From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Nov 1 14:21:39 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iA1JLc208983; Mon, 1 Nov 2004 14:21:39 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 14:21:39 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200411011921.iA1JLc208983@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 #522 TELECOM Digest Mon, 1 Nov 2004 14:22:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 522 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #455, November 1, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Pre-Recorded Phone Should be Illegal (Lisa Hancock) Poland Builds Europe's Largest Optical Research (Marcus Didius Falco) Great-Grandma Bell: Is Once Great Telco About Dead (Marcus Didius Falco) Re: Channel 1? (Julian Thomas) SBC Continues Trying to Get me Back (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: New Electronic Check Law Sinks 'Float' (DevilsPGD) Re: VPN Over Vonage Router (Rick Merrill) 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: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 10:22:07 -0500 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #455, November 1, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 455: November 1, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** AVAYA: www.avaya.ca/en/ ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca/ ** ERICSSON: www.ericsson.ca ** MITEL NETWORKS: www.mitel.com/ ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** UTC CANADA: www.canada.utc.org/ ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Carriers Show Improved Results Telus Reverses Wireline Decline Rogers Wireless Profit Soars Microcell Revenues Up 20% Call-Net Cuts Its Losses Videotron Sales, Operating Profit Rise Aliant Blames Strike for Profit Slump ** Primus Launches Cellular Service ** Cellcos Face Class-Action Suit ** Nortel Misses Another Deadline ** Avaya Profits Rise ** Bell Third-Party VoIP Tariff Approved ** Bell-Quebecor Dispute Returned to CRTC ** Inukshuk Calls for Proposals in Yukon ** Bell-NorthernTel Fibre Swap Agreement Nixed ** Sprint Expands Local Phone Coverage ** Emergis Replaces CEO ** Bell, Aliant to Create SMB Innovation Centre ** Reinventing Telecom in 2005 ============================================================ CARRIERS SHOW IMPROVED RESULTS: The following results are for the quarter ended September 30: ** Telus Reverses Wireline Decline: Led by an 8% increase in data revenue, Telus wireline sales edged up by 1% compared to a year ago, reversing a two-year decline. Overall revenue increased 7.8%; net income rose 37%. Telus Mobility added a net 136,200 subscribers and reduced monthly churn to 1.34%. ** Rogers Wireless Profit Soars: Rogers Wireless reports a profit of $108 million, a 154% increase over the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 22.5% to $721 million, of which $36 million was data. Net subscriber additions were 97,500, down 15% from a year ago. ** Microcell Revenues Up 20%: Microcell revenues of $175 million were 20% higher than a year ago; net income was $2.9 million. Net subscriber additions of 75,773 rose 84%; per-subscriber revenue rose 11%. Churn increased to 2.8%, which the cellco attributed to competitor retaliation for City Fido. ** Call-Net Cuts Its Losses: Call-Net Enterprises neared breakeven with a quarterly loss of $1.6 million, compared to a $30 million loss a year ago. Consumer sales rose 8% and business sales rose 1%. A decline in carrier sales resulted in a marginal drop in total revenue, to $204 million. ** Videotron Sales, Operating Profit Rise: Videotron Telecom had sales of $21.5 million (up 18%) and an operating profit of $4.2 million (up from $2.4 million). Videotron, Quebecor's cable subsidiary, increased its sales 9.4% from a year ago to $221 million, and its operating profit by 37% to $90 million. ** Aliant Blames Strike for Profit Slump: Aliant was the exception to the positive trend. Sales dropped 3.3% compared with a year ago (to $497 million); net income declined 27% (to $37 million). Aliant blamed the five- month strike of its unionized employees, which it says cost the company $55 million. PRIMUS LAUNCHES CELLULAR SERVICE: Primus Canada has begun offering cellular telephone service using the Microcell network. Initial plans range from $20/month for 250 anytime local minutes to $40 a month for 550 anytime local minutes. CELLCOS FACE CLASS-ACTION SUIT: Last week's quarterly reports from Rogers and Microcell revealed that they and the other wireless carriers face a possible class action suit accusing them of "deceit, misrepresentation, and false advertising" when they levied so-called system access fees on customers. The action, filed by a Saskatchewan lawyer in August, has not yet been certified as a class action. NORTEL MISSES ANOTHER DEADLINE: Nortel Networks, which had promised to file its financial results in October, now says that its statements for 2003 and the first half of 2004, and revised statements for 2001 and 2002, will be completed in mid-November. AVAYA PROFITS RISE: Avaya's net income for the third quarter was US$100 million, up 82% from a year ago and 64% from the previous quarter. Revenues increased 10.8% to $1.08 billion. BELL THIRD-PARTY VoIP TARIFF APPROVED: The CRTC has given interim approval to Bell's Internet Voice Access Service, which provides call origination and termination functionality to and from the public switched telephone network to Voice over Internet Service Providers (VISPs). The CRTC ordered Bell to offer the service only to telecom carriers. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-353.htm BELL-QUEBECOR DISPUTE RETURNED TO CRTC: The Federal Court of Appeal has referred a fees dispute between Quebecor-owned Videotron and Bell Globemedia-owned RDS (see Telecom Update #361) back to the CRTC, saying the Commission's original order in RDS's favor may have been based on "misleading, if not false, evidence" filed by RDS. http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca/2004/2004fca299.shtml INUKSHUK CALLS FOR PROPOSALS IN YUKON: Inukshuk Internet says it will provide up to $63,000 to fund content and connectivity projects in the Yukon, and has invited proposals. This is the latest in a series of regional calls for project proposals. www.inukshuk.ca/anglais/fonds.html BELL-NORTHERNTEL FIBRE SWAP AGREEMENT NIXED: The CRTC has refused to ratify a five-year old fibre swapping agreement between Bell Canada and NorthernTel, which "through an administrative oversight" was not filed with the Commission until early 2004. The CRTC says the carriers must charge each other tariffed rates for the fibre, and orders NorthernTel to file an interexchange dark fibre tariff in order to do so. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-356.htm SPRINT EXPANDS LOCAL PHONE COVERAGE: Sprint Canada has begun offering local residential and business phone service in three more Ontario cities: Barrie, Markham, and Richmond Hill. EMERGIS REPLACES CEO: Former BCE subsidiary BCE Emergis has named Francois Cote as its new CEO, replacing Tony Gaffney, who will "pursue other interests." Gaffney headed Emergis for only 17 months: he was previously President of Bell Nexxia. BELL, ALIANT TO CREATE SMB INNOVATION CENTRE: Bell Canada and Aliant plan to open a "Small-Medium Business Innovation Centre" in Saint John, N.B., in the first quarter of 2005. The Centre will develop IP applications for the SMB market. REINVENTING TELECOM IN 2005: The coming issue of Telemanagement, available to subscribers next week, will feature two in-depth looks at the trends that will shape business telecommunications in the coming year: ** "Reinventing Telecom Management, Again," by Ian Angus and Henry Dortmans, examines the rapidly evolving role of networking in business, and offers practical guidelines for managers who must plan and implement change. ** "IP Telephony Today: Changing Everything (Almost)," by Business Communications Review publisher Fred Knight, predicts that IP telephony will reach the tipping point in 2005, and explains how that will affect the industry and business customers. Don't miss these important Telemanagement feature reports! Call 1-800-263-4415 ext 500 or subscribe online now (www.angustel.ca/teleman/tm-sub-online.html). ============================================================ HOW TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR TELECOM UPDATE E-MAIL: editors@angustel.ca FAX: 905-686-2655 MAIL: TELECOM UPDATE Angus TeleManagement Group 8 Old Kingston Road Ajax, Ontario Canada L1T 2Z7 =========================================================== HOW TO SUBSCRIBE (OR UNSUBSCRIBE) TELECOM UPDATE is provided in electronic form only. There are two formats available: 1. The fully-formatted edition is posted on the World Wide Web on the first business day of the week at www.angustel.ca 2. The e-mail edition is distributed free of charge. To subscribe, send an e-mail message to: join-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com To stop receiving the e-mail edition, send an e-mail message to: leave-telecom_update@nova.sparklist.com Sending e-mail to these addresses will automatically add or remove the sender's e-mail address from the list. Leave subject line and message area blank. We do not give Telecom Update subscribers' e-mail addresses to any third party. For more information, see www.angustel.ca/update/privacy.html. =========================================================== COPYRIGHT AND CONDITIONS OF USE: All contents copyright 2004 Angus TeleManagement Group Inc. All rights reserved. For further information, including permission to reprint or reproduce, please e-mail rosita@angustel.ca or phone 905-686-5050 ext 500. The information and data included has been obtained from sources which we believe to be reliable, but Angus TeleManagement makes no warranties or representations whatsoever regarding accuracy, completeness, or adequacy. Opinions expressed are based on interpretation of available information, and are subject to change. If expert advice on the subject matter is required, the services of a competent professional should be obtained. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Pre-Recorded Phone Should be Illegal Date: 31 Oct 2004 19:43:19 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com In this election season, I have been BOMBARDED with pre-recorded phone calls pitching various candidates, flooding my answering machine. I know election phone calls are legal. However, I think pre-recorded phone calls, of any kind, should be illegal. The constant ringing of the phone this year was terribly annoying. If it had been last year, it would've been devastating. Last year at this time I was caring for a seriously ill person and was ill myself. I was in frequent touch with doctors, phamarcies, nurses, and families. I had to keep the phone open and answer all calls. To a healthy person, the constant ringing was terribly annoying. I would've gone out of my mind last year. When you're in bad pain, a ringing telephone is not a pleasant thing. BTW, I also received several live calls urging a deceased member of family to go vote, even though that person was removed from the election rolls quite some time ago. [In hindsight I wish I requested they come and assist that person to the polls.] When I go to the polls Tuesday, I will talk to the politicians (the people who stand outside and give out leaflets). I will ask them for their home phone numbers, but I have a funny feeling they, for some strange reason, won't give them to me. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:21:37 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Poland Builds Europe's Largest Optical Research Network For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 4 Optical Internet program web site at http://www.canarie.ca/canet4/library/list.html [Excerpts from Lightwave article - BSA] http://lw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=ARTCL&ARTICLE_I D=214117&VERSION_NUM=3 Once restricted by the bandwidth limitations of 622-Mbit/sec ATM leased-line connections, Polish researchers today rely on the largest scientific network ever deployed by a European country: PIONIER, the Polish Optical Internet. When the final five of 21 academic MANs are interconnected-scheduled to occur by the end of this year-PIONIER will have reached 5,500 km of optical fiber, delivering 10 Gbits/sec of networking power. PIONIER supports transmission speeds up to 10 Gbits/sec across 2,600 km of optical fiber, making it the largest scientific network ever deployed by a European country. "PIONIER is not just a network; it's a complete development program," contends Artur Binczewski, manager of the network department of Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), which serves as PIONIER research and development center for new-generation networks, grids, and portals. "The long-term purpose was to facilitate the ongoing development of the information society in Poland, and PIONIER has provided us with the robust, flexible network architecture necessary to enable this vision." As part of the GANT vision of a multigigabit pan-European network, PIONIER is being linked with neighboring national research and education networks (NRENs). Connections into the Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovakia will bring Poland into an e-region, and through the Porta Optica project the network will be expanded to Poland's eastern neighbors. Even in this nascent stage in the network's overall development, Polish science has benefited from PIONIER's capabilities. In interferometry, astronomers link data gathered by multiple radio telescopes to create space images of tremendous expanse and resolution. A very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) radio telescope can generate more than 1 Gbit/sec of traffic during a single session. Before deployment of the PIONIER network, VLBI radio-telescope data had to be stored on magnetic tape and shipped to central correlators abroad to give Polish astronomers usable images. Using PIONIER's 10-Gbit/sec capacity, VLBI radio-telescope data can be carried across the network, cutting cycle times and costs for agencies. While it was being determined what equipment would light PIONIER, PSNC was acquiring rights of way along public roads, railway tracks, and power distribution lines and installing optical fiber across Poland. "We knew national deployment would be the big step," explains Maciej Stroinski, technical director at PSNC, "but what we wanted to achieve, we've achieved." Bill St. Arnaud Senior Director Network Projects CANARIE bill.st.arnaud@canarie.ca +1 613 944-5603 John F. McMullen http://www.westnet.com/~observer ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 21:18:26 -0500 From: Marcus Didius Falco Subject: Great-Grandma Bell: Is the Once Great Telco on Last Legs? Graph of AT&T's stock price, 1985 -2004, in the original http://economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=3D3337000 http://economist.com/printedition/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=3D3337000 Is the once great telecoms company on its last legs? CHURCHES have altars, royalty has thrones, and AT&T has its network. For over 125 years, this was the source of the telecoms company's power and its most prized asset. Yet as telecoms capacity has become a commodity, the value of owning a network has diminished dramatically. It has forced AT&T to search for new areas of growth, but its prospects are not promising. Last week, the company's latest earnings figures included an $11.4 billion write-down of its assets, forced by a fall in prices due to competition and technologies such as voice over internet protocol (VOIP). The troubles which AT&T faces are severe. The company earns roughly half its revenue by charging for long-distance calls, but these earnings are tumbling at around 20% a year and will never recover. Long-distance calls using VOIP are essentially free. The company is therefore between a rock and a hard place: it must migrate to the more efficient technology without cannibalising its existing revenue, at a time when there is a plethora of competitors. This dilemma has been predicted by telecoms pundits for a decade, but AT&T never developed a suitable strategy to cope. Its plan now is to slow its decline in income and cut debt by continuing to slash its workforce. It hopes that a better balance sheet will help as it hunts for new business, focusing on large corporate accounts, which make up about 60% of its revenue. It is also betting on managing business customers' own networks to boost revenues. The company drew back from marketing to residential customers this summer after a regulatory decision increased the prices it would have to pay to access the lines of America's local telecoms operators the Baby Bells that were spun out of AT&T 20 years ago. AT&T's desire is to sell VOIP over broadband, and it has struck a number of marketing deals with cable companies, which own a line into people's homes. It is a sad outcome for a company which, in the 1990s, acquired cable companies for this very purpose, but was forced to dispose of them a few years later when the cost of upgrading the lines and its heavy debt got in the way. AT&T's foundering fortunes come amid difficulties in the telecoms industry as a whole. America's second- and third-largest long-distance companies, MCI and Sprint, are also suffering from the glut of telecoms capacity and the fast erosion of revenue from selling voice-minutes. Newer rivals, like Level 3 and Global Crossing, are ailing too. Analysts predict a consolidation of today's ten-or-so long-haul networks to around four. The industry needs to restructure, says Tim Horan, an analyst at CIBC, an investment bank. AT&T has a future; we just don't know in what form. Can AT&T weather the storm? Touting the quality of its network may attract large companies which need time and help in switching their existing computing applications on to an internet platform. Moreover, the company plans to enter the attractive wireless market for business customers in six months as a virtual operator by buying capacity on Sprint's mobile network. This follows the sale of AT&T Wireless to Cingular, which was approved (with conditions) by regulators this week. AT&T has not had much success in adapting to new technologies and to competition since it was broken up 20 years ago. All the old-model telcos are on their way out, says David Isenberg, a telecoms expert who accurately predicted the fall in value of AT&T's network in the 1990s when he worked for the company's famed Bell Labs (though his warnings went unheeded and he resigned). AT&T , he adds, will show them the way. Copyright 2004 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved. *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This Internet discussion group is making it available without profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, in this instance, the Economist Group. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ------------------------------ From: Julian Thomas Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 22:00:25 -0500 Subject: Re: Channel 1? > About 10 or 15 years ago my grandmother's cable in Arlington, Texas had > Channels 1, 0, and 00. Was that cable or a roulette wheel? Julian Thomas: http://jt-mj.net In the beautiful Finger Lakes Wine Country of New York State! -- -- There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved by a suitable application of high explosives. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 13:41:10 EST From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: SBC Continues Trying to Get me Back About a year ago, when I ditched SBC totally to go with Cable One for my high speed internet service, and Prairie Stream Communications for my reasonably priced, accurate and honest telephone service, the folks at Southwestern Bell (SBC) started trying to get me back to them. They reduced the prices just a wee bit, put together a new package and offered it along with freebies including a VISA gift card and other things. That correspondence from them has gone on more or less weekly since I dropped them. Each week, the offer gets slightly better. Now, as of October 30 (their latest mailing) the price for a full package is *$12.95* per month for five months then an additional seven months at $19.95. In addition to the usual assortment of goodies, they now offered a free 30 minute prepaid phone card from some telco in Mexico (TelMex I think) "if you would just call and give us ten minutes of your time listening to us on the phone. We are certain you will agree we are the best phone company anywhere, and we do want you back as a customer. After you hear us out, we know you will want to return back where you belong. In any event you will get a free 30 minute prepaid phone card." So I thought today I would listen to what they had to say, with my timer keeping track of the number of minutes. In the letter they sent I was told to dial 1-866-331-8585 (or in Espanol 1-800-418-9612). I called, no voice mail jail, no holding queue. A man answers very politely and asks for my name, address and phone number which I give him. He said 'just a minute while I pull up your records'. He then leaves the line *for slightly over 8 minutes* leaving me on hold. When he eventually came back on the line at about 9 minutes, 30 seconds, hw said he was sorry but the computers were down, so he could not discuss it right now. I told him that was fine, I had given him the ten minutes they had requested couldI now please get my thirty minute prepaid calling card? He assured me I would get the calling card 'in a few days in the mail'. We will see ... I surely hope he does not try to slam my phone line. PAT ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: New Electronic Check Law Sinks 'Float' Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2004 22:01:14 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Steve Sobol wrote: >> Not sure what the practice is in other places, but at my Credit Union >> you can view a scanned image of any of your cleared checks online >> (only after logging in to your personal account, of course). > At my bank, too (Bank of America). They only keep images online for (I > think) two months, though. My bank has offered this for a few months now, but they charge per view. On the other hand, they still return the physical cheques. Personally, I wish they'd go the other way around, even if it's only available for a couple months (I can keep my own archives -- I archive everything.) ------------------------------ From: Rick Merrill Subject: Re: VPN Over Vonage Router Organization: Comcast Online Date: Mon, 01 Nov 2004 14:35:26 GMT Mike Kraley wrote: > I have a Linksys RT31P2 router for my Vonage VOIP > connection. Everything else works fine, but I cannot establish a > vanilla Microsoft VPN connection thru it. Topology is my computer to > Linksys to cable modem thru internet to VPN server. I could easily > establish a connection with my previous router (DLINK DI-624) where > the Linksys is now. > Now, however, I get hung at the "verifying username and password" > prompt. Googling this says the likely culprit is that PPTP passthru > is not enabled in the router; however, this router gives such an > option in its menus and it is enabled. > Any suggestions would be appreciated. > ....Mike Do you mean that the RT31P2 is your TA (telephone adapter)? Why did you change from the Dlink? Have you power cycled all components? ------------------------------ 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 #522 ******************************