From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Dec 7 02:35:03 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.6) id iB77Z2p04107; Tue, 7 Dec 2004 02:35:03 -0500 (EST) Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 02:35:03 -0500 (EST) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200412070735.iB77Z2p04107@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 #583 TELECOM Digest Tue, 7 Dec 2004 02:33:00 EST Volume 23 : Issue 583 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Mass. Poised to be First With Electronic Medical Records (Monty Solomon) Boston Techies Envision TV's On-Demand Future (Monty Solomon) Pew Internet Report on Artists and the Internet (Monty Solomon) FTC Gets Settlement With Yet Another Dial-Sleazer (Danny Burstein) Phone Works But Extensions Don't Ring (Kevin) Re: Norvergence, was: Kudos to New York Attorney General (John Levine) Re: Norvergence, was: Kudos to New York Attorney General (Dan Burstein) Re: Lingo Voip SUCKS! (keeldragger) Re: Countering the "Lingo Sucks" Thread (Dan Lanciani) For $999, a Lifetime of Internet Phone Calls (Monty Solomon) Re: For $999, a Lifetime of Internet Phone Calls (Tim Keating) Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. 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, 6 Dec 2004 22:57:35 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Mass. Poised to Be First State With Electronic Medical Records By Jennifer Peter, Associated Press Writer BOSTON -- Within five years, physicians could be able to access patients' records from any hospital or doctors' office in the state under a new "eHealth" initiative financed with an infusion of $50 million from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. The project, which will begin as a pilot program in three communities, could make Massachusetts the first in the nation to have a statewide electronic medical record system, which would allow doctors to easily see what kind of care a patient has received from other physicians, avoid duplications, and prevent medical errors. http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2004/12/06/mass_poised_to_become_first_state_with_electronic_medical_records/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 23:15:56 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Boston Techies Envision TV's On-demand Future @LARGE By Scott Kirsner At the end of a boisterous dinner, after several glasses of good red wine, technology entrepreneur John Landry pulled out his iPaq hand-held and beckoned me over to his side of the table. "You'll think this is cool," he said. "We call it Tiny TiVo ." Suddenly, his iPaq began playing the opening segment of the "Today" show, recorded that morning. For kicks, Landry had tweaked software made by his company, Adesso Systems of Boston, so that it would transfer television shows recorded on his home PC to his hand-held, allowing him to watch them whenever and wherever he wanted. Illegal? Possibly. But cool? Definitely. Boston isn't typically thought of as a hub of the entertainment industry. But Boston techies are envisioning the future of television, from nifty tricks like Tiny TiVo to massive video-on-demand systems like those sold by Maynard's SeaChange International and deployed by Comcast . The next generation of TV would hardly be recognizable to Philo Farnsworth, the farm boy who invented the medium. You'll choose exactly which shows you want to watch, and watch them on your schedule, on whatever device is most convenient. You'll even be able to "edit" a show yourself, choosing to watch only the scoring drives from Sunday's Patriots game, or just the stories from the local news that relate to your neighborhood. The ads you see will be tightly targeted, pitching Jordan's Furniture and Brinks Home Security if you've just bought a new house, for instance. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/12/06/boston_techies_envision_tvs_on_demand_future/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2004 00:42:42 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Pew Internet Report on Artists & the Internet http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=142 Artists, Musicians and the Internet: They have embraced the internet as a tool that helps them create, promote, and sell their work. However, they are divided about the impact and importance of free file-sharing and other copyright issues. 12/5/2004 Mary Madden The first large-scale surveys of the internet's impact on artists and musicians reveal that they are embracing the Web as a tool to improve how they make, market, and sell their creative works. They eagerly welcome new opportunities that are provided by digital technology and the internet. At the same time, they believe that unauthorized online file sharing is wrong and that current copyright laws are appropriate, though there are some major divisions among them about what constitutes appropriate copying and sharing of digital files. Their overall judgment is that unauthorized online file-sharing does not pose a major threat to creative industries: Two-thirds of artists say peer-to-peer file sharing poses a minor threat or no threat at all to them. Across the board, among those who are both successful and struggling, the artists and musicians we surveyed are more likely to say that the internet has made it possible for them to make more money from their art than they are to say it has made it harder to protect their work from piracy or unlawful use. http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=142 http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/94/press_release.asp http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Artists.Musicians_Report.pdf ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: FTC Gets Settlement With Yet Another Dial-Sleazer Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:44:28 -0500 Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC (as is typical, the only "punishment" is a return of _some_ of the cash and a promise to behave in the future. And there's no extension to the various telcos who facilitated this scam. Better than nothing, though.) "Alyon Technologies, Inc. will drop its claim to approximately $17 million in consumer bills to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it engaged in unauthorized billing and collection for adult videotext services supposedly accessed on the Internet by hundreds of thousands of consumers. Another $22 million in bills may be forgiven if consumers challenge their charges. "According to the FTC, the defendants downloaded a modem-dialing program onto consumers computers, allegedly after consumers clicked on a button to agree to the terms and conditions for such a download. The dialing program then disconnected consumers from their own Internet service providers and reconnected them to the defendants network. [ snippety snip, rest at: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/12/alyonsettlement.htm _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: kevinliffey@btinternet.com (Kevin) Subject: Phone Works But Extensions Don't Ring Date: 6 Dec 2004 15:49:02 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com My telephone and three extensions work fine for outgoing calls -- but ringing is very erratic. The phone farthest from the master socket only begins ringing about six rings after the first socket, or doesn't ring at all. In checking the wiring, I've noticed that our electrician installed 'master socket' plates for the three extensions as well as the true master socket. Could that be the explanation? ------------------------------ Date: 7 Dec 2004 02:24:44 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Norvergence, was: Kudos to New York Attorney General Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Hey, you beat me to it! No fair ... > Spitzer's press release is at: Oops, the URL you gave was a Daily News story about an old campaign loan. The press release about Norvergence is: http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/dec/dec6b_04.html The release says at the end that the AG has notified 19 other lenders that he'll be in contact, presumably for a similar settlement. The NY AG only affects customers in New York, but it's hard to see how the lenders could make much of a case to collect elsewhere since all the facts are the same. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of The Internet for Dummies, Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 21:30:20 EST From: Danny Burstein Subject: Re: Norvergence, was: Kudos to New York Attorney General > Oops, the URL you gave was a Daily News story about an old campaign > loan. > The press release about Norvergence is: > http://www.oag.state.ny.us/press/2004/dec/dec6b_04.html OOOOUUUUUUCHHHHH. I hate it when I do that. I'll blame it on the computer. yeah, that's it. Feel free to dig into me in a c.d.t correction ... ------------------------------ From: keeldragger Subject: Re: Lingo Voip SUCKS! Date: 6 Dec 2004 17:18:32 -0800 Organization: http://groups.google.com I just went to Lingo and am very happy with the service. I have to agree with you regarding the local number portability. LINGO should be able to tell you up front if they can transfer the number OR refund your money. In my case, I also have Verizon for local service. I checked several other providers (Vonage, ATT, etc.) and none of them said my number was portable. Lingo could never confirm or deny ... they said it depended on my current service provider. I called Verizon and the rep I spoke with said there are no limitations whatsoever from their perspective. Oh, I also emailed Verizon's tech support. Verizon. I received a confirmation of my request and 3 business days later (5 days total) and I have not yet received a reply. LINGO my suck but in my opinion, VERIZON SUCKS WORSE. Any idea why Verizon would charge me $68/mth (including taxes) for local service when I can get more features from Lingo. I'm pretty sure my fees to Verizon don't include customer support because I have found Lingo to be much more responsive (although not terrific). I bit the bullet and said screw it ... I'm going to just give up on porting my number. It's not worth the hassle. But I'm going to keep Lingo. Verizon is fired. Regards. Garth Nospam wrote: > Well let me state that Lingo still SUCKS! > I'm always happy to blame Verizon whenever possible but I think in my > case Primus (Lingo) is being run in very non business friendly way. > Now remember, it took Lingo 40+ days to tell me they could not port > my phone number to their system. > I checked around with other Voip companies and even Verizon's Voip > service. None of them support porting my number including Verizon who > provides me my local service and current number! How long did it take > all the other company's to tell me this? NOT 40 DAYS! About 30 sec > with a built in search function on their web pages!!! > Now tell me Lingo is not scamming people with their $39.90 disconnect > charge. > -Garth ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 22:55:46 -0500 (EST) From: Dan Lanciani Subject: Re: Countering the "Lingo Sucks" Thread tkoppel@adelphia.net (Ted Koppel) wrote: > If you're going to complain about Lingo, at least do it for real reasons: > - still not sending callerID *name* (although they are sending number) > on outgoing calls So what does it mean to send callerID name on outgoing calls? I was under the (mis?)impression that calling name presentation was normally implemented by the terminating switch doing a database dip using the SS7-passed calling number. I heard some talk of an end-to-end version, but I thought it wasn't generally supported. Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 22:35:14 -0500 From: Monty Solomon Subject: For $999, a Lifetime of Internet Phone Calls By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | December 6, 2004 Making unlimited phone calls for a fixed monthly price has proven to be a key selling point for Internet phone services like Vonage and AT&T CallVantage. But an upstart Dedham company is raising the stakes, offering consumers all the phone calls they want for the rest of their lives. RNK Telecom Inc. is promising subscribers that for a one-time payment of $999 they can make an unlimited number of unbilled calls for their remaining days on Earth. Customers would have to continue to pay another company for a broadband Internet connection, however. RNK plans to begin offering the "Phone for Life" plan today to Massachusetts consumers, through retail partners including Galaxy Internet Services of Newton, Pro-Speed.net of Tyngsborough, and Voip2Save.com of Providence. The same deal will be offered in New Hampshire and Rhode Island later this month and in New York in January, company president Richard N. Koch said. At current rates, compared to the $30-a-month cost of AT&T Corp.'s CallVantage Internet phone service, with the first month free, RNK's offer would not save a consumer money until after 34 months of service. Likewise, Vonage Holdings Corp.'s "premium unlimited" service would be a better deal than RNK's until about 40 months had passed. Vonage, which charges $25 a month, is the biggest US provider of "voice over Internet protocol" phone service, with over 200,000 subscribers. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/12/06/for_999_a_lifetime_of_internet_phone_calls/ ------------------------------ From: Tim Keating Subject: Re: For $999, a Lifetime of Internet Phone Calls Date: Mon, 06 Dec 2004 21:09:58 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 11:56:25 -0500, Lisa Minter quoted Jack Decker: > Jack Decker's note: Interesting idea here, but of course the problem > is that any sort of "lifetime" plan beg the question -- whose > lifetime? That of the customer, or of the company offering the plan? > Basically you are gambling that the company will stick around long > enough to at least give you a better deal than you would have got by > buying service on a per-month basis. On the other hand, this plan > could give the company a lot of up-front cash to reinvest in the Or they can pull another Novergence style scam. Liberate the cash, in the form of excessive executive compensation. And then file for bankruptcy. Presto, no need to worry above fulling future obligations. > company, and by the time four or five years are up it just might be > that there are no longer significant terminating charges on calls, so > the company will be able to keep providing the service. Since I have > no crystal ball (and would probably only see the dust on it if I did), > I can't tell you what the future will bring for those who sign up for > this. > http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/12/06/for_999_a_lifetime_of_internet_phone_calls/ > For $999, a lifetime of Internet phone calls Then kiss your money good by. You're betting that this Startup will still be a viable company in four to five years. Odds are at least to 5 to 1 against. 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