From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Jan 28 02:08:05 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i0S785o04370; Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:08:05 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:08:05 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200401280708.i0S785o04370@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 #44 TELECOM Digest Wed, 28 Jan 2004 02:07:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 44 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson TiVo Acquires Strangeberry, Palo Alto-Based Co. Innovator (M. Solomon) Comcast Redesigns Privacy Notice (Monty Solomon) Homeland Security to Offer Cyber Warnings (Monty Solomon) Policy Post 10.02: Supreme Court to Consider Net Content (Monty Solomon) EFF Action Alert: Airlines and Government Violate Privacy (M. Solomon) T-Mobile USA Show Biggest Gains From New Rules (Monty Solomon) Re: CLEC Question (Fred R. Goldstein) Re: Verizon Supercharged DSL for Addl Massachusetts Customers (S. Sobol) Re: Cablevision a Top Bidder For Wireless Licenses (Steven J Sobol) Re: Getting True, Important Security Updates from Microsoft (B Margolin) Share Day for January (TELECOM Digest Editor) 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 is 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: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:11:06 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Acquires Strangeberry, Palo Alto-Based Company and Innovator Broadband Television Technologies - Jan 27, 2004 04:06 PM (PR Newswire) Move Accelerates TiVo's Drive to Extend TiVo Service Beyond DVR SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO) today announced that it has acquired Strangeberry Inc., a small Palo Alto-based technology company specializing in using home network and broadband technologies to create new entertainment experiences on television. The acquisition will enable TiVo to accelerate its strategy, unveiled earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), to extend the TiVo(R) service beyond digital video recording to include a much broader, richer entertainment experience for subscribers. Strangeberry has created technology based on industry standards, including a collection of powerful protocols and tools that will enable the development of a host of new broadband-based content delivery services for the TiVo platform. TiVo has acquired Strangeberry's intellectual property assets and engineering staff in exchange for equity. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40324266 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:17:44 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Redesigns Privacy Notice By JENNIFER C. YATES Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Comcast Corp. will mail television customers its privacy statement this week with revised language and a slicker presentation it hopes will quell complaints over how the company could use personal information. The changes make clear when the cable giant will use personal information such as Social Security and bank account numbers, names and credit information. The old policy said the information could be used "as otherwise necessary to provide the service," causing complaints from regulators and consumer advocates who feared threats to privacy. Gerard Lewis, Philadelphia-based Comcast's senior counsel and chief privacy officer, said there were no changes to the actual policy, which is sent out annually in compliance with federal laws. He said the changes in presentation _ including a question-and-answer section _ and tightening of language were made as part of its annual revision process. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40326505 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:19:39 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Homeland Security to Offer Cyber Warnings By TED BRIDIS AP Technology Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans can sign up beginning Wednesday to receive free cyber alerts and computer advice from the Homeland Security Department to help protect themselves on the Internet. The new National Cyber Alert System, expected to be announced Wednesday, is an ambitious program to develop a trusted warning system by the government to help home users and technology experts. It will send e-mails about major virus outbreaks and other Internet attacks as they occur, along with detailed instructions to help computer users protect themselves. The effort is aimed at improving the overall security of the Internet, a goal frustrated by increasingly complex software that can be difficult to secure and by hackers learning to launch sophisticated new attacks. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40328469 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 00:58:16 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Policy Post 10.02: Supreme Court to Consider Net Content CDT POLICY POST Volume 10, Number 2, January 26, 2004 A Briefing On Public Policy Issues Affecting Civil Liberties Online from The Center For Democracy and Technology (1) Supreme Court to Consider Net Content Controls; CDT Files Brief (2) COPA, However Well Intentioned, Restricts Legal Speech Online (3) Education and User Control, Not Legislation, Key to Protecting Children ... http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_10.02.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 01:05:58 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFF Action Alert: Airlines and Government Violate Your Privacy EFFector Vol. 17, No. 1 January 20, 2004 A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 276th Issue of EFFector: * EFF Action Alert: Airlines and Government Violate Your Privacy Again: Call for Hearings Now! * Update on CAPPS II: What's Next? * Guest Op-ed: "Your Finances, Your Liberties" * Nominate a Pioneer for EFF's 2004 Pioneer Awards! * Deep Links (11): SCO Sues Novell for Slander * EFF Court Docket: 02.03.04 - MGM v. Grokster; 02.09.04 - OPG v. Diebold * Staff Calendar: 01.22.04 - Fred von Lohmann speaks at "Washington in the West" Conference, Long Beach, CA.; 01.25.04 - Gwen Hinze speaks on file-sharing, Berkeley, CA.; 01.26.04 - Lee Tien speaks on privacy, Battle Creek, MI * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/effector/17/1.php ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:10:26 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: T-Mobile USA show biggest gains from new rules By Sinead Carew NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA showed the strongest gains so far from U.S. number switching rules on Tuesday in the fourth quarter, growing faster than bigger rivals AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Cingular Wireless combined. Deutsche Telekom's (DE:DTEGn) T-Mobile, the sixth largest U.S. wireless service, said it added 1.015 million customers and beat analysts' targets as it was helped by a rule that let customers change service and keep their number. Wall Street estimates ranged from 829,000 to 838,000 new customers. AT&T Wireless, which put itself up for sale last week, posted disappointing subscriber growth and an unexpected loss due to the new rule and technical problems. Cingular added far fewer subscribers than T-Mobile and posted a smaller profit. Roe Equity Research analyst Kevin Roe said he was pleased with T-Mobile's subscriber additions, but questioned how profitable those subscribers were, given the industry wide hike in customer acquisition costs amid fierce competition. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40323827 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:06:52 -0500 From: Fred R. Goldstein Subject: Re: CLEC Question At 27 Jan 2004 17:37:34 -0800 paravant@excite.com (procon) asked, > Wanted to confirm this - > CLEC (Competitive Local exchange carrier) is a company that competes > with already established local telephone companies by providing its > own network and switching capabilities. Not necessarily. A CLEC can engage in "total service resale", though it's not usually a good business. It can also provide its own switching while using the ILEC's transmission. > 1] Typically would it make sense for a CLEC to buy v/s lease from the > ILEC? Buy from whom? The ILEC only provides "services" or "elements", not equipment. The CLEC can buy its own equipment build its own facilities, but that tends to make sense only when there's enough concentrated volume in a given geography to make it worthwhile. > 2] What are examples of major CLEC - eg is SBC Telecom a major CLEC? No, SBC is not a major CLEC, just a token activity created to meet a merger condition, and I think they paid the fine for not making it a real business. Major CLECs include -- this is just a sample -- AT&T (the local side, f/k/a Teleport), MCI (its CLECs include MFS, MCI Metro ATS, and Brooks Fiber), Allegiance (recent Ch. 11), Focal (went through Ch. 11), PacWest, Paetec, Level3, and a few others. Note however that many "major" CLECs -- the ones who got too much money up front -- have had problems, while little privately-held local guys are doing fine, or at least getting by. A lot of little rural ILECs also operate as CLECs in nearby areas where the ILECs are larger. > 3] What is meant by collocation? and associated terms - Physical > collocation, Virtual collocation, cageless collocation? Physical collocation -- CLEC gets a cage in the ILEC's wire center. Cageless collocation -- CLEC puts a rack (no cage) in the ILEC's wire center. Virtual collocation -- CLEC has ILEC install its equipment in ILEC's part of the wire center, where the ILEC techs have to maintain it. Usually done in small COs that have no room for anything else, or when there's only a little bit of equipment (like a mux) that doesn't need much work. > 4] What are some of the transport alternatives of a CLEC? Eg what is > meant by "Unbundled" dedicated transport and "Unbundled" shared > transport. Dedicated transport -- CLEC gets fixed bandwidth (DS-1, DS-3) between ILEC locations, which it can use for almost anything. Shared transport -- CLEC leases local switching from ILEC (UNE Platform) and its calls go on the same trunks as calls made by ILEC subscribers; this is where that trunk usage is paid for. Fred Goldstein k1io fgoldstein "at" ionary.com ionary Consulting http://www.ionary.com/ ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon Supercharged DSL for Additional Massachusetts Customers Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 22:56:44 -0600 Monty Solomon wrote: > In order to extend the reach of the company's super-fast digital > subscriber line (DSL) Internet access service to Massachusetts > consumers and businesses, Verizon installed digital equipment in > telecommunications terminals located in neighborhoods where DSL > service was previously not available. This resulted in an increase of > 180,000 DSL-qualified telephone lines in areas of Greater Boston, Cape > Cod and Western Massachusetts, as well as in towns north, south and > west of Boston. The company completed the project last month. > During the past three years, Verizon has invested more than $2 billion > in its network that serves Massachusetts. > - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=40321806 Of note is that roughly five miles from the Verizon Apple Valley CO at Navajo Road and State Highway 18 in Apple Valley, California, Verizon tells me I can now get DSL at my house. Apparently they have done some work out here to extend the reach of their DSL services too. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP: C57E 8B25 F994 D6D0 5F6B B961 EA08 9410 E3AE 35ED ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Cablevision a Top Bidder For Wireless Licenses Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:01:51 -0600 Matt wrote: > We see how did Cablevision did with Northcoast ....(/tounge in cheek) Speaking from direct experience in the first city in which they launched: A couple years ago I turned on my Northcoast PCS service. A month after launch they still had tons of phone numbers and I was able to get (440) 342-GEEK, which was really cool. :) Service worked fine for about 10 months, and then they started dropping calls on Interstate 90 between Lakewood, Ohio and down- town Cleveland. Lots of calls, that is. I had a Verizon phone I used for travel anyhow, so I switched to Verizon full-time. Unfortunately I was not able to keep my number as WLNP wasn't in force back then. Cablevision sucks as a cable TV provider. I don't see why they should be expected to do any better with other ventures. They're exceptionally clueless. (Cablevision was the franchise holder for Cleveland and most of its suburbs until they pulled out in 2000 and sold their network to Adelphia.) I expect VOOM to be the Cleveland Indians of the broadband world. (implicit reference to the fact that since the brother of the CEO of Cablevision bought the Indians, they've gone to hell in a handbasket. :) JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net PGP: C57E 8B25 F994 D6D0 5F6B B961 EA08 9410 E3AE 35ED ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Getting True, Important Security Updates from Microsoft Organization: Looking for work Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 05:29:10 GMT In article , Jeffrey Mattox
wrote: > Here's a site that allows you to enter a URL, any URL, even a > massively long URL, and it gives you a relatively short "alias" to > that URL that you can use in postings. > http://tinyurl.com/ But doesn't this miss the point of the recommendation to type the URL manually? That idea of that was that you would realize when you're typing a bogus URL (e.g. you wouldn't be fooled by "micr0s0ft.com"). If you type a tinyurl.com or makeashortlink.com URL, you have no idea where it's really going to, so you're effectively following a random link. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day For January Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2004 2:00:00 EST Instead of changing the Digest over to an advrtising supported forum, I have always elected to keep it as a user supported forum, and for the most part keep it spam and virus free. I am *only* able to do this because of financial support from readers here, and if you would rather not see these messages every month, then please pitch in and help now and then! Consider it sort of like public radio, which goes on for days at a time trying to raise money ... and maybe I should adopt the same system. Turn over the entire Digest once or twice a year to fund raising (entire issues, etc) and stop doing it when the budget for the year has been raised. But for now, I will stick with the present system of devoting a few messages at the end of each month to raising money for the Digest publication expenses. Out of 400-500 messages per month, in a spam, virus free environment, two or three (only) devoted to fund raising. You know who you are; please provide some help here financially. You can use Pay Pal to donate with a credit/debit card by going to our web site http://telecom-digest.org and at the bottom of the home page look for the PayPal 'donate' button. Or if you prefer, send a check or money order to Patrick Townson/TELECOM, Post Office Box 50, Independence, Kansas 67301-0050. The amount you send is entirely up to you. You know best how much you can afford and whether or not this Digest has any value for you. *Please get some money in here to me by the end of this cold month!* Thank you very much. Patrick Townson, Editor/Publisher TELECOM Digest ------------------------------ 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #44 *****************************