From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Jun 7 19:07:22 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i57N7LJ03251; Mon, 7 Jun 2004 19:07:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 19:07:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200406072307.i57N7LJ03251@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 #279 TELECOM Digest Mon, 7 Jun 2004 19:07:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 279 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #436, June 7, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Tapping Telephone Lines - 1970s (Lisa Hancock) Primus Offering Residential and Business VOIP Service (John Bartley) Reagan and Deregulation - Observations (Lisa Hancock) Re: More Memories of Illinois Bell (Tom Lynn) Re: Can I Tell If Incoming Call Is From A Pay Phone? (Lisa Hancock) Re: E-911 Issues (Suresh Ramachandran) Re: Zombie PCs Spew Out 80% of Spam (John McHarry) Re: Public Copy Cost Unchanged (Tony P.) Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know (Tony P.) Re: Spam and Virii Continue Unabated, Getting Worse, IMO (John David Galt) AVT/Captaris Call Express Administrators (John Bartley) 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, 07 Jun 2004 15:43:22 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #436, June 7, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 436: June 7, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** MTS Completes Allstream Acquisition ** Nortel: No News for Now ** Jean Monty Named Chair of Emergis ** CRTC Releases Three-Year Plan ** Bell to Expand Service in Eastern Quebec ** ITU Calls Meeting on Spam ** ITU Telecom 2006 Moves to Hong Kong ** Rogers Offers "Ultra-Lite" Internet Access ** MCI Adds Business LD ** McCaw Plans Broadband Wireless in U.S. ** Former Symbol Execs Charged with Fraud ** Telehop Expands to Prairies ** What's Behind Telus's Bid for Fido ============================================================ MTS COMPLETES ALLSTREAM ACQUISITION: Manitoba Telecom Services completed its acquisition of Allstream on Friday. All Allstream shares have been exchanged for MTS shares and cash, and Allstream is being delisted from the TSX and NASDAQ. ** Earlier in the week, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed Bell Canada's application for an interim injunction blocking the deal. Bell then said it would seek a permanent injunction and "substantial damages" and told MTS that it will assert a claim for unjust enrichment and an accounting. ** Bell Canada is suing Allstream for $150 million, accusing the carrier of conspiracy and inducing MTS to breach its obligations to Bell. ** The Competition Bureau is reviewing the deal, but its investigation may take three years to complete. NORTEL -- NO NEWS FOR NOW: In a June 2 submission to the Ontario Securities Commission, Nortel Networks said "there is significant work yet to be done" in its financial restatement process, and that its 2003 and 1Q 2004 results will not be available this month. JEAN MONTY NAMED CHAIR OF EMERGIS: Out with the new, in with the old! Former BCE CEO Jean Monty has been named chairperson of BCE Emergis. He replaces current BCE CEO Michael Sabia, who recently sold BCE's 64% stake in the e-commerce company. CRTC RELEASES THREE-YEAR PLAN: The CRTC has posted its schedule of planned activities and proceedings for April 2004 through March 2007. Plans for 2005 include telecom policy proceedings on: ** Wireless number portability ** Regulatory symmetry ** Forbearance for local service ** Implementation of a regulatory framework for VoIP www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/BACKGRND/plan2004.htm BELL TO EXPAND SERVICE IN EASTERN QUEBEC: Starting in January 2005, Bell Canada will offer local, long distance, and Internet service to businesses in Rimouski, Beauce, Baie-Comeau, and other centres in Telus (former QuebecTel) territory in Eastern Quebec. ITU CALLS MEETING ON SPAM: The International Telecommunication Union will hold a meeting in Geneva, July 7-9, on measures to counter spam. The meeting is part of preparations for the World Summit on the Information Society. www.itu.int ITU TELECOM 2006 MOVES TO HONG KONG: In a sharp break with tradition, the International Telecommunications Union has decided to move its next flagship conference and exposition, Telecom World 2006, to Hong Kong. In hotly competitive bidding, Hong Kong proposed costs 30%-50% below those quoted by Geneva. Telecom 2003 had 911 exhibitors from 51 countries, and over 14,000 daily visitors. www.itu.int/newsroom/press_releases/2004/14.html ROGERS OFFERS "ULTRA-LITE" INTERNET ACCESS: Rogers Cable now offers a 64 Kbps (upload or download) Internet service in Ontario and New Brunswick for $19.95 a month. (See Telecom Update #320) MCI ADDS BUSINESS LD: MCI Canada (formerly UUNet) has launched Voice Solutions, a suite of business long distance, toll-free, and calling-card services delivered over the phone network. McCAW PLANS BROADBAND WIRELESS IN U.S.: Clearwire, a U.S. company owned by Craig McCaw, plans to launch wireless broadband Internet service in Florida and Minnesota this summer. The network will use the same technology that the Inukshuk/Allstream/NR joint venture has been deploying in Canada. ** McCaw owns NextNet, the company that makes the technology, and he recently invested $50 million in Inukshuk's parent company, Microcell. FORMER SYMBOL EXECS CHARGED WITH FRAUD: Seven former executives of Symbol Technologies, including the CEO and CFO, face criminal charges alleging that they fraudulently inflated the company's reported revenues by $200 million between 1999 and 2002. Symbol itself faces a civil suit filed by the SEC. ** New York-based Symbol is the leading developer of wireless IP phones for 802.11 networks. TELEHOP EXPANDS TO PRAIRIES: Telehop Communications has extended its business and residential dial-around and direct-access long distance service to Manitoba and Saskatchewan. WHAT'S BEHIND TELUS'S BID FOR FIDO: Ian Angus says that by making a $1.1 billion takeover bid for Microcell, "Telus is trying to buy spectrum it may not be allowed to keep, infrastructure and staff it doesn't need, and low-spending customers who may not stay." But there's a rational explanation, and it's revealed in the June issue of Telemanagement, available to subscribers now. Also in this issue: ** Implementing enterprise mobile data applications ** Does Canadian telecom policy need an overhaul? ** VON Canada: Is VoIP really nearing the takeoff point? Every month, Telemanagement subscribers receive exclusive in-depth analysis on the most important issues in business telecommunications. Subscribe now at Angus TeleManagement Group's website. www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub-online.html. ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2004 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) Subject: Tapping Telephone Lines - 1970s Date: 7 Jun 2004 10:37:12 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Someone was telling me that the 'authorities' (local or fed) were tapping their telephone line in the 1970s. One spouse was active in the civil rights movement. She claimed she knew this because her phone line was frequently noisy and there was a phone co truck often parked outside their apt. It is my understanding that if "they" wanted to tap your phone line, they knew what they were doing and you wouldn't hear a thing. I recall a visit to a phone co C.O. in the main dist frame there were numerous cords running to the ceiling spliced into leads. The guide explained they were "test leads" and that they were used to test a phone line. I was surprised there were so many. I also presumed they could be used for wiretapping. Basically, the authorities would order the phoneco to set up a tap on such-and-such a line, and the phoneco people would do it or permit it to be done. So, hearing clicks/wrong numbers on your phone doesn't mean at all your phone is tapped. As to the phoneco truck outside, I suspect they were patronizing the deli underneath her apt for lunch. I also suspect the noise/wrong numbers she had was from being served by an old center city electro-mech switch and cabling, I know such switches were far from error free in those days and strange things happened from time to time. ------------------------------ From: John Bartley Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 11:29:14 -0800 Subject: Primus Offering Residential and Business VOIP Service http://www.lingo.com shows a $20/mo unlimited VOIP plan for residential users, with free calling to US, Canada, Western Europe plus on-net users who are elsewhere. Startup cost is $50 for the VOIP adapter and freight. Voicemail, PSAP access for 911 calls and number portability are offered among the raft of other features. The basic plan is $15/mo for 500 minutes of use. Charges for calling to overseas mobiles are not included. Their servers gacked before I could confirm the list, but it might include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Vatican City -- sadly, no mention of Qwghlm or the Dutchy of Grand Fenwick. There's a $80/mo unlimited use plan covering more nations (adding Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico City, Guadalajara, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.) Their servers are hammered pretty heavily night now, since the announcement appeared in the Wall Street Journal (the Slashdot of the dead tree set) today. Anyone using this? It does not (yet) serve Oregon, so I can't try it. The service locations next door in Washington are limited to major cities. The three free month offer for new customers does look appealing. There's also a $25 referral bonus. John Bartley K7AAY http://kiloseven.blogspot.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Jeff nor Lisa) Subject: Reagan and Deregulation -- Observations Date: 7 Jun 2004 10:10:04 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Some telecom observations on Reagan's passing. In newscaster David Brinkley's last book, he describes Ronald Reagan as a president who changed the long held view that govt regulation is a good thing, and more govt would solve social ills. This attitude originated in the New Deal, and was expanded by Johnson's Great Society. Reagan changed it, despite the kicking and screaming of opposition. One area that was impacted was regulation of utilities. Now we have considerable deregulation. It must be noted that efforts started under Carter before Reagan came in, but he continued the effort full steam. One result was a radical change in how telephone service was provided. Instead of a single granted monopoly company doing owning all equipment and providing service point to point, we have customers owning their own equipment and various companies competing to provide service. I submit the Reagan Administration bears credit or blame for this. I have very mixed feelings about this. First off, it is wrong to generalize "deregulation is always good". For some industries yes, but others no. With the benefit of hindsight, a lot of deregulation hurt the economy rather than helping it. It seems almost everyone connected with telecom feels they and the customers are better off today than in the past. Looking at the trials and tribulations -- and my monthly phone bill -- I'm not sure that's true. For certain sophisticated users -- those who have the time and knowledge to CONSTANTLY shop for up-to-date deals and make changes accordingly -- they have done better. I think many of us have done worse because the companies take advantage of us. People forget that the cost of providing phone service was on a downhill slide before 1983, and costs would've continued to do go down while service quality and features went up. Critics of Ma Bell tried to paint it as a company locked into SxS and black rotary phones in 1983, but that's not true. As to other aspects of the economy, I think deregulation allowed abuses like Enron/Arthur Andersen, the Savings & Loan scandals (though blame Carter for that, the laws passed on his watch), and other Wall Street messes. We have forgetten the reason Congress passed laws to regulate Wall Street back in the 1930s, and dishonest people are doing the same tricks done in the 1920s. ------------------------------ From: Tom Lynn Subject: Re: More Memories of Illinois Bell Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 08:51:27 -0700 Organization: . Reply-To: tl@blarg.net Pat, One item in the story is problematic. The Illinois state lottery began in 1974. I know because I was just a wee lad living in Skokie, IL. at the time and the whole idea was fascinating. Was there another lottery previously? Tom Lynn http://www.tomlynn.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The story was first told to me by Wally about 1986 or so long after he had retired. If you say the lottery started in Illinois in 1974, I will assume you are correct and that Wally got the date a little wrong. And truth be told, I cannot remember whether or not 'Illinois State Lottery' was in the first part of his account from 1968 or the second part of his account from around 1976. He mentioned the lottery in talking to me, I may have assumed it was a 1968 thing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Can I Tell If Incoming Call Is From A Pay Phone? Date: 7 Jun 2004 09:59:18 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com jim evans wrote: > On my cell phone the only information I get about the caller is their > phone number. Is there a way to tell which numbers are pay phone > numbers. That is, callers who are calling from pay phones. AFAIK there is no way to tell that an incoming call is from a payphone, or any other kind of phone. As mentioned, pay phone numbers used to begin with 9, but that is no guarantee. I've seen pay phones beginning with 8 and many regular numbers begin with 9 (those people had trouble with collect calls in the old days, as others mentioned). It also must be noted that the name associated with a pay phone could be anything. From experience, some pay phone names are descriptive, but others are cryptic. Some payphones on public transit property give the name of the carrier but others don't. I would suggest cell phone users be very careful to whom they give their number out. Like email addresses, sooner or later they'll end up in some sales solicitor's directory. The laws against doing so don't help that much*. (*A phone in a nursing home is not supposed to get any soliciting calls, but my mother's phone sure did, causing considerable disturbance. We ended up pulling the phone out altogether as a result. My mother was not in a position to make a detailed call record, nor I the time to chase down an offender; and the solicitors know that and take advantage of it.) ------------------------------ From: suresh_r@cashette.com (Suresh Ramachandran) Subject: Re: E-911 Issues Date: 7 Jun 2004 10:00:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi George, Its nice piece of article that you have drafted. On the outset I feel: 1)When the Voip service is being offered and when the user is in another country, why would he want to use 911, because in each country it could be different. a)so where would the call be routed to? b)will the VoiP gateway provider take the responsibility of rounting it to the appropriate the callfoward to the respective country? 3) PRANKS: there will be some people who might make a prank call to 911 if the location database is goofed up esp when the dialup ADSL service and the VoIpgate way service providers are faaaar apart. People who genuinely would require a help from the 911 service would get affected by few pranksetrs. Effectively, I know privacy is getting affected, but when you look at children/aged/handicapped people staying at home and using these numbers for an emergency, I think is very very improtant for their security and safety. I would require that since it could be my family. Regards, Suresh [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: To answer your questions as best I can, speaking about Vonage, in (1) calls to 911 are just routed to dead air until/unless the subscriber *presmably an adult* dictates to Vonage how he wants the calls to be handled, i.e. to the PSAP of record in his community. Whether or not there are PSAP data bases for other countries, I do not know. I presume if there are, the subscriber could tell Vonage where '911' should be aliased to in his case. I do not think Vonage sells their service to people outside the USA/Canada. although they are certainly free to take their MTA box out of the country on a trip. I would be interested to find out how often that is done in practice. In (1-a) the call is routed to dead air until the subscriber notifies them otherwise, which is why a responsible adult treats a VOIP phone like any piece of equipment under his care. In (1-b) VOIP companies make no claim, and often times are quick to point out that their phone service *cannot* be used for emergencies. If you, the subscriber, do as requested, then the VOIP can be used in emergency calls. Regards (3), regardless of the location of your ISP (being used), your call is sent through a computer at the VOIP wherever it may be. If the PSAP database is 'screwed up' as you put it, that is something that is really beyond the control of the VOIP carrier. All you can do is submit detailed information when you first establish the service amd hope the carrier does the rest. But, if geo-locating equipment was built into the VOIP box, and if people took seriously the rule to *only use 911 in a dire emergency when immediate police intervention was required* then it shouldn't matter if the police came to you from Independence, KS or from New York or New Delhi, wherever you were located. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Zombie PCs Spew Out 80% of Spam Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 17:49:26 -0400 SELLCOM Tech support wrote: > Yes, when a spam site pops up in China, CUT CHINA!!! > Yes, when a spam site pops up in Russia, CUT RUSSIA!! It is a nice daydream, but it isn't just that it won't be done that way, it would be technically "very difficult". The Internet was designed to be self healing. True, it appears to hub and spoke out of the US at present, but there are all sorts of other paths. If an ISP's, or a country's path through the US is cut, its traffic will automatically reroute to whoever is still connected that has the best path. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Public Copy Cost Unchanged Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 05:41:26 GMT In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > I was at the library and used the public copying machine. It was > 10 cents a copy. > I realized this price is the same since I was a kid, back when a > payphone call was a dime. Bus fares, now $2.00 were 35 cents. I believe it's much the same fee structure at Providence Public Library. But that is unique about PPL is they aren't a city library but a private organization funded by city, state, and foundation money. Busses on the other hand have jumped from an odd zoning system to a flat rate $1.25 for the regular commuter lines, while the Providence Link started out at .50 a ride in 1999 and is now $1.00 a ride. > One example of improved technology holding its costs down. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or maybe the Library trustees have > dictated the price is to be kept low, by subsidizing it a little. I > do not think you can 'blame' it all on technology. After all, telco > has had lots of technological improvements in that time, as have > busses, but look at their prices now. In the case of busses, look at the price of fuel. The diesel bus was a cruel joke perpetrated on many cities in the United States. The replacement of electric trolleys with those diesel behemoths meant transit companies were on the hook for both fuel and other consumables like tires, etc. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The Chicago Transit Atrocity -- err -- Authority was sold quite a bill of goods by Detroit auto makers when they switched from streetcars and electric trolley busses to motorized busses fifty years ago. They were told every reason in the world why street cars and electric trollies were less effecient than the good old deisel gas fume, belching busses they wound up with. Pretty soon, they started believing those stories themselves, and began passing them on to the inquiring public. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Who Got the Message? There's a Way to Know Organization: ATCC Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 05:49:45 GMT In article , monty@roscom.com says: > By MARK GLASSMAN > A NEW service promises to pull back the curtain on anyone hiding > behind the common white lie "I never got your e-mail." Users of the > service, DidTheyReadIt (didtheyreadit.com), can clandestinely track > when and where their e-mail is read. > The service, which has already drawn complaints from privacy > advocates, offers a new and quiet way to harvest behavioral > information about friends, colleagues and potential consumers. > "There's a type of covert surveillance here," said Marc Rotenberg, > president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a nonprofit > privacy advocacy group. "Just from a technology viewpoint, it's > basically an evil service." > E-mail programs like Eudora and Outlook have long offered an optional > return-receipt feature, which prompts the recipient of a message to > inform the sender that they have opened the message, and another > service, Msgtag (www.msgtag.com), notifies users by e-mail when their > outgoing messages have been opened. But DidTheyReadIt is the first > such service to keep itself a secret from the recipient, as well as > the first to report on where the message was read. > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/technology/circuits/03spyy.html Easy enough to defeat. Just put a new rule on the firewall that doesn't let it get back. Who would have thought it, or prevent viewing HTML in Eudora or Outlook -- that can be done too. ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: Spam and Virii Continue Unabated, Getting Worse, IMO Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 22:50:47 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Rob Warnock wrote: > Read your recent lament re increased spam volumes. Indeed, traffic > seems to be *way* up. Something the RISKS Digest editor has done that > might be helpful to you is to request that submitters include a > specific uncommon string in their "Subject:" headers, > e.g. "[tcomdgst]", which your moderation approval script could strip > out (so it doesn't get exposed in the list. [Obviously, you'd need to > use some circumlocution in announcing the magic string, too, for the > same reason.] Better yet, require the string only the first time each person posts. soc.singles.moderated has used this method for years. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The problem with requiring things only the first time someone writes, are the spammers and virii writers who sit down and copy names out of the various Digests and then use *those names* to send the crap around. You have any idea how much spam and virii shows up here in my mail each day which (as an example) was sent by 'ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu'? Another good case is Monty Solomon. Some one or more s/v writers are doing a number on him right now. I get at least a dozen HUGE spams each day where the author attached Monty's name to it. And I suspect many of you have gotten s/v allegedly sent by me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Bartley Date: Mon, 07 Jun 2004 08:11:19 -0800 Subject: AVT/Captaris Call Express Administrators Folks who are using the Call Express automated attendant and voice mail system from Captaris (formerly AVT) are requested to contact me at johnbartley3 {at} yahoo {daht} com I'm trying to see if there's critical mass for a listserv, focused on informal self-support, for those folks not well served by their existing support structure. Thank you. John Bartley telecom admin USBC/DO Portland OR ------------------------------ 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. Contact information: Patrick Townson/TELECOM Digest Post Office Box 50 Independence, KS 67301 Phone: 620-402-0134 Fax 1: 775-255-9970 Fax 2: 530-309-7234 Fax 3: 208-692-5145 Email: editor@telecom-digest.org Subscribe: telecom-subscribe@telecom-digest.org Unsubscribe:telecom-unsubscribe@telecom-digest.org This Digest is the oldest continuing e-journal about telecomm- unications on the Internet, having been founded in August, 1981 and published continuously since then. Our archives are available for your review/research. We believe we are the oldest e-zine/mailing list on the internet in any category! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE JUST 65 CENTS ONE OR TWO INQUIRIES CHARGED TO YOUR CREDIT CARD! REAL TIME, UP TO DATE! SPONSORED BY TELECOM DIGEST AND EASY411.COM SIGN UP AT http://www.easy411.com/telecomdigest ! ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #279 ******************************