From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Jul 4 00:23:37 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i644Nbe21933; Sun, 4 Jul 2004 00:23:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 00:23:37 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200407040423.i644Nbe21933@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 #316 TELECOM Digest Sun, 4 Jul 2004 00:23:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 316 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Norvergence Offices Raided by FBI (Alessandra Di Maggio) Cash For Former Norvergence Customer Referrals (Christine Collins) Re: Norvergence Shut Down (Steven J Sobol) Norvergence and Employee Insurance (EXECUTIVE2@aol.com) ANI->CNID, was Re: Pizza; Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone (Danny Burstein) Re: WFMT, WCPE, YUSA Lost Satellite Carriage on G5-T7 (Robert Bonomi) Re: WFMT, WCPE, YUSA Lost Satellite Carriage on G5-T7 (Neal McLain) Buy With A Wave Of A Phone (Eric Friedebach) Re: Pizza; Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID (R Greenberg) Re: Pizza; Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID (John D Galt) Re: Pizza; Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID (Novosielski) Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers (John Mayson) Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers (John David Galt) Re: Domain Registration Recommendations (Richard Gozinia) Re: Interception of E-Mail Raises Questions (jmeissen@aracnet.com) Re: Inet Domain Name, Help. (delete the 'z' to get my real address) Re: What Happened to the "2 Way" Craze? (Joseph) United States: Communications Law Bulletin-June 2004 (VOIP News) DSL Prime for July 3, 2004 (VOIP News) 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: shinecorp1@aol.com (Alessandra Di Maggio) Subject: Norbergence Offics Raided by FBI Date: 2 Jul 2004 11:24:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have spoken again to friends I know at Norvergence. Officially they are closed down. The offices in Newark were raided by the FBI on July 1, 2004 with allegations by the FBI of fraud and embezzlement. No one received any pay for four weeks. (One month, two paydays). When employees were notified they were all fired and not getting paid after the fourth week in a row, they began destroying office equipment and computers, and police were called. All Norvergence customers are totally cut off, unless they have made arrangements elswhere. Shinecorp1@aol.com Alessandra [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This scene reminds me the fiasco at the Diner's Club Credit Card office in 1962 when they were still owned by Alfred Bloomingdale's corporation and were located in New York City. The office had been getting increasingly more difficult to manage for a few years as the staff of about two thousand employees became increasingly diverse racially. Diners, in those days, had just come out of an all-manual system into the first year or two of computeriza- tion. Like Norvergence, Diners had a large number of ex-cons and/or parolees on the payroll; I guess the city and state of New York gave them a lot of tax breaks for doing so, etc. But there were problems, so severe in fact that Diners Club verged on bankruptcy more than once. Diner's management decided to make a sneaky move out of town, and (in general) get all new employees, trained in the new computerized system. And since 'everyone' knows that white poople in semi-rural areas work harder and cheaper than racially diverse people in an 'inner city area' like New York City, they decided the office would be relocated in Denver, Colorado, at the time, 40 years ago, still very much a 'country type' of small town, in an area outside of town called 'Tech Center'. It would be a whole new start for the company, and they really were hot to get out of New York City. In essence, *none*. of the employees were told about it, except a snall handful of supervisors and middle management people they intended to take along, and they were sworn to total secrecy. Diner's certainly did not intend to take along the vast assortment of riff-raff they had collected over the years in the form of posting/ledger clerks/bookeepers, etc; the vast majority of whom were either racially diverse or quite sympathetic to all the 'anti-everything' attitude of the Vietnam years. Comes the day before Thanksgiving that year (Wednesday) with the usual four day holiday (Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun) many USA workers get, and Diners management lined up everyone, handed out the turkeys, wished them all a happy Thanksgiving holiday and said, "Oh by the way, don't come back on Monday, cause we won't be here." Unlike Norvergence, Diners did give out final paychecks and a reasonable severence check to everyone, but still, the place went up for grabs. Some employees went around smashing stuff up, and several went two or three floors up to the 'computer center' (all *those* employees had been invited to relocate, and most of them did), broke the door down, took two computer workers *hostage*, took two big reels of tape, shredded it all into confetti and tossed it out the window from the 15th floor of the building there on Columbus Circle. The shredded confetti-like tapes consisted of invoices merchants had been paid for, but had not yet been billed to Diner's customers **and they had not yet been microfilmed (or backed up).** After the riot was over, police had arrested several hundred employees, freed the hostages, and cleared the place out. Very shocked management of Diner's Club wound up having to write off about three *million* dollars in recievables they could not reconstruct or bill for, even though Al Bloomingdale and others went out on Columbus Circle and picked up scraps of magnetic tape trying to put it all together again. It was close to a year later, located in Denver that Diner's finally realized the extent of the damage done by employees on the final day in New York City. And when the reality of the final write off that would have to be done hit them smack in the face, and many of Diners' *own creditors* were beginning to turn the screws on them for payment and many merchants had quit dealing with Diners because of how ineffecient they had become a year earlier in New York, Diners did decide to file bankruptcy. To their rescue came CNA Insurance, who bought into the action, and Amoco Oil who also bought a piece of the action and handed Diners a great deal: a list of a few million Amoco card holders who had been in 'phase 1' for a year or better, with no delinquencies in their oil company accounts. But because they are (or at least then were) not fools, Amoco said *we* will administer the whole thing and refer to it as 'Torch Club', and Diners, all you have to do is get your merchants (what there was left of them) to go along with it and accept 'Torch Club' cards like they would any Diner's Club card. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Solzano people come out of all this bright and shiny. They'll file bankruptcy, then Solzano will go sit down with his friends at Qwest and elsewhere, and start cutting some new deals. PAT] ------------------------------ From: christine.collins@atx.com (Christine Collins) Subject: Cash for Norvergence Customer Referrals Date: 2 Jul 2004 11:49:17 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com ATTENTION ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED WITH NORVERGENCE:: WE ARE OFFERING COMMISSION TO ANYONE WHO CAN REFER BUSINESS CUSTOMERS THAT HAVE BEEN SCAMMED BY NORVERGENCE. PLEASE EMAIL ASAP: christine.collins@atx.com ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Norvergence Shut Down Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 17:10:34 -0500 William Van Hefner wrote: > The move comes after the carrier came under investigation earlier this > week by the New Jersey Labor Department for allegedly bouncing > employee paychecks. Over 1,300 employees at the company's Newark, NJ > office were told that they must leave immediately, and were escorted > out of the building by security. Newark police were called in to keep > the peace, as employees poured out onto the streets with their > belongings. > If and when the company's bankruptcy petition is filed, we will make > it available for free download via our website. Hey, Black Ninja. Any comments? This is all the customers' fault, right? JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, http://JustThe.net/ Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP Key available from your friendly local key server (0xE3AE35ED) Apple Valley, California Nothing scares me anymore. I have three kids. ------------------------------ From: EXECUTIVE2@aol.com Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2004 18:17:45 EDT Subject: Norvergence and Insurance Pat, Please post so that other former employees are aware that they will have problems collecting on their insurance claims. According to Kelly at Comprehensive Benefits, they are only a TPA, Third Party Administrator. Qualcare is also a TPA, who submitted, the adjusted claims to Comprehnsive Benefits to mail checks to Doctor's. What you will soon discover is that Norvergence was self insured and is not an insurance company. Neither is Qualcare or Comprehensive Benefits. For all those that may seek further information under the Federal Law here is a link that me be beneficial: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/ go to the sub heading: Employer Bankruptcy: How Will It Affect Your Benefits? Comprehensive Benefits: http://www.comprehensive-benefit.com/ This information was supplied to me by the New Jersey Department of Insurance. Thank You and Good Luck to All. ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: ANI->CNID, was Re: Pizza ... Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 18:31:42 +0000 (UTC) Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In Keith writes: > Is it possible to get ANI information from an 800 number delivered to > a standard analog POTS line via CallerID by the telco? This wouldn't > require a PBX (even a small one), and would keep the entire setup > pretty simple. Eyup. I get it, as we speak, courtesy of a tollfree number using KALL8 that's routed to my cellphone. Every single call coming to me shows the originating phone number. (I'm not 100% certain whether it's kicking me ANI or unblocked CNID. All the folk who've called me recently have been from places where the two are identical, or where I couldn't check back. The tollfree mechanism, though, makes it much more likely it's ANI). Kall8 info in at http://www.kall8.com. They're not the absolute cheapest, but their rates are competitive for moderate use. And they have a superb web interface which lets you change the destination number at the drop of a Kerry flip flop. Or a Bush six-pack. So you can route to the office until 5:45 pm, then kick it to your cellphone, (No connection to them except as a satisfied customer). _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ Organization: Robert Bonomi Consulting Subject: Re: WFMT, WCPE, YUSA Lost Satellite Carriage on G5-T7 From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 18:45:34 +0000 In article , Neal McLain wrote: > In my post of May 24, 2004 (TD 23:255) , I > noted that WFMT, WCPE, and YUSA were about to lose carriage on Galaxy > 5, Transponder 7. They lost carriage at 6:05 PM EDT on June 30, 2004, > when all five aural subcarriers fell silent. > As of July 2: > WFMT has not arranged for any form of alternate satellite carriage, > and it apparently doesn't intend to. It has announced informally (in > e-mails and phone calls to distressed listeners) that it intends to > resume internet streaming as a subscription service (it had > discontinued streaming in October 2002 for cost reasons. > ). But it still hasn't > made any official announcement about its streaming plans or the > proposed subscription fee. Its website is silent on > the issue. WFMT has made official 'on-air' announcements that it will be offering an internet-based streaming subscription service. "Send an e-mail to 'streaming' AT 'wfmt.com'" and they'll send messages when more information is available. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 15:18:44 -0500 From: Neal McLain Subject: Re: WFMT, WCPE, YUSA Lost Satellite Carriage on G5-T7 Jim Haynes (haynes@alumni.uark.edu) wrote: > Rats! I was within days of getting a satellite dish set up so I > could receive WFMT. Hey, check out WCPE. It's 100% classical with no advertising. It's also 100% listener-supported, but its fundraisers are relatively low-key. You'll be able to get it with your new dish: Galaxy 5, Transponder 15, subcarriers 5.58 and 6.12 MHz. . Disclosure (and rant): I have no connection with either WCPE or WFMT. I'm just a retired cable guy who spent his entire cable-TV career trying to convince marketing types that classical music is a salable product for a cable company. It's always amazed me that marketing pros who spend their careers trying to "position" video services don't apply the same logic to audio services. "Thirty channels of stereo music" is about as informative as "Thirty channels of color television." Now I keep hearing about how phone companies are building FTTH networks because "there's pent-up demand for an alternative to cable." Ok, fine. Am I supposed to believe that telco marketing guys know anything about classical music? Neal McLain [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When CableOne took over our service here in Independence more than a year ago, one thing they did was add classical music to their line up. We can get it three ways: Channel 938 on the cable box gets 24/7 classical music with a blank screen on the television set. Or with the cable plug in on my Bose radio I can tune in KRPS 89.9 FM from Pittsburg/Joplin or the station in Tulsa on 89.5 FMl both these are PBS stations with mostly classical music stuff. The lady in the office said to me "You won't need those two, since you can get it on channel 938." I suggested to her please leave it alone, I sort of preferred KPRS myself. A question to those of you who know about FM radio carried on cable: The tower is over on Oak Street, rather high. Exactly *how* to they get in FM radio stations? The man told me they have a crystal for 89.9 in a reciever there in the tower. Can they only get what they have crystals for or is *any* station on FM radio available over the cable (as far as improving its reception is concerned, etc?) PAT] ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: Buy With A Wave Of A Phone Date: 3 Jul 2004 13:45:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Arik Hesseldahl, 07.01.04, Forbes.com NEW YORK - Somewhere in that long list of things that mobile phones were one day "supposed to become" was a replacement for the credit card. Sure, they're great for talking, storing personal calendars and address books. But their go-everywhere nature and ability to store data and communicate over the wireless networks, plus the ever-increasing smarts of the chips inside them, were also going to make them smart enough to handle the kinds of transactions usually classified as "impulse purchases." Sour Chhor wants to make it happen, and he's closer than you might expect. He's general manager of a group at Philips Electronics focused on developing a technology called near field communications (NFC) that is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and could within a year start turning common mobile phones into the spendthrift's best friend. http://www.forbes.com/2004/07/01/cx_ah_0701rfid.html Eric Friedebach /Hey kids, never use a cigarette to light fireworks! Use a cigar - it stays lit longer./ ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Pizza ... Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID info? Date: 2 Jul 2004 15:01:04 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Keith wrote: > No one answered my earlier question though: > Is it possible to get ANI information from an 800 number delivered to > a standard analog POTS line via CallerID by the telco? This wouldn't > require a PBX (even a small one), and would keep the entire setup > pretty simple. Yes, its possible and some IXCs do this (or used to). 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: John David Galt Subject: Re: Pizza ... Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID info? Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 17:12:54 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Barry Margolin wrote: >> BTW, Pizza Hut for a long time had one of the most comprehensive >> reverse-lookup phone number databases in the world. They correlated >> information from a number of public sources, past customer calls, etc. I've run into a lot of businesses that do this, but find it a very mixed blessing. A lot of businesses -- including some that are in the business of selling lists of names to telemarketers -- still have my number listed in the name of a homeowner who had it before I moved here in 1997. Businesses I want to do business with, such as the local pizza place, are pretty good about changing their listings when I order from them (though I do have to remember to tell them, because they now assume by default that they already know, from my phone number, who and where I am; in my view this practice is a bug and not a feature). On the other hand, for six years I regularly got junk phone calls asking for that former homeowner, and usually the callers weren't inclined to tell me where they got his name/number so that I could contact the list seller and set its records straight. The do-not-call list, though, has finally put a stop to this nuisance, except for the charities. ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Pizza ... Can I Tell a Cell or Pay Phone Call From CallerID info? Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 04:50:00 GMT Keith wrote: > No one answered my earlier question though: > Is it possible to get ANI information from an 800 number delivered to > a standard analog POTS line via CallerID by the telco? This wouldn't > require a PBX (even a small one), and would keep the entire setup > pretty simple. Yes, it sure is. I have an 800 number with my LD carrier that rings to my regular POTS line. If someone calls the 800 number, it delivers complete CallerID Name and Number information to my phone, whether or not the caller dials *67 first. The same call dialed directly to the POTS number will show PRIVATE. Inbound rates are pretty standard, I think it's like 5.4¢/minute, but you will get bit for the extra quarter or so, if someone calls you from a pay phone. (If you're interested, e-mail me privately and I'll give you a referral code. If you sign up I get a few cents.) In any case, if you are dialing an 800 number, you pretty much can't block your identity. ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Subject: Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 22:53:13 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com > I was just curious to know what happens to the phone numbers once a > wireless plan expires or a customer terminates the contract. Are those > assigned to some other customers later? And most importantly how much > time does it take? This information will be useful to me as number > portability act doesn't work with the same carrier. If my plan with > Sprint expires and I have bought phones and numbers from another private > company for the same carrier (needs new activation); can I let the > current numbers expire and then maybe request them back? My company had issued me a cell phone, but took it away as part of cost cutting. Soon afterward (maybe 2 or 3 weeks) people told me when they called the number they got someone else who was quite irrate about receiving yet another call for me. It appeared they recycled the number fairly quickly. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Re: What Happens to Expired Wireless Numbers Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 17:27:04 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Joseph wrote: > Then again it may make a difference *how* valuable the old customer > was. Do they do over $100 a month in charges or are they a $20 a > month customer. That may make a difference. This selectivity based on the "value of the customer" goes both ways. After a bad experience with AT&T (who changed my contract terms in nasty ways, raised the price, and insisted on an annual contract for continued service) I cancelled my cellular service with them. I'm looking for a cell provider that offers all or most of these: - Low or no per-month charges (say $10 or less); the provider should make most of its money from a high per-minute rate instead. (I had the phone for a few, important calls, and never used as much as one tenth of the 2000 minutes/month that I had to pay for as part of AT&T's plan); - No insistence that I accept services I don't want (paging, text messaging, video, or Custom Calling type features); - Per-line caller-ID blocking and a promise that the number won't be included in cellular directories or sold to marketers; - No commitment longer than 90 days (especially if the provider is unwilling to commit in return that its plan and rates won't change); I have no problem with paying for the phone up front; and - No locking the phone so that I can't use it with multiple providers. (AT&T's is a pain to use in many locations because they program the handset so it will always insist on using an AT&T cell tower if it detects one, even if the signal is really horrible and a better signal is available from another provider.) I would like to see a good comparison site for cellular services similar to abelltolls.com for long distance services. ------------------------------ From: Richard Gozinia Subject: Re: Domain Registration Recommendations Date: 2 Jul 2004 13:52:07 -0500 Reply-To: No Address On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 20:47:56 -0500, Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote: > Richard Gozinia wrote: >> 1) Use a quality hosting company, where Spam Assassin or similar, >> possibly in combination with Real Time Block Listing, is incorporated >> into their mail server. > No, no, no, NO! > I recently had a problem where my email provider blackholed a > mailserver from which I receive a large amount of legitimate email. > It took a week to get the block removed, and during that time email > sent to me through the blackholed server was irretrievably lost. A > couple of years ago email I sent to my father was dropped for about > two weeks when my father's ISP blackholed my ISP's mailserver. Horror stories notwithstanding, it's all in the implementation. I'll concede that most hosting companies don't do it right. Having said that, I have complete control over my mail. I lose no valid mail, I have maximum flexibility and I have almost no spam. > I prefer to receive ALL my email -- spam included -- and filter it > locally. That way, if a filter becomes "overly aggressive" for some > reason it's under _my_ control, not that of some faceless dweeb who is > only reachable when it suits him. Yes, many RTBL operators are defectives and malcontents. That's why the best service providers won't have anything to do with them. If your provider is good, you'll have none of these problems. The occasional borderline stuff can be tagged and processed by the client, if you wish. > The pipe that brings me email should be just that: a pipe. No > filters, no blacklists, no tampering of any kind. There's no reason to handle known spam locally. You seem to think that what I'm talking about is impossible. Keep thinking that, and enjoy swimming in your spam. DG ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Re: Interception of E-Mail Raises Questions Date: 2 Jul 2004 20:01:20 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But I thought that those rules did not > apply to a company monitoring its own servers and its own employees > activities. ? PAT] Apparently in this case the email belonged to subscribers, not employees. John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: Walter Dnes (delete the 'z' my real address) Subject: Re: Inet Domain Name, Help. Date: 3 Jul 2004 00:00:05 GMT Reply-To: see_my_sig_at_bottom_of_message@waltdnes.org On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 20:40:43 GMT, Ron Reaugh, wrote: > What exactly is a registerable Internet domain name and how does that > relate to subdomains? For instance if one owns or is renting > xyzabc.com then what exactly is jkl.xyzabc.com? I understand that the > jkl is known as a subdomain. But is the complete entity > jkl.xyzabc.com something that is independently registerable from > xzyabc.com? OR if one owns xyzabc.com then does one own automatically > all subdomains off xyzabc.com in Internet domain name space? I guess > the question boils down to whether '.' is a special and > non-registerable character below the TLD level and therefore the > registerable domain name is that entity in the right most portion of > the name including one and only one '.' which preceeds a valid TLD? I hate to say this, but "it depends". In the old com/net/org/edu name space, the "owner" of abc.tld usually "owns" *.abc.tld. "Owns" may not be a 100% correct way to say it, which is why the quotes. Other TLDs (Top Level Domains) do things differently. In the UK, there are many 3rd-level domains. E.g. ".ac.uk" is the UK equivalant of the American ".edu", so you'll find British universities there. ".co.uk" is corporate (like ".com") in the UK. So the British Broadcasting Corporation is "bbc.co.uk". To further complicate matters, demon.co.uk sells *FOURTH LEVEL* domains. So "jane_smith.demon.co.uk" and "john_doe.demon.co.uk" could be totally different domains with their own separate nameservers and MX's. Walter Dnes; my email address is *ALMOST* like wzaltdnes@waltdnes.org Delete the "z" to get my real address. If that gets blocked, follow the instructions at the end of the 550 message. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: What Happened to the "2 Way" Craze? Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 18:05:23 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NONOcom On Fri, 2 Jul 2004 09:55:29 -0400, Keith wrote: > If the cordless phone and cell phone industries would have encrypted > the conversations instead of lobbying congress to pass laws that make > it illegal to listen to conversations, everyone would have been better > served. And just what do you mean if? All digital mobile systems now have encryption. remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 16:49:19 -0400 Subject: United States: Communications Law Bulletin-June 2004 Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.mondaq.com/i_article.asp_Q_articleid_E_27039 The FCC, States, and the European Commission Further Consider the Regulation of VOIP Services As we reported in our March, 2004 edition, the FCC has initiated a comprehensive investigation into the appropriate regulatory framework for so-called IP-enabled services, including Voice-over-Internet- Protocol ("VOIP") services that offer an alternative to the traditional voice telephone call. That FCC rulemaking continues, with reply comments due to be filed on July 14. In the meantime, however, federal, state and international developments in VOIP regulations have not stood still. Federal Developments One of the regulatory issues facing many VOIP providers is their inability to obtain telephone numbers directly from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator ("NANPA"). Telecommunications carriers must have a state operating certificate in order to obtain numbering resources directly from the Pooling Administration ("PA") or the NANPA. Because VOIP providers typically are not state-certified, they have to acquire telephone numbers from local exchange carriers. Full article (VoIP related material begins about six paragraphs from the top) at: http://www.mondaq.com/i_article.asp_Q_articleid_E_27039 (Free registration required) 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: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 15:55:10 -0400 Subject: DSL Prime for July 3, 2004 Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.dslprime.com/News_Articles/news_articles.htm [Excerpt - read down to the last paragraph to find out why this is significant VoIP news:] Verizon says go, SBC says no. Verizon is dead serious about the million homes passed with fiber this year, and two million more next. Keiko Harvey made that clear in an extraordinary press conference in Chicago, flanked by Mark Wegleitner, her senior technical peer, Tom Tauke, their VP for policy, and her network lead. There's no fudge in the numbers, either. They are only counting homes with everything in place except the terminal and actual drop to the house. Verizon's current gear has 860 megahertz for video, and 19 meg for data, but they have active plans to raise that to the 100 meg symmetric of a true fiber build. (See Anton Wahlman's latest report.) SBC will not be running fiber, except to a very limited number of new developments. Instead, they are betting ADSL2+ (15/2) will, per Chris Rice "'future-proof' our network and meet customers bandwidth needs for decades to come." Whitacre believes "In short, our network will be faster and more capable than any other," (quoted by Telephony's Donny Jackson.) Essentially, SBC is betting that Comcast will not deliver for a decade a fraction of the capabilities Brian Roberts is promising, or that consumers won't care about higher speeds. 30 megabit cable modems are working well in Japan, and Roberts projects 70% video on demand/unicast/timeshift. DOCSIS 2.0, going into service already, outclasses SBC's future network, DOCSIS 3.0 is 200 meg down, 100 meg up. Cisco has sold cable equipment with that speed for delivery in 2005 to Korea and probably a trial in Comcast. Verizon instead is meeting the cable challenge with $billions of fiber to the home. Wegleitner explains, "I respect the people making other decisions, but I don't think the ADSL2+ video will be competitive with cable. It just doesn't have enough margin." Video Compression for 15 Meg Service Since HDTV is nominally 19 megabits, compression is crucial. 40-60% of American homes will have HD-TV in a few years, including the most profitable customers. SBC's release claims "The Microsoft TV IPTV platform would make it possible to deliver standard-and high-definition TV programming to multiple TV sets in the home over an FTTN network while leaving ample bandwidth available for super high-speed broadband and Voice over IP (VoIP) services." That's making some very aggressive assumptions, including HDTV at 5 or 6 meg and SDTV at well under 2 meg. However, today's state of the art MPEG4 .264 or Windows Media Player requires 8-10 meg for full HDTV, live. That means you can't get two, much less three or four, signals across. I spoke directly with the folks designing industry-leading encoders, and they are far from their eventual goal of 6 meg with only a small sacrifice in quality. I've also looked at 6 meg WMP pre-encoded. To my uneducated eye, it looks great - but not nearly as good as the full HDTV NHK was showing a few feet away. I don't know whether someone watching a football championship will care about the difference between "very good" and "even better," but I'd hate to be competing selling video whose quality doesn't match. Only six million have HD-TV today, but the forecasts of forty to sixty million before SBC finishes the 5,000 foot build are likely correct. Costs are plummeting, and programming becoming common. Intel and TI are happy to project how their chips will drive prices lower, fast. Not many will have two or three HD sets initially, however, and Microsoft and Scientific Atlanta are working on some multiplexing tricks that may help at the 15 meg level. That said, if the bandwidth is reserved for video QOS for SBC's chosen content, other programming won't be able to get through. That's definitely not "super high-speed broadband" - and a direct attack on Powell's Four Freedoms and the End to End Principle that has built the internet. Think of the political impact if Vonage suddenly stopped working on SBC DSL lines. Nobody's talking, but that's a side effect of some of the current means to squeeze through selected video channels. Full DSL Prime issue at: http://www.dslprime.com/News_Articles/news_articles.htm ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #316 ******************************