From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Nov 17 20:17:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iAI1HMW02057; Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:17:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:17:23 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200411180117.iAI1HMW02057@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 #552 TELECOM Digest Wed, 17 Nov 2004 20:17:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 552 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Film Trade Group Files Anti-Piracy Suits (Monty Solomon) Bank of America: Aiming Higher (Monty Solomon) The Drive's on For Digital Radio (Monty Solomon) In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye (Monty Solomon) Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech (Monty Solomon) Motorola Further Expands Global Support for MediaCipher (Monty Solomon) SBC to Announce TV Deal With Microsoft (Telecom dailyLead From USTA) VMWI Questions About SDT and FSK (Bryan Apple) SBC Plans to Roll Out Internet Phone Service in 2005 (Lisa Minter) Andy Abramson: SBC Seems to Be Hedging (Lisa Minter) Somewhat Off Topic But a Must Read (Jack Decker) Email Read in Automated Phone Call? (Karim T) Soyo IP Phone (nightsurfer) 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: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 21:53:43 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Film Trade Group Files Anti-Piracy Suits By GARY GENTILE AP Business Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A trade group representing seven major movie studios filed a first wave of lawsuits against individuals they say are offering pirated copies of films using Internet-based peer-to-peer file-sharing programs. As part of a larger effort to combat piracy, The Motion Picture Association of America also said it would soon make available a computer program that sniffs out movie and music files on a user's computer as well as any installed file-sharing programs. The MPAA announced the federal court suits Tuesday, but did not say how many defendants were sued or where the lawsuits were filed. The group also did not immediately make available a copy of the complaint. One lawsuit, obtained by The Associated Press, targets 18 individuals and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis. Other lawsuits are believed to have been filed in New York, Philadelphia and other areas with large concentrations of high-speed Internet customers. Such connections are required to download the massive movie files. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45063818 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 22:41:06 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Bank of America: Aiming Higher By Mel Duvall Bank of America spent $47 billion to acquire FleetBoston to get a stout presence in New England and New York. The bank will spend tens of millions to convert its 1,500 branches onto its Model Bank platform, so it can provide the same services nationwide. But previous conversions have not gone well. Can it really become a bank of all America? http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1397,1720795,00.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 23:38:21 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Drive's on For Digital Radio By Bill Griffith | November 14, 2004 Outside of replacing tubes with transistors, it's the first major improvement in radio as we know it in 80 years. High-definition radio is a technology that sneaked up on us. But it's about to go mainstream. An HD radio broadcast offers CD-quality sound on the FM band and brings FM stereo-quality sound to the AM band. But the programming is exactly what we're used to getting for free, with commercials paying the freight. At WBZ in Boston, where the broadcast end of the technology has been up and running for a year, engineering manager Mark Manuelian said the sound quality is remarkable. http://www.boston.com/cars/articles/2004/11/14/the_drives_on_for_digital_radio/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:45:40 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: In Texas, 28,000 Students Test an Electronic Eye By MATT RICHTEL SPRING, Tex. - In front of her gated apartment complex, Courtney Payne, a 9-year-old fourth grader with dark hair pulled tightly into a ponytail, exits a yellow school bus. Moments later, her movement is observed by Alan Bragg, the local police chief, standing in a windowless control room more than a mile away. Chief Bragg is not using video surveillance. Rather, he watches an icon on a computer screen. The icon marks the spot on a map where Courtney got off the bus, and, on a larger level, it represents the latest in the convergence of technology and student security. Hoping to prevent the loss of a child through kidnapping or more innocent circumstances, a few schools have begun monitoring student arrivals and departures using technology similar to that used to track livestock and pallets of retail shipments. Here in a growing middle- and working-class suburb just north of Houston, the effort is undergoing its most ambitious test. The Spring Independent School District is equipping 28,000 students with ID badges containing computer chips that are read when the students get on and off school buses. The information is fed automatically by wireless phone to the police and school administrators. In a variation on the concept, a Phoenix school district in November is starting a project using fingerprint technology to track when and where students get on and off buses. Last year, a charter school in Buffalo began automating attendance counts with computerized ID badges -- one of the earliest examples of what educators said could become a widespread trend. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/technology/17tag.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 00:51:36 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFF: Anti-Spam Measures Block Free Speech EFF White Paper Reports on Collateral Damage to Free Expression in the Fight Against Spam San Francisco - Today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a white paper (HTML - PDF) describing the effects of anti-spam technologies on free speech. "Noncommercial Email Lists: Collateral Damage in the Fight Against Spam" focuses on how groups running noncommercial email lists are being harmed by anti-spam techniques. The paper grew out of EFF's efforts to help MoveOn.org, human rights groups, parents' groups, and others, deliver email messages in the face of barriers that are aimed at stopping spam but that also stop wanted messages. = http://eff.org/news/archives/2004_11.php#002097 = http://www.eff.org/wp/?f=SpamCollateralDamage.html = http://www.eff.org/wp/SpamCollateralDamage.pdf ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 01:46:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Further Expands Global Support for MediaCipher Technology, Announces First Chinese License Agreement with DVN Technology Limited The Agreement Enables DVN to Deploy Digital Cable Set-Tops Using the Motorola Conditional Access Technology BEIJING, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today announced the signing of a MediaCipher(R) license agreement with DVN Technology Limited, an affiliate of DVN (Holdings) Limited ("DVN", HKSE stock code: 0500), China's leading technology services provider of state-of-the-art digital TV broadcast platforms. The agreement will allow DVN to expand its customer base by creating new opportunities with network operators that support the Motorola MediaCipher conditional access technology. By licensing its MediaCipher technology to DVN, Motorola is providing a new opportunity for network operators to deploy advanced digital set-tops with a secure conditional access system in China -- using either an embedded or the SmartCard version of the MediaCipher technology. This greater choice in set-top selection will expand opportunities available for consumers to experience digital video in their homes. Currently deployed in more than two thousand headends worldwide, Motorola's MediaCipher technology is one of the industry's most robust and secure conditional access technologies. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=45065804 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 13:51:28 EST From: Telecom dailyLead From USTA Subject: SBC to Announce TV Deal With Microsoft Telecom dailyLead from USTA November 17, 2004 http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=17564&l=2017006 TODAY'S HEADLINES NEWS OF THE DAY * SBC to announce TV deal with Microsoft BUSINESS & INDUSTRY WATCH * Motorola to acquire MeshNetworks * Private equity firms make preliminary offer for Grupo Auna * Verizon considers relocation * Inside pole-climbing school USTA SPOTLIGHT * USTA Webinar: Phone Facts & Telecom Trends, The 2005 Roadmap! EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES * Verizon Wireless offers "ring-back" tones REGULATORY & LEGISLATIVE * Bush renominates Adelstein * Film studios sue alleged Internet movie swappers http://www.dailylead.com/latestIssue.jsp?i=17564&l=2017006 http://www.dailylead.com/usta/usta_passiton.jsp Legal and Privacy information at http://www.dailylead.com/about/privacy_legal.jsp SmartBrief, Inc. 1100 H ST NW, Suite 1000 Washington, DC 20005 ------------------------------ From: bha@offsite.com (Bryan Apple) Subject: VMWI Questions About SDT and FSK Date: 17 Nov 2004 10:57:36 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have some questions about the proper implementation for VMWI. Specifically, I have CallVantage VOIP with a DLINK DVG-1120M, but I think this issue is somewhat generic. I have posted some messages on the VOIP forum at DSLreports.com, but they don't seem to be a very technical bunch over there. Maybe this group has some old-time telco folks that know how things are supposed to work! In my VOIP environment there are 3 parts to this. The VOIP provider also offers VoiceMail, and they send status messages to my TA (telephone adapter) to control the VMWI and SDT. The DLINK TA provides the FXS interface to my phone, and it generates the FSK and SDT based on the status as provided my the VOIP provider. Effectively it acts as the CO or PBX. Finally, the phone must detect the SDT or FSK and turn on/off the VMWI indicator. I realize that different phones may do this somewhat differently. I believe that phones will only go off-hook on their own to check for SDT under two circumstances: 1) after a call has been completed; 2) after an un-answered ring. But with FSK I would think the signaling could be PUSHED down the phone line at any time (as long as the line is idle). My problem is that my DLINK TA will only send the FSK to set/clear the VMWI after the phone has gone through an off-hook->idle cycle. Of course that would be the same requirement needed to detect SDT, so it seems to me they have not implemented FSK very well. This becomes especially problematic when you can change the status remotely - by dialing into VM from another phone, or accessing via the web, listening to VM, which then sends the status change to the TA, but the TA fails to pass that information along via an FSK signal. This seems wrong to me. Do I have an accurate understanding of SDT and FSK signaling for VMWI? Can anybody tell me if other implementations send FSK signaling independent of a SDT detection event? What do Telcos that offer VM do? What about PBX's? What about other VOIP adapters? Details of a little test I performed: 1) Call comes in to CallVantage, they notify the TA with CRCX (hd), TA says OK; 2) No answer, DLCX, TA says OK, RQNT(hd), TA says OK; 3) Caller leaves message and CallVantage notifies TA with RQNT S=vmwi(+), not sure why but they send this again, TA says OK; 4) I waited for at least 5 min, the TA never put the FSK signal on the local line to turn on the VMWI; 5) I pick up the local phone, hear the SDT, after hanging up the FSK signal is put on the line; 6) TA sends NTFY, they say OK, they say RQNT, TA says OK, they say MDCX with S=mwi, TA says OK; Same after the VM has been cleared (I deleted it via the web interface); 7) CallVantage sends RQNT S=vmwi(-), TA says OK; 8) I wait at least 5 min, the TA never put the FSK signal on the local line to turn off the VMWI; 9) I pick up the phone, SDT is gone, after hanging up the FSK signal is put on the line. bha ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:17:39 -0500 Subject: SBC Plans to Roll Out Internet Phone Service in 2005 http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0411170321nov17,1,4327377.story?coll=chi-business-hed By Rob Kaiser, [Chicago] Tribune staff reporter. Bloomberg News contributed to this report Responding to competitive threats to its core business, SBC Communications Inc. said Tuesday it will begin offering Internet-based phone service early next year. The service, which would only be available to the company's DSL customers, comes as rival carriers Verizon, AT&T and newcomers like Vonage roll out similar services known as VoIP, for voice over Internet protocol. "We understand that IP is the future," SBC Chief Executive Edward Whitacre said Tuesday at an industry conference in New York. By offering Internet phone service, SBC hopes to keep competitors from poaching its customers with lower prices and new features such as the ability to block calls, receive voice mails as e-mails and set call forwarding instructions from any Web connection. SBC said Tuesday it will offer the service in the 13 states it serves, including Illinois. The company, which already offers Internet phone service to businesses, is running trials for residential service in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Antonio. It did not disclose how much its service will cost, although rivals charge between $20 and $40 a month for unlimited local and long-distance calls. [Comment: SBC is still thinking like a big phone company. Why only offer the service to their own DSL customers? That's just giving business away to other companies that have more ubiquitous coverage.] Full story at: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0411170321nov17,1,4327377.story?coll=chi-business-hed ------------------------------ From: Lisa Minter Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 12:39:49 -0500 Subject: Andy Abramson: SBC Seems to Be Hedging This is from Andy Abramson's blog, at: http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2004/11/sbc_seems_to_be.html In what is clearly meant to be both a hedge against losing money to VoIP competitors by slowing them down by charging them more, SBC has also at the same time made a move that could potentially make their VoIP service less costly. In a tariff filing today, SBC wants to charge ISP's more if they terminate calls on their network according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110065122384576170-search,00.html?collection=wsjie%2F30day&vql_string=sbc%3Cin%3E%28article%2Dbody%29 (Subscription Required) Sadly, this is so typical from a company that seeks total control and ownership of the pipe and the customer and which sees their competition not being the other telcos and next generation VoIP providers, but also the cable MSOs. Yesterday I called all this an arms race. Now it's turning into economic warfare as well. Smartly, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has already announced he's looking into this. Don't also be surprised if this is also bargaining chip by SBC to establish some preferred provider relationships with ISP's and MSO's to get more of the data traffic as well as voice calls moving over their networks. While Level 3, MCI, Qwest, Broadwing and AT&T have significant if not the most traffic, SBC has also built out their own IP network, and that's a network that needs filling up. It would not be out of the realm of possbility that companies working with SBC get some sort of incentives and all this is a rouse to get them there ... In the meantime it's important that all of the VOIP companies and the ISP's band together to work to stop what is meant to be clearly another square on SBC's Monopoly Board game. ------------------------------ From: Jack Decker Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 22:55:47 -0500 Subject: Somewhat Off Topic But a Must Read Folks, You need to read this article: http://wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,65704,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2 Issues related to TiVO and file sharing networks aside, please note that if "fair use" is ever legislated out of existence, many of the web pages and news sources you depend on will disappear, including much of the content of this mailing list. As you know, I often post excerpts from an article to permit you to decide if the entire article is worth reading, or to highlight one or two important points made in the article. If "fair use" ceases to exist, I might or might not be allowed to post links to the articles but I wouldn't be able to quote any portion of the articles, so I probably wouldn't bother at all. You should be very concerned when your elected representatives attempt to take away any of the rights you currently enjoy, but especially when it is done solely to benefit large mega-corporations who already feel they somehow deserve part of every paycheck you receive. For many years I have been opposed to the practices of telephone monopolies but it appears that congress may be about to create a new privileged class of corporations, namely those large enough to buy politicians (which are now apparently acting as mere puppets for these industries - not all of them, but if enough do it then the big corporations get their way, and we lose even more of our rights and freedoms). In addition to the article I linked to above, there is commentary on BroadbandReports.com here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/56780 On a somewhat personal note, I actually wonder why I still bother doing things like this (posting news to these groups) sometimes -- in a way I feel like we are all arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Of course I hope I am wrong, and if I didn't have that hope I would have probably stopped doing this months ago. And if I told you why I would believe something like that, some of you would question my sanity and others (those who DON'T believe everything they hear on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and FOX) might wonder why it took me so long to wake up. But since this isn't a political or social forum, I'll stop there and say no more. 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: karimatmariano@yahoo.com (Karim T) Subject: Email Read in Automated Phone Call? Date: 16 Nov 2004 21:42:24 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Does the following technology exist: When someone sends an email to me, I want to receive a phone call which reads out the content of the email. Thanks guys! Karim T [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you are a subscriber to America On Line, they offer a feature which allows you to use the phone to receive email by listening to it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: stevem@soyousa.com (nightsurfer) Subject: Soyo IP Phone Date: 16 Nov 2004 16:36:52 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com Z-Connect Telephone: The only VoIP telephone solution with zero monthly fees and 150 ready-to-use FREE minutes! Start saving money now on local, long-distance and international calls with SOYO's Z-Connect VoIP telephone. Simply plug the Z-Connect phone into your high-speed DSL or cable modem connection for instant broadband capabilities, with zero monthly fees, zero set-up fees, zero service contracts, zero software configuration and zero hidden charges. No computer or adapter is necessary, and the first 150 minutes of airtime are free. Peer-to-peer calling is always free, and extremely low rates are offered for local, long-distance and international calls. shop.soyousa.com ------------------------------ 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. 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