From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Sep 9 18:59:58 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id i89MxvM04656; Thu, 9 Sep 2004 18:59:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 18:59:58 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200409092259.i89MxvM04656@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 #422 TELECOM Digest Thu, 9 Sep 2004 19:00:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 422 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NAB Argues for Free OTA TV (Monty Solomon) DISH Loses Must Carry Battle at FCC (Monty Solomon) DIRECTV Announces Plan to Launch Next Generation Satellites (M Solomon) For BlackBerry Users, a New Way to Write (Monty Solomon) Verizon, DSL and Tariffs (jmeissen@aracnet.com) AT&T - What a Bad Company Are You! (Critica Todo) Conferencing Parties on the Mitel SX2000 (Benm) C|net and VoIP (Tom Keating) More Thoughts About RCA (Julian Thomas) Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert (Geoffrey Welsh) Re: My New DVR From Cable One (Barry Margolin) Re: Vonage (Dmitri) Re: Congress Hangs Up on VoIP for 2004 (Lisa Hancock) FCC Probe Pops Primus (Jack Decker - 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, 8 Sep 2004 17:09:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: NAB Argues for Free OTA TV The National Association of Broadcasters continued to argue for over-the-air free TV at the Federal Communications Commission Tuesday, saying in a filing that no TV viewers should be left behind during the switch to digital TV. The NAB warned against any potential disruption for households that get only over-the-air TV and for cable and satellite TV subscribers who have OTA-only analog sets when analog broadcasting is turned off and TV goes digital. "While we recognize the important demands for the broadcast spectrum to be reclaimed after the transition, we emphasize here the caution that the commission must employ in advancing the conversion to digital and ceasing analog broadcasting," the NAB said. In its second set of comments on the issue, NAB said a large portion of the 18.9 percent of U.S. households that receive television over the air do so by choice, not because economics dictates it. http://www.skyreport.com/viewskyreport.cfm?ReleaseID=1479#Story1 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 17:10:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DISH Loses Must Carry Battle at FCC EchoStar lost a must-carry battle involving a broadcaster serving the Albuquerque area at the Federal Communications Commission, a move that will force the satellite TV company to carry's the station's signal. http://www.skyreport.com/viewskyreport.cfm?ReleaseID=1479#Story3 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 17:18:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DIRECTV Announces Plan to Launch Next Generation Satellites It Will Provide Dramatic Expansion of High-Definition and Advanced Programming Services EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2004--DIRECTV, Inc., provider of the nation's leading digital multichannel television service, announced today a historic expansion of programming capacity with the planned launch of four new next-generation satellites. These satellites will provide DIRECTV with a massive expansion in local and national high-definition (HD) channels, as well as capacity for new interactive and enhanced services and standard-definition programming. DIRECTV will have the capacity to bring these new services to every household in America. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200409082002_BWR__BW5955 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 03:44:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For BlackBerry Users, a New Way to Write STATE OF THE ART By DAVID POGUE IN the annals of consumer electronics, certain devices have proven so compelling, they've created consumer cults. You know, Mac heads. Palm freaks. TiVoholics. Among the white-collar crowd, though, one particular gizmo has earned a street nickname all its own: CrackBerry. That's a reference to the RIM BlackBerry, an addictive wireless palmtop that displays your e-mail in real time, as it arrives. The airports and commuter trains on both coasts are filled with BlackBerry fanatics, hunched over, eyes glazed, flailing at its microscopic alphabet keyboard with their thumbs callused in funny places. But for all its popularity among executives and financial-industry types, the BlackBerry is practically unknown to everyone else. RIM hopes to change all that with the BlackBerry 7100t, which it unveiled yesterday. (The device, with phone service from T-Mobile, will go on sale next month.) RIM believed that everyday consumers avoided the original BlackBerry for two reasons. First, the price was way too high: $500 for the BlackBerry, plus about $30 a month for Internet service on top of a voice plan. That one was easy to fix; the 7100t costs only $200, plus $60 a month for both unlimited Internet and 1,000 anytime phone minutes. The second reason is that the BlackBerry's Thumbelina keyboard is nearly three inches wide. Recent BlackBerry models are also cellphones, and three inches is awfully wide for a phone. As you walk down the street, you feel as if you're talking into a frozen waffle. The new 7100t is, therefore, much narrower (2.3 inches). In fact, it's nearly the same size and shape as a standard non-folding cellphone. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/technology/circuits/09stat.html ------------------------------ From: jmeissen@aracnet.com Subject: Verizon, DSL and Tariffs Date: 9 Sep 2004 18:43:37 GMT Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com OK, I need a little enlightenment. According to Verizon, their DSL circuit business is tariffed, and based on those tariffs they charge $44/mo for a 1.5M/384K DSL circuit. https://www22.verizon.com/dslmembersonly/ispmanual/ISP_manual3.jsp However, they charge $30/mo for the circuit AND the ISP charges. http://www22.verizon.com/ForHomeDSL/Channels/DSL/ForHomeDSL.asp Can someone explain the "new math" that applies to that paradox? John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com ------------------------------ From: critica_todo@yahoo.com (Critica Todo) Subject: AT&T - What a Bad Company Are You! Date: 8 Sep 2004 13:05:51 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com AT&T what a bad company are you! You are but a blood sucker. Yes, that's what you are. First, those $25.00 reactivation fees is really adding to your button line. No good faith earnings: just your bad customer services is what keeping you alive. But not to worry. Your bad faith will catch up to you. I know what you do. You purposely let people to forget about their bills and then charge them $25.00 for activation. I know it is purposely because you have the technology to send us a text message or an automatic phone call of what you are about to do. If this behavior is not legally improper at least should be morally improper. I wonder how many people have you killed when in an emergency customers reach for their phones and find out, maybe too late, that you want to make an extra $25.00 locking their phones. Second, your customer services is a joke. After many many minutes of waiting, finally you get to talk to a representative. No soon enough, the phone call goes dead. You might think customer services will call you to continue where you left it. NO. Why not? They got your phone. That it's the first thing they asked you. No. You have to call back, wait again your 20 or so minutes and start all over. And maybe finish your business with them. If not this process could repeat at least three or four times. AT&T; I hope you die. ------------------------------ From: ben77m2000@yahoo.com (Benm) Subject: Conferencing parties on the Mitel SX2000 Date: 9 Sep 2004 03:02:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Can anyone explain why I am unable to add international mobiles to a conference when I call them, but why it works when they call me? I have a Tellabs 10 port conference bridge connected to my Mitel SX2000 with LS/GS trunks. I am able to add any kind of party to the conference bridge (tie trunk, PRI, internal) when I call them or they call me, but when I call an international mobile (I only tried Israel and the USA), I cannot connect them. The call rings back the station that tried to put them on after release. However, if the mobile calls ME, I can put them on! I am in the UK and this problem does not occur with UK mobiles. ------------------------------ Subject: C|net and VoIP Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 14:22:36 -0400 From: Tom Keating I agree that C|Net got it totally wrong! You should check out my VoIP blog. I discuss the current trends in VoIP and the future of VoIP. It's located here: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/ Sincerely, Tom Keating - TMC Labs - VP & CTO & Executive Technology Editor Take a look at my blog, covering VoIP news, telecom, gadgets, science, and general techology: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/ Also take a look at the popular VoIP forums: http://voip-forum.tmcnet.com/voip-forum/forum/ 203-852-6800 x149 1 Technology Plaza Norwalk, CT 06854 ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 20:43:30 -0400 Subject: More Thoughts About RCA (again, please mung my address - thanks) In <1094679831.188.71669.m12@yahoogroups.com>, on 09/08/04 at 09:43 PM, telecom-news@yahoogroups.com typed: > P.S.S. RCA made an attempt in computers; it scared the heck out of > IBM because RCA had far more electronics skills than IBM did in the > early 1950s. However, RCA did not have the customer support skills > of IBM and eventually RCA -- after losing big money -- sold its > businss to Univac. Nor did they have the mechanical skills that IBM had from their earlier EAM business. Peripherals -- especially tape drives -- suffered as a consequence. Julian Thomas: jt at jt-mj dot net http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! Boardmember of POSSI.org - Phoenix OS/2 Society, Inc http://www.possi.org -- -- The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard. ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: Spam Makes Up Half of All Emails in China - Expert Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 17:04:03 -0400 SELLCOM Tech support wrote: > Blame ISPs like level3.net, sprintlink.net, savvis.net etc. who are > providing connectivity when they KNOW that spam businesses are > hosted there. I can't disagree with you. Unfortunately, the world -- and, in particular, the Congress of the United States of America -- does not yet recognize that spam is theft, and commercial interests would prefer to keep it that way because it provides them with a cheap advertising media. Therefore, in legislation such as the CAN SPAM act, spam is judged bad not because it is spam and therefore theft, but because SOME spam contains offensive material or fraud. Well, you can't regulate a language on the basis that some people swear in it, and you can't effectively regulate spam - or even get a grip on the problem -- on the basis of what SOME spammers do because there will always be the possibility -- if not an example -- of someone not spamming with offensive material or fraud and therefore spam is a legitimate tool as long as we trust the users to remove anyone who asks politely to be removed. (Language specifically chosen to hint at the Betamax case.) Getting back to your point, until there are laws that recognize spam itself -- and not the contents of SOME spam -- as a crime, you're not going to get any traction on punishing companies that support it and/or make money from it. Once we get there, though, we can see if there is any chance (personally I doubt it but IANAL) of charging networks that provide spammers with transit with being an accomplice after the fact if they fail to act after they have been informed of their participation. > BUT, we know that people like level3.net have no intention of cleaning > up their act on their own so it is people like level3.net who DEMAND > government intervention. I've been toying with the idea of invoicing 'tier 1' ISPs for a share of the revenue they get for selling transit to companies that host web sites for spammers who advertise via mailboxes that I (or my employer) pay for. Maybe if enough people spent some extra money (which is the real pity) on postage it might get the ISPs to notice. > Bumbuck Iowa (apologies, had to pick a state) I always thought that town was in Idaho, not Iowa. Maybe I'm confusing it with a similarly named town. Geoffrey Welsh If anything worth doing is worth doing right, then surely anything not worth doing right is not worth doing at all. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I don't think if you disallow the porn and fraud aspects of spam and try, as Geoffrey suggests, to pass a law simply against spam, in its own right, on its own merits you are ever going to get anywhere. What, Geoffrey, do you define as 'spam'? Is it the *quality* of the material being circulated, or the *quantity* of material being circulated the factor? If it is 'worthless' should it be considered spam? If umpty-million copies of some poorly written and poorly edited computer-generated thing are dumped in the email stream each day, should they be considered spam? What about 'pass this around to all your friends' jokes, pictures and newsletters and the like? What about TELECOM Digest, or newsletters from places like EFF? Regretably, my valued email is your 'spam' and the other way around. One hundred years ago, snail mail itself was such a novelty; very few folks recieved anything close to the volume of (snail) mail they get today. Letters from friends, some business dealings now and then, and newspapers and magazines. Most people got *two or three* pieces of mail in a week's time. And the cost was a really great deal. Two or three cents per letter to go all the way around the country in a reasonably short time. Then business places discovered the use of snail mail as a bargain for themselves also. Now most folks get *two or three* pieces of 'junk mail' each day. And twenty years ago, when email was still a novelty to most people, most of us got two or three important (to us) pieces of email in a week's time. Now business places -- never mind what you or I may think of those business places -- have discovered what a bargain email is also. Just as snail mail volume has increased expotentially over the years, so is email starting to grow in volume also (oh really? I never would have guessed !), and I don't think you can ever outlaw spam totally just because it happens to be 'spam' by our definition of same. About all we will be able to do is attempt to increase the sophistication of our filters and try to remember, as patiently as we can, that in general computers and email are no longer the novelties they once were. And heck, we have only been at this for a quarter-century or so; wait for another hundred years and see what it is like, as our knowledge of things electronic grows even more expotentially. Guttenberg had a dream, and he invented the printing press using some wine skins. His dream was to make it easier to circulate the Word of God; 'to bring glory to God and Mother Church'. The ease with which he was able to compile the entire scriptures in a single printed volume in German amazed everyone. Within a period of a few years, there were printing presses all over Europe, millions of Bibles and other printed books. *That* -- Guttenberg's invention -- was the start of the information explosion which continues unabated to this day. I can't help but wonder if the 'inventors of email' (or the concept of computers talking to other computers) back in the 1960-70's had any such fanciful ideas or dreams about what they were doing. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: My New DVR From Cable One Organization: Symantec Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 20:25:04 -0400 In article , DevilsPGD wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: On my unit the off/on switch seems to > work (and of course) so does unplugging it from the wall. But if it > gets unplugged it winds up taking a long time (maybe thirty minutes) > to rebuild the TV Guide listings and the details about the > channels. PAT] On ReplayTV, the on-off switch just controls the output to the TV and the live buffering. It continues to perform scheduled recordings when it's off. When you pull the plug it doesn't lose the guide, because it's kept on the disk. It takes about a minute for the system to boot up, and if it was in the middle of recording something when the power went out, it will resume recording it. This confirms a suspicion I had -- the DVRs that the cable companies are supplying don't have all the features that ReplayTV and TiVo have. But since you're not paying anything upfront, and the maximum monthly charge I've heard about is half what ReplayTV and TiVo charge, I guess you shouldn't expect the same level of quality. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to From *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, we do not have nearly the features found on TiVo or ReplayTV nor the costs involved for same, nor, for that matter, the channel lockouts (against recording) found on TiVo, etc. CableOne doesn't care what you record or do. PAT] ------------------------------ Reply-To: Dmitri From: Dmitri@info@REMOVE_NO_SPAM_cabling-design.com Subject: Re: Vonage Organization: Cabling-Design.com Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 22:26:41 GMT Brett Forejt wrote in message news:telecom23.421.11@telecom-digest.org: > Do you know if online gaming (Xbox) and VOIP are compatible? > Regards, > Brett Forejt Texas Instruments Incorporated > Member Group 12500 TI Blvd., MS 8729 > Technical Staff Dallas, TX 75243 > Phone: (214) 480-3898 Office Coordinates: J2-1183 > FAX: (214) 480 - 3807 Email: bforejt@ti.com Yes. Provided by your Internet connection has enough bandwidth and both devices are connected behind a router without monopolizing the cable/DSL modem. Dmitri Abaimov, RCDD http://www.cabling-design.com Cabling Forum, color codes, pinouts and other useful online resources for premises wiring users and professionals http://www.cabling-design.com/homewiring Downloadable Residential Cabling Guide ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Congress Hangs Up on VoIP for 2004 Date: 9 Sep 2004 09:28:25 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Jack Decker wrote in message: > There you go again, Lisa. Does your memory only retain information > for a month or so When a poster resorts to rude comments like this, it means they have no rational argument. Whether you like it or not, the fact is that VOIP is getting a free ride by avoiding the taxes and regulatory burdens other telephone carriers have to make. Either eliminate all obligations from everyone, or make everyone bear there. Now understand I am most certainly NOT saying you represent sleazy businesses. What I am saying is that if we had you and someone who WAS being paid to advocate sleazy businessess standing side by side, it would be hard to tell the difference between them, at least from what they were advocating re: VoIP. It's that whole duck test thing -- at a distance something could look like a duck and appear to waddle like a duck, but the possibility exists that it might be a goose or some other duck-like bird. [I hope you don't mind I borrowed your prose from your 8/5/04 note--it seems to work well in this context.] ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Thu, 09 Sep 2004 12:50:52 -0400 Subject: FCC Probe Pops Primus Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=58987 Primus Telecommunications Group Inc., an up-and-coming player in the VOIP market, is blaming its telemarketing troubles on an Indian company it hired to handle telephone sales. Yesterday the carrier agreed to pay $400,000 to the U.S. government to end an investigation into its telemarketing practices. The investigation centered around whether the McLean, Va.-based telephone and data services provider illegally called consumers who were registered in the national do-not-call database. The FCC began to investigate Primus, a division of Primus Telecommunications Group, on December 17 after receiving dozens of consumer complaints. The FCC probe revolved around Primus division International Consumer Marketing, which used telemarketing to sign up 40 percent of its long-distance customers. Spokeswoman Gerry Simone says these sales represent only about 2 percent of Primus' total revenues. She blames the alleged violations of the do-not-call rules on Spanco Telesystems & Solutions Ltd. in India, a company Primus hired last year to solicit prospective customers for its long-distance telephone service. She says Primus severed its contract with Spanco the following day and no longer uses telemarketing in the United States. In its consent decree released Tuesday, the FCC said Primus would make a voluntary payment of $400,000 to the U.S. Treasury and adopt tougher training policies for its customer representatives. Primus, like other long-distance telephone providers, is leaning on VOIP to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market. A big chunk of Primus' revenues has come from selling cheap long-distance services, especially for international calling. Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=58987 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/ ------------------------------ 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! 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Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. End of TELECOM Digest V23 #422 ******************************