From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 27 23:57:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3S3vE518243; Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:57:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:57:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404280357.i3S3vE518243@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 #212 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:56:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 212 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging (Monty Solomon) Sony's Profit Slides 23 Percent for Year (Monty Solomon) Quick Thinking and Wireless Phone Save Jackson Man's Life (M Solomon) TiVo Will Not Die (Monty Solomon) Web Portal For Sale, Slightly Used (Monty Solomon) NDS CEO Says to Compete With TiVo For DirecTV Deals (Monty Solomon) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Lisa Hancock) Message Rate Service in Manual Offices (Lisa Hancock) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Miikka Kiprusoff) VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (agolfer) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Tom Betz) Re: VoIP Analogy (Hank Karl) Help! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed (Mikail) Last Laugh! Message to comp.dcom.telcom moderator (Bush will disarm) 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: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:57:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Instant-messaging software has evolved into the latest weapon in a fierce battle among major Internet companies to reap revenues off whatever you do, wherever you go online. Many people spend hours a day with messaging programs active, shooting text to friends and co-workers online. These free products already go well beyond the typed word: People can swap files and chat with webcams and microphones. Now there's even more. On Monday, Yahoo Inc. launched Internet radio and other new services around its messaging software. Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, is leveraging IM as a subscription gaming hub, while America Online Inc. is packaging weather. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41178700 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:00:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony's Profit Slides 23 Percent for Year TOKYO (AP) -- Sony Corp. posted a narrower loss for the fourth quarter but its profit dropped 23 percent for the full fiscal year as it accelerated layoffs and its electronics, movie and video-game businesses foundered. The Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment giant said Tuesday it expected earnings would rebound in the current year as cost-cutting efforts make an impact and new products drive sales. In the January-March quarter, Sony's net loss narrowed to 38.2 billion yen ($352 million) from 111 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 7.1 percent to 1.77 trillion yen ($16.3 billion) from 1.65 trillion yen. Sony posted a group net profit of 88.5 billion yen ($815.16 million) for the year ended March 31, down from 115.5 billion yen a year earlier. Sony's once-trendsetting electronics division swung to an operating loss for the year, while its video-game and movie businesses each posted 40 percent declines in operating profit. Group sales edged up 0.3 percent to 7.49 trillion yen ($69.03 billion) for the year from 7.47 trillion yen a year earlier. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41179814 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:58:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Quick Thinking and a Wireless Phone Save Jackson Man's Life Cingular Wireless Customer Recognized as 'Wireless Samaritan' at National Ceremony in Washington, D.C. JACKSON, Miss., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Jeffrey Burns, a Mississippi resident and Cingular Wireless customer, has been selected as one of this year's winners of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's annual VITA Award. Each year, the wireless telecommunications industry honors individuals whose use of a wireless device resulted in saving a life, preventing a crime or giving heroic support in an emergency. Burns was nominated for this year's VITA Award in August 2003 after being shot at a Jackson, MS, convenience store and using his wireless phone to dial 9-1-1 for help. He will be honored at a ceremony tonight in Washington D.C. where he will have the opportunity to meet with Senator Thad Cochran and other elected officials. First presented in 1993, the VITA Awards are given to individuals who have been nominated by their wireless carriers. These individuals exemplify the importance of putting safety first, and demonstrate the critical role individuals and wireless phones can play in emergency situations. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41179032 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Most of you know that while I am not strictly confined to my home, I can effectively only go some distance from home when a good person chooses to drive me in their car. Walk a block or two, yes; a few miles to a nearby town such as Coffeyville, no. Some of my personal friends think this is silly of me, but it would not occur to me to *possibly endanger them* by not having my cell phone along when we go riding somewhere. My friend Randy drives me down to Tyro, Kansas now and then. Tryo is a tiny town of 250 people on an old back road from Independence, officially County Road 2700. Randy likes to rattle on all the time about 'people who carry cell phones like to think they are big shots', etc. We were coming back from Tyro one night last summer after dark driving down the 'Tyro Cutoff' as it is known, heading for highway 75 to come back home. County Road 2700 is a lot like the Alcan Highway between Fort Nelson BC and further south in the province. A two lane road, mostly deserted all night and maybe you pass one car every thirty minutes in the busy part of the day. And a bad, bumpy mostly gravel road at that. Somewhere in the middle, about five miles north of Tyro and five or six miles south of where highway 75 cuts in, we see a car sitting on the side of the road with its blinker lights on. Randy and I both decided to ask the driver what was wrong. It was an older lady and a young girl, 11-12 years old. The lady told me they had run out of gas; she did not want to set out on foot alone and leave the child alone in the car, so they decided to wait and see if anyone would come along. It turns out she was the girl's grandma. Can I call anyone at your house to come out here to help you? No one was at home, she said. Do you have any other friends you want me to call? She did not know anyone around town; keeping her window rolled up mostly, but down just a crack so we could talk. Can Randy and I give you a ride to your home or anywhere? She thought that was not a good idea. "But if you could drive to a phone and call the sheriff for us we would appreciate that." I told her I would get help for her on my cell phone. Now Montgomery County Sheriff does have 911 (which is in fact answered by City of Independence 911) but the real challenge in a rural, deserted area and 911 (although I just used the Sheriff's 7-D admin number 330-1000) is in describing *exactly where* help is wanted, (approximatly five miles south of Highway 75 on the Tyro Cutoff or County Road 2700, go past the two side roads and across two small bridges and streams.) And have the deputy bring at least a gallon or so of gas. Dispatcher said 'the deputy is on the other side of the county right now, in Liberty (another wide spot in the road) so he will be about twenty minutes in getting there.' The older lady seemed to be grateful that help would be coming. I got back in Randy's car, he pulled a few feet up the road and off to the side, and said 'we will sit here and wait until the sheriff shows up.' Twenty or thirty minutes later, the deputy showed up, with another truck following him which are what we here refer to as 'Minutemen', a group of boy-scout-like young guys who rescue distressed motorists. Randy pulled out and we split. When we pulled into the alley next to my house and I got out, I said to Randy, 'it could have been your mother or wife, or you: out of gas, or flat tire, or radiator boiled over or in a ditch on the road.' He said he was going to seriously re-think his objections to cell phones, and I guess he did. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:42:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Will Not Die Despite gloomy news reports, the Digital Video Recorder service will eventually find its niche in the marketplace. By Phillip Swann Washington, DC (April 27) -- It's been a rough week for TiVo, the Digital Video Recorder service. The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press just published lengthy features on how TiVo could be wiped out by DVR services offered by cable TV operators. The New York Times last week wrote a similar, albeit smaller, version of this story. And, TiVo's stock continues to be suffocated by a combination of bad news and scary scenarios. http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivo042704.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:26:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web Portal For Sale, Slightly Used By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com Spanish Internet company Terra Lycos has retained investment bank Lehman Brothers to explore a possible sale of its U.S. Internet business, including its flagship Lycos.com Web site, according to a document obtained by CNET News.com. A sale of the unit, which is based in Waltham, Mass., would unwind the $12.5 billion merger of Lycos and Terra Networks, struck in 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble. Now, with a resurgence of online advertising spending, Terra is seeking a buyer for the Lycos division as it focuses on its Spanish- and Portuguese-language businesses, according to the document, prepared by Lehman Brothers and circulated to prospective buyers over the past several weeks. "An acquisition of Lycos, one of the last available premier Internet search and content properties, represents an outstanding and unique value creation opportunity at a time when advertising budgets are increasing, paid online content is gaining broader acceptance and public markets are favorably rewarding consolidation in the rapidly growing search market," the document reads. Terra Lycos is hoping to sell Lycos for cash or liquid shares. Although no purchase price was listed, one source familiar with the deal said Terra Lycos is looking to sell Lycos for $200 million, based on $98 million in pro-forma revenue that the site generated in 2003. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-5201301.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:40:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: NDS CEO Says to compete With TiVo For DirecTV Deals NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters) - NDS Group plc. (NASDAQ:NNDS) plans to compete with TiVo Inc. to supply television recording technology to satellite TV provider DirecTV, which is TiVo's biggest source of new subscribers, NDS's chief executive said on Tuesday. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41185670 Profit falls at media anti-piracy firm NDS - Apr 27, 2004 11:48 AM (Reuters) LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Anti-piracy technology firm NDS Group Plc (NASDAQ:NNDS), a subsidiary of News Corp (NYSE:NWS), said on Tuesday its third-quarter income fell 38 percent due to the absence of a contract with satellite firm DirecTV. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41185811 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:16:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote > I sense that WU, despite having microwave and even satellites, wasn't > that interested in its own wire plant, and leased considerable > circuits from AT&T pretty early on. Perhaps its city wire plant was > old and need of upgrade or replacement but they didn't have the funds > or see a justification in the 1960s. I think I answered my own question: I suspect, per what Wes suggested, that WU wasn't able to serve customers after the 1960s. I am just speculating here, but as data communications got more sophisticated, WU couldn't handle the last mile to the customer as the Bell System could. That is, WU city wire plant may have been great for Baudot or even ASCII speed Teletypes, but grossly inadequate for higher speed communications that evolved in the 1970s. A 100 baud teletype line does not a lot of bandwidth just as a telegraph line uses less than a voice line. In other words, to accomodate good quality voice transmission, a Bell System phone loop had to have more bandwidth. That greater bandwidth allowed the Bell System to offer higher data speeds on plain customer loops when modems were developed, but I don't think WU local customer circuits could handle that. I suspect WU's local circuits were generally older and "dirtier" since they didn't have to worry about things like crosstalk. To get that last mile for modern needs, WU would have to lease circuits from the Bell System. Right then and there, WU was at a disadvantage, obviously the Bell System wasn't gonna give circuit space away for free. Someone suggested the Bell System gave WU a break on rates to keep them going, but I wonder if that remained true by the 1970s; I do know in the 1970s Bell rates were going up sharly for WU forcing an increase in WU customer fees. FWIW, I visited some WU offices in the 1970s and found them looking "tired", that is, they were in need for refurbishment and the people working there looked old and tired, too. Eventually WU closed almost everything in favor of agents since WU employees were well paid union members. > One thing I wonder about is how AT&T dealt with toll charge > complaints, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > ... combined with the time-clock stamps of 'up and down' gave a > very good audit trail. Operator started a toll call, time-clock > stamped the paper in; call completed and paper was stamped again, > since all operator positions had a little time-clock as part of them. Every part of the operation is traceable and fixable _except_ the actual time stamping by the operator. What happened if the operator pulled the stamp for the wrong ticket, or forgot to pull the stamp upon disconnect? Certainly operators were highly trained and disciplined, but still when handling a high volume of transactions errors do get made. > then used a 'comptometer' machine to print out the official > bill the customers received. Did you ever hear of the 'Victor Comptom- > eter Company'? Victor Comptometer was on the north side of Chicago > and sold many of those rather large, heavy machines to companies which > did heavy-duty financial stuff. Did Comptometer machines print? I thought they just showed the result through a little window. While other adding machines printed tapes, I thought to print something like a bill you needed an NCR bookkeeping machine which was this huge monstronsity, or an IBM tabulating machine that read cards. Victor Comptometer machines were worked a little differently than traditional adding machines. Operators went to school and could become very proficient, including doing multiplication on an adding machine. > And despite all this, in the old days, customers were always right, > had been misunderstood, etc. Telco wrote off some incredibly large > debts because of 'misunderstandings'. As I understand it, different Bell companies had different policies over the years. While the Bell System was considerably standardized, there were notable differences among different companies, partly due to the region characteristics served, partly due to different state regulations. [I don't know why Philadelphia seemed to always cheaper local service costs* than other cities and towns in the 1960s, for example]. Anyway, as comedian Allan King described it, service reps could sound like the switchboard at "Polly Adlers" (which I'm told was a house of ill repute) and pretty flexible about adjusting bills. But other times (or places) they could be as tough as an army boot camp seargent. I've dealt with both over the years. I suspect that if the local Bell company was not making enough money, it would order less flexibility on bills; but if the local Bell company had a bad P/R rap, it would try to be nicer. I'm pretty sure the Bell System ran in cycles with that sort of thing. In Philadelphia, the cost of a city flat rate line seemed much cheaper than other places, as was the cost of local message units and extension rentals. We paid 90c for an extension while other places paid $1.10, about 6 or 7c a message unit while others paid 8 or 9c, and had a bigger free calling area. I think some towns might not even had flat rate service or untimed local calls. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock Subject: Message Rate Service in Manual Offices Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:24:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com In the 1950s and earlier, telephone service was seen as expensive, and many people ordered the cheapest option available, if they even had a phone at all. For many, that was message rate service (pay per call) on a party line. When dial was introduced, it was easy to add a meter for each line to count up calls. For suburban calls from cities in panel offices, the meters were used to add up "message units" which accumulated based on time and distance. This was a big step since it meant that such calls didn't have to be manually handled by a toll operator and the associated ticket generation (see Pat's description for what that entailed). [Message units, now called measured service, is still in use to this day.] Anyway, I'm told my family always had message rate (also known as "limited") service even in manual days. The Bell System history doesn't explain billing for local calls. How did the manual operator, such as at a city "A"* board, bill for message rate service? We know the switchboards were pretty sophisticated by the 1920s with automatic ringing and the like, perhaps they had meters automatically updated. I can't see operators writing down every single local call coming through, that would be too cumbersome. Would anyone know if they had message rate service in cities under manual switchboards? If so, how was it tracked? *In busy places, switchboards were divided into A and B. The A operator took the call and connected you to only the exchange you desired, even if it was the home exchange. The B operator at the specific exchange was told the specific number, and plugged you into that number. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:42:38 +0100 From: Miikka Kiprusoff Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Reply-To: miikka@calgaryweb.net J Kelly wrote about Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 on Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:04:51 -0500: > Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with > 4:3. My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. PC Magazine just did an article > on TV displays and they recommend 4:3 for most people unless they have > a compelling reason to need 16:9. I really thought I wanted > widescreen until I watched my dad's set for a couple of days. Now I > just plan to buy a bigger 4:3 set, something large enough to still > look okay for the widescreen stuff I do watch (mostly DVD's). Either your Dad bought a very, very crappy TV, or neither of you have figured out what that little booklet that came with it is for. Despite it's title, "Manual" is not a Spanish story about a young man's journey of self discovery. Among the varied instructions contained therein will be those that direct you to disable this "fat" mode. Result: you get a 4:3 picture centered in the middle of the 16:9 widescreen display, with (typically) gray or black bars down the left and right side where the rest of the 16:9 picture would be (if it were 16:9, which it ain't). On my Sony, the various modes are called: "normal" - this is what you want "full" - this is what you've set the TV to use, and causes the "fat" picture. I agree: this looks like hell. "zoom" - zooms the picture so that it is now as wide as the TV, but does not change the aspect ratio. This means the top and bottom of the image is cropped off - which is handy if that CNN "crawl" bugs you. :-) "wide zoom" - a combination of "full" and "zoom". The picture is a little bit stretched to widen it, and a little bit zoomed to fill. There's only a bit of image lost at top and bottom, and the people on the screen are only a little bit fatter than they should be. Of course, all of this goes out the window when you're watching an actual 16:9 presentation. ------------------------------ From: dave@ces-hawaii.com (agolfer) Subject: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:50:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's website, it seems to imply that their telephone adapter box will port out analog voice circuit(s) that I could connect to CO line ports on my KSU. From what I've read in this forum, the adapter provides two phone circuits, however, it can only handle one voice connection at a time. Does anyone have any experience in using Vonage or other VOIP service on a multi-line key telephone system? Aloha, Dave [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As long as you *know how* (or have a technician on staff who knows how to wire multi-line phones), Vonage (and I assume net8 and Pulver/FWD and others) will work on it just fine. No one ever screws around with the innards on a Bell five line/ six-button with hold for example. The work is always done at the terminal box by punch-downs on the terminals inside. But Vonage does not care; it can make an 'appearance' on a line button as well as on a single-line instrument. I cannot predict how the 'hold circuit' would work (if the Vonage line was being 'held') or the reliability of the interuppter/annunciator notifing you of a call. I would suppose since Vonage at least has a REM-3 status, the current therein is probably sufficient to do all those ancillary tasks as well. And one of my e-coupon takers did link his Vonage line over to a 'dial 9' level trunk on a very tiny residential PBX and he said that it works fine as well. Dialing 9 on the little PBX is just like lifting the receiver on the phone connected to the Vonage. Dial tone works fine, he uses any phone on his system to dial out through Vonage. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:05:41 UTC Organization: XOme Quoth J Kelly in news:telecom23.210.5@telecom- digest.org: > My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. Sounds to me like it's misconfigured. He should be able to set it so a properly-formatted picture is located in the center of the screen, with black panels on either side. "I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection." - W.S. ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:06:17 -0400 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ On 26 Apr 2004 09:32:30 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying > its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing > much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. > Imagine two grocery stores, A & B, located across a street from > each other. > "A" sells soda pop at 50c a can on a shelf. "B" sells chilled > soda pop from a refrigerated display case at 75c a can. It was > found that customers seeking a chilled soda would buy it from "A" > at 50c, then go over and put it in the refrigerator at "B" to > cool it. Thus, "B" ended up selling its competitor's product -- > and extra expense -- but without the revenue. VoIP works over _your_ broadband connection. So the analogy is more like "you buy soda from 'A' and put it into _your own_ refrigerator". If you call a PSTN subscriber, then they will have paid for their line. A similar analogy for the guy on the PSTN line would be "regardless of whether you buy soda from 'A' or 'B', you still have to pay more to some third party" > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer > pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't > mean that a service is free. Some of the costs are: 1. You need more bandwith, and better bandwidth (i.e. VoIP requires less delay and jitter than data will tolerate). 2. You need a VoIP service provider. 3. You need to invest the money in IT for training, support and test equipment, as well as buying the basic VoIP gear. 4. If your VoIP call quality is not toll-quality, there are a lot of "soft" costs, like company image, customers who are not completely happy, etc. > The consumers putting soda in a frige to cool it think it isn't > costing anything, but it really is, especially when adding up many > consumers. It cost money to buy my fridge, and the electricity to run it costs more. But (I think) its cheaper to run my fridge than to buy the cold soda. If someone else wants to cool their soda in my fridge, they'd better buy me a beer first :-) A cold beer :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I still have Vonage e-coupons available for anyone that wants to try a month of Vonage (the second month) totally free. You order whatever kind of Vonage service you wish, pay for the first month and the adapter thing, then you get the second month of the same free with my e-coupon. Write me not-for pub and ask for one. ptownson@telecom-digest.csail.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mikail Subject: HELP! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:24:56 GMT I just acquired a Toshiba DK424 pbx with an attached AVT Phonexpress Entree voicemail system with no docs/disks for the voicemail. This obviously is an obsolete system but if it solves my voicemail requirements I would like to get it functioning. The AVT boots up w/ OS2 to a status screen but I have no idea where to go from there. Any help/hints would be appreciated. Thanks, Mikail ------------------------------ From: dakshing64@yahoo.com (Bush will disarm all workers next) Subject: Last Laugh! Message to comp.dcom.telecom moderator Date: 27 Apr 2004 14:47:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is a very moving message I received today. So moving, in fact, I may decide to move all my computers out to the trash can, since Thursday is our next garbage pick up day. His spelling and puncutation and grammar remain unchanged. PAT] To the comp.dcom.telcom moderator: I was enquiring about blocking factors in paging service or in general the %ge of dropped pages. Is there a reason why you didn't forward it to the newsgroup? It's a shame you don't want to deal with QoS in wishyes USA. Perhaps you want everyone to think it is hunky dory with telcom in wishyes USA. Do you have any idea about the attrition in telcom? This is an unreal newsgroup with a bunch of old farts talking about their conquests and ignoring their failures. I hope you get a *REAL JOB* Dakshin cross-posting to soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.indian, soc.culture.british [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for your kind remarks, Dakshin. It does all of us good to be abused once in awhile, including myself. As I tried to explain to you in private email, *if your email got here* then it was published here. You would have first gotten an auto-ack receipt for it. If you got an auto-ack then my internal controls on email allow me to find it if it gets lost, mutilated or otherwise unreconstructable, in which case I would have sent you a form notice apologizing for my clumsiness and asking for you to restate what it was you were saying. Oh, and by the way, tomorrow and Thursday are 'share day' this month. Please consider helping. Thanks agan, Dakshin. 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, Yahoo Groups, and other forums. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. 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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 V23 #212 ******************************