From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Jul 23 23:04:02 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i6O342P11756; Fri, 23 Jul 2004 23:04:02 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 23:04:02 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200407240304.i6O342P11756@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 #348 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:04:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 348 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson AT&T Retreats From Residential Phone Market (VOIP News) Senate Panel Embraces State VoIP Taxes (VOIP News) Internet Phone Service Has a Nice Ring - New Technology May (VOIP News) Venture Capital: Investors Set to Place Bets on Telecom(!) (VOIP News) High-Speed Hopes For AT&T (VOI News) Re: Senate Committee Guts VoIP Bill (anonfwd774@withheld on request) VOIP-Based IVR Broadcasting?? (bingoo) Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? (No Spam) Re: Lingo v. Packet8 (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht) Telcordia for $ale? (Jack Adams) Re: TelePort Platinum Fax/Modem, and Converting ADB to USB? (AES) Re: Bell South Map (Jack Adams) Re: Truth or Fiction? Osama Found Hanged (Hammond of Texas) Re: Truth or Fiction? Osama Found Hanged (Fritz Whittington) Re: RCN Announces Mass Deployment, etc. (Sin Nombre) All contents here are copyrighted by Patrick Townson and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using -any name or email address- included herein for -any- reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to the recipients of the email. =========================== Addresses herein are not to be added to any mailing list, nor to be sold or given away without explicit written consent. Chain letters, viruses, porn, spam, and miscellaneous junk are definitely unwelcome. We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime. Geoffrey Welsh =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:33:06 -0400 Subject: AT&T Retreats From Residential Phone Market Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=V1J2WVUDUXQUUCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=5749493 By Justin Hyde WASHINGTON, July 22 (Reuters) - AT&T Corp. said on Thursday it will no longer compete for traditional residential customers, a historic retreat that the once-dominant "Ma Bell" blamed on changing government regulations and consumer demands. The move by the largest U.S. long-distance telephone company, which traces its heritage back to Alexander Graham Bell and the invention of the telephone, will likely mean billions of dollars in lost revenue and deeper job cuts. It may also pave the way for AT&T's corporate descendants, such as Verizon Communications Inc. and SBC Communica- tions Inc., to win back millions of customers. AT&T Chairman and Chief Executive David Dorman said the decision stemmed from changes in federal policy that govern how the Baby Bells allow competitors to lease their phone lines and offer local phone service. New rules are expected to allow the Bells to raise the rates they charge competitors. AT&T has loudly complained that the Bells were unwilling to negotiate fair terms for new access deals. Dorman said with more that 40 percent of U.S. consumers buying bundles of local, long-distance and other services, AT&T could not market its consumer long-distance service as a stand-alone product, and would focus on business services instead. "Without pro-competitive, commercial arrangements, there are simply too many risk factors for AT&T to base our future with reluctant participants in a regulated environment that has been constantly in flux," Dorman told analysts. Dorman said AT&T would still offer service to current residential customers and to those who sign up for AT&T unsolicited. He also said the company would continue rolling out its Internet phone service to customers with high-speed Internet access. Full story at: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=V1J2WVUDUXQUUCRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=5749493 How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home: http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 17:48:49 -0400 Subject: Senate Panel Embraces State VoIP Taxes Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5280118.html By Declan McCullagh CNET News.com A key U.S. Senate committee approved legislation that would authorize state governments to impose hefty taxes on Internet phone services. The Senate Committee on Commerce on Thursday rewrote a bill that originally was intended to shield the fledging voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry from state regulation. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., had intended his legislation to reserve that authority to the Federal Communications Commission. His bill initially said that no state or local government "may enact or enforce any law, rule" or regulation that targets VoIP services. But in an unexpected twist, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., persuaded the committee to adopt an amendment that permitted states to regulate VoIP services in two ways: levying taxes to pay for universal service and for compensating traditional telephone companies for the use of their phone lines through so-called access charges. VoIP lobbyists claim that those fees are already being paid directly or indirectly. A white paper released last month by the VON (Voice on the Net) Coalition, which includes Net2Phone, Pulver.com, Microsoft and Intel, says "phone companies are already fully compensated for their costs when Internet phone calls are terminated on their networks" and that universal service charges are also covered. Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5280118.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 04:28:51 -0400 Subject: Internet Phone Service Has a Nice Ring - New Technology May Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/183279_voip23.html Internet phone service has a nice ring New technology may spark telecom revolution By JOHN COOK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Fed up with a phone bill that exceeded $60 per month, Scott Forbes decided to try something different when he moved into a new Redmond home earlier this year. The 29-year-old compliance manager skipped the traditional residential phone line in favor of a new technology that routes calls over the Internet. Now paying about $20 per month for an Internet-based telephone service that includes voice mail, call forwarding and 500 long-distance minutes, Forbes roams his home with a portable phone talking with friends and family in California, Connecticut and New York. Plugged into an adapter that connects to a cable Internet modem, the cordless phone produces a dial tone and ring like any other phone. The voice quality is clear, interruptions are minimal, and 911 service -- an important feature for the father of an 8-year-old -- worked well on a recent test. "I haven't had any trouble," said Forbes, who subscribes to the service through telecommunications startup Vonage. "I was a bit skeptical at first whether it was worth it, whether I was going to save money, and whether the call was going to go through. But we have been very happy." An early adopter of Internet phone calling, Forbes is at the cusp of technological revolution that some believe will transform the telecommunications business. He is not alone. Full story at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/183279_voip23.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 04:34:13 -0400 Subject: Venture Capital: Investors Set to Place Bets on a Telecom(!) Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/183245_vc23.html By JOHN COOK SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER It has been a long time since venture capitalists got excited about anything in the telecommunications sector. But after years of inactivity, the tide may finally be turning as investors look to place bets on a new technology that allows phone calls to be made over the Internet. Dubbed Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP, the technology has some venture capitalists reaching for their pocketbooks again. "This is a disruptive technological change; I know that sounds cliched," said Madrona Venture Group's Greg Gottesman. "But I think this is the biggest thing that is happening in communications." Madrona recently co-led a $15.7 million investment in World Wide Packets, a Spokane company whose fiber-optic technology allows municipalities to deliver voice, video and data over the Internet at superfast speeds. Telecommunications could use a boost. Once garnering 17 percent of all venture capital dollars, the sector slipped in recent years as investors reacted to a meltdown that is often described as "nuclear winter." Last year, just 11 percent of venture capital dollars went to telecom startups. Voice over Internet Protocol could reverse that trend. According to a report issued this week by the Yankee Group, the number of Internet telephony companies receiving venture financing increased by 50 percent last year. Full story at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/venture/183245_vc23.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 13:15:37 -0400 Subject: High-Speed Hopes For AT&T Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5281277.html By Ben Charny CNET News.com AT&T's slow road back into the residential phone market will be tied to broadband's march across the United States. As the number of high-speed homes rises, so does the chance that Ma Bell will once again choose to throw its considerable weight fully behind CallVantage, a broadband phone service now considered AT&T's ticket back to the residential phone market. On Thursday, AT&T announced its decision to stop pursuing new residential customers for traditional local and long-distance service. So 125 years after creating the phone industry, Ma Bell will no longer be a viable competitor in the residential market. Instead, the company will focus almost exclusively on its business customers, which already generate 75 percent of its revenue. Some would consider CallVantage a perfect solution to AT&T's problems, which arose because it can no longer lease traditional landlines from competitors at cheap, government-set rates. As a result, selling old-fashioned phone service will become too expensive a prospect for any company that doesn't have its own residential phone network, the carrier said Thursday. The four regional Baby Bells are expected to increase, by about $10, how much they charge the likes of AT&T, MCI and Sprint to lease a phone line. Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5281277.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 11:25:57 -0400 From: anonfwd774@withheld at request Subject: Re: Senate Committee Guts VoIP Bill Pat, please conceal my e-mail address. You wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: What is wrong with using a GSM type > device which is built into the 'adapter box' which, when a call is > made to 911, broadcasts its whereabouts to the 911 dispatcher? PAT] I'm not sure what you mean by GSM -- did you mean to say GPS? If so, what's wrong with that is the fact that the vast majority of VoIP equipment is installed in places where it has no view of satellites. People THINK that cell phones use GPS technology for location purposes and therefore VoIP could do the same. But most cell phone location is accomplished by triangulation of signal strength between cell towers. I won't debate the accuracy of that (this was another case where lawmakers basically said "make it work" without realizing that it would be impossible to make such a system anything close to 100% accurate), but in any case, VoIP companies would not have access to cell phone towers. Actually the only reason this is a problem at all is because some of the people who run the emergency services (and the organizations that represent them) don't trust people to type in their own address properly. Yet under the current level of technology, typing in one's own address would produce far more accurate results than any sort of automatic location scheme. Somewhere along the line the government has taken the position that people should never have to be responsible for their own actions (except when it comes to things like paying taxes, or showing up for jury duty, or any other thing the government requires people to do) and therefore it's unacceptable that people should actually have to provide correct address information so that 911 would work. And the other problem is that the 911 center operators don't want to have to spend a dime to upgrade their equipment so they can receive communications via the Internet. I suppose it's never occurred to them that someone may have a heart attack while clutching a text-messaging device, and maybe there should be some way for that device to contact the 911 center. But they are still of the mindset that everyone ought to have a landline phone, or that VoIP should provide the equivalent of landline service. In other words, they want to hobble technology to meet their requirements, rather than adapting to be able to receive communications from users of newer technologies. Of course the incumbent landline phone companies push this as hard as they can, because they'd love to keep everyone tethered to their expensive service. In a perfect world, 911 centers would be required to have some way to receive communications from people using non-traditional forms of communication, and people who subscribe to VoIP service would enter their own address and that would be good enough (of course this assumes there is a way to map that address to the correct 911 center, but that's a problem even with the traditional phone system). The other thing to ask yourself is, do you really want some potentially hackable device sitting on your Internet connection that can reveal your current geographic location? As someone commented the other day, there are certain organizations with four-letter acronyms ending in "AA" that would probably love to be able to poll an IP address and get the user's exact geographic location in real time. Think about who else might want location information -- the law of unintended consequences could easily rear its ugly head here! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My bad ... I meant to say 'GPS', not 'GSM'. I had *thought* there were statistics saying most VOIP service stayed in one place. Yes, you can take it when you travel, but how often does that actually happen? Won't, in actual practice, people submitting their data to a common data base (as I did with Vonage for example) generally be accurate information? Would the number of people who erroneously enter their information be offset by the number of government employees (maintaining 'traditional' 911 data bases) who likewise make mistakes in their entries? Perhaps the VOIP databases would even be more 'pure' than the traditional ones since people tend to proofread their own entries pretty well, especially if it is done like Vonage and the City of Independence did in my case. Both of them (Vonage and City) sent me a letter confirming my entry **exactly as I had given it**, so not only did I make the original entry on line and was prompted repeatedly to insure the accuracy of same, I had to do it again when Vonage responded to me and City of Independence responded to me. ('Read this over, is it correct?'). Yes, if there was a wholesale conversion, there would be mistakes. I do think *that* -- database checking and GPS validation (when same was possible) -- should cover most instances. The problem is, Jack, police insistence on being the answering service for the entire world. For the better part of a century we got along with no '911' at all; I can understand why police wanted a good, reliable way to identify callers and their locations, so telco came up with 911 to make that happen. But now even 911 is not enough in many cities. 911 was (is?) supposed to be intended for *dire* emergencies only, when *immediate* police intervention is needed. So many people use 911 for everything under the sun, every complaint they have. Car was stolen yesterday; you discover some vandalism which was done over the weekend? Call 911, even though it is not a life or death emergency. You've been spying on your neighbors and think the police should know about them? Call 911. Police are often times among the biggest abusers of 911 by insisting you use that number for every rinky-dink thing you want to talk about with them. And now that 911 has gotten so overloaded in big cities that police have to sometimes answer by putting you in a recorded message queue to wait, they decided to invent '311' as well. Chicago (and New York, what other communities?) use 311 (identical to 911 in terms of features) when you want to complain about other problems; hopefully 311 takes some of the pressure off of 911 in terms of call volume. If police would return to the intended purpose of 911 (dire emergencies to respond to now) and their administrative 7-D for everything else they would not have such problems. And somehow, Jack, the notion that someone with a dire-need help now-emergency AND they are out of site of a satellite AND are victimized by a faulty database (or are traveling) AND have no other phone or radio at their disposal seems a bit far-fetched to me. And you suggest 'hackers' or other malcontents may get your data by snooping on your TA box also seems far-fetched to me. PAT] ------------------------------ From: box11@udyog.com (bingoo) Subject: VOIP-Based IVR Broadcasting?? Date: 23 Jul 2004 14:52:49 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We are currently using an IVR application to dial numbers and play a recorded message thru a dial-up telephone line. We are looking for a VoIP solution by which our PC/software (connected to DSL/T1 line) could dial a telephone number through a VoIP gateway and, when connected, play the recorded message. Any suggestion for this? Thanks! --B11 ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: No Spam Subject: Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 17:45:40 +0200 > I receive about a dozen spams a day from an outfit calling itself > "InfoSource Group" advertising the "2004 American Medical Directory". > They seem to be incredibly persistent; I've observed (and reported) > them using dozens of different cable-modem ISP accounts, mostly on > Comcast. Nope, not local by FAR :-) But: K Rosin 5 Offord Cr Aurora, ON L4G 3G8 (905) 751-0919 --- performing WHOIS on "www.national-directories.com", please wait... --- contacting server whois.melbourneit.com --- smart whois on "national-directories.com" Domain Name.......... national-directories.com Creation Date........ 2001-12-01 Registration Date.... 2001-12-01 Expiry Date.......... 2008-12-01 Organisation Name.... National Directories Organisation Address. 4410 Massachusetts Ave NW, #201 Organisation Address. Organisation Address. Washington Organisation Address. 20016-5572 Organisation Address. DC Organisation Address. UNITED STATES Admin Name........... Barbara Caldwell Admin Address........ 4410 Massachusetts Ave NW, #201 Admin Address........ Admin Address........ Washington Admin Address........ 20016-5572 Admin Address........ DC Admin Address........ UNITED STATES Admin Email.......... arenakay@msn.com Admin Phone.......... +905.751-0919 Admin Fax............ +905.751-0199 Tech Name............ Barbara Caldwell Tech Address......... 4410 Massachusetts Ave NW, #201 Tech Address......... Tech Address......... Washington Tech Address......... 20016-5572 Tech Address......... DC Tech Address......... UNITED STATES Tech Email........... arenakay@msn.com Tech Phone........... +905.751-0919 Tech Fax............. +905.751-0199 Name Server.......... NS10.VWH1.NET Name Server.......... NS11.VWH1.NET ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Lingo v. Packet8 From: wolfgang+gnus20040723T114019@dailyplanet.dontspam.wsrcc.com Organization: W S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Fremont CA Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 18:50:20 GMT Mark Atwood writes: > Wolfgang S. Rupprecht writes: >>> My experience with Packet8 was good. I would grade the voice quality >>> as better than cellular, not quite toll quality. >> Are there any VOIP termination services that will simply pass on your >> PCM-ulaw without screwing with it? > Broadvoice I just tried signing up with broadvoice but their mail bounced because they didn't bother assigning a proper name to their sending computer. So far I'm not impressed with their attention to detail. If they can't even get little things like that right, what sort of uptime and billing issues am I going to face? Jul 23 11:35:20 bonnet postfix/smtpd[7100]: NOQUEUE: reject: RCPT from unknown[147.135.0.7]: 554 Client host rejected: cannot find your hostname, [147.135.0.7]; from= to= proto=ESMTP helo= (That in addition to the fact that their signup form said that my address XXX+broadvoice@wsrcc.com was invalid. Ahem. I beg to differ. It is a perfectly valid address and quite a number of people use "plus-ed addresses" to help organize their mailboxes.) Wolfgang S. Rupprecht http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/ New toy: Voice over ip phone. Sounds much better than an analog phone. http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/voip.html ------------------------------ From: adamsjac@telcordia.com (Jack Adams) Subject: Telcordia for $ale? Date: 23 Jul 2004 11:08:13 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Telcordia Technologies is being shopped around to potential strategic buyers by J.P. Morgan, the company's advisor, according to a report on The Deal.com this morning. A Telcordia spokeswoman said the company can't comment on speculation and rumor. Telcordia, a subsidiary of privately held Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), does approximately $1 billion in revenue annually supporting operations support systems for major carriers primarily in the U.S. Full article at: http://telephonyonline.com/ar/telecom_telcordia_block/index.htm ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: TelePort Platinum Fax/Modem, and Converting ADB to USB? Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:51:55 -0700 In article , pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) wrote: > AES/newspost writes: >> The problem is, it connects to the Mac via an ADB cable, which we >> don't got no more. So: > Are you sure the modem goes through ADB? A serial port (also absent by > default from modern macs) is FAR more likely. Geethree.com sells a > conversion kit that turns the built-in modem port on a mac into an > old-school serial port, including the necessary extension so that comm > programs will handle it correctly. >> 3) Lacking satisfaction on any of the above, anyone want to make a >> modest bid on this gadget, with manual and (maybe) software diskette >> (which I haven't found yet)? > I can't imagine you're going to get more than it costs to ship. Faxing > is built into modern macs, and while the passthrough is indeed nice, > needing an external box and an adapter to make it work doesn't seem > worth it. * You're right, it's serial, not ADB, and despite the pass-through capability (which is _really_ nice in practice), it's probably not worth trying to set it up on my iBook. Thanks. ------------------------------ From: adamsjac@telcordia.com (Jack Adams) Subject: Re: Bell South Map Date: 22 Jul 2004 14:16:11 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com A couple of resources that might help: The North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA) may have the historical maps you are looking for at: http://www.nanpa.com/index.html or at least you can ask them about it. Make sure you visit David Massey's Bell System Memorial site at: http://www.nanpa.com/index.html for some truly obscure memorabilia. If you're a phone phreak like I am, you'll definately need his set of CDs with all sorts of good stuff! kclagg@iesi.com wrote in message news:: > Just curious if you might be able to tell me where I can get a > telcom map for Atlanta GA. and all surrounding suburbs showing me > the prefixes assigned in 1995? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jul 2004 09:18:05 -0700 From: Hammond of Texas Subject: Re: Truth or Fiction? Osama Found Hanged PeterReid@columbia.edu wrote: > http://www.theparadise.x-y.net/OsamaFoundDead.zip > will now be spread forever. Anyone want to see if that 'OsamaFound > Dead.zip' link is in fact some virus in waiting? PAT] Of course it is. This can be safely verified (using the proper procedures) by anyone curious enough to check. I don't know what's more amazing/frightening; that there are spam-tards out there that think this ploy will work, or that there are users out there that prove that it will work. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Anyone who thinks up an *original* subject line ('Osama Hanged' is a good one) will always find people who are willing to let common sense go and open the attachment. The several hundred spams I give cursory review to each day usually get bashed unread (assuming Spam Assassin did not catch them), but the 'new' and/or 'original' subject lines I have never seen before *have* to be examined each day; otherwise good (as in valid) messages could get tossed out. 'Osama Hanged' was one such example, **the first time I saw it*. But the next seventy-five times it showed up in the telecom mailbox yesterday was a good tip off. I am **so glad** I do this Digest using a Unix work station instead of Windows; Unix seems to be relatively immune to all that crap. On my Windows based machines at home not only do I have two hardware firewalls in place and one software firewall in place (Zone Alarm) and also scan everything in sight daily with AVG/Grisoft and AdAware and SpyBot, I still wind up getting one or two viruses each week. Simply amazing ... PAT] ------------------------------ From: Fritz Whittington Subject: Re: Truth or Fiction? Osama Found Hanged Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 01:24:09 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 14:24:38 GMT, PeterReid@columbia.edu posted: >> http://www.theparadise.x-y.net/OsamaFoundDead.zip >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Why does this remind me of all the >> stories about Adolph Hitler committing suicide in 1945 as USA >> troops closed in on him and then a couple years later, around 1947 >> or so the rumors about Hitler escaping and being seen in Brazil >> and other South American countries. Of course no one has ever been >> able to prove it true, nor have any if the people who saw him in >> Brazil ever been identified either. I wonder if this Osama Bin Laden >> story -- which came to me several times today, reminiscent of spam -- >> will now be spread forever. Anyone want to see if that 'OsamaFound >> Dead.zip' link is in fact some virus in waiting? PAT] It's a Trojan called Hackarmy-H. See http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?id=description&virus_k=100723 for all the details if you wish. ------------------------------ From: sin nombre Subject: Re: RCN Announces Mass Deployment of Digital Video Recorder Service Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 01:49:12 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net On Thu, 22 Jul 2004 23:21:50 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote: > Fully Integrated Service Delivers Convenience for Customers, > Including HDTV Capability > http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200407201813_PRN__PHTU036 --snip-- Interesting. Historical note: RCN Files Chapter 11 Restructuring Plan Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 By JEFFREY GOLD AP Business Writer PRINCETON, N.J. (AP) -- RCN Corp., a telecommunications upstart that packages phone, Internet and cable service but has been shedding assets and employees, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday and said it has support from creditors for a restructuring plan. The company's troubles stem from poor timing and its expensive decision to challenge telecom and cable giants such as Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp. by building its own network _ laying expensive fiber optics instead of leasing lines from bigger players. RCN spent $1.88 billion on its network between the beginning of 2000 and the end of 2002. But revenue didn't keep pace, reaching only $542 million by 2002. Others in the telecom industry were also building or expanding their networks, planning for a surge in traffic that never developed. Since the tech bubble burst in 2000, a spate of bankruptcies, price wars and stock declines have roiled the industry. The company said the filing, in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District Court of New York, is not expected to result in any service disruption to customers. http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41691440 ------------------------------ 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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