From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Mar 12 00:45:53 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i2C5jr207917; Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:45:53 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:45:53 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200403120545.i2C5jr207917@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 V23 #117 TELECOM Digest Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:46:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 117 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Satellite Seeks Broadband Re-Entry (Monty Solomon) FTC Chairman Doubtful of Anti-Spam List (Monty Solomon) EchoStar Ergen Calls Viacom Deal 'Good Enough' (Monty Solomon) Re: EchoStar May Lose More After Removing Viacom's CBS (J Kelly) Re: Spam and the Law was Re: The Price of Email (ellis@no.spam) Vonage Forward-on-Busy to Landline (Chainsman) Re: Seen on a Manhole Cover (Tony P.) Re: Seen on a Manhole Cover (Steven J Sobol) Re: One Cell Phone / Two Numbers? (Lincoln King-Cliby) Re: One Cell Phone / Two Numbers? (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. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk is definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 22:24:46 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Satellite Seeks Broadband Re-entry By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com Hughes Electronics swallowed a bitter pill last year when it ended an ambitious partnership with America Online to deliver high-speed Internet access over the Hughes satellite network. The severance of the $1.5 billion deal offered a tacit admission that the satellite industry's costly attempt to step into the broadband ring was an abysmal failure. The technology was expensive, both for the satellite companies and for consumers. And the competition was fierce, as evidenced by cable modem and DSL's (digital subscriber line) overwhelming dominance of the U.S. broadband market. Now, despite ongoing technical and economic reservations, satellite companies including DirecTV-parent Hughes and refinanced start-up WildBlue are preparing risky plans to re-enter the broadband business -- a reversal that signals they can't afford to sit out the race. http://news.com.com/2100-1034-5172088.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:45:30 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FTC Chairman Doubtful of Anti-Spam List By JENNIFER C. KERR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday he is skeptical that a national anti-spam list will mean fewer unwanted e-mails for computer users. The federal "Can Spam" legislation that went into effect Jan. 1 encourages the agency to create a "do-not-spam" list of e-mail addresses. It is similar to the FTC's popular do-not-call registry that blocks unwanted phone calls from telemarketers. People would sign up for the service and submit their e-mail addresses to the government. E-mail senders would then be barred from e-mailing those addresses. The FTC is due to submit a report to Congress by mid-June on establishing such a list. Chairman Timothy Muris, repeating comments he made before the bill passed, said he does not think the FTC can come up with a way to enforce such a list and significantly reduce unwanted e-mail. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40804923 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:56:45 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EchoStar Ergen Calls Viacom Deal 'Good Enough' NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Charlie Ergen, chief executive of EchoStar Communications Inc. (DISH), acknowledged that the contract with Viacom Inc. ( VIAB) isn't as good as he had wanted but it is "good enough." Speaking on a conference call Thursday, Ergen said he believed the final contract is "fair and balanced." Viacom and EchoStar announced a long-term, multi-channel deal early Thursday morning, ending a bitter, public dispute during which EchoStar pulled CBS, MTV, VH1 and other Viacom channels off its system for some 48 hours. The companies also said EchoStar dropped its lawsuit, filed in January, against Viacom. EchoStar accused the media giant of illegally forcing carriage of additional channels as a condition to carry CBS. Ergen didn't disclose the length or financial terms of the contract. He said only that the deal is within the industry norm of three to seven years. He also said he wouldn't dispute Viacom's assertions that the deal asked for price increases of 6 cents per customer. Ergen had previously refuted that figure, saying Viacom had demanded a 40% price hike over the life of the contract. EchoStar, in its agreement, agreed to carry the channels it was previously dead-set against, such as Noggin. Ergen appeared to backtrack on some of his previous statements, saying that he saw value in some of the new channels. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200403111919_DJB_000980 ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: EchoStar May Lose More After Removing Viacom's CBS Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 15:43:15 -0600 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Wed, 10 Mar 2004 15:46:45 -0600, J Kelly wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Channel 101? Isn't that a premium extra > pay (outside the basic range) channel? They want you to pay extra to > listen to Mr. Ergen? It is a premium channel here on Cable One. Our > basic channels are 2 through 62 (sixty channels total, no one or four). > One hundred up here are things like MTV-2 and Showtime Movies. I do > not get any of that. PAT] On Dish channels start with 100 (except local into local are on their OTA channel). Premiums (HBO etc) start on 300 ------------------------------ From: ellis@no.spam Subject: Re: Spam and the Law was Re: The Price of Email is Constant Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 00:13:30 -0000 Organization: S.P.C.A.A. In article , wrote: > An extremely simple and easy to implement approach is for major > ISP's to block ALL outbound traffic to port 25 (SMTP). Force all > customers on their networks to relay outbound mail through the > ISP's mail server. I agree with this but only if they ISP makes provisions for a customer to be allowed to run his own mail server. ------------------------------ From: Chainsman Subject: Vonage Forward-on-Busy to Landline Date: 11 Mar 2004 17:31:27 -0800 Organization: http://netscape.net/ I have two Vonage lines. I want the busy line to forward to the second line, and when the second line is busy I want it to forward to another telephone line (not to voice mail). I cannot get Vonage to do this with call forwarding or with call hunt -- when both lines are busy it goes straight to voice mail but I want it to go to another phone number. Please tell me how I can get this working, or if it's possible. They already do this for call-forwarding but it doesn't seem to work when the phone is busy, only when the phone rings for a number of seconds. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You need to go to the dashboard thing where you review/adjust your Vonage account. From there you go to the 'features' and turn the voicemail OFF. From there, go to the advanced features area where you adjust the order you want your lines to ring in. Lastly, set the amount of time to forward your calls down to the minimum five seconds, which is one ring or less. Don't forget to save your changes as you go along, then **allow a few minutes for Vonage to get the changes into your account**. That should accomplish what you want. Turning the time to wait down to five seconds is needed, (that's the lowest time slot available), If you want voicemail ON for the calls on the one line turn it back on while leaving the other line forwarding to number X only. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Seen on a Manhole Cover Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 02:24:06 GMT In article , chsvideo@hotmail.com says: > Thus my question "what was this doing there?" I know its not campus > related -- all of the overhead access to the tunnel system is through > square "hatches" (mostly we use normal doors, but they're there just > in case) -- plus the tunnel system doesn't pass near this point -- and > every other manhole I've seen is labeled "ELEC ##", "STORM DRAIN", > "TELECOM ##", "SEWER", etc. where ## is the number used on prints to > identify that vault, so I don't think it was some cost-saving/recycling > thing. > What gives -- why to we have a GTE manhole out there? > And by the way, what exactly is a "DMS 100 large remote," anyways? It's probably trunk lines that run under the campus. ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Seen on a Manhole Cover Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 22:04:59 -0600 Lincoln J. King-Cliby wrote: > I was walking across campus today and noticed one of the manhole > covers blended in with the sorounding concrete better than most had "G > T E Telephone" welded in fairly small (1" or so) letters around the > border. > What gives -- why to we have a GTE manhole out there? Where is San Marcos? I'm in 760 too, but I have a feeling you are much closer to San Diego than I am. DMS-100 is a telco switch. I forget who the manufacturer is. (Nortel?) JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but I didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 18:47:30 -0800 From: Lincoln King-Cliby Organization: Is the sign of a sick mind Subject: Re: One Cell Phone / Two Numbers? [Hi, Pat - For Spam control, please remove my email address] Chris Hackett wrote: > Hi, > Does anyone have any information on phones or carriers that support > having two phone numbers active in the same phone at the same time? > I'm going to have to start carrying a cell phone for my work. I > really want to avoid carrying two cell phones around with me all the > time. > I've gotten all sorts of conflicting information regarding this > potential functionality. Any information on specific phones or > carriers that you know who support this functionality (if it exists) > would sure be appreciated! > Thanks, > Chris Hackett > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Any number of carriers will support > this. There are many cell phone manufacturers who manufacture 'Dual > NAM' or 'Quad NAM' service. Buy a 'Dual-' or 'Quad-NAM' phone > then ask any cell phone company to turn it on with two numbers. The > only catch is, **only one of the two (four) numbers can actually be > in service at any time. Incoming calls to the other number(s) are > reported as 'out of area' to the caller. The nature of cell phones > is such that two or more numbers, both on the same phone available > at the same time, is impossible. You have to switch that software in > and out each time (which is done with a few key presses.) The 'out of > area' calls go to voice mail for your retrieval. Pat - This isn't quite true -- most (all?) of Nextel's recent phones offer have "alternate line service" as an (extra cost), and their marketing info touts this (one line for business, one line for personal) as a primary use of the feature. Info: http://www.nextel.com/services/digitalcellular/alternatelineservice.shtml My university-issued i90c only has one number on it, so I don't know first hand how this feature works, but I do know that: - There is an icon on the display showing "1" or "2" as the line that an outgoing call would be placed on. - Every time I place a call, the display shows "Line 1 - Connected [phone #] to indicate what line a call was received or placed on. From what I understand, you can flip from one line to the other with very few key presses, and I also believe that you can conference call the two lines together on some phones. Since I have call waiting on my one line, I'm assuming the same thing would happen with "alternate line service" enabled, i.e. if you were on your personal line (Line 2) and a call came in you would get a beep and the display would say something to the effect of "Line 1 - Incoming Call ###########. Take call?" (If you answer no, it dumps to voicemail after giving the caller 4 rings, I'm not sure what happens to the existing call if you choose to take the new one). Lincoln ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 21:37:48 -0600 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: One Cell Phone / Two Numbers? Chris Hackett wrote: > I'm going to have to start carrying a cell phone for my work. I > really want to avoid carrying two cell phones around with me all the > time. My Verizon cellphone on the cheapest plan available, includes "alternate answer" and "busy transfer" which will forward calls from that phone to any other number. I've got them disabled, but you could use them to forward your personal cell number to the business one (or vice versa) then carry only the downstream phone. I use this scheme to forward my landline office phone to my cell. It's better than Call Forwarding because it's cheaper (I pay about $1.30/month extra on the landline) plus you don't have to remember to turn it on or off. Of course, you pay for forwarding the calls -- on the landline this means I pay a penny or two per minute. I dunno how the cellular people handle it; maybe it counts against your minutes? I don't imagine it would be gratis ... Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin ------------------------------ 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, Yahoo Groups, 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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