From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Jul 22 01:00:06 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i6M505P19609; Thu, 22 Jul 2004 01:00:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 01:00:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200407220500.i6M505P19609@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 #344 TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 Jul 2004 01:00:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 344 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Board Mulls Phasing Out Consumer Service - WSJ (Monty Solomon) AT&T Wireless Reports Second Qtr Net Income $0.02 Per Share (M Solomon) Phone For Noisy Environment (J Kelly) Verizon as Local Telephone Provider?? (jjk2c) Data Radios (Yantrik) Re: Verizon Fios - Fiber-to-the-Premises Network (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: Verizon Fios - Fiber-to-the-Premises Network (Mark Atwood) Re: Norvergence - How Do I Get Out (Brian Folks) PointOne Provides Enhanced Network Access to 20,000 SIPphone (VOIP News) Senate Panel Sets VoIP Vote (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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:38:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Board Mulls Phasing Out Consumer Service - WSJ NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - AT&T Corp.'s (NYSE:T) board is considering phasing out local and long-distance phone service to U.S. consumers, a potential watershed for a company that until 20 years ago had a virtual monopoly on the country's phone service, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. AT&T's current management team, led by Chairman and Chief Executive David Dorman, has apparently reached a consensus that the company's future lies entirely with corporate and business customers, the Journal said. The board of directors at AT&T was expected to discuss the possible move at a meeting that began Tuesday night and is to continue on Wednesday, the newspaper said, citing unspecified people familiar with the matter. Any such plan could be modified, or rejected altogether, the Journal said. AT&T would not cut off its existing 35 million residential customers under such a plan. Instead, it would cease marketing residential phone service to consumers. Without advertising and the barrage of telephone and mail solicitations to consumers, those customers would fall off significantly over time, according to the Journal. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42618839 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:39:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T Wireless Reports Second Quarter Net Income of $0.02 Per Share Delivers $1.1 Billion in OIBDA REDMOND, Wash., July 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE) today said its second quarter 2004 services revenue grew 3.3 percent from the first quarter to $3.871 billion, driven primarily by a reduction in promotional incentives, and strong growth in wireless data revenues, which were partially offset by declines in monthly recurring charges. Year-over-year, services revenue declined 1.7 percent from $3.939 billion in the year-ago quarter. Net income per share for the quarter was $0.02, an increase from a net loss per share of $0.02 in the first quarter of 2004, but a decline from $0.08 per share reported for the year-ago quarter. The increase in net income over the first quarter was due primarily to higher operating income and net equity earnings from investments. Second quarter OIBDA (defined as operating income before depreciation and amortization) was $1.134 billion (see Attachment A), a 17.4 percent increase from first quarter OIBDA of $966 million and a 4.4 percent decrease from the year-ago quarter's $1.186 billion. OIBDA margin increased 350 basis points sequentially, to 29.3 percent compared to 25.8 percent in the first quarter (See Attachment B). Year-over-year second quarter OIBDA margin declined 80 basis points from 30.1 percent. The sequential increase in both metrics was driven by a number of positive factors, including higher services revenue, a lower provision for bad debt and lower network and toll expenses, partially offset by higher customer acquisition expenses. Net subscriber additions were 15,000, a significant turnaround of more than 380,000 customers from the first quarter of 2004. Second quarter churn was 3.4 percent, a 30 basis point improvement over the first quarter's 3.7 percent. The sequential improvement in churn was driven by customer retention efforts and marked quality and coverage improvements in the company's GSM network and the launch of GSM America, an aggressive new national flagship offer that eliminates roaming charges for many customers. Churn increased when compared to 2.2 percent in the second quarter of 2003. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=42622882 ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Phone for Noisy Environment Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 13:36:39 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com Can anyone recommend a GOOD quality phone for use in a noisy environment? Most phones sold today are total pieces of crap. Requirements are a volume control for the earpiece, be able to withstand a reasonable amount of abuse (dropping the handset, etc, not purposely abusing it), works with a POTS line, and hopefully costs less than $50. Don't need speaker phone, memory dialing, etc, but some of that might be nice, as would be noise cancelling. This is used in an area that has a lot of very large fans and motors running making a lot of noise. Even the 'office area' in this facility has a lot of noise and I'm half deaf besides. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: jjk2c@netzero.com (jjk2c) Subject: Verizon as Local Telephone Provider?? Date: 21 Jul 2004 17:12:52 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I will be moving to southern Illinois soon. It is my understanding that my new local phone provider is Verizon. Does anyone know if the phone service have been deregulated there yet? I really don't want to go with Verizon unless I have to. The reason being is that from their website it appears I have two options: 1) For like $15.00 a month, I can get phone service, but every local call is like a half cent a minute. That sounds crazy to me. 2) The next step up is like $42.00 a month, but that comes with all the bells and whistles like call forwarding and call waiting deluxe and all sorts of other stuff I don't need nor do I want. I have looked at SBC and AT&Ts websites and they all have plans with basic unlimited local calling for like $25.00 a month which I think is pretty reasonable. When I try to sign up with either of these two companies by their websites, I get that phone service is available. However, neither one is able to verify my address on their website so that I can set up service. So that leads me back to my original question. Does anyone know if I am going to be stuck with Verizon, or do I have any other options? I have Verizon for my cell phone, and I think they are pretty good for a cell phone, but I think their local service is just a little bit ridiculous. Thanks for any information anyone may have. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In large parts of Illinois, the telco of record is SBC (formerly Ameritech, prior to that Illinois Bell). Far south Illinois is a bit more sketchy, with a variety of rural telephone companies, etc. Would you mind saying *which* town in southern Illinois you are going to be locating to and perhaps someone can tell you who the telco of record is there. You also mentioned SBC and AT&T as possible choices. Have you tried using those two companies contact numbers (as shown on the web sites) and had one of the humans (at either company) verify the address, service plans, etc? PAT] ------------------------------ From: yantrikcommunications@yahoo.com (Yantrik) Subject: Data Radios Date: 21 Jul 2004 20:34:07 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We are looking for information on the Point-to-Point radios in the data rates of 64-768 KBPS & 1xE1-4xE1 in different frequency bands. Can someone suggest such products with the company contact details. Thanks! ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Verizon Fios - Fiber-to-the-Premises Network Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 21:53:18 GMT In article , kd1s@nospamplease.verizon.reallynospam.net says... > In article , letters@softhome.net > says: >>> Verizon Poised to Deliver First Set of Services to Customers Over >>> Its Fiber-to-the-Premises Network >>> 'Verizon Fios' Initially Will Offer Three High-Speed Data Options >>> Including Speeds 10 Times Faster Than Current Consumer Broadband >>> Services and Prices as Low as $34.95 >>> Additional Fiber Deployments Under Way in California and Florida [snip] >> Wow! Cheap too. Watch out, P2P applications. > Who knows when we'll ever see it here in the northeast. We got all > digital switching in the 80's. I guess that was Bell's gift to us. My neighborhood in Bethesda, Md. will probably get FIOS this year. The fiber cabling was completed about a month ago. Termination box is one door down the street. > The product is a cable killer though. It will be anywhere from 5 to 10 > times faster than what cable purports to offer. I may well switch from Verizon DSL to the fiber network. No way I'd go to Comcast as long as there's an alternative or two. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Verizon Fios - Fiber-to-the-Premises Network From: Mark Atwood Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 21:20:08 GMT Tony P. writes: > The product is a cable killer though. It will be anywhere from 5 to 10 > times faster than what cable purports to offer. There are cable companies (such as SureWest) that are using the same tech. There are already cities in the US where the local cableco has either abandoned the existing coax, or it was never installed in the first place, who are running F2P *already*. Plus the big MSOs are looking at the same thing. The economics of it are such that it's probable that in a few years, all new cable installs will be glass, all upgrades of existing plant will be to glass, and the existing coax will be either abandoned or replaced piecemeal. It wont kill the MSOs, just like it wont kill the ILECs. They will just end up truely being in exactly the same business, providing exactly the same service, pretty much exactly the same way. Mark Atwood | When you do things right, people won't be sure mra@pobox.com | you've done anything at all. http://www.pobox.com/~mra | http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus ------------------------------ From: Brian Folks Subject: Re: Norvergence - How Do I Get Out" Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:00:38 -0700 Go to the Federal Trade Commission web site and do a search for Leasecomm. That case seams very similar to the Norvergence scam. http://www.ftc.gov/ Also, if you are an ex-NorV customer I urge you to file a complaint against NorV AND your leasing company. These leasing firms are complicit in this fraud. Brian Folks Re: > Well if all is true then Norvergence is out of business. One thing > hasn't been addressed though ... what are the existing customers > supposed to do now? We have signed lease agreements with banks for > equipment that won't work when Quest turns off the lines again. How > do we get out of those? Anyone have any ideas?? > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I suggest simply ignoring those fraud- > ulent contracts the banks are holding. FREEZE ALL TELECOM PAYMENTS > IMMEDIATLY. If the bank wants to sue, that's okay. They *should* be > suing the remains of Norvergence, since Norvergence got the money > illegally, through trickery and fraud. Of course the bank will choose > to pick on the weaker party (yourself) because they assume they can > twist your arm easier. You'll hear threats about how you will get > sued, how your company credit will be ruined, etc, but pay no attention. > The bank knows it will be almost futile to try and sue Novergence, > so they will work on you instead if you let them, and sadly, many telecom > managers, company executives will be bullied into compliance with the > bank's demands for payment, etc. > If the bank *does* choose to sue you (not at all certain, IMO) then > your response should be to countersue the bank for harassment and > for being a party to the same fraud as Norvergence. The bank after all > *did* facilitate the fraud by paying Norvergence money, and they knew > or should have known that Norvergence had a worthless scheme going > on. The bank is equally (or more so) able to investigate the collateral > being put up for the money the bank advanced to Norvergence, the > 'collateral' in this case being the promises of satisfied customers > able and willing to pay. If you recall, we had that one message in the > Digest several months ago from the lady who said she worked for the > bank (which had been approached by Norvergence to handle their paper) > and she was investigating if the bank should get involved or not. > Now myself, being sort of weary about lawsuits and Norvergence's > eagnerness to file same, I just printed her message here and said > nothing, or maybe just some generic, bland response, I do not remember. > In any event, the bank could have chosen to investigate if they > wished, prior to advancing money to Norvergence, or handing the > company's credit paper. That's not your problem. You were deceived > by a smooth talking salesman. Just ignore those invoices and let the > bank deal with it as they must. PAT] Brian Folks ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 17:39:50 -0400 Subject: PointOne Provides Enhanced Network Access to 20,000 SIPphone Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-21-2004/0002214576&STORY&EDATE= Global Bridge & IM Connect Allows PSTN Callers to Reach SIPphone.com Customers AUSTIN, Texas, and SAN DIEGO, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- PointOne, operator of the largest Voice over IP network in North America, today announced that it is providing the SIPphone, Inc. (http://www.sipphone.com ) network with local inbound access from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). Using PointOne's advanced communications network, full two-way interaction between the 100-year-old PSTN and the new IP-based SIPphone service is now possible. SIPphone, Inc., a company from MP3.com and Lindows ( http://www.lindows.com ) founder Michael Robertson, is a leader in Internet calling, providing its customers with a no-monthly-fee service to connect to other SIP-based phones. SIPphone previously enabled its customers to call PSTN numbers. Now PSTN users in 18 major markets will be able to dial into local numbers to make connections to SIPphone users who may be anywhere in the world, utilizing the IM Connect -- Instant Messenger Connect -- function of the PointOne Global Bridge(TM) network. "PointOne moves SIPphone customers one step closer to throwing out their old, expensive phones," said Michael Robertson, CEO of SIPphone. "In the coming weeks we are also gearing up to provide a service in conjunction with PointOne that will allow customers to have dedicated phone numbers that they can take with them as they travel and connect from any broadband connection anywhere in the world." "SIPphone understands the disruptive power that IP communications brings and provides users with competitive choices never before possible," said Sam Shiffman, executive vice president for PointOne. "Enabling dispersed communities to communicate is just one of the great promises this new technology offers." IM Connect is technology with similarities to PointOne's StarPoint IP(TM) service, which allows cable broadband users to make IP voice calls worldwide over both IP networks and the PSTN. This gives users the opportunity to access new and exciting VoIP enhanced services in the highest quality manner. SIPphone is a service based on SIP, the most popular Voice over IP (VoIP) standard, which enables two or more people to make phone calls to each other using the Internet to carry the call. Utilizing SIPphone adapters, consumers can connect any telephone to the Internet for free calling to other SIPphone users and for low-cost international calling. About SIPphone, Inc. SIPphone ( http://www.sipphone.com ) is the leader in Internet calling. With no monthly fees, no setup fees and SIP adapters for standard phones starting under $75, anyone around the world with broadband access can now enjoy the benefits of free worldwide calling, clear digital calls, free voicemail, free conference calling and zero configurations devices based on SIPphone's Plug-N-Dial standard. SIPphone's service uses an inexpensive device that sits between your broadband Internet connection and your standard phone that enable phone calls via a regular phone. SIPphone was founded by Michael Robertson, who also founded MP3.com (digital music) and Lindows (digital delivery of software). SIPphone is based in San Diego, California. About PointOne Established in April 1998, PointOne is the largest VoIP network in North America utilizing all next-generation technology with over 75% on-net coverage in the U.S., designed from the ground up to provide 100% IP based applications and services. Utilizing the industry's leading IP technologies, along with proprietary patented applications and processes; PointOne offers high-quality, QoS IP communication services. Ranked #1 vendor in performance and reliability by the largest carriers and service providers in the U.S.; PointOne is a privately held company headquartered in Austin, Texas. For more information, contact us at +1.512.735.1200, or visit us at http://www.pointone.com . IM Connect - Access Numbers: Atlanta 678-918-5026 Atlantic City 609-840-8027 Baltimore 410-372-4173 Chicago 708-437-9040 Connecticut 860-256-4170 Dallas 469-449-2560 Fort Worth 817-886-2285 Daytona Beach 386-267-2650 Houston 832-631-1597 Los Angeles 323-908-4167 Miami 786-206-4270 New York 347-427-9019 N. New Jersey 973-494-5586 S. New Jersey 609-873-8119 Philadelphia 610-879-1419 San Francisco 415-354-1083 Seattle 206-219-5789 Washington, DC 202-742-5739 For Information Contact: Steve Braasch 512-735-1200 sbraasch@pointone.com SOURCE PointOne Web Site: http://www.pointone.com http://www.sipphone.com http://www.lindows.com 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, 21 Jul 2004 17:59:19 -0400 Subject: Senate Panel Sets VoIP Vote Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3384471 By Roy Mark U.S. Sen. John Sununu expects a number of challenges to his legislation exempting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services from state regulations and taxes when the bill goes before the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday morning. "There's no question there are lot of members that are working at different languages for amendments," the New Hampshire Republican told internetnews.com on the eve of the first ever congressional vote on VoIP. While both the Senate and the House of Representatives have held a number of hearings on VoIP and other IP-enabled services, Thursday morning's markup session is the first time either chamber has scheduled an actual vote to consider moving legislation on for a full-floor vote. "There's been a host of amendments filed, so now the question is working through with members on their language, seeing if there is agreement or compromise," Sununu said. Full story at: http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3384471 ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #344 ******************************