From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 2 03:54:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i328sM129560; Fri, 2 Apr 2004 03:54:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 03:54:23 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404020854.i328sM129560@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 #157 TELECOM Digest Fri, 2 Apr 2004 03:53:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 157 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson BroadVoice Announces the Launch of Broadband Voice Service (VOIP News) Vonage Apparently Now in Canada; Offering Canadian Numbers (VOIP News) Hot-spot Wi-Fi Business (D. Jones) Carrier Class Managed Ethernet Switch; Mission Critical Apps (mktg) Exporting America (John Stahl) Norvergence Documentary (Eric Claiborne) Re: Flat Rate Plans and Modems; was Re: AOL Connection (Tony P.) Re: Excel Communications (J Kelly) Re: Buying Books on the Net (John A. Weeks III) Re: I Want to Block Anonymous/Name Unavailable/Unwanted (John Chmerold) Re: Teen Girl Charged With Posting Nude Photo on Internet (Linc Madison) Re: AOL Connection Leads to $2,500 Phone Bill (John Levine) Re: Amazon Patents Cookies (Me) Google Says "Gmail" is No Joke, But Lunar Jobs Are (Monty Solomon) US Court Rejects Revisiting Cable Broadband Ruling (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. =========================== 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 are 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 14:14:03 -0500 Subject: BroadVoice Announces the Launch of Its Broadband Voice Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com Comment: Before doing business with this company, I suggest you read the comments (both pro and con) on the VoIP Forum at BroadbandReports.com . There seems to be a lot of controversy concerning the way this company has promoted itself, and the operation of its service during the beta test period, and that's all I'll say about it. http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040401005464&newsLang=en April 01, 2004 11:55 AM US Eastern Timezone BroadVoice Announces the Launch of Its Broadband Voice Service for Consumers and Small Businesses; New Company Offers Unlimited Calling at Unprecedented Value LOWELL, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 2004--BroadVoice, a new kind of Communications Company, today announced the immediate availability of its voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service. Coupled with an existing high-speed Internet connection, the company's service allows consumers to make and receive phone calls anywhere in the world. Subscribers benefit from unlimited domestic calling options, lower international rates, and a suite of advanced features not found with either traditional telephone service or other VoIP providers. The announcement, which occurred at the Voice on the Net (VON) conference in Santa Clara, CA introduces an unprecedented value proposition to the VoIP community and consumers at large. Entry prices are the best the market has to offer and include an Unlimited In-State plan for just $9.95 a month and an Unlimited USA calling plan for $19.95 a month. BroadVoice subscribers can choose a direct-dial telephone number from any of the 30 states and 1,300 cities and towns the company currently offers, regardless of the user's geographic location. All BroadVoice accounts come with voicemail, caller ID, call waiting and a suite of 21 other advanced calling features (more than any other VoIP provider) at no additional charge. All features are available through the company's interactive communications portal. Full press release at: http://www.broadvoice.com/areacodes.html How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 21:58:32 -0500 Subject: Vonage Apparently Now in Canada and Offering Canadian Numbers Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com I found out via a message posted on BroadbandReports.com that Vonage is now doing business in Canada, or at least their Canadian web site is up and running: http://www.vonage.ca/ As in parts of the United States, they tend to "cherry pick" the most populous ratecenters, offering only a very few ratecenters in each province they serve. Strangely, in Ontario they do not show Toronto (Canada's largest city) or any ratecenter close to Toronto -- the only four ratecenters they offer right now are Kitchener, London, Ottawa, and Hamilton. They apparently have NO numbers in Toronto, Windsor, Sarnia, Barrie, Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay, etc. Customers in one country (Canada or the U.S.) can only have a number in the other country as a "Virtual Number" -- that means that their primary Vonage number must be in their home country. That might be a problem for some users because on an outgoing call, it's the primary number that shows up on the called party's Caller ID display. Also, regional calling plans are based on the primary number. Rates shown on the Vonage Canada site are $45.99 for the Premium Unlimited Plan, $34.99 for a Province Unlimited Plan, and $19.99 for a Basic 500 Plan. Presumably, those amounts are in Canadian dollars. There is also a "Regulatory Recovery Fee" of $1.95 per line, so bear that in mind when comparing prices to other companies that don't charge this fee. One reply message in the thread I saw notes that 911 is "coming soon" and that Toll Free Plus (incoming toll free numbers available at an extra monthly charge to U.S. customers) is apparently not available, and that there seems to be other differences in the offerings in the two countries as well. If you live or work in Canada, and Vonage has a number in a ratecenter you want, then it might be a good deal. Otherwise, there are less expensive U.S.-based VoIP companies that offer unlimited calling to both the U.S. and Canada, and that may even be willing to do business directly with customers in Canada (Packet8 comes to mind, but that is not a recommendation, because I've read mixed reports about their service quality). The thread on BroadbandReports.com is here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,9848404~mode=flat [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: USA customers of Vonage are able to choose 416/Toronto numbers for Virtual numbers however, if they wish. And the prices they quote on their Canadian web page are quoted in Canadian dollars. USA customers can also have virtual numbers in area codes in various Canadian cities. Also, on vonage.ca I do see where Canadian residents can have 416/Toronto code numbers if desired. ------------------------------ Subject: Hot-Spot Wi-Fi Business From: D. Jones Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 01:32:11 GMT I would like to operate a profitable hot-spot (Wi-Fi) service for my community. People would access my network for a $1 a day in our communities cafe's and parks. I'm thinking to have about 8 hot spots. How much would a hot spot cost to run? Also, how could I collect payments? Is there a hot-spot management system out there? ------------------------------ From: mktg@garrettcom.com Subject: Carrier Class Managed Ethernet Switch for Mission Critical Apps Date: 1 Apr 2004 15:57:56 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com GarrettCom's new model Magnum 6K16 Managed Ethernet Switch provides a compact package and configuration flexibility and is available with fan cooling and rack mounting, ideal for the carrier class customer. One rack-mount option is to mount two units side-by-side in a 19" rack for redundancy and hot back-up systems in mission-critical applications. For more information go to: http://garrettcom.com/6k16.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 15:55:40 -0500 From: John Stahl Subject: Exporting America A friend was telling me yesterday that he had a problem with his Palm PDA which necessitated calling Palm customer service. When he connected through their 800-customer service number, he soon found that he was talking to a gentleman in India. My friend's experience prompted me to do a search to see if anyone is keeping the count of all the companies who are outsourcing labor outside the USA. I was surprised (and appalled) when I located, on the CNN Internet site, an extensive list of these companies. The CNN site describes their list as: "Here is a list of companies we've confirmed are "Exporting America." These are U.S. companies either sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers." Since the list is too large to reproduce in an email, here is the URL so you can see for yourself the corporations who have done so: (just "click" on the name) URL: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/frameset.exclude.html John Stahl Aljon Enterprises Telecom/Data Consultant [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Interesting you should mention this. A story in the Independence Reporter for Monday of this week listed one such office that surprised all of us who saw it: The State of Kansas, Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services (known locally as SRS) has 'outsourced' its client services operations to India also. That is, when I call the 800 number to inquire about my SRS benefits under Kansas Medicaid, etc, I am dealing with someone in India. The story in the Reporter really questioned that. "Is there no one here in Independence or Coffeyville working for six or seven dollars an hour who can't handle this?" Topeka (state capitol)'s answer: Yes, but we can get it a lot cheaper in India." Amazing. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Norvergence Documentary Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 14:41:08 -0500 From: Eric Claiborne Hello, We have been approached by Norvergence for a proposal to be our all-in-one data/telephone service provider. In doing research on this company, I came accross this document on your website. Here is the link: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/reports/norvergence2.doc I was kind of concerned about something like this with this company. So far, we have been told about the 5-year deal and the equipment you mention in the document. This document seems authentic but it does not claim the source of the person who did this research. I just want to make sure this is a valid analysis of Norvergence's services. Please let me know and thank you for your information on this. Eric F. Claiborne Knox Nursery, Inc. I.S. Manager 407.293.3721 eclaiborne@knoxnursery.com www.knoxnursery.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I referred Mr. Claiborne to other articles in our archives and elsewhere on the net, both good and bad about the company. He reviewed these with his co-workers and then responded a few hours later: Subject: RE: Norvergence documentary Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 16:07:56 -0500 From: "Eric Claiborne" Thank you very much for you work in these matters. On such a sensitive issue of phone/data systems we have decided that a contract with this company is not worth ANY risk. We started to get leary when the answer to every question was "YES". That is usually the trademark of a B.S. artist. With the information we read from you and other sources, we cancelled our plans with them. Thanks again, Eric F. Claiborne Knox Nursery, Inc. I.S. Manager 407.293.3721 eclaiborne@knoxnursery.com www.knoxnursery.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's my job here, Mr. Claiborne, to collect facts and experiences our readers have with various telecom companies, including Norvergence. I am glad our archives was useful to you. http://telecom-digest.org PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Flat Rate Plans and Modems; was Re: AOL Connection Organization: ATCC Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 22:28:12 GMT In article , nospam@resi.com says: > On 1 Apr 2004 04:32:34 -0000 John Levine wrote about > Re: AOL Connection Leads to $2,500 Phone Bill > >> The AP story identifies the guy and his daughter by name, and says >> Qwest agreed to settle the bill for $375. >> I would think that was generous except that he could have signed up >> for flat rate long distance for $25 and the calls would have cost $0 >> above that. >> http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-03-30-aol-phone-bill_x.htm > The fine print I have seen on several of these plans specifically > excludes modem calls. I find the whole modem/fax surcharges to be ridiculous. Both are designed to utilize the 3Khz bandwidth of a standard phone line. And with regard to fax, most of those calls are < 5 minutes. Granted, when mux'ing all those calls a data/fax takes up the full 3Khz bandwidth, as opposed to other calls only taking it up a fraction of the time. But there is so much excess capacity in LD circuits that this shouldn't be an issue at all. Just wait until the RBOC's go whole hog into VoIP. ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Excel Communications Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 17:25:54 -0600 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Wed, 31 Mar 2004 23:11:00 -0600, John A. Weeks III wrote: > 2) Excel pays commissions in advance. > Excel does not pay out a single dime until a sales person makes a > sale to a number of customers, and those customers use the service > to generate revenue and commissions, You seem to contradict yourself here. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Buying Books on the Net Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 14:43:30 -0600 From: John A. Weeks III Organization: Newave Communications In article , C. Smith wrote: > I have bought dozens of books on the Net and, so far (touch wood), > without any problems. I have paid for most of transactions by credit > card. On occasions (at the suggestion of the bookseller), I have > emailed my CC number in two halves, by separate emails. Is this > sound practice for me and for the retailer? And am I exposing > myself to unnecessary risk? The risk is that the merchant (or whoever ends up with the card number) will use it again in the future without your permission. One way to protect against this is to use a one-time only credit card number. Major cards, such as Citibank, will allow you to go to their web site, where you put in your transaction information, and they issue a new credit card number that is good for one time only, to the merchant you specifiy, for the amount you specify. This eliminates the risk of using the card number again. > dollars. If I see something I want to purchase on the net, you can > always 'pretend' a debit card is a credit card, and use that 'credit > card' number to make the purchase. Two items to note. (1) Debit cards do not have any of the same protections that credit cards would otherwise have. In fact, corporate debit cards have almost no protections for fraud. (2) Once someone gets your debit card info, they can keep spamming your account, and might get future deposits that you put in, or at least generate overdraw notices or cause other debits to bounce. ==================================================================== John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john@johnweeks.com Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com ==================================================================== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 17:28:52 -0600 From: John Schmerold Subject: Re: I Want to Block Anonymous/Name Unavailable/Unwanted Three products come to mind. I use the first, want to move to the second and believe the third would make an excellent basis for a cheap Sandman box. http://identafone.com http://www.voicecallcentral.com http://vocp.sourceforge.net The reason I want to move to the second one is because it will allow you to send undesirable calls to voicemail. We use the first one at the computer store. Since we sell locally, I don't want calls from anywhere but 314 & 636 area codes. It's beautiful, no sales calls, no surveys, no free magazine subscriptions. The only calls we get are from our clients. Problem is that from time to time we have a client that has their caller id blocked or is calling from a 2-way that doesn't issue caller id. So, we'd like to assign someone to listen to the voice mails -- perhaps when they are sitting in the restroom -- yes I'm a tyrant. Now if I could only find a legal cell phone blocker ... ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Teen Girl Charged With Posting Nude Photos on Internet Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 16:47:35 -0800 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Monty Solomon wrote: [The story tells briefly of a 15yo girl who has been arrested for posting photos of herself "performing a variety of sexual acts" on the Internet. She has been charged with "sexual abuse of children, possession of child pornography and dissemination of child pornography."] Well, I should certainly hope that the authorities will be consistent and charge this horrible miscreant as an adult! It's rather like cases in Britain when the age of consent for two men was 21, even though it was 16 for a boy and a girl or for two girls. If a 20yo man was in a relationship with an older man, the younger one would be charged *as an adult* with the crime of facilitating the exploitation of a minor -- himself!! Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ Date: 2 Apr 2004 01:48:55 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: AOL Connection Leads to $2,500 Phone Bill Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA >> The AP story identifies the guy and his daughter by name, and says >> Qwest agreed to settle the bill for $375. >> I would think that was generous except that he could have signed up >> for flat rate long distance for $25 and the calls would have cost $0 >> above that. > Not exactly. The fast talker at the end of the spot for flat rate LD > states that internet access is not included in the rate plan :-) > Some lady in Chicago found that out. Um, Colorado != Illinois, and Qwest != SBC. I just spent 20 really boring minutes looking through the Qwest tariffs, and found the part that describes the unlimited LD service. It's actually 5 cents/min for the first 500 minutes, zero cents/min after that. It doesn't say anything about calling ISPs, but it does say that you can only use your residence phone for residence uses, and that flat rate really means 5,000 minutes per month. If you use more than that, they can demand that you prove that you're not misusing the service. Since 5000 minutes is 7 hours a day, 7 days a week, that doesn't seem like a really onerous limit unless you're using your phone as a long distance baby monitor.* Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://iecc.com/johnl, Sewer Commissioner "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly. * - A few years back when my daughter was quite small, she slept in her car seat in the car a lot better than she slept anywhere else. I had an analog AMPS car phone and a plan with unlimited nights weekends, so we'd often park the car in the driveway where we could see her from the house, call the house from the car phone and leave her on the speakerphone until we heard her wake up, as much as two or three hours later. ------------------------------ From: Me Subject: Re: Amazon Patents Cookies Date: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 02:22:08 GMT And I thought it was an April Fool's joke :) Barry Margolin wrote in message news:telecom23.156.16@telecom-digest.org: > Monty's subject line is *extremely* misleading. This patent is not > about cookies in general. It's about a specific technique for > encoding structured, binary data into the text-based cookies. The web > application makes use of a generic routine that takes a data structure > and a schema file to perform the translation; additional claims cover > mechanisms for tracking different versions of the data structure, so > that users who have old cookies saved on their computers can be > supported automatically, and things like encrypting the cookie. > Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu > Arlington, MA > *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 01:46:29 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google Says "Gmail" is No Joke, But Lunar Jobs Are http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/04/01/rtr1320652.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 02:05:48 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: US Court Rejects Revisiting Cable Broadband Ruling WASHINGTON, April 1 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider its decision that regulators mistakenly insulated cable companies that offer high-speed Internet from extensive regulations, like providing consumers a choice of Internet service providers. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in October that the Federal Communications Commission should have classified cable broadband as a telecommunications service instead of an information service. The court late on Wednesday denied requests to rehear the case. The FCC could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40987018 ------------------------------ 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. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #157 ******************************