had to do special "human intervention" into upgrading translations, so that 631-788 would route TO AT&T on calls placed to Fishers' Island. This special "route-via-AT&T" instruction had mostly become obsolete except for special network overload situations, by 1999 -- MCI/Sprint/etc. mostly have trunks going to virtually every LATA, and thus to every LEC's tandem in that LATA if they don't have direct trunks to a particular end-office, and no longer had to go "offnet" via AT&T as often as in the past. Another "odd" situation includes Eppes Fork VA, which is physically reached via North Carolina. It too was made into its own unique LATA #930 shortly after divestiture, yet there is no tandem of any kind in that LATA. In the early or mid 1990s, the Eppes Fork VA ratecenter was re-associated with (I think) the Rocky Mount NC (independent) Sprint-United-CarolinaTel LATA. This allows LD routings to (and from) the ratecenter more effectively. However, the LATA code/entry for a distinct Eppes Fork VA LATA #930, has only recently been removed from Telcordia-TRA documentation/databases/listings. But ANY kind of "border" town involving two/more states or involving both the US and Canada (or US and Mexico) has always been somewhat difficult to apply all of the new and always evolving telecom rules. And there are other such border towns throughout the NANP, but the three that always come to mind for me are: Point Roberts WA, Fishers' Island NY, and Eppes Fork VA. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 16:00:24 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Broad Domestic Role Asked for C.I.A. and the Pentagon By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans sought today to give the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon far-reaching new powers to demand personal and financial records on people in the United States as part of foreign intelligence and terrorism operations, officials said. The proposal, which was beaten back, would have given the C.I.A. and the military the authority to issue administrative subpoenas - known as "national security letters" - requiring Internet providers, credit card companies, libraries and a range of other organizations to produce materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs. That authority now rests largely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the subpoenas do not require court approval. The surprise proposal was tucked into a broader intelligence authorization bill now pending before Congress. It set off fierce debate today in a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, officials said. Democrats on the panel said they were stunned by the proposal because it appeared to expand significantly the role of the C.I.A. and the Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, despite a long history of tight restrictions, officials said. After raising objections, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and other Democrats succeeded in getting the provision pulled from the authorization bill, at least temporarily, Congressional officials said. In a closed vote, the committee passed the bill unanimously without the proposal. But Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas Republican who is chairman of the intelligence committee, indicated to panel members that he wanted to hold further hearings on the idea, officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/02/international/worldspecial/02TERR.html ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 14:23:18 -0700 In article , > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If building something new and modern, > i.e. a 21st century telecommunications infrastructure for Iraq was the > *real* intent (in other words, a humane activity) there, then the > *old* would have been preserved and used while the new one was > constructed. Don't you think that there is a much better chance of something "new and modern" being constructed if there is nothing there at all? If the old one is there, "working just fine", then it would probably remain indefinitely. > Just because you, as an example, have sort of ass-back- > wards telecom in Silicon Valley (you have said so yourself) should the > entire thing be put out of service, in other words torn down, so a new > system could be built? I would vote for that in a heartbeat. San Jose, as a city, has probably among the worst telecommunications connectivity in the country. Third-world countries turn up their noses at us. And we pay dearly for it. I'm convinced that the only way it is EVER going to be fixed would be for some major disaster that requires the rebuilding of major parts of the infrastructure. About all we get here are earthquakes, so I guess that's what it will have to be. > What do you do in the meantime for service while your 'old regime > artifact' called early 20th century telecom gets torn down and > replaced? It's called "wireless". > I cannot believe no one thought of that > before the Americans, in their spite, bombed the old telecom building > out of existence. They were not thinking in humane terms 'oh, these > poor people, they need modern telecom in their quest for liberty and > the American Way ... we better get this old telecom thing out of the > way so we can start building a new one.' PAT] The important thing is that we WILL rebuild it, and we will rebuild it much better than it ever was. While there were casualties and some property destruction, this is the first war ever that intently focused on the regime and not the citizens or the structures at large. In past wars, those involved in the war laid waste to entire countries before even touching the leaders responsible for the war in the first place. Ordinary citizens were killed by the thousands. Entire cities had to be rebuilt from scratch. Rebuilding and modernizing one lousy telephone exchange is a triviality by comparison. I'm quite envious of Baghdad. When we get through with that place, it will put Silicon Valley's telecommunications infrastructure to shame, as do most of the rest of the cities of the world. In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to tonypo1@sdc.cox.net: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So peace keeping missions are a waste > of time? Better just get in there and kill them all; let God sort it > out, right? I sure am glad you set me straight on that. PAT] Well, we did solve in thirty days what had been previously festering for twelve years, and was going nowhere towards a solution. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 16:54:17 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when John Higdon wrote: > I don't think the preservation of an old, obsolete telephone > exchange was high on the list of old-regime artifacts that > needed to be preserved. It couldn't have been that old and obsolete, since (as reported in Newsweek and quoted in TELECOM Digest) the secret police agents were told not to make harrassing telephone calls from their office, because Iraqis who had Caller ID were calling the agency to complain. It was a dark and stormy night when tonypo1@sdc.cox.net wrote: > I wonder if they're including that now in Army and Marine training? How > to be cop to the world. One would hope so, because it's not like this is the first time it's come up. Virtually everywhere the Army gets sent, and this has been true for years, it complains that it is not trained in police or peacekeeping work. It's hard to know whether the continued lack of training is just due to incompetent brass who are incapable of learning, or to politicians who willfully disregard the issue, refusing to direct and fund training that they know full well will be required. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 15:19:39 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Fri, 02 May 2003 22:13:13 -0700, John Higdon wrote: > You can't build something new until you tear down the old. Somehow, I > don't think the preservation of an old, obsolete telephone exchange > was high on the list of old-regime artifacts that needed to be > preserved. As far as *real* artifacts they weren't deemed to be as valuable as the oil fields which were secured. None of the museums were secured however. Priorities I say! Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am sure glad they remembered to secure the oil wells. That was the important thing, just ask Dubya. No need to worry about the museums and their historic artifacts from the ancient history of the county or the middle east. Why would they want to bother with thousand year old stone carvings of Buddha or things found in 'digs' by the Biblical Archeological Society which had been placed in museums to be seen by all interested people or other items from ancient history. Smash 'em! Break them up! Ditto the helpless animals left in cages at the zoo with no food when their custodians fled for their lives after releasing the monkeys and other harmless animals to go out and fend for themselves. You are right about priorities; the oil wells had to be preserved whatever the cost. Don't worry about the phones or the plumbing or decent food or water to drink. Smash 'em all, bust them up! Why, the folks there will be so glad, so happy to have been 'rescued' by us and started on their way to an American lifestyle they'll soon forget about the rest of it. No need for television and radio stations or movies either. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Switch to Different ISP Connection For Continous Connectivity? Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 18:00:52 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com > Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote in message > news:: >> Delip Singh wrote: >>> Currently DNS resolve mydomain.com to IP address provided by ISP1 and >>> all traffic comev via ISP1. How can I make a provision that if link to >>> ISP1 is broken, all the traffic can be directed to my webserver via >>> ISP2? >> The IP address to which a domain resolves is cached by DNS servers >> literally around the world. When the IP address for a webserver is >> changed, it can take several days before all the caches are updated. >> To provide the connectivity you're talking about will require the >> cooperation of someone upstream from your webserver; you have to have a >> stable IP with solid connectivity someplace. There are some parameters that are part of the DNS definitions, the one relevent here is "Time-To-Live" which specifies how long a non-authoritive server (one that's caching your data, from your server) is allowed to keep the data. The TTL can be set to a relatively small value, say 10 minutes, and after that time is required to check with your server (the authority) to see if the data has been updated and needs to be refreshed. There are also ways to specify more than one IP address, but they are given out in a round-robin fashion, to provide for load sharing, not really intended for when one address is down. >> Probably the simplest solution is to use a "dynamic DNS" hosting >> service; they will resolve your domain to one of their servers, so your >> DNS remains constant, it's just not one of "your" IP addresses. A >> small application runs on your webserver, continually sending to the >> DynDNS company's machine; they forward traffic to whatever IP your >> webserver is currently broadcasting from. >> Just google (note lowercase use of a trademark :-) "dynamic DNS" and >> you'll get all the information you need. And just why would "dynamic DNS" avoid the cache problem? The key is the TTL, and having the ability to update the authoritive server when the address changes. This is what the dynamic DNS provider does, but a "dynamic DNS" provider is not what's needed, just the ability to make the changes. -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 21:15:43 -0500 Organization: www.tippenring.com In article , TELECOM Digest Editor once again had to remind tippenring@deadspam.com : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As has been pointed out here in the > past, spammers who wish to do business in the USA have to have some > American agent. The way you collect money on fines, in this case is > by freezing their bank account or Paypal account, etc. Nothing is > perfect, but its a long way from calling it 'unenforceable'. Some > of you guys have such a defeatist attitude about spam. PAT] I wouldn't say it's a defeatist attitude. If the government gets involved, that *will* be defeat. I don't want the government meddling with the internet. Once the government gets involved, then they start telling you that they need to collect a tax to pay for all the "good stuff" they're doing, which is frequently nothing more than passing a law. Sometimes it involves creating a new government bureaucracy that mostly pushes paper and has lots of meetings. Look at social security. It's nothing but a legal Ponzi scheme, and it's time is just about up. How about Medicare? Look at almost any real business the government has had a hand in. They drive it into the ground, then pass laws to prevent it from actually crashing. People that expect the government to babysit them (usually the same people whose business is obsolete, or people that think they're entitled to government handouts) want the government to pass a law to control this, or prevent that, instead of letting the free market control things. The government is all too willing to oblige them because that means the people are even more dependent on the government. It's a vicious circle that feeds itself until there is no money left for the government to take. No, I don't want the government to stick its nose in the internet. I think, as more people become disgusted with spam, and begin using services like spamcop (which puts pressure on the ISPs that host spammers and spam sites) the less ROI spammers, and ISPs that host them, will see. And honestly, how can you legally prevent someone from sending spam anyway? Any government regulation restricting spam would no doubt be constitutionally challenged under the first amendment. Dave Phelps Phone Masters Ltd. deadspam=tippenring [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You really cannot prevent people from sending worthless, garbage messages. We no longer have a 1980's internet where all the participants are connected with universities as students or staff. And as more and more of the 'unwashed masses' get involved, the average quality of the messages will continue to decrease. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tjohnson@siu.edu (Tom Johnson) Subject: Blogging Survey Date: 3 May 2003 14:26:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hello! My research partner and I are professors at University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. We are conducting an online survey that examines the motivations for accessing Weblogs. We are specifically looking for individuals who connect to Weblogs to fill out our survey. We would greatly appreciate if you are a blogger to fill out the survey as well as to forward it to your friends who are bloggers. The URL for the survey is http://apps.ws.utk.edu/weblogs/ Also, if you have a weblog, we were wondering if it would be possible for you to link to our survey? All we are asking is for an icon that directs bloggers to the survey URL. If you could keep the link towards the top until May 7, we would greatly appreciate it. Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com has given us a link and further he knows us and can verify that our survey is for academic purposes only. Your help would be greatly appreciated and we would be more than willing to share our findings with you. Please contact my research assistant if you are willing to give us a link. Her e-mail address is ltesta@utk.edu Sincerely, Barbara Kaye Dept. of Broadcasting University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN 37996 bkk@utk.edu ------------------------------ Date: 4 May 2003 03:21:28 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Cell Phone Dialing; Area Code Statistics Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But you know why that is? My AT&T cell > phone (Nokia 5165) does the same thing. That's not some brilliant job > of routing calls by telcos; the Nokia 5100 series of phones (at least, > maybe certain other cell phones as well) has something built in the > software which if it only gets seven digits when dialed it automatically > prepends the area code it is registered in to the start of the dialing > string. So does my Cingular Wireless phone (also a Nokia 5165). I have a Cingular 5165 and 7D dialing only works on my home network. When I'm anywhere else, Cingular or otherwise, 7D calls all go to a recording saying they couldn't be completed as dialed. It looks to me like the 7D magic is in the switch, not the phone. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe so; all I can say with authority is how my Nokia 5165 phone worked when it was registered with AT&T in *Chicago* but I was here in Kansas and being picked up by the Dobson Cell Towers (of Dobson Cellular One) and how Cingular Wireless (which is also registered in Chicago, but on a 'national account' status with 'national service' (no roaming charges) works under the same circumstances from the same place, here, also as a Nokia 5165. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #428 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 4 20:37:47 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h450bld00794; Sun, 4 May 2003 20:37:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 20:37:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305050037.h450bld00794@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #429 TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 May 2003 20:38:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 429 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Playing the Domain Game (Network Administrator) Cisco Enables Internet Wiretaps (Monty Solomon) Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy (Monty Solomon) DVD-by-Mail Company Bites at Blockbuster (Monty Solomon) Legislator Pushes for Total Cellphone Coverage (Monty Solomon) Putting TV at Your Beck and Call (Monty Solomon) iLoo - MSN Goes Down the Pan (Monty Solomon) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (George Hand) Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? (John R. Levine) Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing (John R. Levine) Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing (Ted Rathkopf) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: admin@terapeta.net (Network Administrator) Subject: Playing the Domain Game Date: 3 May 2003 11:53:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ ICANN has Failed - Domain Names are Worthless - and the Law is deceived! Who shall lead the Internet Domain Name System in the Future? Washington 30 April 03 See http://law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v51/no2/golemac1.PDF Who is it? 1. extortioner 2. butterfly 3. perv _______________________________________________________________ INTERNET DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for all people to join the political bands which have long separated us from each other, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's Creator entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel us to unity. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of eternal happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. That when any form of government relinquishes their authority, that government becomes a blessing to everyone. The past, present, and future Internet Overseers' accept full responsibility for the future of the planet, the children of the world, and the distribution of information thereof; and to institute a new system, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the safety and happiness of all. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind is more prone to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. It is the right and solemn duty of free people to provide new guards for the security of all. The history of the world shall show that democracy has and always will triumph over tyranny. The present governing agency has willingly assented to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. That the financial resources of the planet have contributed to the growth of the Internet. Thereby, the present government overseeing committee has caused others to be elected; whereby the capable powers, have returned to the people at large for their exercise. That we understand that this decree shall never render any military organization independent of and superior to the civil power and right of the people. This global document shall ensure that free trade shall be open to all and remain with all peoples of the free world. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall impose taxes on the Internet without the consent of the free people of the world. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall deprive us of the benefits of Trial by Jury. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall transport any Internet community members beyond seas and national boundaries, which boundaries shall have been previously ascertained by international law, to be tried for pretended offenses. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall take away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and alter fundamentally the forms of our independent governments. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall suspend our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. That the people of all nations shall be declared in the protection and waging of war from any power that may try to come against us. That any character of government, whose every act which may define a tyrant, will be determined unfit to be the ruler of a free people, and shall be deposed. We must, therefore, submit to the necessity, which announces our Unity, as we all mankind, friends in peace. Article I No government shall make Internet law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble in cyberspace, and to petition any government for a redress of grievances. Article II A well regulated Internet security force, being necessary for the protection of the free flow of information, the right of the children to keep themselves from information that has been determined by the majority of people to be declared as offensive material by the parents of said children, shall not be infringed. Article III The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, internet and/or digital transmissions, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall be issued, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Article IV No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land, sea, and air forces, or in the global security forces, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; Article V Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Article VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the governments and nations wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Article VII In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed the legal expenses determined by the people at large, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the Internet counsel, than according to the rules of the common law. Article VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Article IX The enumeration of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Article X The powers not delegated to the Internet community, nor prohibited by it to the nations, are reserved to the nations respectively, and to the people. Article XI That the Internet counsel shall maintain the free flow of information for as long as the Internet is in existence with respect to all people, all nations, and all beliefs. Article XII That a blue butterfly placed within a circle shall become the symbol of peace and harmony throughout the world, signifying an all inclusive system, and that this Internet Declaration of Independence shall not be overthrown by any nation or government; and that all free people shall have the unalienable right to freely express their thoughts; so long as their thoughts do not infringe upon the minds of the children. We, therefore, the representatives of the Internet community, in general congress, assembled in cyberspace, appealing to the Supreme Creator of the universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of the world, solemnly post, publish, and declare, that no boundaries shall exist in the management and administration of the Internet, and of our right to be proclaimed as a free and independent people; and that as independent and free-thinking people, we have the power to contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent free people have the natural given right to do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our honor, our loyalty and our sacred trust. Domain Game Update 2003 Those Playing the Game can download a PDF copy of the declaration @ http://www.postal-service.info/internet-declaration.pdf The game has just begun ... ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 23:51:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cisco Enables Internet Wiretaps SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Addressing a major concern of law enforcement, Cisco Systems has developed a way for police to listen in on Internet-based phone calls without detection. The world's largest maker of networking equipment is testing surveillance products in its labs and making the service available to customers on request, spokesman Jim Brady said. He said Cisco has also built the capabilities into a "limited number" of its products, though none of them have yet been purchased. Cisco developed the "Lawful Intercept Control" service in response to requests from corporate customers, including Internet service providers - but did not work with the government in developing the standard over the past eight months, Brady said. The San Jose-based company submitted a 37-page proposal on its surveillance service to the Internet Engineering Task Force on March 30. The standards organization is accepting comments for six months. Internet phones, which turn voice signals into data packets for transmission over digital networks, have been growing in popularity. Call quality has dramatically improved, and the price is often less than a traditional call. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-05-01-net-taps_x.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 00:08:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Software Bullet Is Sought to Kill Musical Piracy By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN Some of the world's biggest record companies, facing rampant online piracy, are quietly financing the development and testing of software programs that would sabotage the computers and Internet connections of people who download pirated music, according to industry executives. The record companies are exploring options on new countermeasures, which some experts say have varying degrees of legality, to deter online theft: from attacking personal Internet connections so as to slow or halt downloads of pirated music to overwhelming the distribution networks with potentially malicious programs that masquerade as music files. The covert campaign, parts of which may never be carried out because they could be illegal under state and federal wiretap laws, is being developed and tested by a cadre of small technology companies, the executives said. If employed, the new tactics would be the most aggressive effort yet taken by the recording industry to thwart music piracy, a problem that the IFPI, an industry group, estimates costs the industry $4.3 billion in sales worldwide annually. Until now, most of the industry's anti-piracy efforts have involved filing lawsuits against companies and individuals that distribute pirated music. Last week, four college students who had been sued by the industry settled the suits by agreeing to stop operating networks that swap music and pay $12,000 to $17,500 each. The industry has also tried to frustrate pirates technologically by spreading copies of fake music files across file-sharing networks like KaZaA and Morpheus. This approach, called "spoofing," is considered legal but has had only mild success, analysts say, proving to be more of a nuisance than an effective deterrent. The new measures under development take a more extreme - and antagonistic - approach, according to executives who have been briefed on the software programs. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/04/business/04MUSI.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 09:28:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DVD-by-Mail Company Bites at Blockbuster NETFLIX By Ty Burr, Globe Staff, 5/4/2003 Josh Steinberg, 20, rarely goes out to rent a video anymore, although he's a film student at Emerson College and claims to have a membership ''at every video store in town.'' Instead, he's devoted to Netflix. Diane Sakakini-Rao, 43, a Newton educator and mother of three, says her local Blockbuster is ''remarkably disorganized'' and that Netflix finally lets her catch ''the movies I wanted to see in the theater but never had the time to see.'' Jennifer Subrin, 32, an actor who recently relocated from Somerville to Brooklyn, N.Y., with her painter husband, made sure that Netflix had the couple's new address before she even notified the post office. Either you're among the 2 percent of Eastern Massachusetts households who subscribe to Netflix -- and you're vigorously nodding in agreement -- or you're wholly in the dark. Those seem to be the only two responses to the company. It's difficult, if not impossible, to find someone who doesn't like Netflix. Admittedly, the concept sounds completely counterintuitive. Netflix offers Internet-based DVD rental service: movies by mail. You sign up at the California-based company's website (www.netflix.com), choose one of the subscription packages -- the most popular costs $19.95 a month and lets you rent three movies at a time -- put together a list of titles you'd like to see, and watch them at your leisure. When you're done with a movie, you throw it in the mail, and Netflix sends you the next title in your rental queue. And here's the catchy part: Shipping is free, you keep the discs as long as you want, and there are no late fees. Let's say that again: There are no late fees. It sounds confusing only until you try it. Of those who sign up for the free trial subscription, 90 percent become paid members, and they usually convert their friends: Word of mouth is a chief reason that Netflix has gone from zero subscribers to more than a million in 3 1/2 years. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/124/living/DVD_by_mail_company_bites_at_Blockbuster+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 09:30:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Legislator Pushes For Total Cellphone Coverage Towns, companies express skepticism By Connie Paige, Globe Correspondent, 5/4/2003 One in an occasional series of stories on issues behind pending bills proposed by area legislators. In a new twist on the ''not in my backyard'' phenomenon, a state lawmaker is promoting a bill that would require wireless communications companies to construct transmission towers in regions with poor cellular phone reception or none at all. State Representative Jennifer Callahan, the bill's author, believes that wireless companies have an obligation to provide equal service to all customers regardless of where they live, and to enhance economic growth and public safety. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/124/west/Legislator_pushes_for_total_cellphone_coverage+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 09:38:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Putting TV at Your Beck and Call TIVO By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff, 5/4/2003 It sits at home patiently, humming airily to itself, the unconditional parent of every flake who ever forgot to tape ''The West Wing,'' the tolerant teacher of all the poor sods who need a bathroom break during ''Six Feet Under,'' the loyal secretary to millions of time crunchers who want to see ''American Idol'' whittled down to its eight -- make that seven -- essential minutes. It is, as FCC Chairman Michael Powell put it in January, nothing less than ''God's machine,'' and fie and woe be to those pagans and sinners who turn away from its profound possibility. It is a ticket to liberation, the first deep blush of a new generation of techie transformation. Yes, this is a shameless love letter to the PVR, a.k.a. the DVR, which is superior to the VCR but less known than the DVD, even if it's most like that common piece of hardware, the PC. This is an unapologetic gusher about the hard to describe but easy to use Personal Video Recorder, the digital device that will put TV and the networks at your beck and call -- if you let it. Right now, the most visible PVR brand is TiVo, a name that, like Google, or Xerox, has entered the American lexicon and been turned into a verb, as in ''I TiVoed that show.'' But cable companies are already experimenting with PVR technology in some regions, building it directly into cable boxes. Before too long, PVRs may be as common as remote controls. I admit, the PVR doesn't exactly sound revolutionary, or TiVolutionary, as the TiVo promotional department likes to put it. Descriptions of its uses sound like so much technical mumbo jumbo, a fact that has dogged TiVo since it came to the market in 1999. The PVR is a difficult machine to summarize without sounding like an instruction manual, and thus it has been hard for its creators to publicize. TiVo Inc., based in Alviso, Calif., has sold only 624,000 machines, a number that comprises about one-third of America's PVR sales. Cleverly, TiVo handed out free boxes to influential celebrities such as Jay Leno, thinking that once they used them, they'd rave. TiVo was right. The zealotry of its users, and the word-of-mouth sales that engendered, have been critical to its survival. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/124/living/Putting_TV_at_your_beck_and_call+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 15:20:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: iLoo - MSN Goes Down the Pan [PC Pro] 12:52 MSN is hoping its Internet-enabled portable toilet will attract plenty of visitors at this year's summer festivals. Hazarding a visit to a cubicle in one of the stinking rows of portaloos at Glastonbury is usually a desperate eleventh-hour affair. But MSN is hoping punters will be queueing up to log on to its iLoo, which will feature a waterproof wireless keyboard and adjustable plasma screen, giving them broadband access to the odourless world of the Internet. It will even feature six-channel surround sound. http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=41709 ------------------------------ From: George Hand Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 02:36:00 -0400 Organization: Mountain Cablevision Nortel has several phones (mine's a M9417) that has a huge red LED under the LCD to indicate a message waiting. Try your local telco, that's where I got mine! George Doug Aspinwall wrote in message news:telecom22.427.14@telecom-digest.org: > Jim Mann wrote in message > news:telecom22.423.9@telecom-digest.org: >> jim evans wrote: >>> I don't know what dcom stands for so if this is the wrong group please >>> direct me to the appropriate group for this question. >>> I recently got Voicemail but it's inconvenient to check for messages >>> everytime I return home. So I have two questions. >>> 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that >>> there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on >>> some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. >>> 2) Are there any gadgets that hook to your computer that throw up a >>> box on your screen notifying you there are messages waiting? >> As the editor noted, Radio Shack does sell such a gadget. Their box >> works fairly well. It flashes a red LED light when there is new voice >> mail. It works by checking for the stutter tone a short time after >> the phone stops ringing. When the phone is later taken off hook and >> then on hook (say to check voice mail), it will then check a short >> time later too. There is no need for any special code from the telco, >> it is entirely operated by the stutter tone. >> Perhaps there are other ways for the telco to send a signal, but I >> have not seen any boxes to receive it. (Perhaps there is such an >> animal integrated into a caller ID box) > I have a BellSouth Caller ID box, model CI-165, that has two LED's at the > bottom. The left one is red and is labeled "New call". The right one is > green and is labeled "Voice Mail". Since I still use an answering machine, > I don't know if the voice mail indicator works. > I think I paid about $10.00 (maybe less) for the box, and I think I got it > at Lowe's. > Doug Aspinwall > n3hzn@selkeith.com ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Voicemail Waiting Indicators? Date: 4 May 2003 02:58:20 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > 1) Is there gadget that flashes a prominent light to signal you that > there are messages waiting? I know about the small indications on > some LCD phones. I don't mean them, I mean a prominent light. I bought a voicemail indicator box from Mike Sandman. It's about the size of a deck of cards and has room on the top for a pad of post-its. The flashing LED indicated is large and bright and easy to see from across the room. It works by taking the line off-hook now and then and listening for stutter dialtone. If your CO sends FSK voicemail status bleeps, it'll use them instead and stop listening for stutter dial. It works OK. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing Date: 4 May 2003 02:54:33 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> I don't get why Vonage insists on the 1+ dialing. > Some areas have mandatory 1+10D dialing; Vonage may be trying to > standardize its system rather than having each switch follow local > dialing rules. I'm pretty sure that there's only one switch back at headquarters in New Jersey. Sniffing the packets going through my router, it was clear that was where the traffic was going, not to the CLEC switch that hosts my phone number. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner, http://iecc.com/johnl, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Vonage 11 Digit Dialing From: Ted Rathkopf Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 15:03:28 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net I ordered 200 oxen, but John Schmerold sent me this instead: > If anyone hears of a way to eliminate need to dial 1, I'd appreciate > hearing about it. I'm going to give it a couple of weeks, then I'll > buy a hotdialler. This seems like overkill for a stupid problem. I > don't get why Vonage insists on the 1+ dialling. Well, if you have a phone with speed dial, you could program one of the speed dial buttons to be the 1 plus your area code. Then you could speed dial those 4, and dial the last 7 manually. Ted Rathkopf ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #429 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 4 21:08:52 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4518pF01124; Sun, 4 May 2003 21:08:52 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 21:08:52 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305050108.h4518pF01124@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #430 TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 May 2003 21:09:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 430 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (Mark J Cuccia) Re: Point Roberts WA and Other Unique Localities (Mark Brader) Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? (Aaron Epstein) Re: Identity Theft Prompts Insurers To Change (Ron Bean) Re: VoicePulse vs Vonage (George) X.400 ISP in Australia (kangurusmoke) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Lisa Wulrich) Re: Ooh, Cows! (John Higdon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 16:14:19 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? They were calling themselves MCI-Worldcom when they merged some five-or-so years ago, and slowly began phasing out the 'MCI' part of the name to use just Worldcom, although "The Neighborhood" last year referred only to 'MCI' in its commercials) ... anyhow ... MCI-Worldcom's Telecom-USA (and even the Telecom-USA name has rarely identified itself publicly as being part of MCI) has come out with yet another so-called "ten-ten-" dialaround. They first had 'ten=ten-three-two-one' some years ago (101-0321+, originally 10-321+), and I forget the "deal" offered on that one. Then they started with 'ten-ten-two-twenty' (101-0220+) which was originally a Western Union LD access code (as 10-220+) back in the 1980s, this 101-0220 having the 1980's TV puppet 'star' ALF as the spokesman along with some other "trendy" pitchmen and celebs, with the "one buck" for twenty minutes, 7-cents a minute after. The "catch" with the 101-0220+ is that ONCE THE LINE ANSWERED, whether wrong number, answering machine/voicemail, or called party really unable to carry on a lenghty conversation at that moment -- you were ding'd for a buck!!! Now there is 'ten-ten-nine-eight-seven' from (MCI-Worldcom's) Telecom-USA. Supposedly 3-c per min (with a 39-cents, I think, per-call connection charge) to anywhere in the US, Candaa, and most of western Europe. They claim no monthly fees -- that is, no monthly 'membership' or plan fees, but obviously basic taxes and other "fees required by the government" such as "network access fees" and Universal Service Fund, etc. are going to be tacked on for any month that one makes billed calls via 101-0987+. I think I have all of the info on charges, fees, taxes, etc., for calling the US/Canada and (most of) western Europe -- of course, rates to other parts of the world will be higher ... but am I missing anything here? It seems "too good to be true", and when things SEEM that way, they USUALLY ARE -- too good to be true. Of course, a 39-c "connection" fee might seem a bit high, but if one knows that their called party will be there and able to talk for a while, it might be a reasonably good deal at 3-cents/min! But then exactly what are they basing the USF on? Is it graduated? Fixed? flat-rate-percentage? I wonder if they get upset with data/fax/modem calls, or if one 3-ways two calls from the same number with 101-0987+ ?? Anyone have any experience or comments? Thanks! Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Point Roberts WA and Other Unique Localities Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 13:35:30 EDT From: msb@vex.net (Mark Brader) Mark Cuccia writes: > First, for those not familiar with the geographic and political/ > jurisdictional situation, Point Roberts WA is located just south of > the 48th degree latitude and jurisdictionally part of the USA, but it > is physically a peninsula off the southwest tip of the mainland of the > Canadian Province of British Columbia. ... For those familiar with the situation, however, that's the 49th degree. (Grin) There are two other peninsulas that also extend from Canada and cross the border into the US. One is at the little jog where the western provinces' latitude-49 border meets Ontario's water border, and reaches east from Manitoba into Minnesota's part of Lake of the Woods. (See for my explanation of the history of this part of the border.) The entire peninsula is state forest and reservation; it contains one small town, Angle Inlet MN. The other one extends from Quebec into the Vermont part of Lake Champlain, and contains the towns of Alburg VT, Alburg Center VT, and Alburg Springs VT. It's much closer to other US land than either Point Roberts or the Angle Inlet, and has had road-bridge connections for many years, so I imagine there's nothing unusual about its telephony. Mark Brader, Toronto | "This is an excellent opportunity for msb@vex.net | out-of-context quoting..." --Mike Hardy My text in this article is in the public domain. ------------------------------ From: aaronep@pacbell.net (Aaron Epstein) Subject: Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? Date: 4 May 2003 08:56:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I've posted this question before without receiving a reply. So am reposting in different phraseology in hopes that someone who has the info will reply. Are there any long distance phone companies who issue credit cards that enable the user to call the U.S. *FROM* Europe at a competitive rate? All replies welcomed! Aaron in N. Hollywood ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 06:03:24 -0500 From: Ron Bean Subject: Re: Identity Theft Prompts Insurers To Change > With identity theft on the rise, many health insurers including Aetna > and CIGNA are moving to replace members' identification cards with > new ones that don't show Social Security numbers. > Thieves hijack Social Security numbers to steal money and commit > fraud, because the number is a key to opening accounts and obtaining ^^^ > additional information on a person. How about reminding ourselves that SSNs aren't secret, and aren't supposed to be used as authenticators ("keys"). ------------------------------ From: google@gabtel.com (George) Subject: Re: VoicePulse vs Vonage Date: 4 May 2003 16:33:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I already signed up with Vonage, I used someone's e-coupon from this forum. Don't remember who though. If I had known about packet8, I may have tried them. Not sure about their equipment, never heard of it. google@gabtel.com (George) wrote in message news:... > Forgetaboutit ... They don't have service in Maryland. Then Vonage > it is. > google@gabtel.com (George) wrote in message > news:: >> I am going to bite the bullet and try VoicePulse. Hey someone has to >> try it. I see all off the positive reviews about Vonage, but >> VoicePulse has anonymous call rejection. I have not seen one review >> of VoicePulse. >> I am going to try the unlimited residential option. It is $5 less a >> month than Vonage with most of the same features. One glaring feature >> that is missing is free call transfer. VoicePulse offers it under the >> small business option costing $10 more a month. I do not know if I >> will ever need it so I won't worry about it much. Another missing >> feature is "refer-a-friend". This almost makes me not want to try it. >> I will keep my land line but get all of the features removed from it >> besides call forwarding. Whenever VoicePulse offers switching my >> number, I will transfer my number and get another line with metered >> service. >> Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I will be adventuring into >> the unknown this afternoon. >> George ------------------------------ From: kangurusmoke@hotmail.com (kangurusmoke) Subject: X.400 ISP in Australia Date: 4 May 2003 17:10:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi All, Are there still any ISP's in Australia who provide connectivity to a public X.400 network for messaging? So far I've tried AT&T, MCI. Any others? Thanks, Chris ------------------------------ From: Lisa Wulrich Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 23:54:53 -0400 > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But notice, the oil wells, they simply > chose to guard them and drive away the workers who were there. Actually the Iraqi oil workers by and large helped to protect their wells themselves, in many case removing or deactivating explosive charges that the regime had placed at the wells to sabatoge them . > They > did not blow them into smithereens. You want to cut off telecom, > you pull the power source. The coalition went to great lengths to leave the power source (generating facilities) unscathed. Yes the lights went out in some cities for a while, but the power has largely been restored already and the military engineers continue to make good progress. > You want to control the radio stations, you > go in to take them over and make the announcers get away from the > microphones. Expert at military strategy, you are not. The radio stations were controlled by broadcasting signals from aircraft overhead. > You do not blow those things into pieces then go back > and rebuild them. Ditto with the infrastructure. You do not completely > destroy it and let people (remember we are mostly talking about civilians > here, not the government people) starve and go thirsty for a month > afterward, while they wait for the water to be restarted, and go for > several months waiting for the radio station to be back on the air or > the telephones to start working again. Actually the troops brought in food and water, something that was most welcomed by a people who had been left to starve for decades while the Dictator purchased solid gold bidets and toilets, missile launchers, and ammunition under the "oil for food" program. > But the oil wells ... well we need that oil, better not tamper with > those wells. The US gets less than 5% of oil from Iraq. If we need more oil from anyway, it can easily be purchased. But IRAQ needs the wells so they can build their economy. I assume you think the Marshall Plan, America's gift to Europe, was just as horrible. > And Bush, in his arrogance, still wonders why the > citizens there continue to 'sass' and fight his troops even though the > 'war' is officially over. What on earth are you talking about. Please quote Bush where he was "wondering" this. There is only a small number of extremists that are "fighting" and these are mostly isolated events. > Why won't 'those people' be grateful for the > stale American-style sandwhich the troops gave them to eat while their > water supply was being bombed away along with the telephones and the > radio station You are inventing events to argue whatever point your are favoring. No bombs were dropped on the water supply, nor was any water supply targeted. > (however rudimentary those things may have been); it was > all those people had, and the Americans, in their spite, took all that > away as well. As I mentioned to John Higdon elsewhere in this issue, > no matter how rudimentary or 'ass-backward' the telecom in Silicon > Valley may be *you keep on using what you have until you build something > better*. > And consider the poor creatures in the beautiful zoo there in Baghdad. > What crimes were those animals guilty of that they had to go hungry > once their keepers ran off to save their own lives as the troops were > approaching? Those animals, their custodians and the zoo should have > been protected also, just like the oil wells were. Some of those > American troops -- god bless them -- chose to give their own rations > to the hungry animals rather than see *them* punished as well, since > the animals had no idea what it was all about anyway. The beautiful zoo ... does that rank right up there with the beautiful rape rooms and the beautiful torture chambers? Or the beautiful electrodes the regime attached to the private parts of dissenters until they confessed to disagreeing with the B'aath party, at which point their life was terminated? Or the beautiful ears of the "disserters" after they were lobbed off by Iraqi doctors who were working day and night in all Baghdad hospitals under penalty of being shot if they put down their scalpels? Just think we could still be having more of this and more! Damn Bush for putting an end to all of this wonderful beautiful fun. > Although Dubya would claim otherwise, you cannot completely destroy a > country's infrastructure (telecom, radio, plumbing, etc) as happened > in Iraq and expect the citizens to rush over and kiss your ass out > of gratitude because you saved them from themselves and their leaders. And you repeat your fallacy again. No infrastructure was completely destroyed. > The *Christian Science Monitor* in an article which included pictures > of the massive amounts of rubble in the streets there such as the > museum, the telecom exchange, the worship places of the people, and > the plumbing pipes and (what used to be) a television station commented > that, "we used to have to worry about one Bin Laden starting fights > with the American 'great Satan'; we suspect now there will be hundreds > of Bin Ladens running around all over, because, after all, the Great > American Satan prevailed in the minds of the average citizen there." PAT] The "Bin Ladens" arise when they perceive the USA is weak. We were not at war with Bin Laden in 2001 when the Pentagon was hit and the World Trade Centers were disintegated. How could that have been so, if appeasing tyrants is such a proactive solution? All Bin Laden knew was that the USA had shown no real force after a ship had been hit, embassasies had been attacked, the WTC had been bombed in 1993, etc. The "Bin Ladens" run away and hide under their bed when we go after them. Witness Colonel Quadaffi after 1986. Interesting how we are now seeing the least terrorism in 30+ years. ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 07:04:19 -0700 In article , Dave Garland wrote: > It couldn't have been that old and obsolete, since (as reported in > Newsweek and quoted in TELECOM Digest) the secret police agents were > told not to make harrassing telephone calls from their office, because > Iraqis who had Caller ID were calling the agency to complain. Hell, we have Caller-ID in Silicon Valley, but that doesn't mean that we don't have crippled telecom service. > One would hope so, because it's not like this is the first time it's > come up. Virtually everywhere the Army gets sent, and this has been > true for years, it complains that it is not trained in police or > peacekeeping work. It's hard to know whether the continued lack of > training is just due to incompetent brass who are incapable of > learning, or to politicians who willfully disregard the issue, > refusing to direct and fund training that they know full well will be > required. Armies are not police forces. The metrics are completely different. Much better than attempting to train armies to do police work (much like trying to train a TV set to be a dishwasher), it would be well to have a police force waiting in the wings. We are attempting to turn this over to local officials who have been responsible for police duties in the past. Soldiers are NOT "peace officers". In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Joseph : > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am sure glad they remembered to > secure the oil wells. Likewise. The world's economy is very dependent upon oil, and in particular the Iraqis have little else to sustain their country economically. If the oil wells had been destroyed, Iraq would have very little left to sell and make any sort of recovery on the world stage. > No need to worry about the museums and their historic artifacts from > the ancient history of the county or the middle east. Why would they > want to bother with thousand year old stone carvings of Buddha or > things found in 'digs' by the Biblical Archeological Society which > had been placed in museums to be seen by all interested people or > other items from ancient history. For one thing, these antiquities will resurface. They always do. They are not "lost forever". Second, I can just hear the outcry if resources had been spent to protect stone carvings rather than human lives. Third, WE didn't plunder the museums, the Iraqis themselves did that. We can only go so far in protecting people from themselves. > Smash 'em! Break them up! Ditto the helpless animals left in cages > at the zoo with no food when their custodians fled for their lives > after releasing the monkeys and other harmless animals to go out and > fend for themselves. As I said, you might think that the Iraqis might just lift a finger here or there to help themselves or their country's assets. As it turns out, US soldiers were feeding the animals out of their own rations. Now tell me who cared more about the animals in the zoo. Again, no country in history ever fought a war with such intent to AVOID smashing and breaking. We did not "smash and break" antiquities; they were stolen, presumably intact, by Iraqis. > You are right > about priorities; the oil wells had to be preserved whatever the cost. And if the oil wells had been destroyed, what would Iraq do for trade with the world? Yes, the oil wells were very, very important. > Don't worry about the phones or the plumbing or decent food or water > to drink. As we speak, our engineers are working overtime to restore and improve all of these services. I know this first-hand. > Smash 'em all, bust them up! Why, the folks there will > be so glad, so happy to have been 'rescued' by us and started on their > way to an American lifestyle they'll soon forget about the rest of it. > No need for television and radio stations or movies either. PAT] We are less than thirty days out of a full-scale conflict. Let's come back a year from now and see where all of this stuff sits, shall we? I don't know where you are getting your information, but I am in daily contact with people in the region. Let me caution you, but you may end up eating some words in the end. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #430 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 5 01:11:59 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h455BwC02403; Mon, 5 May 2003 01:11:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 01:11:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305050511.h455BwC02403@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #431 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 May 2003 01:12:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 431 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New England LATAs (Mark J Cuccia) Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (Steve Sobol) Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (M Solomon) Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (John Higdon) Re: Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? (Richard D G Cox) Re: Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? (Clark Griswold Jr) Re: Packet8, was VoicePulse vs Vonage (John R. Levine) Will the WiFi Bubble Hypesters Kill WiFi? (Monty Solomon) Re: Ooh, Cows! (AES/newspost) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 22:15:23 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: New England LATAs There are the following LATAs in the New England states. All of these LATAs have the BOC: New England Telephone & Telegraph => NYNEX => Bell Atlantic => VeriZon as their incumbent LATA toll carrier, although there are independent telco ratecenters within these LATAs. LATA #120 *entire* state of Maine *ALL* of NPA 207 LATA #122 *entire* state of New Hampshire *ALL* of NPA 603 LATA #124 *entire* state of Vermont *ALL* of NPA 802 LATA #126 western Massachusetts *ALL* of NPA 413 (exc.for one town) LATA #128 eastern Massachusetts (*ALL* of NPAs 617/857, 508/774, 781/339, 978/351) LATA #130 *entire* state of Rhode Island There is also LATA #920, the state of Connecticut (NPAs 203 and 860, to ultimately be overlaid by NPAs 475 and 959 respectively), served by incumbent SNET (Southern New England Telephone) now part of 'SBC' (once known as Southwestern Bell Communications), *EXCEPT* for the two ratecenters of Greenwich CT and Byram CT. Those two ratecenters are in *EXTREME* southwestern Connecticut, are part of NYTel/NYNEX/BA/VZ LATA #132 NYCity Metro, and have that BOC as their incumbent, for decades. When AT&T/Bell and the DOJ/FCC/etc. were carving up the US into LATAs in 1982 and 1983 in preparation for divestiture, I would assume that the New England area was looked at first. Note how the 1NX range of LATAs are that of NYNEX (NYTel and New England Tel), now part of VeriZon, the first range of LATA codes. For the most part, LATA boundaries and state boundaries are *IDENTICAL* in the New England area. However, there are some ratecenters/communities near state boundaries which are served out of central offices in adjacent states (and thus LATAs). In *MOST* of the rest of the US, the LATA boundary "zig-zags" away from a state line to include those communities in the adjacent state which are served by central office dialtone in the main state ... OR, if the adjacent state border community has its own central office switch of its own but it *homes* on a tandem in the main state, the LATA boundary for the main state usually "zig-zags" away from the state line to include that subtending central office in the adjacent state. BUT with one or two exceptions, this is *NOT* the case in most of New England! There are communities in Maine which get dialtone from central office switches in New Hampshire. Those communities (ratecenters) in Maine are associated with LATA #120 (Maine), but the serving NH central office switch is actually part of LATA #122 (New Hampshire). There has to be a "secondary" CLLI code established for those NH based central office switches for the ME based 207-NXX ratecenters, and also that ME function of the NH c.o.switch has secondary trunks to home on the Portland ME tandem, although the NH functions of the NH c.o.switch homes on a NH based LATA tandem. The same applies in the reverse as well, communities in NH along the border with ME, which get dialtone from a central office switch in ME, where the ME c.o. switch has *two* CLLI codes, one for its ME state/LATA based ratecenter(s) and "homing" on a ME based LATA tandem, and the other CLLI code for its crossborder NH state/LATA based ratecenter(s) and "homing" on a NH based LATA tandem. There are similar crossborder situations between NH and VT, NH and eastern MA, ... the Monroe MA ratecenter in the western MA LATA #126 gets its dialtone from the Readsboro VT c.o.switch which has to have *TWO* CLLI codes since it serves both ratecenters -- one being in VT LATA/state and the other being in western MA LATA/state ... and there are four ratecenters in eastern MA LATA #128 which get their dialtone from RI based c.o.switches which also serve RI based ratecenters in the RI LATA #130. All ratecenters in RI seem to served exclusively out of c.o. switches based in RI, although as mentioned just above, four of those RI based c.o.switches also serve ratecenters/c.o.codes in adjacent state and LATA #128 western MA. There *IS* an independent ratecenter in NPA 413 in the western MA area, and borders NY State -- Hancock MA -- and is also its own c.o.switch in MA in the town of Hancock. However, its LATA association (homing) is with/to the NYTel/NYNEX/BA/VeriZon LATA tandem for the Albany NY LATA #134. This goes "counter" to what has usually happened for most of the New England area LATAs, but this *does* follow what happens throughout *MOST* of the United States in its LATA homings/associations/etc. when state lines are encountered. HOWEVER, there are also several instances where there are host/remote relationships, where the "host" is in one LATA yet the remote is in an adjacent LATA. Sometimes, this is the same state, sometimes different states. And when it comes to CLECs and wireless services, provision of dialtone, or homings, or host/remote relationships *FREQUENTLY* involve multiple LATAs, not following the BOC/incumbent LATA boundary situations, at least as far as how their networks are provisioned. MOST CLECs do seem to have to follow or observe LATA boundaries, although for LD resale (or even provision of LD as a facility based carrier, even when it comes to the recent LD subsidiaries of the BOCs/ILECs), the LATA boundaries are becoming less 'meaningful'. A few other notes about the New England area: There used to be (and might still be) some New Brunswick based ratecenters and 506-NXX codes which either were NB (Canada) based c.o.swithces that homed on Maine (US) based tandems of New England Tel, or these NB (Canada) ratecenters (and 506-NXX codes) simply got their dialtone from a local central office switch based in Maine (US) and that Maine based local c.o.switch "homed" on a Maine (US) based New England Tel tandem. I don't know if that is still the case anymore or not, but there still do exist some local (EAS) calling arrangements between the US and Canada in the New England area, several in this ME/NB region across the border, as well as some of the following (includes all going westward along the Canada/US border): Woburn PQ 819-544 with Coburn Gore ME 207-297 Rock Island PQ 819-876 with Derby Line VT 802-314,647,873 St-Regis PQ * 613-575 with Fort Covington NY 518-358 Rainy River ON 807-852 with Baudette MN 218-202,634 Coutts AB 403-344 with Sweetgrass MT 406-335 The above comes from a page at Ray Chow's website on Canadian (and US) local calling areas: http://www.hwcn.org/Information/NEST/technol/communic/lca/saq.html I think in all of the above cases, there are separate switches on each side of the US/Canada border (i.e., one side doesn't really provide dialtone to the other side), but there are indeed local connecting trunks. And, each side's c.o.switches "home" on tandems in their respective state/provinces and country rather than "home" crossborder on opposite-side tandems. * NOTE that St.Regis PQ *IS* NPA 613. It had originally been NPA 514 (which 'would' now be that part that changed to 450), but sometime in the early 1990s for reasons not completely clear to me, St.Regis PQ changed from 514-575 to (Ontario based NPA 613) 613-575. I'd already mentioned the Point Roberts WA / Ladner-Beachgrove-Delta BC situation as well as the Hyder AK / Stewart BC situation in earlier posts. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ From: Steven J. Sobol Subject: Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 02:01:44 -0000 Organization: JustThe.net LLC From Mark J Cuccia (mcuccia@tulane.edu): > The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else > noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the > past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI > in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? They have officially renamed themselves again. Issued press releases about it just in the past week or two IIRC. Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge, JustThe.net POTS: Toll Free from anywhere in the USA or Canada, 888.480.4NET (4638) HTTP: www.JustTheNetLLC.com MAIL: 5686 Davis Drive, Mentor on the Lake, OH 44060-2752 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 22:03:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround > The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else > noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the > past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI > in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? They were calling > themselves MCI-Worldcom when they merged some five-or-so years ago, > and slowly began phasing out the 'MCI' part of the name to use just > Worldcom, although "The Neighborhood" last year referred only to 'MCI' > in its commercials) ... anyhow ... MCI-Worldcom's Telecom-USA (and > even the Telecom-USA name has rarely identified itself publicly as > being part of MCI) has come out with yet another so-called "ten-ten-" > dialaround. Bankrupt WorldCom Unveils Reorganization - Apr 14, 2003 01:03 PM (AP Online) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33832459 WorldCom To Emerge From Ch. 11 As MCI - Apr 14, 2003 10:00 AM (Forbes.com) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33829623 Source: WorldCom to Announce HQ Move - Apr 11, 2003 05:47 PM (AP Online) - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33812875 ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 20:23:08 -0700 In article , Mark J Cuccia wrote: > The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else > noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the > past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI > in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? According to the trades, the entire point of the name shift is to shed the baggage of "Worldcom". What they don't seem to get, and heaven knows how they could miss it, is that the "MCI" name isn't exactly without baggage, either. "MCI" and "slamming" go fist-in-glove. They introduced and perfected the art of slamming, and most of the public is well aware of it. There are also a lot of people who have had to deal with MCI in the early to mid part of the last decade, with accounts ranging from major business to residential, who will never get the taste of dealing with MCI out of their mouths. The best thing that could happen to that company would be for it to be put out of its misery once and for all. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 02:21:49 +0100 From: Richard D G Cox Subject: Re: Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? Reply-To: nospam@numbering.com Organization: Mandarin Technology Limited On 4 May 2003 15:56 UT aaronep@pacbell.net (Aaron Epstein) wrote: > Are there any long distance phone companies who issue credit cards > that enable the user to call the U.S. *FROM* Europe at a competitive > rate? Why use a credit card? You now can call the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries as a "local-rate" call from the UK, which is charged at 5c (US)/minute from a direct dial phone, and at the same as all other UK landline calls from other phones. The service is called TeleDiscount -- and we've been happy customers of theirs for some months. The UK access number is 0845 244 5445 The only snags are (a) you pay for all connected time, not just from called-sub-answer, and calls to mobiles outside the US and Canada are not allowed. However at those prices it's not too great an issue! Richard Cox ------------------------------ From: Clark Griswold <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com@giganews.com> Subject: Re: Long Distance Service *FROM* Europe to the U.S.? Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 20:28:21 -0600 aaronep@pacbell.net (Aaron Epstein) wrote: > Are there any long distance phone companies who issue credit cards > that enable the user to call the U.S. *FROM* Europe at a competitive > rate? Why get a telephone credit card? Most prepaid cards from the major companies offer reasonable rates when dialing from other countries to the US. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Packet8, was VoicePulse vs Vonage Date: 4 May 2003 23:30:02 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > If I had known about packet8, I may have tried them. Not sure about > their equipment, never heard of it. I swapped some e-mail with them and wasn't too impressed. It's all their own custom equipment which appears functionally similar to the Ciscos that other people use. Unlike the other services, incoming calls count against your minutes if you're not using an unlimited plan. They'll also sell you a $599 VoIP videophone, but I can't figure out why you would use their phone, which only talks to others of their phones, rather than using any $99 webcam and one of the many freeware video chat packages. Also, I'm not sure how long they'll be around. Since the company is publicly traded it's easy to look at their financial statements, and they tell me that the company has burned through nearly $150 million over the past decade doing various video stuff that they don't do any more (face it, video is a niche compared to telephony), and unless they get more funding, they'll be out of cash in September. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be http://iecc.com/johnl Sewer Commissioner "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 00:47:14 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Will the WiFi Bubble Hypesters Kill WiFi? By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco "Or the arrival of the Web browser, which blew millions of minds, making a mouseclick feel like teleportation." - Wired I was really calling the editor of Wired magazine, Chris Anderson, to check up on which weird and interesting drugs he was taking when he wrote the sentence you see above you. [* answer below] Anderson bet me that in five years time, there will be more 802.11 chipsets then there will be mobile phone chipsets. Naturally, opportunities like this don't come up every day, so of course I took him up on the offer. It was an affable chat, but by the end it was clear to me that Chris hadn't just drunk the Kool-Aid, his metabolism has mutated itself, Science Fiction-style, to produce the stuff on demand. So you never need go thirsty ever again. http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/30533.html ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 19:21:54 -0700 In article , John Higdon wrote: > We are less than thirty days out of a full-scale conflict. Let's come > back a year from now and see where all of this stuff sits, shall we? I > don't know where you are getting your information, but I am in daily > contact with people in the region. Let me caution you, but you may end > up eating some words in the end. > John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS > +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 John, I appreciate and fully agree with all the responses you've been posting to this guy; but I wouldn't expect to see any words eaten by him or his colleagues, now, later, or ever, no matter what the final outcome may be. I'm no hawk on this war, didn't vote for Bush, and have substantial concerns about many other parts of his agenda. Despite that, however, I find myself experiencing a remarkably elevated level of hostility toward the great majority of the anti-war protestors whose objections and criticisms I've encountered in newsgroup postings, letters to the editor, and other open forums. This is not at all because of their opposition to the war, which is fully allowable, but for the poverty of their arguments (as you've well demonstrated in this instance) combined with the overwhelming mixture of ignorance, misinformation, lack of historical understanding, and all to often just plain arrogance they generally display. I had a lot of contact, in some cases close up and personal, with protestors on university campuses in the Vietnam era, and despite their possibly having been on the right side in that case, in all too many instances their ignorance was only exceeded by their arrogance, not to mention their personal viciousness. The level of ignorance and lack of rational argument seems substantially worse this time around. Don't expect much in the way of future reflection or reexamination of their views by this group, regardless of how things turn out. "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834-1902) "Dependence on advertising tends to corrupt. Total dependence on advertising corrupts totally." (today's equivalent) ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #431 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 5 21:12:20 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h461CKP06833; Mon, 5 May 2003 21:12:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 21:12:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305060112.h461CKP06833@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #431 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 May 2003 21:12:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 432 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #381, May 5, 2003 (Angus TeleManagement) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Paul A Lee) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Joey Lindstrom) Zooropa (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Paul A Lee) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Dave Garland) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 11:12:48 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #381, May 5, 2003 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 381: May 5, 2003 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** BELL CANADA: http://www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: http://www.cisco.com/ca/letstalk ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: http://www.cygcom.com ** ERICSSON CANADA: http://www.ericsson.ca ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: http://www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: http://www.primustel.ca ** Q9 NETWORKS: http://www.Q9.com ** TELUS: http://www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Microcell Completes Restructuring ** Carriers Report 1Q Profits Telus Call-Net BCE ** Ontario MPPs Favour Cellphone Ban ** ICO to Buy Globalstar ** Microcell Loses Appeal Against Rogers, Bell ** CRTC Okays Bell Rebates to Business Customers ** JDS Cuts More Ottawa Jobs ** Alcatel Completes iMagic Purchase ** March Networks Cuts Back Staff ** MTS Seeks VOD Licence ** Telus Offers Wireless LANs ** Ottawa Expands Fixed Wireless Spectrum ** Three Cellcos Reduce Evening Calling Hours ** Ontario Funds College Links to Orion ** Telecom's New Competitive Landscape ============================================================ MICROCELL COMPLETES RESTRUCTURING: Microcell Telecommunications completed its recapitalization plan and emerged from bankruptcy protection on May 1. More than 99% of the cellco's stock is now owned by creditors; its debt has been reduced by $1.7 billion to about $300 million. ** The company reports net income of $35.3 million for the first quarter of 2003, compared to a net loss of $95.3 million in the same period last year. Total revenue was $133.5 million, down from $140.1 million. CARRIERS REPORT 1Q PROFITS: Three of Canada's largest telecom companies have reported better results for the first quarter of 2003 than in the same period last year: ** Telus had net income of $91.2 million, compared to an $800,000 loss. Total revenue was $1.7 billion, up 2.5%. ** Call-Net Enterprises had net income of $8.1 million, compared to a $91.8 million loss. Total revenue was $202.2 million, up 0.2%. ** BCE Inc. had net income of $458 million, up from $297 million. Total revenue was $4.9 billion, up 1%. ONTARIO MPPs FAVOR CELLPHONE BAN: A private member's bill to outlaw the use of handheld cellphones while driving has received approval in principle in the Ontario Legislature. The bill, which is based on a similar law now in effect in Newfoundland and Labrador, now goes to committee for review. ICO TO BUY GLOBALSTAR: A U.S. bankruptcy court has approved the sale of 54% of satellite telco Globalstar to Craig McCaw's ICO Global Communications for US$55 million. (See Telecom Update #307, 368) MICROCELL LOSES APPEAL AGAINST ROGERS, BELL: The CRTC has rejected Microcell's call for an order stopping Rogers Wireless and Bell Mobility from offering special deals targeted at Microcell customers. The Commission ruled that in the "robustly competitive" wireless market such targeting is not unjustly discriminatory. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2003/dt2003- 26.htm CRTC OKAYS BELL REBATES TO BUSINESS CUSTOMERS: The CRTC has given interim approval to Bell Canada rebates for Equivalent service (line hunting) and Megalink PSTN connectivity, retroactive to last June, to meet Bell's 2002 price cap limits. (See Telecom Update #379) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2003/o2003-167.htm JDS CUTS MORE OTTAWA JOBS: So far this year, JDS Uniphase has cut another 340 jobs in Ottawa, bringing its workforce in the city to about 860, compared to 10,000 three years ago. The company lost US$137 million in the first three months of 2003. ALCATEL COMPLETES IMAGIC PURCHASE: Alcatel has completed its purchase of iMagicTV, which makes software that delivers television over DSL. Alcatel will maintain iMagic's New Brunswick operations and market its main product as Alcatel 5950 Media Manager. (See Telecom Update #369) MARCH NETWORKS CUTS BACK STAFF: Ottawa-based March Networks, majority-owned by Terry Matthews, is reducing its work force from 160 to 100, due to "divestiture of non-core assets." (See Telecom Update #362) MTS SEEKS VOD LICENCE: Manitoba Telecom has asked the CRTC for a licence to offer Video on Demand to its TV customers in the Winnipeg area. TELUS OFFERS WIRELESS LANs: Telus has added unmanaged, monitored, and fully managed wireless LANs to its Managed WorkPlace portfolio for businesses of all sizes. OTTAWA EXPANDS FIXED WIRELESS SPECTRUM: Industry Canada has expanded the spectrum available for fixed wireless access systems in the 3500 MHz range, and provides guidelines for first-come, first-served licensing of this spectrum in rural areas. http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/sf07026e.html THREE CELLCOS REDUCE EVENING CALLING HOURS: Bell Mobility, Rogers, and Telus Mobility are moving the start time for evening calling from 6 pm to 8 pm. The change is effective on May 12, May 15, and June 1 respectively. Existing plans will be grandfathered. ONTARIO FUNDS COLLEGE LINKS TO ORION: The Ontario government is providing $5.8 million to help link post-secondary colleges and universities to the Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network. ORION is scheduled for completion to 21 communities by July 1. (See Telecom Update #363) http://www.orion.on.ca TELECOM'S NEW COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: In the May issue of Telemanagement, available this week, Ian and Lis Angus weigh the strengths and weaknesses of the five national carriers now competing in the business market, and the carriers respond to critical questions on strategy, competition, and customer service. ** Telemanagement is available only by subscription. For more information on Canada's #1 source for expert, independent telecom analysis, and guidance, call 800-263-4415 ext 500 or go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 14:54:45 -0400 In TELECOM Digest V22 #426, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): > There were *easily* ways to handle that dilemma without blowing > the whole thing to bits. They could have disconnected the power > to the place, and removed or unhooked the batteries used for > backup power, then stationed guards there No, the C3 disruption was necessary _before_ our troops attempted to enter the urban combat environment of Baghdad. That's the point: disrupt the enemy's ability to coordinate a defense of the city _before_ entering, to "level the playing field". > They did that with all the oil wells didn't they (station guards > there all the time to protect them)? They did not blow them up then > oblige themselves or others to have to rebuild them later. Oil wells are a whole different matter from urban combat and enemy communications capabilities. Blowing up an oil well does not give any strategic advantage -- putting the enemy's phone system out of commission before engaging them on the ground does provide a distinct advantage. > It was spite alright, just another way to 'get even'. Unfounded, subjective, emotional accusation. > Consider a case in the USA as an example: in a prison somewhere, > there is a riot. Usually the prisoners run the prison, > particularly in areas like the switchboard or other 'utility' > functions. Now there is a riot, so guards take over the > switchboard to prevent prisoners from communicating during the > riot. The guards do not destroy the whole switchboard and force > the entire rebuilding of it. Again, an entirely different situation, with only the telephone aspect in common. Quelling a prison riot is not the same thing as entering a city in enemy territory. > You know as well as I the complexity and difficulty in building a > new telephone exchange and the collateral 'damage' from lack of > communications alone. It will be *at least one year or longer* > getting telecom back in service there, with the entire building > destroyed. Meanwhile, what about the innocent civilians and > merchants who have no way to conduct their business, ala New York > City for three months **on a real rush basis** in 1975 or Hinsdale, > Illinois for two months **on a real rush basis** in 1988. Or lower Manhattan in September, 2001? As we saw in that more recent and more representative instance, a substantial portion of the destroyed telephone plant can be restored in a matter of weeks to a couple of months. The prior episodes were dear lessons in dealing with disasters. Better understanding, better planning, and newer technology equipment should allow restoration of most of the phone service in Baghdad in well under a year, and probably under 6 months. The crucial difference in Baghdad, when compared with the U.S. phone disasters, will be whether anyone is shooting at the people working to restore phone service. > If they had just had people with some modicum of intelligence > in charge of that damn war; people who knew enough to pull the > batteries and the power and station guards to keep it that way. Except that requires a very deep, but very conspicuous and localized, special ops mission. That's the kind of thing you find in a movie script, not a military operation. It's the _other_ guys who are into suicide stuff, remember? The goal is to put the C3 stuff out of commission before engaging in the urban setting, and keep it out of commission until the city is reasonably secure. We saw how easily they kept getting back on the air after we hit their broadcasting facilities. A relatively precision air strike on the central office was almost certainly the only realistic option. > And did you see that sad picture of the man who is in charge of the > large museum there, standing among the total rubble of the ancient > artifacts and pictures, etc which the American soldiers pillaged. Whoa! All the variations I heard from numerous sources attribute the museum theft and destruction to Iraqis. There were fewer than 10 U.S. troops implicated in trying to steal some U.S. currency found in a few locations. The complaint against Americans was that our troops did not provide enough security to protect the museum property. Lamentable, and in hindsight, perhaps largely avoidable. But it's a far cry from Americans doing any pillaging. In TELECOM Digest V22 #427, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): > But notice, the oil wells, they simply chose to guard them and > drive away the workers who were there. They did not blow them into > smithereens. The entire point with the oil wells was to secure them and _prevent_ destruction of the wellhead and ignition of the gas and petroleum that would have been release from the uncapped well. > You want to cut off telecom, you pull the power source. You want > to control the radio stations, you go in to take them over and > make the announcers get away from the microphones. You do not blow > those things into pieces then go back and rebuild them. Those are on-the-ground operations -- "suicide missions" -- that would be found in a Hollywood script, rather than any real military strategy. By the time you can realistically conduct such an operation, it would no longer be necessary. > Ditto with the infrastructure. You do not completely destroy it > and let people (remember we are mostly talking about civilians > here, not the government people) starve and go thirsty for a month > afterward, while they wait for the water to be restarted, and go for > several months waiting for the radio station to be back on the air or > the telephones to start working again. Overall, the damage to the civil infrastructure has been remarkably limited, according to all knowledgeable accounts I have heard. The news media like to focus on the inevitable human tragedies, but they have been comparatively few, given the scope of the operation and the potential for deliberate sabotage by the retreating enemy. > But the oil wells ... well we need that oil, better not tamper with > those wells. Again, the reason for securing the wells was to prevent them from being blown up by the retreating enemy. There would be no strategic or tactical advantage gained by destroying the wells. Even so, Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait in 1991 blew hundreds of wellheads. (This act _would_ be attributable to the "spite" that has been blamed for some strategic actions taken by coalition forces.) This time, some wellheads were wired to be blown, but most were not detonated, apparently due to a combination of quick action by coalition troops to prevent detonation and effective psy-ops to dissuade the Iraqis from detonating them. Much of the damage caused in 1991 was monetary, to be sure. At least as troubling, though, was the environmental damage caused by the blown out wells. If a blown out well catches fire, the petroleum and some gasses burn incompletely, resulting in dense, black smoke laden with carcinogens and other noxious substances. Even if there is no fire, the well can spew toxic and/or flammable gasses and aerosolized petroleum that can be carried for miles on the wind. > ... while their water supply was being bombed away along with the > telephones and the radio station It's highly unlikely that the civil water supply was intentionally targeted. Doing so affords little or no strategic or tactical advantage in areas with a significant civilian population. Putting enemy-held telephone systems and broadcasting stations out of commission, though, can provide a distinct advantage by disrupting enemy communication and coordination. > ...you cannot completely destroy a country's infrastructure > (telecom, radio, plumbing, etc) as happened in Iraq... The destruction was far from complete, by all knowledgeable accounts. In comparison to the size and scope of the operation, the damage was modest or minimal in most areas. Even the damage inflicted by the enemy was much lighter than it might have been, especially where structures and equipment had been rigged with explosives that were not detonated. And, some of the destruction that was blamed on coalition forces was very likely caused by enemy actions or accidents. Several military operations and munitions experts who were consulted by different news organizations came to that conclusion. They analyzed explosion site video coverage from Iraqi TV, al-Jazeera, and al-Arabiya, and determined that some of the explosions were caused by weapons that could not have reached the explosion site from coalition positions at the time of the explosion (e.g., apparent mortar round damage when coalition troops were still 10 miles away). (Other matters of contention were addressed by other correspondents who responded sooner that I did.) Paul A Lee          Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer [Voice & Transmission] Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 Tell your senator you support Senate Bill 877 to CAN-SPAM . Find him/her at http://www.senate.gov/. ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 10:36:54 -0600 Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Sat, 3 May 2003 00:58:51 -0400 (EDT), Paul A Lee wrote: > In TELECOM Digest V22 #424, our esteemed editor wrote (in part): >> Well, none of that ["Building a modern land-based phone >> system in Iraq"] (or not as much of it) would have been >> necessary if the good old USA had not spitefully and >> deliberatly blown up the telephone exchange building in >> Baghdad. That was really sickening to read about ... > It wasn't spiteful, but it _was_ deliberate -- and a good military > strategy of disrupting enemy communications, command, and control > [C3]. > Think about what our troops -- and Iraqi civilians -- faced from Iraqi > troops and guerillas in urban areas, including Baghdad. The "bad guys" > wore civilian clothes and hid in hospitals, schools, mosques, and > residences. Can you imagine how much worse it might have been if they > could simply phone each other to share intelligence and coordinate > attacks? > As regrettable as the destruction of the civil infrastructure may be, > it usually saves lives and suffering by disrupting the enemy's ability > to fight effectively and protractedly. And, as we witnessed, the > longer those Iraqi guerillas fought, the more they abused Iraqi > civilians and damaged the infrastructure themselves. And then Pat replied: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There were *easily* ways to handle that > dilemma without blowing the whole thing to bits. They could have dis- > connected the power to the place, and removed or unhooked the > batteries used for backup power, then stationed guards there the > time. They did that with all the oil wells didn't they (station guards > there all the time to protect them)? They did not blow them up then > oblige themselves or others to have to rebuild them later. (I'm going to at least TRY to stay on topic, and discuss only the telephone infrastructure aspect of all of this). Sure they didn't have to destroy the oilwells -- because they could easily put troops on the scene, and could "take" the oilwells with little resistance. Furthermore, the oilwells had no role to play insofar as command and control of enemy troops was concerned, thus there was no strategic reason to destroy them (and many reasons to protect them). You really think they could have put troops on the ground in downtown Baghdad with equal ease? The US forces rolled into Baghdad with (comparitively) little opposition because they'd spent the preceding weeks destroying, via bombing, the Iraqi military's ability to put up a fight. Part of that was taking out the phone system. In your blind zeal to find any reason at all to condemn the Bush administration, and by definition defend Saddam Hussein and the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent people (people that you'd rather see subjected to being stuffed into plastic shredders, so long as they've got good phone service), you're putting the cart before the horse. In order to take out the phone system without destroying it, you've gotta put troops in Baghdad - ALL OVER Baghdad, at every switch. Those troops have to be prepared to stay and hold their ground, because once they turn the phone system off, the Iraqi army will come looking to see why the phones don't work. But in order to put those troops in Baghdad, you first have to (among other things) take out that very same phone system. > They put quite a few people (telephone employees) out of work in the > process for how ever long it will take to build it back up. It was > spite alright, just another way to 'get even'. Pat, spare us the America-bashing rhetoric. These people are better off temporarily unemployed than having their ears cut off or being tortured and/or brutally killed. I mean, think about it. Does it make sense to destroy something out of spite when you know that you (the destroyer) will have to rebuild the thing you destroyed? The destruction of the phone system was a military necessity: had it not been destroyed, this war would have been protracted and would have seen far more casualties on both sides. A phone system can be rebuilt. Lives taken cannot be restored. > Consider a case in the USA as an example: in a prison somewhere, > there is a riot. Usually the prisoners run the prison, particularly > in areas like the switchboard or other 'utility' functions. Now > there is a riot, so guards take over the switchboard to prevent > prisoners from communicating during the riot. The guards do not > destroy the whole switchboard and force the entire rebuilding of it. A meaningless comparison. The guards are *IN* the prison and can "take" the facilities without destroying them. The American troops were not *IN* Baghdad and could not simply "take" the phone facilities just because they wanted to. Getting into Baghdad required neutralizing the telephone network completely - now, if you have some bright ideas on how to accomplish that from a distance without bombing them, I'm sure Mr. Rumsfeld would love to offer you a job. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If US troops in uniform can go into a country and take over the oilwells (not one, but many) to prevent destruction of same, then why couldn't government agents (or soldiers in uniform?) walk into the telecom office (again, not one, but many as you stated) and take them over? Or at least the one or two most strategic central offices. Tell me this, after they blew up the telecom building and blew up the radio/television station, did they also remember to to around and destroy all the amateur radio rigs and the walkie-talkies, in case the government decided to seize those and use them for rudimentary communications? If not, why not? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 11:14:41 -0600 Subject: Zooropa Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Sun, 4 May 2003 00:39:42 EDT, editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > other items from ancient history. Smash 'em! Break them up! Ditto > the helpless animals left in cages at the zoo with no food when their > custodians fled for their lives after releasing the monkeys and other > harmless animals to go out and fend for themselves. You are right > about priorities; the oil wells had to be preserved whatever the cost. > Don't worry about the phones or the plumbing or decent food or water > to drink. Smash 'em all, bust them up! Why, the folks there will > be so glad, so happy to have been 'rescued' by us and started on their > way to an American lifestyle they'll soon forget about the rest of it. > No need for television and radio stations or movies either. PAT] You can't have it both ways, Pat. If the oilwells had been destroyed, you and others would be screaming about Dubya having destroyed the Iraqi people's only means of financing the rebuilding that is to come, and indeed their only means of financing their future. You don't buy a lot of washing machines or cellphones or DVD players marked "made in Iraq". Oil is what these people have to sell, and they have a lot of willing customers. Oil is the key to their very survival. But Dubya didn't destroy the oilwells, and you quickly change your tune to "Dubya wanted the oil preserved so he could keep it for himself". Well, which one is it, Pat? This sort of double-dealing is cheap and intellectually dishonest, and you of all people should know better. It's eerily similar to something else you liberals used to cry about ... the "oil for food" program. I got pretty tired of hearing that the "oil for food" program was somehow responsible for the Iraqi people starving and not having enough medicine. Now we find out the truth (long suspected): Saddam was taking that "oil for food" money and building palaces with it. And 2% of every dollar was going into Koffi Annan and the UN's collective pockets. Yet the USA is the "bad guy" and none of the detractors have ever admitted that they were wrong. The USA made sure that the money was made available for food and medicine. But they could not control what Saddam actually DID with it. One more reason to take him out. You want to be taken seriously? Then acknowledge that you were wrong about this. It did wonders for Ron Silver. :-) Those of us on "the other side" have been proven right at every step along the way in this journey. Those on "your side" have been proven wrong at every step of the way and yet all we hear from you is more whining and bitching about how Dubya is raping Iraq. Given that your batting average is .000, it's really hard to take you very seriously. We keep drifting way off topic and pissing off everybody who is here for telecom talk, then we agree to end it and promise not to travel this road again ... and then, as usual, Pat can't leave well enough alone and tosses another turd in the punchbowl. Pat, please stick to telecommunications talk. In that arena, you are an acknowledged expert and speak with some authority. When it comes to international politics ... Pat, with all due respect (and believe me, I do respect you), you don't have the first clue as to how the world really works, and every time you comment on these things ... again, with all due respect, you come off looking like a buffoon. I'm sorry, there's just no other way to phrase it without sugarcoating it. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 14:54:44 -0400 In TELECOM Digest V22 #426, Joey Lindstrom wrote (in part): > Besides, Nortel needs the business. :-) Nortel? Considering the position taken by Canada, France, and Germany, I'd hate to see Nortel, Alcatel, or Siemens equipment used to rebuild the phone system in Baghdad. Lucent should be the top choice. (Tongue firmly in cheek, here, folks...) Paul A Lee Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer [Voice & Transmission] Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 Tell your senator you support Senate Bill 877 to CAN-SPAM . Find him/her at http://www.senate.gov/. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 00:53:45 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when John Higdon wrote: > Armies are not police forces. The metrics are completely different. > Much better than attempting to train armies to do police work (much > like trying to train a TV set to be a dishwasher), it would be well to > have a police force waiting in the wings. It is true, armies are not police forces. These days, it seems that the purpose of the invasion was to liberate Iraqis (since the first story, weapons of mass destruction, appears to have been untrue). So who was responsible for having this police force waiting? Presumably the invaders. Anyone with two functioning neurons to rub together would have realized that if the US was successful in overthrowing the existing goverment, it would have to replace all the normal functions of government, at least temporarily. Policing is one of those functions. This isn't the first time. I don't blame the soldiers. I blame the politicians who sent them, and/or the brass who trained them. The problem was obvious. Someone is either not learning from the past, or doesn't care. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has Dubya come out of denial yet regards the alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq which did not and most likely do not exist? As of this morning on NPR he was still chattering about 'they must have them hidden someplace, and we are gonna find them one way or another'. You are right that this crock about 'liberating the people' mostly came up once the military could not find the weapons of mass destruction. And as Joey Lindstrom advised us, 'oil is the only thing they have to trade on' (oh, boo-hoo!) so that had to be protected and how convenient it was for the troops to walk right in and take over the oil wells, yet it would be terribly inconvenient to do the same for the telephone exchange, the museum, the zoo or the water supply. I do not blame the soldiers either. Those courageous men and women had to take their orders ulti- matly from Dubya. These doctors were at a medical convention, and as professionals sometimes tend to do, they gathered in small groups after the main sessions to talk about their personal experiences. The one doctor said: One of my patients was a young lady who had both of her arms amputated. We built artificial arms for her and she learned to use them very well .. in fact, today she is a concert pianist. The next doctor thought he was better. He told the group that after a fellow had been lost in the woods for several days in the winter, the guy's legs had gotten badly frostbitten and gangrene had set in. We had to amputate both of his legs at the knees, but with therapy and training he learned to use his artificial legs pretty well. In fact, the man recently ran in the Olympic races and won a medal. The third doctor remained unimpressed. He told his story ... in the little town in Texas where I come from, one day there was a a major explosion at the factory. People were blown to bits. All of us emergency medical people rushed to the location and began first aid as best we could. This one poor devil, all they could ever find of him was his asshole ... and today, that man is president of the United States ... PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #432 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 5 22:02:44 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4622hD07533; Mon, 5 May 2003 22:02:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:02:44 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305060202.h4622hD07533@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #432 TELECOM Digest Mon, 5 May 2003 22:03:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 432 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Public Interest Registry Global Committee Structure (Julia M. Williams) More re Hyder AK USA; Independent Telco Groups (Mark J Cuccia) Future Cordless Phone Not on 2.4 GHz ??? (Al Franz) RealOne Mobile Media Guide (Monty Solomon) Pair Held in Plot to Steal Thousands of Identities (Monty Solomon) America's Broadband Dream Is Alive in Korea (Monty Solomon) VeriSign "Never Down Service" (Monty Solomon) AOL | Time Warner: Butterfly Guy Promotes Net Declaration (Surfmeister) Phone Rates (Thomas Colchie) Re: Finding Answering Machine w/Decent Audio; Longer Access Code (left) Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround (Justin Time) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Jason Stevens) What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? (S. S. Tsay) Credit Limits (Hansel & Gretel) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Reply-To: From: Julia M. Williams Subject: Public Interest Registry Announces Global Committee Stucture Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 11:29:17 -0400 Date: May 5, 2003 Contact: Julie Williams Phone: (703) 464-7005, x111 Cell: 703-402-6715 E-mail: JWilliams@pir.org Committees will set priorities to advance .ORG as a global noncommercial Internet community Reston, VA May 5, 2003 The Public Interest Registry (PIR) recently announced during a global Webcast with its Advisory Council, the establishment of five committees charged with setting priorities to advance .ORG as a thriving international noncommercial Internet community. The primary mission of the Council, which is made up of leaders in the noncommercial and Internet communities throughout the world, is to ensure that PIR is responsive to the needs, concerns, and views of the global noncommercial Internet community. The Committee chairs are noted experts in their respective fields. For complete biographies, go to www.pir.org/about/council.html. S.S. Kshatriy (India) is Chair of the Editorial Committee. The goal of the Committee is to develop editorial priorities, publish and make recommendations for articles. He is a scientist and writer who pioneered Net Journalism in India and spent most of his career as a scientist in the India Space Research Organization. Sylvia Cadena (Colombia) is Chair of the New Services Committee, which will review new services and recommend a timeline for introduction. She has worked with hundreds of nonprofit organizations to establish a Web presence and communication strategy. Michael Geist (Ottawa, Canada) is Chairman of the Policy Committee. That Committee's priority is to develop policy statements for the Council and the PIR Board for consideration. Dr. Geist is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa specializing in Internet and e-commerce law. He is widely published and considered an expert in Internet law. Pierre Dandjinou (residing Senegal (Benin citizenship) is Chairman of the Research and Outreach Committee. The goal of the Committee is to explore ways to reach out to noncommercials and grow .ORG. Pierre Dandjinou currently holds the position of Policy Specialist, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with the United Nations Development Program in Dakar. Michael Gilbert (Seattle, Washington) is Chair of the Web-based Resources Committee. His priority is to make recommendations for enhancement of PIR's Web-based mechanisms to serve the noncommercial community. Michael is an internationally known consultant to foundations and nonprofits. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE S.S. Kshatriy (India), Chair Adam Peake (Japan) Clement Dzidnou (Ghana) Mark H. Moore (US) NEW SERVICES COMMITTEE Sylvia Cadena (Colombia), Chair Calvin Browne (UK) Ben Laurie (UK) Vice-Chair Vany Martinez (Panama) POLICY COMMITTEE Michael Geist (Canada), Chair Pavan Duggal (India) Ian Peter (Australia) Barbara Simons (US) RESEARCH & OUTREACH COMMITTEE Pierre Dandjinou (residing in Senegal – Benin citizenship), Chair Walter Morton (Palau) YJ Park (Korea) Eric Tomson (Belgium) WEB-BASED RESOURCES COMMITTEE Michael Gilbert (USA), Chair Nadia McLaren (residing in Belgium (UK/Australian citizenship) Lori Schulman (USA) Klaus Stoll (Ecuador) James Cronin (UK) ABOUT .ORG The .ORG domain, which has come to be associated with noncommercial activities, is the Internet's third largest 'generic' or non-country specific top-level domain (behind .COM and .NET), housing over 2.7 million domain names worldwide. Late last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors selected ISOC's proposal from among 11 organizations bidding to operate the .ORG top-level domain. VeriSign Global Registry Services' contract as registry operator for .ORG expired on December 31, 2002. PIR assumed control of the registry on January 1, 2003. ABOUT PIR Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) is a not-for-profit corporation created by the Internet Society to manage the .ORG domain. PIR's mission is to manage the .ORG domain in a way that supports the continuing evolution of the Internet as a research, education and communications infrastructure, and educates and empowers the noncommercial community to most effectively utilize the Internet. PIR is based in Reston, Virginia. PIR was created by the Internet Society (www.ISOC.org). ISOC is a not-for-profit, open membership organization founded in 1991 and is dedicated to ensuring the open evolution, development and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people. It provides leadership in addressing issues that confront the future of the Internet, and is the organizational home for many of the groups responsible for Internet standards. For additional information on PIR and the .ORG registry please visit www.pir.org. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 19:28:30 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: More re Hyder AK USA; Independent Telco Groups I was informed the other day by a friend in Canada, who knows about some of the unique border situations, that the local service for Hyder AK USA which actually comes out of (BC)Telus' central office in Stewart BC Can, is provided to the US (Hyder AK) customers as a "resale" by A.P.&T., Alaska Power & Telephone, which provides telpehone and/or electric power throughout various communities and settlements in Alaska. In years past, the US=side (Hyder AK) customers were actually billed by GTE-of-Alaska. Of course, the actual telco/owner of the c.o.switch in Stewart BC Canada was GTE-held BC-Tel, which merged with Telus of AB a few years ago, the entire merged operation being called Telus, but still being partially held by GTE-now-VeriZon. And in 2000, GTE-now-VeriZon sold/transferred the GTE-of-Alaska operations to AP&T/ATEAC. This is documented by the RCA (Regulatory Commission of Alaska, *NOT* Sarnoff's Radio Corporation of America! :) at their website: http://www.state.ak.us/rca/orders/1999/u99107_1.pdf http://www.state.ak.us/rca/orders/2000/u99119_1.PDF Regarding an irony of RCA being the initials of Alaska's state regualtory agency (Regulatory Commission of Alaska) as well as General David Sarnoff's Radio Corporation of America, is that in the 1970s, the incumbent "DDD" toll carrier for telephone (and also telex/etc) services within the state of Alaska, as well as some local dialtones in remote settlements in Alaska, was provided by RCA, the Radio Corporation of America (now owned by General Electric) of 30 Rockafeller Plaza NYCity (the same entity which has owned NBC) ... the publicly known RCA of 30 Rockafeller Plaza NYC also owned several radio common carriers and telecom entites (what remains is now identified as GE, General Electric), such as RCA Globcom, RCA Americom, and RCA Alascom. In the early 1970s or so, the US Government and Military was going to "privatize" the public/civilian telecom operations in Alaska, which all along had been owned/operated directly by the Government/Military. Services and operations to still be used by the government/military would still be owned by the military, but the civilian operations would be sold according to bids. RCA (Sarnoff's Radio Corp of America) was the successful bidder for the civilian-side of Alaska's telecom network. During the 1970s, this was known as RCA-Alascom. Around 1980, RCA sold Alascom to Pacific Telecom Inc, which simply renamed it "Alascom". PTI also bought several local telco operations in Alaska which had previously been municipally owned by the local city/town government, including the Anchorage Telephone Utility. Around 1985, PTI sold the Alascom operations over to AT&T, the state's dominant/incumbent telecom/toll carrier is now known as AT&T-Alascom. PTI continued to own some of the local telcos it previously had purchased in the state. PTI also owned several (independent) incumbent local telcos in the Pacific Northwest area, as well as in some of the upper rural/midwest states (WI, MN, the Dakotas, etc). Circa 1997 or so, CenturyTel (HQ's in Monroe LA), a large/group owner of numerous independent rural telcos around the US, bought PTI, and thus merged in PTI's local telco operations. However, within a year or so, the PTI local telco operations in Alaska (such as Anchorage Tel Utility) were sold off, mostly back to a group of former originally PTI executives. And then, with the GTE-Bell Atlantic merger effective in Spring 2000, GTE has been selling off *several* older GTE and Contel operations, including GTE-of-Alaska (which probaby included pre-1992 Contel-of-Alaska as well), mostly being sold to AP&T/ATEAC as indicated above. In other parts of the US, (Monroe LA's) CenturyTel as well as several other independent telco groups, have bought various GTE/Contel ratecenters/operations. BTW, although CenturyTel does have its corporate HQ in Monroe LA, the incumbent LEC - telco/dialtone - is BellSouth, formerly South Central Bell. However *ALL OVER* the state of Louisiana (although mostly in NPA 318 as well as the split off NPA 337) there are NUMEROUS independent telcos in small town ratecenters which are part of the CenturyTel "family" and have been so for decades. CenturyTel also recently fought off a hostile takeover/merger by Alltel; Alltel bought out many former GTE and Contel operations in the early 1990s when GTE bought out Contel, and Alltel has also recently bought out some of the GTE (and former Contel) areas in the recent GTE/Contel + BA/NYNEX => VeriZon merger. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ Reply-To: Al Franz From: Al Franz Subject: Future Cordless Phone not on 2.4 GHz ??? Organization: Netmation Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 23:26:06 GMT Is there anything in the works to aid in the problem with Wi-Fi wireless networks not interfering with the 2.4 GHz coordless phones. Will a new coordless phone come out that does not use that frequency. Or possibly phones that can alleviate this existing problem??? Or will it continue to be a problem in the foreseeable future? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 00:50:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RealOne Mobile Media Guide RealNetworks and Major Media Companies Launch Streaming News, Sports And Entertainment Content to Mobile Devices - May 5, 2003 12:25 AM (PR Newswire) RealOne Mobile Media Guide Enables Consumers to Stream Content on Nokia 3650 & Pocket PCs; Other Devices Coming Soon RealNetworks' RealOne Mobile On-ramp Makes Getting Content Onto Mobile Platforms Easy for Content Providers SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RealNetworks(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), a global leader in network-delivered digital media, today announced that consumers for the first time can access brand-name audio and video programming right from their mobile phone. Offering top news, sports and entertainment content, the RealOne(TM) Mobile Media Guide enables consumers to enjoy streaming media whenever and wherever they want -- whether listening to breaking news or sports headlines on-demand, or checking out the latest movie trailers on the way home. Content available through the RealOne Mobile Media Guide includes programming from: Capitol Records, CNET Radio Direct, FOXSports.com, iFilm, NPR, PGA TOUR, Sporting News Radio, Triggerstreet.com and Virgin Records. The RealOne Mobile Media Guide is available on Nokia's 3650 and Pocket PC devices. Devices from Siemens and Samsung supporting the RealOne Mobile Media Guide are expected to be offered in the US later this year. Consumers with a Nokia 3650, available from AT&T Wireless, Cingular, and T-Mobile, can access the guide by simply adding a bookmark for the guides to their phones. Consumers who want to add the bookmark to their 3650 phone can do so at http://mobile.real.com . ... - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34067562 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 01:07:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Pair Held in Plot to Steal Thousands of Identities Feds charge Irvington couple used the Internet to illegally access credit reports from mortgage firm BY JOHN P. MARTIN Star-Ledger Staff Federal authorities have arrested an Irvington man and woman they say schemed to steal the identities of as many as 3,700 clients at one of the nation's largest mortgage companies. In a search Wednesday of the couple's apartment and car, FBI agents found credit reports and fake licenses and recently purchased high-tech equipment. Each bore the names of customers at Weichert Financial Services, the Morris Plains-based company that operates as a partner to Weichert Realtors. One of the suspects, Marie Louissaint, has worked as an administrative assistant for the company since May 2001. A federal complaint released yesterday said she and her roommate, Ronald Hyppolyte, used a high-speed Internet connection from their home to access more than 500 credit reports of Weichert clients between Jan. 11 and Feb. 7 of this year. The complaint, prepared by FBI Special Agent Natalie Karastury, also said authorities had determined that more than 3,770 credit report profiles of Weichert clients have been "unlawfully accessed and compromised" since November. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1051857944181440.xml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 01:19:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: America's Broadband Dream Is Alive in Korea By KEN BELSON with MATT RICHTEL SEOUL, South Korea - As Cho Won Hee zips effortlessly from one Web site to another, his doting mother at his side, it is easy to understand why Silicon Valley views South Korea as the promised land of instant access to the Internet. The Chos' high-speed digital line - 100 times faster than the typical dial-up connection in the United States - is their zippy gateway to home entertainment, education and shopping, all for $32 a month. And despite the relatively recent arrival of such connections, the Chos, like many Koreans, are already as addicted to their broadband hookup as most Americans are to their television sets. The Chos are at the cutting edge of South Korea's grand experiment with all things broadband, the catch-all name for high-speed digital connections. With a hefty push from the government, South Korea's telecommunications providers have built the world's most comprehensive Internet network, supplying affordable and reliable access that far surpasses what is available in the United States, even in those homes that have their own broadband setup. And now that most of the nation is online at high speeds, South Koreans are shifting more of their analog lives to their computers, where they watch soap operas, attend virtual test preparation schools, sing karaoke and, most of all, play games. By embracing broadband so heartily, Koreans have turned their country into a test case for the visionaries who, just a few years ago, imagined a future of nearly infinite digital possibilities. While those dreams have hit speed bumps in the United States and elsewhere, South Korea -- with Japan not far behind - is racing ahead. In the process, Koreans are offering a glimpse of what wired societies are supposed to look like, where fast Internet connections vastly increase access to information, help lift productivity and create new markets. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/05/business/worldbusiness/05BROA.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 09:03:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: VeriSign "Never Down Service" Never Down Service Protects Domain Names from Web Hijackings, Technical Glitches and Registration Lapses MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), the leading provider of digital trust services, today introduced the Never Down Service, which guarantees uptime for high profile, high-value Internet domain names. The Never Down Service offers companies protection for their valuable domain names, which if they malfunction could rob companies of their online identity and disrupt all aspects of their business. Never Down Service guarantees customers that their covered domain names will always resolve. Specifically, the service protects both key aspects of domain name management: registration and resolution. At the registration level, the Never Down Service provides the enhanced security of a specialized registrar, and a 10-year term with automatic renewal in order to protect from fraudulent DNS changes or surprise expirations. At the resolution level, the Never Down Service ensures uptime by providing secondary DNS resolution services through VeriSign's geographically distributed constellation of servers to assure continuous resolution of names, even when the customer's DNS servers fail. The Never Down Service includes the following components: -- A new class of registrar service that locks down the names and institutes strict authorization procedures for changes. -- An immediate 10-year registration and automatic renewals. -- Secondary DNS resolution services to protect against technical problems, which may cause downtime for the company's Website, and to balance DNS resolution loads. -- Always-on Customer Service (24X7, one-hour response). -- Weekly DNS Activity Reports. ... - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34069059 ------------------------------ From: webmaster@terapeta.net (Surfmeister) Subject: AOL | Time Warner | The Butterfly Guy Promote Internet Declaration Date: 5 May 2003 06:11:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Maybe more Time Warner and AOL customers would like to promote the Internet Declaration due to the fact Time Warner was part of the story. See Wired news http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,9655,00.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I printed this Declaration of Independence in the Digest a few issues ago, but it is really worth saying once again. PAT] _________________________________________________ Internet Declaration of Independence When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for all people to join the political bands which have long separated us from each other, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of Nature's Creator entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the causes which impel us to unity. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of eternal happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. That when any form of government relinquishes their authority, that government becomes a blessing to everyone. The past, present, and future Internet Overseers' accept full responsibility for the future of the planet, the children of the world, and the distribution of information thereof; and to institute a new system, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect the safety and happiness of all. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience has shown, that mankind is more prone to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. It is the right and solemn duty of free people to provide new guards for the security of all. The history of the world shall show that democracy has and always will triumph over tyranny. The present governing agency has willingly assented to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. That the financial resources of the planet have contributed to the growth of the Internet. Thereby, the present government overseeing committee has caused others to be elected; whereby the capable powers, have returned to the people at large for their exercise. That we understand that this decree shall never render any military organization independent of and superior to the civil power and right of the people. This global document shall ensure that free trade shall be open to all and remain with all peoples of the free world. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall impose taxes on the Internet without the consent of the free people of the world. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall deprive us of the benefits of Trial by Jury. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall transport any Internet community members beyond seas and national boundaries, which boundaries shall have been previously ascertained by international law, to be tried for pretended offenses. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall take away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and alter fundamentally the forms of our independent governments. That no past, present, or future nation or government shall suspend our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. That the people of all nations shall be declared in the protection and waging of war from any power that may try to come against us. That any character of government, whose every act which may define a tyrant, will be determined unfit to be the ruler of a free people, and shall be deposed. We must, therefore, submit to the necessity, which announces our unity, as we all mankind, friends in peace. Article I No government shall make Internet law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble in cyberspace, and to petition any government for a redress of grievances. Article II A well regulated Internet security force, being necessary for the protection of the free flow of information, the right of the children to keep themselves from information that has been determined by the majority of people to be declared as offensive material by the parents of said children, shall not be infringed. Article III The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, internet and/or digital transmissions, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall be issued, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Article IV No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land, sea, and air forces, or in the global security forces, when in actual service in time of war or public danger. Article V Nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Article VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the governments and nations wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. Article VII In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed the legal expenses determined by the people at large, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the Internet counsel, than according to the rules of the common law. Article VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Article IX The enumeration of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. Article X The powers not delegated to the Internet community, nor prohibited by it to the nations, are reserved to the nations respectively, and to the people. Article XI That the Internet counsel shall maintain the free flow of information for as long as the Internet is in existence with respect to all people, all nations, and all beliefs. Article XII That a blue butterfly placed within a circle shall become the symbol of peace and harmony throughout the world, signifying an all inclusive system, and that this Internet Declaration of Independence shall not be overthrown by any nation or government; and that all free people shall have the unalienable right to freely express their thoughts; so long as their thoughts do not infringe upon the minds of the children. We, therefore, the representatives of the Internet community, in general congress, assembled in cyberspace, appealing to the Supreme Creator of the universe for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of the world, solemnly post, publish, and declare, that no boundaries shall exist in the management and administration of the Internet, and of our right to be proclaimed as a free and independent people; and that as independent and free-thinking people, we have the power to contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent free people have the natural given right to do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our honor, our loyalty and our sacred trust. Drafted 1998 Updated 2003 AOL | Time Warner | Butterfly Enthusiasts that want to promote the Internet Declaration can download a PDF file @ http://www.terapeta.net/internet-declaration.pdf ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 09:39:19 -0400 Subject: Phone Rates From: Thomas Colchie Do you happen to know during which month of 1984 the payphone rate in New York changed from ten cents to twenty-five cents? Thanks, E. Colchie ------------------------------ From: Invert Everything Left of the @ to Reply <6212hgk@newsguy.com> Subject: Re: Finding Answering Machine w/Decent Audio & Longer Access Code Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 07:06:23 -0700 On Sat, 03 May 2003 06:56:41 -0700, invert everything left of the @ to reply <6212hgk@newsguy.com> wrote: > -Ladies and gentlement of c.d.t and c.d.t.t: Your assistance is > requested in the selection of an answering machine w/ decent audio at > playback and with a four digit or longer remote access code. > 1. I've bought two of the tapeless devices (Panasonic and Radio > Shack), and the sound is actually worse than microcassette > models. Tinny, highly distorted, can't make out what the other party > told me. > 2. Recent reports of overseas crackers changing the OGM to allow the > ATT robot operator to accept inordinantly expensive calls make me want > a good security code for remote access, yet the Panasonics only have > three digit codes and the Radio shacks only a two digit code. Neither > is acceptable securitywise. > Your thoughtful on-topic responses to this newsgroup will be > appreciated. Thank you kindly. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The thing with the Radio Shack tapeless > recorder (it is called Digital Voice Recorder, catalog 14-1193, model > DR-83) is the little tiny built in speaker does not do it justice. I was hoping for a telephone answering machine. With a four digit access code. Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT. ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: MCI/Worldcom/Telecom-USA's Latest 101-XXXX+ Dialaround Date: 5 May 2003 10:43:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Mark J Cuccia wrote in message news:: > The Telecom-USA subsidiary of MCI-Worldcom (BTW, has anyone else > noticed how with all of the bad publicity "Worldcom" has had over the > past year, that they have gone back to calling themselves *JUST* MCI > in recent TV/Radio/print commercials and ads? They were calling > themselves MCI-Worldcom when they merged some five-or-so years ago, > and slowly began phasing out the 'MCI' part of the name to use just > Worldcom, although "The Neighborhood" last year referred only to 'MCI' > in its commercials) ... anyhow ... MCI-Worldcom's Telecom-USA (and > even the Telecom-USA name has rarely identified itself publicly as > being part of MCI) has come out with yet another so-called "ten-ten-" > dialaround. > They first had 'ten=ten-three-two-one' some years ago (101-0321+, > originally 10-321+), and I forget the "deal" offered on that one. Then > they started with 'ten-ten-two-twenty' (101-0220+) which was > originally a Western Union LD access code (as 10-220+) back in the > 1980s, this 101-0220 having the 1980's TV puppet 'star' ALF as the > spokesman along with some other "trendy" pitchmen and celebs, with the > "one buck" for twenty minutes, 7-cents a minute after. > The "catch" with the 101-0220+ is that ONCE THE LINE ANSWERED, whether > wrong number, answering machine/voicemail, or called party really > unable to carry on a lenghty conversation at that moment -- you were > ding'd for a buck!!! > Now there is 'ten-ten-nine-eight-seven' from (MCI-Worldcom's) > Telecom-USA. Supposedly 3-c per min (with a 39-cents, I think, > per-call connection charge) to anywhere in the US, Candaa, and most of > western Europe. They claim no monthly fees -- that is, no monthly > 'membership' or plan fees, but obviously basic taxes and other "fees > required by the government" such as "network access fees" and > Universal Service Fund, etc. are going to be tacked on for any month > that one makes billed calls via 101-0987+. Just because I could play with a spreadsheet, consider the following table: Min Chrg Connect Total 1 $0.03 $0.39 $0.42 2 $0.06 $0.39 $0.45 3 $0.09 $0.39 $0.48 4 $0.12 $0.39 $0.51 5 $0.15 $0.39 $0.54 6 $0.18 $0.39 $0.57 7 $0.21 $0.39 $0.60 8 $0.24 $0.39 $0.63 9 $0.27 $0.39 $0.66 10 $0.30 $0.39 $0.69 11 $0.33 $0.39 $0.72 12 $0.36 $0.39 $0.75 13 $0.39 $0.39 $0.78 14 $0.42 $0.39 $0.81 15 $0.45 $0.39 $0.84 16 $0.48 $0.39 $0.87 17 $0.51 $0.39 $0.90 18 $0.54 $0.39 $0.93 19 $0.57 $0.39 $0.96 20 $0.60 $0.39 $0.99 Now add the USF to this, and yes, you will save money over using 101-0220, but its still a rip-off! > I think I have all of the info on charges, fees, taxes, etc., for > calling the US/Canada and (most of) western Europe -- of course, rates > to other parts of the world will be higher ... but am I missing > anything here? > It seems "too good to be true", and when things SEEM that way, they > USUALLY ARE -- too good to be true. > Of course, a 39-c "connection" fee might seem a bit high, but if one knows > that their called party will be there and able to talk for a while, it > might be a reasonably good deal at 3-cents/min! But then exactly what are > they basing the USF on? Is it graduated? Fixed? flat-rate-percentage? > I wonder if they get upset with data/fax/modem calls, or if one 3-ways > two calls from the same number with 101-0987+ ?? > Anyone have any experience or comments? > Thanks! > Mark J. Cuccia > mcuccia@tulane.edu > New Orleans LA USA Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: Jason Stevens Organization: Stevens Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 22:59:36 -0400 Barry Margolin wrote: > In article , Charles Cryderman > wrote: >> But one lawmaker was skeptical about how much impact an anti-spam law >> will have. "How on Earth will we enforce this when spammers are >> sending millions and millions of junk messages every day?" said >> Rep. Joe Rivet, D-Bay City, a member of the House Technology and >> Energy Committee. "This problem is way bigger than one state." > Yes, it is. I wonder why the Feds haven't gotten on the bandwagon? > Virtually all spam is inter-state (and often international), so > shouldn't this be within the authority of the federal government? Why > are all the states wasting their time enacting their own, conflicting > laws instead of pressuring Congress to make one, all-encompassing law? Dynamics in state legislatures and Congress are often quite different, but Congress IS beginning to get serious with the spam situation. (Associated Press) Members of Congress are proposing a variety of ways to fight unwanted e-mail. Federal regulators say the problem of spam, or unwanted e-mail, has gotten so bad that something must be done to protect the Internet correspondence that has become a way of life. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is proposing a national "do-not-spam" registry similar to a service that's to start that blocks unwanted telemarketing calls. Another proposal, by Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., would require spam to have valid return addresses. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she would seek federal legislation offering rewards for people who help track down spammers. Most of the panelists at a Federal Trade Commission forum this past week said that a strong federal anti-spam law is needed and would be better than the mix of local laws now in 29 states. ------------------------------ From: TsaySS@hotmail.com (S. S. Tsay) Subject: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? Date: 5 May 2003 12:33:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hello, I am about to move and am looking for broadband at my new place. The cable company won't give us cable modem service and the dsl providers have all told us that our place has fiber, not copper, so they can't provide us with DSL. DirectTV seems to be our only option, but the up front cost for that is $600, it's not very fast, and it costs $60/mo. The house I am moving into is about 20 years old, so I am a bit confused as to how it has fiber. Anyway, my question is, where should I be looking for places that offer access through fiber? Do any such companies exist? Thanks for any advice. TS ------------------------------ From: Hansel & Gretel Subject: Credit Limits Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 18:47:35 -0400 Reply-To: Hansel & Gretel For business T-1 customers that go significantly over their limit, how soon does the telco cut them off? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is purely a business decision of each telco and their credit managers. I would say generally three or four billing cycles would be allowed since there can be paperwork problems involved at times, not just 'credit/payment' problems as such. The larger, more sophisticated business customers can easily have three or four billing cycles as needed. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #432 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 6 20:25:44 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h470Pi312736; Tue, 6 May 2003 20:25:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 20:25:44 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305070025.h470Pi312736@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #433 TELECOM Digest Tue, 6 May 2003 20:26:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 433 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Making It Harder for Prying Eyes (Monty Solomon) Cable Heads For The Black (Monty Solomon) ILLINOIS ex rel. MADIGAN v TELEMARKETING ASSOCIATES,INC. (Monty Solomon) Cisco Systems Reports Third Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) Former FCC officials oppose AOL's IM request (Monty Solomon) San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City'(Monty Solomon) Motorola Broadband Unveils Enhanced Digital Cable HDTV/PVR (M Solomon) Radio ID Chips to Come With Kill Switch (Monty Solomon) Apple Squashes E-Store ID Bug (Monty Solomon) E-mails Attack Adviser to Gay Student Club (Patrick Townson) Re: urTALKING.com Never Sent me my Pin Numbers (Trebor) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Joseph) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Nathan Tenny) ISDN Phone System - How Do I make my PC ISDN Ready? (eric) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:15:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Making It Harder for Prying Eyes By Julia Scheeres A bill in the California state legislature would protect the anonymity of Internet users by requiring Internet service providers to send customers copies of subpoenas seeking to learn their identities. If passed, California's Internet Communications Protection Act would become the second state law requiring that consumers be alerted when an ISP is issued a subpoena to find out an anonymous Internet user's true identity. Virginia passed a similar statute last year. The debate over anonymous online speech has heated to a boil in recent years, with companies and individuals increasingly seeking to have ISPs and Web publishers subpoenaed to learn the names of online critics and people suspected of copyright violations. Yahoo alone expects to receive 600 civil subpoenas this year -- a 50 percent jump from 2002. Such requests seek a variety of personal information about Internet users, including full names, Social Security numbers, home addresses and pseudonyms they've used online. The California legislation would require ISPs to send copies of civil subpoenas to their customers by registered mail within 14 days of receiving them. If the customer decides to fight the request, he or she would have 30 days to serve both the ISP and the issuing party with written copies of the objection. ISPs that fail to comply with the act could be sued by their customers. http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,58720,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:19:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cable Heads For The Black Cable Heads For The Black by Penelope Patsuris NEW YORK - For years the cable industry has been promising free cash flow, but over the course of a five-year, $50 billion upgrade the outlook has been grim. Now, as cable's first-quarter earnings start to roll out on May 5 with a report from Cox Communications, strong results all around indicate that the promise of consistent free cash flow for all may finally materialize. "Every time [the cable industry] has said 'We're about to get free cash flow,' it didn't happen," says Dennis Leibowitz, media and telecom hedge fund manager at ACT II, "but this time I think it will." For the fist time in years, capital expenditures are decreasing as the industry wraps up its digital upgrade. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2003/05/02/cx_pp_0501cable.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:30:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ILLINOIS ex rel. MADIGAN v. TELEMARKETING ASSOCIATES,INC. SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES ILLINOIS ex rel. MADIGAN v. TELEMARKETING ASSOCIATES,INC., et al. No. 01-1806. Argued March 3, 2003-Decided May 5, 2003 Respondents, Illinois for-profit fundraising corporations and their owner (collectively Telemarketers), were retained by VietNow National Headquarters, a charitable nonprofit corporation, to solicit donations to aid Vietnam veterans. The contracts between those parties provided, among other things, that Telemarketers would retain 85 percent of the gross receipts from Illinois donors, leaving 15 percent for VietNow. The Illinois Attorney General filed a complaint in state court, alleging, inter alia, that Telemarketers represented to donors that a significant amount of each dollar donated would be paid over to VietNow for specifically identified charitable endeavors, and that such representations were knowingly deceptive and materially false, constituted a fraud, and were made for Telemarketers' private pecuniary benefit. The trial court granted Telemarketers' motion to dismiss the fraud claims on First Amendment grounds. In affirming, the Illinois Appellate and Supreme Courts placed heavy weight on Schaumburg v. Citizens for a Better Environment, 444 U.S. 620, Secretary of State of Md. v. Joseph H. Munson Co., 467 U.S. 947, and Riley v. National Federation of Blind of N. C., Inc., 487 U.S. 781. Those decisions held that certain regulations of charitable solicitation barring fees in excess of a prescribed level effectively imposed prior restraints on fundraising, and were therefore incompatible with the First Amendment. The state high court acknowledged that this case involved no such prophylactic proscription of high-fee charitable solicitation. Instead, the court noted, the Attorney General sought to enforce the State's generally applicable antifraud laws against Telemarketers for specific instances of deliberate deception. However, the Illinois Supreme Court said, Telemarketers' solicitation statements were alleged to be false only because Telemarketers contracted for 85% of the gross receipts and failed to disclose this information to donors. The court concluded that the Attorney General's complaint was, in essence, an attempt to regulate Telemarketers' ability to engage in a protected activity based upon a percentage-rate limitation-the same regulatory principle rejected in Schaumburg, Munson, and Riley. Held: Consistent with this Court's precedent and the First Amendment, States may maintain fraud actions when fundraisers make false or misleading representations designed to deceive donors about how their donations will be used. The Illinois Attorney General's allegations against Telemarketers therefore state a claim for relief that can survive a motion to dismiss. Pp. 8-21. http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-1806.ZS.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 00:20:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cisco Systems Reports Third Quarter Earnings -- Q3 Revenues: $4.6 Billion -- Q3 Operating Cash Flow: $1.26 Billion -- Q3 Earnings Per Share: $0.14 GAAP; $0.15 Pro Forma Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today reported its third quarter results for the period ended April 26, 2003. Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2003 were $4.6 billion, compared with $4.8 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2002, a decrease of 4.2 percent, and compared with $4.7 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2003. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, was $987 million or $0.14 per share, compared with $729 million or $0.10 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2002, and compared with $991 million or $0.14 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2003. Pro forma net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2003 was $1.1 billion or $0.15 per share, compared with pro forma net income of $838 million or $0.11 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2002, and compared with $1.1 billion or $0.15 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2003. A reconciliation between net income on a GAAP basis and pro forma net income is provided in a table immediately following the Pro Forma Consolidated Statements of Operations. Net sales for the first nine months of fiscal 2003 were $14.2 billion, compared with $14.1 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2002, an increase of 0.6 percent. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2003, on a GAAP basis, was $2.6 billion or $0.36 per share, compared with $1.1 billion or $0.15 per share for the first nine months of fiscal 2002. Pro forma net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2003 was $3.2 billion or $0.44 per share, compared with pro forma net income of $1.8 billion or $0.25 per share for the first nine months of fiscal 2002. During the third quarter of fiscal 2003, Cisco completed the acquisition of Okena, Inc. The purchase price, including assumed liabilities, was approximately $160 million. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34097401 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 17:08:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Former FCC officials oppose AOL's IM request NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - Two former Federal Communications Commission officials have urged the regulatory agency to think twice about AOL Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE:AOL) request to lift restrictions on its ability to offer high-speed instant messaging services like video conferencing. In a petition filed with the FCC made available this week, Gerald Faulhaber and David Faber -- former FCC officials who are now professors at the University of Pennsylvania -- disagreed with AOL's reasons for lifting the restrictions the FCC place on it when it approved AOL's purchase of Time Warner. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34098539 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 09:06:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City' Nationally DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 2003-- Tampa, Boston, Houston and Charlotte, NC Round Out the Top Five "Broadband Wired Cities" in Recent Survey Conducted by AOL for Broadband Overall, 49% of Internet Users Surveyed Say They Are Using Broadband Connections and Spending an Average of 23 Hours a Week Online Even as the number of broadband connections continue to rise across the country, San Francisco -- a high-tech mecca -- dominates in its use of the high-speed technology. According to AOL for Broadband's first-ever survey of broadband use, San Francisco ranked as the number one "Broadband Wired City." The 18-market online survey included nearly 3,600 respondents (adults 18+) and was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International (ORC). The survey's ranking is based on an index of several key factors: the number of people using broadband connections at home and the amount of time that they have had them; the number of people who intend to get broadband in the next 12 months; the number of hours people with broadband connections spend online; and the variety of online activities conducted by people with broadband connections. According to the survey, which examined regional broadband usage and online habits, the top 10 cities for broadband are: - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34086678 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 09:13:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Broadband Unveils Enhanced Digital Cable HDTV/PVR Motorola Achieves Another Industry Milestone - the Launching of the First Integrated HDTV and PVR Digital Set-Top HORSHAM, Pa., May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) Broadband Communications Sector today introduced an enhancement to its advanced interactive digital set-top family. The new Motorola DCT6000 series supports operators' plans to deliver a powerful combination of interactive and entertainment services, such as personal video recording (PVR), high- definition television (HDTV), and other processing intensive applications, to their cable customers. Designed in response to network operator and consumer feedback, the DCT6000 platform builds on the Motorola DCT5100 and DCT5200 set-tops. With increased processing power, digital interfaces to digital television (DTV) and related consumer electronics, an integrated DOCSIS(TM)-compatible cable modem, and features such as pausing live TV and recording programs via the electronic program guide (EPG) interface, the DCT6000 family presents operators with a single solution for PVR, HDTV, and advanced interactive applications. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34087460 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:09:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Radio ID Chips to Come With Kill Switch By Richard Shim Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 5, 2003, 4:00 PM PT Manufacturers and a key industry group expect to introduce a kill switch for controversial radio frequency identification tags before the inventory-tracking chips are shipped in products to retail shelves. The Auto ID Center, which is helping to develop the radio frequency identification (RFID) specification, said last week that chips incorporating a kill switch are due this summer from manufacturers including Philips Semiconductor, Alien Technology and Matrics. Philips already has prototypes available, and the chips and will be in full production by the end of the year, according to Dirk Morgenroth, marketing manager for smart labels at Philips. The tags will not be able to be reactivated once they've been disabled, Morgenroth said. If the tags make it into retail products, consumers will be asked if they want to have identification features disabled when they leave a store, professor Sanjay Sarma, a founder and chairman of research at the Auto ID Center, said in an interview with CNET News.com. http://news.com.com/2100-1039-999794.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 22:12:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple Squashes E-Store ID Bug By Brian McWilliams Apple Computer said it fixed a security flaw at its online store late last week that could have enabled attackers to hijack customers' accounts and place fraudulent orders. The flaw, discovered by an anonymous Canadian security researcher who uses the nickname "Null," potentially allowed malicious users to change Apple Store customers' passwords and gain control of the victims' account data. http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,58718,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 23:04:11 PDT From: ptownson@sbcglobal.net Subject: E-Mails Attack Adviser to Gay Student Club by David Ryan Alexander, Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2003/05/05/2 Summary: A high school teacher who is the adviser for a campus gay-straight alliance (GSA) in San Bruno, Calif., received 2,000 harassing e-mails last week. You can find more PlanetOut News at http://www.planetout.com/news/. To get PlanetOut News headlines sent to you every day, visit http://www.planetout.com/pnodirect/. ------------------------------ From: sshopper@udude.com (Trebor) Subject: Re: urTALKING.com Never Sent me my Pin Numbers Date: 6 May 2003 13:36:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ sshopper@udude.com (Trebor) wrote in message news:: > I ordered two phonecards from URTalking.com over a week and a half > ago. They have never sent me the pin numbers and have never responded > to my many emails. > Ironically: their website said "Real-time PIN delivery". Their one > confirmation email negated this, saying "Please allow 12 hours for pin > number". Yet it's been over 200 hours and still no pin numbers. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has your bank card yet been charged for > the 'service'? Try the (usually) toll-free number associated with > the charge on your bank account. PAT] I used Paypal, and bless them, they took care of it and said they found it to be the seller's fault: "Our investigation has determined that the seller is at fault, and as a result we have attempted to recover your funds. $20.00 has been credited to your account. This is the maximum amount we were able to recover. Please allow up to 5 days for this adjustment to be reflected in your account. We appreciate your business, and regret this experience. To make sure future transactions proceed smoothly, we suggest reading these Security Tips: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fraud-tips-buyers-outside Sincerely, Protection Services Department PAYPAL ROCKS! ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 20:03:06 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Sun, 04 May 2003 22:59:36 -0400, Jason Stevens wrote: > Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is proposing a national "do-not-spam" > registry similar to a service that's to start that blocks unwanted > telemarketing calls. > Another proposal, by Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, > D-Ore., would require spam to have valid return addresses. Rep. Zoe > Lofgren, D-Calif., said she would seek federal legislation offering > rewards for people who help track down spammers. > Most of the panelists at a Federal Trade Commission forum this past > week said that a strong federal anti-spam law is needed and would be > better than the mix of local laws now in 29 states. A *big* problem with any federal or state law to outlaw this stuff is that a good proportion of spam doesn't even originate domestically any longer and is routed through servers in China, Korea and elswhere from places that either don't know how to stop this stuff or just don't care and domestic spam laws aren't going to do anything to shut them down. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ From: n_t_e_nn_y_@q_ual_c_o_m_m_.c_o_m (Nathan Tenny) Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: 6 May 2003 09:48:01 -0700 Organization: QUALCOMM Incorporated Reply-To: ntenny+r@qualcomm.com In article , Dave Phelps wrote: > I wouldn't say it's a defeatist attitude. If the government gets > involved, that *will* be defeat. I don't want the government meddling > with the internet. I find this argument to be one of the most bizarre strawmen imaginable. The whole point of getting exercised about spam (email or Usenet) is that it is, in effect, a new way to steal resources by exploiting the somewhat cockeyed cost structure of email. It's not just annoying, but an annoying kind of *theft*; and it happens to be one that doesn't seem to be adequately addressed by current law. (There are all kinds of theories about how it *could* be, but they hardly ever seem to pan out, and then only in terms of civil liability.) So to say "I don't want the government to regulate spam because I don't want the government meddling with the internet" is a little bit -- nay, a big bit -- like saying "I don't want the government to regulate theft because I don't want the government meddling with private property". You can make that position hold together (from an anarchist standpoint, for instance), but I think the assumptions that it takes to do so are ones that make it an irrelevant argument for virtually everyone. > No, I don't want the government to stick its nose in the internet. I > think, as more people become disgusted with spam, and begin using > services like spamcop (which puts pressure on the ISPs that host > spammers and spam sites) the less ROI spammers, and ISPs that host > them, will see. This claim has been around as long as spam has, and it hasn't worked yet. I'd be thrilled if it did, but some years ago, around the time of the AGIS debacle, I think it became pretty clear that the moles are ultimately unwhackable. YMMV and all that, but really, if it hasn't happened by now, when do you think it's going to? > And honestly, how can you legally prevent someone from sending spam > anyway? Any government regulation restricting spam would no doubt be > constitutionally challenged under the first amendment. You could say the same about junk fax, but that law has held up. It'd take a more serious legal scholar than I to give a really watertight explanation of why that is, so I won't try. NT Nathan Tenny | When the world ends, there'll be no more Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA | air. That's why it's important to pollute | the air now. Before it's too late. | | -- Kathy Acker ------------------------------ From: ericliddiard@hotmail.com (eric) Subject: ISDN Phone System - How Do I make my PC ISDN Ready? Date: 6 May 2003 06:45:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi -- I am a networking newbee -- so please be kind ;-) I am getting two standalone PCs for my company. The specification can be found here: http://www.savastore.com/pc/amd/ (The Performa Plus) The machine does come with: "56K Data/Fax Modem Fast Ethernet 10/100" as can be seen in the product description. I have just had a new phone/ISDN system fitted in the office by Eurotel. There are two separate ISDN lines for the computers. I have been told that the connection from the phone system is an "SO BUS". What I need to know is -- what do I need to do to make my PCs "ISDN ready"? I.E. do I need to get a certain card fitted in them or do I need some sort of adapter? Eurotel told me I needed a "BT Speedway PCI" card but I am not sure what this is. Is it just a standard PCI card that I can fit in each computer myself or something else? I contacted the company I was getting the PCs from but they were not much help -- they told me that an Ethernet card MIGHT do the same thing(?). Basically, all I need to know is what the cable/connection from the SO Bus (i.e. from the phone system) will plug into on each computer. Can anyone tell me for sure what I need to do to make my computers "ISDN ready"? Can anyone recommend a solution? Thanking you in advance. Eric. P.S. I would appreciate emails on this but I will check the posting regularly. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #433 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 6 22:41:51 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h472fpH13428; Tue, 6 May 2003 22:41:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 22:41:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305070241.h472fpH13428@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #434 TELECOM Digest Tue, 6 May 2003 22:42:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 434 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Phone Rates (Justin Time) Re: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? (left of the) Re: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? (Greg Knopf) Re: My New Vonage Account (Steve Michelson) Re: Ooh, Cows! (dold@OohXXCowsX.usenet.us.com) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Jenna Kryman) Re: Ooh, Cows! (John Higdon) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq (Joey Lindstrom) Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat (Joey Lindstrom) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Phone Rates Date: 6 May 2003 07:50:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ > One of the things that bothers me about the current pricing for phone > service is that phone costs are becoming more constant 24 hours per > day. Phone equipment costs to the phone company have been normalized across a 24 hour period almost since the service started. > It costs the phone company almost nothing to complete a phone call. > Almost all of their costs are in fixed costs, mostly capacity costs > for installing the equipment. Each individual call at the margine > that is completed and billed for is almost pure profit. (It is > business that wants all of the new services and equipment, the phone > system of 10 years was technologically fine for transmitting voice). OOPS! a little false premise is being propogated here! You are making an assumption that the bulk of the phone companies costs are for equipment and not labor. This builds on the false assumption that once equipment is in place there is no cost to administer, operate or repair that equipment and that once installed it will last until the end of time. > The heaviest demand for calls is Christmas and Mother's Day. Other than > these special days, the heaviest demand for phone service is during > the business day, which is why phone service has traditionally cost > more during the day, than at night. Again, a half-truth. Over the past several years the usage pattern on the nation's public switched telephone system has been shifting. The period from 5:00 PM local time until around 10:00 PM is almost as heavy as the period between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM. To make exacerbate matters, phone calls placed during the evening hours are usually longer and therefore use the equipment for longer periods of time than during other periods in areas away from the traditional core areas used during the business day. > Since the circuits are usually idle during the night (unless usage > patterns have changed significantly during the past couple years), Well, you are alluding to there may be a change in the usage patterns, but you are stating the fact with a tone that suggests any data may be contrived. In order for a residential area to utilize some of the capacity of an adjacent, or business center, there has to be a means of transporting the connection request. This also takes equipment and facilities that were not in place nor anticipated when most residential switching centers were installed more than 25 years ago. > would be most fair to charge almost nothing during those hours. The > hours with the highest demand should have higher rates than now in > order to encourage people to call at non- peak times. Well, you are now fully embarked on a false premise that the usage between 5:00 and 10:00 PM is as it was 30 years ago, before computers and data communications started becoming available to the public. You are also making an assumption that the telephone company is willing to shift the burden of sharing the cost of providing service from you to someone with deeper pockets. Well, if you shift the higher cost someplace else, those that pay the higher cost will increase the cost of the goods or services they provide to the ultimate consumer, you. As an example, the local grocery store just had its phone rates raised to pay for the telephone switching equipment used for your connection to the Internet. To recover the increased cost of doing business, they raise the price of ding-dongs. All consumers of ding-dongs now share in the cost of providing you with the telephone switching equipment so you can get on the Internet and complain about the high cost of ding-dongs. > the overall costs of phone service would decline if that were the > case since less capacity would be needed to handle the same number > of calls). I have to label this as a conclusion drawn from a false premise. Each switch has a finite capacity based on the number of concurrent connections that can be in service at any given moment. The average business call lasts approximately 3 minutes. The average Internet data call lasts over 1 hour. The equipment in service for the data call would have been available to handle 19 additional calls during the business day during a one-hour data call. That's 19 people who could have gotten service if the equipment had been available. > In reality, however, costs are becoming more equalized, not less so. The cost of switching equipment is usually amortized over a 15 year period, so the statement is a false premise as the tax laws haven't changed in several years regarding equipment amortization. There is still the investment, and that is normally an up-front cost, so you have the cost of money to pay for the equipment before you can even begin to handle a call. > Services like 900 numbers cost the same no matter what the time of day > they are called. The access charge is the same whether you call at > peak or non-peak hours. Costs to these numbers are set by the person providing the information service and are not phone company rates. The rates the phone company charges for the circuits used by these information providers is the same no matter who the end user, business or residential. There may be volume discounts, but the cost for a single circuit is the same. > (Business may refuse to pay that charge; residential customers > cannot). You have the same option that businesses have. You can block access to those third-party information provider numbers. (And no, businesses cannot refuse to pay those charges if they were made from their circuits. The only instance where they have the opportunity to refuse the charges is when they had previously blocked access and due to a failure at the telephone company the call was allowed to connect.) > Reach out America plans charge the same > for calls during the evening and night periods. The last I checked > there was no Reach Out America Night Plan, but there are discounts > during the peak, daytime period available. AT&T's new tariff allows > them to discount their telephone rates below their standard rates > to business customers in order to be competitive, but they did > ask to have the same ability to cut rates for residential customers. Tariffs are tariffs. The average consumer, i.e. residential customer, will not guarantee the interexchange carrier (long distance carrier) a minimum revenue per month. If you guaranteed the LD carrier your traffic will exceed $500 per month, then you will also receive deep discounts on any service above the minimum amount of guaranteed revenue. Of course, this assumes you have dedicated lines between you and the long distance carrier so they don't have to pay the incumbent local exchange carrier for each connection to their lines. As far as calling plans are concerned, the Reach Out America plan cited is based on calls being made during the evening, or off-peak hours. Calls made using this type of calling plan during peak calling periods, which now goes until after 9:00 PM, are normally carried close to cost as the entire network is operating much closer to capacity than between 10:00 PM and 7:00 AM. > Finally, the night discount has been reduced as a percentage of the > daytime rate. (The cost of completing a call at night has gone up > because the decrease in the discount has not been offset by declines in > the base rate. In fact, for many carriers, the base rate has been > increasing, not decreasing). All those data calls placed from your home between the hours of 5:00 PM and 10:00 PM require equipment to be placed in areas where it will be idle for extended periods of time -- the other 19 hours per day -- and the investment still has to be paid for. > These changes have all helped the business customer (who deducts the > cost of his phone service) and harmed the residential customer (who > cannot). Thus, on an after-tax basis, the business customer calling > during peak times may actually pay less for phone service than a > residential customer who calls during hours with lower utilization of > capacity. (I am assuming that the length and the location of the calls > is the same). Your assumption is false, so therefore your whole premise is false in this instance. The residential customer is no longer as heavily subsidised by the business caller as in years past. As increased capacity has been needed in residential switching centers to handle increased, and longer data calls, the cost to the residential customer must increase to cover the investment in the equipment provided by the carrier. And, as already stated, when was the last time you connected with your ISP for less than 5 minutes? > The reason given is that otherwise large businesses would set up > their own telephone systems. The entire reason for the existence of > the telephone monopoly in the first place, however, was that due to > economy of scale, one large company could be much more efficient > (and thus have lower prices) than smaller companies. To the extent > that such economies of scale exist today, smaller companies should > be unable to provide phone service cheaper than a large one. If > there are no economies of scale, then we should expect to see more > and more companies rather than the mergers of the past few years. > And regardless, those companies would still have all of that unused > capacity at night and on weekends, which they could sell very > cheaply. One of the things that makes the telephone system in the United States the marvel it is is because of the interconnections possible. I have worked for companies that have had their own "virtual telephone company" on premises. While the calls we carried internally were "free" -- if you don't count the cost of the equipment, administration and repair -- the system was a closed system meaning we could not contact any of our customers, nor could they contact us without a connection between our switch and the PSTN. Because the PSTN connection was provided by another company, the phone company, we had to pay for the lines between each system as well as a charge per connection. Oops, that's something you don't pay as a residential customer is it - message units? > It is easy to see who has more lobbying power. Businesses, who > cannot vote, are more succesful than individuals who can. I would be more than happy to swap phone bills for my business line, and its low long distance rates with you. My phone line is $22.80 per month and $0.059 per outbound call, and I make about 6 calls per day. Long distance is about $0.027 per minute, flat rate, but then you will have to pick up your portion of the dedicated access line, that is a flat $500.00 per month. Your costs will be much easier on my cash flow than my current charges. But then to get that low monthly rate and message unit charge, you will have to guarantee the phone company you will have a minimum of 20,000 circuits in use at the end of each billing period. > David Gast > gast@cs.ucla.edu > {uunet,ucbvax,rutgers}!{ucla-cs,cs.ucla.edu}!gast Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: 6212hgk@newsguy.com (Please invert everything left of the @ to reply) Subject: Re: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 19:56:06 GMT Read up on 802.11 links to other folks in line-of-sight who might be willing to share their broadband, then do some scouting. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010628.html http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010712.html On 5 May 2003 12:33:37 -0700, TsaySS@hotmail.com (S. S. Tsay) wrote: > I am about to move and am looking for broadband at my new place. The > cable company won't give us cable modem service and the dsl providers > have all told us that our place has fiber, not copper, so they can't > provide us with DSL. DirectTV seems to be our only option, but the up > front cost for that is $600, it's not very fast, and it costs $60/mo. > The house I am moving into is about 20 years old, so I am a bit > confused as to how it has fiber. Anyway, my question is, where should > I be looking for places that offer access through fiber? Do any such > companies exist? Thanks for any advice. Nobody but a fool goes into a federal counterrorism operation without duct tape - Richard Preston, THE COBRA EVENT. ------------------------------ From: Greg T. Knopf Subject: Re: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? Date: 06 May 2003 19:02:46 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services Reply-To: gtknopf@concentric.net Hello, S. S. Tsay wrote: > I am about to move and am looking for broadband at my new place. The > cable company won't give us cable modem service and the dsl providers > have all told us that our place has fiber, not copper, so they can't > provide us with DSL ... Anyway, my question is, where should > I be looking for places that offer access through fiber? Do any such > companies exist? Thanks for any advice. I suspect that what your potential DSL providers are saying is that your new location is not hard-wired with direct, uninterrupted copper cable to the local central office. Fiber is probably run to a neighborhood telco station which houses equipment which demuxes the high capacity signal on the fiber and then provides copper lines to each of the local houses, etc. Therefore, neither the telco nor any potential DSL providers can place a DSL access device, a DSLAM, in a telco central office to provide service to your neighborhood. It should be possible to locate a DSLAM at the local telco station, but the telco probably considers this to be uneconomical. I'm just guessing here. For the cable access, it is really up to your local company there and what it offers. Perhaps if you tell us the location where you are moving to there might be someone in the group who is familiar with the situation at the locality. Your dilemma is a common one. Having cable TV-provided internet service has been a great boon for many in the same situation. Who is the local cable company? Something to consider is having a leased line installed by the telco. I suspect that this would be expensive but also might be the most realistic. Perhaps if you make yourself known to the local telco folks they can let you know if there is anything they can do or if anything is in the works. Granted, "in the works" can be a long, torturous process. - Greg gtknopf@concentric.net ------------------------------ From: Steve Michelson Subject: Re: My New Vonage Account Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 07:17:20 -0400 Organization: MindSpring Enterprises Supplement, yeah. Replacement for regular telephone service? I wouldn't be so quick to change. Vonage does not support E911 service, so using it as your *only* phone is probably not a good idea. They are going to support a "pseudo-911" service soon (if they haven't started already), but it does not offer the ability for the operator to automatically know the address where you are calling from. So if you are experiencing a serious emergency that requires emergency personnel to come to your house, and for some reason you are unable to speak, dialing 911 on their system will not get you the help you need. I'm also wondering: if your power goes out, will the service work? TELECOM Digest Editor wrote in message news:telecom22.424.1@telecom-digest.org: > For people who live in a major metropolitan area and have lots of > friends in those areas I would definitly recommend Vonage as a > supplement to (or even a replacement for) 'regular telephone > service'. I could see where if a person had cable modem service > (rather than DSL) they could ditch the telco entirely **if they live > in a big city**. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting that you should mention it. Vonage *has* started 911 service, about two or three weeks ago. They ask subscribers (including me) to fill out a form on line giving an exact street address, city and zip code if you wish to make use of the 911 service, which I did. We were told DO NOT use the 911 service until notified in email that your address has been installed in the data base. Just today, Tuesday, I got a note from Vonage saying I had been entered in the data base for calls to the appropriate Public Safety Point. Likewise today, I also recieved email from the Montgomery County Sheriff advising me that I had been installed in the Public Safety Database for Montgomery County, Kansas. The remainder of the email was quite similar to the one I also got from Vonage: Calls to '911' will be translated to and forwarded to 620-332-1700, which is the administrative number for Independence Police. The rest of the email from both Vonage and Sheriff was sort of moot. 'Since your call will not be handled through the usual 911 procedures, you should be prepared to speak distinctly and clearly telling the public safety dispatcher what help is needed, and where. If you are unable or unwilling to speak, the dispatcher will send an ambulance/fire crew.' That is a moot point because in our little community of about 8500 people, *everyone* knows almost everyone else; the 'public safety dispatcher is also the 911 dispatcher both for Independence and the county (everywhere except Coffeyville which has its own police/fire). She also answers 332-1700 as well. The police/fire radio is mostly silent all the time here except when there is a automobile accident or police officers ask for a check on a license plate. Maybe two or three times per day I hear talking on the police radio. Unlike a large city, I feel perfectly safe here and feel that the police/fire persons actually care about their duties and the citizens they protect. I feel quite certain if I called and asked for an officer to come here, one would be at the door in a few seconds or a minute. Dispatcher also answers on 330-1000 which is the Sheriff's main line. Regards an electrical outage, both the Cisco ATA 186 and the Linksys router along with the other computer stuff here is plugged into an APC power supply which provides about 20 minutes of power for my computer things when power goes out, in order to have an orderly shut down of the system. With everything else on the battery shut off except for the Cisco ATA 186, the Linksys router and the modem, I think I could get 20-30 minutes of use as needed. Then of course I also have my two cellular phones (one Cingular; one AT&T) as needed. Although the AT&T phone is based out of Wichita, Kansas (316 area), the Cingular phone is on the Independence exchange (AC 620-330/331/332) and it registers correctly with 911. I know that because one evening a friend was driving me over to Walmart and I reported (via Cingular) that the stop and go light at 10th and Main was out of order, using 911. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@OohXXCowsX.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 04:26:22 UTC Organization: a2i network I think this fit into the thread somewhere but I can't find the right spot. Zookeepers' New Task: Getting Animals Back < http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/06/international/worldspecial/06ZOO.html > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: NYT does require logins to read it on line. For reader's privacy and to help eliminate getting spam, readers are invited to use the group login which is username 'telecomdigest' and password 'telecomdigest'. I had reported here that at the height of the war, the animal's custodians had fled for their own safety, after opening the cages of the smaller (more docile and less dangerous animals) so the creatures could escape from the war as needed also; find food, etc. That was the only decent thing to do, IMO, giving the animals a way to find safety as needed and forage for food, since the custodians had no idea how long they would be gone, or indeed if they would even come back alive. And it was obviously not the fault of the animals that the United States was waging war over there. No reason they should be punished with no food to eat, water, etc, locked up in a cage with no way to get any of those things. The BBC World Service radio had something on this today also. Although a large number of animals remained on the loose, others saw their human custodians and went immediatly to them when called. Some of the more timid animals were hiding in or near their own cages. A few of the larger animals were tranquilized and carried back to their cages to 'sleep it off'. The overall loss to the zoo and the people of Baghdad was not that severe (in the zoo) I guess. At least some of the 'war stories' have a sort of happy ending. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jenna Kryman Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 01:34:33 -0400 TELECOM Digest Editor Noted in Response to Dave Garland: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has Dubya come out of denial yet > regards the alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq which did > not and most likely do not exist? As of this morning on NPR he was still > chattering about 'they must have them hidden someplace, and we are > gonna find them one way or another'. You are right that this crock > about 'liberating the people' mostly came up once the military could > not find the weapons of mass destruction. And as Joey Lindstrom > advised us, 'oil is the only thing they have to trade on' (oh, boo-hoo!) > so that had to be protected and how convenient it was for the troops > to walk right in and take over the oil wells, yet it would be > terribly inconvenient to do the same for the telephone exchange, the > museum, the zoo or the water supply. I do not blame the soldiers > either. Those courageous men and women had to take their orders ulti- > matly from Dubya. You are unable to praise the president for even a single thing. What exactly is your expertise and background with foreign policy, foreign relations, and military science that qualifies you as some kind of holier-than-thou expert? People are being tortured by having their eyes removed with a knife and high voltage electric shocks given until they confess, but your primary complaint is some piece removed from a museum that has been closed for 10 years. So tell us, what exactly are the "exhibits" that were in this museum that we should miss? I'd worry about the Gardner museum heist before a museum that was cleaned out a decade ago. Begin Quote --------------- " Thousands of people are missing in Iraq, victims of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, but a more visible legacy are the parts that are missing from people who survived. Missing eyes, ears, toenails and tongues mark those who fell into the hands of Mr. Hussein's powerful security services. A network of Baath Party informers, intelligence service investigators, secret police operatives and the feared Fedayeen Saddam preyed on the populace to snuff out dissent before it could spread. One man encountered in Baghdad in recent days said he had his hand cut off and a cross carved in his forehead for dealing in dollars. Many of the victims were Shiite Muslims, who make up some 60 percent of the roughly 25 million Iraqis and presented a constant potential threat to Mr. Hussein's secular but Sunni-dominated government." ----------- End Quote Yes, Dubya was a real idiot for liberating a people that had been tortured in horrible ways that the Digest Editor cannot even begin to fathom himself. Dubya is just as stupid as the people with the courage to fight Hitler. Too bad we don't have more smart people that step aside and look the other way when tyranny and tortue occur in the millions. (But I'm sure fighting Kosovo was a just war by comparison, right? So tell us, where are the mass graves that were supposed to be in Kosovo?) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would respond, but it is likely to be sort of long and I do not want you to miss any of the Fox Newscast which is on. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 19:36:27 -0700 In article , Dave Garland wrote: > These days, it seems that the purpose of the invasion was to liberate > Iraqis (since the first story, weapons of mass destruction, appears to > have been untrue). It is interesting how these things shift. Before the US went in, while France and Germany were assuring Saddam that he had no fear of enforcement from the UN, the talk was to allow the weapons inspectors months if not years to "complete their task". Now, suddenly, not even three months from the start of the military action, the absence of a weapons cache discovery "proves" there are no WMDs. > So who was responsible for having this police > force waiting? Presumably the invaders. Anyone with two functioning > neurons to rub together would have realized that if the US was > successful in overthrowing the existing goverment, it would have to > replace all the normal functions of government, at least temporarily. > Policing is one of those functions. All of that is arguable, especially in light of the fact that we have a distinct directive to not appear as occupiers. This necessitates using Iraqis, not soldiers or other westerners to act as peace officers. From the very beginning, the goal was to use Iraqi countrymen as peace officers after the military had completed its task. This is what is going on right now, after very few days of relative chaos. Had we immediately gone in and rode roughshod, bringing order to lawlessness, it would have taken longer to hand the task over to Iraqi peace officers. > This isn't the first time. I don't blame the soldiers. I blame the > politicians who sent them, and/or the brass who trained them. The > problem was obvious. Someone is either not learning from the past, or > doesn't care. I don't blame anyone. Anyone who has a sense of history and who actually is aware of how this operation played out (rather than listening to activist rhetoric) generally feels that this may go down in history as one of the successful operations of its type. Already we are beginning to see a renaissance in Iraq. The Iraqi people are basking in new found freedom, writing pieces, performing plays, conducting demonstrations, and finding the remains of loved ones killed by Saddam and his death squads. The people are even discovering that it is OK to be critical of "the invaders". Shall we put it all back? Shall we put the people back under the thumb of Saddam? Surely, no one is that much in denial. TELECOM Digest Editor noted: > And as Joey Lindstrom > advised us, 'oil is the only thing they have to trade on' (oh, boo-hoo!) > so that had to be protected and how convenient it was for the troops > to walk right in and take over the oil wells, yet it would be > terribly inconvenient to do the same for the telephone exchange, the > museum, the zoo or the water supply. I imagine that the telephone exchange was a strategic target. The zoo and museum were not hit. Iraqis raided the museum and neglected the animals. We have since cared for the animals and are rebuilding the telephone exchange. And thanks to us, the Iraqi people have oil to sell on the world market, even though Saddam tried to destroy the wells. > I do not blame the soldiers > either. Those courageous men and women had to take their orders ulti- > matly from Dubya. It is a very good thing that you don't blame the soldiers since they do not feel that they have anything to be blamed for. While you and I were comfortable in our beds, these men and women were liberating a people and deposing a ruthless tyrant. They solved in thirty days what had been festering for decades; that neither appeasement nor diplomacy could handle. These men and women took part in a historic mission that may well launch a whole new and better way of life for an entire nation. Not an insignificant task for which to be proud, if you ask me. I wouldn't presume to insult any one of them with "we don't blame you, it wasn't your fault." These people deserve a very big pat on the back for a job well done. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 04:22:30 GMT In article , joey@telussucks.info says... > You really think they could have put troops on the ground in downtown > Baghdad with equal ease? The US forces rolled into Baghdad with > (comparitively) little opposition because they'd spent the preceding > weeks destroying, via bombing, the Iraqi military's ability to put up > a fight. Part of that was taking out the phone system. In your blind > zeal to find any reason at all to condemn the Bush administration, and > by definition defend Saddam Hussein and the murder of hundreds of > thousands of innocent people (people that you'd rather see subjected > to being stuffed into plastic shredders, so long as they've got good > phone service), you're putting the cart before the horse. In order to > take out the phone system without destroying it, you've gotta put > troops in Baghdad - ALL OVER Baghdad, at every switch. Those troops > have to be prepared to stay and hold their ground, because once they > turn the phone system off, the Iraqi army will come looking to see why > the phones don't work. But in order to put those troops in Baghdad, > you first have to (among other things) take out that very same phone > system. Good point of reinforcement. [Mass Snippage] > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If US troops in uniform can go into a > country and take over the oilwells (not one, but many) to prevent > destruction of same, then why couldn't government agents (or soldiers > in uniform?) walk into the telecom office (again, not one, but many > as you stated) and take them over? Or at least the one or two most > strategic central offices. Tell me this, after they blew up the > telecom building and blew up the radio/television station, did they > also remember to to around and destroy all the amateur radio rigs > and the walkie-talkies, in case the government decided to seize those > and use them for rudimentary communications? If not, why not? PAT] Pat this isn't normally like you. Granted, I had my misgivings about invading Iraq but it seems to have been pulled off quite nicely. With regard to radios, it's pretty easy to jam amateur radio frequencies. But as was mentioned before, taking out the telecom without having men on the ground is a priority. Can you imagine just dropping a squad next to each CO and having them defend it against how many troops bent on destruction who'd think nothing of obliterating said CO containing American troops there protecting it? All I know is oil is going to get VERY cheap VERY soon. Iraq can produce approximately 3 times the amount of oil that OPEC members currently produce. This war had several goals. They were: 1) To continue oil trade based on the U.S. Dollar, not the Euro. 2) Cheap oil for the western world. 3) The breaking of the OPEC cartel. They'll all complain like crazy but we'll make damned sure that Iraq doesn't join the cartel and that they pump all the oil we want. 4) Oh, and a serendipitous displacement of a brutal dictator. Looks like Syria will be next - and with the closing of bases in Saudi Arabia they may just be a target soon. How is the Arab world better off? Living under the harsh penalties of Sharia law, or under a system that copies the better parts of the U.S. and British justice systems? I'm not a fan of this administration. Their hidden agenda is a bit scary but what make me most dislike this particular set of crooks is that the economy in this country has in my memory never been worse than this one. ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 08:49:05 -0600 Subject: Re: Cows Herding Off to Iraq Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Mon, 5 May 2003 21:12:20 -0400 (EDT), Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If US troops in uniform can go into a > country and take over the oilwells (not one, but many) to prevent > destruction of same, then why couldn't government agents (or soldiers > in uniform?) walk into the telecom office (again, not one, but many > as you stated) and take them over? Or at least the one or two most > strategic central offices. Tell me this, after they blew up the > telecom building and blew up the radio/television station, did they > also remember to to around and destroy all the amateur radio rigs > and the walkie-talkies, in case the government decided to seize those > and use them for rudimentary communications? If not, why not? PAT] Pat, you're really starting to scare me here. You really need me to answer these questions? Are not the answers extremely obvious? The oilwells were each located in remote areas, with comparatively little (compared to Baghdad) military protection. Furthermore, most of the ones we're talking about were all in the south of Iraq, close to the Kuwaiti border from which the coalition forces launched. So: they got to the oilwells first because they were physically much closer to them and they were comparitively poorly defended. Taking a major and well defended city like Baghdad is a whole 'nother animal. If not done properly (ie: by bombing the phone networks in advance, etc.), it involves street-to-street fighting and lots of casualties. There just ain't no comparison and I can't understand why you keep trying to make that comparison. The telecom plant was destroyed from many hundreds of miles away, by "remote control" (cruise missiles, etc.) Coalition forces couldn't, as you say, simply walk into telecom offices and shut them down (and I really don't think just taking out one or two "strategic" central offices would have been close to enough) because the coalition forces were not physically in Baghdad. Taking out the communications network was an integral part of *GETTING* the forces into Baghdad. Why is this so hard to understand? Similarly, they couldn't go around confiscating/destroying hand-held walkie talkies and other lower-tech equipment for the same reason: they weren't *THERE*, on the ground. The US cruise missiles are really, really amazing technology, but they're not *THAT* amazing: they won't home in on a guy using a walkie talkie and take it (and him) out. At least, not yet. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 09:08:01 -0600 Subject: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Mon, 5 May 2003 21:12:20 -0400 (EDT), editor@telecom-digest.org wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Has Dubya come out of denial yet > regards the alleged 'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq which did > not and most likely do not exist? Whether they "do" exist is, I'll admit, still a matter of debate. Whether they "did" exist has been proven incontrovertably and has been admitted by the (former) Iraqi government. Yet you keep on trotting out this argument, Pat. Typical liberal tactic: repeat bullshit often enough and people will begin to believe it. > As of this morning on NPR he was still chattering about 'they must > have them hidden someplace, and we are gonna find them one way or > another'. Interesting characterization, and thanks for again twisting this. He has not, to my knowledge, ever said "they MUST have them". What he does say is "they DO have them". Big difference. Your characterization paints him in a completely different light. I don't care if you love him or hate him, but please don't bald-faced lie about him. > You are right that this crock about 'liberating the people' mostly > came up once the military could not find the weapons of mass > destruction. And as Joey Lindstrom advised us, 'oil is the only > thing they have to trade on' (oh, boo-hoo!) Oh, so now Joey Lindstrom, the big bad Rush-Limbaugh-quoting conservative is being condemned for actually giving a shit about the Iraqi people? Explain, please, "oh, boo-hoo". > so that had to be protected and how convenient it was for the troops > to walk right in and take over the oil wells, yet it would be > terribly inconvenient to do the same for the telephone exchange, the > museum, the zoo or the water supply. I do not blame the soldiers > either. Those courageous men and women had to take their orders ulti- > matly from Dubya. Again you lie, Pat. Several folks have already responded to your absurd assertion that the coalition had targeted and/or destroyed all or part of the "water supply". Every one of them has refuted this assertion, and you have not addressed this. You just keep on telling the lie, hoping that nobody notices and that one day some or all of us will actually believe the lie. We keep answering your accusations with cold, hard facts that completely blow your arguments out of the water. You don't even answer them or try to debate those facts. You just act like you never heard it. Well, hear these questions, and kindly answer them: 1) Explain why, in your opinion, the continued existence of the Baghdad telephone network, the Baghdad museum, and the Baghdad zoo should have been held in higher importance than the continued existence of the Iraqi civilian (and military) lives that were saved as a result of the coalition taking this route? 2) Explain why, in your opinion, it would have been better to leave Saddam and his gang of murderers in power. Because that *IS* what you've been advocating all along. 3) Explain why, given your .000 batting average when it comes to the facts and your abject refusal to even acknowledge the existence of facts that don't support your opinions, anyone should ever take you seriously. 4) Explain why we keep having to come back to this completely off-topic issue. You're the one who keeps starting it, then after much complaining from the members you finally declare it off-topic ... and then you yourself re-open it some time later. Part B: explain why you believe that the TELECOM Digest (and associated newsgroup) are best served by your continuing to moderate. Hey, I won't argue that your past accomplishments are quite worthy, but your recent track record is spotty at best. I'm just asking questions. I await the answer to these questions with baited breath. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will partially answer a couple of your questions, but then I will quit for tonight because it is time for the world news from BBC. The BBC, like the CS Monitor, have more balanced accounts of world opinion toward the United States than does Fox News. Question 1: Although animals do not have 'rights' as we may think of them, we as human beings have obligations to them if we are going to keep them in captivity or otherwise rule their lives. Among those 'rights' or courtesies from their human custodians are food, water, shelter and medical care; their 'quality of life' is how I would phrase it. Regardless of what may or may not have been done for the civilians there (whose lives were also precious), the United States should have arranged for the absolute protection of the zoo keepers so there would never have been any question about their or their animals' safety. Ditto the museum and the telephone exchange in their own contexts. Those things are important to people. Someone here said this was a war in which they were not aiming for structures but for the regime. Well. I have news; the regime still seems to be around there (unless they got Sodomy Insane and I somehow did not hear about it) but many of the 'structures' are gone. Questions 2 and 3 we will talk about later. Regards Question 4, I have *never* said anyone -- including yourself -- could/should not start any Digest or Blog or Whatever you wanted to start, and solicit comments and questions as you wished, have I? In fact, I have openly stated a few times here that I am far, far from the most experienced or 'best' moderator on the Internet. I do print all the letters I get, whether pro or con (of myself), which is more than I can say for *some moderators*. In fact, Joey, I wish you would start a Digest here on the net. I am sure it would work well, with your very conservative posture. Maybe you could include links to stories from Fox News for people to read. Now I am going to go read my copy of CS Monitor for today and listen to BBC World Service. IMO both of those services give a more balanced account of how most of the world feels about the USA and George Dubya Bush than Fox News. Goodnight. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #434 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 7 19:46:50 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h47NkoT22557; Wed, 7 May 2003 19:46:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 19:46:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305072346.h47NkoT22557@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #435 TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 May 2003 19:47:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 435 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson E-911, was: Re: My New Vonage Account (Danny Burstein) Re: San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City' (J Higdon) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Paul Wallich) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Barry Margolin) Re: What Kind of Internet Can I Get Through Fiber? (dnhunt) Softswitch Solutions (Sara) Reliance's Mobile Phones Ring, But Will Anybody Answer? (Monty Solomon) Terra Lycos Improves EBITDA by 63% Over the First 3 Months (M. Solomon) New Motorola IMfree Delivers Portable Instant Messaging (Monty Solomon) 800 Visa Cards Blocked / Credit Union Responds to Data Hacking (Solomon) Qwest Admits Phone Rule Violations (Justin Time) Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? ('nuther Bob) Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat (Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr.) Re: Ooh, Cows (Joey Lindstrom) Various Messages Lost (TELECOM Digest Editor) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Danny Burstein Subject: E-911, was: Re: My New Vonage Account Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 03:48:25 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Steve Michelson writes: [lots snipped. ] > Supplement, yeah. Replacement for regular telephone service? I > wouldn't be so quick to change. > Vonage does not support E911 service, so using it as your *only* phone > is probably not a good idea. They are going to support a "pseudo-911" > service soon (if they haven't started already), but it does not offer > the ability for the operator to automatically know the address where > you are calling from. As Pat noted in his earlier reponse the Vonage 911 service will send the PSAP (911 center) the "home" location of your Vonage phone, which will probably be accurate for 95% of the users 95% of the time. So if the PSAP equiipment is actually up to date (which quite a bit is NOT - despite the "911 surcharges" we've all been paying and paying and paying) it'll get that info, along with a flag saying "please make sure to double and triple check this". The techies among us who'll be carrying the Vonage box around and plugging it into the nearest wideband connection are just going to have to dig out those stone knives and bearskins. Life is hard. Tough. Live with it. Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City' Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 18:22:42 -0700 In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > According to the survey, which examined regional broadband usage and > online habits, the top 10 cities for broadband are: > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34086678 Notice that San Jose, in the shadow of the top-rated city, San Francisco, as well as being the "capitol" of Silicon Valley, isn't even on the list at all. Referring to another thread: how would I feel if someone blew up "the San Jose telephone exchange"? Well, let me say this: I would be disappointed if they didn't do the whole job and level all of them (about two dozen). Then, I would like it all rebuilt to the level of say, Des Moines or Independence, KS. I wonder what Silicon Valley would do with modern telephone service! John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We *do* have good connectivity here. In fact just today when I was downtown at the Arco Building, I stopped in to see the local ISP regarding his new telephone company, Prairie Stream Communications, Inc. and got to tour his central office in much detail. He is co-located with SWB in the SWB office at 6th and Maple Streets, but runs it all from a terminal in his office in the basement of the Arco Building. He asked me if I wanted to give him a try, and I said I would if it meant I could get rid of Southwestern Bell. He said there is only one small hitch: if I had DSL (which I do) I could not get rid of SWB *entirely*. SWB gives him his copper pairs of course, but they flatly refuse to give DSL service on a stand-alone basis. But he said, there is a way around that also; his ISP 'side' also sells fast broadband service and you can switch to ours or you can get it from our competitor at Cable One. I told him I did not relish the idea of being a hostage to only one supplier for phone and DSL (like Southwestern Bell) so I would switch my DSL to 'cable modem' from Cable One and get my phone service from him at Prairie Stream. Good, he said, if you get pissed at me for some reason you can start getting your phone service from them (after next month) and start getting your broadband internet from me anytime, starting now if you wanted. :) In any event, he concluded, you can cut Southwestern Bell out of the loop totally. But SWB is not going to give up their one 'ace in the hole' of "if you want our DSL service you have to also have our phone service". So I wound up taking neither of them! Effective today I am a customer of Prairie Stream Telephone Company and a cable modem customer of Cable One, both of Independence, Kansas. Its *so refreshing* to have service from local suppliers here in this little town of ours where a few minutes after you request service it is operating with smiles and much expertise. When I got finished with the guy from Prairie Stream I walked four blocks further into the main part of downtown over to the cable office. The manager there very graciously took care of me and I left 15 minutes later with my new modem and a connecting cable going to the router from the modem and a 'T-connector' so the television set could be on at the same time. I then walked past the post office to get my mail and stopped at City Hall to pay my water bill. By the time I got home and hooked up the new modem to my router and got myself registered on line, the cable internet was up and running. I had to then spend about 45 minutes (most of it on hold, and getting switched from one person to another) talking to Southwestern Bell about getting them cut off. I don't think I will miss them, their DSL or their phone service. I don't think ... the owner of Prairie Stream and his (total of) two guys working there for him said they would make the transition tomorrow morning. I get to keep the same number, and all the same features. They said it would be entirely transparent; my accout with Southwestern Bell would be 'lifted' and reinstated entirely with all features intact tomorrow morning. Their 'home 100 plan' which includes 100 minutes of inter/intrastate long distance, caller-ID, call-waiting, call-waiting ID, call forwarding, remote call forwarding, 900 blocking, other features, will cost me the grand total of $24.95 per month plus tax. I'll see how it works, but if it works as smoothly and easily as the conversion to cable internet, I'll be quite pleased, and quite a bit of money ahead in the process. I asked him, are you *certain* you are not just reselling SWB for a cut-rate price? He said, and I quote, "Ask the Commission (here in Kansas if you like. I am a full fledged, fully qualified telephone company." PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 06:30:33 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , Joseph wrote: > On Sun, 04 May 2003 22:59:36 -0400, Jason Stevens > wrote: >> Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., is proposing a national "do-not-spam" >> registry similar to a service that's to start that blocks unwanted >> telemarketing calls. >> Another proposal, by Sens. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., and Ron Wyden, >> D-Ore., would require spam to have valid return addresses. Rep. Zoe >> Lofgren, D-Calif., said she would seek federal legislation offering >> rewards for people who help track down spammers. >> Most of the panelists at a Federal Trade Commission forum this past >> week said that a strong federal anti-spam law is needed and would be >> better than the mix of local laws now in 29 states. > A *big* problem with any federal or state law to outlaw this stuff is > that a good proportion of spam doesn't even originate domestically any > longer and is routed through servers in China, Korea and elswhere from > places that either don't know how to stop this stuff or just don't > care and domestic spam laws aren't going to do anything to shut them > down. That's probably not as big a problem as you think, because such a law need not go after the the agents who route and deliver the spam. If there's a US-reachable entity commissioning the spam, it doesn't really matter what servers it came through. (Same way as, for example, you don't go after the TV, radio station or newspaper when a company makes a fraudulent advertizing claim.) This is one case where the tendency of spammers to use physical addresses or phone numbers to avoid return-email attacks may actually make them more accessible. (There is a fair amount of spam originating outside the US from entities that don't otherwise do US business, but for most people that's easily filtered.) paul ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 14:30:28 GMT In article , Joseph wrote: > A *big* problem with any federal or state law to outlaw this stuff is > that a good proportion of spam doesn't even originate domestically any > longer and is routed through servers in China, Korea and elswhere from > places that either don't know how to stop this stuff or just don't > care and domestic spam laws aren't going to do anything to shut them > down. I think an important component of any effective anti-spam laws will have to be the ability to act against the vendor whose products are being promoted in the spam, not just the company that performed the mailing. Many of these are in the US. Also, if there's a federal law in place, I imagine it can have provisions dealing with foreign trade. Hasn't the federal government taken these countries to task regarding rampant entertainment and software piracy and the governments' lax enforcement of copyright treaties? It seems like there should be a way for the feds to take similar action if these countries are friendly to spammers. Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: dnhunt Subject: Re: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 23:12:30 -0400 Organization: Mid-South Consulting Engineers, Inc. Who is the local phone company? They should be able to provide high speed access over the fiber. Telcos and CATV companies have convinced everyone that what they are selling is a technology - DSL or cable modems. In fact, what you want is high speed access. You probably don't care how you get it, you just want it. Most fiber to the home products offer an Ethernet port. The problem may not be that the Telco has fiber all the way to the home. It may just be to a digital loop carrier location. DSL providers would have to build fiber to the DSL location to gain access or in some cases, the Telco will hand it off to the DSL providers on an ATM pipe at one location. Without knowing exactly what the network design is, it is impossible to determine what options might be available. David Hunt David N. Hunt, Executive Vice President - Business Development Mid-South Consulting Engineers, Inc. 3901 Rose Lake Drive, Charlotte, NC 28217 dnhunt@msceng.com, Tel: 704/357-0004, Fax: 704/357-0025 TsaySS@hotmail.com (S. S. Tsay) wrote: > Subject: What Kind of Internet Access Can I Find Through Fiber? > Date: 5 May 2003 12:33:37 -0700 > Organization: http://groups.google.com/ > I am about to move and am looking for broadband at my new place. The > cable company won't give us cable modem service and the dsl providers > have all told us that our place has fiber, not copper, so they can't > provide us with DSL. DirectTV seems to be our only option, but the up > front cost for that is $600, it's not very fast, and it costs $60/mo. > The house I am moving into is about 20 years old, so I am a bit > confused as to how it has fiber. Anyway, my question is, where should > I be looking for places that offer access through fiber? Do any such > companies exist? Thanks for any advice. > TS ------------------------------ From: hyperpoetuk@yahoo.com (Sara) Subject: Softswitch Solutions Date: 7 May 2003 07:32:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi all! :) Does anyone know which companies offer the best scalable, resilient and future-proof SoftSwitch solutions for a network implementation/conversion? Thanks all! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 10:58:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Reliance's Mobile Phones Ring, But Will Anybody Answer? By Rosemary Arackaparambil BOMBAY, May 7 (Reuters) - India's powerful Reliance conglomerate wants to break into the country's booming mobile phone market with a cheap wireless service, but it's tough. The group, known for putting together huge projects from petrochemicals to refining, is aiming to grab one-fifth of new customers in the fast-growing market by the end of next year. Analysts are not so sure. Reliance Infocomm is a late entrant in a fiercely competitive market where local calls can be as cheap as one or two U.S. cents a minute. Its well-advertised roll-out was hobbled by lack of wireless services in some areas. And regulators have yet to approve its revamped service plan. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34102953 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 11:06:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Terra Lycos Improves EBITDA by 63% Terra Lycos Improves EBITDA by 63% Over the First Three Months of Last Year And 26% Over the Previous Quarter - May 7, 2003 03:43 AM (PR Newswire) MADRID, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Terra Lycos (MC: TRR; Nasdaq: TRLY), the largest global Internet network, today released its financial results for the first quarter of 2003. -- In the first three months of 2003, net income improved by 57% compared to the same period in 2002. -- Revenue grew 8% over same period last year excluding the foreign exchange rate's adverse effect and the impact of the Bertelsmann and Telefonica Strategic Alliances. Compared to the previous agreement, the new long-term strategic alliance with Telefonica, signed in February 2003, means lower revenue in the near term in exchange for profitability, stability and higher revenue in the long term. -- Revenue for the January-March period was 153 million constant first-quarter-2002 euros, excluding the foreign exchange rate impact. Compared with the same period of the previous year, the foreign exchange rate effect in the first quarter of all currencies where transactions are conducted outside the euro zone yielded a negative accounting impact of 38 million euros for the first three months of the year. In current euros, revenue for the period was 115 million euros. -- EBITDA in current euros (See attachment II & IV) was -15 million euros, an improvement of 63%, or 26 million euros, compared to the same period last year, and a 26% improvement compared to the previous quarter. The EBITDA margin in current euros for the first three months of the year was -13%, an improvement of 12 percentage points compared to the same period of last year. -- Excluding the foreign exchange rate impact, EBITDA (See attachment II & IV) improved to -13 million euros and the EBITDA margin improved to -8%, an improvement of 69% and 17 percentage points respectively over the first quarter of 2002. -- In the first three months of the year, net income improved by 57%, or 74 million euros, compared to same period last year, to reach -56 million euros. -- Terra Lycos ended March 2003 with a total of 3.3 million paying customers in access, communication and portal services, a 78% increase compared to the same period in 2002. -- The Company ended the quarter with 419,000 ADSL customers, an increase of 54% compared to the same period in 2002, and an increase of 11% compared to the previous quarter. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34103771 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 11:08:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Motorola IMfree Delivers Portable Instant Messaging Solution No More Family Fights for the PC With Unique Handheld Device Offering Instant Messaging Access Inside and Around the Home ATLANTA, May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in wireless communications, today introduced the new Motorola IMfree(TM) -- a revolutionary product designed to provide freedom and convenience to instant messaging (IM) users almost anywhere throughout the house. About the size of a CD case, the IMfree handheld device is equipped with a large display and full QWERTY keyboard for IM addicts, providing a private IM experience away from the restraints of a stationary computer. Currently compatible with AOL(R) Instant Messenger(TM) and AIM Buddy Lists(R), the new, easy-to-use Motorola IMfree system has all that chatting lovers need to take their IM experience almost anywhere in the home. The availability of the new Motorola IMfree marks what could be the end of family disputes over PC usage -- which according to recent studies, effects more than half of single PC family homes. After simply attaching the IMfree base station to an Internet-connected computer and launching the software, users are ready to roam throughout the house with the Motorola IMfree handheld unit. The Motorola IMfree system offers families the ability to connect multiple units to one PC and IMfree base station, so now both sister "Jill" and brother "Jack" can chat away simultaneously with ease, while Mom or Dad are using the PC. Since the IMfree software runs virtually unnoticed in the background of the PC, family members have the ability to search the Web, write a report or finish a business presentation without constant interruptions from others vying to chat on the PC with friends via IM. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34104459 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 12:32:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 800 Visa Cards Blocked / Credit Union Responds to Data Hacking BY CAROL HAZARD TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Stuck without a debit or credit card? Someone hacked into a merchant's computer system, compromising information on cards and leaving some bank and credit-union customers without use of cards with the Visa logo. Virginia Credit Union responded by blocking the use of 800 Visa cards, canceling the accounts and issuing new account numbers and cards. New cards should arrive in the mail this week. http://www.timesdispatch.com/business/MGB6S1MMEFD.html ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Qwest Admits Phone Rule Violations Date: 7 May 2003 11:44:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Dow Jones Business News Qwest Admits Phone Rule Violations, to Pay $6.5 Million By Mark Wigfield, Of Dow Jones Newswires WASHINGTON -- Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q - News) has agreed to pay the government $6.5 million after admitting that it provided long-distance service to local customers before receiving approval from regulators. In the settlement reached with the Federal Communications Commission (News - Websites), Qwest also admitted that it violated conditions of a federal order that allowed the company to merge with U.S. West, a regional Bell company, in 2000. Qwest was solely a long-distance provider before the U.S. West merger. But the company was required to give up its long-distance customers in the 14 U.S. West states to comply with rules that bar the Bells from providing long-distance service to their local customers prior to proving that the local market is open to competition. The rules stem from the 1984 breakup of the former phone monopoly, AT&T Corp. (T). The FCC said Qwest violated the long-distance rules on four separate occasions. It violated the merger conditions on eight occasions by failing to divest certain long-distance services provided to other companies. As part of the settlement, the FCC has agreed to end its investigation into additional charges. The $6.5 million payment is the largest ever received by the FCC in either a settlement or a forfeiture order, according to Anne Weismann, deputy chief of the FCC's enforcement bureau. Qwest spokeswoman Skip Thurman said that some of the incidents had been discovered during annual compliance audits and others had been voluntarily disclosed by the company. "The record shows we completed a complicated divestiture with relatively few mistakes," he said. "Complying with FCC rules and policies is paramount to Qwest." However, Ms. Weismann said that the FCC had discovered some of the incidents on its own initiative outside of the audits. Qwest then disclosed the incidents as a result of the FCC inquiries. - Mark Wigfield, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-828-3397; Mark.Wigfield@dowjones.com I guess that light shining at the end of their fiber isn't quite as bright as they would like us to think! Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: 'nuther Bob Subject: Re: What Does DSL Connect to at the Other End? Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 15:08:54 -0400 On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 14:04:42 -0700, AES/newspost wrote: > "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." > Lord Acton (1834-1902) > "Dependence on advertising tends to corrupt. Total dependence on > advertising corrupts totally." (today's equivalent) I would think that today's equivalent would be "George Bush has been corrupted absolutely by his absolute power". Bob ------------------------------ From: Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com Subject: Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 21:34:06 -0600 Joey Lindstrom wrote: >1) Explain why, in your opinion, the continued existence of the Baghdad > telephone network, the Baghdad museum, and the Baghdad zoo should have > been held in higher importance than the continued existence of the > Iraqi civilian (and military) lives that were saved as a result of the > coalition taking this route? By the way, there was a very small followup story in the local paper the other day. Remember that massive looting of the museum and how the US should have done more to stop it? From the story (also available on Google news): Marine reservist Col. Matthew Bogdanos, the Manhattan assistant district attorney who's in charge of investigating the museum looting, indicated Thursday that the media hysteria over the incident was vastly overblown. Only 25 of the museum's 170,000 artifacts are now believed to be missing, he told reporters in Baghdad. Rather than the result of spontaneous looting, investigators now suspect that the art treasure heist may have been an inside job by professionals who took advantage of the chaos as Iraq's capital fell. ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 09:53:34 -0600 Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Tue, 6 May 2003 18:41:51 PDT, I wrote: > Well, hear these questions, and kindly answer them: > 1) Explain why, in your opinion, the continued existence of the Baghdad > telephone network, the Baghdad museum, and the Baghdad zoo should have > been held in higher importance than the continued existence of the > Iraqi civilian (and military) lives that were saved as a result of the > coalition taking this route? > 2) Explain why, in your opinion, it would have been better to leave > Saddam and his gang of murderers in power. Because that *IS* what > you've been advocating all along. > 3) Explain why, given your .000 batting average when it comes to the > facts and your abject refusal to even acknowledge the existence of > facts that don't support your opinions, anyone should ever take you > seriously. > 4) Explain why we keep having to come back to this completely off-topic > issue. You're the one who keeps starting it, then after much > complaining from the members you finally declare it off-topic ... and > then you yourself re-open it some time later. Part B: explain why you > believe that the TELECOM Digest (and associated newsgroup) are best > served by your continuing to moderate. Hey, I won't argue that your > past accomplishments are quite worthy, but your recent track record is > spotty at best. > I'm just asking questions. I await the answer to these questions with > baited breath. And then Pat wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will partially answer a couple of > your questions, but then I will quit for tonight because it is time > for the world news from BBC. The BBC, like the CS Monitor, have more > balanced accounts of world opinion toward the United States than does > Fox News. I wouldn't know. Our thoughtful and caring government has decided that Fox News is not worthy to be shown in Canada. We get two channels-worth of CNN though. Interesting, that ... > Question 1: Although animals do not have 'rights' as we may think of > them, we as human beings have obligations to them if we are going to > keep them in captivity or otherwise rule their lives. Among those > 'rights' or courtesies from their human custodians are food, water, > shelter and medical care; their 'quality of life' is how I would > phrase it. Regardless of what may or may not have been done for the > civilians there (whose lives were also precious), the United States > should have arranged for the absolute protection of the zoo keepers > so there would never have been any question about their or their > animals' safety. Ditto the museum and the telephone exchange in their > own contexts. Those things are important to people. Someone here said > this was a war in which they were not aiming for structures but for > the regime. Well. I have news; the regime still seems to be around > there (unless they got Sodomy Insane and I somehow did not hear about > it) but many of the 'structures' are gone. None of this answers the question I asked - again, you EVADE the facts entirely. The question I asked was why these things should be held in *HIGHER* importance than the continued existence of the Iraqi civilian (and military) lives that were saved as a result of the coalition taking this route. Coalition forces had a choice: protect human lives, or protect animal lives and telephone equipment. It seems that no matter which choice they made, YOU were standing ready to condemn them. Believe me, if they'd put a higher priority on the zoo animals and, as a result, more people were killed, there'd have been a massive international outcry. Pat, I'm all for saving the animals, but when it comes down to choosing between saving animals and saving people, sorry man but it's a jungle out there and it's every MAN for himself. As for the phone equipment -- I can't believe we're having this argument, I really can't. We're talking about some metal and plastic and glass and other material, versus human lives. The destruction of the phone switches SAVED COUNTLESS LIVES (on both sides but mostly Iraqi lives). Had it saved a mere *ONE* life, I'd have said it was a damned fine trade-off. This whole thread got started upon news that a new (literally) mobile phone network was being started in Iraq. Don't tell me nobody on the coalition side placed a low priority on communications. Yes, as you say, these things are important to people. But NOTHING is more important than their LIVES. Phone equipment just doesn't enter into this equation. As to your assertion that the regime "still seems to be around", just what exactly have you been drinking? Saddam is still directing the war effort? Baghdad Bob is still issuing daily proclamations that the infidels are not in Baghdad? Pat, if the regime was still around, there'd be a lot of dead Iraqi citizens littering the streets today ... specifically, those who tore down those Saddam statues and posters. Saddam's regime has been NEUTRALIZED, permanently, and if you believe otherwise then you're quite delusional. > Questions 2 and 3 we will talk about later. Too bad. I'm sure those answers will be equally illuminating. > Regards Question 4, I have *never* said anyone -- including > yourself -- could/should not start any Digest or Blog or Whatever > you wanted to start, and solicit comments and questions as you > wished, have I? In fact, I have openly stated a few times here that > I am far, far from the most experienced or 'best' moderator on the > Internet. I do print all the letters I get, whether pro or con (of > myself), which is more than I can say for *some moderators*. In > fact, Joey, I wish you would start a Digest here on the net. I am > sure it would work well, with your very conservative posture. Don't tempt me. I've got a pretty good track record in that area. Not as long a track record as your own, but a good one nonetheless. But we really don't need to see any sort of splintering of this forum, especially if it comes via an argument started on non-Telecom lines, and I regard your challenge as an empty one. I also regard your inference that a conservative moderator would weigh against the success of a forum to be equally empty. Rush Limbaugh is the highest-rated radio talk show host in history, and Fox News is rapidly leaving CNN in the dust. Sounds to me like conservatism is pretty damned popular these days. Maybe not amongst the "enlightened" crowd, such as yourself, but hey: you can't please everyone. Indeed, although I'm not challenging you for the job, I'd bet at least a nickel that I (or another conservative) would be a more "popular" moderator than you (or another liberal). But as you know well, from your 20+ years experience, being a moderator is not about winning popularity contests. It's about setting up and maintaining a forum that WORKS for its participants and that follows its own rules. Pat, nobody's asking you to be the "best" moderator. We do, however, have an expectation that you will follow your own rules, at the very least. Lately you haven't been doing so. > Maybe you could include links to stories from Fox News for > people to read. Ah, nice double-barrelled insult. You simultaneously malign both myself and Fox News. Well I got some Fox News for ya right here, Pat: Fox News, even though I've never seen it, gets more viewers than "the most trusted name in news", namely CNN (Clinton News Network). There's a reason for it. It's something called journalistic balance -- which, compared to any other news organization, they've got in SPADES. And I include your much-loved BBC in that comparison. I *DO* get the BBC World News here in Canada and it's not much better than the CBC for being a stronghold of left-wing (only) thinking. As for the CBC, think of it as pre-1990 Pravda meets Jane Fonda. Your statement also illustrates the great lie of liberalism: while preaching "tolerance", it practices some of the worst intolerance ever seen in America. You just can't tolerate Fox News or anyone who would choose to watch it, and anyone who does is automatically branded a redneck whose opinion cannot be considered as "enlightened" as yours. Well I got some more Fox News for ya: I'll stack my knowledge of world events over the past 20 years (since I'm only 36 -- I wasn't around for anything prior to that) against yours, or indeed any liberal's, any day. In most cases, I'd win any objective test. I am easily as "enlightened" as you and I'm getting pretty tired of your near-constant insinuation that anyone right-of-centre is automatically uncaring and unenlightened. It's especially galling in light of the Iraq invasion, which was supported by many conservatives for no other reason than for the Iraqi lives that were *SPARED* by ridding them of Saddam. Liberals such as yourself "care" for the Iraqi people and consider even one lift lost to coalition forces to be a crime. By contrast, conservatives such as myself "care" for the Iraqi people with the blinders off, by realizing that doing nothing would result in far more lives destroyed. Iraqi lives, not our own. Failing to take out this regime would have been a crime -- a crime of omission. But I'm probably wasting my time making that argument. You're convinced that it's all about oil, not saving lives. Case closed. I don't watch Fox News. I do read the Alberta Report and the Calgary Sun, and I occasionally listen to Rush Limbaugh, all conservative voices. You have your BBC and your CS Monitor. But Pat: do you ever really watch Fox News, or really listen to Rush Limbaugh? I'm betting you don't, and that gives me a very large edge over you in the "enlightened" department, because I *DO* pay attention to the CBC, BBC, Calgary Herald, and other left-of-centre opinion. I try to keep an open mind and I'm interested in what everyone's thinking, not just me and others of my conservative "persuasion". When I argue with someone more liberal with me, at least I'm "enlightened" enough to have some idea where they're coming from. Apparently, the reverse is not the case. Arguing with you is like arguing with a tape recording. No matter what I say, you're just going to keep saying what you're saying, never addressing the facts that completely contradict you. So who's "enlightened" here? > Now I am going to go read my copy of CS Monitor for > today and listen to BBC World Service. IMO both of those services give > a more balanced account of how most of the world feels about the USA > and George Dubya Bush than Fox News. Goodnight. PAT] Only if "balanced" means "in complete opposition". Try taking the blinders off for a week, and watch only Fox News and listen to some Rush Limbaugh. Dunno if any of it will sink through your admitted "diseased brain", but hey: it's worth a try. Maybe, just maybe, you'll get another perspective. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 11:16:22 -0400 (EDT) From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Various Messages Lost There were two or three messages from readers intended for this issue of the Digest which got LOST in processing. :( In particularm the message sent by the person which included the phrase 'countries whose names end in 'stan' and whose last line was 'better stick to telecom' got lost. It really was not intended, I guess I need a few more 'fail-safe' controls here. If the person mentioned above would PLEASE replace their message it would be greatly appreciated. The message also included mention of someone 'embracing one of Saddam's generals' or similar words. You know who you were, *please* send the message again. Others lost as well. My clumsiness did it again. PAT ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #435 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 7 22:53:47 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h482rl123396; Wed, 7 May 2003 22:53:47 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 22:53:47 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305080253.h482rl123396@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #436 TELECOM Digest Wed, 7 May 2003 22:54:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 436 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Marcus Jervis) Connectivity Solutions for India? (Vidya Ramachandran) Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service (Vidya Ramachandran) SBC "All Distance" Billing (Fernweh) Re: San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City' (J Higdon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Marcus Jervis Subject: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 22:03:10 +0000 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As soon as Marcus sent in this very fascinating item, I decided to publish it immediatly. It is somewhat long, but I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did. PAT] Web Service Uses Lawyers, Private Eyes To Track Buffalo Sender of Junk E-Mails By JULIA ANGWIN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ATLANTA -- For more than a year, Mary Youngblood has been chasing the "Buffalo Spammer." The 34-year-old Ms. Youngblood, who sports a picture of Darth Vader on her company ID badge, works at the headquarters of EarthLink Inc., a big Internet-access provider. She leads a team of more than a dozen investigators whose job it is to find spammers, hackers and other "bad guys" who haunt the company's network. Sitting in her windowless office last March, she was reviewing spam -- unsolicited junk e-mails -- that customers had complained about. She noticed that a few key phrases were popping up among the get-rich-quick pitches: "The Cadillac," a promise of making "$150,000" by "Day 15," and phone numbers with 716 area codes. Investigating further, she saw the e-mails were all originating from an EarthLink account connecting from Buffalo, N.Y. With a single click of a button, she disabled the account. The next day, however, someone was sending the same e-mail pitches under another name. Usually, Ms. Youngblood says, a spammer will give up and move to another Internet provider after having his account shut down several times. But the Buffalo spammer was more defiant than most. Each time Ms. Youngblood shut down his account, he showed up a few days -- or a few hours -- later, sending the same spam from a new account using a new name and stolen billing information. It turned out that the Buffalo spammer would be one of the most egregious spammers to ever cross the wires at EarthLink, the third-largest Internet-access provider in the U.S. The ensuing manhunt in cyberspace shows the difficulties in trying to stop, or even slow down, the huge flood of unsolicited e-mails in the nation's in-boxes. During the year Ms. Youngblood and her team spent trying to track him, the Buffalo spammer sent about 825 million spam e-mails, used 343 stolen identities to sign up for e-mail accounts, taunted his investigators on the phone and evaded subpoena servers for three months, according to EarthLink. Spam is the top complaint of most Internet users. EarthLink estimates that more than 40% of the e-mail that comes into its system is spam, up six-fold in the past 18 months. AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online, the nation's largest Internet provider, says spam accounts for 70% to 80% of the incoming mail to its network, a four-fold increase in the past four months. Both companies say they try to block much of the spam before it hits users' in-boxes. Experts believe most spam is sent by a hard-core group, who send millions of messages each day. But catching spammers isn't easy. Because e-mail wasn't designed to be traced, most systems allow users to disguise almost every line of an e-mail, including the "from" line and the "reply to" line -- a practice known as "spoofing." Spam sent from overseas computers is almost impossible to trace. "About 95% of the battle is finding the person and figuring out who he is," says EarthLink's outside attorney, Paul "Pete" F. Wellborn III. Even when spammers do get caught, they rarely go to jail. Sending unsolicited commercial e-mail is usually illegal in most states, but enforcement generally isn't a high priority. "It's very tough to justify spending so much time and money on cases where we aren't getting any penalties or any money back to consumers," Stephen Kline, an assistant attorney general in New York, said at an antispam conference last week. That leaves enforcers such as Ms. Youngblood with two tools: shutting down accounts and filing civil lawsuits against spammers. EarthLink says it has four lawsuits pending against more than 80 spammers and has won injunctions against about a dozen more. America Online and Microsoft Corp., the two biggest Internet providers, have each recently filed five lawsuits against alleged spammers. The lawsuits rarely collect payments because most spammers don't have much money. Last year, EarthLink won one of the industry's biggest settlements -- a $25 million judgment against a Tennessee spammer, but it hasn't yet collected a cent. The Federal Trade Commission has brought 48 actions against spammers who make false claims about products or identities, but it hasn't recovered much money either. "Many times, there is no money left," says Brian Huseman, staff attorney at the FTC. The pursuit of the Buffalo spammer became Ms. Youngblood's top priority early last year. She spent about 10 hours a week on the case, and her employees spent another 10 to 20 hours a week, in total, hunting to see where he was hiding on the network. They tracked the spammer's trail by following telltale passwords, phone numbers and pitches -- including get-rich-schemes, an herbal sexual stimulant and an offer to sell bulk e-mail lists to other spammers. One Saturday night in April 2002, Ms. Youngblood was relaxing on her living-room couch, watching TV and cruising through EarthLink's internal Web sites on her laptop. She noticed that someone from Buffalo was on the company's list of accounts that were suspicious because they were sending an unusually high volume of e-mails. She saw the person was using one of the Buffalo spammers usual passwords. "At that point, I didn't need to see a spam to know it was him," she says. She immediately changed the password on the account so that he wouldn't be able to connect to the Internet. Then she sent her technicians a note, telling them to terminate the account for violating EarthLink's terms of use, which prohibit sending spam. The next day, though, he appeared to be back in business, sending out the same pitches, with Buffalo contact information, but from a different account. Ms. Youngblood told EarthLink's telephone-sales representatives to alert her whenever they signed up new customers from Buffalo who used one of the spammer's favorite passwords: "Buffalo," "football," "baseball" and, not too creatively, "123456." The sales reps were asked to use caller ID to capture the phone number the person was calling from. But the number that popped up turned out to be at a Buffalo public library. Ms. Youngblood blocked any new accounts coming from that number, but then the spammer just started signing up for accounts online. Ms. Youngblood also tried to prevent him from dialing into the EarthLink network from his home computer. But not all of the phone lines in that area had been upgraded enough to allow caller ID to work -- so she couldn't always track him down that way. Sometimes Ms. Youngblood was able to shut him down before he could send a single spam -- when she spotted a new account from Buffalo that used his preferred passwords. Other times, he would send millions of e-mails before she could catch him. Like most spammers, the Buffalo spammer appeared to be using special software that sends e-mails in batches small enough to fall under thresholds set by EarthLink and other Internet providers. (EarthLink doesn't disclose what that threshold is.) Many of these software packages can also generate random subject lines and "from" and "reply to" addresses so that each e-mail appears different at first glance. By May of last year, Ms. Youngblood was frustrated that her repeated attempts to shut him down weren't scaring the spammer away. He was still at the top of the weekly "bad guy" list that she sends to her staff. "We felt like he was setting up his computer to run 24 hours a day," she says. So she decided to recommend that EarthLink sue him. It wasn't an easy decision, because EarthLink rarely recovers its costs when it sues a spammer. The company would rather chase spammers off its network by constantly yanking their connections. "We can't sue everybody on our radar," Ms. Youngblood says. "But after a couple months it was obvious he wasn't going away." Ms. Youngblood's next call was to the man she calls "my bulldog" -- Mr. Wellborn, EarthLink's outside attorney. Mr. Wellqborn, 39, a beefy, blond former Georgia Tech football player, makes a living chasing spammers for EarthLink and others. He is so virulently antispam that he is personally suing one person who agreed to an injunction not to send spam, and then sent him one anyway. At a recent antispam conference Mr. Wellborn drew applause when he suggested the best way to deter a spammer would be to "draw him and quarter him and put his head on a pike." The best way to catch a spammer, he says, is by following the money trail. "No matter how much false information there is in the spam e-mail, there has to be one true bit of information for the spammer to separate you from your money," Mr. Wellborn says. That contact might be a post-office box, or an 800 number, he says. To catch the Buffalo spammer, Mr. Wellborn filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia in June against defendants only identified as "John Does." It alleged the spammers had stolen credit cards, illegally spammed, trespassed on EarthLink's computer equipment and damaged its reputation, among other things. The suit allowed Mr. Wellborn to ask the phone company and Mail Boxes Etc. for the names of the owners of the phone numbers and post-office boxes listed as contact information in the Buffalo spammer's e-mails. The responses produced a seemingly random set of a half-dozen people, including some Buffalo residents and a man in Florida. By October, the Buffalo spammer's activity increased. He was even sending spam advertising his own services as a spammer-for-hire, promising customers could make money "HAND OVER FIST" with "DIRECT E-MAIL." Ms. Youngblood was getting overwhelmed by the flood of spam that seemed to be coming from this one person -- now topping one million e-mails a day. Mr. Wellborn decided to try calling the spammer, thinking that direct contact from a lawyer would scare him off. Mr. Wellborn called all the numbers listed in the spams until he reached a live person. "The person who answered identified himself as Joseph Carmack, admitted to the spamming and said we'd never be able to catch him because 'nothing is in my name,' " says Mr. Wellborn, recalling the taunting. So Mr. Wellborn started trying to track down Joseph Carmack, a 58-year-old retired mail carrier in Buffalo, thinking he had the spammer. At the same time, in the fall of 2002, EarthLink filed an amended complaint adding the names of individuals who owned phone numbers or post-office boxes affiliated with the spam. Among those was Angelo Tirico, a Florida man who was selling "Mother Nature's Wonder Pill," an herbal stimulant, over the Internet. Mr. Tirico told EarthLink investigators that he found a man named Howard Carmack on a Web site promoting spamming services in May 2002, according to a lawsuit filed by EarthLink. He said Mr. Carmack advertised himself as a "mailer with extra bandwidth looking for a project to mail." After a series of e-mails and phone calls, Mr. Tirico said, he agreed to pay Mr. Carmack $10 for every sale of the herbal stimulant he generated. Mr. Tirico said Mr. Carmack bragged that he had sent out "over 10 million" spams on his behalf. All those spams generated a mere 36 sales, and he paid Mr. Carmack $360 for his efforts. But the huge volumes of spam were generating tons of complaints, Mr. Tirico says, so he asked Mr. Carmack to stop spamming. "That's when I first realized it was Howard," says Mr. Wellborn. "The pieces finally fell together." He got confirmation in January of this year, when he finally reached Joseph Carmack, the retired mail carrier. Joseph Carmack told investigators that he had nothing to do with any spam, but, in a statement, said that his nephew, who also lived in Buffalo, "is self-employed and does something with computers." The nephew's name: Howard Carmack. Even while lawyers were trying to serve papers on him, Mr. Cormack continued to spam, EarthLink contends in its suit. In January, he allegedly sent out spams for a cable-descrambler device and an Internet spy program that promised to let users remotely monitor other people's computers. On Feb. 25 alone, Ms. Youngblood says she caught him trying to log onto the EarthLink network six times using six different accounts. She shut him down each time: "I felt like I could smell the frustration," she says. Three days later, private investigators -- waiting in a van with special glass windows that allow passengers to remain unseen -- handed him the lawsuit documents while he was walking back into his house from his car. The spam stopped that day. As a spammer, Mr. Carmack, who is 36, covered his tracks well, EarthLink contends in the suit. None of the phone numbers listed in the spams he is alleged to have sent are listed in his name. One was in his mother's name. Another in the name of his mentally handicapped brother who lived in a nearby assisted-living home. His post-office box was listed in the name of a cousin who lives around the corner. Other phone numbers were listed in the name of a North Dakota man who had never been to Buffalo and in the name of a former upstairs tenant who had since moved away. In addition, each of the 343 EarthLink accounts created by Mr. Carmack used false identities and stolen credit-card or bank-account information, the company's lawsuit contends. Wednesday, EarthLink will ask a judge in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Georgia to grant it a permanent injunction against Howard Carmack. EarthLink is seeking more than $16 million in damages for legal fees, the cost of processing the e-mail and the harm to its reputation. In a brief telephone conversation, Mr. Carmack said he didn't have an attorney and that he would consider whether to give an interview for this article. He didn't return subsequent phone calls. Mr. Carmack is a body-builder and was a high-school football star, according to his uncle, Joseph. Relatives and neighbors say Mr. Carmack lives with his mother in a run-down neighborhood of Buffalo, near the state-university campus, in a modest brick house with sky-blue linoleum siding. When a reporter recently rang the bell, a woman inside wouldn't open the door. His grandmother, Juanita Carmack, 77, lives across the street. A diabetic who says she is too disabled to leave the house on her own, Mrs. Carmack said her grandson brings her breakfast from McDonald's when she asks. "He would do anything for me," she says. Mrs. Carmack said she doesn't know what her grandson does for work. She didn't know anything about a lawsuit, she said, but it sounded "real sad." She added, "Maybe if they got jobs for the fellows, they wouldn't have to do this." _________________________________________________________________ Tired of spam? Get advanced junk mail protection with MSN 8. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A fascinating report, wasn't it. It will be added to the Telecom Archives section dealing with fraud and legal matters. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrvidya2001@yahoo.com (Vidya Ramachandran) Subject: Connectivity Solutions for India? Date: 7 May 2003 17:14:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ If anyone can assist on a list of providers for Connectivity between India and the U.S. I realize that the big carriers like AT&T, WCOM have solutions but i'm interested to know: - Which carrier offers businesses with the best priced voice,data, private line, hosting solutions for U.S. companies with outsourced Indian operations? - What type of network scenarios most commonly are used i.e. private line, frame relay, - If you have a company here in the U.S. and a call center in India - how do you connect? what service providers do you use? Good Feedback is appreciated. Sincerely, Vidya Ramachandran ------------------------------ From: mrvidya2001@yahoo.com (Vidya Ramachandran) Subject: Re: Vonage Internet-Based Phone Service Date: 7 May 2003 17:25:10 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I have had Vonage for several months, first few was bad and now all of a sudden it seems just fine. I think they are getting their act together. TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John McHarry in message news:: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I decided to try Vonage out for a >> month or so and see how it would work. Trouble is, they had no >> numbers at all in any area code here in the area I live in. I wound >> up taking a number in 415 since I thought I could use that. I do >> not know why, however they could not have placed a few numbers in >> *each area code* rather than a cluster of them on the east and a >> cluster of them on west coast. I only signed up for the real cheap >> 500 minute plan since I do not think I ever spend 500 minutes in a >> month's time on any phone calls. PAT] > I think the reason for the clustering of numbers is that they have to > act as a CLEC in the areas of the numbers. This probably requires a > physical presence, at least a trunk interface, in each of those > areas. The natural way to do this is to build out from the larger > markets. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not have the Vonage phone yet, > but they said it would be here 'any day now'. I'll give a better > report on it once I have it in hand. I am wondering one thing however. > Do I plug it directly into the Linksys router box (as though it were > a computer on its own) or do I / can I plug it into the USB hub of > an existing computer? If I can do it either way, which is best, and > why? PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Since the above was written, my Vonage phone (actually a Cisco ATA186 Analog Telephone Adapter) arrived, has been installed and seems to work fine. It plugs directly into one of the ports on my Linksys router box. The Vonage people said to me they were a lot like MCI in the sense that MCI began thirty years ago in the major market cities with ports, etc, and kept expanding, adding new places every few months. Now of course, MCI is a major, nationwide carrier with international service as well. Let's hope that when Vonage has its thirtieth anniversary sometime in the 2030's with millions of customers on line and is a multi-billion dollar corporation lime MCI that they learn from 'the MCI experience' and have a bit more honesty about themselves and have not become as hated as MCI is now; something MCI seems to have inherited from the 1960's when so many people hated the Bell ... us old guys have seen it all come around and go around so many times now. PAT] ------------------------------ From: myron@schirer.com (Fernweh) Subject: SBC "All Distance" Billing Date: 7 May 2003 14:38:35 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I just spoke to SBC about their new "All Distance" calling plan. In addition to some add-ons, the basis of the plan is local and unlimited long distance calls in the US. In Southern California the price of the plan is $48.95. Sounds good, but I would like to know what my total bill would be. I called to ask. Bottom line is they won't tell me. At first their representative claimed that they don't know. As if they don't send out bills everyday with the taxes calculated. She then did say it was their policy not to quote that. Anyone using "All Distance" who could tell us a total? Makes it difficult to compare my current plans without knowing the total amount of the bill. Even if the amount is not precise, a ball park figure would be better than what I am getting from SBC. Myron [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It *is* very difficult to calculate exactly until you get a bill or two. Reason is, although FET (federal Excise Tax is constant, on top of that you have local taxes on a community-by-community basis; '911 service fees' (also community by community); 'universal access fees' and other such. When I signed up earlier today for my new Prairie Stream Telephone Company account and asked about this same thing, all he would tell me was 'about twelve dollars in assorted fees and taxes added the total'. He now has customers throughout Kansas (although mostly here in Independence and Montgomery County) and sort of frustrated by it he said 'it really all depends exactly under how many taxing jurisdictions you live.' PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: San Francisco Emerges as the Most 'Broadband Wired City' Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 17:30:40 -0700 In article , John Higdon wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We *do* have good connectivity here. Well, let's see. You switched from DSL to cable modem service. Most people in San Jose can't get DSL and virtually no one can get cable modem service. The local cable system can barely carry a few TV channels, all of them looking terrible. Then, you switched to a CLEC for telephone service. I could call AT&T or (perish the thought) MCI and get local phone service, but it would be nothing more than resold (and not even rewarmed) SBC service. Same old defective cable plant; same old misprogrammed switches. I would still have my conversations punctuated with CLICK! ... three seconds of silence/no battery ... CLUNK! every few minutes. This is a problem that has been going on for years and SBC cannot solve it. Indeed I, someone who lives in the heart of Silicon Valley, would trade with Independence, KS in a heartbeat when it comes to available connectivity. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well now, do not misunderstand. I still get SBC copper pairs of whatever age and condition. The two young guys who work for the owner at Prairie Stream did not come out and go up and down the street with poles and underground cable and shovels, etc. That's the whole joke with central office co-location. Everyone is still under the thumb of Ma Bell unless they wish to go to a bodacious amount of work and expense, which they don't. Ma Bell's facilities mostly came about in an era when there was a whole different economy of scale. *Everybody* rents from Ma Bell, though they are certainly free to do their own thing if they wish. Sprint, MCI, AT&T, whoever, they all have their little cages and work spaces in Bell facilities. So if your battery interuptus condition still continues unabated, and if SW Bell cannot find the problem, maybe God in His Wisdom knows the answer, or one of the other tenants in the central office who happen to 'see' your pairs on their way out the door. My pairs have held up pretty well over the years. When my mother was living here, she told me she could not recall ever having any trouble with the phone line. My phone line begins (at the pole) on 'pair 2' of two pairs, since my mom was on 'pair 1' when she was living here. When she went to the senior citizen residence to live and took her phone instruments with her, I of course remained on 'pair 2' from the pole to the demarc on the side of the house, although I have done some re-routing of the wires from the demarc through the house since then. Believe it or not, after the several months -- now almost a year -- she has been living at the old people's home, that 'pair 1' at the demarc still has battery on it even though she took her number with her when she moved up the street to be with the other old people. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #436 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 8 15:32:51 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h48JWpA27297; Thu, 8 May 2003 15:32:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 15:32:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305081932.h48JWpA27297@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #437 TELECOM Digest Thu, 8 May 2003 15:33:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 437 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Dobson Cellular Sued By Lone Star Phones For $27 Million (Eworldwire) Age Determination Through Voice (Tal) Re: ISDN Phone System - How Do I make my PC ISDN Ready? (Steve Hayes) Employment: Senior 802.11 Developer Position-Andover, MA (B. Kilduff) Canadian Cable Rules (Ed Ellers) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Howard S. Wharton) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (John Meissen) Battery but no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges (M.D. Sullivan) Battery but no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges (Ed Ellers) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (John David Galt) Read Mototrola Cell Phone Screen Display Into my Computer (yakobiana) Internet Logos Translation (Scooter) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Eworldwire Subject: Dobson Cellular Sued By Lone Star Phones For $27 Million Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 22:40:28 -0400 Dallas/EWORLDWIRE/May 6, 2003 --- A Texas company, LSPCS, Inc., which does business as Lone Star Phones, has filed suit in Federal court against Dobson Cellular Systems, Inc., alleging that Dobson illegally terminated Lone Star's contracts, and committed fraud and negligent misrepresentation in its dealings with Lone Star. The suit also alleges that Dobson employees manipulated the timing of commission payments to the detriment of Lone Star. Dobson Cellular Systems, Inc., is a subsidiary of Dobson Communications Corporation (NasdaqSC:DCEL), which has offices in Texas, Oklahoma and other states. It markets cellular telephone services to customers in rural service areas or "RSA's." Lone Star previously contracted with Dobson to act as one of its independent agents in three RSA's, all located in Texas. According to the suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court, Dallas, Dobson illegally terminated Lone Star's contracts because of the arbitrary actions of one of its employees. The suit requests a minimum of $27 million in damages. "They simply failed to do what they promised," said Steve Davis, President of Lone Star. "And, finally, we were terminated because the Dobson market manager was angry at us for making sales in certain areas expressly permitted by the contract." Specifically, the petition filed by Lone Star alleges that Dobson committed breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, and other offenses. HTML: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/view_release.php?id=1405 ONLINE NEWSROOM: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/newsroom.php?cid=1428 LOGO: http://newsroom.eworldwire.com/newsroom.php?cid=1428 CONTACT: Lisa Hall Lone Star Phones 877-596-4211 Copyright 2003 Eworldwire, All rights reserved. Press Relase Distribution By EWORLDWIRE http://www.eworldwire.com (973)252-6800. For Media Questions: http://www.eworldwire.com/forthemedia.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Around here in Independence they are known as 'Dobson Cellular Towers' and 'Dobson Cellular One', at least according to their little store front on Main Street downtown. Dobson Cellular One owns the 'Cellular One' brand of cell service in this part of the country. Dobson Cellular Towers owns/operates/rents out the cellular tower thing in Liberty, Kansas, a little hole in the road, population about 300 people 3-4 miles southeast of Independence. The cell tower rents space to one and all, it seems. In addition to the Cell One brand of cell phones which transmit/receive on their tower, the tower also accomodates Cingular Wireless, Alltel, United States Cellular, and AT&T Wireless. I remember when I moved here to Independence, as the Jefferson Lines bus pulled into the station here in town, I was talking to an AT&T service rep on my AT&T Wireless phone about service since I would be living here. She tapped on her keyboard and said to me, "I see you out there! You are on Dobson Towers, in Liberty, KS. The best we can offer you there is 'extended area' service, since we use 'Cell One' anywhere we cannot personally serve our customers." My cellular phone was still registered in the Chicago market with a Chicago area number at that time. After two or three months of that, Mike Sandman suggestd I switch my AT&T Wireless (which was on a 'national' [no roaming charges] plan) for some carrier who actually was located here in town. After investigating Alltel (which is pretty popular here) and Cell One (Dobson) and Cingular Wireless, (also popular since SWB promotes them heavily) I decided to go with Cingular. PAT] ------------------------------ From: tal@ipsbilling.com (Tal) Subject: Age Determination Through Voice Date: 8 May 2003 04:14:41 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi, I'm looking for a software product that will determine a person age (age group) through voice. I'm not sure what other details are required in order to be more specific. Thanks in advanced. Tal Pinsky [TELECOM Digest Editor's Gasp and Wheeze: You want software which can listen to someone's gasping for air and wheezing a lot. That happens to a lot of tobacco smokers, except in my case. I've used tobacco for 50 years -- in other words I had that filthy habit for a decade even when Joey Lindstrom was just a little guy in his mother's arms. And it hasn't affected my health at all. I'm just as glamorous and sophisti- cated and robust now as I was when I learned about the charms of tobacco use when I was 12-13 years old. You bet! PAT]n ------------------------------ From: Steve Hayes Subject: Re: ISDN Phone System - How Do I Make my PC ISDN Ready? Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 12:00:44 +0100 In Telecom Digest V22 issue 433, eric asks about making an internet connection via ISDN and perhaps using a BT Speedway PCI card for this. This is similar to the setup I've been using for several years. Basically, you need a device which behaves logically something like a modem to connect the computer to the ISDN bus connection (either of the two righthand sockets on a BT Highway box if this is what you have installed). The Speedway card is one answer -- there are several alternatives. The Speedway card installs internally in the PC and comes with a reasonably long cable to connect to the Highway box. If it's like mine (BT might have changed suppliers since), it is actually an AVM Fritz card. You can get one of these a bit cheaper elsewhere but buying from BT gives you someone to shout at if it doesn't work. BT also supply some extra software on their CD which you might (or might not) want. Unless they've improved it, it isn't very good. So long as you have a reasonably fast PC (anything new will be fine), the card can also send and receive faxes (analogue and ISDN), make voice calls via the sound card and function as a 14.4 kbps analogue modem, all via the ISDN connection. The number to ring in to it is the "digiline" number which BT will give you in addition to the two standard analogue numbers that come with Highway. This is also the number to register any "unlimited" internet access account for. Note that BT may charge higher rates for (non internet access) calls you make on the digiline number rather than the analogue numbers. AVM provide good support, much of it in English as well as German, along with the latest drivers at www.avm.de. Linux drivers are available. BT support may not be much use if you want to do anything out of the ordinary. One reason you might not use the Speedway card is if opening the computer to install it would void the warranty. There are a number of ISDN adaptors available which are external and connect via USB. They tend to cost a little bit more than a PCI card and have similar capabilities. These should be "plug and play" though I once encountered a severe conflict between one of them and the analogue modem which was installed (but unused) in the computer. In either case above, you'll want to network the two computers together and use Internet Connection Sharing (or similar) so that both can access via the one connection. Sounds like your computers have the network cards already installed. You'll either want a crossover Ethernet cable or a simple hub to connect them. A tidier but more expensive solution is to buy a combination ISDN adapter and router. In that case, you connect the two computers to it by Ethernet, plug it into the Highway box and let it handle the Internet connection. It should include a firewall, etc. My main problem with this approach is the cost, especially if you might want to change to DSL any time soon. If I could get DSL, I'd splurge on a combination DSL modem and 802.11 access point and some 802.11 wireless cards for my PCs. Where we are, ISDN is the best available. Good luck. Steve ------------------------------ From: bkilduff@enterasys.com (Britten Kilduff) Subject: Employment: Senior 802.11 Developer Position in Andover, MA Date: 8 May 2003 05:28:14 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Position Responsibilities: Design and Develop 802.11 wireless LAN products. Provide detailed technical specifications for wireless LAN products, and provide detailed technical knowledge for the Roamabout product line. Develop firmware 802.11 protocols. Assist in developing wireless LAN technology and product roadmaps with Engineering, CTO office and Product Management. Requirements: Bachelor's degree in EE or Computer Engineering (Master's preferred), with at least 8-10 years experience in network protocol design and wireless LAN development. Strong knowledge of C, C++, and VxWorks. Knowledge of 802.11 wireless LAN protocols and technology. Desired Skills/Experience: Direct experience in developing wireless LAN networking products and wireless protocols for product development. Experience in developing new 802.11 based products. Please send a word version of your resume to: bkilduff@enterasys.com ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Canadian Cable Rules Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 13:22:52 GMT Joey Lindstrom wrote: > I wouldn't know. Our thoughtful and caring government has decided > that Fox News is not worthy to be shown in Canada. We get two > channels-worth of CNN though. Interesting, that ..." And you wouldn't even get CNN if there was a private-sector all-news channel in Canada, rather than CBC Newsworld. Is it any wonder that so many Canadians are using various underhanded methods to get DIRECTV or DISH Network from the States? ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 11:23:17 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo This story has been the top story in both the papers and TV. Even beat out the drive-by's and fires as well as the city's budget crisis. His home is only a few blocks from my office. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: It was also in our local paper, the Independence Reporter. It was an amazing account of a spammer's perserverance, wasn't it. Netizens around here do not care for spam any more than anyone else. In fact, after switching to cableone.net yesterday, within a couple hours of getting on line, Cable One's robotic 'spam patrol' office sent me email telling me how to set up and configure spam patrol on my site here, 'assuming I would want it'. They do exactly what I begged and pleaded to no avail with SBC Global to do: Leave a separate mailbox for me with anything *you think* is spam. Let me go through it and purge it, bounce it or keep it as I wish. SBC Global always said (in their pious attitude) 'well we are a common carrier; we do not intend to judge what YOU may think is worthless spam', and they just kept on dumping it in the main mailbox leaving me to do the best I could with Mail Washer. Within the same couple hours, SBC Global had dumped another 25 pieces of spam in my box. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@shell1.aracnet.com (John Meissen) Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: 8 May 2003 16:27:06 GMT Organization: Aracnet Internet Reply-To: jmeissen@aracnet.com Judge Awards EarthLink $16 Million Over 'spam' E-Mail - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26343-2003May7.html A U.S. District Court judge awarded EarthLink, an Atlanta-based Internet service provider, $16.4 million in damages Wednesday and a permanent injunction against a Buffalo, N.Y.-based junk e-mail ring that allegedly sent more than 825 million unwanted commercial messages, also known as spam, in the past year. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Battery But no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 03:51:46 GMT On Wed, 07 May 2003 17:30:40 -0700, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to John Higdon by posting the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > that 'pair 1' at the > demarc still has battery on it even though she took her number with > her when she moved up the street to be with the other old people. Probably for the provision of "soft dial tone" -- meaning you can use it to call 911. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you suggesting that even lacking dial tone on the line (it just has side-tone [what I referred to as 'battery']) that it still can be used to 'dial' a few limited numbers, such as police? Is that really true? How would the police know where to come? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Battery but no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 13:32:00 GMT PAT, the TELECOM Digest Editor, noted: > Believe it or not, after the several months -- now almost a year -- > she has been living at the old people's home, that 'pair 1' at the > demarc still has battery on it even though she took her number with > her when she moved up the street to be with the other old people." You might try calling from that line to one with Caller ID (or an ANI readback number, if you can find one) in order to find out what number is on it. I had battery on a second pair back in the 1980s; it turned out that that "unused" pair was being used for another customer, and BellSouth forgot to disconnect the drop coming into my house. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But if telco forgot to open the multiple on the cable, wouldn't you also get dial tone (assuming the other person also had 'regular' service [not just a one-way inbound only line]?) Why would the audible dial tone reach the other person and not you as well? That sort of thing (forgetting about multiples in the outside cable plant) is more common in large cities like Chicago where there are any number of large ITs (inside terminal blocks) in the basements or back rooms of old highrise buildings, etc, but it is not that common of a problem here in a small rural area I do not think. Now we all know (I think!) that the only reason telco provides dial tone audio and 'ringing signal' audio is so their dingbat customers (most all of us in their opinion) won't think the telephone is out of order. But since they *do* provide those audible tones, what prevents it from getting onto my piece of wire while putting it on the pair of my multiple neighbor? In Chicago, Illinois we used to have such fun with long abandoned and forgotten about multiples. Bill Pfeiffer and I once 'borrowed a pair' from telco to run an extension from a Melco PBX unit from the apartment building I lived in to a friend of his in an apartment building down the street in the same block. Using lineman's test gear, we located an unused 'house pair' in my building to get to the basement head, 'rang it out' to make sure it was good all the way, then noted on the wooden strip a tag with string on it with noted in pencil in an old-fashioned script, 'this ten pairs goes to the switch- board at Beachview'. Signed by some telco guy long dead and buried, on a date in 1927. That building had not been called 'Beachview' for many years and the switchboard had been gone for at least 10-15 years. All those pairs were dead, nothing on them. Bill put his sounder on the line there and we went down the street to Beachview and listened through the lineman's headset down there. Sure enough, after plodding around for awhile, here comes the 'wee haw' sound from the other end. That was all we needed to know ... and it was a quick task to get from there through the house pairs up to the apartment of Bill's friend who received an instrument serviced off of *my* Melco PBX down the street with Operator Pat at the console. I assume if the pair had ever again been needed for use, a telephone guy coming out there to his building would have heard the dial tone (from my Melco PBX) on it and decided the line was in use somewhere and (as is so common in telco) the paper work on the outside plant records was screwed up. Those were fun times. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 20:14:01 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Barry Margolin wrote: > I think an important component of any effective anti-spam laws will > have to be the ability to act against the vendor whose products are > being promoted in the spam, not just the company that performed the > mailing. Many of these are in the US. A nice concept in theory, but if you enact it, anyone who doesn't like your company can send out thousands of spams containing copies of your own advertisements, and then just wait for the fur to fly. The eco-nuts and animal-rightists who have already shown they're willing to torch McDonalds restaurants and SUV dealerships will have a field day. ------------------------------ From: yakobiana@leadcom-is.com (yakobiana) Subject: Read Mototrola Cell Phone Screen Display Into my Computer Date: 7 May 2003 22:21:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hey everybody, here is my problem. I have Motorola Star Tac phone. The phone was programed to a mode I don't know the exact name but the following parameters are displayed: PN Ec/i0 N-way candidate: PN Ec/i0 N-way RX TX F.E.R I need to read these parameters into my computer. I will use C to write the program but I need to know what accessories I need and how can I access to those parameters inside the phone. If anyone can help me please. Yakobiana@leadcom-is.com Yakobiana ------------------------------ From: 777@surfmeister.net (Scooter) Subject: Internet Logos Translation Date: 7 May 2003 20:56:48 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ TELECOM Digest Editor responded to a posting by webmaster@terapeta.net (Surfmeister) printed in message news:: > See Wired news http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,9655,00.html > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I printed this Declaration of > Independence in the Digest a few issues ago, but it is really worth > saying once again. PAT] Pat, Thanks for your help :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are quite welcome. I am always pleased to print such things like this which help to illustrate our 'declaration of independence' as netizens in a world where intoler- ance of opposing viewpoints to those of the USA's 'official stance' has become altogether too common. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #437 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 9 14:56:02 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h49Iu2l03960; Fri, 9 May 2003 14:56:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 14:56:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305091856.h49Iu2l03960@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #438 TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 May 2003 14:56:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 438 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Free, Free at Last! Maybe .. Not Sure Yet (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Marvin Kaplansky) Re: 011+ From NANP vs. 00+ From Most of World (Adam H. Kerman) EPIC Alert 10.09 (Monty Solomon) Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Adam H. Kerman) Re: Battery But no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges (Jim Hopkins) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law and Earthlink Spammer (Barry Margolin) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Ron Bean) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Steven Lichter) AT&T Wireless First To Offer Text Messaging Directory (Monty Solomon) Comcast Cable Extends Relationship With Motorola Broadband (M Solomon) Yahoo! and Sprint Make Suite of Yahoo! Services Available (M Solomon) Basic Service Level From TiVo Provides Consumer Electronics (M Solomon) EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 22:53:57 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Free, Free at Last! Maybe ... Not Sure Yet Maybe Southwestern Bell will continue to hold me prisoner ... Most readers here know there is no love lost between Southwestern Bell (or SBC) as they now call themselves and me. Their overall arrogance, bureaucratic ways and incompetence are well known. I finally got a chance to be free of them, and no, I am not talking about Vonage VOIP. On of our two local ISPs here in Independence (Terraworld) started a local competing phone service called 'Prairie Stream Communications' a few months ago. He is co-located in the Southwestern Bell central office over at 6th and Maple Streets. I decided to give him a chance with my phone service, since he is a full-fledged CLEC operating company, and not just a broker for SBC. I filled out his paperwork and also decided to get Cable One for my internet service. The guy at Prairie Stream said I would be converted over today (Thursday), as soon as they got the account from SBC. Today Prairie Stream called and said SBC was refusing to hand over the account. Their reason was I have DSL on my line, and they 'never' give those accounts to competitors. No particular reason why, that I could ascertain, just that 'they do not do it'. Well I immediatly called back to SBC giving them hell and told them I *did* replace the DSL as of yesterday. Finally the SBC lady told me she would issue a disconnect order (and I now have that number) but that 'they (SBC) were sort of busy right now and it might be a couple weeks before it got processed'. A couple weeks to process a turn off order! After we reasoned a bit more, she finally backed down and said they could 'probably get to it in a couple days, by Monday or Tuesday'. SBC really thinks they are something special, don't they? I faxed a copy of the disconnect order number over to Prairie Stream with a note asking them to expedite it as soon as possible. I under- stand I will still get the copper pairs from SBC of course, but given their reputation for lying and cheating people on credits due and causing confusion when you try to talk to them on the phone, I will not really miss them. PAT ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 14:28:54 -0600 Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Thu, 8 May 2003 15:32:51 EDT, Ed Ellerswrote: > Joey Lindstrom wrote: >> I wouldn't know. Our thoughtful and caring government has decided >> that Fox News is not worthy to be shown in Canada. We get two >> channels-worth of CNN though. Interesting, that ..." > And you wouldn't even get CNN if there was a private-sector all-news > channel in Canada, rather than CBC Newsworld. Is it any wonder that > so many Canadians are using various underhanded methods to get DIRECTV > or DISH Network from the States? Well, we do have CTV NewsNet. For those south of 49, it's kinda like CNN Headline News. They're prohibited from covering the same story for more than 15 minutes consecutively, which makes them look quite ridiculous during major stories like the Iraqi War, the Columbia disaster, etc. The CBC can't handle real competition, and thus insisted on this (and other) restrictions. I've never had DISH, although I'm a (legal) subscriber of Bell Expressvu which uses DISH equipment. I did have DirecTV for about a year or so - in fact I've still got the receiver, dish, smartcard, etc., all in my store room. I got tired of "Dave" constantly zapping my card, and then I lost my "contact" for getting new bins. The thing that really got me was that everyone (in the black-market satellite TV biz) was out to make as much money as they could. Hey, I'd have been happy to pay DirecTV legally for the service, if they'd only take my money. If you want DirecTV in Canada, your only choice *IS* the pirates - and you can expect to pay as much, or more, for ongoing "service" (ie: the near-constant reprogramming of your smart card) as you would have paid to DirecTV as a legal subscriber. I'm generally pretty happy with my Bell Expressvu system. It's cheaper (slightly) than Shaw Cable, I get more channels (and more flexibility in choosing which channels I want), I don't have to sacrifice local channels, etc. It was especially nice in the first round of the NHL playoffs to be able to tune in to Ottawa's local CBC affiliate to watch Ottawa Senators games, when the CBC decided that those of us in Alberta had to watch the Oilers games. I don't blame Bell for this situation - indeed, now that they have a second Nimiq in the sky, they've got the capacity to add piles of new channels, including all the ones thus far forbidden to them (maybe they know something we don't?) I do blame them for charging exhorbitant rates for their PVR and HDTV receivers - especially the latter, since currently they've got sweet bugger all for programming. I understand that sometime in the next few months, they're going to be offering a full US network feed in HDTV... but $750 CAD is a bit much for the receiver. Ah well... -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 21:05:45 +0000 (GMT) From: ap333@freenet.carleton.ca (Marvin Kaplansky) Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Ed Ellers (edellers@mis.net) writes: > Joey Lindstrom wrote: >> I wouldn't know. Our thoughtful and caring government has decided >> that Fox News is not worthy to be shown in Canada. We get two >> channels-worth of CNN though. Interesting, that ..." > And you wouldn't even get CNN if there was a private-sector all-news > channel in Canada, rather than CBC Newsworld. Is it any wonder that > so many Canadians are using various underhanded methods to get DIRECTV > or DISH Network from the States? But there is a private-sector all-news channel, CTV Newsnet, which, unlike CBC Newsworld is supposed to be all newscast all the time, but isn't. Marvin Kaplansky ------------------------------ From: Adam H. Kerman Subject: Re: 011+ From NANP vs. 00+ From Most of World Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 20:37:33 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Linc Madison wrote: > The entire history of the CCITT/ITU shows its arrogant hostility > towards the United States. For example, because we had the gall to > have our telephone networks operated by privately held companies > instead of the government-run post office, we weren't even given a > vote on many issues! The State Department represents the interests of the United States (and its industries) in any international conference under auspices of a bilateral or multilateral treaty. You'd better explain that statement. The appropriate foreign service officer would be required to do his homework on the technology behind the dialing plan prior to entering into negotiations. If knowledgable industry representatives weren't advising the State Department, or weren't at the table itself, one cannot blame the French or the Germans for that. Even on pure international postal matters at the UPU, the State Department represents the post office. Our post office remains nationalized, while it's been de-nationalized in other industrial nations. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Adam Kerman, for gawd sakes! We haven't had any messages here from you in far too long. Are you still doing some writing for *Chicago Magazine*? How are things around Chicago? And I see you are posting from chinet, which leads to my next question: how has Randy been behaving himself? I see he is still running chinet which is really great. Is he still having those occassional reunion dinner things occassionally at that restaurant on Howard Street in Skokie for all his users? Is that old RBBS still operating also? I'll tell you, things like chinet, Randy and you users of same certainly tempt me to return to the Chicago area to live, although I won't. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 16:56:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 10.09 ======================================================================= E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================= Volume 10.09 May 7, 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_10.09.html ======================================================================= Table of Contents ======================================================================= [1] European Groups Discuss Implications of Passenger Profiling [2] FISA Surveillance Reached All-Time High in 2002 [3] UNESCO Celebrates Freedom of the Press Worldwide [4] Congress Holds Oversight Hearing On Data Mining Systems [5] Supreme Court To Hear Crime Scene Photos Case [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: Surveillance & Society [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events ... http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_10.09.html ------------------------------ From:"Adam H. Kerman Subject: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 21:16:32 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call to the ultimate station is completed? ------------------------------ From: Jim Hopkins Subject: Re: Battery But no Dial Tone was Re: San Francisco Emerges Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 23:14:29 GMT Pat, I think you're saying it has 'battery' but no dialtone. The telcos try to not physically disconnect anything they don't have to these days, so when they have to provision service at an address they can look it up and see that it has a certain pair and OE (office equipment) assignment, make the appropriate translations and dialtone comes up on the pair. In fact, all that's more or less done automatically now when the service order's issued. Flow-through, they call it. So no, you won't be able to call 911 or another line with caller ID. About all you can do is maybe light a tiny bulb up with the -48V for a night light. Jim Hopkins Michael D. Sullivan wrote in message news:telecom22.437.8@telecom-digest.org: > On Wed, 07 May 2003 17:30:40 -0700, TELECOM Digest Editor noted in > response to John Higdon by posting the following to comp.dcom.telecom: >> that 'pair 1' at the >> demarc still has battery on it even though she took her number with >> her when she moved up the street to be with the other old people. > Probably for the provision of "soft dial tone" -- meaning you can use it > to call 911. > Michael D. Sullivan > Bethesda, MD, USA > (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Are you suggesting that even lacking > dial tone on the line (it just has side-tone [what I referred to as > 'battery']) that it still can be used to 'dial' a few limited numbers, > such as police? Is that really true? How would the police know where > to come? PAT] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Jim, I am saying the line is obviously alive or 'hot'. If you attach a phone to it you hear a 'crackle' as the phone completes the circuit; if you breath into the mouthpiece you hear it come back at you through the earpiece. Just no dial tone. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Organization: Genuity Managed Services, Woburn, MA Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 19:49:46 GMT In article , John David Galt wrote: > Barry Margolin wrote: >> I think an important component of any effective anti-spam laws will >> have to be the ability to act against the vendor whose products are >> being promoted in the spam, not just the company that performed the >> mailing. Many of these are in the US. > A nice concept in theory, but if you enact it, anyone who doesn't like > your company can send out thousands of spams containing copies of your > own advertisements, and then just wait for the fur to fly. OK, I guess I should have worded it differently. I meant the vendor who hired the spammer. If the spammer is acting on his own, the company whose products he mentions clearly isn't guilty of anything. In article , John Meissen wrote: > Judge Awards EarthLink $16 Million Over 'spam' E-Mail - > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26343-2003May7.html > A U.S. District Court judge awarded EarthLink, an Atlanta-based > Internet service provider, $16.4 million in damages Wednesday and a > permanent injunction against a Buffalo, N.Y.-based junk e-mail ring > that allegedly sent more than 825 million unwanted commercial > messages, also known as spam, in the past year. But from the account in the original story, it sounds like the guy is dirt poor. Doesn't that make him judgment-proof? If he defies the injunction, could he be sent to jail? That's probably the only real satisfaction we'll ever get. Barry Margolin, barry.margolin@level3.com Genuity Managed Services, a Level(3) Company, Woburn, MA *** DON'T SEND TECHNICAL QUESTIONS DIRECTLY TO ME, post them to newsgroups. Please DON'T copy followups to me -- I'll assume it wasn't posted to the group. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Judgment-proof? Yes and no ... some people might be inclined to test that claim, by filing a motion in court to examine him and his assets. A very simple motion could be filed (in Chicago/Cook County it would be in Chancery Court but I do not know the court name in other places) which would say (do not hold me to the exact words): "in an effort to avoid the judgment of (name of court and name of judge, case number), defendant removed his assets out of banks and secreted same assets on his person or converted the assets to one or more third parties unrelated to the litigation which took place in (name of court, judge, case number)". If the litigant's petition or prayer was granted, then the defendant would *again* be summoned to this new court and carefully audited, down to the point of the paper money in his pockets when he came to court. He has five dollars in his pockets, however he gave his mother a Certificate of Deposit for twenty five thousand dollars within, let's say, thirty days of the anticipated judgment of the first court. Hmmmm ... its a lot like Bankruptcy Court, where people hide their assets (scattering or secreting them on their persons) in order to avoid paying their bills through bankruptcy. All the defendant's family members and friends also get examined under oath. And you what they say about lying and giving testimony under oath. Feel free and comfortable doing either, but not both at the same time. That action surely would find him in contempt and in a penitentiary somewhere. And if indeed, he is judgment-proof? Well, judgments not satisfied can be renewed every seven years for the remainder of a person's natural life. If you are gonna be judgment-proof, then better stay that way. Find a part time job somewhere washing dishes? Let the litigant (or his attorney agent or the attorney's investigators find out about it and that pitiful part time salary will get garnished within the limits of the law (I think 30-40 percent of it) to satisfy the judgment. For a sixteen million dollar judgment, I think it would be worthwhile having an attorney or collection agency keep following it closely. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 15:18:57 -0500 From: Ron Bean Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Marcus Jervis writes: > By JULIA ANGWIN > Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL > The lawsuits rarely collect payments because most spammers don't have > much money. They don't? Kind of makes you wonder why they bother ... > Mr. Tirico said Mr. Carmack bragged that he had sent out > "over 10 million" spams on his behalf. All those spams generated a > mere 36 sales, and he paid Mr. Carmack $360 for his efforts. So much for "Make Money Fast". ------------------------------ From: stevenl11@aol.com (Steven Lichter) Date: 09 May 2003 01:34:50 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase > Mr. Wellqborn, 39, a beefy, blond former Georgia Tech football > player, makes a living chasing spammers for EarthLink and others. He > is so virulently antispam that he is personally suing one person who > agreed to an injunction not to send spam, and then sent him one > anyway. At a recent antispam conference Mr. Wellborn drew applause > when he suggested the best way to deter a spammer would be to "draw > him and quarter him and put his head on a pike. I have been advocating for years the only way to get rid of a spammer is to kill them. Apple Elite II 909-359-5338. Home of GBBS/LLUCE, support for the Apple II 24 hours 2400/14.4. An OggNet Server. The only good spammer is a dead one!!! Have you hunted one down today? (c) I Kill Spammers, Inc. A Rot In Hell Company. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:27:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Wireless First To Offer Text Messaging-Based Directory Customers Can Receive White Pages And Yellow Pages(TM) Directory Listings Along With Driving Directions On-Demand Using Text Messaging REDMOND, Wash., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In a U.S. industry first, AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) today introduced TXT-411, a text messaging-based directory assistance service for direct "text-access" to the White and Yellow Pages(TM) and more. AT&T Wireless' TXT-411 service offers customers the added convenience of having phone numbers, business locations, and driving directions delivered right to their wireless phone via text messaging. The listings or directions can then be stored on the phone and recalled at any time. For about half the cost of traditional directory assistance services, AT&T Wireless text messaging users can simply send a text message with a directory assistance query to the abbreviated number, or short code, "2411." A message will be delivered to the user shortly thereafter with the requested listing or information. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34124015 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:29:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Cable Extends Its Relationship with Motorola Broadband Comcast Cable Extends Its Relationship with Motorola Broadband as Its Primary Provider of Digital Cable Technology and Network Support Services Motorola Will Continue to Provide Innovative and Reliable Digital Set-Tops And Ongoing Network Support to the Leading Cable Operator in the United States. HORSHAM, Pa., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) Broadband Communications Sector and Comcast Cable, the cable division of Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSK, CMCSA), today announced a multi-year digital cable agreement. Motorola will provide Comcast with a broad spectrum of solutions, including two advanced interactive set-tops from the recently announced DCT6000 family -- the cable industry's first platform to integrate personal video recording (PVR) and high-definition television (HDTV); the Motorola DCT1800 -- a modified version of the feature-simplified DCT1700 digital set-top; as well as network support services and personnel training programs. Additional details were not disclosed. Under terms of the agreement, Comcast will offer digital subscribers the Motorola DCT6200 and DCT6208 set-tops. With these advanced interactive set-tops, Comcast will be able to provide multiple-service customers with compelling, on-demand entertainment experiences offering HDTV and PVR. Both set-tops feature an "Entertainment Package" which includes 1394-DTV and DVI interfaces for direct digital connections to consumer High-Definition receivers, Dolby(R) 5.1 surround decoding. The set-tops also are equipped with an integrated, DOCSIS(TM)-compatible cable modem. In addition to the DCT6000 set-tops, the deal names Motorola as the primary provider of basic interactive digital set-tops to Comcast, who will be the first operator to deploy the Motorola DCT1800. The new DCT1800 supports video-on-demand (VOD), pay-per-view and electronic program guide (EPG) services. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34124086 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:32:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Yahoo! and Sprint Make Suite of Yahoo! Services Available to PCS SUNNYVALE, Calif. & OVERLAND PARK, Kan.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2003--Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, and Sprint (NYSE:FON, PCS), which operates the largest all-digital, all-PCS nationwide wireless network in the United States, today announced an agreement to distribute Yahoo! products and services to PCS Vision(SM) customers nationwide. As the first portal with a full suite of offerings available to PCS Vision users, Yahoo! leads the Internet industry in providing a diverse array of innovative offerings for higher speed wireless networks. Beginning today, Yahoo! and Sprint will make a number of enhanced Yahoo! services, with richer graphics and enhanced usability, available to PCS Vision subscribers, including: -- Yahoo!(R) Mail: Yahoo! Mail, one of the Web's most popular free e-mail services, helps PCS Vision users stay in touch at home, at work or while traveling for business or pleasure, all without needing a PC. -- Yahoo! Messenger: With Yahoo! Messenger, one of the most popular instant messaging services, PCS Vision customers can keep in touch with their Yahoo! "friends" by sending short text messages between wireless devices and PCs, and see which of their friends is online and ready to chat in real time, all from their phone. -- Yahoo! Sports: The No. 2 sports site on the Web(1), Yahoo! Sports offers a fast and interactive experience for sports fans. Consumers can keep up on breaking news and the latest scores for their favorite teams and sporting events. -- Yahoo! News: Consumers can stay informed while on the go with access to U.S. and international news, including top stories, breaking business news, and the latest from the world of entertainment. -- Yahoo! Finance: Consumers can now use their PCS Vision phones to quickly access a wide range of easy-to-use financial services, tools, and information. With Yahoo! Finance, consumers have access to their own personalized portfolios; late-breaking U.S. and international market news; and real-time quotes. -- And more, including Yahoo! Address Book, Yahoo! Calendar and Yahoo! Weather. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34124108 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:36:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Basic Service Level From TiVo Provides Consumer Electronics TiVo Basic Service Enables Licensees to Offer Limited DVR Feature Set With Integrated Product, Offering Ability to Upgrade to the Full TiVo Service SAN JOSE, Calif., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced it will offer a new introductory service level, TiVo Basic service. This service will provide licensees the opportunity to include entry-level DVR functionality with high-value integrated products such as a combined DVD/DVR. The TiVo Basic service level provides consumer electronics companies the ability to offer consumers basic DVR functionality with the easy-to-use TiVo interface. The TiVo Basic service will only be packaged with licensees' integrated consumer electronics products. Licensees will set pricing of their products based on the combined value of the TiVo Basic service and other features and functionality offered in the product. All integrated DVR/DVD products shipped with the ability to receive TiVo Basic service can be automatically upgraded to the full TiVo service for $12.95 a month or $299 product lifetime subscription fee. A customer can take advantage of a built-in trial of the TiVo service and upgrade at any time as well as purchase the new home networking package from TiVo, Home Media Option. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34125895 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:15:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case By PATRICIA M. LaHAY Associated Press Writer ATLANTA (AP) -- A federal judge awarded the Internet service provider Earthlink damages of $16.4 million Wednesday and a permanent injunction against a Buffalo, N.Y.-based sender of junk e-mail. Howard Carmack, identified as the leader of a ring that used EarthLink services to send some 825 million pieces of unsolicited "spam" e-mail in the past year, is banned from sending spam _ or helping others send it. Neither Carmack nor an attorney representing him appeared at Wednesday's hearing before U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. Carmack did not respond to messages left on his cell phone and with his family. EarthLink, the nation's third-largest Internet service provider, said Carmack and others kept the bulk e-mail flowing through Internet accounts opened with stolen identities and credit card numbers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34118556 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #438 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 9 16:45:00 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h49Kj0Q05123; Fri, 9 May 2003 16:45:00 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 16:45:00 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305092045.h49Kj0Q05123@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #439 TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 May 2003 16:45:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 439 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Qwest Pays Fine for Unapproved Services (Monty Solomon) EarthLink Launches Extended Reach DSL (Monty Solomon) Microsoft Admits Passport Was Vulnerable (Monty Solomon) All Eyes on Google (Monty Solomon) Court Hears Arguments in FCC Cable Internet Case (Monty Solomon) Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies, Education (Solomon) Comcast Reports First Quarter 2003 Results (Monty Solomon) The Little TiVo That Could: Can it Survive Cable's Attack? (M Solomon) Basic Service Level From TiVo Provides Consumer Electronics (M Solomon) Your TV is Watching You (Monty Solomon) Audio Quality. Wall Cord Wired Telephone (Don Saklad) Setting up a Dial-Around Number (Bob) Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account (joe@obilivan.net) Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase (Howard S. Wharton) Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law (Paul Wallich) Want To Buy: Quintum Tenor A800 Analog Gateway & GSM 900 Phonecell (MS) Re: Ooh, Cows! (Dave Garland) PayPal Stops Sex Merchandise Payments (Monty Solomon) Lawsuit Accuses Microsoft, Best Buy of Online Scam (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:17:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Qwest Pays Fine for Unapproved Services DENVER (AP) -- Qwest Communications International Inc. has agreed to pay the government $6.5 million for offering long-distance data services without regulatory approval, the largest such fine in Federal Communications Commission history. The violations involved Qwest's leases of so-called dark fiber-optic lines that other companies activated, and private lines used by cable and Internet companies, the FCC said. As part of its 2000 merger with U S West, Qwest was prohibited from offering such long-distance services in its 14-state territory in the West and Midwest. To re-enter the market, Qwest has to prove its local markets are open to competitors and receive state and FCC approval. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34118585 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:38:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EarthLink Launches Extended Reach DSL New High Speed Internet Access Product Enables Business Customers To Overcome DSL Distance Limitations ATLANTA, May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For small- and medium-sized businesses whose location has prevented them from enjoying the benefits of high-speed DSL service, EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), one of the nation's leading Internet service providers, today announced the launch of Extended Reach DSL. This new service, available in 91 cities, enables customers to overcome the distance limitations of standard DSL lines and provides a reliable, cost effective alternative to a more expensive T1 line. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34126074 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:42:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft Admits Passport Was Vulnerable By TED BRIDIS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- A computer researcher in Pakistan discovered how to breach Microsoft Corp.'s security procedures for its popular Internet Passport service, designed to protect customers visiting some retail Web sites, sending e-mails and in some cases making credit-card purchases. Microsoft acknowledged the flaw affected all its 200 million Passport accounts but said it fixed the problem early Thursday, after details were published on the Internet. Product Manager Adam Sohn said the company was unaware of hackers actually hijacking anyone's Passport account, but several experts said they successfully tested the procedure overnight. In theory, Microsoft could face a staggering fine by U.S. regulators of up to $2.2 trillion. Under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission last year over lapsed Passport security, Microsoft pledged to take reasonable safeguards to protect personal consumer information during the next two decades or risk fines up to $11,000 per violation. The FTC said it was investigating this latest lapse. The agency's assistant director for financial practices, Jessica Rich, said Thursday that each vulnerable account could constitute a separate violation _ raising the maximum fine that could be assessed against Microsoft to $2.2 trillion. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34127595 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 02:03:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: All Eyes on Google With luck and brains, the search service has won the hearts and minds of millions and built a booming business. Watch out: Microsoft wants in. Just when high tech had nothing left to believe in, along came Google. As a skeleton key for the Internet, Google in five years has grown from an academic exercise in search of better ways of finding stuff on the Web into a thriving, prodigious advertising business beloved by users, sought by a hundred thousand advertisers, coveted by Wall Street and envied -- or reviled -- by a swarm of rivals. Google was launched less than four years ago by two graduate students in computer science: one, a Russian imigrant named Sergey Brin, now 29; the other, a Michigan-reared engineer named Larry E. Page, now all of 30. As a gateway to 3 billion Web pages, Google is a strangely unadorned site: 37 words, four tabs and a blank space where you type in a query of up to 10 words. Google's over 10,000 networked Google computers crawl through an index to those 3 billion pages, rank them with an equation that includes 500 million variables and spit out up to a few thousand listings. The ranking takes 500 milliseconds; the computers can handle a peak rate equal to 7 million queries per hour. But Google has become much more than merely a search service. It is a daily tool and main entry point for millions of users, stealing the spotlight from the browser (Explorer or whatever) and Internet portals like Yahoo. It is a labor of love for programmers, who have built applications off of Google and posted them like trophies on the Web. One does a "smackdown," comparing the Internet ubiquity of two words ("love" beats "money," but not by much); another creates poems (see boxes) . For Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Google is the great bright hope for an initial public offering that might revive moribund tech stocks. And Google has become its own meme, the stuff of New Yorker cartoons and a brand, like Kleenex and Band-Aid, that is in danger of becoming a part of the English language. You don't search for something on the Web anymore. You Google it. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34131273 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 02:08:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Court Hears Arguments in FCC Cable Internet Case By Reed Stevenson SEATTLE, May 8 (Reuters) - A panel of federal judges grilled regulators on Thursday over the Federal Communications Commission's year-old decision to insulate high-speed cable Internet service from extensive regulation, a policy being challenged by industry rivals and public interest groups. FCC lawyers and representatives for Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), EarthLink Inc. (NASDAQ:ELNK) and public groups squared off in a federal appeals court to present final arguments over a case that could determine whether broadband cable providers will have to open up their high-speed Internet pipelines to rivals. Court participants said they expected a ruling in months. At stake is a March 2002 FCC decision to declare cable-modem Web access as an "information service," shielding operators like Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSK) and AOL Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:AOL) from having to open up their systems to rivals seeking to offer competing Internet services. Smaller Internet services providers, public interest groups and telephone companies facing stricter regulations went to court in the same month last year to challenge the FCC, which resulted in the Seattle hearing in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34132581 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:18:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies, Education To Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies, Education To Reduce Unwanted E-Mail Multitiered Approach Eliminates 2.4 Billion Spam E-Mail Messages a Day; Prevents Millions More with Technologies that Hinder Senders of Spam REDMOND, Wash., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The MSN(R) network of Internet services is leading the industry by helping protect consumers from unsolicited commercial e-mail with a unique combination of technologies and consumer education that goes beyond traditional filtering. By shrinking the overall flow of so-called "spam," this multitiered approach not only prevents spam from reaching consumers' inboxes, it stops spammers from sending unsolicited e-mail in the first place. In addition to blocking 2.4 billion spam e-mail messages each day -- roughly 80 percent of the e-mail messages that reach MSN servers -- new MSN technologies help keep consumers' e-mail addresses out of the hands of spammers and reduce the growth in the number of e-mail accounts that can be used to distribute spam. MSN also offers new online resources to further empower consumers to actively fight spam. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34119845 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:20:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Reports First Quarter 2003 Results Consolidated Revenue Increased to $5.52 Billion and EBITDA Increased to $1.64 Billion Operating Income Increased 12.4% to $473 Million Comcast Cable Delivers Meaningful Subscriber Additions Total Basic Cable Subscribers Increased by 56,900 High-Speed Internet Subscribers Increased by 417,000 to Exceed 4 Million Comcast Increases 2003 Guidance for Basic Cable and High-Speed Internet Subscribers and Reaffirms All Other 2003 Guidance Turnaround of Newly Acquired Systems Begins to Yield Substantial Results Pro Forma Cable Revenue Increased 10.0% and Pro Forma Cable EBITDA Increased 35.8% Pro Forma Cable Operating Income Increased to $341 Million - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34122468 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 02:15:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Little TiVo That Could: Can it Survive Cable's Attack? By David Lieberman USA TODAY NEW YORK -- Who does TiVo CEO Michael Ramsay think he is? Doesn't he know that giants such as AOL Time Warner, Comcast and Sony are supposed to control the products and services aiming to help consumers manage their ''digital convergence'' -- the torrent of entertainment and information flooding homes via cable, satellite and broadband? Apparently not. Ramsay talks as though his tiny San Jose, Calif.-based upstart is about much more than powering a better VCR -- offering far more control and flexibility in finding, storing and replaying TV shows on digital video recorders, or DVRs. (What's a DVR? See page 2B.) He seems to believe that TiVo -- the software and scheduling service that drives compatible DVR hardware -- can become as central to the TV as Microsoft's Windows is to the personal computer. http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030507/5135597s.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 13:41:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Basic Service Level From TiVo Provides Consumer Electronics TiVo Basic Service Enables Licensees to Offer Limited DVR Feature Set With Integrated Product, Offering Ability to Upgrade to the Full TiVo Service SAN JOSE, Calif., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced it will offer a new introductory service level, TiVo Basic service. This service will provide licensees the opportunity to include entry-level DVR functionality with high-value integrated products such as a combined DVD/DVR. The TiVo Basic service level provides consumer electronics companies the ability to offer consumers basic DVR functionality with the easy-to-use TiVo interface. The TiVo Basic service will only be packaged with licensees' integrated consumer electronics products. Licensees will set pricing of their products based on the combined value of the TiVo Basic service and other features and functionality offered in the product. All integrated DVR/DVD products shipped with the ability to receive TiVo Basic service can be automatically upgraded to the full TiVo service for $12.95 a month or $299 product lifetime subscription fee. A customer can take advantage of a built-in trial of the TiVo service and upgrade at any time as well as purchase the new home networking package from TiVo, Home Media Option. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34125895 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 13:42:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Your TV is Watching You Advertisers want to use new technology to monitor your every click -- and prevent you from tuning out their ads. And don't even think of trying to escape. By Farhad Manjoo May 8, 2003 | Several years ago, Predictive Networks, a software company based in Cambridge, Mass., set out to determine what it could tell about a person based on how he or she used a television remote control. Predictive discovered that by recording every button-press on a remote and analyzing the resulting data, the company could pick out distinct "channel surfing patterns." After learning these patterns, Predictive's software could determine which one of several members of a household has control of the TV at any particular time. Predictive found that men and women use the TV remote control quite differently; during commercial breaks, men engage in a kind of rapid-fire channel surfing, while women tend to switch to only one or two other channels, if they surf at all. When the company combines this remote-usage data with information on the shows and ads that the person using the remote has watched, its software can guess whether a viewer is male or female. And, because your channel-surfing behavior is significantly affected by others in the room, Predictive can also tell whether there is more than one person watching the television. The company's software -- which it now sells for use in cable and satellite set-top boxes -- builds digital profiles of each person regularly using a particular TV, a statistical analysis of your TV tendencies that functions as a sketchy picture of your personality. Peter Mondics, Predictive's CEO, says that his software can get to know you quite well. It can, for instance, suggest with surprising accuracy what you may want to watch on TV. Predictive says that it has gone to great lengths to protect the data its software collects about people; the company uses no personally identifiable information, so your name is never tied to your profile. But the company's software is indicative of a trend in the TV world, one toward ever-more "targeted" advertising that relies on gaining more and more knowledge about TV viewers. The TVs and TV accessories currently being sold to Americans -- digital video recorders, set-top boxes, etc. -- can now be equipped with software to monitor how we watch those pictures and to report back to advertisers. Soon, companies will be marketing cars, soap, insurance and beer by addressing each American's innermost wants and needs -- do you like great taste, or less filling? -- right in our living rooms, on our trusty old TVs. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/05/08/future_tv/ ------------------------------ Subject: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone From: Don Saklad Date: 09 May 2003 01:25:07 -0400 As far as the device goes, what manufacturers' wall cord wired telephones have the best audio quality both for the receiving audio quality and for the sending audio quality? ------------------------------ From: phoneidea@yahoo.com (Bob) Subject: Setting up a Dial-Around Number Date: 9 May 2003 05:45:11 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ If I were interested in starting a company that provides service through a dial-around number (10-10, 10-15, 10-16), what would I have to do to set it up? Is there a central organization that controls the assignment of these numbers? What are the costs associated with "owning" one of these prefixes? I realize that I would also need to get a provider to carry the minutes, but I am just curious about the first steps that I would need to take. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: E-911, was: Re: My New Vonage Account Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 06:35:23 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Danny Burstein wrote: > The techies among us who'll be carrying the Vonage box around and > plugging it into the nearest wideband connection are just going to > have to dig out those stone knives and bearskins. > Life is hard. Tough. Live with it. What are the odds that one of us techies carries our Vonage box to the "nearest" broadband connection and end up at a location without a POTS line handy? I would say "close to zero." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree. I think that most guys who are getting the Vonage system understand it to be first and foremost a way to eliminate outrageous telco long distance charges and only in second or third place is the ability to use it for emergency (as in police/fire department) dialing. And since Vonage is in the process of adding their customers to the appropriate public safety database which should apply in the vast majority of cases when emergencies occur, I cannot see what the problem is. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: Elusive Spammer Sends EarthLink on Long Chase Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 10:02:11 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo The story continues. Local law enforcement here in the Buffalo area are looking into the charges leveled in the civil case for possible criminal charges. The FBI's Cybercrime Unit has received numerous compalints about the Buffalo Spammer as he is known as. The New York State Attorney General's office is also looking into the allegations. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: Michigan Nears Tough Spam Law Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 12:31:59 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , John David Galt wrote: > Barry Margolin wrote: >> I think an important component of any effective anti-spam laws will >> have to be the ability to act against the vendor whose products are >> being promoted in the spam, not just the company that performed the >> mailing. Many of these are in the US. > A nice concept in theory, but if you enact it, anyone who doesn't like > your company can send out thousands of spams containing copies of your > own advertisements, and then just wait for the fur to fly. That already happens on a regular unofficial basis. Spammers sometimes put real addresses (either randomly selected or of someone they don't like) in their forged headers. Suddenly some poor soul gets tens of thousands of bounces, or complaints to their ISP. Putting the victim's name or phone number in the body of the text also works well for malicious mailers -- both of these are common enough to have acquired a name: "joe job". As with other kinds of identity theft, it would be relatively straightforward to write the law so that innocent victims don't pay for spammers' revenge tactics. In fact, such a law would have the benefit of creating a clear cause of action against spammers. paul ------------------------------ From: MS Subject: Want to Buy: Quintum Tenor A800 Analog Gateway & GSM 900 Phonecell Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 17:37:39 GMT WTB: Pre-owned or refurb couple of Tenor A800 Gateways & about 8 to 10 GSM Phonecell SX4e Telulars and QBill VoIP billing SW full ver. from sellers in North America. Please email your quote including shipping to Dallas, Texas at the following email address: msadiq(at)[remove]masterlogix(dot)[remove]com or call 972.783.6666 Please remove the [remove] from email address. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Ooh, Cows! Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 00:17:16 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information It was a dark and stormy night when John Higdon wrote: > It is interesting how these things shift. Before the US went in, while > France and Germany were assuring Saddam that he had no fear of > enforcement from the UN, the talk was to allow the weapons inspectors > months if not years to "complete their task". Ah yes. Those days when the US was providing the UN with forged documents "proving" that Saddam had (or was seeking) nuclear weapons. > Now, suddenly, not even three months from the start of the military > action, the absence of a weapons cache discovery "proves" there are > no WMDs. And now that the US has pretty much total control over the country (true, that's not the same as saying that the US knows where everything is) it's the US who's saying that UN inspectors are not welcome. Yes, it's interesting how these things shift. > we have a distinct directive to not appear as occupiers. Nice use of the passive tense. A directive from Bush. Phrased another way, the US is worried about world opinion. > Shall we put it all back? Shall we put the people back under the > thumb of Saddam? Surely, no one is that much in denial. No. But Saddam's oppression of Iraq clearly wasn't that big a deal to the US, or we wouldn't have photos of Rumsfeld embracing Saddam, back when Iran was the enemy and Saddam was our friend (but no less a thug). And if that was the point, we'd be invading Tibet, Burma, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Belorus, Zimbabwe, and most countries whose names end in "-stan". There's a lot of oppressive governments out there, with people under the thumb of one tinpot dictator or another. Pat, we should probably stick to telephony. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes, that's right, we should stick to telephony. And sadly, I think that is what it has come to around here. In any of these 'social issues' discussions here in the Digest, I always come out the loser, along with the readers who connect here to get telecom news. Even when I 'win' (through logic or consistency or facts or whatever) I still wind up 'losing' because of the volume of mail in opposition, which I do feel obliged to print (because those people also have valid points to make and the right to be heard), but that volume is so heavy pro and con that if I were to print it all, we would still be having entire issues of the Digest re: Cows Getting Herded, etc. I really cannot help my own feelings however. Some events going on in the world get me so anxious and disturbed I really feel I have to say something. Then all hell breaks loose. After a couple of the stray messages on this and related themes get printed in the next day or so that will be the end of my opinions on any social issues in the Digest. At least I say that now... :( PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:10:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PayPal Stops Sex Merchandise Payments By RACHEL KONRAD AP Business Writer SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- It could soon be easier to buy adult videos at your local sex shop than through the Internet. PayPal, a subsidiary of eBay Inc. that processes payments anywhere in cyberspace, will stop taking payments for most adult-themed merchandise over the next five weeks. Other electronic payment services, including Yahoo! and Visa USA, have also tightened restrictions on sexually explicit items. That means people who want to buy sex toys or digital photos will have to send a check or money order or submit credit card information directly to the merchant _ removing a layer of anonymity. The clampdown is drawing complaints from vendors in one of the oldest, most lucrative and recession-proof sectors of e-commerce. They say San Jose-based eBay is enforcing morality at the expense of small businesses. The world's largest online auctioneer says the restrictions aren't about morals, but money. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34118627 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 01:11:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lawsuit accuses Microsoft, Best Buy of online scam By Gina Keating and Reed Stevenson LOS ANGELES/SEATTLE, May 7 (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man has filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Best Buy Inc. (NYSE:BBY) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), accusing them of scamming customers by charging them for online services without their knowledge. The suit, filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims the alleged scam stemmed from a promotion in which customers at Best Buy, who paid for purchases with credit or debit cards, were given free compact discs that allowed them to try Microsoft's online service, MSN. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, and Best Buy, the largest consumer electronics chain, were partners in a pact dating back to 1999 to promote Microsoft's money-losing MSN Internet access service. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34118955 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #439 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 9 19:28:17 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h49NSHB06119; Fri, 9 May 2003 19:28:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 19:28:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305092328.h49NSHB06119@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #440 TELECOM Digest Fri, 9 May 2003 19:28:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 440 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Forensic Strategy Data Recovery News Vol 1, Iss 2 (Forensic Strategy) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Sam Etler) Batteries Not Included (Joey Lindstrom) Re: EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case (Danny Burstein) HDTV on Bell Expressvu (Joey Lindstrom) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Mark Crispin) Want to Buy: Quintum Tenor A800 Analog Gateway & GSM 900 Phonecell (MS) Re: Free, Free at Last! (temp7@thewolfden.org) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Forensic Strategy Subject: Forensic Strategy Data Recovery Newsletter Vol 1, Iss 2 Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 00:35:11 -0400 *********************************************************************** The Forensic Strategy Data Recovery Newsletter Vol. 1, Issue 2 *********************************************************************** -------- IN THIS ISSUE: ----------------------------------------------- COMMENTARY - COMPUTER FORENSICS 101: What evidence can be RECOVERED? UPCOMING NEWSLETTER ISSUES - Items you can look forward to in future issues! CONTACT US - For more information on Forensic Strategy Services. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * COMPUTER FORENSICS 101: What evidence can be RECOVERED? By: Scott Moulton, Computer Forensic Specialist mailto:scott@forensicstrategy.com "What evidence can possibly be recovered that can help my client's case?" Like other types of investigations, the answer will not be fully determined until after the data has been recovered and the findings are meticulously researched. The process involved to investigate a computer can be exceptionally time intensive. An average of seven hours is required before a basic assessment can be created. The assessment will help establish if the computer contains valuable information that would justify additional resources. Because it is initially uncertain what evidence a computer contains, it is essential to qualify a particular computer before investing additional resources. "When is there a good possibility to recover useful data so that it is cost effective to involve a Computer Forensic Investigator?" * Qualifying a Computer for Forensic Recovery: In practically every computer there is "deleted" data that can be recovered; however, the data recovered is not always relevant to the case. Typically, it is a judgment call which computers should be investigated when there is more than one computer involved. It helps to establish an order of priority for the computers to be recovered. Using this method, vital data would be revealed first which would eliminate wasting resources on less credible computers. It is possible to predict and prioritize the best computers for recovery based on a series of questions. Q: Did any person involved use the computer? Note that this could include receiving email or files from the party involved. When a file or email is deleted it is not immediately removed from the hard drive. It still exists even though it can not be easily accessed. There is a section of the hard drive that is similar to a "Table of Contents" and when a file is deleted it is just removed from this "Table of Contents". The originally deleted file or email is left as dead space on the hard drive. Since the file exists on the hard drive, special tools that bypass the "Table of Contents" can search for files and potentially recover them. A file can be divided in to several pieces and exist in various locations on a hard drive. Because of this, it is possible that only part of a file might be recovered. A vital component to a case might exist in one of those small pieces. If the item that was deleted was an email, a different set of rules apply. An email, by its nature, exists in more than one place. There is always a From:(the sender) a To:(the recipient) and at least one server (the machines that processed the email). If there was CC:(carbon copy) or BCC:(blind carbon copy) addresses then more copies exist. An email has a greater potential to be recovered because an email is stored in a file similar to a database. Consequently, when an email is deleted it is removed from the "Table of Contents" of the database and not the hard drive itself. It is possible for the email to persist in a file or server for quite a long time after the email is "deleted" by a user. This includes Outlook Express, Outlook 2002, AOL, Exchange Server and several other types of email programs. If email is read via a web browser (i.e. Hotmail) a copy of the email will usually exist in the Internet cache or temporary files on the hard drive of the computer it was viewed from. There is an even greater probability that this might be recovered. Q: How long has it been since files were deleted? Because of the way files are left behind as dead space on the hard drive, as space is needed by different programs or web pages, the file pieces are gradually overwritten. The longer time that has transpired since the files were deleted the less probability that something can be recovered. Although in some past instances data has been recovered dating back several years. Q: How much has the computer been used since files were deleted? Because files are overwritten gradually, the more the computer is used the more likely new files have overwritten older files erasing your valuable information. A computer writes files every time that a program is used (including internet accesses). The Windows Operating System will overwrite certain files every time the system is powered on. These standard files are not very large but they account for a significant percentage of the destruction that occurs to recoverable files. This is an excellent reason to stop using a computer as soon as it is learned that it is involved in a case until a Computer Forensic Specialist can examine it. If this computer is necessary for operations of the business the specialist can safely and effectively "clone" the hard drive to preserve the information. If there is someone who can answer these questions there is a good chance of determining the usefulness of the computer in a case. This is not intended to be a final list of questions but is a common set to help determine the possibility that something useful might exist. In some cases the client might not be able to answer any of these questions and it is also often that the answers given are incorrect. Even when there is no one to answer those questions, there is still a good possibility of recovering valuable evidence from the right computer, even when the files never existed on the computer. Example #1: To the surprise of the CEO of one company, five of its members of a branch office left overnight to start their own company. No notice was given and it wasn't until someone arrived at the office after no one answered the phone for hours that it was discovered they had departed to start a new company. Initially, there was no major concern except that the employees were gone. The CEO stated that nothing was taken but they wanted to review the hard drives for company security purposes. During a data recovery several printer spooler files were recovered. Since it is sometime a pattern of employees to bring floppy disks and print documents that never existed on the server, a spooler file can be very revealing. In this case, the spooler indicated that it had printed to several high-end HP Color Laser Printers. During the recovery it was noted that the office had no HP Color Laser Printers. This was brought to the attention of the CEO and he claimed that it was not possible for the employees to purchase an asset that large as they have to have approval for purchases over $500. After investigating, it was determined that the employees had used company funds to purchase equipment by each individual pooling their purchase below $500 into one large purchase together. Often a case will involve someone that believes they are a "computer guru." They consciously attempt to delete incriminating evidence believing they knew what they were doing. Their egos make them believe that they know how to delete a file and that it is permanently unrecoverable and that they are safe. Many times they are mistaken. Example #2: In a divorce case, the husband was accused of having an affair. He was also chatting and emailing his girlfriend over the Internet. He also spent several hours a week on illicit adult web sites. The wife described her husband as a very computer savvy person. She stated several times that he knew everything about a computer and that he always deleted everything. Because of this statement there was a great discussion about wasting time with a court order for the computer. After the computer was investigated, many incriminating items were recovered. There were chat logs, emails found in the Internet cache files, and dozens of revealing photos of the girlfriend. When questioned during depositions he was shocked at the printed material and declared that he had used a special program in his attempt to overwrite all the deleted files. Share this email by forwarding to your colleagues! If this was forwarded to you by a colleague and you'd like to receive your own edition as soon as it is published, subscribe by clicking here: http://www.forensicstrategy.com/contacts.asp ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ==== UPCOMING NEWSLETTER ISSUES ==== * Equipment used for forensic recovery of data * Details of Forensic Data Gathering * Profiling a person based on the content of their computer ==== CONTACT US ==== * COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER: To suggest a topic for a future issue or to send a comment to the editor email: mailto:comments@forensicstrategy.com * WEBSITE: http://www.forensicstrategy.com * MAILING ADDRESS/PHONE/FAX: Forensic Strategy Services, LLC. 601B Industrial Court Woodstock, Georgia 30189 ph: 770.926.5588 fax: 770.926.7089 * FOR PERMISSION TO REPRINT PLEASE CONTACT mailto:scott@forensicstrategy.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For a quick UNSUBSCRIBE Click Here: mailto:fss@forensicstrategy.com?subject=unsubscribe or - Send an e-mail to: fss@forensicstrategy.com with "unsubscribe" (no quotes) in the subject line. Thank you for reading Forensic Strategy Data Recovery Newsletter. Forensic Strategy Services, LLC. Copyright 2003 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 14:19:01 CDT From: Sam Etler Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers > Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone > surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a > calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call > to the ultimate station is completed? Check out 47 CFR 64.1300: Sec. 64.1300 Payphone compensation obligation. (a) Except as provided herein, the first facilities-based interexchange carrier to which a completed coinless access code or subscriber toll-free payphone call is delivered by the local exchange carrier shall compensate the payphone service provider for the call at a rate agreed upon by the parties by contract. (b) The compensation obligation set forth herein shall not apply to calls to emergency numbers, calls by hearing disabled persons to a telecommunications relay service or local calls for which the caller has made the required coin deposit. (c) In the absence of an agreement as required by paragraph (a) of this section, the carrier is obligated to compensate the payphone service provider at a per-call rate of $.24. [61 FR 52324, Oct. 7, 1996, as amended at 62 FR 58686, Oct. 30, 1997; 64 FR 13719, Mar. 22, 1999; 66 FR 21106, Apr. 27, 2001] sam ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 13:19:57 -0600 Subject: Batteries Not Included Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Fri, 9 May 2003 14:56:02 EDT, editor@telecom-digest.org Noted in response to Jim: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Jim, I am saying the line is obviously > alive or 'hot'. If you attach a phone to it you hear a 'crackle' as > the phone completes the circuit; if you breath into the mouthpiece you > hear it come back at you through the earpiece. Just no dial tone. PAT] I can remember at least as far back as the 80's that Telus (here in Alberta, formerly Alberta Government Telephones or AGT) was doing something similar here. We moved into a "previously-owned" home in 1986, that had been empty for a couple of months. They had had two phone lines there, something that was rather unusual at that time, and both lines behaved such as you describe. We had one hooked up for our main voice phone number when we moved in, the other remained vacant but "with battery" for another month or two until I added a second line for my BBS. Nowadays, when Telus "disconnects" a number, they go one step further. If you plug a phone into the jack and pick it up, you'll get no dialtone. You'll get a recorded announcement that says you've connected to Telus. If you press "1" (may have changed, it's been a while since I heard it), you'll be connected to the business office who will be happy to take your order for new Telus service. You get dinged the same $45 connection fee for them to simply turn on service on this working line as you would if you ordered a second or third line and they had to come out and bring copper to your house. -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: EarthLink Gets $16M in Spam E-Mail Case Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 19:23:19 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Monty Solomon writes: > By PATRICIA M. LaHAY Associated Press Writer > EarthLink, the nation's third-largest Internet service provider, said > Carmack and others kept the bulk e-mail flowing through Internet > accounts opened with stolen identities and credit card numbers. I'm sorry, but I do NOT consider Earthlink as having a white hat here. There's an old Scottish saying, "fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Earthlink could *easily* have changed their sign up procedures to allow for proper verification of the users. They could also have taken many technical steps to limit the damage this guy did. But they chose, in the interests of marketing, to not do so. So while the spammer is clearly the true and primary bad guy here, Earthlink facilitated his actions. Not just once. But repeatedly. And speaking of which, how did he use hundreds of stolen credit cards? (and where did he get them? Were the victims notified of these thefts? Did Earthlink charge them? And did they get hit with lots of other bogus credit card charges?) Wouldn't most of them have been blocked when Earthlink tried them out? Or didn't they even bother? And, for that matter, how come there's no criminal prosecution in this case? Or even a little visit by te local gendarmes asking some questions? Most people (probably including some of the spammers) would, when facing Elliot Ness, reconsider their little criminal charade. One might think, just barely, that some law enforcement type somewhere or another would see credit card fraud and identity theft as actionable criminal pursuits? I'd love to hear from an Earthlink rep answers to those questions. Unless, just maybe, there wasn't any credit card theft [a] and all he did was make up numbers that matched the checksums. And all Earthlink did was see that the card number looked valid and didn't do any actual verification. [a] that is, theft from falsely and illegally using other people's cards. Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There was an item here in the Digest in an earlier issue today which said police and other authorities in Buffalo, NY were looking into credit card phraud charges. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 13:35:50 -0600 Subject: HDTV on Bell Expressvu Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Fri, 9 May 2003 14:56:02 EDT, I wrote (in reference to Bell Expressvu): > forbidden to them (maybe they know something we don't?) I do blame > them for charging exhorbitant rates for their PVR and HDTV receivers - > especially the latter, since currently they've got sweet bugger all for > programming. I understand that sometime in the next few months, > they're going to be offering a full US network feed in HDTV... but $750 > CAD is a bit much for the receiver. Ah well... And after doing a bit more investigating, I found that Bell Expressvu *NOW* has the new HDTV channels up and running. We're basically talking about a dual feed of US networks -- one set of channels from the west coast and one from the east (similar to their existing non-HDTV offering). No ESPN-HD or anything like that -- yet. There's some movie channels as well, but I usually stay away from those: when I wanna watch movies, I'll rent or buy 'em. Anyhoo, after complaining about the high price, I threw rationality out the window, ran down to Future Shop, and bought the Model 6000 HDTV receiver (for $699, not $750, though it came to $750 once Uncle Jean's Beer Money, er I mean the Goods & Services Tax, was added). Got it all hooked up and working properly. However, for some reason I thought Bell's customer service department was open 24/7 (1-888-SKY-DISH). They're not, and I phoned 'em to activate my receiver about 5 minutes after they closed. DOH! I did manage to make the call this morning from work (after carefully copying down the Receiver and Smart Card ID numbers from the old and new receivers) and they tell me the activation's been done - I won't see it until I get home late tonight. I'll report on my HDTV experiences once I actually have some. At first, it will be from a SMALL selection, as there's a dish upgrade yet to take place. The original Nimiq satellite, at 91 degrees, has been up there for a few years, but was nearing maximum capacity. A new bird was launched earlier this year (or was it late December?). Once in orbit, it was slowly moved into the same orbital position as the old Nimiq. At some point, service was "cut over" from the old bird to the new one, the latter of which I understand has higher bandwidth capability. So, all by itself, this provides more capacity and as a result we'll soon get more local channels, more specialty channels, etc., without any consumer equipment upgrades. At the same time, the old bird is being moved to 82 degrees, where it will begin (I think it's started already) broadcasting additional channels, including much of the new HDTV stuff. Your existing round dish can only be pointed at one bird at a time, though. If you've got one of the non-HDTV receivers, you'll continue to use only the new bird at 91 degrees. If you're an existing HDTV customer (ie: owner of a 6000 receiver), Bell is going to book an appointment with you to come out and replace your dish with a new oval dish, free of charge, that can simultaneously pull in signals from both Nimiqs. Once they replace my dish, I'll have access to all the "extra" channels, including most of the HDTV content. I anticipate that this will take about one month. Those who purchase a new Bell Expressvu satellite system with 6000 receiver (ie: the receiver and dish) will get the new oval dish right from the get go. Slowly but surely.... :-) -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 13:07:24 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Thu, 8 May 2003, Joey Lindstrom wrote: > I did have DirecTV for about a year or so -- in fact I've still got > the receiver, dish, smartcard, etc., all in my store room. I got > tired of "Dave" constantly zapping my card, and then I lost my > "contact" for getting new bins. The thing that really got me was > that everyone (in the black-market satellite TV biz) was out to make > as much money as they could. Sounds like DirectTV's anti-piracy efforts worked in your case. > Hey, I'd have been happy to pay DirecTV legally for the service, if > they'd only take my money. They can't. The Canadian government won't let them. I'm sure that they'd be happy to market in Canada if it was permitted. > If you want DirecTV in Canada, your only choice *IS* the pirates Not if you sign up using a US relative's address, pay your bill via automatic charges to a US VISA card (you *do* have a US bank account, don't you?), and tell them that it's a portable dish system that you use while camping a lot, so can't have it continuously on a phone line. DirectTV won't care as long as there's only one receiver on the account and they get paid. They will disable pay-per-view on your receiver since there's no phone line. The Canadian government will care that you'll acquiring evil foreign programming uncensored, but presumably you've already decided that you aren't concerned about that. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. ------------------------------ From: MS Subject: Want to Buy: Quintum Tenor A800 Analog Gateway & GSM 900 Phonecell Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 21:31:05 GMT WTB: Pre-owned or refurb couple of Tenor A800 Gateways & about 8 to 10 GSM Phonecell SX4e Telulars and QBill VoIP billing SW full ver. from sellers in North America. Please email your quote including shipping to Dallas, Texas at the following email address: msadiq(at)[remove]masterlogix(dot)[remove]com or call 972.783.6666 Please remove the [remove] from email address. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 14:29:30 CDT Subject: Free, Free at Last! From: Reply-To: temp7@thewolfden.org On date: Thu, 8 May 2003 22:53:57 EDT TELECOM Digest Editor wrote on Free, Free at Last! Maybe ... Not Sure Yet > Maybe Southwestern Bell will continue to hold me > prisoner ... Most readers here know there is no love lost between > Southwestern Bell (or SBC) as they now call themselves and me. Their > overall arrogance, bureaucratic ways and incompetence are well known. Quick: name one quasi-governmental group/company/agency/utility that you *don't* think is "arrogant, bureaucratic and incompetent" ... [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I would be terrible at quiz shows on television or on that old game show from the 1960's called 'Beat the Clock' (remember Bud Collier and that one?). Your message arrived earlier today but I shoved it back in the queue to give myself some time to think about it. I have no problems SPECIFICALLY with: Atmos Energy (our local heating/cooking gas utility here in Independence). Westar Energy (our local electric utility here in Independence, a division of KGE (Kansas Gas and Electric). Commerce Bank (where my bank account and my credit/debit cards come from. Here in Independence, also Kansas City and Omaha.) City of Independence (our drinking water, sewers, trash collection and equally important our police/fire protection and environ- mental functions, street sweeping/cleaning, etc. We pay a monthly fee, based on our metered water consumption for the sewers, trash removal, etc. My bill is about $35-40 per month for these vital things.) Our City Hall is a three story building, with the police department in the basement, the switchboard operator (who doubles as the cashier and two or three other employees on the first floor, along with a small office for the city manager. On the second floor are the 'executives'; the fire inspector (who is also the enviromental person), the three city commissioners, and a couple other folks. The mayor, Steve Defever, has a full time job elsewhere; he is the owner of the Rexall Drug Store downtown. Every- one calls him 'Steve'. I have no hassles with any of them, however I do not go by that often, since my 'water bill' is on auto-debit from my account at Commerce Bank a block away. So is the electric and gas (on auto-debit, budget plan.) I have no problems at all with any of the various city/county authorities here. They are all gracious and treat the public quite decently. In a more GENERAL setting, smaller cities like Independence are where you will find caring/honest city workers and 'politicians'. The more you move toward larger cities, the less likely you are to find these kinds of people. Still possible, of course, but once incompetence and rudeness and arogance takes over, it seems to be contageous for whatever reason. My brother Dan, who lives in Chicago once noted to me, "Did you ever notice how the people in Independence are so, (he was grasping for the right word to use) ... well, so innocent?" Yeah, I have noticed that; that sort of community involvement, caring about your neighbors, minding your own business while they attend to theirs; in general a very libertarian attitude about people doing their own thing. The mayor and all city employees/commissioners/authorities are listed in the phone book. No law they have to be residents of our town, but unlike Chicago police officers, here they *want* to be part of the community. Isn't it sad when a place like Chicago has to pass a law *requiring* their employees to live in the city, then have two or three inspectors whose sole duty is going around checking on them to make sure they do live in town, even (oftentimes) on the very boundary line between Chicago and one of the all-white suburbs. Independence is a completly racially integrated community. Another reason I like living here is you go downtown to shop and you do not need five or six different picture ID cards to write a check. The merchants will offer to 'have on of the kids drive you home with your stuff so you don't have to 'waste all that money on a taxicab' (which full rate costs $4.00 to go anywhere in town, but as a handicapped senior I get the cab for $1.50 plus a coupon.) Anyway, when she sees your phone number on her caller ID and hears your name, Faye, the taxicab dispatcher has a cab there in less than five minutes anyway. Our town, with population of about 8500 people is a mile and a half wide by two miles long. Everyone gives their phone number as four digits with the 620-331 simply assumed. As my brother Dan phrased it, all the people in Independence are so ... well ... innocent. Even at our LOCAL office of Social Security, and our LOCAL post office and our LOCAL driver's license office and our LOCAL 'welfare' office, that is their behavior. I was in the social security office to fill out a form one day and got to talking to the THREE ladies who work there. The office manager there is on the board of the LOCAL library. One of the ladies working there said to me, "I have never been in any large city like Chicago but I heard that when you go in to do business there you take a number and wait in a waiting room until the number is called then you go to another large room where you take another number and wait until one of the clerks calls you up to a little cubicle where she talks to you. You've been in Chicago (meaning me). Is that true?" I said yes, that was true; her jaw dropped open. I told her if you were lucky and walked in the very minute the office opened and were first in line you could get out in 45 minutes. The other women nodded their heads in agreement and one said, "Well I have to call the Social Security Regional Center in Chicago now and then and I dread it, they sometimes have me on hold for the longest time. They don't seem to know I am a fellow employee. Sometimes when I ask for assistance in getting a paper file sent here I need they will 'talk so smart' to me, like I did not know anything at all. One lady there, once denied there was any office here in Independence and tried to tell me to go to the office Kansas City to get help on 'my claim'. I just hung up the phone and told Scott (the local SS office manager) and he called back and talked to someone there." Now I do not know about you, temp7@thewolfden.org, but that sort of arrogance and ignorance (and they go hand in hand) and abuse of the general public is altogether too common in large cities. When you have to pass a law requiring government employees to live in the same town where they are employed by the town, that's getting pretty desparate, isn't it? Did I partly at least, answer your question? PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #440 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 10 00:22:50 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4A4Mnb07462; Sat, 10 May 2003 00:22:50 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 00:22:50 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305100422.h4A4Mnb07462@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #441 TELECOM Digest Sat, 10 May 2003 00:23:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 441 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (John R. Levine) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (John McHarry) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Mike Sullivan) Re: Earthlink Launches Extended Area DSL (Dave Close) Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account (John R. Levine) What is Time Alignment Error (Newsgroup) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Garrett Wollman) Re: Age Determination Through Voice (Ray & Rita Normandeau) Re: Setting up a Dial-Around Number (Michael D. Sullivan) Inter-Tell AXXESS & Comtrol RocketModem II Throughput (Chris Largent) Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm Pat (Dave Close) Free Mailing List (James Myers) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: 9 May 2003 19:14:25 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone > surcharges? Yes. Last I checked it was about 29 cents. > If the toll-free number in question is to access a calling card > network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call to the > ultimate station is completed? Of course. How can the payphone owner tell why the user made the call, and would you trust calling card services to report completed call percentages truthfully? John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 19:58:03 -0400 Monty Solomon wrote: > Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone > surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a > calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call > to the ultimate station is completed? Does the calling card system return supervision? ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 03:27:51 GMT On Thu, 08 May 2003 21:16:32 -0000, Monty Solomon posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone > surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a > calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call > to the ultimate station is completed? I believe the current FCC-mandated charge is 35 cents or so. This is what the LD carrier must pay to the payphone company, which may or may not correspond to what the LD carrier recovers from its customer or subtracts from the prepaid card balance. I don't recall offhand whether the surcharge applies whether or not the call is ultimately completed, but I think there is a separate surcharge for each call, so it probably applies only to completed calls. (That's the FCC-mandated compensation from the LD carrier to the payphone company; what the LD carrier charges its customer may vary.) On Fri, 9 May 2003 14:19:01 CDT, Sam Etler posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: >> Does the FCC have a one-size-fits-all standard on pay phone >> surcharges? If the toll-free number in question is to access a >> calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call >> to the ultimate station is completed? > Check out 47 CFR 64.1300: > Sec. 64.1300 Payphone compensation obligation. > (a) Except as provided herein, the first facilities-based > interexchange carrier to which a completed coinless access code or > subscriber toll-free payphone call is delivered by the local exchange > carrier shall compensate the payphone service provider for the call at > a rate agreed upon by the parties by contract. > (b) The compensation obligation set forth herein shall not apply > to calls to emergency numbers, calls by hearing disabled persons to a > telecommunications relay service or local calls for which the caller > has made the required coin deposit. > (c) In the absence of an agreement as required by paragraph (a) of > this section, the carrier is obligated to compensate the payphone > service provider at a per-call rate of $.24. So the fully researched answer is 24 cents (not 35 as I surmised) and it applies only to "completed" calls. As indicated in my previous post, this is the charge payable by the LD carrier to the payphone company, and NOT what the LD carrier charges its customer. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 20:00:19 -0700 From: Dave Close Subject: Re: EarthLink Launches Extended Reach DSL Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Monty Solomon writes: > ATLANTA, May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- For small- and medium-sized > businesses whose location has prevented them from enjoying the > benefits of high-speed DSL service, EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), one of > the nation's leading Internet service providers, today announced the > launch of Extended Reach DSL. This new service, available in 91 > cities, enables customers to overcome the distance limitations of > standard DSL lines and provides a reliable, cost effective alternative > to a more expensive T1 line. Not much more expensive: the article says Earthlink's prices run from $350 to $550 per month! Depending on the local loop charge, T1s from some CLECs might not cost any more. And $350 for 384K xDSL compared to, say, $50 for the same bandwidth on normal ADSL seems a little pricey. Since many T1 lines actually run on HDSL circuits, it may well be that Earthlink is just branding what is standard practice anyway. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Quantum computing is a marvelous way to show the non- intuitive nature of quantum mechanics." -Gordon Moore ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account Date: 9 May 2003 19:27:14 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree. I think that most guys who are > getting the Vonage system understand it to be first and foremost a way > to eliminate outrageous telco long distance charges and only in second > or third place is the ability to use it for emergency ... Oh, sure. Vonage tells you not to use it as your only phone, since its setup depends on your DSL or cable modem, router, and ATA box, all of which require 110v power unlike a normal phone. Vonage is also very useful for what is in effect FX service. If you want a number in Chicago, you can get a number in Chicago regardless of where you really are. IF you get the "local" rather than unlimited service, your outgoing calls are counted as though you were calling from Chicago, too. For $5/mo you can add on extra numbers so you can be a local call from as many places as you want. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And the electrical service outage problem is greatly reduced if you use a battery backup on your computer system as you should do anyway. My APC unit sets under my desk and is alleged (although I have never tested it) to provide 15-20 minutes of power in the event of a power problem, in order to allow for an orderly shutdown. My thinking -- and please correct me as needed -- is that if the cable modem, Linksys router and Cisco ATA-186 box are on one link by themselves, then with everything else shut off I should still be able to get 5-10 minutes through the phone attached. Right or wrong? So I could get in and make one or two emergency one minute phone calls off of the battery? PAT] ------------------------------ From: blondee_yvr@yahoo.com (Newsgroup) Subject: What is Time Alignment Error Date: 9 May 2003 17:03:13 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ My Nokia 8260 TDMA has failed the two time alignment error tests. In addition, my loaner phone I just tested had its value at the maximum acceptable range. Hence, I experienced "redialing" and no connection often and with the 8260 very frequently. What is time aligment error and what are some factors that cause it to be out of whack? Can a charge cause it to be out of spec? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 00:50:11 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Mark Crispin wrote: > They can't. The Canadian government won't let them. I'm sure that > they'd be happy to market in Canada if it was permitted. Unlikely, since the Canadian licensees of that US programming will not permit it. As it happens, I know more people who own or are looking to buy grey-market ExpressVu receivers in the U.S. than I know people with EchoStar or DirecTV dishes anywhere. Garrett A. Wollman | [G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu | chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of| seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ From: SAGactors@yahoo.com (Ray&Rita Normandeau) Subject: Re: Age Determination Through Voice Date: 9 May 2003 15:19:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ tal@ipsbilling.com (Tal) wrote in message news:: > Hi, > I'm looking for a software product that will determine a person age > (age group) through voice. > I'm not sure what other details are required in order to be more > specific. It won't always work. Some actors who do voice-over sound a different age then they are. This was discussed recently at SAG when an actress said an agent wouldn't submit her for a voice-over due to her physival age but she sounds twenty years younger. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Setting up a Dial-Around Number Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 03:24:01 GMT On 9 May 2003 05:45:11 -0700, Bob posted the following to comp.dcom.telecom: > If I were interested in starting a company that provides service > through a dial-around number (10-10, 10-15, 10-16), what would I have > to do to set it up? Is there a central organization that controls the > assignment of these numbers? What are the costs associated with > "owning" one of these prefixes? > I realize that I would also need to get a provider to carry the > minutes, but I am just curious about the first steps that I would need > to take. Last time I checked, the FCC was responsible for assigning these codes, known as CIC codes (carrier identification code -- and I recognize that "CIC code" is redundant). There is either a nominal fee or no fee, but there are also some qualification requirements. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Chris Largent Subject: Inter-Tell AXXESS & Comtrol RocketModem II Throughput Date: 09 May 2003 23:00:58 GMT Organization: Concentric Internet Services My company has an Inter-Tel "AXXESS" phone system (PBX). We recently purchased a new Comtrol "RocketModem II" 6-port modem for use in one of our remote access servers. Unfortunately, the RocketModem is exhibiting extremely low and unusable throughput on all of its ports. It typically will only establish a carrier (i.e., DCE speed) of 19,200 bps or lower, and regardless of what carrier speed the modem reports, the ACTUAL throughput seems to be around 1,200 to 2,400 bps. Some key diagnostics to consider: -- We have several other modems that work just fine through our Inter-Tel AXXESS switch, including external USRobotics "V.Everything" modems and an internal ZOOM "56K Faxmodem ". These particular modems consistently and reliably establish carriers in the 21,600 to 33,600 bps range and perform to expectation. -- The RocketModem works like a charm when connected directly to POTS lines (i.e., bypassing the AXXESS switch.) With the above in mind, Comtrol and I feel that the throughput problem may be due to some incompatibility between the AXXESS switch and the Rockwell chipset that the RocketModem is designed around. Has anyone else out there experienced behavior like this related to their Inter-Tel AXXESS phone system or Comtrol RocketModem? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 19:24:43 -0700 From: Dave Close Subject: Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will partially answer a couple of > your questions, but then I will quit for tonight because it is time > for the world news from BBC. The BBC, like the CS Monitor, have more > balanced accounts of world opinion toward the United States than does > Fox News. The first casualty of war (The Economist, May 1st 2003) When the BBC's Greg Dyke talks about truth, you should smell a rat Greg Dyke, head of the BBC, declares himself "shocked" (shocked!) by the American news networks' coverage of the Iraq war. In a pointed speech in London last week, he contrasted the "gung-ho patriotism" and "narrow, pro-American agenda" of American TV news with what he described as "the drive for accurate and impartial reporting" which is "in the DNA" of the BBC. In a speech liberally sprinkled with self-congratulatory references to the corporation's "impartiality", "balance" and "independence", Mr Dyke presented the BBC as a rock of objectivity in a commercial, Americanised sea of uncritical jingoism. For those pro-war Americans who dubbed the Beeb the "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation", this was all rather perplexing. And the article continues generally sympathetic to the view of those "pro-war Americans". It surmises that the BBC attitude has more to do with competition in Britain and retention of the TV license fee than with any objective comparison of new presentation. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Quantum computing is a marvelous way to show the non- intuitive nature of quantum mechanics." -Gordon Moore ------------------------------ From: James Myers Subject: Free Mailing List Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 17:03:48 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: James Myers Ladies and Gentlemen, There is a new mailing list solely for VoIP termination services. To sign up, go to http://www.acqltd.com/list.htm. Please feel free to email me if you have questions Thank you, James Myers Acquisitions Unlimited 817-457-9050 james@acqltd.com ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #441 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 10 15:57:51 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4AJvph11094; Sat, 10 May 2003 15:57:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:57:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305101957.h4AJvph11094@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #442 TELECOM Digest Sat, 10 May 2003 15:58:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 442 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: 101-XXXX+ Dial-Arounds (Mark J Cuccia) Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account (joe@obilivan.net) Tracfone "Service Providers"? (John Stahl) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners; Toll-Free Number Providers (Joseph) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners; Toll-Free Number Providers (Levine) Re: Phone Rates (David B. Horvath, CCP) Verizon May Equip Pay Phones With Wireless Links (Monty Solomon) Email Challenge Technology (Monty Solomon) Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat (Paul Wallich) Sony Music Mobile Debuts on AT&T (Monty Solomon) Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T Wireless GSM (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 00:01:13 CDT From: Mark J Cuccia Subject: Re: 101-XXXX+ Dial-Arounds Michael D Sullivan wrote: > Bob wrote: >> If I were interested in starting a company that provides service >> through a dial-around number (10-10, 10-15, 10-16), what would I >> have to do to set it up? Is there a central organization that >> controls the assignment of these numbers? What are the costs >> associated with "owning" one of these prefixes? >> I realize that I would also need to get a provider to carry the >> minutes, but I am just curious about the first steps that I would >> need to take. > Last time I checked, the FCC was responsible for assigning these > codes, known as CIC codes (carrier identification code -- and I > recognize that "CIC code" is redundant). There is either a nominal > fee or no fee, but there are also some qualification requirements. Actually, it is the NANPA (North American Numbering Plan Administration) presently under Neustar, which assigns/maintains the list of 101-XXXX+ codes, under ATIS/INC (telco Industry) approved guidelines. A potential LD carrier or reseller in the US will apply to NANPA, one in Canada will apply to the CNA (Canadian Numbering Administrator) who is presently under SAIC-Canada (the US side of Science Applications also happens to be the same company that owns Telcordia-formerly-Bellcore), and then SAIC-Canada will forward on the Canadian request for a CIC to Neustar-NANPA for final approval and logging. In the US, the FCC does have review and oversight over CIC assignments; in Canada, it is the CRTC which has such review/oversignt over CICs... NANPA, the CNAC, the FCC, and the CRTC as well as the industry as a "whole" through the ATIS-INC does *attempt* to "work togather" regarding guidelines and policies on CICs and other numbering/code resources. There is a list of such codes available at NANPA's website, see http://www.nanpa.com/ and click away for fg.D CICs (and note the more sepcific URLs below). http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/carrier_id_codes.html (main page for NANPA-assigned CICs) http://www.nanpa.com/number_resource_info/text_db/dcic_030506.zip (for a .zip file of all NANPA-assigned fg.D CICs, *AS OF* 6-May-2003, that *specific* URL will change with the date of future uploads!) CIC does indeed stand for Carrier Identification Code, and it is the four-digit portion which comes *AFTER* the 101- (fg.D) or 950- (fg.B). CAC stands for Carrier Access Code, and this is the complete *seven* digit *customer* dialed 101-XXXX+ code. PIC stands for Primary InterExchange Carrier, and one choses one for in-TRA-LATA toll and one for in-TER-LATA (toll) in the US; in Canada, one choses only a single "toll" PIC since LATAs per-se don't apply up there. In the US, your in-TRA-LATA PIC and in-TER-LATA PIC might be different companies, or they could be the same company. The carrier you are "PIC'd" to is the carrier your calls will be routed over when you dial such toll (including international/overseas toll calls), when you do *NOT* do any "dialing-around" with 101-XXXX+ CACs. (You can also choose "no-PIC" for toll, which means that you will *have* to dial a 101-XXXX+ CAC before all such toll calls, depending on in-TRA vs. in-TER LATA PIC'ing vs. no-PIC'ing). When you are PIC'd to a carrier, their four-digit CIC code is automatically sent out through the LATA network in signaling, to route your call to and through your PIC'd carrier. You don't have to dial the 101- before the four-digit CIC of your PIC. Not all LD carriers serve originating access from all of the US or Canada. Not all LD carriers will allow dialing-around to use their network or services *UNLESS* you have a previously arranged account. Some carriers will allow you to "dial-around" without having a previously arranged account *BUT ... you "pay through the nose". Some carriers allow you to set up an account with them, to be able to take advantage of discount plans/etc, *ONLY IF* you actually *CHOOSE* them as your 'PIC'. BTW, the *SO CALLED* "ten-ten" or "ten-fifteen" or "ten-sixteen" is really a MIS-nomer. The plan always has been (since the expansion from three-to-four digit CICs / five-to-seven-digit CACs during the 1990s) for using the *FULL* range of 101-XXXX+ codes. And only very recently, during 2001/2002 *THAT GENERALIZATION ACTUALLY DID OCCUR*. NANPA now has assigned CICs with -1XXX, -2XXX, -3XXX, -4XXX, -7XXX, -8XXX, -9XXX. So now, there are actually assigned some customer-dialable CACs of the form 101-1XXX, 101-2XXX, 101-3XXX, 101-4XXX, 101-7XXX, 101-8XXX, 101-9XXX, in addition to the (original) 101-0XXX and the (created in the early 1990s) 101-5XXX and 101-6XXX ranges. Thus, "ten-ten" is not a generic term. The more generic "term" for these could be "one-zero-one, quad-ex" (customer-dialable carrier access) codes. Mark J. Cuccia mcuccia@tulane.edu New Orleans LA USA ------------------------------ From: joe@obilivan.net Subject: Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 03:06:24 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications TELECOM Digest Editor Noted in response to John R. Levine: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I agree. I think that most guys who are >> getting the Vonage system understand it to be first and foremost a way >> to eliminate outrageous telco long distance charges and only in second >> or third place is the ability to use it for emergency ... SBC out here in California is now offerring a Vonage-like residential service: basic line, caller ID, voice mail, and unlimited 48 state LD for $48.95 a month. Of course, you cannot have FX and virtual numbers, and you can't plug it in to any broadband connection. > Oh, sure. Vonage tells you not to use it as your only phone, since > its setup depends on your DSL or cable modem, router, and ATA box, > all of which require 110v power unlike a normal phone. A good UPS, powering only the cable modem, router, and the ATA device should provide a fair amount of calling. > Vonage is also very useful for what is in effect FX service. If you > want a number in Chicago, you can get a number in Chicago regardless > of where you really are. IF you get the "local" rather than unlimited > service, your outgoing calls are counted as though you were calling > from Chicago, too. For $5/mo you can add on extra numbers so you can > be a local call from as many places as you want. > Another neat feature of Vonage is the call transfer option. If I > don't like the echo I get on some of my Vonage calls, and the call > is going to last awhile, I tell the other party to hold on for a few > seconds, then I transfer the call to one of my wireline POTS lines; > which gives a great run-around to any less than sterling Vonage > connection. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: SBC here in Kansas is beginning to offer the same $48.95 'take it all' option. For that price they give you everything they offer and some amount of 'free' minutes of long distance calling. Amazing how they learn so fast how to do things, isn't it ... (smile). But here in Kansas at least, you can get DSL included for an extra $25 per month, (or $49.95 per month if you, like me, were misfortunate enough to sign up for DSL more than a year ago). They will NOT give the $25 rate on DSL to the people who were already on DSL *unless* you agree to a one year extension of your service in place, as is. New users of DSL are, however, being offered the $25 month by month plan with no hitches. So I *could* now get 'Total Connections' from SBC for $48.95 plus $25 for DSL, or about $73 per month plus taxes, fees, etc, for the 'whole works'. That's just one of the things I found so annoying when I changed my DSL over to Cable One internet this past week and and my 'total connection' phone service over to Duane and the other guys at Prairie Stream Communications. They give most of the whole package for just $24.95 per month, but of course they **cannot** offer DSL, since SBC managed to sneak past the Commission some rules about not having to give up DSL *on their copper pairs*. The same Commission of course did make SBC give Prairie State (here locally) the right to use their pairs and the right to be co-located in the switch over at 6th and Maple, but those sneaky folks at SBC noted how the Commission forgot to mention DSL service *until it was too late*, then I guess they (SBC) said, 'we gotcha on that one'. Since Terraworld (the ISP side of Prairie Stream) also sells DSL some people in town have said get the DSL from Terraworld and the phone from Prairie Stream -- in other words, give all the business to Duane and the local guys; cut SWB out of the loop (literally) entirely. But that won't work. I guess Terraworld *brokers* or rents SWB pairs for their DSL service under some earlier arrangment, and Mike (Duane's business partner) said to me whenever an existing Terraworld ISP and DSL customer decides to put their phone on Prairie Stream, they have to wave 'bye bye' to the customer where Terraworld DSL is concerned, according to the Commission regulations. But their suggestion to guys in that situation has been this past month to put their broadband connection over with their friend Mike Flood, the general manager of Cable One. Mike, just like the other employees in the front office at the cable service here, had all been long-time employees of Time Warner until the start of this year when Time Warner traded them off to Cable One. Making that switch in your broadband service, then you *can* wave bye-bye to Southwestern Bell for good, as I have done. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 07:14:16 -0400 From: John Stahl Subject: Tracfone "Service Providers" I note that Tracfone (and I presume others like them) offer cell phone service on a prepaid basis but, according to their web site, they utilize other carrier's systems: "TracFone" (URL: htte://www.tracfone.com) provides nationwide prepaid wireless service. We use the nation's leading cellular providers to create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population. This gives you service everywhere cellular service is available." Does anyone know who (or what) cell "system" carriers they use? John Stahl Consultant Aljon Enterprises ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 07:24:15 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 10 May 2003 03:27:51 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > I believe the current FCC-mandated charge is 35 cents or so. This is > what the LD carrier must pay to the payphone company, which may or may > not correspond to what the LD carrier recovers from its customer or > subtracts from the prepaid card balance. The mandated cost is 24 cents per call. Many calling cards will however jack up the price to as much as 65 cents per call. 24 cents per call is what the FCC regs require. Anything over 24 cents is pure gravy for any charge that a calling card charges. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group. ------------------------------ Date: 10 May 2003 16:48:23 -0000 From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> If the toll-free number in question is to access a >> calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call >> to the ultimate station is completed? > Does the calling card system return supervision? It has to. Otherwise many payphones won't open the forward voice path and the user won't be able to enter the touch tone codes to complete the call. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 13:28:21 EDT From: dhorvath@cobs.com (David B. Horvath, CCP) Subject: Re: Phone Rates On 6 May 2003 07:50:45 -0700, a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) posted: >> One of the things that bothers me about the current pricing for phone >> service is that phone costs are becoming more constant 24 hours per >> day. > Phone equipment costs to the phone company have been normalized across > a 24 hour period almost since the service started. (remainder deleted) While the incremental cost of a call is very low, the infrastructure costs are high and pretty much constant by the hour. It doesn't take much more electricity to transmit a call than not, but the equipment, wires, repair people, insurance, etc. still have to be in effect. This topic has been discussed a number of times on this list over the years ... Calls were cheaper at night because usage was less and the LD companies wanted more of it. It is expensive to add capacity, so they prefer to move calls moved from high to low usage times (delaying the need to add capacity and would offer a discount to do so). As our society becomes more 24/7, those discounts make less sense to the companies. I wonder how cell phones with no-cost LD are affecting these rates? I now make most of my LD calls from my cell (even when sitting at home). Has residential land-line LD volume decreased? If not, has the growth in demand (first derivative of usage growth) decreased? How about the second derivative? David B. Horvath, CCP Consultant, Author, International Lecturer, Adjunct Professor Member: ICCP Educational Foundation Board and ICCP Test Council; Chair of LPR&GC CMP [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do almost the same thing as you. I have a Cell Socket device, and I use a wireless phone as the input to the Cell Socket. When I am traveling around town of course I take the Cingular Wireless phone with me, but here at home I leave it in the Cell Socket so it can charge up, and when I wish to make a long distance call I just grab the wireless phone and use it, or else I go in the computer room and use the Vonage phone. Long distance charges are a thing of the past; an old, ancient artifact of service with Southwestern Bell. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 23:54:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon May Equip Pay Phones With Wireless Links NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications wants to provide a new purpose for a declining business by using street corner pay telephones to wirelessly link its broadband customers to the Internet, President Larry Babbio said. At a Stevens Institute of Technology conference in New York on Friday, Babbio told attendees that Verizon (NYSE:VZ) would begin to put gear around pay phones that would allow laptop computer users to connect to the Internet via a wireless technology popularly known as Wi-Fi. In response to a question about the possibility of setting up so-called "Wi-Fi hotspot" areas around pay phones, Babbio suggested that Verizon could announce such a plan soon. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34146161 UPDATE 1-Verizon may equip pay phones with wireless links - May 9, 2003 05:14 PM (Reuters) NEW YORK, May 9 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications wants to provide a new purpose for a declining business by using street corner pay telephones to wirelessly link its broadband customers to the Internet, President Larry Babbio said. At a Stevens Institute of Technology conference in New York on Friday, Babbio told attendees that Verizon (NYSE:VZ) would begin to put gear around pay phones that would allow laptop computer users to connect to the Internet via a wireless technology popularly known as Wi-Fi. In response to a question about the possibility of setting up so-called "Wi-Fi hotspot" areas around pay phones, Babbio suggested that Verizon could announce such a plan soon. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34146685 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 23:57:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Email Challenge Technology Earthlink will begin to offer email challenge technology Fri, 9 May 2003 02:14:24 EDT http://www.politechbot.com/p-04733.html More on Earthlink's email challenge, Mailblocks lawsuit Fri, 9 May 2003 08:40:27 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04735.html MailSoap.com co-founder on challenge-response spam blocking Fri, 9 May 2003 10:43:45 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04736.html ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 00:55:11 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , Dave Close wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will partially answer a couple of >> your questions, but then I will quit for tonight because it is time >> for the world news from BBC. The BBC, like the CS Monitor, have more >> balanced accounts of world opinion toward the United States than does >> Fox News. > The first casualty of war > (The Economist, May 1st 2003) > When the BBC's Greg Dyke talks about truth, you should smell a rat > Greg Dyke, head of the BBC, declares himself "shocked" (shocked!) by > the American news networks' coverage of the Iraq war. In a pointed > speech in London last week, he contrasted the "gung-ho patriotism" and > "narrow, pro-American agenda" of American TV news with what he > described as "the drive for accurate and impartial reporting" which is > "in the DNA" of the BBC. In a speech liberally sprinkled with > self-congratulatory references to the corporation's "impartiality", > "balance" and "independence", Mr Dyke presented the BBC as a rock of > objectivity in a commercial, Americanised sea of uncritical > jingoism. For those pro-war Americans who dubbed the Beeb the "Baghdad > Broadcasting Corporation", this was all rather perplexing. > And the article continues generally sympathetic to the view of those > "pro-war Americans". It surmises that the BBC attitude has more to do > with competition in Britain and retention of the TV license fee than > with any objective comparison of new presentation. Because The Economist has no axe to grind either. In this case, they're letting their irrational bias against all things unprivatised override their usual good sense. (Much of their coverage echoed the BBC skepticism about war aims and the conduct of the war, although they have a much more sanguine attitude toward Anglo-American empire than your average citizen of either country.) paul ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 14:41:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony Music Mobile Debuts on AT&T Wireless mMode Service New music channel replicates Sony Music's award-winning website for the mobile environment - a music industry first NEW YORK, and REDMOND, Wash., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sony Music Mobile Products Group announced today the debut of Sony Music Mobile on the AT&T Wireless mMode(SM) service. Music fans of all kinds can now access ring tones, graphics and breaking news about their favorite Sony Music Entertainment artists right from their wireless phone. Sony Music Mobile also features a subscription service for access to a mobile version of Sony Music's award-winning website. Subscribers with compatible handsets can receive fresh news, pictures, tour dates, album releases and more all displayed with one of the richest graphic interfaces available on wireless phones today. Through Sony Music Mobile on mMode, customers will be able to purchase ring tones from songs made famous by Sony Music Entertainment artists, display graphics featuring album covers, and make CD purchases through links to Amazon's one-click service, all through their mobile phone. Popular ring tones include John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland" and Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade." Ring tones cost between $.99 and $1.99 each. For an additional subscription fee of $1.00 per month, Sony Music Mobile users can download a special Java application to receive up-to-the-minute news, tour dates, album releases, information on personal appearances, and pictures of the artist of their choice. At launch, Sony Music Mobile features artists including Amerie, Tori Amos, The Ataris, B2K, Celine Dion, Mario Frangoulis, Good Charlotte, Vivian Green, Jennifer Lopez, Nas, Opera Babes, Pete Yorn, and more. Subscribers can also enter contests and play trivia games. The Sony Music Mobile subscription service is the first-ever Java-based mobilized music company website. Java technology, most widely used for gaming applications, was used to replicate Sony Music's award-winning website on mMode. Crisp Wireless created the application for Sony Music Mobile Products Group. The application uses the content management and delivery component of the Crisp Wireless mLogic Platform to dynamically transmit the latest information from Sony Music to mobile phones and allow users to view and interact with the content through a highly aesthetic interface. ... - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=32348766 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 14:41:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T Wireless GSM/GPRS Network Nokia and AT&T Wireless Announce Immediate Availability of Nokia 3650 Camera Phone - Nokia 3650 Phone and AT&T Wireless' GSM/GPRS Network Brings the Power Of Imaging to Consumers - IRVING, Texas, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today announced the immediate availability of the Nokia 3650 imaging phone, which can now be purchased from the AT&T Wireless web site (www.attws.com). Taking advantage of AT&T Wireless' advanced GSM/GPRS network, the Nokia 3650 imaging phone allows customers to enjoy next generation services such as the capturing and sharing of images and video clips via multimedia messaging (MMS), over-the-air application downloads and the ability to access real-time streaming video and audio content. AT&T Wireless subscribers can also enjoy the wide range of exclusive mMode content delivered to the large color screen of the Nokia 3650 phone. With an integrated VGA-resolution camera, a large 176x208 pixel color display, and the ability to store over 1,000 standard VGA basic resolution photos with the in-box 16MB memory card, the Nokia 3650 phone offers users the latest and most powerful wireless features available. The Nokia 3650 phone also incorporates a unique video recorder application for capturing video clips and a RealOne Player for real-time streaming of audio and video content. MMS functionality allows users to send video clips, images, text and sound to another compatible MMS-enabled mMode phone or to an e-mail address. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33780001 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #442 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 11 16:38:35 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4BKcYQ16607; Sun, 11 May 2003 16:38:35 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 16:38:35 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305112038.h4BKcYQ16607@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #443 TELECOM Digest Sun, 11 May 2003 16:38:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 443 Inside This Issue: Happy Mother's Day from PAT Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" (Joseph) Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" (John R. Levine) Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" (Paul Wallich) Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception (M Solomon) Wanted to Buy: Pre-owned or Refurb Couple Tenor A800 Gateways/GSM (MS) Truth-in-Advertising and Spam? (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Unsolicited (Junk) Faxes? (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Re: All Eyes on Google (John Schmerold) Re: Phone Rates (Wesrock@aol.com) Cybercrime's Scope: Interpreting "Access" & "Authorization" (M Solomon) Re: Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies (Walt Howard) Re: Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T Wireless GSM/GPRS Network (Joseph) Western Electric #30295 (EMELAICH@aol.com) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Mark Crispin) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (John McHarry) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Gary Breuckman) Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account (Gary Breuckman) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Sam Etler) Set Time/Day on AT&T 1750 Digital Answering Machine? (Tony Agresta) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joseph Subject: Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:33:17 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 10 May 2003 07:14:16 -0400, John Stahl wrote: > I note that Tracfone (and I presume others like them) offer cell phone > service on a prepaid basis but, according to their web site, they utilize > other carrier's systems: > "TracFone" (URL: htte://www.tracfone.com) provides nationwide prepaid > wireless service. We use the nation's leading cellular providers to > create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population. This > gives you service everywhere cellular service is available." > Does anyone know who (or what) cell "system" carriers they use? It depends on the market. Some markets use TDMA and I'd imagine that the service is provided through AT&T or Cingular. Other markets are CDMA and service may be provided by Verizon or another CDMA provider. They claim universal roaming and they do that with their mixed technology by using the AMPS analog portion of the various phones. Perhaps if you contact tracfone and ask them what carrier they use in a particular area they might tell you (I don't know if they know or would tell you, but it's worth a try if it's important to you.) Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group. ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" Date: 10 May 2003 16:59:05 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > "TracFone" (URL: htte://www.tracfone.com) provides nationwide prepaid > wireless service. We use the nation's leading cellular providers to > create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population. This > gives you service everywhere cellular service is available." > Does anyone know who (or what) cell "system" carriers they use? The Tracfones I've seen are Nokia 5165s, which are AMPS TDMA. That means they use whoever the local TDMA carrier is, most often AT&T or Cingular. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: Paul Wallich Subject: Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 12:21:13 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In article , John Stahl wrote: > I note that Tracfone (and I presume others like them) offer cell phone > service on a prepaid basis but, according to their web site, they utilize > other carrier's systems: > "TracFone" (URL: htte://www.tracfone.com) provides nationwide prepaid > wireless service. We use the nation's leading cellular providers to > create a national footprint covering 99% of the U.S. population. This > gives you service everywhere cellular service is available." > Does anyone know who (or what) cell "system" carriers they use? As a sometime user, I can report that they have agreements with some but not all providers in a pattern that makes for patchy coverage outside major metropolitan areas. The last time I used one, it reported "no service" in parts of central vermont where other cellphones worked fine. And in parts of connecticut, the phone claimed to be operational, but whatever carrier Tracphone was using refused to accept or deliver calls. In other areas, including rural ones, it's worked fine, so YMWV. Paul ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 00:08:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception A staff reporter for The New York Times committed frequent acts of journalistic fraud while covering significant news events in recent months, an investigation by Times journalists has found. The widespread fabrication and plagiarism represent a profound betrayal of trust and a low point in the 152-year history of the newspaper. The reporter, Jayson Blair, 27, misled readers and Times colleagues with dispatches that purported to be from Maryland, Texas and other states, when often he was far away, in New York. He fabricated comments. He concocted scenes. He lifted material from other newspapers and wire services. He selected details from photographs to create the impression he had been somewhere or seen someone, when he had not. And he used these techniques to write falsely about emotionally charged moments in recent history, from the deadly sniper attacks in suburban Washington to the anguish of families grieving for loved ones killed in Iraq. In an inquiry focused on correcting the record and explaining how such fraud could have been sustained within the ranks of The Times, the Times journalists have so far uncovered new problems in at least 36 of the 73 articles Mr. Blair wrote since he started getting national reporting assignments late last October. In the final months the audacity of the deceptions grew by the week, suggesting the work of a troubled young man veering toward professional self-destruction. Mr. Blair, who has resigned from the paper, was a reporter at The Times for nearly four years, and he was prolific. Spot checks of the more than 600 articles he wrote before October have found other apparent fabrications, and that inquiry continues. The Times is asking readers to report any additional falsehoods in Mr. Blair's work; the e-mail address is retrace@nytimes.com. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/national/11PAPE.html ------------------------------ From: MS Subject: Wanted to Buy: Pre-Owned or Refurb Tenor A800 Gateways & GSM Organization: Prodigy Internet http://www.prodigy.com Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 05:13:09 GMT WTB: Pre-owned or refurb couple of Tenor A800 Gateways & about 8 to 10 GSM Phonecell SX4e Telulars and QBill VoIP billing SW full ver. from sellers in North America. Please email your quote including shipping to Dallas, Texas at the following email address: msadiq(at)[remove]masterlogix(dot)[remove]com or call 972.783.6666 Please remove the [remove] from email address. ------------------------------ Subject: truth-in-advertising and spam? Organization: Excelsior Computer Services From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 12:31:54 GMT It's gotten to the point where I receive almost 100 spam message per day, which got me thinking: Lately, most the of the spam messages contain subjects that make it harder to identify the message as spam (such as, "Your check is in the mail" or "Fred told me to call you"). These violate as least NY's truth in advertising laws. Has anyone looked at spam as advertising and tried to apply truth in advertising laws to them? If I'm not mistaken, these laws carry significant penalties, and, perhaps more importantly, jurisdiction lies where the person views the ad. Comments? -Joel Hoffman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Oh, I have gotten those 'check in the mail' type spams for several months now, maybe a year. Your check is in the mail on an almost daily basis once you begin applying the things in the book we have written about making money fast on the net. Fred told me to call you and find out if you had yet looked at this great porno site. That's the great thing about letting someone else (like a robot!) read your mail first and toss into categories for later quick review by yourself. Spam Assassin reads all the Digest mail first and the fifty or sixty items of spam I get each day in the lcs.mit.edu account are all put in a file for me to give it a quick glance (and after making sure there is no 'from' address I recognize or subject that rings any POSITIVE bells) then I dump it out. That step in the processing occurs prior to sending autoacks, so I do not even give them any recognition at all. That's the good thing also about cableone.net (my new ISP) and Yahoo Mail. They at least try to sort through it, and do pretty well. I am invited to puruse the spam bin where they put stuff, looking for a good piece of mail I want, but it is very rare anything worthwhile is there. On the other hand, there has not been a single day in the past year that my former account at sbcglobal.net did not have 35-40 pieces of spam; all the possible trash you could imagine, and more besides. And whenever I would call sbcglobal.net techs about my mailbox being wedged and the mail unable to all come out because of the volume of spam, their answer was always to whimper at me and tell me how they were a common carrier and then self-righteously inform me they did not make any judgments on what mail people would or would not want to see. Its not like I asked them to toss out mail; just examine it, make a quick detirmination and file it separately. *I* would be the final judge, but it would help tremendously if I could zap a bunch at once unread rather than having to read a few lines, move my mouse to zap it, then go on to the next, etc. If their telephone side of the operation had held onto that same philosophy, there would be no anonymous call blocking or "privacy" manager. After all, since they are a common carrier, anyone has the right to call anyone else, right? PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Cell Phone Companies Seek to Block Rule Organization: Excelsior Computer Services From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 13:05:59 GMT > However, this whole number portability thing got me to thinking > (always dngerous). Is there anyone out there who offers a service that > is basically just a phone number that gets forwarded automatically to > another number of your choice? Something like that would allow you to > keep the first number the same and change the second number at will > (just like email forwarding services). Telco's used to offer 700- numbers, which were designed just for that purpose. But it never caught on. My strategy is never to give out my cell number, but to forward my home phone to my cell when I'm out. People only have to call one number, and I can change cell phones whenever I want/need. -Joel ------------------------------ Subject: Unsolicited (Junk) Faxes? Organization: Excelsior Computer Services From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 13:08:22 GMT My parents receive one or two just fax advertisements a day. I've read that sending a fax unsolicited is illegal, and punishable by a $1,500 fine. Where can I find information on how to follow up on this? Has anyone here actually collected any money? With the number of faxes they're getting, this might be worthwhile. Thanks. -Joel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am certain when your request is read here, many people will contact you with all the rules. Unsolicited faxes are quite illegal, but very few people bother to follow up trying to collect on them. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 08:16:42 -0500 From: John Schmerold Subject: Re: All Eyes on Google I don't know if Google is the best search engine available. I do know that it allows me to see 100 results at a time. I get so sick of hitting next page when searching for something. Just goes to show you, if you give the customer what they want, they'll come back. I can't believe giving me 100 results at a time is a big deal, Google does it and no one else does. Many other companies could learn from this, for example I've repeatedly told CSRs at the phone company "why don't you web enable the DSL order process" or "why don't you let me add services to my phone line via the web" SBC won't do it. I'd order more, the order would be more accurate & SBC would save money on call centers, but they don't listen to the customer. > Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 02:03:37 -0400 > From: Monty Solomon > Subject: All Eyes on Google > With luck and brains, the search service has won the hearts and minds > of millions and built a booming business. Watch out: Microsoft wants > in. > Just when high tech had nothing left to believe in, along came Google. > As a skeleton key for the Internet, Google in five years has grown > from an academic exercise in search of better ways of finding stuff on > the Web into a thriving, prodigious advertising business beloved by > users, sought by a hundred thousand advertisers, coveted by Wall > Street and envied -- or reviled -- by a swarm of rivals. > Google was launched less than four years ago by two graduate students > in computer science: one, a Russian imigrant named Sergey Brin, now > 29; the other, a Michigan-reared engineer named Larry E. Page, now all > of 30. As a gateway to 3 billion Web pages, Google is a strangely > unadorned site: 37 words, four tabs and a blank space where you type > in a query of up to 10 words. Google's over 10,000 networked Google > computers crawl through an index to those 3 billion pages, rank them > with an equation that includes 500 million variables and spit out up > to a few thousand listings. The ranking takes 500 milliseconds; the > computers can handle a peak rate equal to 7 million queries per hour. > But Google has become much more than merely a search service. It is a > daily tool and main entry point for millions of users, stealing the > spotlight from the browser (Explorer or whatever) and Internet portals > like Yahoo. It is a labor of love for programmers, who have built > applications off of Google and posted them like trophies on the > Web. One does a "smackdown," comparing the Internet ubiquity of two > words ("love" beats "money," but not by much); another creates poems > (see boxes) . > For Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Google is the great bright hope > for an initial public offering that might revive moribund tech > stocks. And Google has become its own meme, the stuff of New Yorker > cartoons and a brand, like Kleenex and Band-Aid, that is in danger of > becoming a part of the English language. You don't search for > something on the Web anymore. You Google it. > http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34131273 ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 10:00:13 EDT Subject: Re: Phone Rates On 17 Jan 1989 21:38:57 PST David Gast (gast@CS.UCLA.EDU) wrote: > The reason given is that otherwise large businesses would set up > their own telephone systems. The entire reason for the existence of > the telephone monopoly in the first place, however, was that due to > economy of scale, one large company could be much more efficient > (and thus have lower prices) than smaller companies. This is another false premise. The rationale for the system as a monopoly was that duplicative telephone systems and duplicative outside plant were wasteful. They were also very inconvenient and expensive for telephone users, who had to subscribe to both telephone companies to be able to reach all the local telephone subscribers. For these reasons, regulatory bodies for generations encouraged and even demanded the elimination of duplicative telephone systems. In a few places there were two telephone companies as late as the 1960s. Another false premise is that there are economies of scale in the provision of exchange telephone service. Unlike mass production businesses, telephone exchange service is a business with increasing, not decreasing, unit costs as the number of customers grows. The exchange plant must be extended further and further, at additional costs, to reach the increasingly distant subscribers, and the switching because more complex, and thus more expensive, per customer as the number of subscribers grows. Technological changes have attempted, with some success, to drive down these costs, but it still costs more per customer in a large exchange than in a smaller one. The demands for "competition," which tend to ignore these facts, have led to regulators seizing part of the plant of incumbent telephone companies at less than compensatory rates. No company can be profitable serving run of the mill (residential and small business) customers if they have to provide their own plant, and probably not if they have to pay compensatory rates for using the plant of others. You will note that cable companies, which have finally reached the point where they consider themselves viable as an alternative provider of the "last mile," have strongly, and so far successfully, resisted any effort to allow their plant to be used by competing local exchange companies or, for that matter, ISPs other than themselves. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The lady at our local Cable One office here in Independence told me recently that some of her family in Tulsa have *phone service* from Cable One, and the company has run into a lot of difficulty getting Southwestern Bell to work along with them. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 23:47:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cybercrime's Scope: Interpreting "Access" and "Authorization" Cybercrime's Scope: Interpreting "Access" and "Authorization" in Computer Misuse Statutes ORIN S. KERR George Washington University - Law School GWU Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 65 New York University Law Review, Vol. 78, November 2003 Abstract: In the last twenty-five years, the federal government and all fifty states have enacted new criminal laws that prohibit unauthorized access to computers. These new laws attempt to draw a line between criminality and free conduct in cyberspace. No one knows what it means to "access" a computer, however, nor when access becomes "unauthorized." The few courts that have construed these terms have offered divergent interpretations, and no scholars have yet addressed the problem. Recent decisions interpreting the federal statute in civil cases suggest that any breach of contract with a computer owner renders use of that computer an unauthorized access. If applied to criminal cases, this approach would broadly criminalize contract law on the Internet, potentially making millions of Americans criminals for the way they write e-mail and surf the Web. This Article presents a comprehensive inquiry into the meaning of unauthorized access statutes. It begins by explaining why legislatures enacted unauthorized access statutes, and why early beliefs that such statutes solved the problem of computer misuse have proved remarkably naive. Next, the Article explains how the courts have construed these statutes in an overly broad way that threatens to criminalize a surprising range of innocuous conduct involving computers. In the final section, the Article offers a normative proposal for interpreting "access" and "authorization." This section argues that courts should reject a contract theory of authorization, and should narrow the scope of unauthorized access statutes to circumvention of code-based restrictions on computer privileges. The section justifies this proposal on several grounds. First, the proposal will best mediate the line between securing privacy and protecting the liberty of Internet users. Second, the proposal mirrors criminal law's traditional treatment of crimes that contain a consent element. Third, the proposed approach is consistent with the basic theories of punishment. Fourth, the proposed interpretation avoids possible constitutional difficulties that may arise under the broader constructions that courts recently have favored. Keywords: cybercrime, computer crime, unauthorized access, code http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=399740 ------------------------------ From: howard@rumba.ee.ualberta.ca (Walt Howard) Subject: Re: Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies, Education Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 03:56:16 UTC Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site In article , Monty Solomon wrote: > Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Technologies, Education To > Reduce Unwanted E-Mail > Multitiered Approach Eliminates 2.4 Billion Spam E-Mail Messages a Day; > Prevents Millions More with Technologies that Hinder Senders of Spam > REDMOND, Wash., May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The MSN(R) network of > Internet services is leading the industry by helping protect consumers > from unsolicited commercial e-mail with a unique combination of > technologies and consumer education that goes beyond traditional > filtering. I realize Monty is only posting unedited press releases, and press releases tend to exaggerate a bit. But "MSN leading the industry"? I don't believe it, and having caught Microsoft in flat-out lies with their advertisements in the recent past, I doubt it's true. Still, it's good they're trying. I wonder about the "user education" part of that, though; it sounds too much like the "blame the users when the software doesn't work right" that we've also seen in the past. Walt Howard /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign InterNet: whoward@ieee.org \ / No HTML or M$Word in mail or news! BellNet: +1 780 492 7262 X / \ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not pay that much attention to Usenet news with the exception of the various telecom newsgroups. Do people actually use HTML stuff in messages there? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T Wireless GSM/GPRS Network Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:36:21 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 10 May 2003 14:41:17 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Nokia and AT&T Wireless Announce Immediate Availability of Nokia > 3650 Camera Phone >- Nokia 3650 Phone and AT&T Wireless' GSM/GPRS Network Brings the Power Of > Imaging to Consumers - > IRVING, Texas, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Wireless (NYSE: > AWE) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today announced the immediate availability > of the Nokia 3650 imaging phone, which can now be purchased from the > AT&T Wireless web site (www.attws.com). The Nokia 3650 is also being offered by the other major GSM carriers such as T-Mobile and Cingular. Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ From: EMELAICH@aol.com Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 19:36:49 EDT Subject: Western Electric #30295 This is a large, maple tamping device -- a drift plug(?) I think the seller said -- which is labeled 6 1/2(") and used to true up lead sleeves that were used to shield some type of fiber pipe or jacket used on old phone cables. It's approx. 4' long and looks like something used to tamp powder and wadding into cannon. Any info you can give me on these? Thanks, Michael Hagan ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 16:38:32 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Sat, 10 May 2003, Garrett Wollman wrote: > As it happens, I know more people who own or are looking to buy > grey-market ExpressVu receivers in the U.S. than I know people with > EchoStar or DirecTV dishes anywhere. That must be a Massachusetts phenomenum. I don't pay much attention to the grey or black market in general; but black market DirectTV and Dish systems are all over western Canada, whereas you don't see any evidence of ExpressVu in Washington State. Even Canadian businesses seem to prefer pirate DirectTV/Dish systems over ExpressVu. If the dongle sticking on the outside of the satellite receiver isn't enough of a clue, DirectTV's frequent ads are. I've always thought that if BC, Yukon, and Alberta joined the US and the US northeast joined Canada, both countries would be happier. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 18:58:15 -0400 John R. Levine wrote: >>> If the toll-free number in question is to access a >>> calling card network, does the surcharge apply whether or not the call >>> to the ultimate station is completed? >> Does the calling card system return supervision? > It has to. Otherwise many payphones won't open the forward voice path > and the user won't be able to enter the touch tone codes to complete > the call. That seems to "answer" the question. To the pay station, the call was completed to the robot at the other end. It would also indicate the pay station doesn't know how many terminations were made during that call. ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:36:13 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , Joseph wrote: > On Sat, 10 May 2003 03:27:51 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan > wrote: >> I believe the current FCC-mandated charge is 35 cents or so. This is >> what the LD carrier must pay to the payphone company, which may or may >> not correspond to what the LD carrier recovers from its customer or >> subtracts from the prepaid card balance. > The mandated cost is 24 cents per call. Many calling cards will however > jack up the price to as much as 65 cents per call. 24 cents per call is > what the FCC regs require. Anything over 24 cents is pure gravy for any > charge that a calling card charges. I sometimes use an AT&T prepaid card, one that is sold by Sam's Club. Each minute is 3.6 cents, I believe ... on payphone calls they charge a surcharge, which I think is 9 units ... The interesting parts of this are, - they don't charge anything for calls that aren't completed, even though they may be paying the surcharge themselves, and - they charge the surcharge on each call you make, even if you press the # key and make a second call. There was only one call from the payphone to them, they only pay one surcharge, but they charge you for each outgoing call. -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: E-911, was Re: My New Vonage Account Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:43:26 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And the electrical service outage problem > is greatly reduced if you use a battery backup on your computer system > as you should do anyway. My APC unit sets under my desk and is alleged > (although I have never tested it) to provide 15-20 minutes of power in > the event of a power problem, in order to allow for an orderly shutdown. > My thinking -- and please correct me as needed -- is that if the cable > modem, Linksys router and Cisco ATA-186 box are on one link by > themselves, then with everything else shut off I should still be able to > get 5-10 minutes through the phone attached. Right or wrong? So I could > get in and make one or two emergency one minute phone calls off of the > battery? PAT] And what if your house catches fire, or someone slips and is hurt, two minutes AFTER the battery runs out? These are the same arguments telco used to have for ISDN, since (in the US) power was needed to run the equipment. By the way, you need to test those UPS batteries occasionally ... after three or four years, you might find that all of a sudden you have ten seconds of runtime instead of ten minutes. :( -- Gary Breuckman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And what if you have a wired phone but a storm knocks the wires down or a semi-truck knocks the pole over, then two minutes later your house catches fire or someone slips and is hurt? And if ... and if ... and if ... There are all kinds of possibilities here, but the Vonage people do not impress me as being casual and without concern about emergency situations. They said in TWO emails to me 'do not attempt to use 911 until you get our email telling you that your line has been entered in the proper database.' The day I got their email saying I was now in the database for southeast Kansas (which coincidentally is maintained by the Montgomery County Sheriff and the Independence Police Department) I also got some email from the sheriff here telling me the same thing more or less. What in the world did you do before E-911 was invented, or for that matter before 911 itself was started and everyone had to dial the seven-digit administrative number for police and a different seven- digit number for fire and before any caller ID was available and you were unable to speak up and say what was wrong. And what did you do -- how in the world did you manage -- when people had to tell the operator they wanted police or fire help, but you were unable to speak for some reason? Around the year 1905, my great-grandmother Mildred Mahan was the town telephone operator for Mound Valley, Kansas. The board was located in her home, as most switchboards were in those days. She was on duty 24 hours per day but had an 'understanding' with the villagers that she was NOT to be disturbed after 9 PM at night or before 7 AM in the morning. On the very rare occassion the board started buzzing and flashing at midnight, getting her out of bed, she knew it meant someone in the town was sick and needed the doctor or it meant there was a fire going; the next call out would be to the doctor or the Fire Department. Somehow with all your 'and if' situations, I suspect the guys using Vonage will figure something out. Regards battery backups, at least the APC brand of battery backup is called a 'smart battery'. You attach a USB connector to the battery and to a USB hub on the computer, then run a CD with 'drivers' and other software which monitor the battery condition with a graph- display on your screen which tells you when the battery is going bad. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 15:30:35 CDT From: Sam Etler Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Calling Card Calls >> Does the calling card system return supervision? > It has to. Otherwise many payphones won't open the forward voice path > and the user won't be able to enter the touch tone codes to complete > the call. Something interesting regarding answer supervision and toll free numbers ... AT&T's in-network prompter for toll free advanced feature services does not return answer supervision. Answer supervision is returned when the call progresses through the network prompter and is sent to a customer termination point. This makes for interesting results when you are using devices that rely on answer supervision. I've heard some payphones have issues with this and personally have had some VoIP phones that had issues along with some custom ISDN PRI equipment and some OCC's in-network platforms as well. sam ------------------------------ From: tagresta@viconet.com (Tony Agresta) Subject: Set Time/Day on AT&T 1750 Digital Answering Machine? Date: 11 May 2003 08:24:33 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ If anyone has a manual for this machine or knows how to set the time and date, I would realy appreciate it. Please respond via e-mail. Thanks in advance, Tony ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #443 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 11 19:43:52 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4BNhqc17723; Sun, 11 May 2003 19:43:52 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 19:43:52 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305112343.h4BNhqc17723@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #444 TELECOM Digest Sun, 11 May 2003 19:44:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 444 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Revisiting the Eastland Disaster of 1915 (Thomas Kostera) Old 4A Speakerphone Cable/Adpater?? (Michael Muderick) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Clark Griswold) Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" (Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr.) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 20:09:36 PDT From: Thomas Kostera Reply-to: tom@kostera.com Subject: Revisiting the Eastland Disaster of 1915 Thomas Kostera (tom@kostera.com) has sent you a news article. (Email address has not been verified.) Personal message: Hello Pat, I've read your excellent piece on the Eastland tragedy in the archives and wanted to forward this article from the Daily Herald here in the Chicago burbs, as I thought it may be of interest. Tom [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Indeed it is of interest. What I have done here is first printed your report from Yahoo/Daily Herald then I have followed that with the story from our telecom archives which was first printed here Sunday, August 18, 1996 in the Digest, which noted the original incident from August, 1915. It always amazes me how *few* among the modern times telco employees have ever even heard of the Eastland Disaster, and the sadness it brought to Bell employees nationally that summer. I'll let Mr. Kostera tell his story first, as it was reported in the Daily Herald, a Chicago suburban area newspaper and reported in Yahoo news. PAT] ================================================== Center to honor Eastland memory Yahoo! News - Center to honor Eastland memory By Victoria Pierce Daily Herald Staff Writer Chances are you've crossed the Clark Street bridge in Chicago's Loop and never realized 844 people died there when the Eastland ship capsized in the Chicago River in 1915. It was the continental United States' worst loss of life in a single event that century. Dave Nelson knows every detail of the tragedy. He and his wife, Rose, formerly of Wheaton and now of Geneva, spent the past 31 years gathering anything relating to the Eastland, amassing a collection of about 1,000 items. Friday, the Nelsons donated their collection to the Wheaton History Center, which plans to open a major Eastland exhibit in April 2004. On July 24, 1915, Nelson's grandfather, Elmer Nelson, a welder, was working on a building near the Chicago River when someone yelled for help because the Eastland had rolled onto its side while still moored. His grandfather spent the next three days cutting holes into the hull to pull people out. The ship had been loaded with about 2,500 people, mostly employees of a Western Electric plant in Cicero and their families. The company had planned the trip across the lake for a day of fun. But the day quickly turned tragic when the ship suddenly rolled onto its side. Many on deck were thrown into the water. But many women and children had gone into the cabins to get out of a misty rain. That was where many of them were trapped and died. Libby Hruby remembers it well. "It all happened in a short time," said Hruby, who was 10 years old at the time and looking forward to the day trip with her older sister. "I was on the side of the boat that went up, not into the water," said Hruby, who is now 98 and living in Cicero. Both she and her sister managed to crawl over the railing to safety. They waited for hours until a tug boat took them to shore. Hruby also remembers looking into portals and seeing people trapped inside the cabins. And in the days that followed, it seemed every other house in Cicero had black crepe hanging over its door for mourning. Hruby and several descendants of survivors and rescuers attended the ceremony in Wheaton Friday, telling their compelling family stories of the Eastland disaster. Frank Jeffers of Chicago recalled the story of his grandfather, an Irish immigrant who was the Clark Street bridge tender on the fateful day. He was a strong swimmer and jumped off the bridge into the river, where he pulled 25 people to safety. "He was very matter-of-fact about it," Jeffers said. "It was just something that was part of the day's work that day." Karl Sap doesn't know who pulled his grandfather, Hermann Krause, from the river that day. Krause had been dressed up as Uncle Sam for a parade planned in Michigan City when the ship sank. He was thrown in the water but heard someone say, "Grab Uncle Sam!" before he was rescued, said Sap, who lives in Arizona and founded the Eastland Memorial Society in 1998. His grandmother and aunt were also rescued from the Eastland. It was the movies that inspired both the Nelsons and Sap to start their Eastland activities. Sap was watching the blockbuster film "Titanic" when he suddenly felt moved to do something in honor of the Eastland victims and survivors. The Nelsons were watching "The Poseidon Adventure" in 1972 when the last scene - a welder cutting a hole in the bottom of the capsized ship - brought back strong memories of Nelson's grandfather. "The lights went on and he looked at me and he said 'We have to research the Eastland,'" Rose Nelson said. The collection now includes hundreds of postcards depicting the Eastland, the Uncle Sam suit Sap's grandfather wore, a sugar bowl the Nelsons hunted down in Michigan and many other items. Nelson said he chose to give the collection to the Wheaton History Center because he knows the center will properly care for the collection and make it available to the public. [TELECOM Editor's Note: Just a little background for those not from the Chicago area. The Dearborn Street bridge crosses the Chicago River from the north side of town near what in the middle 1800's had been Fort Dearborn, an Army facility. DEArborn (312-332) is one of the original telephone exchanges in Chicago, from about 1895 or so. Cicero, Illinois is a west suburban community near Chicago which was the home of 'Hawthorne Works', at that time and until about twenty years ago, the largest manufacturing and research facility of Western Electric Company (which was owned by AT&T [the old 'Bell System']). While not a 'company town' in the same sense as Pullman, Illinois (now the Chicago southside neighborhood called 'Pullman') which had been founded years earlier by George Pullman, the railroad sleeping car magnate, and was carefully presided over by Mr. Pullman until the Supreme Court of the United States forced him to divest himself of the Pullman Town Corporation. Cicero, Illinois was like a 'company town' in the sense that most of the residents there were employed at Hawthorne Works. But the town was not controlled by Bell/Western Electric. Just almost everyone who lived in the town worked there is all. PULlman (773-785) is another ancient, still in service phone exchange in the Pullman community. Michigan City, Indiana is a small beachfront town on the shore of Lake Michigan nearly at the point where Indiana's state line meets Michigan, almost due east of Chicago, but a wee bit south. I think it was the intent of the ill-fated Eastland to cruise over to the opposite shoreline where Indiana meets the state of Michigan at the town of Michigan City. Now, let us give our attention to the item in the Telecom Archives which first appeared in the Digest on Sunday, August 18, 1996. From ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Sun Aug 18 02:10:52 1996 Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id CAA17446; Sun, 18 Aug 1996 02:10:52 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 18 Aug 1996 02:10:52 -0400 (EDT) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199608180610.CAA17446@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson Subject: Bell System History: The Eastland Disaster The employees of the Bell System's manufacturing facility known as Western Electric in Chicago had been planning it for months. It was to be the annual company picnic and employee recognition ceremony. Each year, Western Electric provided an all-expense paid outing for employees, and gave special monetary rewards to the employees recognized by the company as outstanding in their performance. Typically it would be a pot-luck picnic with lots of food and beverages for everyone. A band would entertain with music and then during the afternoon the managers would open sealed envelopes to reveal the winners of the prizes. There would be prizes for everyone but the honored employees would receive special gifts. Saturday, July 24, 1915 was a beautiful day, weather-wise. Not too hot, and not too humid. It would indeed be a great day for a ride on the boat that Western Electric had chartered for the occassion. It was a huge steam-operated vessel called the Eastland; it had been in service for many years and had been the scene of many happy and joyous occassions as newly married couples celebrated their marriage ceremony with parties; as companies like Western Electric held annual social events for employees, etc. Docked at the pier under the Dearborn Street bridge on the Chicago River, the boat would cruise several miles out into Lake Michigan and return later in the evening. That Saturday morning the employees of Western Electric began arriving quite early to secure the best seats on the boat. Soon the parking lot nearby was full and dozens of employees were walking down the street in groups of three or four or more to the stairs leading down to the dock where the boat and many of their co-workers were already waiting. In all, over two thousand people were present including the spouses and other family members who were all part of the larger corporate family known as Western Electric and Bell. Promptly at twelve noon the Eastland began pulling away from the dock just as promised, with the passengers waving and calling to passers by who saw them leaving. It was only a few feet out in the water and a few yards away from the dock when it happened: To this day, the various versions of the story are disputed; some say the boat was defective, but many others claim the problem was with the crowd of people on board. What is known is that a large number of passengers all went to one side of the boat at one time to look at something which had been called to their attention. In the process, the Eastland tipped over from the unbalanced weight, and as it tipped over and began to sink everyone on board fell in the water; either immediatly or after attempting to hang on to the side for a few seconds. A call for help went out immediatly, and within a matter of minutes a number of the men of the Chicago Fire Department and Chicago Police Department were on hand attempting to rescue the hundreds of people in the water. A good many swam to shore on their own, and many were rescued by the police and firemen, in a rescue effort which went on for ** several hours ** with hundreds of the passengers trapped inside cabins on the boat which was now totally upside down in the water and mostly submerged. There have also been many versions of the rescue operation; some say that the captain of the Eastland at first refused to allow the rescue workers to cut away portions of the side of the vessel to get to the people trapped inside. Others say that by that time it was too late anyway, since everyone trapped would have been dead. There has been criticism made of the rescue workers saying that instead of making an orderly evacuation of the passengers in the boat as it was sinking they allowed panic to overcome common-sense, and that it was panic which caused most of the deaths. In all 812 people died that Saturday afternoon, and even into the early hours of Sunday morning bodies were being brought to the dock at the Dearborn Street bridge where physicians who had been called to assist would pronounce each person dead before the bodies were taken away or released to anxious family members or co-workers who lingered nearby throughout the evening and into the overnight hours. In its Sunday edition of July 25, 1915, the {Chicago Tribune} devoted several pages to the horrible event of the day before, and again on Monday, July 26 the paper devoted its attention to the deadly weekend just past, listing the names and addresses of the people who had died in the disaster. The list of names took an entire page in the {Tribune} that day. An investigation and formal inquiry by the Chicago Common Council (what is now called the City Council) began early in August and went on for almost a month. Monday, July 26, 1915 was a very somber day at 'Hawthorne Works', as the Western Electric plant was known. Workers gathered in small groups around the plant to discuss the nightmare they had all witnessed two days before. The plant was closed the next day and the day following for funeral services which were held throughout the city, and in addition, the Bell System called for a day of mourning later that week with all but essential employees excused from work to attend memorial services in cities across the United States with the top executives of the company attending such a service as a group in Chicago. The shock took a long time to wear off at Hawthorne Works. Finally in late August, nearly a month after the incident, Western Electric began hiring persons to replace those who had died in the Eastland disaster. One day in early August, two quite unexpected visitors showed up at Hawthorne Works to meet with the survivors: Alex Bell and his wife Mabel spent most of the day walking about the plant pausing at each work station and desk to shake hands and spend a minute chatting. Although Alex Bell had been out of the 'phone business' for a number of years, he and Mabel each held considerable amounts of the company stock in both AT&T and Western Electric. As they would stop to chat, Mabel had a notebook and would make careful note of the names of the persons who had died, along with the names of their family members, etc. Each employee would tell her something new she had not heard before. By that point in time, Alex had become quite hearing-impaired -- virtually deaf -- and from time to time Mabel would look at him and talk in a loud voice into the speaking tube like device with a horn on the end which he held up to his ear. Later over the next several weeks, the families of the persons who died that Saturday afternoon in July each received personal notes of condolence from Alex and Mabel, along with gifts which were deemed appropriate in each case. Litigation against Western Electric (as the organization which chartered the Eastland) and the proprietors of the Eastland went on for three years afterward, with the last of the suits being settled in 1918, about three years later. The last of the survivors of the Eastland disaster continued her employment with Western Electric for another 35-40 years. She had been just a young woman when she started with the company where she stayed her entire working career until she retired in the early 1950's. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Eastland disaster in 1965 she was interviewed by the {Chicago Tribune} and she gave her reminisences of that day. Then everyone forgot about it again, and by the middle 1980's most people in Chicago never even had heard of it, let alone know anything about it. There was no marker, no commemorative of any kind at the location. But a group of high school students did not forget about it. A few years ago several teenagers looked at the dusty old reels of {Tribune} microfilm from the summer of 1915 and thought others should know about this event in the city's history, so they went to the Chicago City Council as a group and convinced the council to allow them to raise the money to install a permanent marker at the point on (what is now called Wacker Drive but was then South Water Street) between Clark and Dearborn Streets as a commemorative. It was installed by those kids and anyone today walking down the sidewalk on the north side of Wacker Drive at that point can read about what took place there now 81 years ago. (Ed Note: As of 1996; now 88 years ago. PT) I am surprised at the large number of people in this industry -- even telco employees -- who have never heard of the Eastland disaster and the tragedy which took the lives of 812 of the early pioneers of the industry. Perhaps you had never heard of it either, or knew very little about it. Perhaps this note will serve to inform you also. PAT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is so much history with the old Bell System; some good, some bad, some happy, some sad. The Eastland is just one of the many incidents. I am attempting to get our very own online 'museum' exhibit about telephones on line once again, and hopefully it will happen sometime soon. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael Muderick Subject: Old 4A Speakerphone Cable/Adpater?? Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 17:28:57 -0400 I have a number of 4A speakerphones made by Precison, probably in early '80's. They were probably made for Western Electric/Bell, or maybe for direct sale. I am looking for the adapter cables that break out the special plugs. The number is a KS 16689 L11 or an 82B adapter. Any of these in an old warehouse somewhere? I hope? Please respond directly: Michael@muderick.com ------------------------------ From: Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com> Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 15:54:38 -0600 Gary Breuckman wrote: > - they charge the surcharge on each call you make, even if you press > the # key and make a second call. There was only one call from the > payphone to them, they only pay one surcharge, but they charge you > for each outgoing call. Don't believe this is true any longer. It was at first, hence all the advertising designed to get you to press the "#" key or "***" after every call. Payphone operators complained and the FCC said one surcharge per completed call. ------------------------------ From: Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot1041.at.compuserve.dot.com> Subject: Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 16:07:16 -0600 johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) wrote: > The Tracfones I've seen are Nokia 5165s, which are AMPS TDMA. That > means they use whoever the local TDMA carrier is, most often AT&T or > Cingular. The one I've owned for almost two years is a 5180i, which is a dual mode 800MHz CDMA Digital / 800MHz Analog phone. Haven't tried to figure who's net they use here. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #444 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 11 23:50:51 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4C3oph18886; Sun, 11 May 2003 23:50:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 23:50:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305120350.h4C3oph18886@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #445 TELECOM Digest Sun, 11 May 2003 23:51:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 445 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Phone Rates (John Higdon) Re: Phone Rates (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Set Time/Day on AT&T 1750 Digital Answering Machine? (David) Re: Unsolicited (Junk) Faxes? (John R. Levine) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Garrett Wollman) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Joseph) Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number (Stanley Cline) Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" (Stanley Cline) Gadget of the Week - TiVo Home Media Option (Monty Solomon) Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat (Dave Close) Article: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 (Lou Jahn) Re: Revisiting the Eastland Disaster of 1915 (Marcus Jervis) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Phone Rates Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 16:50:34 -0700 In article , Wesrock@aol.com wrote: > This is another false premise. The rationale for the system as > a monopoly was that duplicative telephone systems and duplicative > outside plant were wasteful. > They were also very inconvenient and expensive for telephone > users, who had to subscribe to both telephone companies to be able to > reach all the local telephone subscribers. > For these reasons, regulatory bodies for generations encouraged > and even demanded the elimination of duplicative telephone systems. > In a few places there were two telephone companies as late as the > 1960s. But does reality back you up? In my neighborhood, there are five providers of wireless phone service. Each has his own separate, redundant facilities. It is not necessary to subscribe to all five, or even more than one to speak to all other telephone subscribers, either wired or wireless. Unlike wired service which has little competition, the bottom has fallen out of wireless rates. If duplicated, redundant facilities are so inefficient, it doesn't seem to show up in the rates. Indeed, rates are so low now in the wireless telephone sector that wireless service is beginning to compete toe to toe with wired service. I know of many (not just a few) people who now only have wireless service. > Another false premise is that there are economies of scale in > the provision of exchange telephone service. Unlike mass production > businesses, telephone exchange service is a business with increasing, > not decreasing, unit costs as the number of customers grows. > The exchange plant must be extended further and further, at > additional costs, to reach the increasingly distant subscribers, and > the switching because more complex, and thus more expensive, per > customer as the number of subscribers grows. > Technological changes have attempted, with some success, to > drive down these costs, but it still costs more per customer in a > large exchange than in a smaller one. I would like to see hard figures supporting that. I frankly don't believe it. In fact, modern switching technology has as one of its salient features the ability to infinitely scale. Not only that, because nodes can be interconnected with such ease, inside plant can be radically de-centralized, taking customer concentration out of the pricing equation. > The demands for "competition," which tend to ignore these facts, > have led to regulators seizing part of the plant of incumbent > telephone companies at less than compensatory rates. No company can > be profitable serving run of the mill (residential and small business) > customers if they have to provide their own plant, and probably not if > they have to pay compensatory rates for using the plant of others. And yet these companies are more profitable than they have ever been. Again, we have a case of reality failing to support your theorizing. I muse daily at SBC's incessant whining about having to share plant at what it claims are unrealistic rates, while its profits border on the obscene. > You will note that cable companies, which have finally reached > the point where they consider themselves viable as an alternative > provider of the "last mile," have strongly, and so far successfully, > resisted any effort to allow their plant to be used by competing local > exchange companies or, for that matter, ISPs other than themselves. Yes, they have. Then again, they were not built under the umbrella of virtually risk-free regulated monopoly status. I'm sorry, but I have to say that your post has all the flavor of Bell System propaganda ... which has long since been discredited. John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 19:56:29 -0400 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: Phone Rates On Sun, 11 May 2003 10:00:13 EDT Wesrock@aol.com wrote, >> The reason given is that otherwise large businesses would set up >> their own telephone systems. The entire reason for the existence of >> the telephone monopoly in the first place, however, was that due to >> economy of scale, one large company could be much more efficient >> (and thus have lower prices) than smaller companies. > This is another false premise. The rationale for the system as > a monopoly was that duplicative telephone systems and duplicative > outside plant were wasteful. As a strong proponent of competition, I agree! Outside plant (and the wire center buildings needed to access it) should not be controlled by the service providers who own switches, etc. It should be owned by a strictly regulated carriers' carrier, a "loopco", who sells it at regulated rates to all qualified comers. Thus the current ILECs should be split in two, with the "serviceco" owning their customer base and switches, buying service from loopco on par with CLECs. > They were also very inconvenient and expensive for telephone > users, who had to subscribe to both telephone companies to be able to > reach all the local telephone subscribers. That was before 1912, when Kingsbury required The Bell System to interconnect. Of course terms of interconnection are still hotly debated ... > Another false premise is that there are economies of scale in > the provision of exchange telephone service. Unlike mass production > businesses, telephone exchange service is a business with increasing, > not decreasing, unit costs as the number of customers grows. > The exchange plant must be extended further and further, at > additional costs, to reach the increasingly distant subscribers, and > the switching because more complex, and thus more expensive, per > customer as the number of subscribers grows. That confuses two kinds of scale. Within a given geography, outside plant has huge economies of scale -- a wireline or cable overbuilder with a small market share will have higher costs than an incumbent with a large market share. This follows from the cost of *passing* homes, which is divided among customers. That's why there's a "natural monopoly" in outside plant. Wes was referring to monopoly plant expansion into rural areas, a "scale" that was attained in the mid-20th century, under monopoly "universal service" policies. > Technological changes have attempted, with some success, to > drive down these costs, but it still costs more per customer in a > large exchange than in a smaller one. Geographically-dispersed, yes. Dense, no. The FCC's BCPM models the cost of outside plant. I found while using it that core cities tended to cost around $600-800 per subscriber (capital expenditure/loop), while rural areas, where exchanges are smaller, were often in five digits. Economies of scale are smaller in switching, though nonzero. > The demands for "competition," which tend to ignore these facts, > have led to regulators seizing part of the plant of incumbent > telephone companies at less than compensatory rates. No company can > be profitable serving run of the mill (residential and small business) > customers if they have to provide their own plant, and probably not if > they have to pay compensatory rates for using the plant of others. This is a Big Lie -- the rules for CLEC use of ILEC plant are not "less than compensatory". The Supreme Court has approved the FCC's formula (TELRIC) for Unbundled Network Element pricing. To be sure, it is possible to come up with pretty much any "cost" number you want. You can look at historical-embedded costs, for instance, or at forward-looking ones, and get different results for different elements. (TELRIC is exclusively forward-looking.) You can parcel out common costs differently. (TELRIC includes what its creators consider to be the appropriate share of common costs and overhead.) In many cases, raw loop UNE costs are higher than the retail price of basic residential service. So is the ILEC losing money? Is such "predatory pricing" illegal in a competitive market? Lots of fun antitrust cases are brewing ... > You will note that cable companies, which have finally reached > the point where they consider themselves viable as an alternative > provider of the "last mile," have strongly, and so far successfully, > resisted any effort to allow their plant to be used by competing local > exchange companies or, for that matter, ISPs other than themselves. Correct. Of course, they are "overbuilders" in areas other than video, never having been common carriers, and never having had the type of rate-of-return protection that ILECs had. ILECs are, on the whole, infinitely more profitable than CATV companies. (Cablecos rarely make a fiscal profit, but that's another story.) ILECs like to pick-and-choose analogies to cable when they see fit. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The lady at our local Cable One office > here in Independence told me recently that some of her family in Tulsa > have *phone service* from Cable One, and the company has run into a > lot of difficulty getting Southwestern Bell to work along with them. > PAT] Our local Comcast plant, in the west-of-Boston area, used to be MediaOne. They were owned by US West for a time, and installed cable telephony then. AT&T later bought it, and still runs the switching for Comcast. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: David Subject: Re: Set Time/Day on AT&T 1750 Digital Answering Machine? Organization: AT&T Broadband Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 23:57:42 GMT All the 17XX answering machine manuals are available on line at: http://telephones.att.com/attui/support/ Click on the manuals in the left panel and scroll down to the machine you want. I did not see a 1750, however. I just bought a 1718 today. David On 11 May 2003 08:24:33 -0700, tagresta@viconet.com (Tony Agresta) wrote: > If anyone has a manual for this machine or knows how to set the time > and date, I would realy appreciate it. Please respond via e-mail. > Thanks in advance, > Tony ------------------------------ From: johnl@iecc.com (John R. Levine) Subject: Re: Unsolicited (Junk) Faxes? Date: 11 May 2003 20:55:32 -0400 Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > My parents receive one or two junk fax advertisements a day. I've > read that sending a fax unsolicited is illegal, and punishable by a > $1,500 fine. Pretty close. You can sue junk faxers for $500 per fax, tripled in the usual case that it's "willing and knowing", i.e. not a mistake. Visit www.junkfaxes.org and learn all about it. If the junker is a clueless local business you can usually get them to settle for something under $1500 but with a stipulation that they'll never junk fax again with indemnities if they do. If the junk fax is from slimeballs like fax.com they can be hard to track down. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com Village Trustee and Sewer Commissioner http://iecc.com/johnl Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 01:28:55 +0000 (UTC) Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Mark Crispin wrote: > On Sat, 10 May 2003, Garrett Wollman wrote: >> As it happens, I know more people who own or are looking to buy >> grey-market ExpressVu receivers in the U.S. than I know people with >> EchoStar or DirecTV dishes anywhere. > That must be a Massachusetts phenomenum. Unlikely, since the people in question live in New Hampshire, New York, and Connecticut. If you work in TV, as my friends do, ExpressVu is a much more useful service to have than either DirecTV or EchoStar because of its much wider selection of local stations. (There are, of course, many more local stations on the US birds, but it's not possible to get all of them. By contrast, CAD 80.00 a month gets you everything available anywhere in Canada plus Boston and Seattle big-four networks and four former ``superstations''. No Pax, but chances are there won't be a Pax soon enough anyway.) -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman |G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu |chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of|seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 19:24:03 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: joeofseattle@yahoo.com On Sat, 10 May 2003 16:38:32 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote: > I've always thought that if BC, Yukon, and Alberta joined the US and > the US northeast joined Canada, both countries would be happier. The former American states of Oregon and Washington and the former Canadian province of British Columbia must join together as a sovereign nation. Only then can we have self-determination and take our rightful place in the Global Community. http://zapatopi.net/cascadia.html Replies are seldom read. Please reply in the group ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Surcharges to Pay Phone Owners on Toll-Free Number Providers Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 21:36:21 -0400 Organization: Roamer1 Communications - Dunwoody, GA, USA Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On Sat, 10 May 2003 15:36:13 -0500, Gary Breuckman wrote: > - they don't charge anything for calls that aren't completed, even though > they may be paying the surcharge themselves, and > - they charge the surcharge on each call you make, even if you press > the # key and make a second call. There was only one call from the > payphone to them, they only pay one surcharge, but they charge you > for each outgoing call. The FCC requires compensation to payphone owners for "each and every completed [dialaround] call". This means that the payphone surcharge is imposed on sequence calls, but that LD carriers do *not* pay the payphone surcharge for calls into their calling card platforms that don't result in a completed call via the platform. While the actual amount due to payphone owners for completed calls is just under a quarter, many smaller LD carriers and prepaid card vendors jack up the payphone surcharge to 30, 35, 50, even 55 cents per call to cover other costs associated with payphone compensation (keeping CDRs for completed calls, costs related to dealing with the APCC clearinghouse [http://tinyurl.com/bifc] and/or payphone owners directly, etc.), and often to subsidize non-payphone calls as well -- I've seen a couple of prepaid card vendors openly admit as much. On Sat, 10 May 2003 15:30:35 CDT, Sam Etler wrote: > AT&T's in-network prompter for toll free advanced feature services > does not return answer supervision. Answer supervision is returned > when the call progresses through the network prompter and is sent to a > customer termination point. This makes for interesting results when > you are using devices that rely on answer supervision. I've heard One wireless carrier here in Atlanta (T-Mobile) *drops* calls that haven't supervised after two minutes, similar to the way most LD carriers drop unsupervised calls after two minutes; I recall trying to call AT&T repair from a T-Mo phone I had at the time and couldn't get to a rep and couldn't complete the automated trouble report in less than two minutes, and landed calling back on a Verizon Wireless phone to complete the report. Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Tracfone "Service Providers" Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 21:36:39 -0400 Organization: Roamer1 Communications - Dunwoody, GA, USA Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org On Sat, 10 May 2003 07:14:16 -0400, John Stahl wrote: > Does anyone know who (or what) cell "system" carriers they use? It depends on the area. Here in Atlanta, Tracfone uses Cingular, while in other areas, Tracfone uses AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, etc. What roaming partners are available depends entirely on the underlying carrier. Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 22:33:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Gadget of the Week - TiVo Home Media Option By WILSON ROTHMAN Devout TiVo fans will tell you that the device is just perfect. It lets you download your favorite television shows to a hard drive and it's simple to use. While TiVo may not be as ubiquitous as the Palm, for example, its cult-like following swears that it's the biggest invention since the television itself. Now, TiVo has added some new features that are sure to please the faithful - and may even recruit some new buyers to the fan club. http://www.time.com/time/gadget/20030508/ ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Date: 11 May 2003 19:28:15 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Paul Wallich writes: > Because The Economist has no axe to grind either. Of course, they do. As does /every/ other source of news. My point was not that the Economist is unbiased, or that the BBC is uniquely biased, but that bias can be dependent on your point of view. Like PAT, I also enjoy BBC News. I appreciate their different point of view, but I don't fall into the trap of thinking they are less biased. Back when Henry Luce ran Time-Life, there were only two types of copy in Time magazine: editorial and commercial. Editorial copy reflected the bias of the publisher and the writers. Commercial copy reflected the bias of the advertisers. Luce was adamant that it was not possible to separate "opinion" from "news", which was why he refused to run any signed columns. His view is just as valid today, though most news publishers claim to make a distinction. Although the Economist does print columns and "leaders" (editorials for Americans), it mostly conforms to Luce's view and does not hesitate to include obvious opinion in articles. Like the statement, "When the BBC's Greg Dyke talks about truth, you should smell a rat". Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "You can't go to Windows Update dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 and get a patch for stupidity." dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu -- Kevin Mitnick ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 22:43:25 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time) From: Lou Jahn Subject: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 This article ran in several newspapers on Friday ... Is there a true interest in using such service off of the standard phone keypad or is this only usable if you have a PDA with mini-keyboard? Any comments on its value? Lou Jahn Info Partners Corp www.infopartnerscorp.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Subject: AT&T Wireless cell phone subscribers /411 AT&T Wireless cell phone subscribers can now reach directory assistance via text messaging -- for less than dialing 411. With the new service, called TXT-411, short text messages, known as SMS, replace the usual conversation people have with an operator to request a telephone number or street address, said Jeremy Pemble, AT&T Wireless spokesman. "This is one of the biggest evolutions of directory assistance in recent history," Pemble said. "Not a lot usually happens." AT&T Wireless said the service is inexpensive to implement and maintain. The company said it will not have to hire new operators for the service, and won't cut back on its regular 411 service. AT&T says it's the first to use SMS in directory assistance and expects other carriers to follow. Pemble said TXT-411 saves callers more than half the price of dialing 411, which could be an incentive to use a cell phone's cramped keypad to enter names and navigate a menu of choices rather than dialing three numbers. AT&T charges $1.25 to dial 411, and 50 cents to use TXT-411 for a phone number, or $1.10 for driving directions. To get the TXT-411 directory assistance, the dialer first needs to activate the e-mail program, then dial the e-mail address for TXT-411, which is 2411. To request the telephone number, users would type in the first name, followed by last name, a dot and finally the city. So a request for John Smith living in Seattle would look like this: Smith John.Seattle. ------------------------------ From: Marcus Jervis Subject: Re: Revisiting the Eastland Disaster of 1915 Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 02:53:16 +0000 Here are some URLs relating to the Eastland Disaster: http://www.eastlanddisaster.org/default.htm http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/timeline/eastland.html http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/eastland.html http://www.novagate.com/~bonevelle/eastland/ http://www.networkchicago.com/chicagostories/eastland.htm http://www.edmundfitzgerald.com/videos.php?video=eastland http://chicago.about.com/library/weekly/aa081301a.htm http://www.kinson.org/eastland/ http://www.ezl.com/~fireball/Disaster03.htm http://www.chicagotogo.org/viddvdeasdis.html http://pastvoices.com/usa/eastland1915.shtml http://www.studiocms.com/invoke/nation3.htm http://www.inficad.com/~ksup/resources.html I understand that the bodies from the Eastland Disaster where taken to the nearby armory, which is now the site of Harpo Productions, where Oprah Winfrey does her show. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks very much for passing along those additional links to Eastland. Many readers will want to follow up with more reading on the disaster. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #445 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 12 17:47:48 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4CLll523276; Mon, 12 May 2003 17:47:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 17:47:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305122147.h4CLll523276@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #446 TELECOM Digest Mon, 12 May 2003 17:48:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 446 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #382, May 12, 2003 (Angus TeleManagement) Re: Old 4A Speakerphone Cable/Adpater?? (John Higdon) Re: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 (Jack Hamilton) Re: Phone Rates (Darryl Smith) Re: All Eyes on Google (Liam Hatton) Help: Wireless Calling Center and Internet Cafe in Isolated Area (Mac) Verizon to Transform Payphones Into WiFi Terminals (The Old Bear) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Joey Lindstrom) Chinet (was: 011+ From NANP vs. 00+ From Most of World) (Adam Kerman) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 10:15:07 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #382, May 12, 2003 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 382: May 12, 2003 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** BELL CANADA: http://www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: http://www.cisco.com/ca/letstalk ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: http://www.cygcom.com ** ERICSSON CANADA: http://www.ericsson.ca ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: http://www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: http://www.primustel.ca ** Q9 NETWORKS: http://www.Q9.com ** TELUS: http://www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Call-Net Plans "Killer Regulatory Application" ** Rules Set for Expanded Local Calling ** Palm to Promote RIM Software ** CRTC Deregulates More Private Line Routes ** Total Telcom to Install SuperNet Route ** Yak Buys AT&T Canada Resellers ** Strong Dollar Puts AT&T Canada in the Black ** Primus Revenue Up ** Juniper, Lucent Partner for Carrier Products ** Bell Wants 519 Overlay Delayed ** Newfoundland Hydro Moves to Microwave ** New Date Set for Cable Summit ** Rogers Wireless Names New Ontario President ** Suit Against BCE Fails ** Cisco Reports Lower Sales, Higher Profits ** Anguses Examine Competition at Telecom Summit ** Those Awful Telecom Bills ============================================================ CALL-NET PLANS "KILLER REGULATORY APPLICATION": Speaking at Call-Net's annual meeting May 7, CEO Bill Linton said that this month the company will file a "Killer Regulatory Application" that would propose "workable solutions for reducing or eliminating the barriers that are stifling competition in the residential market." ** He said the proposals would include: lengthening the ban on "winback calls" by incumbents; a 50% discount on unbundled local loops provided to competitors; inserts in incumbent bills identifying alternative local service providers. RULES SET FOR EXPANDED LOCAL CALLING: Telecom Decisions 2003- 27 and 2003-28 set the rules for compensating carriers for the long distance revenues they lose when local calling areas are expanded. ** Customers in the expanded local calling area will pay a monthly surcharge for three years: this money will compensate LD carriers for three years' lost LD revenue. ** Competitive Local Exchange Carriers may opt out of paying into the compensation fund. If they do, they will receive no compensation for lost LD. This is a one-time choice: they may not change their minds later for other local calling areas. ** Local service (one-hop) resellers will not be compensated because they are not LD providers. http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2003/dt2003-27.htm http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2003/dt2003-28.htm PALM TO PROMOTE RIM SOFTWARE: PalmSource, Inc. and Research In Motion have agreed to jointly market and promote RIM's BlackBerry Connect to manufacturers of Palm OS handhelds and smartphones. BlackBerry Connect provides secure, push-based connections from wireless devices to corporate e-mail and data. CRTC DEREGULATES MORE PRIVATE LINE ROUTES: In Telecom Decision 2003-29, the CRTC "forbears from regulating" Bell Canada and Telus high-capacity private lines on a large number of routes, because the routes are also served by competitors. (See Telecom Update #183, 202) http://www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2003/dt2003-29.htm TOTAL TELCOM TO INSTALL SUPERNET ROUTE: Bell West has contracted with Edmonton-based Total Telcom to install 540 km of fibre-optic cable between Edmonton, St. Albert, and Fort McMurray for use in Alberta's SuperNet. YAK BUYS AT&T CANADA RESELLERS: AT&T Canada has sold its Contour Telecom and Argos Telecom subsidiaries, telecom resellers with combined revenues of about $60 million last year, to dial-around LD reseller Yak Communications. STRONG DOLLAR PUTS AT&T CANADA IN THE BLACK: AT&T Canada's total revenue for the first quarter of 2003 was $353 million, down from $384 million a year ago. The company had a quarterly profit of $230 million, related to a $323 million foreign exchange gain. PRIMUS REVENUE UP: Primus Canada says its revenue for the first quarter of 2003 was $66.8 million, up 3.3% over 4Q 2002 and 1% over the same period last year. JUNIPER, LUCENT PARTNER FOR CARRIER PRODUCTS: Juniper Networks and Lucent Technologies say they will work together to develop and market new products for network providers, including IP VPN, MPLS switching, IP Centrex, Enhanced DSL, and Optical Ethernet. BELL WANTS 519 OVERLAY DELAYED: Citing reduced demand for new prefixes, Bell Canada is proposing that the introduction of 10-digit local dialing and a new area code in the 519 area be delayed from February 2005 to October 2006. The proposal is subject to the approval of the 519 Relief Planning Committee and the CRTC. http://www.cnac.ca/nparelief/519/Bell_Canada_Cont_Delay_519_Relief_Date.pdf NEWFOUNDLAND HYDRO MOVES TO MICROWAVE: Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has awarded Alcatel a $10 million contract for the final phase of a project that is transferring line protection circuits from telephone company facilities to a digital microwave network owned by the utility. NEW DATE SET FOR CABLE SUMMIT: The Canadian Cable Television Association's Cable Summit, postponed last month because of SARS concerns, will be held in Toronto, September 23-24. ROGERS WIRELESS NAMES NEW ONTARIO PRESIDENT: Rogers AT&T Wireless has promoted Sales VP Joe Chesham to President, Ontario Region. He replaces Doug Cotton, who has left the company. SUIT AGAINST BCE FAILS: The Ontario Superior Court has dismissed a shareholder's motion to certify a $1-billion class-action lawsuit against Bell Canada International and BCE. (See Telecom Update #351) CISCO REPORTS LOWER SALES, HIGHER PROFITS: Cisco Systems had revenue of US$4.6 billion for the quarter ended April 26, 2% less than the previous quarter and 4% less than the same quarter last year. Net income of $987 million was 35% higher than a year ago. ANGUSES EXAMINE COMPETITION AT TELECOM SUMMIT: The 2003 Canadian Telecom Summit (Toronto June 11-12) will feature an exclusive presentation by Telecom Update editors Ian and Lis Angus on "The State of Telecom Competition Today." Other confirmed presenters included CRTC Vice-Chair David Colville, Industry Canada ADM Michael Binder, and senior executives from Bell, Telus, AT&T Canada, and Sprint Canada. http://www.gstconferences.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi THOSE AWFUL TELECOM BILLS: For decades, corporate telecom billing has been complicated, inaccurate, and slow -- and it has got much worse in the 1990s. This month in Telemanagement, John Riddell and Ian Angus examine how the billing crisis affects business telecom users, and why billing errors are so common. Coming issues will review what the different carriers are doing to improve billing -- and what enterprise customers can do to protect themselves. ** Telemanagement is available only by subscription. For more information on Canada's #1 source for expert, independent telecom analysis and guidance, call 800-263-4415 ext 500 or go to http://www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at http://www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see http://www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2003 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: John Higdon Subject: Re: Old 4A Speakerphone Cable/Adpater?? Organization: Green Hills and Cows Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 20:54:31 -0700 In article , Michael Muderick wrote: > I have a number of 4A speakerphones made by Precison, probably in > early '80's. They were probably made for Western Electric/Bell, or > maybe for direct sale. I am looking for the adapter cables that break > out the special plugs. The number is a KS 16689 L11 or an 82B > adapter. Any of these in an old warehouse somewhere? I hope? Two things: Be careful. The PCI speakerphones sold under the company's own name that look identical to the Western Electric models are not electrically compatible. And second, why would anyone want to deal with those devices anymore in light of the vastly superior technology available today? John Higdon | Email Address Valid | SF: +1 415 428-COWS +1 408 264 4115 | Anytown, USA | FAX: +1 408 264 4407 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, I would not go *buy* one either, but they do make handy little loudspeakers for various applications. I had one for several years; black plastic case, a single plastic turning knob on the front to adjust volume or turn the unit on or off. Many, many years ago I was the supervisor for an old fashioned cord- board style PBX and we thought the operator was cheating by putting through calls for her friends and pocketing the money rather than putting it in the cash drawer. We *did not* want to listen in on or spy on the phone calls being made, only listen to her responses to the users and how she was handling things. So we built a little 'tap' on the operator's common talk path (that is, the pair that allowed her headset to converse one at a time with any of the cord pairs plugged into an extension on the board. We then ran the path which had that tap on it down to the basement main inside terminal blocks for the building and bridged it up through the house pairs to my apartment on the 17th floor. The box would sit there quietly (well, there was a very slight, barely discernable 'hum' on it if you turned the volume totally up) but then when the operator got a signal on the board and flipped the associated key for the cord pair she was using, we could hear the user and the operator in a conversation. Once she closed the key, as she was supposed to do when the connection was completed, we could not hear anything further. Illinois Bell insisted we had to put a notice on the switchboard saying the operator's conversations could be monitored and that really left fat Shirley (the operator) uptight. She had been giving her boyfriend all the free local calls he wanted and other tenants in the building who had properly sucked up to her. It soon ended once she knew I could be all the way upstairs in my apartment and still hear her on the board. I got that old unit out of my junk pile here recently and wired it up to play a little pocket radio on which the speaker had blown out. They do have good uses. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Jack Hamilton Subject: Re: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 22:27:34 -0700 Organization: Copyright (c) 2003 by Jack Hamilton. Reproduction without attribution and archiving without permission are not allowed. Reply-To: jfh@acm.org Lou Jahn wrote: > AT&T charges $1.25 to dial 411, > and 50 cents to use TXT-411 for a phone number, or $1.10 for driving > directions. Which are essentially free now if you have a web-enabled phone. > To get the TXT-411 directory assistance, the dialer first > needs to activate the e-mail program, then dial the e-mail address for > TXT-411, which is 2411. To request the telephone number, users would > type in the first name, followed by last name, a dot and finally the > city. So a request for John Smith living in Seattle would look like > this: Smith John.Seattle. What if there are 159 John Smith's living in Seattle? Jack Hamilton jfh@acm.org If men are to wait for liberty until they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever. - Lord MacCaulay [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If it works anything like 'Tell Me', the voice automated directory service on 800 numbers, when it has that kind of problem (multiple numbers, same name) then the robot tells you a little bit about each one and asks you to make a choice, for example, 'for John Smith on Main Street, press '1'. For John Smith on Tenth Street, press '2', etc. When you have made your choice, then the robot gives the number. You can also say to the robot when it first answers, 'Operator' and it will go fetch a real person to speak to you. Of course, if you say 'operator' to the robot when it answers, it tells you 'while I go get an operator to talk to you, in the meantime tell *me* what you want'. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Darryl Smith Subject: Re: Phone Rates Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 17:58:30 +1000 Fred R. Goldstein wrote: > As a strong proponent of competition, I agree! Outside plant (and > the wire center buildings needed to access it) should not be > controlled by the service providers who own switches, etc. It > should be owned by a strictly regulated carriers' carrier, a > "loopco", who sells it at regulated rates to all qualified comers. > Thus the current ILECs should be split in two, with the "serviceco" > owning their customer base and switches, buying service from loopco > on par with CLECs. Well, there is some justification for this - in the New Zealand market, with electricity distribution ... Over there they had the local electricity companies buying high-voltage power and selling it to the consumers, distributing it themselves. In the late 1990's, the government decided to split distribution of electricity from sales of electricity -- and requiring the local electricity distributors to divest either the physical plant, or the electricity sales side. Well, most of the distributors realised that even a well-regulated physical network was a better money-spinner than the unregulated electricity sales business. This has forced many of the buyers of the electricity sales business to re-think their decision. The problem with forbidding the "loopco" from owning the service part of the business is that string competition will tend to mean that the service businesses will compete against each other so much that it will make the current long-distance situation look like perfection. It would be a great experiment to watch, but I think that there are a lot of dangers in this. It would also be good to see this done on Cable TV and other areas. Darryl ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:18:58 +0800 Subject: Re: All Eyes on Google From: Liam Hatton On 11/5/03 9:16 PM, John Schmerold wrote: > I don't know if Google is the best search engine available. > I do know that it allows me to see 100 results at a time. I get so > sick of hitting next page when searching for something. > Just goes to show you, if you give the customer what they want, > they'll come back. I can't believe giving me 100 results at a time is > a big deal, Google does it and no one else does. I use AllTheWeb (formerly known as FAST Search, http://www.alltheweb.com/ ) which will also provide 100 results per page, and also claims to have a 'fresher' database and a more democratic way of ranking pages. After reading the information at http://www.google-watch.org/ , it has become my favourite search engine. Liam Hatton ------------------------------ From: dmcdonnell@hotmail.com (Mac) Subject: Help: Wireless Calling Center and Internet Cafe in Isolated Area Date: 12 May 2003 09:28:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Your assistance greatly appreciated in helping with the following situation. I would like to set up a Calling Center and Internet Cafe in an isolated community in Spain. The calling center will require at least 20 telephone and faxes (ie up to 20 similtaneous connections to the PSTN via a PBX based in the center). A minimum internet bandwidth of 256Kb is required but more would be a bonus. The building has line of sight to a Telefonica Multipoint site (a microwave tower) about 5km away although it may be more cost effective to use another telecoms operator about 20km away (no direct line of sight -- one additional hop required for connectivity). I would like advise on: 1. connectivity from the calling center to the PSTN. Pointers to vendors/solutions providers doing T1 over Microwave or other solutions. 2. a good PBX system for use in the Calling Center. Again pointers to vendors/solutions providers for same would be very helpful. Many thanks! Mac email: dmcdonnell@*remove this*hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 12:43:31 -0400 From: The Old Bear Subject: Verizon to Transform Payphones Into WiFi Terminals As summarized in NewsScan for May 12, 2003: VERIZON TO TRANSFORM PAYPHONES TO WIFI TERMINALS Verizon Communications, following the lead of Bell Canada, is planning to install WiFi terminals in payphones located in busy urban areas, according president Lawrence Babbo. "All of our payphone people have already told us (that the phones would make good wireless access points.) That will probably be the vehicle we use, probably in Manhattan." Verizon already offers WiFi equipment to its DSL customers, and last November began offering WiFi connectivity to small and medium-sized businesses. Bell Canada has been testing the concept at payphones in Toronto and Montreal, and several independent phone companies are interested in following suit. source: AP (10 May 2003) <3d.htm>http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030510/D7QUL7K80.<3d.htm>html ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 10:59:01 -0600 Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info On Sat, 10 May 2003 00:22:50 -0400 (EDT), Garrett Wollman wrote: > In article , Mark Crispin > wrote: >> They can't. The Canadian government won't let them. I'm sure that >> they'd be happy to market in Canada if it was permitted. > Unlikely, since the Canadian licensees of that US programming will not > permit it. > As it happens, I know more people who own or are looking to buy > grey-market ExpressVu receivers in the U.S. than I know people with > EchoStar or DirecTV dishes anywhere. I can understand. Yes, I still complain that I can't get HBO or ESPN (especially ESPN-HD) and many other US stations, but generally speaking I'm happier with my (legal) ExpressVu service than I was with DirecTV (when it was working). Granted, it was nice having a monthly bill of ZERO, but hey. :-) Even if DirecTV offered service in Canada, I'd have to think twice before switching from Expressvu. DirecTV, by comparison, is TRES expensive. A DirecTV bill, for roughly the same programming I'm getting now, would have higher dollar figures than my Expressvu bill - and those would be US dollars, whereas I'm paying in Canadian Pesos (er, Dollars). Here's a question I've been ponderin'... Somebody else made the point in the last Digest (I'm sorry, I accidentally deleted it) that DirecTV is not "permitted" to market directly to Canadians. Now, I don't claim to know everything there is to know about this issue, so let me pose this hypothetical question. What would happen if DirecTV *DID* start marketing directly to Canadians? They don't have a Canadian address and are not located in Canada, so what really could the Canadian government do about it? I'm assuming their recourse would involve running crying to the US government in some fashion, but certainly any Canadian "laws" don't apply to a company in the USA, do they? -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 14:35:18 -0500 From: Adam Kerman Subject: Chinet (was: 011+ From NANP vs. 00+ From Most of World) Organization: Chinet - Public Access since 1982 Pat marveled in surprise: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Adam Kerman, for gawd sakes! We > haven't had any messages here from you in far too long. Are you > still doing some writing for *Chicago Magazine*? How are things > around Chicago? And I see you are posting from chinet, which leads > to my next question: how has Randy been behaving himself? I see he > is still running chinet which is really great. Is he still having > those occassional reunion dinner things occassionally at that > restaurant on Howard Street in Skokie for all his users? Is that old > RBBS still operating also? I'll tell you, things like chinet, Randy > and you users of same certainly tempt me to return to the Chicago > area to live, although I won't. PAT] I wondered if perhaps the tornados would have blown you back east. How did you survive the weather the last few days? Chinet is still Chinet, but the Yapp/BBS (the clone that replaced Picospan from from your time) is no more. After 23 years, the annual CBBS Memorial get together each February had to move; the Barnaby's at Touhy and California closed. The get togethers on Howard Street must have been before my time. BTW, the Skokie Swift depot is no more. After years of wrangling, the Village finally found a developer to move the station. It's been relocated to the east side of the property, away from the railroad tracks, where it's no longer historically sited. The whole bus area of the parking lot has been torn out. Some day it will reopen with a new bus terminal. No idea if Greyhound still stops in Skokie or what happened to the agency. Originally, a new Greyhound agency was to be built there, but the project has been in the planning stages for so long I wonder if Greyhound will be a tenant once its completed. Years ago, I wrote for a chain of local newspapers in the Chain-O-Lakes area, but never submitted an article to Chicago Magazine. Not sure who you are thinking of. Nah, I was the guy who was arrested for leafletting on the Ravenswood "L" to protest the CTA plans a couple of years ago. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The tornados last week were pretty ridiculous. Would you please Oklahoma City got hit with TWO tornados on TWO days last week, a night apart, but different sides of town. Both tornados looked like they were headed north for Tulsa and one of them did get north of Tulsa. A tornado touched the ground a few miles west of Coffeyville also last week but then veered past us over toward Pittsburg, KS. There was much damage in parts of Missouri as well. California has earthquakes and, here we have tornados but where earthquakes can happen anytime, tornados are more predictable during April and May. All of us have our crosses to bear; even Chicago area where political and governmental corruption is the name of the game, and even that scene is starting to get predictable. I am glad to hear Chinet is still around, even if the RBBS that Randy started with 25 years ago is no more. I meant Barnaby's at Touhy and California Avenue, not 'Howard Street' as I said in error. And please do *not* get me started on the Chicago Transit Atrocity -- err -- Authority; those people can be so vicious when they get angry. As the one full time employee of the Greyhound Bus Agency there toward the very end I knew exactly what slumlords CTA was toward their tenants around the city. For how many years did CTA fight with the Village of Skokie over that old depot, probably since 1969 when North Shore Railroad abandoned the train depot, CTA took it over for a station on the Skokie Swift line and the Village first got into a battle with them over it. I mean, look at the way CTA has allowed their relatively newer stations to go to hell; they simply have no interest in maintaining their properties. Most government agencies around Chicago are like that. Too much money spent on landscaping, decent parking and clean facilities mean less money in the adminsitrator's pockets. I guess you may have heard how the NYTA in New York City was caught recently trying on the one hand to raise their fares while hiding out large sums of revenue they had squandered on their executives. All of those quasi-governmental agencies are crooks. None excluded. It was great hearing from you again, Adam. Stay in touch. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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End of TELECOM Digest V22 #446 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 12 23:38:38 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4D3cc125117; Mon, 12 May 2003 23:38:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:38:38 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305130338.h4D3cc125117@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #447 TELECOM Digest Mon, 12 May 2003 23:38:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 447 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Not Quite a Reel Deal/Supply a Problem With Video on Demand (M Solomon) Nokia 6800 Has Nice Keyboard, But the Software Is Very Weak (M Solomon) A Juice Box for When Your Laptop Runs Dry (Monty Solomon) Challenge-Response Systems Are as Harmful as Spam (Monty Solomon) Apple AirPort Administrative Password Obfuscation (Monty Solomon) Ferreting Out the Fittest in Cable (Monty Solomon) Nude Tennis Tourney Set for Webcast (Monty Solomon) Online Soon: Sex Offenders in Your Town (Monty Solomon) Is TiVo NeXT? (Monty Solomon) Re: All Eyes on Google (Garrett Wollman) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Garrett Wollman) Re: Canadian Cable Rules (Ed Ellers) Does Cogent Have Any Competitors? (Garrett Wollman) Legal Definition of Broadband (unspammable-3107@workbench.net) Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone (Scott Dorsey) Re: Phone Rates (Mark Atwood) Re: Phone Rates (Wes Leatherock) Re: Phone Rates (Dave Close) Re: All Eyes on Google (temp7@thewolfden.org) Chipless Vendor (LHN) Re: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 (Jack Hamilton) Pa. Court: E-Mail Spam NOT Covered by Federal Fax-Spam Law (D Burstein) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 23:59:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Not Quite a Reel Deal / Supply a Problem With Video on Demand By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 5/11/2003 Video on demand, the hot new product that local cable companies are just starting to roll out, is great. Unfortunately, it's not as great as it could be. Like a vast video library connected by coaxial cable to your home, video on demand allows anyone with digital cable to retrieve movies or TV shows -- virtually anything that can be stored on a computer server -- with a few clicks of the remote. The service could put the contents of a Blockbuster video store and the versatility of a Tivo-like personal video recorder at the disposal of any cable couch potato. But it's not living up to its full potential yet because of limited content and delayed access to movie releases. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/131/business/Not_quite_a_reel_deal+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 00:05:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nokia 6800 Has Nice Keyboard, But the Software Is Very Weak By WALTER S. MOSSBERG One of the great dilemmas in the design of today's wireless phones is how to improve the entering of text, especially for longer items like e-mail messages and notes. The phone keypad is only good enough for tapping out short text messages, laden with abbreviations and limited to 160 characters. Handwriting recognition and on-screen virtual keyboards are prone to error and tedious to use. The best solution is to incorporate a small thumb-operated keyboard into the device. But fitting in such a keyboard requires the phone to be larger than many people find stylish or comfortable. The Handspring Treo, which I've praised as the best combination phone and e-mail device on the market, works for me. But some people shun it because it looks more like a PDA than a phone. Now, Nokia has come up with an ingenious new phone that incorporates a very usable keyboard, yet retains the look, feel and dimensions of a standard wireless phone. It's the Nokia 6800. It was introduced this week in the U.S. by Cingular Wireless for $250 when you sign a two-year service contract. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20030508.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 00:10:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Juice Box for When Your Laptop Runs Dry By WALTER S. MOSSBERG Traveling with portable electronics can make your life a lot easier, but lugging multiple chargers along is a hassle. Laptops typically use heavy rectangular-shaped AC adapters (nicknamed "power bricks") with cords flapping from either end. Cellphone chargers are boxes with tail-like cords, and PDAs often charge in their bulky synchronizing cradles, or require extra-cost travel chargers like cellphones use. This week, my assistant Katie and I tested a product from Mobility Electronics Inc. that charges your laptop, mobile phone and PDA from one single power brick, so you can leave your other chargers at home. The $119.99 iGo Juice is recognizable with frequent fliers because it's sold in SkyMall, the airline shopping magazine, as well as on duty-free Continental, United and Delta flights. Continental's duty-free flights actually carry the units onboard so that you can purchase the Juice and use it right away. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20030507.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 23:42:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Challenge-Response Systems Are as Harmful as Spam Earthlink will begin to offer email challenge technology http://www.politechbot.com/p-04733.html More on Earthlink's email challenge, Mailblocks lawsuit Fri, 9 May 2003 08:40:27 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04735.html MailSoap.com co-founder on challenge-response spam blocking Fri, 9 May 2003 10:43:45 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04736.html Rich Kulawiec's Draconian idea to rid the Net of spam, forever Sat, 10 May 2003 20:14:28 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04741.html Brad Templeton's reply to a Draconian anti-spamming proposal Sun, 11 May 2003 08:38:16 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04744.html MailFrontier.net, poor anti-spamware, and future of mailing lists Sun, 11 May 2003 12:08:05 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04745.html John Levine: Challenge-response systems are as harmful as spam Sun, 11 May 2003 21:30:09 -0400 (EDT) http://www.politechbot.com/p-04746.html ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Apple AirPort Administrative Password Obfuscation Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 16:52:56 -0400 @stake, Inc. www.atstake.com Security Advisory Advisory Name: Apple AirPort Administrative Password Obfuscation Release Date: 05/12/2003 Application: AirPort Base Station (ALL) Platform: AirPort Base Station Severity: Sensitive information disclosure Author: Jeremy Rauch Dave G. Vendor Status: Notified, see response below CVE Candidate: CAN-2003-0270 Reference: www.atstake.com/research/advisories/2003/a051203-1.txt Overview: Apple's AirPort device is a wireless access point, providing 802.11 services to network clients. Authentication credentials are obfuscated, and then sent over the network. If an AirPort is administered over the Ethernet interface or via an insecure (non WEP) wireless connection, an attacker that can sniff the network can obtain administrative access to the AirPort. http://www.atstake.com/research/advisories/2003/a051203-1.txt ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:44:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Ferreting Out the Fittest in Cable By GERALDINE FABRIKANT SHARES of cable companies have generally performed well this year, but when Verizon Communications, the telecommunications company, announced this month that it was cutting the rates that consumers pay for high-speed Internet access, shares of a broad range of the companies fell. High-speed Internet access has been the fastest-growing sector for most cable companies. The Verizon announcement, on May 2, suggested a possible price war between cable and telecommunications companies, a prospect that troubles many investors. From that day until last Tuesday, most major cable stocks, including those of the Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications, Cablevision Systems and Mediacom Communications, dropped by about 5 percent or more; most have recovered partially since then. Many analysts remain optimistic about the ability of at least two companies, Comcast and Cox, to prosper despite competition from telephone companies and satellite television, which has made inroads in the cable industry's core video business. Both Comcast and Cox have relatively strong balance sheets, and they can offer a broad array of services to attract customers, several analysts said. Aryeh B. Bourkoff, who follows cable companies for UBS Warburg, said he believed that most of them would find a way to avoid brutal price competition. "The cable industry still has the legacy of its days as a monopoly," he said. "Even as it has faced competition from satellite TV, cable operators have been willing to sacrifice market share rather than engage in a price war." Loss of market share could have severe consequences for companies with high debt levels, like Cablevision and Charter Communications, which could find their ability to pay off debt impaired by a drop in cash flow, Mr. Bourkoff said. Comcast, however, has demonstrated its ability to acquire an increasing share of the high-speed data pie, several analysts said. On Thursday, when the company reported earnings for the first quarter, executives said it had added 417,000 high-speed Internet customers, up 52 percent from the period last year. Comcast has also begun to stem subscriber losses at the AT&T cable systems it acquired last year. Comcast has particular appeal because, in the near term, it is not betting as heavily as its rivals on revenue growth to generate improved earnings. It projects revenue growth of 10 percent this year, compared with a projection of about 15 percent at Cox, the nation's fourth-largest cable operator. Instead Comcast is expected to show improved cash flows of about 18 percent this year, largely as a result of cost savings. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/business/worldbusiness/11CABL.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:22:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nude Tennis Tourney Set for Webcast LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Naked tennis, anyone? A Florida nudist colony is planning what it's calling the first-ever webcast of a nude tennis tournament. For a fee of $10-$13, Internet surfers can go to http://www.TennisInTheBuff.com and watch on demand the two-hour tournament after it's played Sunday. Twenty naked tennis players are competing for a $2,000 prize in front of 100 naked spectators. A tape of the event will be edited to make sure that all who appear nude have given their consent, then the event will be quickly posted to the Web site. http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/internet/05/09/offbeat.naked.tennis.reut/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:28:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online Soon: Sex Offenders in Your Town By Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff, 5/11/2003 When high-risk sex offenders move to or work in Boston, Marilynne Gaffey has the information at her fingertips. Their fingerprints, photographs, new addresses, work addresses, and the details of their crimes fill her files. She mails the information to a list of Boston day-care centers, schools, and churches to alert them about any ''Level 3'' offenders, considered the most dangerous. Beginning Thursday, Gaffey has another tool for alerting the public: people will be able to get the information from the state's sex offender registry website, which will begin posting such information online for Level 3 offenders. Until now, Boston residents who wanted to know who the sex offenders on their block were had to come to Gaffey's Boston police office in the South End and fill out forms to get information on either moderate offenders, labeled Level 2, or high-risk offenders, known as Level 3s. That lack of instant access to the most up-to-date information on the city's riskiest sex offenders has been considered a problem. Now photographs and home addresses for about 350 Level 3 sex offenders statewide will appear on the state's registry website, at http://www.state.ma.us/sorb/, updated daily. Until now, the website only gave the number of level 2 and level 3 sex offenders in each town. The upgrade in the database is being viewed variously as a blessing and a curse. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/131/city/Online_soon_sex_offenders_in_your_town+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:36:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Is TiVo NeXT? The beleaguered personal video recorder company is ripe for an Apple takeover. By John Battelle, May 2003 Issue Everyone who has TiVo (TIVO) loves TiVo; it is to television what Macintosh was to computing -- a revelation. Which is exactly why Apple (AAPL) should buy TiVo and once again redefine the intersection of culture and technology. Folks love TiVo for the same reason they loved the Mac in 1984 and the iPod in 2001: It gives control back to the end user. TiVo viewers call the shots regarding when, how, and -- soon -- even where they watch. Once content or access is purchased, the end user is in charge, just like with the iPod. But unlike the iPod, TiVo and systems like it are in serious trouble. The culprit is the entertainment industry. TiVo has an abeyant Napster-like quality -- and the content business is scared silly that it will not only destroy advertising revenues but become the platform for video swapping on the Internet. Case in point: A coalition of entertainment companies recently sued TiVo competitor Sonicblue into bankruptcy. http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,48682,00.html ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: All Eyes on Google Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:24:38 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Liam Hatton wrote: > After reading the information at http://www.google-watch.org/ , it > [Norway's FAST Search] has become my favourite search engine. Funny, after looking at the laughable content of that Web site I came to precisely the opposite conclusion. -- Garrett A. Wollman |[G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu |chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of|seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:30:28 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science In article , Joey Lindstrom wrote: > What would happen if DirecTV *DID* start marketing directly to > Canadians? They don't have a Canadian address and are not located in > Canada, so what really could the Canadian government do about it? DirecTV is, until Rupert Murdoch closes on his purchase, owned by General Motors, one of the largest private employers in Canada. I don't know about EchoStar, but I can guess what would happen: the U.S. subsidiaries of the Canadian licensees of the programs would sue either the satellite operators or the U.S. cable channels for unlawful interference with their distribution contracts with the U.S.-based program producers; an injunction would quickly issue, and that would be the end of it. -- Garrett A. Wollman |[G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu |chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of|seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ From: Ed Ellers Subject: Re: Canadian Cable Rules Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:42:04 GMT Joey Lindstrom wrote: > Somebody else made the point in the last Digest (I'm sorry, I > accidentally deleted it) that DirecTV is not "permitted" to market > directly to Canadians. Now, I don't claim to know everything there > is to know about this issue, so let me pose this hypothetical > question. What would happen if DirecTV *DID* start marketing > directly to Canadians? They don't have a Canadian address and are > not located in Canada, so what really could the Canadian government > do about it?" They no doubt would demand that the U.S. administration (meaning the FCC) force DIRECTV to stop authorizing Canadian viewers. Under the Radio Regulations of the ITU, the Broadcasting-Satellite Service isn't supposed to be used for international broadcasts without the consent of the country where the broadcasts are to be received. ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Does Cogent Have Any Competitors? Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 01:30:42 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science We were talking about getting a Cogent connection for our Lab when our upstream went and got one for themselves. We're interested in knowing if there are any other metropolitan-area providers with a similar economic proposition to Cogent's. (I rather suspect the answer is ``no'', at least in greater Boston.) -- Garrett A. Wollman |[G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of wollman@lcs.mit.edu |chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty- Opinions not those of|seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 21:25:52 -0400 From: unspammable-3107@workbench.net Subject: Legal Definition of Broadband I have a few questions to ask, that will probably cause those with a "libertarian" bent to see red. See, I happen to believe that most monopoly providers of a service, even if they didn't set out to be a monopoly, generally wind up requiring a certain amount of government regulation. Without it, they will usually start to price gouge, offer substandard service or both. I realize there are exceptions to this rule, but they tend to be smaller providers. The larger a company gets, the more likely they are to abandon any pretext of morality or common decency. So having made that observation, here are a few questions: 1) Is there any Federal or other standard in the United States that would set a minimum speed (upload and download) as a legal definition of "broadband" or "high speed Internet"? Where I am going with this is this: If I set up an ISP, advertised "broadband Internet service" or "high speed Internet service", and then provided service from a bank of old 2400 bps modems, I'm sure that I could probably be successfully sued and/or made to answer to my state's attorney general, or some consumer protection agency. But is there a legal definition of what constitutes "high speed Internet", or is that simply an arbitrary concept? 2) Does anyone know of any cases where a provider of cable or DSL service has been forced to raise their uplink speed to residential customers, even though they may not have wished to do so? 3) Has anyone heard of any type of class action lawsuit that has been filed with the intent of forcing a cable provider to provide higher throughput? 4) Suppose you could get a cable or DSL provider to bring two cable or DSL lines into the same address. Is there any INEXPENSIVE but reliable way to "bond" them in order to effectively double the throughput? An ideal solution would be inexpensive and would NOT require the use of a PC to implement (in other words it should be in a standalone box. And it should be inexpensive. Did I mention that it should be inexpensive? (Don't even think of mentioning some $400 box - that's unobtanium in this situation). Now you may wonder why this is even on topic here. Well it turns out that the new VoIP services (and especially the designers of the hardware used by these services) may not have taken into account that most broadband lines are asynchronous - that is, you get plenty of download bandwidth (and generally have the option to buy more) but upload bandwidth may be fixed at some ridiculous low level like 128K, and the broadband provider may absolutely refuse to sell any more upload bandwidth to residential customers, despite the fact that most other broadband companies offer at least a 256K upload speed. And in many cases, that provider may be the only broadband provider available in a particular area. If you only have 128K upload bandwidth, your VoIP service is going to give you some problems in certain situations. 3-way calling won't work reliably, using both lines of a Cisco ATA-186 simultaneously won't work reliably, and in general it just sucks to only have that little bit of upload speed. And this cable company I have in mind (which I won't name right this moment, but I'll bet those of you unfortunate enough to be "served" by them will know who I'm talking about) reminds me of the old GTE of 20 years ago -- lousy customer service, and generally lousy service all around. Even where they have modern equipment, they refuse to sell its capabilities at any reasonable price (which is to say, they will only sell it if you buy a small business class of service, which the price in the hundreds of dollars per month range). If I didn't know better (and I really don't) I'd think they have a bunch of really old former GTE executives running this company. So really, I think there are two things that should happen real soon now. First of all, designers of boxes like the ATA-186 should take into account that most people have higher (sometimes MUCH higher) download speed available than upload, and give the option to provide more compression on the uplink side. But second, "there oughta be a law" that provides some minimum standard for broadband and high-speed Internet. If there already is, and it's more than 128K, I would really like to know about it. Jack The From e-mail address in this message really does work, and you don't have to change it, but it WILL go away once the spammers find it. And I never buy from spammers! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have observed in my own Vonage account that they do not advertise 'three way calling' or 'conference calling' although both are possible (by flashing your hook). But even though 'possible' both sound like poo, as the CBers used to say about your radio ... there just is not enough bandwidth to do three way calling and I do not know how the second port on the back of the ATA-186 box is going to handle it, although they say it will now for FAX things. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone Date: 12 May 2003 15:37:32 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Don Saklad wrote: > As far as the device goes, what manufacturers' wall cord wired > telephones have the best audio quality both for the receiving audio > quality and for the sending audio quality? Sadly, an old 300-set. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is usually true, but I had a 300 set around at one time, and it would work okay until the mouthpiece got sort of hot, and your audio got bad; then you had to bang the handset on something to shake up the granules a little. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Atwood Subject: Re: Phone Rates Date: 12 May 2003 15:39:04 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Darryl Smith writes: > It would be a great experiment to watch, but I think that there are a > lot of dangers in this. It would also be good to see this done on > Cable TV and other areas. The new IEEE802 wireless metro area network standards that are working their way thru the IEEE will do this, and will really monkeywrench the current economic models of the cablecos and the local access telcos. Two hundred megabits per second, 30 kilometers ... I can hardly wait. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, mra@pobox.com | people won't be sure you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra ------------------------------ From: wesrock@aol.com (Wes Leatherock) Date: 12 May 2003 23:27:05 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Re: Phone Rates On Sun, 11 May 2003 19:56:29 -0400 Fred R. Goldstein fgoldstein@wn.net wrote: >> They were also very inconvenient and expensive for telephone >> users, who had to subscribe to both telephone companies to be able to >> reach all the local telephone subscribers. > That was before 1912, when Kingsbury required The Bell System to > interconnect. For toll, not for local service within the same exchange. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: Dave Close Subject: Re: Phone Rates Date: 12 May 2003 17:51:14 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California John Higdon writes: >> You will note that cable companies, which have finally reached >> the point where they consider themselves viable as an alternative >> provider of the "last mile," have strongly, and so far successfully, >> resisted any effort to allow their plant to be used by competing local >> exchange companies or, for that matter, ISPs other than themselves. > Yes, they have. Then again, they were not built under the umbrella of > virtually risk-free regulated monopoly status. The cable companies may not have been risk-free, but they were (and are) regulated and are almost universally monopolies. Except for some price meddling by the FCC, most of the regulations are by municipalities. The franchisors of cable systems, mostly cities, could easily be within their rights to demand that the companies share outside plant. (As an aside, the ability of cable to deal with such a wide variety of regulators and regulations should make us think twice before asserting that telcos must have uniform nationwide regulation by the FCC.) But I am not a supporter of a "carrier's carrier" to own and share plant among retail carriers. Such an entity would have no incentive to maintain or improve the plant, just to bleed cash until things collapsed. Look at the British rail experiment of the last few years for a cautionary tale. Ultimately, each carrier must own its own plant. Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "You can't go to Windows Update dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 and get a patch for stupidity." dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu -- Kevin Mitnick ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 17:39:15 -0500 From: temp7@thewolfden.org Subject: Re: All Eyes on Google At 05:47 PM 5/12/2003 -0400, Liam Hatton wrote: > After reading the information at > http://www.google-watch.org/ , it has > become my favourite search engine. Wow - their "Why we target Google" page is all hype and no substance at all. Their "Top 9" list is absolute nonsense. If you toss the melodramatic nonsense, the "Top 9" works down to: 1 - Google uses cookies like every other website 2 - Google records the exact same thing every other website does, including information it has to in order to talk to your computer. 3 - Google has the same data retention policy that most other public websites do. 4 - Google retains this data for the same reasons most other public websites do. 5 - Google hires people. 6 - Google's toolbar does exactly what it says it does on the download page, and it acts like many other software products, such as Windows and Norton, but you can disable most of those features. 7 - ??? no support for statement. 8 - If you try to cheat Google to get a better rating, Google will stop you, and Google doesn't tell anyone how to get their site to the top of the list by cheating. 9 - ??? pure drivel ------------------------------ From: l_hn@hotmail.com (LHN) Subject: Chipless Vendor Date: 12 May 2003 18:49:00 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Does anyone know the names of RF chipless vendors in the market? What is their RF tag price range and the frequency reader? Who are their customers and the applications? Thanks alot. ------------------------------ From: Jack Hamilton Subject: Re: AT&T Wireless Cell Phone Subscribers /411 Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 19:50:54 -0700 Organization: Copyright (c) 2003 by Jack Hamilton. Reproduction without attribution and archiving without permission are not allowed. Reply-To: jfh@acm.org > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If it works anything like 'Tell Me', > the voice automated directory service on 800 numbers, when it has > that kind of problem (multiple numbers, same name) then the robot > tells you a little bit about each one and asks you to make a choice, > for example, 'for John Smith on Main Street, press '1'. For John > Smith on Tenth Street, press '2', etc. When you have made your > choice, then the robot gives the number. You can also say to the > robot when it first answers, 'Operator' and it will go fetch a real > person to speak to you. Of course, if you say 'operator' to the > robot when it answers, it tells you 'while I go get an operator to > talk to you, in the meantime tell *me* what you want'. PAT] If it's done with text messages, though, you don't have a voice connection over which to talk to an operator (or robot). There's a bit of description of the process at . It doesn't really answer my question, though. If there are 10 listings do they send you 10 messages? Or 100 messages if there are 100 listings? That would be a hassle, to say the least. How do you get a "menu" with text messages? Do you have to download additional software to the phone? Jack Hamilton jfh@acm.org If men are to wait for liberty until they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait for ever. - Lord MacCaulay ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Pa. Court: E-Mail Spam NOT Covered by Federal Fax-Spam Law Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:52:29 -0400 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC Federal law that prohibits sending unsolicited advertisements to fax machines does not affect unsolicited commercial e-mail, the Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled. A three-judge panel determined that a personal computer does not fall under the definition of "telephone facsimile machine" contained in the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 and, therefore, declined to award damages to an e-mail user who received six unsolicited advertisements from one company. "Simply stated," Judge Joseph A. Del Sole wrote in Aronson v. Bright-Teeth Now, "a computer is not a fax machine and a commercial e-mail message is not regulated by the terms of [the statute] 47 U.S.C. Section 227." [ snippety snip ] http://www.law.com/jsp/printerfriendly.jsp?c=LawArticle&t=PrinterFriendlyArticle&cid=1052440722563 ( local temporary copy: http://www.panix.com/~dannyb/e-mail-not-fax.nylj ) _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] "People know they're being followed when they turn around and see someone following them. They can't tell they're being followed if you get there first." -- Daryl Zero ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #447 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 13 02:33:53 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4D6Xqu26349; Tue, 13 May 2003 02:33:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 02:33:53 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305130633.h4D6Xqu26349@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #448 TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 May 2003 02:33:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 448 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Give-and-Take F.C.C. Aims to Redraw Media Map (Monty Solomon) Re: What People Love to Hate (Monty Solomon) Increasing Wi-Fi Use Raises Airline Safety Concerns (Monty Solomon) Verizon Launching New Calling Plan/Offer Targeted at Small (M Solomon) Phone Fund Comes Under Scrutiny/Consumer Groups Wary of Plans (Solomon) Verizon Beefs up Caller ID Equipment [in Mass.] (Monty Solomon) Student's Sense of Privacy Disappears on the Internet (Monty Solomon) Motorola Unveils HD/DVR Boxes (Monty Solomon) Celebrities Beware! 'The Smoking Gun' Coming to TV (Monty Solomon) Ted Turner / Gone With the Wind (Monty Solomon) 'New Media': Ready for the Dustbin of History? (Monty Solomon) Judge Finalizes Ruling on Pooh; Disney to Appeal (Monty Solomon) With Networks on Both Sides of the Table (Monty Solomon) FCC Commissioners Get Media Ownership Rules Plan (Monty Solomon) Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax (Monty Solomon) Comcast Ready to Test Digital Video Recording (Monty Solomon) Telefonica Moviles' Net Profit Rose 25.3% In First Quarter(M Solomon) Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone (tonypo1@sdc.cox.net) Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone (Robert Johnson) Re: Free, Free at Last! Maybe ... Not Sure Yet (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: What is Time Alignment Error (Gordon S. Hlavenka) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:59:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Give-and-Take F.C.C. Aims to Redraw Media Map By STEPHEN LABATON WASHINGTON IN a few weeks, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on what could be the most significant change in the rules governing media ownership in a generation, greatly expanding the reach of the nation's largest broadcast and newspaper companies. With that vote, the commission's chairman, Michael K. Powell, may finally find himself back in control. Before he became chairman of the five-member commission in 2001, Mr. Powell expressed deep skepticism of many media ownership restrictions, calling them unnecessary impediments in a changing marketplace, and the current review is perhaps the single most important procedure of his tenure. But his ability to execute his agenda came into question three months ago when he lost a commission vote that changed the nation's telephone-rate rules. One of the other Republicans, Kevin J. Martin, voted with the Democrats on some issues, undercutting Mr. Powell. The vote effectively gave policy authority to Mr. Martin, his junior rival. Officials say Mr. Powell learned from that experience and has negotiated intensively with Mr. Martin in recent weeks to reshape Mr. Powell's media-ownership rule plan, which has led to a tentative accord. If it holds, it will give Mr. Powell the bare 3-to-2 majority he needs, although it will also mean that the final plan will be somewhat different from his original. All sides agree that if the Powell-Martin coalition holds, the commission will adopt rules that enable the largest media companies to grow - by entering new markets and taking greater market shares in some cities by owning more stations, as well as newspapers, in the same markets. But the battle is not over. Some companies, unhappy with elements of the plan, have important allies in Congress and are lobbying to change it. And a campaign has been undertaken by consumer groups, artists, musicians and academics to stop the proposed rules, arguing that further media consolidation is dangerous. They have been led by Michael J. Copps, the senior Democrat on the commission, who has held hearings around the country. The commission's newest member, Jonathan S. Adelstein, a Democrat, has not publicly expressed his views on many of the issues but is widely expected to join Mr. Copps. The package negotiated largely by the three Republican commissioners - Mr. Powell, Mr. Martin and Kathleen Q. Abernathy - will be delivered formally to all commissioners in draft form on Monday and voted upon on June 2. Further modifications are inevitable, but officials say the broad outlines are already clear. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/business/yourmoney/11RULE.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:03:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: What People Love to Hate By AMY HARMON No slur on the anti-spam crusaders, with their punitive new laws, their fancy filter technology, their pursuit of the Internet archvillains who clog e-mail in-boxes with offers that range from the utterly offensive to the too good to be true. Wish them Godspeed, for it is an axiom of online life that everyone hates spam. But as the determination to crack down on unsolicited e-mail surges along with its volume, it may be time to acknowledge an online heresy: it's kind of fun to hate spam. Hating spam has, in fact, become something of an international pastime. Spamradio.com, created by a group of computer hackers in London, converts spam into an audio broadcast set to music. Thousands of visitors a week tune in for an average of 11 minutes to listen to cutting-edge spam ("New in USA!! nonsurgical liposuction with overnight results) and old favorites ("Become a Legally Ordained Priest"). At spamletters .com, Jonathan Land of Kingston, N.Y., publishes the e-mail he sends to spammers asking about their products, and their often surreal replies. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/weekinreview/11HARM.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:10:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Increasing Wi-Fi Use Raises Airline Safety Concerns FAA seeks in-depth study to assess risks to navigation By Chris Gaither, Globe Staff, 5/12/2003 SAN FRANCISCO -- The burgeoning popularity of Wi-Fi troubles some airline safety advocates who worry that the high-speed wireless Internet technology could disrupt communications systems on planes. Unlike cellphones and two-way pagers, which are banned from use on planes, laptops are allowed to be used once the plane has ascended past 10,000 feet. But computer makers are now building Wi-Fi chips into the current generation of laptops, raising questions about the impact of these radio signals on the instruments used by pilots. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/132/business/Increasing_Wi_Fi_use_raises_airline_safety_concerns+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:15:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Launching New Calling Plan/Offer Targeted at Small Business By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/12/2003 Verizon Communications is launching a version of its unlimited local-long distance calling plan today for small businesses in Massachusetts and New York, modeled on the same ''Veriations Freedom'' residential plan that is drawing tens of thousands of customers locally. The 'Verizon Freedom for Business' plan will offer unlimited local, in-state, and long-distance calls for $38 a month per business phone line, plus basic per-line service charges that typically run $13 to $25 more. The offering is limited to businesses with 10 or fewer phone lines, which include more than 230,000 companies in Massachusetts, according to Rena Taguchi, the Verizon executive director of business marketing. As with the residential service, Verizon's business calling plan can be bundled with other discounts. Those include 20 percent off the monthly charge for various business-grade digital subscriber line high-speed Internet access services, 10 percent off Verizon Wireless service, and incoming toll-free calls for 6 cents a minute, Taguchi said. Fine-print restrictions in the Verizon offer would block super-high-volume users, such as telemarketers or companies that run blast-fax operations, from getting the $38 deal, Taguchi said. Verizon thinks many companies that get 30- and 40-page phone bills every month will welcome a chance to get a short flat-rate bill. "This covers all the metered part of your business bill, and for $38, the meter stops running," Taguchi said. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/132/business/Verizon_launching_new_calling_plan+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:16:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Phone Fund Comes Under Scrutiny / Consumer Groups Wary of Plans By Associated Press, 5/12/2003 NEW YORK -- Considering all the extra charges on phone bills, the Universal Service tax might seem minor. Its reach is big, however: It covers the high cost of making it possible for Americans to talk from mountains, swamps, and other remote areas. It subsidizes phone bills for poor people and technology at schools and libraries. Universal Service rescue plans have been proposed, but consumer groups are worried. One plan submitted to the Federal Communications Commission could raise the average Universal Service charge -- currently $2.24 per month -- to $3.47 in 2004 and $3.81 in 2007, according to an FCC study. Consumer groups say the proposals would unfairly lower what big phone users pay while jacking up fees for infrequent callers. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/132/business/Phone_fund_comes_under_scrutiny+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:20:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Beefs up Caller ID Equipment [in Mass.] By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 5/12/2003 Verizon Communications is completing a $3.4 million project to reduce or eliminate waiting lists for customers to get caller ID services, adding equipment in 10 of its 272 Massachusetts ''central office'' switching stations. http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/132/business/Telephone_services+.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:30:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Student's Sense of Privacy Disappears on the Internet By Kristina Sauerwein, Times Staff Writer Seventeen-year-old Jordan Shiffler felt exposed. There was his unsmiling face on a school-related Internet site. His date of birth, home phone number and address. His SAT scores, grade-point average and class rank. The Riverside County teenager was ribbed by classmates about his test scores and, with his life out there for the world to see, Shiffler and his parents feared the site might attract identity thieves, sexual predators, stalkers, child abductors or killers who troll the World Wide Web for prey. The Shiffler family filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education. The confidential information was posted on the Internet last year by a golf coach at Paloma Valley High School in Menifee without their authorization, the Shifflers said. Information about the other team members also was on the site. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-privacy9may09,1,2347849.story ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:58:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Unveils HD/DVR Boxes Manufacturer plans summer shipments to Comcast By Anthony Crupi Motorola has drawn back the curtain on its DCT-6000 digital set-top series, a line of thick-client boxes that includes the first unit to integrate both HD and DVR functionalities. In nearly the same breath, the set-top manufacturer announced that it had re-upped its supply agreement with Comcast Cable. Under the terms of the new agreement, Comcast will offer its digital cable subs two boxes from its latest line, including the DCT-6200 and the DCT-6208. http://www.cableworld.com/archive/cableworld/2003/05/12/cwd03051210.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:09:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Celebrities Beware! 'The Smoking Gun' Coming to TV LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Smoking Gun, a Web site devoted to digging up court documents in the skeletons of celebrity closets, is coming to television in August with a new show debuting on the Court TV cable. In an announcement posted on Monday, TSG (www.thesmokinggun.com) said the first two episodes of "Smoking Gun TV" would premiere back to back on Aug. 20, hosted by Mo Roca, currently the senior political correspondent for Comedy Central's newscast satire "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=2727353 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:12:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Ted Turner / Gone With the Wind http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,450917,00.html TED TURNER Gone With the Wind Ted Turner is a worried man. His media career is gone with the wind. His faith in the United Nations looks naive. He thinks humanity's on the verge of extinction, and he's down to his last billion. FORTUNE Monday, May 12, 2003 By Patricia Sellers Even when he is down, out, tired, miserable, wounded, worried, and wiped out -- all words that spill from Ted Turner when he's asked how he's doing these days -- he is, as ever, in motion. "I went 90 miles an hour through my career," he says as he dashes around his brand-new office in Atlanta. "I built a multibillion-dollar company, and I won the America's Cup. I was the greatest sailor in the world. I ran through three wives and numerous girlfriends, and I wore them all out! I smoked through life!" In case anyone questions it, the Mouth of the South adds, "I'm still going fast!" This is Ted spinning in the Turnerverse -- that's what he calls his private world outside his public role at AOL Time Warner (parent of FORTUNE's publisher). The Turnerverse is expanding: Turner has just cashed out more than half of his holdings in America's largest media company for $790 million and is quitting -- "in disgust," he says -- his job as vice chairman. Within days of announcing his departure he had packed up his 91 framed magazine covers of himself, his 400 sailing trophies, his World Series ring, his 34 honorary degrees, and his multitudinous media accolades and shipped all this stuff from Atlanta's CNN Center, where he had kept his office for 16 years, to a building two blocks away at 133 Luckie Street. The new address is a good omen, he figures. Signs of success give comfort to the displaced titan. "Look!" Turner shouts, pulling back the curtain in his new office to show off his perfect view of the giant red CNN logo that identifies his former headquarters. Grabbing a spear that leans against one wall, he pretend-hurls it across the room: "This is Jackie Joyner-Kersee's javelin from the Goodwill Games," he says, referring to the scheme he hatched in 1985 to end the Cold War. On his desk a wooden sign reads either lead, follow, or get out of the way--Turner's lifelong credo, which he has been thinking about a lot lately. Finally parking himself beside the Oscar for Gone With the Wind he acquired when he bought the MGM film library in 1986, he asks, "So, what's this story about?" Ted's New Life, I reply. He emits his habitual "Awwww!" and then says, "Right now I'm kind of like Rhett Butler walking out the door on his way to Charleston to look for a more noble life." "Or," he adds, "it's about sex!" This is the grandiose and profane Ted Turner we have come to expect in the nearly 30 years since he first burst onto the public stage, a brash young man with a big mouth and crazy ideas. He still has both of those, but he's now troubled by a new sensation: a feeling that he's lost control. http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ceo/articles/0,15114,450917,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:15:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 'New Media': Ready for the Dustbin of History? By STEVE LOHR Last year, Barry Diller, once an old-fashioned movie mogul, sold off his company's television and film properties and invested in Internet operations that specialize in searching and selling. Today, his company, USA Interactive, owns a major online travel service, a lodging site, a ticket booking agency and a dating site. Last week, Mr. Diller agreed to pay $734 million for Lending Tree, a Web site for finding and arranging home loans. Mr. Diller and others have come to realize that two things succeed commercially on the World Wide Web: searching (like Google and Yahoo) and shopping (like Amazon.com and eBay). Is that what the digital revolution has come to? Back in the mid-1990's, it was going to cause a media revolution. The shift to bits, the 1's and 0's of computer code, would change everything, wrote Nicholas Negroponte, director of the M. I. T. Media Laboratory, in his 1995 best seller, "Being Digital." Book publishers, newspapers, magazines, television networks and movie studios - all would be digitized, some would disappear, but vast new opportunities would arise. The shift to bits promised more than just faster and cheaper distribution of the same old information and entertainment. The digital age held out the potential for a genuinely "new media." Pundits and media executives spoke about the prospect of everything from interactive television and shopping - click the zapper to suggest a new story line or buy the sweater Jennifer Aniston was wearing on that "Friends" episode -- to donning goggles and suits to enter virtual worlds offering simulated sports, travel and sex. But it hasn't happened. The companies that spent hugely on the "digital convergence" of media and Internet-era computing, AOL Time Warner and Vivendi Universal, which bought Mr. Diller's media properties, are in turmoil. And their visionary architects, Stephen M. Case at AOL Time Warner and Jean-Marie Messier at Vivendi Universal, have been ousted. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/weekinreview/11LOHR.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:23:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Judge Finalizes Ruling on Pooh; Disney to Appeal By Meg James, Times Staff Writer In a decision that could cost Walt Disney Co. millions in royalty payments, a federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday rejected a bid by the granddaughter of the creator of Winnie the Pooh to reclaim the U.S. copyright to the classic character. Making an earlier, tentative ruling final, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper said Clare Milne couldn't terminate the merchandising rights that her grandfather, author A.A. Milne, granted to a New York literary agent in 1930. The judge found that the basis for Clare Milne's attempt to revoke the rights held by the agent's heirs -- the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Termination Extension Act -- didn't apply because the contract in question was signed five years after the act's 1978 deadline for works to be protected. In addition, the judge noted in her decision, Milne's father, Christopher Robin Milne, chose not to reclaim any rights when he signed the 1983 royalty distribution agreement with Disney and the family of literary agent Stephen Slesinger. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pooh10may10,1,7927435.story ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:27:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: With Networks on Both Sides of the Table As broadcasters prepare to unveil fall lineups, their penchant for producing much of what they air and playing financial hardball has raised concerns. By Brian Lowry, Times Staff Writer As television's major players convene in New York next week for their annual star-studded presentations of fall prime-time schedules, one of the biggest dramas won't be in the lineup -- even though it features big money, rampant distrust and more than a hint of incest. It's the story of the industry itself, which is going through economic convulsions as old financial models break down in what has been -- and in some ways remains -- a glamorous, free-spending business. As a sign of how convoluted deal-making has become, when NBC agreed to pay $100 million a season to renew "Will & Grace" last year, representatives of the producers and director -- who share in the show's profits -- felt obliged to sit in. They questioned how truly adversarial the negotiations to secure a fair price would be when the exhibitor -- NBC -- and the supplier -- NBC Studios -- were part of the same corporate family, essentially switching money from one pocket into the other. Such incestuous discussions are increasingly common in the industry, where a handful of giant companies occupy both sides of the negotiating table, produce much of the programming on the air and increasingly play financial hardball to offset their ratings losses. The squeeze is being felt not just by talent but also by the agents and managers who represent them. With the dominant companies seemingly destined to concentrate their power even more if media ownership rules are further relaxed next month, veteran agent Bob Broder recently evoked Mafia imagery, only half-jokingly referring to them as "the five families." Independent producers, meanwhile, have been pushed to near-extinction. Only 11% of last year's new prime-time programs came from companies other than major studios - and most of those were low-cost reality shows. All in all, these factors have fed a pervasive sense of anxiety in the TV business. Granted, the Hollywood trades still showcase plenty of seven-figure deals, but a slogan from "The X-Files" -- the macabre drama introduced a decade ago -- provides an increasingly timely mantra: "Trust no one." http://www.latimes.com/business/custom/cotown/la-et-lowry10may10182420,1,6897461.story ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:29:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC Commissioners Get Media Ownership Rules Plan By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A blueprint for easing media ownership rules began circulating among commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission on Monday, which would make it even easier for a company to own multiple television stations, people familiar with the situation said. A majority of the five FCC commissioners are also planning to let a company own a newspaper and a television or radio station in most markets as well as ease the cap on how much of the national TV audience one company can reach. Specifically, the FCC is considering a tiered system somewhat similar to what is used in antitrust law to determine whether a company can own several television stations in a market, sources said. But there would have to be at least six television stations in a market before the agency would allow a company to own two stations there, and one could not be in the top four in the ratings, they said. So in many markets, companies will be able to own two commercial stations without running afoul with the FCC, and in large cities like Los Angeles and New York, three stations could be owned by a company under the tiered system. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=2727100 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:32:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft: 'iLoo' Internet Project a Hoax REDMOND, Wash. (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. said a company news release that it was developing a portable toilet with Internet access, called an "iLoo," was a hoax perpetrated by its British division. The April 30 release, issued by the company's MSN Internet division in the United Kingdom, said Microsoft was developing a portable toilet with a wireless keyboard and an extending height-adjustable plasma screen in front of the seat. The iLoo was to debut at festivals this summer in Britain. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34168641 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:51:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Ready to Test Digital Video Recording NEW YORK, May 12 (Reuters) - Cable television operator Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) said Monday it is planning to test the waters for a new digital video recording service by the middle of this year. Digital video recording allows viewers to not only record but also to pause television shows while viewing them live. Comcast's latest plan is a departure from conventional digital video recording services popularized by TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO). Unlike TiVo, Comcast's new service will let subscribers record and view different channels in multiple rooms across several television sets simultaneously. The trial will include digital set-top boxes manufactured by Samsung (KOREA:06660) and networking software provided by Ucentric Systems. Moreover, the new service will also let users connect and access music and video stored on home computers, said Ucentric CEO Michael Collette in a telephone interview. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34165114 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 00:45:07 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Telefonica Moviles' Net Profit Rose 25.3% In First Quarter Telefonica Moviles' Net Profit Rose 25.3% In The First Quarter Of 2003, To 359.1 Million Euros For The Full Results Press Release Please Visit the Company Website: www.telefonica.com MADRID, Spain, May 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- -- Earnings growth was driven solely by the improvement in operating revenues, with no impact from extraordinaries. -- Telefonica Moviles generated Free Cash Flow of 621.4 million euros, an increase of 35% from the same period a year before. -- EBITDA advanced 8.4% to 993 million euros, despite the adverse impact of exchange rates on the contribution by Latin American operators. Excluding this effect, the increase would have been 18.6%. -- The consolidated EBITDA margin reached 46.6%, up from 40.5% at the end of March 2002. -- Telefonica Moviles Espana's commercial activity increased by 16% in the period, with efforts geared towards boosting customer loyalty and migration and following a selective client acquisition policy, while the company remained the market leader, with a stable estimated share of traffic. -- At the same time, Telefonica Moviles Espamna's consumption ratios performed extremely well. MOU rose 9.6% to 106 minutes and ARPU continued to improve, reaching 27.6 euros, with the pace of monthly growth accelerating (and with year-over-year growth in March of 2.6%). The monthly churn rate was below 1%. -- In Brazil, Brasilcel maintained its competitive position, capturing an estimated share of more than 50% of adds in its markets. In Mexico, Telefonica Moviles Mexico launched the unified MoviStar brand and completed the rollout of its GSM network in the country's four biggest cities, with sales of GSM handsets now set to begin. -- The total number of the Group's active managed customers increased by 36.2% to over 41.7 million, with improvement in the quality of the customer base. This figure does not include Tele Centro Oeste (TCO), the operator acquired in April, which has a declared client base of more than 3.1 million customers. -- Operating revenues rose 8.3% assuming constant exchange rates, fuelled by the (10.3%) increase in revenues from services. Exchange-rate fluctuations led to a moderate (5.8%) decline in euro terms. -- Consolidated net financial debt fell by more than 2.5 billion euros over the last 12 months. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=34158426 ------------------------------ From: tonypo1@sdc.cox.net Subject: Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone Organization: The Ace Tomatoe and Cement Company Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 04:37:23 GMT In article , TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to kludge@panix.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is usually true, but I had a 300 > set around at one time, and it would work okay until the mouthpiece > got sort of hot, and your audio got bad; then you had to bang the > handset on something to shake up the granules a little. PAT] That used to be a problem with the E type handsets. My 302 has an F type handset and the audio from that is incredible. It beats out the G type on the 500 set I've got. ------------------------------ From: Robert Johnson Subject: Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 21:46:37 -0700 I would disagree with this statement, I would say an Automatic Electric Model 80 ahs the best quality, it has a Transmiter element the size of the 302, of a new style, it was also designed for loops with low current, for rural service, as GTE at the time had alot of Rual Service Robert ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:28:32 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Free, Free at Last! Maybe ... Not Sure Yet TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > ... Most readers here know there is no love lost between > Southwestern Bell (or SBC) as they now call themselves and me. Their > overall arrogance, bureaucratic ways and incompetence are well > known. My experience with Illinois Bell/Ameritech/SBC/Whatever's NextCo has been very different. The representatives I've spoken with have always been polite and competent. Some years ago, when I called to order Call Forwarding on my home office (business) line, the rep told me about a much cheaper alternative which was actually more appropriate besides. Her advice has saved me over $1000 in phone charges so far. The few occasions I've had to deal with field service reps they also have been efficient and competent. (Well, except for the time they disconnected line 2 while installing line 3 -- but that was fixed within hours of my call.) Recently I had SBC/Yahoo DSL installed; the line was provisioned and running 4 or 5 days _ahead of schedule_ -- I ordered it Tuesday, they promised delivery the following Tuesday, but installed it Friday morning. I did have an intermittent problem with the line, several visits were required (of course it always worked when they were here) but eventually it was fixed and the circuit is rock-solid now. The phone support technicians were friendly and helpful, and the tier 1 tech was not ashamed to kick the problem upstairs when it got beyond his abilities. The tier 2 and 3 people gave me direct dial numbers to reach them, answered on the first ring, and always called back when promised. And all this for a $30/mo. 1-year contract. They've probably spent more than $360 on me already, and I haven't been aboard a month yet :-) I'm not asking you to change your mind, PAT -- just offering up my story for balance. (Disclosures, not that it matters: My FIL is retired Illinois Bell, worked in the Bensenville Toll office. I used to work for Jack Goeken.) Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Grammar and spelling flames welcome. Yes, that's really my email address. Don't change it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your message illustrates quite well how service reps can quite literally make or break a company. You get very good ones on a consistent basis and you will be a customer of the company forever. Get one or two that lie, make up stories, are incompetent and the customer quickly flees *if in fact he has anywhere else to go*. I have *nothing personal against SBC* -- its just that I have to give up fighting them when I wind up repeating myself so often with them. The old telcos -- the Illinois Bells, the Pac Bells, the New York Telephones were generally good. Heck, even Southwestern Bell was good when they had a local office here in Independence, even when it eventually got down to a single service rep and a single cashier. At least you could walk in, sit down and do business and expect ninety percent of the time to have it done right. I think the telcos shot themselves in the foot by their office consolidations, 800 numbers and reductions in staff. I think their economies are out of scale quite a bit. Consider that in most large companies, about half the employees are there only for the purpose of correcting the mistakes made by the other half. I will immediatly admit that if Southwestern Bell even attempted to return to the days when every telephone exchange had a business office on the first floor and the service rep could call upstairs to the exchange or central office plant and request something to be done they would very quickly wind up bankrupt. Maybe the problem is the nicer and more personal you get with your customers, the more successful you become and the sooner you, as a manager, lose control over things as the customer base grows. Figure this: not a month has gone by in the past several that I did not have to call a service rep to get a mistake corrected. First you read your bill which goes on for page after page of pro-rations for changes in service, credit for the portion not rendered, charges for the part rendered, then what's that two dollar item there with an ambiguous description? Okay, call them ... got through voicemail hell, listen to a dozen options that do not pertain to your case to find the one that does ... punch it, then wait in queue for five to ten minutes to get a rep who tries to explain it but does a poor job. Or, walk down the street into the office of the local telco, be greeted instantly by a lady at a desk, she tells you they will give you flat rate pricing -- a one line phone bill -- with all the features you have now for about half the price Bell is charging, and they will give you a package of about two hours long distance included at no extra charge. I was in and out of Prairie Stream's offices with new service in less time than I had spent waiting on hold for a Bell rep to come on the line and lie to me (even if she was ignorant and did not mean to lie) about a $20 reduction in the DSL cost 'starting this month'. Flat out wrong, but I have to wait until the next month's bill arrives and go through all the pages on it in order to find the error by the lady who promised me the discount, etc. Which phone company would you take? Voicemail with dozens of choices to pick through reaching a disinterested and maybe ignorant and arrogant service rep or the one where the owner of the company is known to his employees and customers his first name and he tells you for $24.95 per month you will get features X, Y and Z? Southwestern Bell *could* have kept my account; all they had to do was listen and pay attention a little bit. Oh, I do not delude myself at all ... Duane will grow larger and more successful as time goes on; I will be quite interested to see if in ten or fifteen years *he* continues his style or if success has burned him out so he has become 'just another Bell'. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 23:45:30 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: What is Time Alignment Error blondee_yvr@yahoo.com wrote: > My Nokia 8260 TDMA has failed the two time alignment error tests. > What is time aligment error and what are some factors that cause it to > be out of whack? TDMA stands for "Time Division Multiple Access". TDMA allows many devices to operate on the same frequency by assigning each of them a "Time Slot". A Master station transmits a timing beacon, and all the Slave stations count from a synchronization sequence to their assigned slot, then transmit. There are "guard bands" at the beginning and end of each time slot, so that a Slave can be a little early or late without "stepping on" an adjacent slot. Time alignment error means that the timing reference in your phone is running too fast or too slow, and so you're "speaking out of turn." Not only is this bad for you (because the Master won't be able to lock onto your packets properly), it's also bad for everyone else (because your phone will disrupt communications in other time slots). Time alignment error mostly happens because the timing reference oscillator is off-frequency. This can be because the phone is too hot or too cold, or because the battery voltage is too high or too low. It can also be the result of an actual hardware failure. You can also have an alignment error because of a software problem, but it's not likely you'd see this in a production phone. > Can a charge cause it to be out of spec? If it damages the battery, possibly. But I'd expect you to see other problems as well. If the battery is consistently undercharged, you should be getting constant "Low Battery" indications. If the battery is overcharged, the phone will probably run hot but should stabilize as the battery discharges and its voltage passes through the "normal" range. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com Grammar and spelling flames welcome. Yes, that's really my email address. Don't change it. ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-330-6774 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 775-306-8390 Fax 3: 775-642-0603 Fax 4: 530-309-7234 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the second oldest e-zine/ mailing list on the internet in any category! 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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2003 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #448 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 13 14:56:10 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4DIuAX29988; Tue, 13 May 2003 14:56:10 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 14:56:10 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305131856.h4DIuAX29988@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #449 TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 May 2003 14:56:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 449 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson RIAA Apology to Penn State for Confusing Usher w/ Prof.Usher (Solomon) REVIEW: "802.11 Security", Bruce Potter/Bob Fleck (Rob Slade) Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone (Scott Dorsey) What Newsgroup Discusses ISP Outages and Fiber Cuts (Dave) Re: Setting up a Dial-Around Number (Bryan Bethea) Re: Phone Rates (Fred Goldstein) Re: Motorola Unveils HD/DVR Boxes (Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr.) The Lowell Observatory Public Astronomical Research Center (M Solomon) HDWOW (Joey Lindstrom) Sony Music Mobile Debuts on AT&T (Monty Solomon) Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T (Monty Solomon) Looking Ahead to Car Phone Safety (Monty Solomon) Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat (Jessica Coughlin) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 02:35:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: RIAA Apologizes to Penn State For Confusing Usher With Prof. Usher http://www.politechbot.com/p-04747.html Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 19:26:49 -0400 From: Declan McCullagh Subject: FC: RIAA apologizes to Penn State for confusing Usher with Prof. Usher The Chromatics song that triggered the RIAA's cease-and-desist letter: http://www.astrocappella.com/swift.shtml Listen to it here (it's really excellent -- I just ordered the AstroCappella CD): ftp://ftp.swift.psu.edu/pub/Swift/Documents/swift_song.mp3 -Declan http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-1001095.html RIAA Apologizes For Threatening Letter By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com May 12, 2003, 3:16 PM PT WASHINGTON--The Recording Industry Association of America apologized Monday to Penn State University for sending an incorrect legal notice of alleged Internet copyright violations. The notice and subsequent apology appears to be the first time a faulty incorrect notification has been made public. The incident also shows just how easily automated programs that search for copyrighted material can be fooled, as well how disruptive such notices can be on college campuses. Last Thursday, the RIAA sent a stiff copyright warning to Penn State's department of astronomy and astrophysics. Department officials at first were puzzled because the notification invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and alleged that an FTP site was unlawfully distributing songs by the musician Usher. The letter demanded that the department "remove the site" and delete the infringing sound files. But no such files existed on the server, which is used by faculty and graduate students to publish research and grant proposals. Matt Soccio, the department's system administrator, said that he searched the FTP server "for files ending in mp3, wma, ogg, wav, mov, mpg, etc., and found nothing that would precipitate this complaint." Except, that is, when Soccio realized two things. The department has on its faculty a professor emeritus named Peter Usher and the same FTP site hosted Usher's work on radio-selected quasars. The site also had a copy of an a capella song performed by astronomers about the Swift gamma ray satellite, which Penn State helped to design. The combination of the word "Usher" and the suffix "mp3" had triggered the RIAA's automated copyright crawlers. [...remainder snipped...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 08:03:46 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "802.11 Security", Bruce Potter/Bob Fleck BK8021SC.RVW 20030404 "802.11 Security", Bruce Potter/Bob Fleck, 2003, 0-596-00290-4, U$34.95/C$54.95 %A Bruce Potter %A Bob Fleck %C 103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA 95472 %D 2003 %G 0-596-00290-4 %I O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. %O U$34.95/C$54.95 800-998-9938 fax: 707-829-0104 info@ora.com %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596002904/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596002904/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596002904/robsladesin03-20 %P 176 p. %T "802.11 Security" The preface states that this book is aimed at the network engineer, and the security engineer, or the hobbyist, but it is not an introductory work. The reader will need to know Linux to the kernel configuration level, and TCP/IP networking to the ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) level. Part one addresses the basics of 802.11 security. Chapter one provides a background, and looks at issues, in wireless communications, although primarily from a communications, rather than security, perspective. There is a review of attacks and risks, in chapter two, and for once there is a comparison of wired versus wireless hazards, ranging from the common (interference from portable phones) to the sophisticated (signal strength attacks related to diversity antennae). Part two deals with station, or remote device, security. Chapter three examines attacks against machines and networks, and suggests the use of SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and SSH (Secure SHell). Configuration recommendations for the kernel, startup, firewall, and other aspects of FreeBSD are covered in chapter four. Chapters five, six, and seven do the same for Linux, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X, respectively (with a concentration on the AirPort utilities for the Mac). Windows, in chapter eight, reviews basic workstation items only, with limited advice and direction. Part three looks at access port security, and the setup of access points under Linux, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD are all contained in chapter nine. Gateway security is the topic of part four, with chapter ten looking at gateways and firewalls, while the use of the three UNIX variants as gateways is discussed in chapters eleven, twelve, and thirteen. Authentication and encryption, mostly with IPSec, is reviewed in chapter fourteen. A rather vague closing is given in fifteen. As noted, this is not a book for beginners. Presumably readers should already know the most common dangers of wireless LANs, such as allowing default access passwords to remain active, and broadcasting the station set identifier. WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) is dismissed as irrelevant: since it is deeply flawed, one can assume that the concentration on technologies such as IPSec and station security is of greater use than suggesting minor improvements in the use of WEP keys and initialization vectors. However, it is a bit of a pity that the authors took this route. With the addition of possibly an extra fifty pages this could have been an excellent reference for all wireless LAN administrators. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2003 BK8021SC.RVW 20030404 ====================== rslade@sprint.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca p1@canada.com "If you do buy a computer, don't turn it on." - Richards' 2nd Law ============= for back issues: [Base URL] site http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev/ or mirror http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade/ CISSP refs: [Base URL]mnbksccd.htm Security Dict.: [Base URL]secgloss.htm Security Educ.: [Base URL]comseced.htm Book reviews: [Base URL]mnbk.htm [Base URL]review.htm Partial/recent: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/techbooks/ Security Educ.: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/comseced/ Review mailing list: send mail to techbooks-subscribe@egroups.com ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Audio Quality Wall Cord Wired Telephone Date: 13 May 2003 12:23:20 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Scott Dorsey wrote: > In article , Don Saklad > wrote: >> As far as the device goes, what manufacturers' wall cord wired >> telephones have the best audio quality both for the receiving audio >> quality and for the sending audio quality? > Sadly, an old 300-set. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is usually true, but I had a 300 > set around at one time, and it would work okay until the mouthpiece > got sort of hot, and your audio got bad; then you had to bang the > handset on something to shake up the granules a little. PAT] That happens when those transmitters go bad. Phoneco in Wisconsin has replacement ones. The T-1 transmitters used in the 500 sets do have better voice intelligibility than the 300 set transmitters, though, I have to admit. Robert Johnson wrote: > I would disagree with this statement, I would say an Automatic > Electric Model 80 ahs the best quality, it has a Transmiter element > the size of the 302, of a new style, it was also designed for loops > with low current, for rural service, as GTE at the time had alot of > Rural Service I dunno, I have a Model 80 around here somewhere, and it's got a much hotter output but I don't think the voice quality is as natural. It does definitely come across as louder on long lines, though. And either one of them is a huge step up from a Kellogg Redbar. scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: datkins@quitnet.com (Dave) Subject: What Newsgroup Discusses ISP Outages and Fiber Cuts Date: 13 May 2003 10:01:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ I cannot find a Usenet group where one would find a discussion of networking problems on the internet. I am trying to find out what is going on in New England where a major fiber cut has taken out internet service. Is there a discussion group for this kind of thing? Dave Atkins Engineering Manager http://www.quitnet.com 1 Appleton Street Boston, MA 02116 datkins@quitnet.com ------------------------------ From: Bryan Bethea Subject: Re: Setting up a Dial-Around Number Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 08:49:52 GMT Organization: Cox Communications The NANPA (North American Numbering Plan Administrator) (www.nanpa.com) assigns carrier identification codes contingent on providing evidence of the capability and certification to provide the services for which these codes are intended (ie, long distance service). No entity "owns" a CIC, rather it is assigned to that entity for the purpose of providing service. NANPA has the authority to reclaim codes which are not being used or are not being used for the purpose intended, though it usually only reclaims codes from defunct carriers. For you to provide a dial-around long distance service you would need to execute a resale agreement with a long distance wholesaler and then work with local telephone providers to have your CIC made available in their networks so their customers can make use of it. Bryan Bethea Pensacola, Florida Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > On 9 May 2003 05:45:11 -0700, Bob posted the following to > comp.dcom.telecom: >> If I were interested in starting a company that provides service >> through a dial-around number (10-10, 10-15, 10-16), what would I have >> to do to set it up? Is there a central organization that controls >> the assignment of these numbers? What are the costs associated with >> "owning" one of these prefixes? >> I realize that I would also need to get a provider to carry the >> minutes, but I am just curious about the first steps that I would >> need to take. > Last time I checked, the FCC was responsible for assigning these > codes, known as CIC codes (carrier identification code -- and I > recognize that "CIC code" is redundant). There is either a nominal > fee or no fee, but there are also some qualification requirements. > Michael D. Sullivan > Bethesda, MD, USA > (delete NOSPAM from address to mail me) ------------------------------ From: Fred Goldstein Subject: Re: Phone Rates Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 09:04:27 -0400 On 12 May 2003 23:27:05 GMT, wesrock@aol.com (Wes Leatherock) noted, >> They were also very inconvenient and expensive for telephone >> users, who had to subscribe to both telephone companies to be able to >> reach all the local telephone subscribers. > That was before 1912, when Kingsbury required The Bell System to > interconnect. >> For toll, not for local service within the same exchange True enough; local connections with Independents were subject to state jurisdiction. The Telecom Act of 1996 made local inerconnection a requirement. Thus it was a trivial fix to the very weak "subscribe to both telephone companies" argument, which in any case was merely an example of a monopolist exercising monopoly power. (Kingsbury was, IIRC, an antitrust settlement.) Dave Close added, > The cable companies may not have been risk-free, but they were (and > are) regulated and are almost universally monopolies. Except for some > price meddling by the FCC, most of the regulations are by > municipalities. The franchisors of cable systems, mostly cities, could > easily be within their rights to demand that the companies share > outside plant. Not at all. The Cable Act of 1992 substantially removed the power of municipalities and the FCC to regulate cable prices, with some narrow exceptions. It also prevents municipalities from imposing common carrier obligations on cable plant. The City of Portland, OR tried to impose common carriage on its incumbent cable plant's cable modem service, and lost in court. > But I am not a supporter of a "carrier's carrier" to own and share > plant among retail carriers. Such an entity would have no incentive to > maintain or improve the plant, just to bleed cash until things > collapsed. Look at the British rail experiment of the last few years > for a cautionary tale. Ultimately, each carrier must own its own > plant. The British Rail experiment is irrelevant. British Rail used to be a government-held monopoly, owning its tracks and carriages. The Thatcher administration, for ideological reasons, broke it up and privatized parts of it. They obviously did not give ample oversight to the track-owning company. Under my plan ( http://ionary.com/ion-redivest.html ), the loopco would be regulated with a fair rate of return, and would also have to respond to bona fide requests for new construction. They would be subject to penalties for failure to properly maintain plant. Competition with it would not be outlawed; it just wouldn't be very common, as it isn't common now. ------------------------------ From: Clark Wilhelm Griswold, Jr. <73115.dot.1041.at.compuserve.dot.com> Subject: Re: Motorola Unveils HD/DVR Boxes Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 10:48:56 -0600 Monty Solomon wrote: > Motorola has drawn back the curtain on its DCT-6000 digital set-top > series, a line of thick-client boxes that includes the first unit to > integrate both HD and DVR functionalities. Lest someone get all excited that the cable companies have seen the light and are responding to the pressure of similar devices like the Dish PVRs and Tivos boxes, other stories have gone into slightly more technical detail. It would seem that the cable companies are putting in "features" in their PVRs that control what programming can be recorded, when it can be recorded, how often it can be played back, when it can be played back, whether commercials can be skipped, and several other non consumer friendly options. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 01:59:16 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Lowell Observatory Public Astronomical Research Center by Jeffrey C. Hall Abstract The Lowell Observatory Public Astronomical Research Center (LOPARC) is an Internet observatory that allows users to access a research-grade telescope, an online digital archive of astronomical images, and server-side software that many professional astronomers use in their research. Online activities are available at a variety of conceptual levels, allowing anyone from primary school students to adults to use the facility with appropriate content. Two versions of the user interface allow clients to be deployed for general home or private-venue access, as well as in a more restricted point-and-click mode in public venues such as museums and public libraries. The facility is currently open in its initial public release at Lowell Observatory's campus in Flagstaff, Arizona, and is slated for full Internet availability by September, 2003. http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_5/hall/ ------------------------------ From: Joey Lindstrom Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 15:47:10 -0600 Subject: HDWOW Reply-To: joey@telussucks.info Well, I've had my HDTV workin' for a weekend now. Alas, there's just one channel (two if I wanna buy PPV movies) until I get my new replacement oval dish, but hey, at least I can see what I've been missing. Wow. Abso-fragging-lutely incredible. Now I should mention that much of what appears on Bell Expressvu's channel 286 is "demo" material, mostly from PBS, designed to show off just how great HDTV. In practice, ie: when I watched some of ABC's showing of "The Green Mile" in HDTV the other night, it's not quite as spectacular. Even then, though, it's miles ahead of Bell's regular-definition programming (which is on a par with DISH and DirecTV). The demo stuff, all shot with hi-res digital cameras, was mesmerizing. Even when it starts to repeat, I just sit and stare at it. :-) The first thing I saw was some helicopter shots of the Bay Area - San Fran, Sausalito (sp?), etc. I'm telling you, if I were sitting ON BOARD that freakin' chopper, I wouldn't have seen what this camera sees, and what HDTV delivers to my screen. It's almost "hyper-real": the eye just isn't used to seeing definition this sharp. When the waves break on the shore, you can almost see every drop. :-) When there's an "interview" with one or more people, you can see every hair on their heads - even tell if they've got split ends or not. :-) It's "hyper-real" in that when you see distant objects in HDTV, they're clearer than they would be with the naked eye - even if you've got near-perfect vision. At times, especially when the copter-mounted camera pans over buildings, roads, and other items with relatively straight lines, it almost seems like a computer game - because generally that's the only time we'll ever see these things THAT detailed (from a distance). On close-ups, that "hyper-real" feel disappears but it's still stunning in terms of just how crystal clear everything is. One just needs to switch back to a "regular" channel to see the difference. "The Green Mile", and a couple of other HDTV television shows, don't have quite this clarity, but it's still damned good. In my estimation, at least as good and maybe a bit better than DVD (and DVD can be pretty darned good -- have a look-see at "The Sopranos" or the recent "Star Wars" DVD's) The Bell Expressvu 6000 receiver can switch between "HD" and "SD", and thus I can compare the HDTV version of, say, "The Green Mile" with the SDTV version, simply by switching outputs and either watching it while being down-converted by my receiver, or changing channels to one of the two ABC channels and watching the regular SDTV edition. The HDTV is dramatically better. I can't WAIT for my new dish, so I can get more HDTV than this lousy ONE CHANNEL I'm getting now. :-) As for the recordability issues that have been raised in the past: well, I don't know of anything on the market that can record a 1080i signal, but there doesn't seem to be any built-in protection on this unit. I can (and have) recorded the "down-converted" video onto VHS tape -- in fact, the receiver can be programmed to automatically begin recording on your VHS unit at the time your selected program comes on. It ain't as nice as the original HDTV but you can still see the programming. No doubt we'll soon see HDTV-specific recording units on the mass market - even if there's a "record-only-once" flag, I'll be happy. :-) -- Joey Lindstrom -- Telus Sucks http://www.telussucks.info ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 14:41:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony Music Mobile Debuts on AT&T Wireless mMode Service New music channel replicates Sony Music's award-winning website for the mobile environment - a music industry first NEW YORK, and REDMOND, Wash., March 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sony Music Mobile Products Group announced today the debut of Sony Music Mobile on the AT&T Wireless mMode(SM) service. Music fans of all kinds can now access ring tones, graphics and breaking news about their favorite Sony Music Entertainment artists right from their wireless phone. Sony Music Mobile also features a subscription service for access to a mobile version of Sony Music's award-winning website. Subscribers with compatible handsets can receive fresh news, pictures, tour dates, album releases and more all displayed with one of the richest graphic interfaces available on wireless phones today. Through Sony Music Mobile on mMode, customers will be able to purchase ring tones from songs made famous by Sony Music Entertainment artists, display graphics featuring album covers, and make CD purchases through links to Amazon's one-click service, all through their mobile phone. Popular ring tones include John Mayer's "Your Body is a Wonderland" and Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade." Ring tones cost between $.99 and $1.99 each. For an additional subscription fee of $1.00 per month, Sony Music Mobile users can download a special Java application to receive up-to-the-minute news, tour dates, album releases, information on personal appearances, and pictures of the artist of their choice. At launch, Sony Music Mobile features artists including Amerie, Tori Amos, The Ataris, B2K, Celine Dion, Mario Frangoulis, Good Charlotte, Vivian Green, Jennifer Lopez, Nas, Opera Babes, Pete Yorn, and more. Subscribers can also enter contests and play trivia games. The Sony Music Mobile subscription service is the first-ever Java-based mobilized music company website. Java technology, most widely used for gaming applications, was used to replicate Sony Music's award-winning website on mMode. Crisp Wireless created the application for Sony Music Mobile Products Group. The application uses the content management and delivery component of the Crisp Wireless mLogic Platform to dynamically transmit the latest information from Sony Music to mobile phones and allow users to view and interact with the content through a highly aesthetic interface. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=32348766 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 14:41:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nokia 3650 Camera Phone for AT&T Wireless GSM/GPRS Network Nokia and AT&T Wireless Announce Immediate Availability of Nokia 3650 Camera Phone - Nokia 3650 Phone and AT&T Wireless' GSM/GPRS Network Brings the Power Of Imaging to Consumers - IRVING, Texas, April 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Wireless (NYSE: AWE) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today announced the immediate availability of the Nokia 3650 imaging phone, which can now be purchased from the AT&T Wireless web site (www.attws.com). Taking advantage of AT&T Wireless' advanced GSM/GPRS network, the Nokia 3650 imaging phone allows customers to enjoy next generation services such as the capturing and sharing of images and video clips via multimedia messaging (MMS), over-the-air application downloads and the ability to access real-time streaming video and audio content. AT&T Wireless subscribers can also enjoy the wide range of exclusive mMode content delivered to the large color screen of the Nokia 3650 phone. With an integrated VGA-resolution camera, a large 176x208 pixel color display, and the ability to store over 1,000 standard VGA basic resolution photos with the in-box 16MB memory card, the Nokia 3650 phone offers users the latest and most powerful wireless features available. The Nokia 3650 phone also incorporates a unique video recorder application for capturing video clips and a RealOne Player for real-time streaming of audio and video content. MMS functionality allows users to send video clips, images, text and sound to another compatible MMS-enabled mMode phone or to an e-mail address. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=33780001 ------------------------------ Reply-To: Monty Solomon From: Monty Solomon Subject: Looking Ahead to Car-Phone Safety Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 13:58:41 -0400 Reuters LONDON -- Talking on a car phone while driving would be less dangerous if the loudspeaker was on the windshield rather than in the driver's ear or to the side, scientists found in a study unveiled on Thursday. Many countries ban talking on mobile phones while driving, because it has been proven to cause accidents. Laws often permit "hands free" gadgets, with headphones or loudspeakers, but some safety experts say the devices are little safer, since it is the distraction of a conversation rather than fumbling with the phone that dulls drivers' concentration. But scientists at Britain's Oxford University found drivers were better able to pay attention to the road if the sound was coming from the direction they were looking, rather than from the side or in their ear, as in most hands-free units. http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,58782,00.html ------------------------------ From: Jessica Coughlan Subject: Re: Stop and Smell the Napalm, Pat Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 22:32:11 -0400 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Joey Lindstrom: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I will partially answer a couple of > your questions, but then I will quit for tonight because it is time > for the world news from BBC. The BBC, like the CS Monitor, have more > balanced accounts of world opinion toward the United States than does > Fox News. Surely you jest. BBC's own reporters are incensed how the Beeb is twisting the truth. A cousin of mine worked for the BBC for many years. He found it to be a place with a government type bureacracy with overwhelming attitudes of self superiority and importance with distain for anything that did not fit their own world view. News stories are slanted to reflect their narrow views. Now that's fine for an editorial, but this is an organization that presents itself as hard news. Don't take my word for it. The Beeb's s own reporter in the field couldn't believe how the BBC was portraying *his own reports*! BBC's reporting was so slanted against the war and toward the Iraqi regime position that UK's own ships were shutting it off and refusing to watch the nonsense. From the British Press: ------------------------ "The BBC's coverage of the war has come under fire from one of its own correspondents in the Gulf who has fired off a furious memo claiming the corporation is misleading viewers about the conflict in Iraq. Paul Adams, the BBC's defence correspondent who is based at the coalition command centre in Qatar, complained that the corporation was conveying a untruthful picture of how the war was progressing. .... "Who dreamed up the line that the coalition are achieving 'small victories at a very high price?' The truth is exactly the opposite. The gains are huge and costs still relatively low. This is real warfare, however one-sided, and losses are to be expected," Adams continued. "BBC man criticises 'war bias'" The Guardian http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,7493,922206,00.html ----------------------- "Paul Adams attacks the Beeb for misreporting the Allied advance in a blistering memo leaked to The Sun. And he warned the BBC's credibility is at risk for suggesting British troops are paying a 'high price for small victories'. The Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2003140559,00.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So Paul Adams feels the BBC's credibility is at risk. So what? Most/many readers here would say that I (editor) 'have no credibility' since I began criticizing the war. Isn't the truth basically that anyone who does not march to Dubya's tune 'has no credibility'? Ask almost anyone, they can set you straight on that. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. 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Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V22 #449 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 13 20:09:08 2003 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id h4E097p02217; Tue, 13 May 2003 20:09:08 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 20:09:08 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200305140009.h4E097p02217@massis.lcs.mit.edu> X-Authentication-Warning: massis.lcs.mit.edu: ptownson set sender to editor@telecom-digest.org using -f To: ptownson cc: johnl@iecc.com Approved: patsnewlist Subject: TELECOM Digest V22 #450 TELECOM Digest Tue, 13 May 2003 20:09:00 EDT Volume 22 : Issue 450 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Memorandum of Understanding Internet Administration [Domain Name Issue] 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About Service (Gail M. Hall) Wireless Network Architecture Cost Ranges (Fletcher) A Vonage Hack or, Is This The Party to Whom I am Connected (John Levine) Last Laugh! Re: Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Tech (Dan Johnson) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. WE DO NOT PERMIT NAME/EMAIL ADDRESS HARVESTING FROM THIS JOURNAL. 'SALTED' EMAIL ADDRESSES APPEAR HEREIN TO VERIFY THIS. YOU GET SUED IN SMALL CLAIMS COURT IF YOU GET CAUGHT SPAMMING OR SENDING VIRUSES. DON'T DO IT. See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: The-Butterfly-Guy@surfmeister.net (The Butterfly Guy) Subject: Memorandum of Understanding Internet Administration [Domain Name] Date: 13 May 2003 13:14:23 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ ICANN is seeking public comment on additional gTLD domain name allocations. see http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-03may03.htm This is a subject that every person involved in the telecom industry should be aware of and comment on. __________________________________________________ MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS I. PARTIES This document constitutes an agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC or USG) and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a not-for-profit corporation. II. PURPOSE A. Background On July 1, 1997, as part of the Administration's Framework for Global Electronic Commerce, the President directed the Secretary of Commerce to privatize the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that increases competition and facilitates international participation in its management. On June 5, 1998, the DOC published its Statement of Policy, Management of Internet Names and Addresses, 63 Fed. Reg. 31741(1998) (Statement of Policy). The Statement of Policy addressed the privatization of the technical management of the DNS in a manner that allows for the development of robust competition in the management of Internet names and addresses. In the Statement of Policy, the DOC stated its intent to enter an agreement with a not-for-profit entity to establish a process to transition current U.S. Government management of the DNS to such an entity based on the principles of stability, competition, bottom-up coordination, and representation. B. Purpose Before making a transition to private sector DNS management, the DOC requires assurances that the private sector has the capability and resources to assume the important responsibilities related to the technical management of the DNS. To secure these assurances, the Parties will collaborate on this DNS Project (DNS Project). In the DNS Project, the Parties will jointly design, develop, and test the mechanisms, methods, and procedures that should be in place and the steps necessary to transition management responsibility for DNS functions now performed by, or on behalf of, the U.S. Government to a private-sector not-for-profit entity. Once testing is successfully completed, it is contemplated that management of the DNS will be transitioned to the mechanisms, methods, and procedures designed and developed in the DNS Project. In the DNS Project, the parties will jointly design, develop, and test the mechanisms, methods, and procedures to carry out the following DNS management functions: a. Establishment of policy for and direction of the allocation of IP number blocks; b. Oversight of the operation of the authoritative root server system; c. Oversight of the policy for determining the circumstances under which new top level domains would be added to the root system; d. Coordination of the assignment of other Internet technical parameters as needed to maintain universal connectivity on the Internet; and e. Other activities necessary to coordinate the specified DNS management functions, as agreed by the Parties. The Parties will jointly design, develop, and test the mechanisms, methods, and procedures that will achieve the transition without disrupting the functional operation of the Internet. The Parties will also prepare a joint DNS Project Report that documents the conclusions of the design, development, and testing. DOC has determined that this project can be done most effectively with the participation of ICANN. ICANN has a stated purpose to perform the described coordinating functions for Internet names and addresses and is the organization that best demonstrated that it can accommodate the broad and diverse interest groups that make up the Internet community. C. The Principles The Parties will abide by the following principles: 1. Stability This Agreement promotes the stability of the Internet and allows the Parties to plan for a deliberate move from the existing structure to a private-sector structure without disruption to the functioning of the DNS. The Agreement calls for the design, development, and testing of a new management system that will not harm current functional operations. 2. Competition This Agreement promotes the management of the DNS in a manner that will permit market mechanisms to support competition and consumer choice in the technical management of the DNS. This competition will lower costs, promote innovation, and enhance user choice and satisfaction. 3. Private, Bottom-Up Coordination This Agreement is intended to result in the design, development, and testing of a private coordinating process that is flexible and able to move rapidly enough to meet the changing needs of the Internet and of Internet users. This Agreement is intended to foster the development of a private sector management system that, as far as possible, reflects a system of bottom-up management. 4. Representation. This Agreement promotes the technical management of the DNS in a manner that reflects the global and functional diversity of Internet users and their needs. This Agreement is intended to promote the design, development, and testing of mechanisms to solicit public input, both domestic and international, into a private-sector decision making process. These mechanisms will promote the flexibility needed to adapt to changes in the composition of the Internet user community and their needs. III. AUTHORITIES A. DOC has authority to participate in the DNS Project with ICANN under the following authorities: (1) 15 U.S.C. § 1525, the DOC's Joint Project Authority, which provides that the DOC may enter into joint projects with nonprofit, research, or public organizations on matters of mutual interest, the cost of which is equitably apportioned; (2) 15 U.S.C. § 1512, the DOC's authority to foster, promote, and develop foreign and domestic commerce; (3) 47 U.S.C. § 902, which specifically authorizes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to coordinate the telecommunications activities of the Executive Branch and assist in the formulation of policies and standards for those activities including, but not limited to, considerations of interoperability, privacy, security, spectrum use, and emergency readiness; (4) Presidential Memorandum on Electronic Commerce, 33 Weekly Comp. Presidential Documents 1006 (July 1, 1997), which directs the Secretary of Commerce to transition DNS management to the private sector; and (5) Statement of Policy, Management of Internet Names and Addresses, (63 Fed. Reg. 31741(1998) (Attachment A), which describes the manner in which the Department of Commerce will transition DNS management to the private sector. B. ICANN has the authority to participate in the DNS Project, as evidenced in its Articles of Incorporation (Attachment B) and Bylaws (Attachment C). Specifically, ICANN has stated that its business purpose is to: (i) coordinate the assignment of Internet technical parameters as needed to maintain universal connectivity on the Internet; (ii) perform and oversee functions related to the coordination of the Internet Protocol (IP) address space; (iii) perform and oversee functions related to the coordination of the Internet domain name system, including the development of policies for determining the circumstances under which new top-level domains are added to the DNS root system; (iv) oversee operation of the authoritative Internet DNS root server system; and (v) engage in any other related lawful activity in furtherance of Items (i) through (iv). IV. MUTUAL INTEREST OF THE PARTIES Both DOC and ICANN have a mutual interest in a transition that ensures that future technical management of the DNS adheres to the principles of stability, competition, coordination, and representation as published in the Statement of Policy. ICANN has declared its commitment to these principles in its Bylaws. This Agreement is essential for the DOC to ensure continuity and stability in the performance of technical management of the DNS now performed by, or on behalf of, the U.S. Government. Together, the Parties will collaborate on the DNS Project to achieve the transition without disruption. V. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE PARTIES A. General. 1. The Parties agree to jointly participate in the DNS Project for the design, development, and testing of the mechanisms, methods and procedures that should be in place for the private sector to manage the functions delineated in the Statement of Policy in a transparent, non-arbitrary, and reasonable manner. 2. The Parties agree that the mechanisms, methods, and procedures developed under the DNS Project will ensure that private-sector technical management of the DNS shall not apply standards, policies, procedures or practices inequitably or single out any particular party for disparate treatment unless justified by substantial and reasonable cause and will ensure sufficient appeal procedures for adversely affected members of the Internet community. 3. Before the termination of this Agreement, the Parties will collaborate on a DNS Project Report that will document ICANN's test of the policies and procedures designed and developed pursuant to this Agreement. 4. The Parties agree to execute the following responsibilities in accordance with the Principles and Purpose of this Agreement as set forth in section II. B. DOC. The DOC agrees to perform the following activities and provide the following resources in support of the DNS Project: 1. Provide expertise and advice on existing DNS management functions. 2. Provide expertise and advice on methods and administrative procedures for conducting open, public proceedings concerning policies and procedures that address the technical management of the DNS. 3. Identify with ICANN the necessary software, databases, know-how, other equipment, and intellectual property necessary to design, develop, and test methods and procedures of the DNS Project. 4. Participate, as necessary, in the design, development, and testing of the methods and procedures of the DNS Project to ensure continuity including coordination between ICANN and Network Solutions, Inc. 5. Collaborate on a study on the design, development, and testing of a process for making the management of the root server system more robust and secure. This aspect of the DNS Project will address: a. Operational requirements of root name servers, including host hardware capacities, operating system and name server software versions, network connectivity, and physical environment. b. Examination of the security aspects of the root name server system and review of the number, location, and distribution of root name servers considering the total system performance, robustness, and reliability. c. Development of operational procedures for the root server system, including formalization of contractual relationships under which root servers throughout the world are operated. 6. Consult with the international community on aspects of the DNS Project. 7. Provide general oversight of activities conducted pursuant to this Agreement. 8. Maintain oversight of the technical management of DNS functions currently performed either directly, or subject to agreements with the U.S. Government, until such time as further agreement(s) are arranged as necessary, for the private sector to undertake management of specific DNS technical management functions. C. ICANN. ICANN agrees to perform the following activities and provide the following resources in support of the DNS Project and further agrees to undertake the following activities pursuant to its procedures as set forth in Attachment B (Articles of Incorporation) and Attachment C (By-Laws), as they may be revised from time to time in conformity with the DNS Project: 1. Provide expertise and advice on private sector functions related to technical management of the DNS such as the policy and direction of the allocation of IP number blocks and coordination of the assignment of other Internet technical parameters as needed to maintain universal connectivity on the Internet. 2. Collaborate on the design, development and testing of procedures by which members of the Internet community adversely affected by decisions that are in conflict with the bylaws of the organization can seek external review of such decisions by a neutral third party. 3. Collaborate on the design, development, and testing of a plan for introduction of competition in domain name registration services, including: a. Development of procedures to designate third parties to participate in tests conducted pursuant to this Agreement. b. Development of an accreditation procedure for registrars and procedures that subject registrars to consistent requirements designed to promote a stable and robustly competitive DNS, as set forth in the Statement of Policy. c. Identification of the software, databases, know-how, intellectual property, and other equipment necessary to implement the plan for competition; 4. Collaborate on written technical procedures for operation of the primary root server including procedures that permit modifications, additions or deletions to the root zone file. 5. Collaborate on a study and process for making the management of the root server system more robust and secure. This aspect of the Project will address: a. Operational requirements of root name servers, including host hardware capacities, operating system and name server software versions, network connectivity, and physical environment. b. Examination of the security aspects of the root name server system and review of the number, location , and distribution of root name servers considering the total system performance; robustness, and reliability. c. Development of operational procedures for the root system, including formalization of contractual relationships under which root servers throughout the world are operated. 6. Collaborate on the design, development and testing of a process for affected parties to participate in the formulation of policies and procedures that address the technical management of the Internet. This process will include methods for soliciting, evaluating and responding to comments in the adoption of policies and procedures. 7. Collaborate on the development of additional policies and procedures designed to provide information to the public. 8. Collaborate on the design, development, and testing of appropriate membership mechanisms that foster accountability to and representation of the global and functional diversity of the Internet and its users, within the structure of private- sector DNS management organization. 9. Collaborate on the design, development and testing of a plan for creating a process that will consider the possible expansion of the number of gTLDs. The designed process should consider and take into account the following: a. The potential impact of new gTLDs on the Internet root server system and Internet stability. b. The creation and implementation of minimum criteria for new and existing gTLD registries. c. Potential consumer benefits/costs associated with establishing a competitive environment for gTLD registries. d. Recommendations regarding trademark/domain name policies set forth in the Statement of Policy; recommendations made by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) concerning: (i) the development of a uniform approach to resolving trademark/domain name disputes involving cyberpiracy; (ii) a process for protecting famous trademarks in the generic top level domains; (iii) the effects of adding new gTLDs and related dispute resolution procedures on trademark and intellectual property holders; and recommendations made by other independent organizations concerning trademark/domain name issues. 10. Collaborate on other activities as appropriate to fulfill the purpose of this Agreement, as agreed by the Parties. D. Prohibitions. 1. ICANN shall not act as a domain name Registry or Registrar or IP Address Registry in competition with entities affected by the plan developed under this Agreement. Nothing, however, in this Agreement is intended to prevent ICANN or the USG from taking reasonable steps that are necessary to protect the operational stability of the Internet in the event of the financial failure of a Registry or Registrar or other emergency. 2. Neither Party, either in the DNS Project or in any act related to the DNS Project, shall act unjustifiably or arbitrarily to injure particular persons or entities or particular categories of persons or entities. 3. Both Parties shall act in a non-arbitrary and reasonable manner with respect to design, development, and testing of the DNS Project and any other activity related to the DNS Project. VI. EQUITABLE APPORTIONMENT OF COSTS The costs of this activity are equitably apportioned, and each party shall bear the costs of its own activities under this Agreement. This Agreement contemplates no transfer of funds between the Parties. Each Party's estimated costs for the first six months of this Agreement are attached hereto. The Parties shall review these estimated costs in light of actual expenditures at the completion of the first six month period and will ensure costs will be equitably apportioned. VII. PERIOD OF AGREEMENT AND MODIFICATION/TERMINATION This Agreement will become effective when signed by all parties. The Agreement will terminate on September 30, 2000, but may be amended at any time by mutual agreement of the parties. Either party may terminate this Agreement by providing one hundred twenty (120) days written notice to the other party. In the event this Agreement is terminated, each party shall be solely responsible for the payment of any expenses it has incurred. This Agreement is subject to the availability of funds. Joe Sims Counsel to ICANN Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue 1450 G Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20005-2088 J. Beckwith Burr Associate Administrator, NTIA U.S. Department of Commerce Washington, D.C. 20230 PARTIES ESTIMATED SIX MONTH COSTS A. ICANN Costs to be borne by ICANN over the first six months of this Agreement include: development of Accreditation Guidelines for Registries; review of Technical Specifications for Shared Registries; formation and operation of Government, Root Server, Membership and Independent Review Advisor Committees; advice on formation of and review of applications for recognition by Supporting Organizations; promulgation of conflicts of interest policies; review and adoption of At-Large membership and elections processes and independent review procedures, etc; quarterly regular Board meetings and associated costs (including open forums, travel, staff support and communications infrastructure); travel, administrative support and infrastructure for additional open forums to be determined; internal executive, technical and administrative costs; legal and other professional services; and related other costs. The estimated six month budget (subject to change and refinement over time) is $750,000 - 1 million. B. DOC Costs to be borne by DOC over the first six months of this Agreement include: maintenance of DNS technical management functions currently performed by, or subject to agreements with, the U.S. Government, expertise and advice on existing DNS management functions; expertise and advice on administrative procedures; examination and review of the security aspects of the Root Server System (including travel and technical expertise); consultations with the international community on aspects of the DNS Project (including travel and communications costs); general oversight of activities conducted pursuant to the Agreement; staff support equal to half-time dedication of 4-5 full time employees, travel, administrative support, communications and related other costs. The estimate six month budget (subject to change and refinement over time) is $250,000 - $350,000. posted @ http://www.postal-service.info/internet-administration.html ------------------------------ From: Gail M. Hall Subject: 911 Operators Getting Addresses and More Qs About the Service Date: Tue, 13 May 2003 17:56:57 -0400 Reply-To: gmhall@apk.net One of the first questions the operator will ask people is "What is the address?" The fact of the matter is that sometimes people don't know the exact address of the place they are calling from. I was surprised a couple nights ago when they played some of the 911 call tapes on a TV news broadcast. Callers stated very clearly the name of the building they were in and that the building was on the campus of the university, which they also named. Callers said there was shooting going on there. But the operator wants to know the exact address. If a person is hiding in a closet or under a desk, how is he supposed to know what the exact address is? He did know the name of the street the building was on. I have been to many public buildings but couldn't begin to know the actual street address. Often, you can't see the address from the street! Many of the 911 calls made that day were from cell phones, so I can understand why the operator might not have had an exact address. But shouldn't they have a database about most of the well known buildings in the city? If the caller says he is in the such-and-such building on such-and-such college campus, shouldn't they have that in their database? I have also wondered about the environment the operators have to work in. Are they provided with good earphones that help stop noise from other operators and the sounds of fans and equipment around them? Many of the callers on Friday had to speak very softly to prevent the "perp" from knowing where they were. If the 911 operators have to work in a noisy room, they will have too much difficulty hearing a caller who must speak softly in order to protect himself/herself. I used to do medical transcription, and I was never able to find really good earphones that could filter out the sounds around me. After a number of years working in a noisy environment and having to turn up the volume on my machine to hear the dictation, my hearing became impaired as much as rock music fans' ears are. Not fun! I was impressed that apparently some 911 operators were able to keep some callers on the line over several hours so that people on the outside could get information about what was going on. I suspect that they must have had some way of patching in to others such as the police and still have some lines available for "normal" emergency calls. But it did make me wonder how many extra lines they can have available for such emergencies or whether cities can borrow each others' services as needed. All in all, it seems our 911 service was able to get information to the police quickly and help to relay needed information and also help calm people inside a building that was being attacked by a madman. Gail in Ohio USA ------------------------------ From: kaplankele@hotmail.com (Fletcher) Subject: Wireless Network Architecture Cost Ranges Date: 13 May 2003 15:45:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ Hi, I need cost value ranges ( signalling, switching, bandwidth and power consumption costs) for different kinds of wireless networking architectures ( Wireless LAN, UMTS, Satellite,GSM etc. ) for my research project. If anyone has experience with these values to use in simulating the wireless systems/networks, I would definitely appreciate your assistance. Thanks in advance. ------------------------------ Date: 13 May 2003 15:30:47 -0400 From: John R Levine Subject: A Vonage Hack or, Is This the Party to Whom I am Connected? Vonage has a nice call transfer feature. If you're on the phone with party A, you can flash, dial #90, party B's number, # and hang up. It then calls party B and the call continues between A and B. I use it to transfer to my ILEC phone when my net connection is crummy, to my cell phone when I have to leave, etc. You can use it regardless of whether you or party A originated the first call. The hack is that when party B's phone rings, the CLID displayed is party A's, even if you made both calls. That is, call A, then transfer to B, and B sees a call from A, not from you. Just think of the fun you can have. It works even if A is an 800 number. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" Information Superhighwayman wannabe http://iecc.com/johnl Sewer Commissioner "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ From: panoptes@iquest.net (Daniel W. Johnson) Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Goodbye, Spam: MSN Employs Innovative Tech Date: 13 May 2003 12:31:40 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com/ TELECOM Digest Editor Noted in Response to someone: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I do not pay that much attention to > Usenet news with the exception of the various telecom newsgroups. Do > people actually use HTML stuff in messages there? PAT] Only once. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What happens then, after that first time? Do you give them a merciful death? I know I get tons of messages with HTML in them here at the Digest. When occassionally I can go snip-snip and get rid of the HTML but keep the gist of the message I do that (under the assumption it is worth using, so many are not) but many/most of the HTML things are so *full* of obscure tags even with my patience of a saint I grow weary trying to make anything legible out of them and just pitch them. I had one here in the Digest the other day which started out as 28K of text (including all the tags) and by the time I got rid of all the tags there was only about 2 K of actual text, and I was rather proud of the way it turned out in the Digest, although I thought the guy was full of bologna in his message. Most of them though, I just put in the trash can. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of networks such as Compuserve and America On Line, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Patrick Townson. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. 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