From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 19 23:15:12 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3K3FCK23949; Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:15:12 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:15:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404200315.i3K3FCK23949@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 #195 TELECOM Digest Mon, 19 Apr 2004 23:14:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 195 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson The Nokia 6610i Phone: Fully MMS-Enabled Companion for Work (M Solomon) Leading Broadcast Companies to Deploy Products and Services (M Solomon) DVD Producer - WMV HD Edition (Monty Solomon) High-Definition Video Production Solution for Windows XP (Monty Solomon) HP Outlines Plan to Help Broadcast Industry Capitalize (Monty Solomon) HP and DreamWorks Give Innovation a Starring Role in "Shrek 2" (Solomon) Matsushita, Apple Develop Editing System (Monty Solomon) AT&T's CallVantage Service Expands to New York (Monty Solomon) Privacy Group Files Google Gmail Complaints (Monty Solomon) Affluent Americans Power Internet Growth (Monty Solomon) Sony Ericsson Reports a Strong Increase in Shipments (Monty Solomon) BellSouth Introduces 3.0Mbps Speed to Broadband Portfolio (M Solomon) Fiber Optics' Future Is Focus of SBC Test Project (Monty Solomon) Sprint, AT&T Wireless Reach Wi-Fi Deal (Monty Solomon) MCI Faces Tough Road After Exiting Bankruptcy (Monty Solomon) MIT'S Technology Review Magazine Recognize Lucent Technologies (Solomon) Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately (Tony P.) T1 Voice or E1 line in Germany (gb) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Tony P.) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Mark Crispin) Re: Signaling Reference (Shar) Telecom Changes, was Re: Who is "VOIP News"? (Danny Burstein) Verizon's Get It Now Vs. Sprint PCS's Vision (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. =========================== 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:52:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Nokia 6610i Phone: Fully MMS-Enabled Companion for Work The Nokia 6610i Phone: Fully MMS-Enabled Companion for Work And Leisure HELSINKI, Finland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004--Today Nokia introduced the new Nokia 6610i mobile phone, featuring an integrated camera, complete MMS functionality and an FM radio. The Nokia 6610i triband mobile phone (GSM 900/1800/1900) offers a classic design, color screen and a solid set of features including Java(TM) technology, an XHTML browser and SyncML. Comfortably styled in a familiar design, the Nokia 6610i is estimated to begin shipping in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia in the second quarter of 2004. The unsubsidized, untaxed retail price for the Nokia 6610i is expected to be around EUR 250. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41099898 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:48:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Leading Broadcast Companies to Deploy Products and Services Microsoft Announces Leading Broadcast Companies to Deploy Products and Services Based on Windows Media 9 Series Rainbow DBS's Satellite Service VOOM, U.S. Digital Television and Akimbo to Support Windows Media 9 Series; Submission of VC-9 to SMPTE Reaches Committee Draft Status LAS VEGAS, April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at NAB2004, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced that leading broadcast companies are developing or deploying tools and services that support Microsoft(R) Windows Media(R) 9 Series. Among the companies adopting Windows Media 9 Series for its high quality and compression efficiency are Rainbow DBS, the satellite services division of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Akimbo Systems; Shanghai Broadcasting Lab; and U.S. Digital Television Inc. (USDTV). Rainbow DBS's satellite service, VOOM, is the first television service to offer a comprehensive array of high-definition (HD) programming to customers throughout the continental United States. VOOM will use Windows Media 9 Series as one of the compression technologies to expand its available satellite capacity for HD offerings from more than 30 to more than 60 channels. VOOM plans to roll out advanced codecs beginning with standard definition (SD) later this year and HD next year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41099674 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:49:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DVD Producer - WMV HD Edition Microsoft and Sonic Unveil DVD Authoring Application for Windows Media Video High-Definition Sonic Launches WMV HD Beta Program for DVD Producer - WMV HD Edition LAS VEGAS, April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at NAB2004, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) and Sonic Solutions (Nasdaq: SNIC) unveiled DVD Producer(TM) - WMV HD Edition, a special version of Sonic's award-winning professional authoring application that supports the production of DVD titles using Microsoft(R) Windows Media(R) Video High-Definition (WMV HD). WMV HD delivers dramatically superior image quality with high-definition video at data rates comparable to standard-definition DVD video. Sonic is launching a beta program for DVD Producer - WMV HD Edition to provide high-end professional facilities with early access to this groundbreaking technology so they can build exciting high-definition experiences using WMV HD for playback on Windows(R) XP PCs. Production companies interested in joining the beta program may contact Sonic via e-mail at hdbeta@sonic.com . - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41099677 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:51:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: High-Definition Video Production Solutions for Windows XP Affordable Windows PC Architecture and New Tools From Adobe, BOXX Technologies and CineForm Now Enable Real-Time, Multistream 10-Bit Professional Workflows LAS VEGAS, April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at NAB2004, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced that Windows(R) XP and Windows Media(R) 9 Series are powering leading software and hardware solutions for the professional film, video and broadcast production community, and enabling real-time, end-to-end, high-definition (HD) video production on the desktop for the first time. Solutions from Adobe, BOXX Technologies Inc. and CineForm Inc. are now available for Windows XP, making desktop real-time, multistream, 10-bit high-definition serial digital interface (HD-SDI) video editing a reality. In addition, real-time Windows Media Video 9 Series HD (WMV HD) encoding is being demonstrated at the show, with both software-only and hardware-accelerated solutions. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41099678 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:56:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: HP Outlines Plan to Help Broadcast Industry Capitalize on Digital Digital Revolution LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004--HP (NYSE:HPQ) (Nasdaq:HPQ) -- Company combines intellectual property and partnerships to build industry's first Digital Media Platform -- HP teams with Warner Bros. and DreamWorks to enhance creation, distribution and consumption of digital content At the National Association of Broadcasters conference today, HP advanced its digital entertainment strategy with a series of product, partner and customer announcements focused on enabling media and entertainment companies to capitalize on the digital revolution that is transforming their industry. ... - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41100787 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 13:59:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: HP and DreamWorks Give Innovation a Starring Role in 'Shrek 2' Movie-Making Magic Enhanced with Utility Computing Power and Global Collaboration Tools - Apr 19, 2004 07:46 AM (BusinessWire) LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004--HP (NYSE:HPQ)(Nasdaq:HPQ) and DreamWorks today marked the latest chapter in their alliance by unveiling innovative, new technologies for off-site animation rendering and remote collaboration -- next-generation solutions that are enabling DreamWorks Animation to shape the future of digital filmmaking. Built on a technology partnership that began in 2001, the collaboration provides DreamWorks Animation with state-of-the-art technology solutions from HP, which are being used to bring to life some of the most advanced animated images and characters. These will be seen in soon-to-be released feature films "Shrek 2," "Shark Tale" and "Madagascar" and the NBC computer-animated TV series, "Father of the Pride," debuting this fall. HP's Utility Rendering Service (URS), developed by HP in close collaboration with DreamWorks, addresses a very real and expensive problem in creating digital animation. URS provides a simple, flexible and scalable solution to manage the enormous amount of computational power that is needed to render high-quality film animation. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41100793 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:01:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Matsushita, Apple Develop Editing System TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese electronics giant Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Apple Computer Inc. plan to market a digital video editing system that would simplify and lower the costs for TV stations and production companies in creating TV broadcasts, movies and DVDs. The technology links Apple's Macintosh-brand computers and digital video-editing software to a soon-to-be-released Matsushita video recorder, Yoshihiro Kitadeya, a spokesman for Matsushita, said Monday. Matsushita also manufactures products under the Panasonic brand. It would allow TV program producers, film studios and advertisers to churn out programs, ads and movies in the increasingly popular format that high-definition television sets and digital movie projectors use, Kitadeya said. The package, which combines text and video and digital animation, is expected to cost less than $37,000, well below the $463,000 price tag for conventional production and editing equipment, Kitadeya said. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41100856 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:02:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T's CallVantage Service Expands to New York Coast-to-Coast Rollout Continues With Expansion to 11 Markets Including New York City, Long Island, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco. Introductory Promotion Offers Unlimited Calling and Advanced Features At 50 Percent Off Regular Price of $39.99 per Month NEW YORK, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T today launched the next phase of its residential Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service, called AT&T CallVantage(SM) Service, providing the residents of New York City, Long Island and Westchester County a high-tech alternative for their personal communications needs. AT&T CallVantage Service began setting benchmarks two weeks ago for what the company believes will be the industry's most reliable and innovative broadband phone service in the country as it made the service generally available to consumers in New Jersey and Texas. Now the company is expanding its service footprint into New York for consumers from Peekskill to Staten Island to Suffolk County. The service will be further expanded to serve other areas of the Empire State and the nation over the coming months. Today, the company also announced the local availability of AT&T CallVantage Service in parts of California and San Antonio, Texas. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41100934 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:06:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Privacy Group Files Google Gmail Complaints By Lucas van Grinsven and Bernhard Warner AMSTERDAM/LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Google Inc.'s free e-mail service Gmail came under fresh fire on Monday, when an international privacy rights group said the soon-to-be-launched service violated privacy laws across Europe and elsewhere. Privacy International, which has offices in the United States and Europe, said it filed complaints with privacy and data-protection regulators in 17 countries in Europe, Canada and Australia. It had already filed an initial complaint in Britain. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41101532 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:08:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Affluent Americans Power Internet Growth Affluent Americans Power Internet Growth, According to Nielsen//NetRatings Upper Income Surfers Show Highest Concentration of Broadband Users NEW YORK, April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, shows that affluent Americans are the fastest growing income group online. Surfers with total household incomes of $150K and higher grew 31 percent year-over-year at home to nearly 7.9 million individuals (see Table 1). Those earning between $75K-100K increased to 26.4 million in March 2004, as compared to 20.7 million a year ago. Internet users with upper incomes ranging from $100K-150K rose 24 percent since last March. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41101710 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:19:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony Ericsson Reports a Strong Increase in Shipments and Record Sony Ericsson Reports a Strong Increase in Shipments and Record Profits for the First Quarter of 2004 - Apr 19, 2004 10:00 AM (BusinessWire) TOKYO & STOCKHOLM, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004--Sony (NYSE:SNE) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY) today announced the consolidated financial summary for the first quarter ended March 31, 2004 of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB (Sony Ericsson), the 50:50 joint venture of Sony and Ericsson. Units shipped in the quarter reached 8.8 million, a 63% increase compared to the same period last year. Sales for the quarter were Euro 1,338 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 66%. Income before taxes was Euro 97 million and net income was Euro 82 million, which represent year-on-year improvements of Euro 210 million and Euro 186 million respectively. While the year on year growth in shipments and sales reflects solid performance improvements across business units and regions, income before taxes was exceptionally strong due to favourable market conditions. In addition, the restructuring measures that were taken in 2003 are now fully contributing to the bottom line. In an overall strong mobile phone market, shipments from Sony Ericsson reached an all time high as its product offering in the mid- and entry level segments continued to gain momentum. Market share is estimated to have increased during the quarter thanks to strong demand and increased operational efficiencies. Sony Ericsson has increased its estimate for the global market for 2004 from approximately 520 million units to over 550 million units. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41102468 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:15:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: BellSouth Introduces 3.0Mbps Speed to Broadband Portfolio -- BellSouth Provides Customers with Higher Speeds and More Options -- ATLANTA, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- BellSouth (NYSE:BLS) today announced the expansion of its digital subscriber line (DSL) Internet service options with the launch of a 3.0Mbps service. This new service provides residential and business customers with greater speeds, more flexibility, and additional options when selecting a broadband service from BellSouth. The service delivers download speeds of up to 3.0Mbps and upload speeds of up to 384Kbps. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41102266 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:32:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Fiber Optics' Future Is Focus of SBC Test Project DIALING IN COMPETITION Fiber Optics' Future Is Focus of SBC Test Project The phone company is experimenting with a technology it may not have to share with rivals. By James S. Granelli, Times Staff Writer SAN FRANCISCO - The future of telecommunications lies at the end of a strand of glass, like the one in a closet in Ross Greenman's apartment. The first-year student at UC Hastings College of Law lives in one of about 15,000 California homes connected directly to fiber-optic cables that supply super-fast access to everything digital - from online movies and music to Web pages and videoconferencing. For about the same price as more common and less reliable digital subscriber lines and cable modem service, Greenman and other residents of the 303-acre Mission Bay apartment and condominium development being built here can plug into a sturdy fiber-optic network that is impervious to weather and hardly ever goes down. "I'm definitely pleased with it," said Greenman, who gets phone and Internet service over fiber. So, too, is SBC Communications Inc., California's dominant local phone service provider. SBC installed the network at Mission Bay to test the feasibility of using fiber-optic technology on a mass scale. So far, it's found, the lines are easier and cheaper to maintain than traditional copper and give the company more flexibility to roll out cutting-edge services. One of those services, for instance, could be cable-like television programming with video-on-demand. It is testing such a service with a handful of Mission Bay residents. Most significant for SBC, it doesn't have to share its fiber with competitors, which it must do with its basic telephone network. That exclusivity for those installing fiber came last year when the Federal Communications Commission carved out a broadband exception to the phone competition rules it created under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Competition has pushed retail prices down, saving customers across the country an estimated $10 billion a year. Last month, a federal appeals court threw out the FCC's phone competition rules, giving regulators until June 15 to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. But the court upheld the FCC's broadband rules, giving SBC and other Baby Bells carte blanche control over new fiber-optic networks. http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-missionbay19apr19,1,4039247.story ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:56:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sprint, AT&T Wireless Reach Wi-Fi Deal OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) -- Sprint Corp. and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. have reached a wireless Internet roaming agreement for five U.S. airports. The deal announced Monday will allow Sprint PCS customers to use AT&T Wireless' Wi-Fi network at Denver International, Philadelphia International and Raleigh-Durham International airports. AT&T Wireless customers will be able to use Sprint's Wi-Fi network at Kansas City International and Salt Lake City International airports. Wi-Fi, short for wireless fidelity, radiates a high-speed Internet connection that many computers can share for about 300 feet _ a single "hot spot." The deal between Redmond, Wash.-based AT&T Wireless and Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint allows the companies' respective Wi-Fi customers to "roam" using their existing accounts. AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile, a unit of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, forged a similar agreement in February. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41105853 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:57:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MCI Faces Tough Road After Exiting Bankruptcy By Justin Hyde WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - Long-distance phone major MCI plans to emerge from bankruptcy on Tuesday after 21 months, having shed $36 billion in debt, much of its top management and the WorldCom name now synonymous with accounting scandals. The reorganized MCI (PK:WCOEQ) will have a new board of directors, some 20 million customers and a healthy balance sheet. But it will jump back into a market that has grown more cutthroat since WorldCom declared bankruptcy in July 2002, with more competitors chasing fewer dollars. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41105886 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 16:22:05 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MIT'S Technology Review Magazine Recognizes Lucent Technologies MIT'S Technology Review Magazine Recognizes Lucent Technologies for 'Killer Patent' on Voice Over IP - Apr 19, 2004 11:01 AM (PR Newswire) Bell Labs' Method for Improving the Quality of VoIP Service Named One of 2003's Top Five Patented New Technologies MURRAY HILL, N.J., April 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Technology Review, MIT's magazine of innovation, has selected Lucent Technologies' (NYSE:LU) patent for improving the quality of service for network traffic such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as one of its 'Five Killer Patents'. The honor marks the third straight year that one of Lucent's patents from Bell Labs has been included on the publication's annual list of the five most important patents issued during the previous year. The list appears in the May 2004 issue of Technology Review and on the web at www.technologyreview.com (see current issue). This patent, U.S. No. 6,529,499, granted to Lucent on March 3, 2003, was also the 30,000th patent Bell Labs has received since its inception in 1925. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41103073 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:44:16 GMT In article , kd1s@nospamplease.verizon.reallynospam.net says... > Somehow I'm not listed and I'm not paying for the privilege. My billing > records with the RBOC have always been FUBAR, for the first year I had > service when I got my place in Providence I never got a phone bill. Even > to this day, even though I've changed the number, I'm still not listed. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Almost the same thing happened to me > around 1976. Telco put a phone in for me, outside plant (installation) > failed to pass the paperwork along to the accounting people who just > assumed my number was still not assigned. Then about a year later, of > no telephone bills for that number, some -- well, phreak -- making a > long distance call dumped a fraud charge on me, on *that* number. The > coin-rated charge came through to accounting, fell out of the system > when accounting was unable to attach it to anyone. The charge went > into a suspense ledger queue waiting to be investigated and some > overworked fraud specialist eventually investigated it. Investigator > dialed the number, fully expecting to receive a 'not in service or > disconnected' message so they could charge it back to the originating > telco and clear one more suspense item from the ledger of same. > Instead the number rang. Number in service, but no accounting records. > Fraud investigator called outside plant asking what happened to the > paperwork. When the bill finally came it was for service for about > *one year* from date of install to the present date, plus the usual > month in advance, which at that point (in the billing cycle) was about > two weeks into the billing period as usual. That stung ... I called > the business office to make a sort of pseudo-complaint. My service > rep, Miss Prissy agreed to remove the fraud charge which had gotten > the whole thing started since it was not mine, but she would not > remove the year of service for which I was obligated. "But, Mr. Townson, > you *knew* what was happening, and did not correct it." I was not in > a position to complain too loudly. PAT] In my case I fought with then Nynex (Or was it New England Telephone, it gets so hard to remember what company was what when.) and called them from the line at least twice a month asking where the bill was. By about the 7th month I got a supervisor number and went round and round with her for 5 months. By the time we figured out that plant did indeed forget to send the ppaperwork she and I decided we'd only charge for the last 4 months. Worked out quite well. Of course my LD was still screwed up, being billed to VA Medical Center Providence. We were both on the same exchange but my number was NXX-0716 and the VA Hospital number being billed was NXX-7160. Ooops. That too close to two years to straighten out. ------------------------------ From: gb@xnet.com (gb) Subject: T1 Voice or E1 line in Germany Date: 19 Apr 2004 11:02:32 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Can anyone recommend a T1 voice and/or E1 provider in Germany? Any ideas on installation and monthly rates would be very appreciated as well. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:48:37 GMT In article , jkelly@newsguy.com says: > Very few people realize that there is a sunset on analog tv. Of > those, very few actually believe it will happen. Congress forgets > that the people that will be forced to buy a bunch of new tv's and > convertors are the same people that elect them to office. I have > never believed the Dec 31, 2006 sunset date for NTSC. The other thing to remember is that NTSC has been the standard since the beginning of television. Even when color came around (Which is an odd little kludge to deliver color!) the old B&W sets still worked, even a set made close to 60 years ago can still pull signals out of the air and display moving images. The switch to HDTV is a whole different ball game. No backward compatibility at all. This is unique, particularly when you consider the rapid change that has occurred in the voice telecom field, yet you can still wire in a set made a century ago and use it. And VoIP providers just provide a standard POTS port on their routers except they may not interpret dial-pulse. But essentially it's the same. > Cellular still hasn't gone 100% digital, it seems odd to me that > analog cellular seems to be getting a longer sunset period than analog > television is getting (based on when digital cellular service first > became available vs. when DTV became available). And people have more > tv's than cellphones, I have two cellphones in my household, but have > seven televisions. After the 2009 cutoff for NTSC signals, you'll see cell providers start cranking digital signals down in the UHF bands of the former TV plan. Lower frequency = better propagation, less multi-path etc. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 14:47:44 -0700 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Mon, 19 Apr 2004, J Kelly wrote: > Cellular still hasn't gone 100% digital, it seems odd to me that > analog cellular seems to be getting a longer sunset period than analog > television is getting (based on when digital cellular service first > became available vs. when DTV became available). In the case of cellular, they ran out of bandwidth and had to move to digital in order to serve more customers. Digital cellular occupies much more bandwidth than analog. At some point, they began to refuse new analog activations. I suspect that most analog cell phone use today is from dual analog/digital phones which can't get the digital signal and thus switch to analog. In the case of television, there does not seem to be bandwidth contraints limiting new service; most markets seem to have plenty of available UHF channels. The push seems to be coming from non-television services which are hungrily eyeing the bandwidth currently allocated to analog television, and expecting that digital television will occupy much less bandwidth than analog television. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: chait@india.com (Shar) Subject: Re: Signaling Reference Date: 19 Apr 2004 14:03:27 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Try C7.com or ss8.com. U can find a bunch of links there. If you want a little more info, look up the SS7 Bible "SS7(full form)" by Travis Russell. Shar. nidhi83@hotmail.com (Srinidhi) wrote in message news:: > Hi, > Where can I find good material on various Signaling schemes like SS7, > ISDN, R2 etc.? Books or web pages, kindly suggest. > Thanks, > Srinidhi ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Telecom Changes, was Re: Who is "VOIP News"? Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 21:38:37 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) writes: > The traditional phone companies are saddled with considerable > regulatory requirements -- accomodate non-paying deadbeats, provide > service in unprofitable communities, provide extremely high > reliability, offer low rates, all taxes (911, "relay") etc. Good. Maybe it's about time for some "zero based budgetting" and rethinking all of these transfers, payoffs, and taxes-by-other-names. Bluntly, why should I get charged an extra $10/month so someone else (whether an individual, a stockholder, or a government) gets an easy ride? (And no doubt there are similar handouts in my direction. Fine. Identify them and let's thrown them all in the fire). > When a Baby Bell screws up, it makes front page news and gives them > nasty publicity. But when a non-Bell screws up or defrauds customers, > no one notices. I believe one wireless company -- T-Mobile, changed > its name twice in recent years, previously being OminiPoint and > something else (Jamie Lee Curtis spokesperson). Doesn't that seem > strange to anyone? There's nothing at all strange about the company you mentioned. With the disclosure (not really important here, but with) that I'm both a customer and a shareholder, there's nothing nefarious about these name switches and nothing to hide. Omnipoint was the original GSM provider in the Northeast. They were taken over by Voicestream (based in Washington State) so for a period of time that was the label the whole system used. This, in turn, was bought up by Deutsche Telekom (which also picked up some other telco properties). For a couple of months they weren't quite sure what name to use for their service, but eventually opted for "t-mobile". Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: Verizon's Get It Now Vs. Sprint PCS's Vision Date: 19 Apr 2004 15:12:44 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Aude Lagorce, 04.19.04, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Although wireless phone penetration rates have not yet reached saturation levels in the U.S., carriers know that day is not far on the horizon. Having drawn their cues from the Asian and European experiences, they understand that it is their ability to sell existing subscribers more services rather than more phones that will ultimately guarantee their survival. Since there's only so much you can do to boost voice spending, many providers have started shifting their focus to the more promising field of data services. The idea to get consumers to think of their handsets as mini entertainment centers providing games, music and information first came from Japan, where the market became saturated a few years ago, prompting operators such as NTT DoCoMo to launch features allowing users to download ring tones and games to their handsets. Although the service called I-mode was slow to take off, it has since garnered some 40 million subscribers. http://www.forbes.com/personaltech/2004/04/19/cx_al_0419mondaymatchup.html [Note from Eric: Sprint gave me a few months of Vision for free when I signed a new contract last fall. After the novelty wore off, I realized that it was nowhere near worth the extra $15 a month if I wanted to keep the service, at least for me. It's slow with limited content available. I'm sure that's going to change, but what's really going to need some work is the user interface.] Eric Friedebach /Knee deep in the hoopla/ ------------------------------ 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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