From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 19 21:32:34 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4K1WYM22451; Wed, 19 May 2004 21:32:34 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 21:32:34 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405200132.i4K1WYM22451@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 #249 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 May 2004 21:33:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 249 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls to Pennies (VOIP News Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices (VOIP News) Can Convergence Thrive Under Old Laws? (VOIP News) AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted (A User) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Steven J Sobol) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Daryl R. Gibson) Re: Unconventional Parsing (Barry Margolin) Question About Verizon Home Voicemail (Dave Hauss) Interesting License Plate (Rich Greenberg) Re: ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit (George Mitchell) Re: The Making of an Idol (Charles Cryderman) Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area (Daryl R. Gibson) Lockheed Lauches High Definition TV Satellite (Monty Solomon) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:00:15 -0400 Subject: Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls to Pennies Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/business/17voip.html?ex=1085457600&en=fec11120b8ab2792&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL Mobile phone users have in recent years enjoyed plummeting rates for local and long-distance calling thanks to new technology and fierce competition among cellular companies. Now several entrepreneurs want to use Internet technology to reduce to pennies the cost of using cellphones to call overseas. Dialing internationally on cellphones is typically so expensive that the service is used mostly by businesspeople on expense accounts. But a two-year-old company called i2Telecom, based in Boca Raton, Fla., plans to release a modemlike device this month that effectively turns an international call into a local one by routing it over the Internet. Another company, Skype Technologies, recently introduced free software that lets people turn hand-held computers into mobile phones by sending calls over the Internet. Both ventures take to a new level the market-disrupting potential of the technology called voice over Internet protocol. And both will be on center stage at VON Canada 2004, a conference on Internet telephony opening in Toronto tomorrow that will bring together telecommunications heavyweights like Nortel and Bell Canada, as well as dozens of entrepreneurs and media companies. Using the Internet to route calls could significantly reduce costs, in part, because data and voice traffic will use a single network, advocates say. The shift presents a threat to traditional telephone companies, which have invested heavily in their networks. Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/business/17voip.html?ex=1085457600&en=fec11120b8ab2792&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE 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: Wed, 19 May 2004 16:43:02 -0400 Subject: Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/19/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/ Revving the VOIP market Vonage cuts its prices, while AT&T continues its aggressive rollout. By Eric Hellweg, CNN/Money contributing columnist SAN FRANCISCO (CNN/Money) - It's been a busy few days for Vonage, the voice-over-Internet-protocol company. Last week, the Edison, N.J., outfit announced a big distribution deal with RadioShack that puts its service in approximately 4,000 of the chain's stores in 38 states. And on Monday, it announced that it has signed up 155,000 customers, is adding new subscribers at a rate of 20,000 per month, and is lowering the price of its premium calling plan by 14 percent, from $35 per month to $30. Lou Holder, a vice president at Vonage, says the cost-cutting move was a result of "economies of scale. To build the customer relationship, you don't want to nickel-and-dime your customers. You want to be fair." A glimpse of the future? As a consumer, I applaud whenever a company decides to lower its prices; it doesn't happen nearly enough, even when economies of scale or new technologies reduce the cost of production (cough, music industry). But the Vonage move is more than a laudable consumer play. For investors, it provides a glimpse at the next phase of the increasingly fevered Internet-based calling world. Full story at: http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/19/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 19:20:49 -0400 Subject: Can Convergence Thrive Under Old Laws? Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116196,00.asp Telecommunications law accused of stifling merging multimedia services. Grant Gross, IDG News Service WASHINGTON -- New and near-future technologies that combine voice, data, and video services could prompt rewriting the 1996 Telecommunications Act--or scrapping it altogether. Several Congressional representatives made the observation during a "show-and-tell" hearing on voice-and-data convergence technologies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Wednesday's hearing was one in a series as the subcommittee considers ways to revise the far-reaching 1996 Telecommunications Act, says Michigan Republican Fred Upton, who chairs the subcommittee. Upton questioned what he called "stovepipe" regulation focused only on telecommunications providers. For example, cable and Internet providers are starting to provide voice over IP service, competing with incumbent telephone carriers that inherited their networks after the early '80s breakup of AT&T. He predicted Congress will begin rewriting the '96 Telecom Act next year. Competitors Emerge New technologies are blurring the lines between telecommunications services, which are traditionally regulated, and unregulated Internet services, Upton said. Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) went a step further and questioned whether Federal Communications Commission regulations are needed at all. Cox didn't advocate abolishing the FCC, but cited a 1997 book by lawyer Peter Huber that does suggest the agency is no longer needed. Full story at: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116196,00.asp ------------------------------ Reply-To: A User From: A User Subject: AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 22:01:15 GMT We have just acquired a Toshiba DK424 PBX and a 4-port AVT PhoneXpress Entree voicemail system and am unable to modify the voice mail with my company prompts. The AVT box works fine altho under OS/2 and without passwords or any other info it is not of much value. Any information on how the setup functions can be accessed or the password functions bypassed would be appreciated. Thanks, MCL ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:37:06 -0500 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Monty Solomon's report on Geico lawsuit: > or when its mascot became the cute little reptile character, and I do > not know if the little reptile's name is pronounced 'Geckko' or 'G-eye-co'. > I have heard both. I know a huge number of its customers are still > federal employees, etc. PAT] It's "gekko" and it's pronounced that way too. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Daryl R Gibson Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:34:26 -0600 Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks On 19 May 2004 at 14:40, editor@telecom-digest.org noted in response to Monty Solomon's article on Geico Suing Google: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Older readers may recall when what is > now called 'Geico' used to -- many years ago -- be 'Government Employees > Insurance Company'. It was a federal level quasi-governmental agency > dealing with automobile insurance for government employees, who were > the company's only customers. I do not know when it got disttached from > the government or when its name changed to the initials 'GEICO' only, > or when its mascot became the cute little reptile character, and I do > not know if the little reptile's name is pronounced 'Geckko' or 'G-eye-co'. > I have heard both. I know a huge number of its customers are still > federal employees, etc. PAT] Although Geico marketed largely to government employees, it was not a government agency. See http://www.geico.com/about/geicoHistory.htm It may have flourished partly by the impression that it was Government- owned, expecially in the 30s and 40s when people were still skeptical about insurance companies. As far as mascots go, I prefer the duck. Aflac! ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Unconventional Parsing Organization: Looking for work Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 19:57:17 -0400 In article , Carl Moore wrote: > KYW news-radio in Philadelphia has a report about (condemnation of) > human trafficking (i.e. slavery). It gives a telephone number to > report such: 888-3737-888 . > It then says, and I quote: > "Officials are promoting the unconventional parsing of the phone > number in the hope that people can remember it better that way." Isn't there a standup comic who does a bit about people who pronounce phone numbers wrong, with the pauses in unusual places? Can someone remind me who it is? Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: dahauss@unlimitedsounds.com (Dave Hauss) Subject: Question About Verizon Home Voicemail Date: 19 May 2004 11:41:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have Verizon home voicemail and am trying to find out if there is any possible way I can have it sent a text message to my cell phone when a voicemail comes in. Right now, the only thing verizon told me it can do is ring a number when a voicemail comes in. I don't want it to do that. Any ideas? ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Interesting License Plate Date: 19 May 2004 15:48:40 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? Saw a BMW today with a license plate "CLEC". I wonder what business that person is in? :-) Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 13:39:25 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Monty Solomon wrote: > U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dismissed allegations that the > Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers had violated > federal antitrust laws in its attempts to bar VeriSign from adding > services like Site Finder, which effectively took control of all > unassigned .com and .net domain names and redirected them to the > company's Web site. To refresh people's memory, Site Finder was a VeriSign "service" which made nonexistent second-level domain names under .com and .net appear to exist, rendering one popular spam test useless. VeriSign nominally discontinued this "service" months ago, but I still see as many as a dozen instances per day where the root name servers are supplying addresses instead of name server referrals in response to queries in the .com and .net zones. I haven't investigated any further, but this seems to contradict VeriSign's statement that they have stopped doing this. -- George Mitchell (obfuscated email address) ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: The Making of an Idol Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:19:03 -0400 Reader Master David Quinton wrote: > However, here in the UK a principle known as "call gapping" is used to > lessen congestion. This means that one in every X calls will receive a > congestion message advising the caller to try again. I also think that for some of the busiest Televoting services, the calls never actually get switched any further than one of the main BT centres. Call Accounting is handled at each of the centres and the totals are then calculated ... " With SS7 implemented there is no need to actually complete a call. What I don't understand is with ANI why are they accepting more then one call per number. With SS7 and the abilities of computers it should set up so only one vote per telephone number and that information be put out. If they truly wanted to know which performed the best it would be limited this way. The congestion would be reduced and demon dialers would be useless. Now my disclaimer, I have watched it only a few times and found it unworthily of my time. If you want to see quality programming watch the Fox show "24". Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: Daryl R Gibson Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:46:56 -0600 Subject: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area I was surprised a couple of months ago to find a Verizon-branded payphone at the local 7-Eleven, complete with the Bell logo. I since have seen other Verizon-branded payphones at 7-11 locations in Nevada. Both here (Utah) and there (Nevada) are non-Verizon (landline) areas. I look at the phone and it's a pre-divesture Western Electric phone, with a new Verizon coinbox cover. I'm interested if other people in other states have also seen this. I note Verizon has also started distributing a phone book in this area, which is served by Qwest (U.S. West/Mountain Bell). Qwest has never used the Bell logo, which was only briefly used in transition by U.S. West shortly after the Bell breakup, but you would assume there would be some restrictions on its use in areas where the RBOC had the rights to it. It seems to me that Verizon would not be building up brand visibility without a purpose. Verizon Wireless operates in this area (former Airtouch/former U.S. West Cellular), so maybe that's enough. Daryl Gibson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 21:04:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lockheed Launches High Definition TV Satellite CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 19 (Reuters) - A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying a 2.5 tonne high-definition television satellite that will bring the new format to some familiar cable offerings in the United States. Lockheed (NYSE:LMT) reported a clean lift-off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT), followed 28 minutes later by the separation of the AMC-11 satellite, built by Lockheed for SES AMERICOM, from the rocket's second stage. This was one of the last rockets launched in what has become an old-fashioned way, with the launch team hunkered down in a concrete bunker with 12-foot (3.6-metre) thick walls just 800 feet (240 metres) from the launch pad. The launch controller actually pushed a button. Both Lockheed and its chief U.S. rival, Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), are quickly phasing out older generation rockets in favor of new models that are more powerful, more flexible and, if the industry is correct, more reliable. Lockheed's Atlas 5 does away with such trappings as the launch tower and the button and can be rolled out to a nearly bare pad just 12 hours before launch. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41564243 ------------------------------ 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. 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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 #249 ******************************