From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 13 15:34:31 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4DJYVI16774; Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405131934.i4DJYVI16774@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 #239 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 239 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service (VOIP News) VOIP Raising Questions About Rules of the Game in U.S. (VOIP News) 360net Connects on U.S. Deal (VOIP News) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Howard S. Wharton) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Dennis Ritchie) Scrambled Channels Irk Cable Viewers (Monty Solomon) Cisco CallManager and Integration With Other Web Applications (Karol) SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom (Press Release) Hello, Pay Phone Information? Enthusiast Provides Answer (Marcus Jervis) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== 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, 13 May 2004 12:25:52 -0400 Subject: RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-13-2004/0002173497&EDATE= RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service in Nearly 4,000 Stores in 38 States Consumer Electronics Retailer to Offer Vonage(R) Broadband Telephony Retail Distribution Base Six-Times Larger Than Nearest Competitor; Expected to Enhance Adoption Rate By Consumers FORT WORTH, Texas, May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH), the leading consumer electronics specialty retailer, today announced it is now offering broadband Internet telephone service, commonly known as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), in nearly 4,000 of its retail stores across the country. This gives RadioShack a retail distribution base for VoIP services that is approximately six-times larger than the next closest retail chain. In addition, more than 1,600 of these RadioShack stores are expected to be offering in-store demonstrations as early as July. The new VoIP service will be provided by Vonage, the nation's leading broadband telephony service provider. Broadband phone service allows people to make and receive phone calls using a high-speed Internet connection instead of a traditional phone line. This service will be available primarily through RadioShack's stores located in U.S. markets that have wide-spread cable or DSL broadband Internet penetration. Customers can sign up or inquire about Vonage broadband phone service availability at their local RadioShack store, by visiting http://www.radioshack.com/voip or by calling 1-800-877-0072. According to RadioShack officials, broadband telephony is a perfect fit with the company's strategy to offer products and services that are creative, innovative and of high value that solve customers' wants and needs. "VoIP plays directly to the core strengths of RadioShack -- superior customer service and knowledgeable sales associates," said Stu Asimus, RadioShack's senior vice president, chief merchandising officer. "The low, yet rapidly growing number of subscribers shows that broadband phone service is still in the early adoption phase of the technology. VoIP is simply not quite ready for a self-service environment. "In fact, the majority of individuals and families either do not understand VoIP at all or believe it's only for computer geeks, which is where RadioShack can play a huge role," Asimus said. "With more than 1,600 stores soon featuring in-store demonstrations along with almost 2,400 additional stores offering the service, we are uniquely equipped to explain to customers how this new technology works. We can also help them understand why it can enhance their lives, how it provides a superior, cost-effective value over traditional phone services, and then hold their hand through the installation process to remove any worries they may have about making VoIP work in their homes or businesses." "The national roll out of Vonage's broadband telephony product presents a great opportunity, which will allow us to prove the value of our products on retail shelves," said Matt Deatrick, vice president Retail Channel Sales of Vonage. "We are changing the telecommunications industry with the help of one of the nation's top consumer electronics retailers, as RadioShack's market savvy and educated sales representatives demonstrate the value of broadband phone service to an untapped market segment." According to Asimus, VoIP has been around since the mid '90s, but slow connection speeds in major U.S. markets and restrictive equipment severely hampered its adoption. "Today's explosive growth of broadband DSL and cable Internet access, which is now in more than 20 million U.S. households, as well as major improvements in telephony hardware, has put us on the edge of a disruptive communications revolution that is quickly gaining momentum," said Asimus. How does Broadband Telephony work? The technology works by turning voice calls into data packets and sending them over the Internet. When the data packs approach their destination, they are reassembled, and delivered in the form of a traditional call. Vonage customers require only a high-speed Internet connection and a regular home telephone to utilize the service. The Vonage offer through RadioShack allows customers to select from monthly plans starting as low as $14.99. Rates for small businesses will vary. In addition, new customers who sign up for Vonage broadband phone service and purchase a Vonage starter kit receive a free month of unlimited calling, no activation fee and a $30 Vonage mail-in rebate -- a $94 value. Certain restrictions may apply. All rate plans include a full set of features, including caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, call forwarding, and emergency calling service. In addition, Vonage offers a number of enhanced voicemail and code selection features, including: -- Voicemail: Vonage offers three options for checking voicemail: you can dial into a menu and listen over the phone; listen to voicemail online, or listen to voicemail in your email box (a .wav file will be sent to your account) -- Area Code Selection: Vonage customers can choose any area code, regardless of location. Vonage's technology offers RadioShack's customers other substantial benefits, including: -- Cost savings versus traditional phone service -- Increased functionality versus traditional phone service -- Improved call quality versus traditional phone service -- Free calls to other Vonage subscribers -- Service portability, wherever broadband is available About RadioShack Corporation: Fort Worth-based RadioShack Corporation is the nation's most trusted consumer electronics specialty retailer of wireless communications, electronic parts, batteries and accessories as well as other digital technology products and services. With nearly 7,000 outlets nationwide, it is estimated that 94 percent of all Americans live or work within five minutes of a RadioShack store or dealer. The company's knowledgeable sales associates and brand position -- "You've Got Questions. We've Got Answers.(R)" -- support RadioShack's mission to demystify technology in every neighborhood in America. For more information on the company, visit the RadioShack Corporation Web site at http://www.radioshackcorporation.com . For more information on RadioShack products and services, visit its e-commerce Web site at http://www.radioshack.com . About Vonage(R) Vonage is redefining communications by offering consumers and small businesses an affordable alternative to traditional telephone service. The fastest growing telephony company in North America, Vonage's service area encompasses more than 1900 active rate centers in over 125 North American markets. Vonage is sold directly through http://www.vonage.com and retail partners such as Amazon.com, Circuit City, Best Buy and RadioShack. Wholesale partners such as EarthLink, ARMSTRONG(R), Advanced Cable Communications and the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities resell the Vonage broadband phone service under their own unique brands. With more than 135,000 lines in service, Vonage continues to add more than 20,000 lines per month to its network. Over 5 million calls per week are made using Vonage, the easy-to-use, feature-rich, flat rate phone service. Vonage is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. For more information about Vonage's products and services, please visit http://www.vonage.com or call 1-VONAGE-HELP. Vonage(R), Vonage Digital Voice(TM), Toll Free Plus(SM) and Virtual Phone Number(SM) are trademarks of Vonage Holdings Corp. 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, 13 May 2004 10:30:10 -0400 Subject: VOIP Raising Questions About Rules of the Game in U.S. Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrvoipus13/BNStory/Technology/ By BARRIE McKENNA Globe and Mail Update WASHINGTON A resident of Portland, Ore., can call Miami -- 5,300 kilometres away -- for about 7 cents a minute. But a quick chat with someone in Eugene, Ore. -- barely an hour's drive away -- costs more than twice as much. That kind of extreme price anomaly has set the stage for an explosion of Internet-based phone traffic across the United States. Newly developed Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology has made it possible to turn voice traffic into data and vice versa. More importantly, it allows aspiring local providers to duck hefty state taxes as well as access charges levied by the regional "Baby Bells," such as SBC Communications Inc., Qwest Corp. or Verizon Inc. U.S. regulators insist they love VoIP, and want to do everything possible to help the business flourish. But a batch of recent court cases, and competing industry interests, are already shaping the regulatory landscape of Internet phone service. "I think [VoIP] is going to turn the telephone industry on its head," U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Powell told a recent industry conference. Full story at: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrvoipus13/BNStory/Technology/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 10:27:06 -0400 Subject: 360net Connects on U.S. Deal Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrv360net13/BNStory/Technology/ By PETER KENNEDY Globe and Mail Update VANCOUVER 360networks Corp., the company that almost went bankrupt trying to build a global fibre-optics network, has a new role for itself, as facilitator to the telecommunications sector's next big thing. The Vancouver company recently struck a deal that has paved the way for Edison, N.J.-based Vonage Holdings Corp. to introduce its Internet phone service to subscribers in Canada. Vonage is one of a handful of U.S. and Canadian companies that are leading the race to offer services that permit subscribers to pick up their phone and have calls routed over the Internet. [...] Because Vonage operates over the Internet, but does not own network assets, it needed 360networks to provide the facilities that would allow it to offer VoIP to customers in Canada. Under the agreement, 360networks, through its GT Group Telecom Services subsidiary, is providing switching, transmission infrastructure and Canadian telephone numbers. Full story at: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrv360net13/BNStory/Technology/ ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 09:07:08 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo Sulfuric Acid has a health rating of 2 - Moderate, A Flammabiltiy Rating of 0 - None, a Reactivity Rating of 1, slight and a contact rating of 3 - severe (corrosive). As a corrosive, liquid and mist can cause severe burns to all body tissue. May be fatal if swallowed or contacted with skin. And rask of cancer depends on duration and level of exposure. It is not combustible, but is a stong oxidizer and it's heat of reaction with reducing agents or combustibles may cause ignition. Contact with most metals (such as switching equipment) causes formation of flammable and explosive hydrogen gas. I read the report written by the National Fire Protection Assn. (NFPA) after the fire. But it was years ago. As a fire inspector, I just shake my head how the alarms were monitored and the lack of a fire suppression system such as a what we call a clean agent system. The severally of the fire could have been minable. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo ------------------------------ From: Dennis Ritchie Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 05:35:23 -0000 Organization: Bell Labs Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote in message news:telecom23.237.12@telecom-digest.org: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells >> very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? .... > That would be the stuff, yes. The rotten-egg smell would be hydrogen sulfide. It's more likely produced from things other than fires. Sulfur dioxide ("burning tire" smell is more likely, but the place probably did produce a witch's brew. Dennis ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 01:31:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Scrambled Channels Irk Cable Viewers By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | May 12, 2004 Comcast Corp. is cracking down on a free lunch many of its Boston cable television customers have been enjoying for years. The largest cable provider in Greater Boston has started scrambling or terminating broadcasts of channels that thousands of its customers have been watching for free. City Hall officials said yesterday the move appears to be entirely legal, but is still drawing many complaints from Hub residents who are finding that channels like CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central, and the History Channel, which they once watched regularly, are showing up as an unintelligible blur. In some cases, the move is also obstructing customers' use of TiVo-style digital video recording devices. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/05/12/scrambled_channels_irk_cable_viewers/ ------------------------------ From: Karol Subject: Cisco CallManager and Integration With Other Web Applications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 15:59:05 +0200 Organization: POZMAN - http://www.man.poznan.pl/ Hello, Does anyone have used Cisco CallManager (Expresss) with own software using XML/SOAP interface? I want to know from my web application who is calling and be able to make calls. Scenario: - IP phone calls; - at browser in my web app I can click on link - my web app connects to CallManager and receive caller number and show me details of my caller from webapp database Another scenario: - I browse my webapp adressbook - I click at "Make call" - webapp connects to device and dial the number from my webapp database My webapp is built on PHP technology. I must (?) use XML/SOAP interface. I can't use TAPI or JTAPI interfaces. I have been reading docs all day and I haven't found solution. Have you got any experiences or any idea how to do it? I'll be gratefull for help. Karol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 20:29:17 +0400 From: Editor PressReleaseNetwork Subject: SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom Ann Arbor, MI - May 13, 2004 (PRN): Service Level Corporation (SLC) announces the completed delivery of the Ratchet Rating System at LecStar Telecom, Inc., an Atlanta-based telecommunications company and wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX). With a 15-year license to Ratchet, LecStar uses the Ratchet application to process call records before putting them into its billing application. "Ratchet's services reduce LecStar's operational costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Rating problems had frustrated customers and increased customer care staff costs," says Carl Wright, SLC President. "We look forward to working with LecStar to ensure that its customers' concerns about billing are eliminated in the future." Ratchet Rating System delivers a double-barreled solution of rules-based rating with built-in data mediation facilities. Rules-based rating delivers flexible pricing and rating services to speed business change and rate plan development. Built-in data mediation adapts the rating processes to input and output formats from binary to AMA to XML without programming. Costs for interfacing to other systems disappear. "Ratchet Rating System provides a much-needed service in billing applications," says Matt Sines, Vice President of Operations at LecStar Telecom. "By front-ending our billing system with Ratchet, we were able to solve a rating problem and provide improved service to our customers. We expect to use Ratchet to integrate new sources of call data currently unsupported by our billing system." The Ratchet solution has been successfully installed without disruption to LecStar's billing schedule. In addition, rating tariff updates are automatically integrated into the Ratchet solution to reduce on-going data maintenance. About LecStar Telecom, Inc. LecStar Telecom Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix® Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX). LecStar is a facilities-based integrated communications carrier (ICC) certified by the Federal Communications Commission and by nine states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) to provide regulated local, long distance and international telecommunications services. In close alliance with its agents and local electric utility company partners, LecStar offers a full array of fixed wire-line voice, data, Internet and operator services to business and residential customers throughout BellSouth's southeastern operating territory. LecStar was recently acquired by Fonix Corp., an industry leader in delivering conversational speech solutions to consumer systems and devices for everyday use. Manufacturers and developers incorporate Fonix's award-winning technology to provide their customers with an easy, convenient and reliable user experience. Fonix currently offers voice technology for mobile/wireless devices; computer telephony systems; games, game consoles, toys and appliances; the assistive market and automobiles. For more information regarding LecStar Telecom, Inc., its products or services, please contact LecStar at (404) 659-9500 or visit www.lecstar.com. About Service Level Corporation (SLC) Service Level Corporation is dedicated to the creation of technologies to deliver value to our customer's end customers. Service Level's products are focused on rating software and turnkey rating applications. The team that makes up the company has a history of innovation evidenced in previously issued patents and patents pending. SLC has products in production at LecStar Telecom, General Services Administration, and 1 Com Incorporated. As Lynn-Arthur Associates and then as SLC, its customers included wireline and wireless carriers in the North and South America, Europe and Asia over the last twenty years. For more information, contact: Mr. Carl Wright Service Level Corporation Tel: +1 734 827-2000 Email: wright@servicelevel.net http://www.servicelevel.net #### Editor & CEO Press Release Network editor@pressreleasenetwork.com http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com ------------------------------ From: Marcus Jervis Subject: Hello, Pay Phone Information? Enthusiast Provides the Answer Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 07:29:42 +0000 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/nyregion/13PAYP.html?th By IAN URBINA The New York Times It started as an art project. Blue spiral notebook in hand, Mark Thomas spent afternoons walking the streets of Manhattan, compiling the numbers and locations of public pay phones. He posted them on his Web site in the hope that people would call them. "There is real beauty in whimsical acts of contact between strangers," he explained. Soon his list expanded to include public phones at the top of the Eiffel Tower, in the basement of the Vatican, in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and at about 450,000 other places around the world. Word of his project spread, and Cindy in Hawaii reported having had the strangest conversation about beaches with a man answering a pay phone in Brazil. Kim from Sydney, Australia, said she called a phone on the corner of 57th and Broadway in Manhattan, where a guy answered, "Wassup" and said he had never heard of Australia. Most surreal of all was the conversation Mr. Thomas had when he picked up a pay phone in Queens, at the 36th Avenue stop of the N line, and the person on the other end explained that he had found the number on Mr. Thomas's Web site. But soon the project changed as panicked e-mail messages started arriving from people who needed to learn the location of a certain pay phone: A mother in rural Texas was desperately looking for her pregnant 15-year-old daughter, who had run away a month earlier and had tried to call home from a pay phone; an anti-pedophile group was racing to find a man who had used a pay phone to arrange a sexual meeting with a young boy; a real estate broker in Phoenix wanted to put an end to the daily calls from a stalker who was threatening to kill him. In an age of cellphone ubiquity, Mr. Thomas's passion for pay phones, while initially little more than fanciful, has thus yielded both entertaining and more urgently practical applications. His Web site, www.payphone-project.com, which gets about 45,000 visitors per month, is one of the only places where people can match an incoming pay phone number to a location. The Web site, he said, has become what the pay phone once was: a lifeline for those in sudden moments of need. Mr. Thomas's enthusiasm for the topic is unmistakable. He raises his voice to describe the hodgepodge of people who, shifting from one impatient foot to the other, stand in line at what has been called the nation's busiest pay phone, in Grand Central Terminal. His face flushes with excitement as he recounts some of the bizarre conversations he has had in answering pay phones that rang as he walked by. Like the lady who called the pay phone on the corner of 30th Street and 34th Avenue outside Salamis, a deli in Astoria, Queens. She persuaded Mr. Thomas to stay on the line with her for 20 minutes on a frigid December night until her daughter showed up to receive the call. Or the gravelly-voiced man who called the same phone and said: "Hello, is Louise there?" "No, this is a pay phone." "I know. Look, when she walks by, could you tell her that Julio called and I'm going to be at Rikers longer than I thought." Pay phones are a preoccupation that Mr. Thomas, 36, a professional concert pianist who lives in Long Island City, Queens, says dates back to his teenage years growing up in Tampa, Florida. Bored and stuck at home on Friday nights, he made a habit of calling a pay phone on Kennedy Boulevard near the University of Tampa, along what was then one of the seediest sections of the city. "When you're 15 and you can't even drink yet, there is something really titillating in talking to prostitutes and winos," he said. David Letterman's random calls to public phones near the Ed Sullivan Theater provided further inspiration. And with the Web site, started in 1995, Mr. Thomas suddenly opened the door to a robust subculture of similar aficionados. "You'd be amazed at how many people share this odd habit," he said. People began collecting numbers while they were researching in Antarctica or vacationing in New Zealand and e-mailing them to him when they arrived home, he said. The list's biggest growth spurt occurred in 1999 with the arrival of two anonymous submissions. "These people saw the utility of the information I was posting, and they wanted to help," he said. One person described himself only as a police investigator with special access to law enforcement archives. The other was an employee of one of the major phone companies. Their contributions brought Mr. Thomas's searchable databank up to its current total of about half a million numbers. But the Web site could be a lot more effective if the phone companies would hand over their full lists, Mr. Thomas said. "It makes no sense that you need to get a subpoena or hire a private investigator to find out where a certain public phone is located." Daniel Diaz Zapata, a spokesman for Verizon, one of the largest owners of pay phones in the country, explained that public pay phone lists have never been published. Although the phone company is required by law to print the phone number on the front of each pay phone, he said, it is not required to release its compiled list. "Like most phone companies, we don't see there being any advantage in making this information public," he said. Jean Ritter of Conroe, Tex., disagrees. After her 15-year-old daughter, Lannette, ran away from their home, near Houston, Ms. Ritter turned to Mr. Thomas's Web site for help. Lannette, who was five months pregnant, had been gone for four weeks when she called her mother one rainy afternoon, crying and sounding panicked. But before Lannette could say where she was, someone took the phone from her and hung it up. "I thought I was going to throw up, I was so sick with worry," said Ms. Ritter, explaining that she took the phone number from her caller ID and entered it into Mr. Thomas's Web site. "It told us the exact location of the gas station where she was, and we jumped in the car to go get her." Del, a woman who would not give her last name, works for a Web site, perverted-justice.com, which monitors the Internet looking for pedophiles. She described Mr. Thomas's lists as indispensable. "We pose online as young boys, and when the potential predators decide to make a call to set up an in-person meeting, they often do so from pay phones," she explained. Since the group hands over its information to the police for final investigation, Del said she could not be sure how many pedophiles had actually been stopped with help from the Web site. Darrell Blomberg, 45, offered his own testimonial. A real estate broker from Phoenix, Mr. Blomberg started getting several threatening calls a day from a man. "He knew my address and kept describing the gruesome things he was going to do to me," Mr. Blomberg said. Aside from being tormenting, the calls, which came in daily for 13 months, were costing Mr. Blomberg about $20 per month because they were directed to his 800 number, which bills the recipient. "It was galling," he said. "I lived constantly wondering whether this guy was actually coming to get me." Mr. Blomberg began keeping his .38-caliber pistol loaded and in his bedroom, but he said that it was Mr. Thomas' Web site that eventually provided a small sense of security. After taking the suspicious phone numbers from the calls listed on his bill and plugging them into Mr. Thomas' Web site, Mr. Blomberg realized that the stalker was calling from several pay phones within a six-block area of downtown Syracuse. "I felt a lot less terrorized," he said. "It dawned on me that this guy was really far away and that he hadn't left this one neighborhood in nearly a year." Mr. Thomas said he welcomes the newfound use of his hobby. And since almost all pay phones reject incoming calls these days, he said that he recognizes that his original hope of instigating capricious acts of contact between strangers is now nearly moot. He is less accepting, however, of other trends. "Cellphones just don't stack up," he said. A collector of antique radios who prefers records to CD's, Mr. Thomas laments the creeping obsolescence of pay phones. As their quantity dwindles nationally to fewer than 1.8 million from a peak of 2.7 million in the mid-'90s, Mr. Thomas sees more than just a loss in public convenience. "Pay phones are lifelines for the down and out; their booths are rainy-day cocoons," he said. "You lose those, and you lose a lot of windows onto the human condition." ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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