From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 22 17:07:09 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3ML79p23575; Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:07:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:07:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404222107.i3ML79p23575@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 #201 TELECOM Digest Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:06:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 201 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Net2Phone Unveils Wi-Fi VoIP Strategy; Net2 Phone To Enable (VOIP News) Dean Anderson of AV8 Comments on Privacy Issues and VoIP Tap (VOIP News) Making the Call on VoIP - Internet Phone Services Vary (VOIP News) New VoIP Provider Has Largest Residential "Unlimited" Local (VOIP News) FCCs Decision Against AT&Ts VoIP Garners 5-0 Vote, Raises (VOIP News) Feds Ding AT&T Over Internet Calls (VOIP News) Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems (Gary Breuckman) Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems (Paul A Lee) Can't Ping IP Printer? (DaveC) Norvergence (Tim Trump) Honesty From Earthlink (Edson C. Hendricks) Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers (Monty Solomon) SBC Communications' Profit Drops 61 Percent (Monty Solomon) "Jew Watch", Google, and Search Engine Optimization (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:21:34 -0400 Subject: Net2Phone Unveils Wi-Fi VoIP Strategy; Net2Phone To Enable Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040422005369&newsLang=en Net2Phone Unveils Wi-Fi VoIP Strategy; Net2Phone To Enable Service Providers With Wi-Fi Telephony, Extending Mobility And Flexibility of VoIP A related IDT Corporation press release is available, please refer to Business Wire story #5255, April 22, 2004. NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2004-- IDT to deploy Wi-Fi phone service utilizing Net2Phone's platform Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP) today announced plans to deliver a suite of wireless VoIP solutions to service providers globally, enabling them to empower residential and corporate users worldwide with mobile VoIP applications. Building on its recently announced VoiceLine broadband telephony offering, Net2Phone's wireless VoIP solutions will offer service providers SIP-based hosted wireless telephony services that can be sold to their customers as an enhancement to their existing product set. Wireless VoIP extends the existing reach of voice and data services by removing the necessity for copper or fiber last-mile access to the Internet. Net2Phone routes all calls over wireless IP networks to its SIP-based platform, which performs call management, provides Class 5 features, billing, provisioning and enhanced services and distributes the infrastructure required for interconnecting onto and off of the PSTN network. Net2Phone offers service providers an affordable mobile telephony solution together with a complete set of features and functionality, including inbound and outbound calling with phone number selection, call waiting, caller ID and voicemail. The company also announced that its first customer, IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT), a leading multinational carrier and technology company, plans to deploy commercial Wi-Fi phone service in a series of locations throughout the United States. The Ironbound area of Newark, New Jersey will be the first area covered and will enable users in residential and affordable housing to bypass local phone companies and make domestic and international phone calls via a wireless connection to the Internet. Demand for wireless IP local area networks or Wi-Fi (802.11) continues to grow, with Pyramid Research projecting 700 million Wi-Fi users globally by 2008. Wi-Max, an extended wireless broadband network reaching as far as 25 miles, is becoming a viable alternative for customers to receive high-speed Internet access in rural areas and in areas where wired broadband is not an option because of low high-speed data availability. By extending its retail VoIP offerings to the wireless environment, Net2Phone can ride the wave of wireless broadband deployments by offering a bundle of telephony in conjunction with a high-speed wireless data offer. "Net2Phone's wireless solutions remove the tether associated with VoIP, delivering the flexibility of a cellular phone anywhere in the world there is a Wi-Fi hotspot, without the need to be tied to a cell phone carrier, " said Stephen Greenberg, CEO of Net2Phone. "Net2Phone is well positioned to ride the burgeoning Wi-Fi network explosion to offer consumers and businesses affordable mobile telephony solutions." Wireless VoIP Partnership Opportunities As Net2Phone is an enabler for service providers, globally, Net2Phone can also seamlessly integrate its front and back office systems, including its billing platform, into its partners' infrastructures, thereby facilitating a unified bill for high-speed data, telecommunications and other services. Target partners include: -- Wireless ISPs (WISPs): With more than 30 million US homes that cannot access cable or DSL service, Net2Phone can offer WISPs telephony services as a bundle to their high-speed wireless product, both within local wireless environments, such as cafes and airports, as well as Wi-Max deployments throughout entire cities. -- Rural Opportunities: Residents in rural areas may benefit from broadband Internet access as well as competitive telephony service. With more cities and municipalities offering their populace extensive long-range wireless networks in their locales, Net2Phone can offer full featured inbound and outbound calling capabilities within those networks. -- Wireline High-Speed Data Providers: Net2Phone can empower high-speed data providers, such as cable and DSL operators, with mobile telephony solutions, thereby extending the reach and flexibility of their broadband telephony service. -- Wireless Home Networks: Within a home networking environment, users can roam throughout the house with a Wi-Fi phone. End users can then use the Net2Phone service anytime they are within a hotspot, either at home or on the road. -- Public Hotspots: Customers can take their Wireless VoiceLine account and phone number and roam onto any open hotspot to place and receive calls. This strategy is very similar to the RBOC's strategy of offering their DSL customers free data roaming on their hotspots to further extend their value proposition to their customers. -- OEMs -- Cell Phone Manufacturers: Net2Phone is also in discussions with cell phone manufacturers that are creating dual mode cell phones for both cell phone and VoIP usages. -- PDA Manufacturers: PDA manufacturers can also add software to their devices that can enable a wireless PDA with phone functionality using Net2Phone. Layer incremental SIP telephony services Net2Phone can also enable its partners to offer to their subscribers, residential telephony services, prefix dialing services and calling cards. By marketing multiple telephony services to their subscribers using one unified account and platform, partners can maximize their telephony revenue per subscriber. About Net2Phone Net2Phone provides PacketCable, SIP and wireless VoIP solutions around in the world. As leaders in enabling telecom service providers and cable operators with turn-key hosted VoIP telephony services, Net2Phone has routed billions of retail VoIP minutes globally, servicing more than 100,000 users in the US as well as hundreds of thousands of more overseas. Net2Phone's hosted SIP platform provides partners with residential broadband telephony, calling cards, prefix dialing and enterprise services in over 100 countries. Net2Phone's PacketCable platform provides cable operators with the ability to deliver a primary line replacement service with guaranteed QoS and features such as E911. Traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners and investors include Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L; LMC.B) and IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C). For more information about Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com. Net2Phone Corporate Communications Dawn Orlinsky, 973-438-3508 dorlinsky@net2phone.com 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: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 11:27:57 -0400 Subject: Dean Anderson of AV8 Comments on Privacy Issues and VoIP taps Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.cryptonomicon.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=749 Dean Anderson of AV8 Comments on Privacy Issues and VoIP taps Posted on Thursday, April 22 @ 08:00:00 EDT by mhamrick In a recent story we reported on comments by Eliot Spitzer, Attorney General of the State of New York. In a statement released by his office, Mr. Spitzer criticizes telcos for being slow to respond to law enforcement requests to upgrade VoIP technology to give law enforcement the ability to tap "internet phone calls." (See Eliot Spitzer Calls for VoIP Taps .) Now Dean Anderson has chimed into Declan McCullagh's PolitechBot mailing list and has said ... [Begin quote] Further, the concept of an _FBI_controlled_ backdoor is completely novel in the telecom industry. With telephone tapping, the FBI is supposed to have paperwork. Then the telephone company will route the audio of that phone to a "wiretap port", a line to the FBI office in response to an FBI request, for which records are kept. The FBI is never, ever given access to the CO cableplant, or the CO facilities. FBI tapping equipment is not allowed in a Telephone Office. There is someone in the Telephone company that _can_ blow the whistle either publicly or to the FBI itself in the event of abuse. (eg, Agent soandso asked for a Tap on his ex-wife) [End quote] The complete quote is available at the PolitechBot archive and is worth a click over. (see [Politech] One Internet provider's view of FBI's CALEA wiretap push [priv] .) ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 13:14:29 -0400 Subject: Making the Call on VoIP - Internet Phone Services Vary Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/ptech/generalstories2/042204ccdrptechgeeklife.98a4e.html By VIKAS BAJAJ / The Dallas Morning News To certified geeks like me, Voice over Internet Protocol phone calls have immediate resonance. If set up properly, the technology can be extremely powerful. It lets you manage calls to you by ringing them to several phone numbers at once or in a daisy chain until you answer. You can send calls directly to voice-mail, which can then be e-mailed to you. VoIP also lets you take your home phone number and features with you on the road. And best of all, long-distance calls within the nation are toll-free. The technology, which uses broadband Internet connections to transmit calls, can also dramatically reduce costs by eliminating many surcharges and providing lower international rates. Last year, I tested and reported on one of the first mass-market VoIP services by Vonage Holding Corp. I gave it good marks, although I was annoyed by the quality of some international calls. For the last few weeks, I have tested AT&T Corp.'s CallVantage service. I also started using 8x8 Inc.'s Packet8 service this week. Full story at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/ptech/generalstories2/042204ccdrptechgeeklife.98a4e.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 04:37:59 -0400 Subject: New VoIP Provider Has Largest Residential "Unlimited" Local Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com A thread on BroadbandReports.com led to information on a new VoIP service that, for $24.95 per line per month, offers (to residential customers) unlimited local and toll calls in the USA (All 50 states), Canada and featured international destinations. Featured International Destinations* Argentina - Buenos Aires Australia Canada Chile Denmark France Germany Hong Kong Ireland Israel Italy Korea South Mexico - Mexico City Mexico - Monterey Netherlands Norway Russia - Moscow Russia - St. Petersburg Singapore Spain Sweden Taiwan United Kingdom Vatican City State * Rates to certain cellular destinations may carry additional costs The company's web site is at: http://rnkvoipservice.com/ The discussion thread on BroadbandReports.com may be found here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,9993971~mode=flat (Note that in this thread, user dan33ljb seems to be the representative for the company in question). Also, note that the company's web site apparently just went live a few hours ago and several people are commenting that it is difficult to use. And, because the company is so new, there have been no actual reviews by users of the service posted yet. If this turns out to be na legitimate offer (and so far I have no reason to think it isn't), it raises the bar for the size of the "unlimited" calling area. However, there are a few drawbacks to this service at present. For one thing they only offer numbers for incoming calls in a handful of states in the northeast, and for another, if you want the "enhanced feature package" (which includes several features that are usually offered at no additional charge by other VoIP providers), there is a $4.95 additional monthly charge. Those who rarely or never make calls outside the U.S.A. might be better off with a company that offers a smaller calling area, but more features at no additional charge. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:17:03 -0400 Subject: FCCs Decision Against AT&Ts VoIP Garners 5-0 Vote, Raise Question Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1082572258.htm The FCC on Wednesday (April 21) was preparing to release its long-awaited decision on AT&T's petition seeking a declaratory ruling on its phone-to-phone Voice over Inter Protocol (VoIP) service, sources tell TelecomWeb's sister publication, Telecom Policy Report. As predicted by TPR, the Commission has denied AT&T's request, ruling that the carrier's VoIP offering is, in fact, subject to interstate access charges. And although the five commissioners voted to deny AT&T's petition, at least two of them -- Michael Copps and Kevin Martin -- are said to have serious reservations about the denial. Sources tell TPR that Copps and Martin were under tremendous pressure to vote with the majority, and that the order denying AT&T's petition was crafted in such a way as to make opposition to it appear contrary to the principles of universal service. Full story at: http://www.telecomweb.com/news/1082572258.htm ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 22:10:36 -0400 Subject: Feds Ding AT&T Over Internet Calls Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5197204.html By Ben Charny CNET News.com Federal regulators ruled on Wednesday that AT&T must pay traditional local access charges to complete Internet phone calls, putting the long-distance carrier on the hook for billions of dollars in deferred fees. Telecommunications companies closely watched the Federal Communications Commission decision for its potential impact on voice over Internet Protocol services. VoIP technology uses high-speed Web connections to carry phone calls, so it promises to bypass the traditional phone system, thus saving carriers and customers substantial fees. AT&T had argued that it was not required to pay the access fees to local landline companies for completing long-distance calls, when those calls travel partly over the Internet. But the FCC disagreed. In a limited decision anticipated months ago, it chose to maintain much of the status quo between long-distance and local carriers for now. The FCC said its ruling affects only calls that begin and end on the public switched telephone network and use Internet Protocol networks in between. The ruling is not expected to impact commercial VoIP providers. Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5197204.html ------------------------------ From: Gary Breuckman Subject: Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 21:57:58 -0500 Organization: Puma's Lair - catbox.com In article , J Kelly wrote: > On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:43:03 -0400, Keith Knipschild > wrote: >> I recently got a Satellite System installed from DISH Network, The >> receiver needs to be connected to a phone line otherwise Dish charges >> $5 a month. >> But I seem to be having a problem, The DISH receiver does not recognize >> my phone line, (Which is POTS) it fails on a phone line test. >> I then remembered that since I have VOICE DIALING, the dial tone is >> very brief ... Maybe that is causing the failure. >> So I did a test, from my phone I dialed *98 (This extends the Dial >> Tone) and did a phone line test on my DISH receiver and it Worked just >> fine. (I think the Extended Dial Tone only lasts for 1 call). >> Does anyone know how to cure this problem? Is it DISH's receiver or >> VERIZON'S problem with Voice Dialing ? >> BTW: Verizon does not Support Voice Dialing anymore, they don't offer >> it anymore, but existing customers can continue to use it. >> Keith > Does the Dish have a place to tell it to dial *98 to access the line, > therefore extending the dialtone? I recall seeing a place to set a code > to dial to access an outside line, but maybe it was only the option to > dial 9. I'm not near one of my Dish boxes at the moment to check. Let's see -- IF I dial *98, a side effect is I get a longer dialtone, so I can dial. If I don't have a longer dialtone in the first place, I can't dial *98. How does this work again? -- Gary Breuckman ------------------------------ From: Paul A Lee Subject: Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:00:43 -0400 Organization: Rite Aid Corporation In TELECOM Digest V23 #191, Keith Knipschild wrote (in part): > I recently got a Satellite System installed from DISH Network > ... But I seem to be having a problem The DISH receiver does not > recognize my phone line it fails on a phone line test. > I then remembered that since I have VOICE DIALING, the dial tone is > very brief ... Maybe that is causing the failure. So I did a test, > from my phone I dialed *98 (This extends the Dial Tone) and did a > phone line test on my DISH receiver and it Worked just fine. (I > think the Extended Dial Tone only lasts for 1 call). > Does anyone know how to cure this problem? Have you tried programming your DISH receiver with a three-digit dial prefix of '*98'? This is done in the System Setup | Installation | Phone System menu on my 4900. It might still flunk the diagnostic, but could work correctly when it actually has to dial out to report PPV purchases. It depends on whether the receiver listens for dial tone before dialing, or blind dials the prefix. I don't know which it does, but it's worth a try. Paul A Lee Voice: +1 717 730-8355 Sr Telecom Engineer [Voice & Transmission] Fax: +1 717 975-3789 Rite Aid Corporation, Telecomm, 30 Hunter Lane, Camp Hill, PA 17011-2410 ------------------------------ From: DaveC Subject: Can't Ping IP Printer? Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 20:59:58 -0700 Reply-To: me@privacy.net I've set up three routers to provide security between two small networks, yet be able to share resources. The setup consists of a Speedstream DSL modem, a Netgear FVS318 immediately downstream; and two RP614v2 routers plugged into the '318. All computers (6 total) are plugged into the 614's. I configured the routers so that they each have unique IP addresses, and serve (DHCP) unique ranges of IP addresses. All computers can share the DSL service without problems. Everything seemed fine. I then added an HP LaserJet 2300 printer with built-in Ethernet card (HP option). I plugged the printer into the '318. I then set up a (memory is a bit fuzzy, here) port for access to the printer's IP address (I think). When the printer is plugged into either of the 614's, the computers on that network can print to the printer. When it is plugged into the 318, no one can see it or print to it. Pinging doesn't work either (no packets returned; times out) when the printer is on the "other side" of the 614. I presume it is possible to access the printer across the router; what am I overlooking? Thanks, DaveC me@privacy.net This is an invalid return address Please reply in the news group ------------------------------ From: Tim Trump Subject: Norvergence Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 12:04:14 -0400 Our company is also evaluating this company as a telecom provider which I now understand is a reseller? Somewhat disturbing but would like additional info if anyone has it. Best regards, Tim Trump Project Manager Dominion Metallurgical, Inc. 5304 Valleypark Drive Roanoke, VA 24019 Ph: 540/362-8500 Fx: 540/362-8362 email: ttrump@dom-met.com MSN messenger: domettimt@hotmail.com web site: www.dom-met.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 19:21:44 -0700 From: Edson C. Hendricks Subject: Honesty from Earthlink This is 4/21/04, here's my transcript of almost the very same exchange from Earthlink posted here from two months ago: ++++++++++ Welcome to Earthlink LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly. Not at home and you want to read your email? With Earthlink Web Mail you can check your email from any computer with an Internet connection! Please wait for a site operator to respond. While you are waiting, please feel free to begin typing your issue in the box below. Try to be as descriptive as possible. Once an operator responds, click SEND to transmit what you have typed. Not at home and you want to read your email? With Earthlink Web Mail you can check your email from any computer with an Internet connection! Please wait for a site operator to respond. While you are waiting, please feel free to begin typing your issue in the box below. Try to be as descriptive as possible. Once an operator responds, click SEND to transmit what you have typed. Not at home and you want to read your email? With Earthlink Web Mail you can check your email from any computer with an Internet connection! Angela K says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today? Ed.H: Hello Angela K. Can you explain why Earthlink is sending me spam, even though I've "opted out" from receiving such unwanted junk? Angela K: Please let me know whether you are receiving non-administrative email messages from EarthLink. Ed.H: No, these are not administrative messages, they are advertising. The one is for some stupid photo processing service, the other is even identified in the subject line as "ADV", which has to do with DSL or some similar thing I don't care to be receiving email about. Angela K: Could I have your secret word/PIN, for verification purpose? Ed.H: My browser tells me that this is not a secure link, so I don't believe it would be appropriate to send such information. Am I wrong about that somehow? Angela K: This is a secured chat and I am an Authorized employee of EarthLink, so you can provide the information for verification with out any hesitation. Ed.H: OK, fine. My Earthink email address is ********@earthlink.net, and my password is ********. My domain name is edh.net, which is the only email address I let anyone know about. Angela K: Thank you for the verification. Ed.H: yw Angela K: Okay, now I will Opt Out your email address from receiving these emails. Ed.H: So, didn't I already opt it out? Several of Earthlink's telephone support people have assured me that I had done that correctly? Angela K: Now, I will do it from our servers. Angela K: I can assure you that you will no longer receive these kind of emails. Ed.H: Is there any way I could do that "from your servers" without having to get you to do it for me? Angela K: You can do it form My Account. Angela K: Sorry, You can do it from My Account. Ed.H: But, I *already did that!* Months ago. At least three Earthlink support representatives on the telephone have confirmed that. They told me these spam email messages were not coming from Earthlink. The stories don't match. What is going on here? Angela K: To best assist you, you need to speak with a Customer Service Representative. Please standby while I transfer you. Ed.H: OK Please wait while I transfer the chat to the best suited site operator. Nelson D says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today? Nelson D: Hello, I see you've already been chatting. Please give me a moment so I can read the previous chat and pick up where you left off. Ed.H: Sure Nelson D: Can I have the secret pin on the account which appears to be the last four digits of your Social Security Number, for verification? Ed.H: That's **** Nelson D: Thank you for providing the verification information. Nelson D: I see that you have already opted out of all promotional communications. Nelson D: I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard. I see that you have already opted out of all promotional communications from EarthLink. However, we have noted that some of the customer are still receiving them. Our engineers are currently working on this issue. Once resolved, you will not receive any promotional communications from us. Ed.H: Could you please explain why my opting out originally did not work, and assuming that your promise is correct, that it will *this time*, why I should think it will work now? Nelson D: I apologize for the inconvenience. Our engineers are working on this issue. Nelson D: Once the issue is resolved, you will not be receiving them. Ed.H: Do you realize that this, as you say, "issue," has been going for more than two months now? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nelson D: I am sorry for the inconvenience. I assure you that it will be resolved very soon and you will not be receiving any promotional emails. Ed.H: Can you explain why some sensible, rational person, would not deduce that Earthlink is trying this way to spam its subscribers, even when they "opt out"? Nelson D: I sincerely apologize. But due to some error, our server is sending these emails to those customers also who have opted out of it. Our engineers are working to correct this issue. Ed.H: And, I deduce, that Earthlink is somehow incapable of figuring out how to stop spamming its subscribers within a period of a couple months, while it seems to be able to do pretty much everything else reasonably promptly? Nelson D: I am sorry for the confusion. These are not spam emails. This issue has been reported and will be taken care of. Nelson D: Are you with me? Ed.H: OK, fine. Whether or not Earthlink would admit it, these actually *are* spam email messages, because they are being sent by Earthlink to individuals who have clearly communicated to Earthlink that they do not want to see them. I've been trying for weeks to get this fixed. I'm sorry, if Earthlink is genuinely unable to get these "problems" fixed as promptly as it fixes every other problem, then any normal person would deduce that they're trying *not* to "solve" them, to keep the advertising running. Why is it taking Earthlink so long to fix it? Nelson D: I apologize for the inconvenience. I will forward this issue once again to concerned department and assure you that this will be fixed. Ed.H: All right, I can see you have no more answers. Thank you very much for your attention, although I must tell in closing that your explanation doesn't satisfy me, and I doubt it would satisfy practically any objective reader. Nelson D: I once again apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience in this regard. I assure you that this will not take long. Nelson D: Okay. Thank you for using EarthLink LiveChat. Should you need further assistance, please feel free to contact us again. Nelson D: Bye. Chat session has been terminated by the site operator. When you close the chat window a survey window will open. Please take a minute to fill in the survey and let us know how your chat session was. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:08:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers By Daniel Sorid SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 (Reuters) - For chip makers, problems on the factory floor are increasingly turning into big headaches in the executive suite. Some of the world's biggest chip makers have lost both money and time straightening out the extraordinarily complex process of turning microchip designs and discs of silicon into working electronics. The difficulties have only worsened as the industry adopts new design features smaller than the wavelength of light, while moving to larger silicon wafers that can produce more than twice as many chips as previous wafers. While those new technologies greatly increase the potential for churning out stacks of more powerful chips at lower costs, they have also thrown up hurdles that even the largest chip makers have occasionally stumbled over. The most recent slip-up comes from IBM's $3 billion fabrication plant, or fab, in East Fishkill, New York. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) executives have acknowledged that manufacturing problems at the plant contributed to a $150 million loss that the company's chip business had last quarter. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=41126745 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 00:10:53 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: SBC Communications' Profit Drops 61 Percent SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- SBC Communications Inc.'s profit dropped 61 percent in the first quarter from results swelled by the effects of an accounting change a year ago, but the telecommunications concern's results still easily surpassed expectations. SBC, the nation's No. 2 local-phone provider, posted profits totaling $1.9 billion, or 59 cents per share, in the three months ended March 30. That compares to $5.0 billion, or $1.50 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2003 which included a benefit of more than $2.5 billion due to accounting changes. Both quarters also included significant gains from selling holdings in overseas telecom ventures. In the most recent quarter, SBC picked up 22 cents per share from its sale of its stake in Belgacom SA. Not counting the one-time gains, SBC's earnings of 37 cents a share in the latest quarter was five cents lower than the same period a year ago, but exceeded the analyst consensus of 32 cents, according to Thomson First Call. San Antonio-based SBC posted revenue of $10.1 billion in the quarter, down from about $10.4 billion in the first quarter of 2003. Local-phone service provided more than half of SBC's revenue, but sales dropped 9 percent to $5.23 billion. SBC said its loss of local-phone customers have slowed in recent quarters. The company reported 305,000 access-line disconnects in the first quarter, down from 424,000 in the preceding quarter and 748,000 in the first quarter of 2003. Much of that local phone service revenue loss was offset by growth in broadband and data services, up 6.8 percent to $2.6 billion, and long-distance phone service, up 29.6 percent to $749 million. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=41123945 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 09:30:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: "Jew Watch", Google, and Search Engine Optimization An anticensorware investigation by Seth Finkelstein Abstract: This report examines issues surrounding the high ranking of an anti-semitic website, "JewWatch.com" for searches on the word "Jew". The search results present complex issues of unintended consequences and social dilemmas. http://sethf.com/anticensorware/google/jew-watch.php ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #201 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 23 00:54:55 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3N4stE27339; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:54:55 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:54:55 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404230454.i3N4stE27339@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 #202 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:55:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 202 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FCC May Tap Internet Phones (VOIP News) FCC Rejects AT&T VOIP Petition (VOIP News) Daniel Beringer Responds to FCC Denial AT&T VOIP Petition (VOIP News) Re: Can't Ping IP Printer (Gene Berkowitz) Global 900- Numbers...+979 (+979) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Tom Betz) Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems (Clarence Dold) Re: Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers (Lisa Hancock) Many Virii Going Out Under my Name Today (TELECOM Digest Editor) "Toothing" for Sex (Robert Weller) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 13:10:44 -0400 Subject: FCC May Tap Internet Phones Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=13899&repository=0001_article By Lise Marken Thursday, April 22, 2004 A coalition of 13 higher-education and library associations is hoping to prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from requiring wiretap capabilities to be installed on Internet networks. Three federal agencies have petitioned the FCC to require Internet service providers, including many colleges and universities, to equip their networks with wiretap capabilities that allow law enforcement agencies to monitor Internet-based phone calling known as voice-over IP. The coalition, in comments filed with the FCC on April 12, argued that the proposed requirements would have a negative impact on research and education programs ... inhibit innovation, compromise privacy and be costly at a time when budgets are already strained to the breaking point. [.....] The dispute centers on the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, adopted in 1994. This law requires phone companies to engineer their networks to facilitate federal wire-tapping capabilities and the federal agencies are claiming that they require the same level of access to phone conversations that take place over the Internet. The coalition of university and library associations, however, disputes the claim that Internet networks should be included under the law. Full story at: http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=13899&repository=0001_article Additional comments at: http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2004/04/academics_and_l.html 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: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:30:37 -0400 Subject: FCC Rejects AT&T VOIP Petition Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.itworld.com/Man/2697/040422fccatt/ IDG News Service 4/22/04 Grant Gross, IDG News Service, Washington Bureau The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected a petition from AT&T Corp. that would have allowed the company to avoid paying its telecommunications competitors access charges on telephone calls partly carried on IP (Internet Protocol) networks. Late Wednesday, the FCC announced its decision that traditional telephone calls that start and end on the public switched telephone network (PSTN), but are carried part of the time on AT&T's Internet backbone, are classified as telecommunications service. Those calls are subject to the access charges that are exchanged when a telephone call made through one carrier ends on another carrier's network. AT&T had asked the FCC for clarification on whether these phone calls should be classified as information services, like most other Internet-based traffic, and free from most FCC regulation. In February, the FCC decided that another voice over IP (VOIP) service, Free World Dialup, was exempt from most telecommunications regulations. Free World Dialup, a free service, allows members to talk to each other through software installed on their computers. The service does not allow members to place voice calls to nonmembers. But the FCC said AT&T's service fit squarely into the definitions of a telecommunications service because the phone calls start and end on the PSTN. "Today's decision is correctly decided on very narrow grounds," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a statement "A straightforward application of existing law places the long distance telephone service, as it is factually described by AT&T, squarely in the category of a telecommunications service." Full story at: http://www.itworld.com/Man/2697/040422fccatt/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:48:33 -0400 Subject: Daniel Berninger Responds to FCC Denial AT&T VoIP Petition Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.telephonyworld.com/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?category=all&id=1082683725 DANIEL BERNINGER RESPONDS TO FCC DENIAL AT&T VOIP PETITION AND IMPOSES OF ACCESS FEES Daniel Berninger available to comment on why FCC's denial of AT&T petition sets a very negative precedent - dan@danielberninger.com, +1.202.250.3428 See FCC Order denying AT&T VoIP petition at http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-97A1.pdf Daniel Berninger -- independent technology analyst based in Washington, DC. Expert in technical and regulatory aspects of the Internet communication applications. Active in VoIP since 1995. Daniel worked on the original assessment of VoIP at Bell Laboratories and led early gateway deployments at Verizon, HP, and NASA after joining VocalTec Communications. He won the 1999 VON Pioneer Award as co-founder of the VON Coalition and worked on the founding of ITXC, Vonage, and Free World Dialup. Daniel Berninger co-authored the Inflexion Communication petition: FCC data shows five percent of the population cannot afford telephone service even given existing cross-subsidy schemes. Inflexion Communications' Petition (see FCC 04-52) for Declaratory Ruling that ExtendIP Voice Service is Exempt from Access Charges argues imposition of access fees on VoIP discourages investment and threatens the prospects for addressing underserved markets: Full story at: http://www.telephonyworld.com/cgi-bin/news/viewnews.cgi?category=all&id=1082683725 ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Can't Ping IP Printer? Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:59:07 -0400 In article , me@privacy.net says: > I've set up three routers to provide security between two small > networks, yet be able to share resources. > The setup consists of a Speedstream DSL modem, a Netgear FVS318 > immediately downstream; and two RP614v2 routers plugged into the > '318. All computers (6 total) are plugged into the 614's. > I configured the routers so that they each have unique IP addresses, > and serve (DHCP) unique ranges of IP addresses. > All computers can share the DSL service without problems. Everything > seemed fine. > I then added an HP LaserJet 2300 printer with built-in Ethernet card > (HP option). I plugged the printer into the '318. I then set up a > (memory is a bit fuzzy, here) port for access to the printer's IP > address (I think). > When the printer is plugged into either of the 614's, the computers on > that network can print to the printer. When it is plugged into the > 318, no one can see it or print to it. Pinging doesn't work either (no > packets returned; times out) when the printer is on the "other side" > of the 614. > I presume it is possible to access the printer across the router; what > am I overlooking? > Thanks, > DaveC > me@privacy.net > This is an invalid return address > Please reply in the news group By default, the JetDirect ethernet interface looks for a DHCP server, which is probably handing out a different IP than the routers did; did you check what IP the printer is using (you can print out a test print with this info on it). Try disabling DHCP on the printer, and use a fixed IP. Also, are you sure that the port on the '318 doesn't require a crossover cable for talking to the printer? Gene ------------------------------ From: global900numbers@yahoo.com (+979) Subject: Global 900- Numbers...+979 Date: 22 Apr 2004 17:41:20 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Reply to whowever was asking: "Anybody knows any international 900 numbers?" I heard an interesting concept that finally global 900- numbers are being implemented around the globe and that will be a big help for anybody doing any type of 900 business at local or global scale. The company's email address I found was info@maiden.vg and it seems that they really have the numbers in service already, finally even got somebody on the phone too. The good thing about these e.g. from USA 011-979.... numbers is that the local regulations do not apply so strictly since it is really an international call. I did some research about +979 or International Premium Rate Number (IPRN ) and they seem to be real and also the providers can be found at ITU website. Well done, whoever came with an idea. There must be ton of business for this type of service. Hope this helps you :) ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:10:02 +0000 (UTC) Organization: XOme Quoth dold@FedsXXNoXA.usenet.us.com in news:telecom23.199.7@telecom- digest.org: > My primary TV is a 1993 32" RCA CRT that still looks as good as it > ever did. Likewise with my 1991 25" Sony Trinitron. That's a damned good picture tube. "I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection." - W.S. ------------------------------ From: dold@PhoneXLine.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Phone Line Connected to Satellite System Problems Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 23:16:12 UTC Organization: a2i network > On Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:43:03 -0400, Keith Knipschild > wrote: >> I recently got a Satellite System installed from DISH Network, The >> receiver needs to be connected to a phone line otherwise Dish charges >> $5 a month. >> But I seem to be having a problem, The DISH receiver does not >> recognize my phone line, (Which is POTS) it fails on a phone line >> test. >> I then remembered that since I have VOICE DIALING, the dial tone is >> very brief ... Maybe that is causing the failure. From the page http://www.tivofaq.com/index.html?http://www.tivofaq.com/Bugs.html In Messages & Setup -> Recorder & Phone Setup -> Phone Connection -> Change Dialing Options, set the Phone Available and the Dialtone Detection options to OFF. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers Date: 22 Apr 2004 19:19:44 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Monty Solomon wrote > SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 (Reuters) - For chip makers, problems on the > factory floor are increasingly turning into big headaches in the > executive suite. Some of the world's biggest chip makers have lost > both money and time straightening out the extraordinarily complex > process of turning microchip designs and discs of silicon into > working electronics. This is nothing new and goes back 55 years. When IBM began building electronic computers using radio tubes, they found that minute imperfections -- that weren't noticed in radio usage -- resulted in errors in computing. IBM worked hard to define requirements for computer tubes and get tube makers to mfr them per those specs. It took at least ten years after the invention of the transistor to get them into computers for the reasons above. Until that point, transistors cost _more_ than tubes despite being simpler and smaller. Making quality transistors in volume was a very difficult challenge. For every new solid state technology, manufacturing in volume was tough. IBM and others spent millions building new plants, and sometimes stuff still failed. IBM's S/360, introduced 40 years ago and used early integrated circuitry, was delayed on account of component problems. ------------------------------ From: ptownson@telecom-digest.org Subject: Lots of Virii Out Being Sent by 'me'. Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:39:32 EDT A large number of virii are being sent to Digest readers from "me" via Denmark. > One of my correspondents noted to me: Below is the From and TO with > the subject warning. It was transmitted from 62.240.100.70 an ISP > somewhere in Denmark or The Netherlands (I'm not in my office with the > luxuries of trace). > My virus checker picked up the file and deleted it. What really makes me sick is that of course I send out this Digest and many readers depend on the ability to click on the various links they find in it each issue to get further news reports, etc. I hope you will not stop clicking on links you get in email from me because of the fact that there are virii going around sent by 'me'. Obviously I do not send out single emails with an attachment to 'please click here' to 'read', etc. Of course you should also take note if the attachment you got from the imposter claiming to be me contains '.exe' as part of the file name. I suppose I should now prepare some form reply to be sent to inquirers (of which there were two today). But to regular readers here, well you don't have to be told the story. You know about that stuff. PAT ------------------------------ From: Robert Weller Subject: "Toothing" for Sex Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 16:04:35 -0700 FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #202 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 23 20:32:04 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3O0W3g06316; Fri, 23 Apr 2004 20:32:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 20:32:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404240032.i3O0W3g06316@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 #203 TELECOM Digest Fri, 23 Apr 2004 20:31:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 203 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Paying For Incoming Mobile Phone Calls (Monty Solomon) In a Fast-Moving Web World, Some Prefer the Dial-Up Lane (Monty Solomon) Cheaper Than TiVo: Souping Up Your Computer (Monty Solomon) Dogging Craze Has Brits in Heat/Brits at It Tooth and Nail (M Solomon) The GMail Saga (Monty Solomon) Re: Honesty from Earthlink (Barry Margolin) Re: Lots of Virii Out Being Sent by 'me' (Barry Margolin) Re: Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers (Justin Time) Re: FCC Rejects AT&T VOIP Petition (Justin Time) Every Business In The World Will Soon Be Webcasting (Press Release) Re: VoIP Problem With Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 (Scott) Model 820 Control Unit (JaBrIoL) Re: Toll Free (1-800) Line ANI Delivery Question (Keith) Motorola Introduces New Cable Modems Designed for Wireless (VOIP News) China VOIP Operator Could Face Years in Jail (VOIP News) Jeff Pulver's Blog: IP-MoU: Getting Started (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: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 01:02:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Paying For Incoming Mobile Phone Calls > My question is: Do all mobile phone rate plans in the U.S.A. charge > talk-time for the incoming calls? If Yes, then why isn't anybody > demanding that incoming calls be free for the mobile phones there? Nextel offers various plans that include unlimited incoming calls. Thy also offer a rate plan which has everything unlimited ... Nextel National Unlimited NDC Plus Plan -- New -- Everything is unlimited including Nationwide Direct Connect! Includes unlimited incoming, outgoing, Domestic Long Distance, Direct Connect and Nationwide Direct Connect calls. Also includes unlimited AOL Instant Messenger, unlimited Two-Way Messaging and Mobile Email with the Nextel Full Service Package. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 01:05:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: In a Fast-Moving Web World, Some Prefer the Dial-Up Lane By MATT RICHTEL SAN FRANCISCO, April 18 - High-speed Internet access is being adopted by millions of Americans each year, growing as quickly as any modern technology. So what makes Dana Jenkins think she can resist? In fact, she is part of another big group, the tens of millions of Americans seemingly immune to the lure of more speed and satisfied with dial-up services. A majority of Americans who surf the Internet still do so by dialing in on regular telephone lines, despite the rapidly narrowing price gap between high-speed and dial-up connections. People like Ms. Jenkins are neither Luddites nor laggards, but consumers content to pay for a service that is less than optimal, and at times even frustratingly slow, because they say greater speed is not worth the trouble of starting over with a new telecommunications provider and getting a new e-mail address, even if the added cost is small. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/technology/19DIAL.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 01:14:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cheaper Than TiVo: Souping Up Your Computer By WALTER S. MOSSBERG The coolest, trendiest way to watch television today is by using a digital video recorder, or DVR. With a DVR system, you can pause or rewind live TV. And, more important, you can record any program for viewing later without enduring the twin hassles of videotape recording: complicated programming and the need to keep blank tapes handy. That's because DVRs record TV shows to a large hard disk, and you pick the shows to record by just clicking their names in an onscreen program guide. But buying a DVR can be costly. The most popular options are high-end set-top boxes containing technology from TiVo, or its rival, Replay TV, which require a fee-based service; or, high-end Media Center PCs, that use a PC's internal hard disk as a DVR. If your budget is limited, and you have a plain old Windows PC, however, you can turn it into a DVR by using a new product from SnapStream Media, a small company from Houston. SnapStream's Beyond TV 3 includes DVR software for Windows, and is bundled with the necessary hardware -- an external TV tuner from Hauppauge Computer Works that plugs into the computer with a simple USB cable. This bundle is sold on the SnapStream.com Web site for $229.99. No service fee is charged. My assistant Katie Boehret and I tested Beyond TV this week. It worked, but in two separate tests, we were tempted to rename it Beyond Patience. We found setting up the product to be frustrating and difficult, and concluded that it is more suitable for techies than for mainstream users. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040414.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 01:18:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Dogging Craze Has Brits in Heat / Brits Going at It Tooth and Nail Dogging Craze Has Brits in Heat http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62718,00.html Brits Going at It Tooth and Nail http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62687,00.html "Toothing" latest hi-tech sex craze http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=495183§ion=news ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:46:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The GMail Saga by Brad Templeton Much has been written about the new Google GMail trial, which is an e-mail service that offers a gigabyte of archiving, Google search of your mail archives and a nice interface. It's free, because while you read your mail, Google ads will be displayed based on keywords found in the mail you are reading (just as the Google Adsense program shows ads like the ones you see on the right based on words found in this document.) GMail created a surprising storm for a product that hasn't yet been released. A coalition of privacy groups asked Google to hold back on releasing it. A California state senator proposed a law to ban the advertising function. Editorials and blog entries left and right have condemned it and praised it. I come to this problem from two sides. One, I'm a fan of Google, and have been friends with Google's management since they started the company. I've also consulted for Google on other matters and make surprising revenue from their Adsense program on my web site. I'm also a privacy advocate and Chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, well regarded as one of the top civil rights advocates in cyberspace. The EFF has issued some statements of privacy concern over GMail, though we declined joining the coalition against it. (I'm writing this as my own essay, though with some advice from the EFF team.) I've also had a chance to talk at length with Google President Larry Page about some of the issues. Here's a summary of some of my conclusions http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Honesty from Earthlink Organization: Looking for work Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:55:09 -0400 In article , Edson C. Hendricks wrote: > Ed.H: All right, I can see you have no more answers. Thank you very > much for your attention, although I must tell in closing that your > explanation doesn't satisfy me, and I doubt it would satisfy > practically any objective reader. Let's say you're right, and they're deliberately not fixing the opt-out mechanism. Did you really expect a customer support rep to admit that they're blatantly lying to customers? More likely, they're keeping it a secret from the CSRs as well. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Lots of Virii Out Being Sent by 'me'. Organization: Looking for work Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 00:57:47 -0400 In article , ptownson@telecom-digest.org wrote: > A large number of virii are being sent to Digest readers from "me" > via Denmark. Pat, many types of worms and viruses pick a random address from the sender's address book and use this to forge the From address when propagating themselves. Your address is in lots of address books, so naturally it gets used alot. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I know that. We discussed it before. All I am trying to do now is warn *everyone* not to open any attachments sent by me. (a) I do not send attachments, and (b) people tend to open and read what I do send out and (c) I do not want to see any guys get hurt or their computers garbaged out and *think* it was on account of me. Most readers here are 'far too sophisticated' and knowledgeable to fall for the 'read this atttachment' gag any longer. I was NOT saying what I did because it was some surprise to me; the difficulty is I see many, many guys using computers who do not have the brains that God gave a goose. No offense intended, really none, but picture, if you will some young guy who saved up his money, or got some money for his birthday or Christmas and went out and bought his very first computer in the last few months. Now he or she is learning how to use email and the internet. Forget about the more esoteric aspects of networking; just learning how to send/receive email from friends and family. First day the new email account is turned on, a hundred pieces of spam with a virus or two thrown in. Or consider my mother for example: she has had her Walmart-style Mail Station for about a year now and *still* almost has a heart attack each day when she goes to read her email. 'mailstation.com' is an alias which points at Earthlink. At one point she was actually trying to write back to all the spammers asking them 'how did my email address get on your list?' and trying to be cordial and polite in getting removed. People like her and the newer, inexper- ienced guys just getting started are the ones I am concerned about. Its a rotten time to be getting into computers for the first time. PAT] ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Factory Flaws Yield Headaches For Chip Makers Date: 23 Apr 2004 05:38:22 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote in message news:: > Monty Solomon wrote >> SAN FRANCISCO, April 21 (Reuters) - For chip makers, problems on the >> factory floor are increasingly turning into big headaches in the >> executive suite. Some of the world's biggest chip makers have lost >> both money and time straightening out the extraordinarily complex >> process of turning microchip designs and discs of silicon into >> working electronics. > This is nothing new and goes back 55 years. > When IBM began building electronic computers using radio tubes, > they found that minute imperfections -- that weren't noticed in > radio usage -- resulted in errors in computing. IBM worked hard > to define requirements for computer tubes and get tube makers > to mfr them per those specs. > It took at least ten years after the invention of the transistor to > get them into computers for the reasons above. Until that point, > transistors cost _more_ than tubes despite being simpler and smaller. > Making quality transistors in volume was a very difficult challenge. > For every new solid state technology, manufacturing in volume was > tough. IBM and others spent millions building new plants, and > sometimes stuff still failed. IBM's S/360, introduced 40 years ago > and used early integrated circuitry, was delayed on account of > component problems. Ahhh -- I thought they had problems with the units so their field engineers could subsist on a diet of Coca-Cola and Toastee-Cheese crackers while the drove from site to site in the new Cadillacs they bought with their overtime! My wife still marvels at how I could take a phone call at 3:00 in the morning and start asking the person what lights were on, what switches were in what position and other basic (at that time) troubleshooting questions when I had just gotten to bed an hour before. But Cadillacs fail -- almost as fast as the body subsisting on the "Field Engineer's Lunch." Believe me -- dial tone is easier on the body. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: FCC Rejects AT&T VOIP Petition Date: 23 Apr 2004 05:40:58 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com VOIP News wrote in message news:: > http://www.itworld.com/Man/2697/040422fccatt/ > IDG News Service 4/22/04 > Grant Gross, IDG News Service, Washington Bureau > The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rejected a > petition from AT&T Corp. that would have allowed the company to avoid > paying its telecommunications competitors access charges on telephone > calls partly carried on IP (Internet Protocol) networks. > Late Wednesday, the FCC announced its decision that traditional > telephone calls that start and end on the public switched telephone > network (PSTN), but are carried part of the time on AT&T's Internet > backbone, are classified as telecommunications service. Those calls > are subject to the access charges that are exchanged when a telephone > call made through one carrier ends on another carrier's network. > AT&T had asked the FCC for clarification on whether these phone calls > should be classified as information services, like most other > Internet-based traffic, and free from most FCC regulation. In > February, the FCC decided that another voice over IP (VOIP) service, > Free World Dialup, was exempt from most telecommunications > regulations. Free World Dialup, a free service, allows members to talk > to each other through software installed on their computers. The > service does not allow members to place voice calls to nonmembers. > But the FCC said AT&T's service fit squarely into the definitions of a > telecommunications service because the phone calls start and end on > the PSTN. "Today's decision is correctly decided on very narrow > grounds," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a statement "A > straightforward application of existing law places the long distance > telephone service, as it is factually described by AT&T, squarely in > the category of a telecommunications service." > Full story at: > http://www.itworld.com/Man/2697/040422fccatt/ Hmmm -- If I have a DSL circuit connected to Vonage or one of the others, would they then be in the telecommunications business as the beginning and end of the call travel over the PSTN? Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:54:37 +0400 From: Editor Subject: Every Business In The World Will Soon Be Webcasting Says http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com Every Business In The World Will Soon Be Webcasting Says Edmonton-Based Webcast Leader Worldprofit, Inc. Alberta, Canada - April 23, 2004 (PRN): Consider this. Your business has multiple locations. You want to keep in touch with your employees but the travel is expensive, time-consuming and exhausting. Solution? Webcast. Sit down at your computer and deliver your remarks live and in living color to everyone you need to speak to. Cost for them to attend? Nothing! How about this? You're a consultant, trainer, author and deliver programs and services. Since 9/11 you've watched your markets dry up because people don't want to fly and aren't attending so many conferences. How do you reach your prospects? Easy! You webcast -- without ever leaving your home or office! Got a product or service? Growing a network marketing organization? Need to speak regularly with prospects, customers, decision makers? Then sit down at your computer and WEBCAST. Webcasting, programs delivered online, is the next huge wave from the Internet. And Worldprofit, Inc. at www.worldprofit.com is the hands down industry leader. Worldprofit, Inc. is the first to offer a completely web based online conference system that requires no specialized equipment, downloads, or sophisticated technical knowledge to set-up, use and operate. Worldprofit's LIVE Seminar and Conference Center allows for the delivery of full video presentations accessible by simply accessing a web site address. Now speakers on any subject, in any business, can talk live with incredibly clear audio and video to hundreds of participants anywhere in the world! Got customers in China, Bolivia, Germany or anywhere else? You can talk to them LIVE 24 hours a day, and it never costs them a penny! The only equipment required by the speaker is a web camera (about $50) and an Internet connection. The audience requires only an Internet connection. Speakers see and hear the LIVE or recorded presentations from the comfort of their home or office. This cutting-edge technology allows for the delivery of formal or informal presentations complete with audience interaction, guest speakers, and Slide Shows. The technology also allows the business or organization to offer seminars free to participants or as paid events. Businesses worldwide are applauding this astonishing, years-ahead-of- the-pack technology developed in Alberta - based Worldprofit, Inc. by Director of Technology George Kosch, as the way all business will be conducted online in the future! It's easy to see why. Earlier versions of webcast conferencing required long downloads, special equipment installations, and then delivered only mediocre and choppy reception. Worldprofit's system is being heralded as incredibly easy to use even by non-techies and astounding in the quality of the presentations. Bandwidth issues were also a problem in previous attempts at webcasting, but Worldprofit's LIVE Seminar and Conference Studio uses technology that virtually eliminates the bandwidth issues of the past. Even VOICE OVER IP technology cannot compete with the simplicity and superior results of Worldprofit's LIVE Seminar and Conference system. Selling ANY product, service, business opportunity? Got distributors or employees in multiple locations? Anxious to connect with prospects and customers worldwide? Running a nonprofit organization with donors and supporters you'd like to communicate with? These are all common applications for Worldprofit's superior LIVE Seminar and Conference system. For an interview with George Kosch, the software developer, call (780) 444-7477 ext 222, or email customerservice@worldprofit.com To register for the next live event and see a LIVE demonstration go to: http://worldprofit.com/webcast/register For more information, contact: George Kosch Director of Technology Worldprofit Inc. 17505 107 Ave, #205 Edmonton, AB. T5S 1E5 Tel: 780-444-7477 Fax: 780-483-8672 Email: customerservice@worldprofit.com http://www.worldprofit.com Information from Press Release Network may be freely distributed to any publication. Wherever applicable, please cite Press Release Network as the news source. DISCLAIMER: The content of each press release is the responsibility of the publishing organization and is not vetted or approved by Press Release Network prior to publication. Press Release Network is not liable directly or indirectly for any direct or consequential loss, damage or expense resulting from the material disseminated and published on the site. Subscribers are advised to check the accuracy of all press releases and to obtain their own professional advice in relation to such information. editor@pressreleasenetwork.com http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com ------------------------------ From: sdgreymont@yahoo.com (Scott) Subject: Re: VoIP Problem With Alcatel OmniPCX 4400 Date: 23 Apr 2004 05:56:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We are experiencing a similar issue where the end party using a VOIP phone cannot hear the second party. Have you had any success on this problem? ------------------------------ From: Jabriol@excite.com (JaBrIoL) Subject: Model 820 Control Unit Date: 23 Apr 2004 06:33:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com All, Good morning, I have a Model 820 control Unit. I've notice that I can not use a power module 338E for the Unit that I have. It only works with the power module 338A. I need a Control Unit that works with the 338E. Does anyone know the comcode number for the Control Unit that function with the 338E. Does anyone have it? ------------------------------ From: Keith Subject: Re: Toll Free (1-800) Line ANI Delivery Question Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 09:39:42 -0400 news.sbcglobal.net wrote in message news:telecom23.199.4@telecom-digest.org: > Is it true that ANI is a guarantee service for the PRI 800 service > line and ANI cannot be blocked? I can't help you on the bulk of your question, but I can answer this part. In most cases, ANI should be guaranteed, and should work, but there are some exceptions. There are(were?) ways to force an ANI failure. One method is to have an operator place the 800 call for you. Dial your local operator, or long distance operator, and ask her to place the call for you. It seems that since the call apparently originates from her position, ANI simply isn't forwarded at all, or in some cases only the area code is transmitted. This can be tested with an 800 ANI verification service. Keith [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But the operator always sees *your* number, and just as with calls to '911' which go through the operator (who does not dial '911' usually but the seven-digit number 911 translates into [i.e. in Chicago for example, '911' = 312-787-0000]) the operator *theoretically* announces calls (to 911 or 800-whatever) by passing the calling number to the called party. I say 'theoreticlly* because many operators are lazy; others are too busy to hold up the calling party's line for a ring-back as needed. Keith, your system will work as long as the operator is not an eager-beaver perfectionist, which most of them are not. Most do not even know how to put a 'shoe' on the line to keep it 'up' until they decide to release it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 11:38:03 -0400 Subject: Motorola Introduces New Cable Modems Designed for Wireless Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail/0,,4117_3474_23,00.html Motorola Introduces New Cable Modems Designed for Wireless Home Networking and Internet Telephony Motorola extends its market leadership in the broadband-powered connected home with two new products for customers worldwide. HORSHAM, Pa., 22 April 2004 Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) today unveiled two powerful new cable modems for the connected home, the Motorola SBV5120 and the Motorola SBG940. Both products are compliant with the latest industry standards and extend the feature set of the company's proven platform for IP services, integrating capabilities such as voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony or wireless home networking. The Motorola SBV5120 'Integrated Solution for Telephony and Data': The Motorola SBV5120 is the newest member of Motorola's family of telephony cable modems, providing an integrated solution for voice telephony services and high-speed Internet access. The product combines a multimedia telephony adapter with a PacketCableTM-compliant cable modem which was recently certified for DOCSIS® 2.0 and 1.1 (CW28), and Euro-DOCSIS 2.0. The Motorola SBV5120 allows consumers to use their existing home telephone wiring to power two lines of voice service, and supports all class features including: Basic call functionality Three-way calling Caller ID Call forwarding Voicemail messaging Optional battery back-up The Motorola SBG940 'Simplifying Wireless Home Networks' The Motorola SBG940 simplifies the process of building a wireless home network. By bringing together two of Motorola's inherent strengths its worldwide leadership in wireless communications and its technology expertise in building broadband networks, the Motorola SBG940 saves consumers from the headache of integrating multiple devices when building a robust home network. The SBG940 also offers enhanced features, including: Integrated 802.11g Wireless Access Point Integrated DOCSIS 2.0-certified / Euro-DOCSIS 2.0-certified Cable Modem Recently CableHome 1.0 certified (CW28) Integrated four port 10/100 Ethernet Switch Integrated Advanced firewall protection USB port for a PC connection Motorola will demonstrate DOCSIS 2.0-certified versions of these products at the NCTA 2004 trade show (2-5 May, New Orleans, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center) at the company's booth #3323. In addition, Motorola's wireless gateway technology is being used at NCTA to enable wireless Internet access in the shows designated Wi-Fi area. The company will also demonstrate Euro-DOCSIS 2.0-certified versions of these products, the SBV5120E and SBG940E at ANGA Cable 2004, (11-13 May 2004, Kln, Germany) at Motorola stand B4, Hall 13.1. 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: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 11:41:12 -0400 Subject: China VOIP Operator Could Face Years in Jail Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.idg.com.hk/cw/readstory.asp?aid=20040423002 By Martyn Williams IDG News Service, Tokyo Bureau A man suspected of managing an illegal voice-over-IP (VOIP) telephone service in China faces a prison sentence of at least five years if convicted, according to a China Daily report. The man, identified only by his surname Zou [cq] and home town of Qingdao in eastern China, was arrested in March this year after police and telecommunication officials found a number of facilities including an illegal Internet gateway, said the report. The police investigation apparently began in February when Zou was advertising his cheaper call service to foreign companies, it said. Full story at: http://www.idg.com.hk/cw/readstory.asp?aid=20040423002 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 12:04:01 -0400 Subject: Jeff Pulver's Blog: IP-MoU: Getting Started Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/index.html The Jeff Pulver Blog Notes, comments and observations April 23, 2004 IP-MoU: Getting Started The IP-MoU ["Internet Protocol Memorandum of Understanding"] website launched earlier this week and the momentum surrounding this activity is starting to grow. The IP-MoU is an international consortium of IP-based service and application providers intent on quickly realizing the promise of interconnecting ubiquitous IP communications. The IP-MoU will adopt and implement common principles designed to promote three primary objectives: Promote the interoperability, interconnection and ubiquity of IP-based service and applications. Establish processes to ensure that IP-based services and applications comply with local, national and international laws and social objectives such as: Emergency Response; Law enforcement; Access by persons with disabilities. Ensure that consumers worldwide are assured basic rights as users of IP communications: - Freedom to Access Content: Consumers should have access to their choice of legal content; - Freedom to Use Applications: Consumers should be able to run applications of their choice; - Freedom to Attach Personal Devices: Consumers should be permitted to attach any devices they choose to the connection in their homes; - Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information: Consumers should receive meaningful information regarding their service plans; and Protection of Consumer Privacy: Consumers should know that their personal information is safeguarded, except to the extent necessary to abide by law enforcement obligations. The next meeting will be taking place on April 26th. Posted by jeff at 07:19 AM The Jeff Pulver Blog: http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/index.html ------------------------------ 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #203 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 24 12:58:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3OGwEU12674; Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:58:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:58:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404241658.i3OGwEU12674@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 #204 TELECOM Digest Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:58:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 204 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson VOIP Fledgling in Founders Flap (VOIP News) ZipGlobal First to Offer Retail Internet Telephony Service (VOIP News) Stealth Communications Announces Official Launch of VPF ENUM (VOIP News) Canada CRTC Extends Review of IP Telephony Rules (VOIP News) Wake-up Call: Voice-over Internet Poised to Reshape (VOIP News) Taxes on VOIP Service? (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Packet8 -- A VOIP Review (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Eritrea Cellphone Curbs Put Democracy on Hold (Joseph) Cell Phone Spending's Black Hole (Eric Friedebach) Next Treo 600? (Thomas Popple) "Old Style" Telephone Call Recording Device (Diamond Dave) How to Return Lost Cellular Telephone Found on Street (Don Saklad) Re: The GMail Saga (jmayson@nyx.net) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:14:52 -0400 Subject: VOIP Fledgling in Founders Flap Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=51585 This week's launch of StreamCast Networks Inc.'s Morpheus Voicebox put i2Telecom International Inc. on the map as a provider of voice-over-IP hardware and service to U.S. consumers (see Morpheus Morphs Into VOIP Provider ). But before taking on P2P VOIP competitors, i2Telecom was already fighting the founders of a company it acquired. The founders of SuperCaller Community Inc. are seeking to rescind the sale of SuperCaller to i2Telecom and collect damages of at least $40 million, according to the lawsuit they filed last December in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Their suit alleges that i2Telecom's directors and officers carried out an elaborate scheme to trick the founders of SuperCaller into relinquishing control of their company and intellectual property. I2Telecom says the suit is without merit and has moved to dismiss the case. Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=51585 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: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 18:50:11 -0400 Subject: ZipGlobal Is First to Offer Retail Internet Telephony Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com This press release puzzles me -- maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that any supposed advantage of this kit is negated by the fact that you have to order it online. If you could walk into a local store and buy it then I could perhaps see some advantage, but a "a pay-as-you-go, off-the-shelf retail VoIP service" loses a lot when the "shelf" isn't local. So what am I missing here? http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=66295 ZipGlobal Is First to Offer Retail Internet Telephony Service Pack on Sina.com QUINCY, MA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/23/2004 -- ZipGlobal, a leading provider of Internet telephone services, today announced Sina.com US as the first North American online retailer to offer the ZipGlobal To-Go service kit through its virtual shopping mall, Sina Mall (http://mall.sina.com). ZipGlobal is the first in the market to offer a pay-as-you-go, off-the-shelf retail VoIP service. High-speed Internet users can purchase the To-Go kit and start making calls. To-Go users are not subject to monthly fees, binding contracts, or other surcharges. In addition, the package includes a free $10 calling bonus for making calls to domestic and international destinations. Calls to the US, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, for example, cost 2 cents per minute. "SIP-based VoIP service is still a brand new concept to most consumers. The ZipGlobal To-Go service pack allows users to try our service with no strings attached. We firmly believe in our voice quality and that our service will bring huge cost savings to customers, especially those who make frequent calls overseas. If you are not happy with the service, we will gladly refund your money. Better yet, if you decide not to continue with the service after 30 days, we will repurchase the equipment from you for $30," said Jimmy Li, ZipGlobal CEO. "We are excited that Sina is partnering with us to distribute this unique product." ZipGlobal offers benefits to customers, including: -- Significant cost savings -- Excellent voice quality -- Ease of installation, use and account tracking -- Compatible with PBX systems and fax for business use -- Enhanced features and functionality -- Global service portability The ZipGlobal To-Go pack includes a Sipura SPA-1000 telephone adapter. Customers can make calls on their ZipGlobal gateway or wireless phone by recharging their account with ZipGlobal Recharge Cards or by making payments with a credit card. ZipGlobal To-Go customers can also upgrade to the regular ZipGlobal service to customize their service plans and features. About ZipGlobal ZipGlobal, headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts, is a leading provider of global digital telephone services. With its ground-breaking Voice-over-IP technology, ZipGlobal seamlessly integrates the best of local and long distance telecommunications to meet users' needs. ZipGlobal delivers cost-savings, technology ease-of-use, and superb sound quality that customers have come to expect from traditional phone services. Customers only need to have broadband Internet and a telephone. Web address: www.ZipGlobal.com ZipGlobal Contact Sissi Liu ZipGlobal 617-786-0909 sissiliu@zipglobal.com Full story at: http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=66295 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are right, Jack. I do not see what makes this such a great deal. Vonage, for example, runs their own 'virtual storefront' or mall, themselves. Anyone going to http://vonage.com can see their offerings, and they've been doing it for about a year or maybe a little more. But Vonage has also 'gone retail' in a bigger way I think; they are also on the shelves in Best Buy, I think, or maybe it is Computer World or Costco; not sure which. Vonage gives their own 'e-coupons' as well, or some kind of rebate plan. You buy the Motorola MTA and pay for a year's subscription up front. And the two guys who run our Radio Shack store here in Independence said they have heard that Radio Shack was probably going to get in on the Vonage action through retail store sales before long. The neat thing about retail store sales of Vonage is you buy it anonymously if desired, install it and it remains anonymous unless you choose to send in the warrantee card or the rebate paperwork, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:12:43 -0400 Subject: Stealth Communications Announces Official Launch of VPF ENUM Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-23-2004/0002158611&EDATE= Stealth Communications Announces Official Launch of VPF ENUM Registry NEW YORK, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Stealth Communications, Inc., which owns and operates the Voice Peering Fabric, the World's first and only VoIP minutes exchange to provide complete transparency between buyers and sellers of VoIP routes, today announces the official launch of the VPF ENUM Registry. "ENUM changes everything," said Shrihari Pandit, CEO and Founder of Stealth, and the leading architect behind the breakthrough technology underpinning the VPF. "ENUM is a network protocol that takes a telephone number and resolves it to a URL, like the way a traditional Domain Name Server (DNS) takes a URL (like http://www.google.com) and converts it into a numeric IP address. With ENUM, the telephone number is sent to the DNS server, which then replies back with a list of URL's. This opens up a whole new world of applications and services driven solely by a phone number," says Pandit. Imagine yourself storing a collection of fax, voice, mobile, and e-mail addresses in a single ENUM address. The person who initiates the call may access your preferred contact information and may choose the method of communications. The possibilities are endless and wide ranging: "it [ENUM] has the potential to drastically reduce the operating expenses of VoIP carriers because it allows them to terminate directly on each others network at zero cost," added Pandit. For example, telephone calls made between two organizations would transit through the PSTN and incur termination charges. Using the VPF ENUM Registry, both organizations are able to terminate calls directly to one another, with no termination costs. Access to the VPF ENUM Registry is not limited to service providers. Educational institutions, municipal governments and businesses all can use the service to cut costs, while greatly enhancing the capabilities of their voice networks. Current participants to the service include: Acropolis Telecom, Addaline.Com, Free World Dialup, MIT, Net2phone, Packet8, and Yale University. Stealth's VPF ENUM Registry presently holds over 1 million phone numbers. While this represents only a small number of the total phone numbers in the US, Pandit is quick to point out that "ENUM represents truly disruptive technology, in that it has the potential to obsolete the public phone network." Pandit envisions a day when Stealth's VPF ENUM Registry will house most, if not all of the phone numbers on the planet. And why not, it's free. About Stealth Communications, Inc. Stealth Communications, Inc., New York City's largest Internet gateway, owns and operates the Voice Peering Fabric. For more information about the VPF visit http://www.thevpf.com. For information regarding other services offered by Stealth, visit http://www.stealth.net SOURCE Stealth Communications, Inc. Web Site: http://www.stealth.net http://www.thevpf.com ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 23:32:35 -0400 Subject: Canada CRTC Extends Review of IP Telephony Rules Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040423.gtrnews23-3/BNStory/Technology/ Globe and Mail Update The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has extended its review of rules for telephone service using Internet protocol technology, bowing to pressure from the country's largest phone companies and consumer groups. Full story at: http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040423.gtrnews23-3/BNStory/Technology/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 06:34:22 -0400 Subject: Wake-up Call: Voice-Over Internet Technology Poised to Reshape Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/03/27/news/news07.txt Voice-over Internet technology poised to reshape telecommunications industry By STEVE ADAMS The Patriot Ledger QUINCY - Jimmy Li picks up the speakerphone and punches in a sequence of numbers on the keypad. Within seconds, a ring tone emerges from the speaker, and Li's business partner Ken Ieung responds with a groggy greeting from his hotel room. "I just called Hong Kong," Li said, triumphantly concluding a demo of his product. Another revolution is starting in the telecommunications industry and one of the skirmishes is playing out in a spare office deep inside the Kam Man Marketplace in Quincy. ZipGlobal, Li's start-up company, is selling Internet-based long-distance plans, targeting Asian-Americans in the U.S. and their family and friends overseas. The calling plans allow customers to call Asia from their home or cell phones for as little as 1 cent a minute. Full story at: http://ledger.southofboston.com/articles/2004/03/27/news/news07.txt ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Taxes on VOIP Service? Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 09:20:38 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Just signed up for VOIP service from http://www.packet8.net and have been reasonably impressed with the service and voice quality. I may write up a review and post it in the near future. One thing that puzzles me though: Although the bill is refreshingly free of all the usual taxes, surcharges and fees found on land and cell bills, Packet8 does charge a 3% Spanish American War Luxury Tax (Federal Excise Tax) on the monthly subscription fee. It's not clear to me why they should be doing this. I pay that tax on the DSL line already. I also pay it on the underlying voice telephone line. Why should it apply to what is essentially a data applications service? Anyone using other VOIP service (like Vonage) see the same thing? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Your review of packet8.net appears next in this issue of the Digest. Vonage also charges F.E.T. on phone calls through them, along with a 'regulatory recovery fee'. The only ones who do not charge it (Pulver/FWD comes to mind) are the ones that *theoetically* stay entirely away from the public telephone network. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Packet8: A VOIP Review Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 09:42:14 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com With all the buzz about VOIP, I thought I would give one of the major players in the market a try. Packet8 (www.packet8.net) offers unlimited domestic US/Canada VOIP service for $19.99 a month, with no equipment charges, a one time $30 startup charge, 30 day trial period and no contract. International rates vary, but run between 2 and 3 cents per minute. All the usual goodies are also included: Voicemail, Conference Calling, Call Forwarding, 3 Way Calling and Caller ID. I signed up on their web site on a Sunday evening. Within seconds I had an account and was able to select an area code and city for my personal number. As with most VOIP services, the area code and city you select are completely unrelated to where you actually live. Since local/long distance outgoing calls are not billed, the decision in deciding what number to select is based on who will be calling you. Packet8 supports Local Number Portability, so theoretically, you could get you current number reassigned. On the following Friday, the Packet8 router arrived by DHL. I have to say I have never seen a piece of technology install any easier. I plugged an analog phone into the phone port of a small white box, connected it with a supplied Ethernet cable to a spare port on my router, powered it up and within seconds it had synched up and was providing dial tone. Dialing a code number provided previously by email activated the service. Packet8 suggests updating the router firmware as they have made some voice quality improvements and added features like Caller ID Name. This was easy enough to do by downloading the updater from the Packet8 web site and running it on a Windows PC on my home network. There was one small glitch: The updater scans your local net and is supposed to automatically identify the IP address of the VOIP router. For some reason updater could not find the VOIP router on my network, even though everything is on the same subnet. When I manually told it what address to use, the update completed with no further problem. I made a few test calls and had someone call me. I was very impressed with the voice quality. It's not quite wire quality, but better than most analog or digital cell service. There's just a hint of a metallic ring to the sound and a tiny bit of delay. Kind of similar to the original Sprint or SBS satellite long distance services, but not nearly the latency. They delay was most noticeable when I called a company voicemail system and was punching in various numbers. There was also a very tiny amount of echo. Test calls to a cell phone were slightly lower quality, as expected, given the multiple levels of compression and radio latencies involved. The Packet8 voicemail system works very well. You can use a generic greeting that announces the number called, or record your own personal greeting. When a message is left on the voicemail, an LED immediately lights up on the VOIP router. Depending on where you have installed the router, this may or may not be visible. One interesting feature of the voicemail is that you can forward voicemail messages to your email address. The messages are sent as .au attachments and are thus playable using Windows Media Player and other similar programs. This feature is not as useful as it could be though: The messages must be manually listened to and saved before they can be forwarded and they are only sent to the email address associated with the billing account. It would be much more useful if you could define another address for message forwarding and to be able to designate that messages get sent immediately, or if they weren't picked up within a certain amount of time. Configuration changes and call detail records are available on the Packet8 web site. I was impressed to see calls listed within seconds of their completion. The economics of VOIP come from replacing traditional phone service. I pay around $27 a month (including taxes & fees) for basic, single line residential service. I do not subscribe to any of the phone company add-ons like CallerID or Voicemail. I pay 3 cents/minute for long distance and rarely exceed $10 a month for that. Dropping from $37/month to $20/month is nice, but won't change my lifestyle. Many people are using their cell phones for long distance, so they won't see any savings there. Furthermore, people that get their broadband service using DSL (IIRC about half of the current broadband market) will not be able to drop their traditional phone service. Qwest is the only LEC offering "naked" DSL or DSL without voice service. That leaves the real market for VOIP to be cable modem users. While VOIP is here to stay, I'm not convinced that companies like Packet8 (or Vonage) will survive over the long term. Part of the savings comes from not being subject to most of the taxes and fees levied on wire and cell service. This will quickly change as the various governments start to feel the sting from not collecting funds they are used to. There's no reason that the cable companies couldn't offer VOIP directly for little or no extra charge with their broadband service and totally cut out the need for Packet8. At that point, the economics become much more compelling. I am curious about how calls are handled and where they drop off the internet on into the traditional voice net. A call I made to the UK was very clear and had little delay. Do all calls get converted by Packet8 at their San Jose, CA location, or are they carried around the world as TCP packets and converted locally? I'm also curious about the security and encryption (if any) of the internet portion of the call. Voice calls are reasonably secure, but could someone at an ISP listen in to an internet call? ------------------------ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well Clark, that's the government's beef right now; they want to be able to listen in on your VOIP calls and they are not allowed to. Thanks for sending in your good review of Packet8.net PAT] ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Eritrea Cellphone Curbs Put Democracy on Hold Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 16:15:41 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NONOcom By Emily Wax The Washington Post KEREN, Eritrea - The bowls of spaghetti were hot. The chrome-plated cappuccino maker hissed. Outside on porches, students and graying men in frayed three-piece suits sipped espressos from tiny white cups. Missing from the country's cafe culture is one major modern convenience: cellphones. And that's not something young Eritreans find charming or fair. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001910574_eritrea23.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply ------------------------------ From: friedebach@yahoo.com (Eric Friedebach) Subject: Cell Phone Spending's Black Hole Date: 23 Apr 2004 13:21:22 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Aude Lagorce, 04.22.04, Forbes.com NEW YORK - What do teenagers and employees with corporate wireless accounts have in common? A propensity to tell their interlocutor, "Nah, don't worry, we can talk, I'm not paying for this." But while Mom and Dad often have calling plans that can limit the damage, companies are not always as proactive. This is becoming a serious problem. A study released last week by the Yankee Group found that U.S. enterprises now spend 25% of their total telecom budget on wireless services. Additionally 48% of large enterprises do not have a centrally managed corporate account, which makes it difficult for them to track and eventually try to curb usage. How did it all come to this point? According to Yankee Group analyst Keith Mallinson, the problems stem largely from the way companies first used cell phones -- as a perk reserved for a few top-level executives. But as costs fell, lower- level employees began selecting handsets and plans by themselves and then expensing it -- and their employers, for the most part, didn't balk. http://www.forbes.com/networks/2004/04/22/cx_al_0422wireless.html Eric Friedebach /I don't come to where you work and rock the Slurpee machine/ ------------------------------ From: drthomaspopple@hotmail.com (Thomas Popple) Subject: Next Treo 600? Date: 23 Apr 2004 13:30:11 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm looking to buy a Treo 600 but someone told me today that I should hold fire a little longer as a new Treo is coming out shortly. Can anyone give me any details or links to info about the new model? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: 'Old Style' Telephone Call Recording Device Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 17:39:16 -0400 I'm looking for what I call an 'old style' recording device. I'm looking for a 'ring' that you can place over the receiver of a phone (the round 'G' style). I used to have one many many years ago (30+) but with several moves, it either got thrown out or got lost in one of many boxes. I don't like those suction cup ones (they never worked worth a darn) and this is for a phone where I can't connect to it with a modular phone jack for those in-line recording systems. If someone knows where I can buy those "ring" devices, please post a URL here. Thanks! Dave ------------------------------ From: Don Saklad Subject: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: 23 Apr 2004 18:56:42 -0400 Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... Where would there be postage paid mailers provided for returning someone's lost cellular telephone you find on the street ? ... . wireless service companies ?... . manufacturers ?... . or ...? . ...? ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Re: The GMail Saga Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 01:13:15 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com > Here's a summary of some of my conclusions > http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html And here is a summary of my impressions of the service: http://home.austin.rr.com/jmayson/blog/archives/2004_04_22_archive.html John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. 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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 #204 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 24 16:15:53 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3OKFri13786; Sat, 24 Apr 2004 16:15:53 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 16:15:53 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404242015.i3OKFri13786@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 #205 TELECOM Digest Sat, 24 Apr 2004 15:15:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 205 Inside This Special Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (TELECOM Moderator) 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: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 13:00:00 From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers For your casual reading this weekend, another in the series of Digest Archive reprints; this time on telegraphy in the 19th century. Based on the book by Gabler, Western Union archivist and historian, and written by Jim Haynes, this is one of a series of articles which appeared in the Digest about twelve years ago. More will follow on other weekends. The old email address and links are left intact as a historical curiosity, please do not use them to correspond with the writers. PAT Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 00:11:49 -0500 From: TELECOM Moderator Subject: 19th Century Telegraphers (Book Review) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 00:10:00 GMT Reply-To: TELECOM Moderator Organization: TELECOM Digest I received this interesting book review in my mail today and thought it worthwhile sharing with TELECOM Digest readers. PAT From: haynes@cats.UCSC.EDU (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 18:20:09 -0700 Subject: 19th Century Telegraphers (Book Review) Book Review The American Telegrapher: a social history 1860-1900 Edwin Gabler Rutgers University Press, 1988 ISBN 0-8135-1284-0 (hardbound), 0-8135-1285-9 (paperback) I seem to read a lot of books which are at the same time both interesting and tedious. This is one such book. Written by an academic historian for reading by other academic historians, it is long on footnotes, theories, and statistics and short on flesh-and-blood storytelling; yet there is enough of the latter to entertain the casual reader. Part I of this review is an attempt to convey the general message of the book. Part II is for fun: a selection of stories about the lives and times telegraphers a century ago. Part I There are five chapters: a history of the Great Strike of 1883 as an introduction to the world of the operators; a description of the telegraph industry and especially Western Union; a social portrait of the telegraphers; a study of women telegraphers; and a summary of the labor movement and politics of telegraphers. An epilogue compares the situation of telegraphers in the 1880s with that of the air traffic controllers a hundred years later. Telegraph and railroad companies following the Civil War represented an entirely new kind of business, one in which the company's assets are strung out for hundreds or thousands of miles with offices and employees sprinkled along the lines. There were other affinities between the two kinds of companies. Railroads used telegraphy to support their own operations. Railroad rights-of-way were ideal places to run telegraph lines, affording easy access for construction and maintenance at a time when there were few roads. Telegraph business was likely to be found in the same places the railroads served. In many small towns the railroad station served as the public telegraph office, as there was not enough telegraph business to support an office for telegraph alone. Some railroads such as B & O operated their own public telegraph businesses. (cf. Southern Pacific a century later getting into the communications business.) Other railroads had contract arrangements with the telegraph companies, principally Western Union, for use of rights of way, interconnection of circuits, and providing public telegraph service at the railroad stations. These new kinds of businesses needed a new kind of management. The military became their model. Many of the top managers were alumni of the Civil War military telegraph system. The companies had divisions, rule books, general orders and special orders, and chains of command. Management style was authoritarian. As is the case with some companies today, the telegraph and railroad companies then were headed by a mixture of people who knew the business and those who were primarily financial wizards. Telegraph operators represented the beginning of a new social class, the lower-middle-class white-collar employees of large corporations. Many were the children of farmers or of city blue-collar workers. A great many were of Irish lineage. For all of these telegraphy offered a step up the social ladder as well as an escape from hard physical labor and city slums or rural isolation. Telegraphy was an occupation open to women, although the majority of operators were male (and, like the women, young and unmarried). The national economy was fairly flat or even deflationary during the period 1860-1890. Western Union profits rose handsomely throughout the period. The operators did not share in this prosperity. For one thing, there was an oversupply of them. First-class operators, who could send and receive thirty to forty words per minute for hours on end, were assigned to press and market reporting circuits. They could command pay two to three times as great as that of the second-class operators who made up the bulk of the force. Many operators learned the craft by hanging around small railroad and telegraph offices; others worked their way up from messenger and clerk jobs in larger offices; still others were trained at a number of schools that sprang up around the country. Most of the latter seem to have been disreputable if not completely fraudulent, operating for profit and promising high pay and mobility to rural youth. They were the century-ago counterparts of the for-profit data processing schools of our own times, the kind that advertised on matchbook covers and turned out an oversupply of under-qualified graduates for high tuition fees. Another financial problem for the telegraphers resulted from their new social class. Telegraphers' pay was on a par with that of skilled blue-collar workers; but their living expenses were greater. With the move to suits and ties and shined shoes they felt a need to live in middle-class housing, eat middle-class meals, and partake of middle-class entertainments. A few of the operators' perceptions of mistreatment by the companies were more apparent than real. The 1840s through 1860s had been a period when telegraphy was just getting started. Job opportunities were abundant and promotions were rapid. As the industry matured there were fewer spectacular success stories; telegraphy even seemed to be a dead-end job. Other complaints had a more solid foundation. Mergers of telegraph companies eliminated jobs. An economic downturn in the 1870s caused Western Union to institute across-the-board salary reductions, which were partially offset by monetary deflation. Operators tended to move around a lot, which allowed the company to hire cheaper replacements for those who left. The first attempt of telegraph workers to organize was the National Telegraphic Union of 1863. This was more of a mutual benefit society than a labor union. It provided members with sickness and funeral benefits and aimed to elevate the character of the members and promote just and harmonious relations with employers. With conditions for telegraphers growing worse after the Civil War the Telegraphers' Protective League was formed in 1868 as a very different kind of organization. It was a secret organization, because there was nothing at the time to protect its members from the unbridled power of their employers. Rather than relieving the sick and burying the dead it proposed to raise the members to a financial position in which they could take care of themselves. The TPL felt strong enough by January, 1870 to risk a strike against Western Union. It failed after about a week. There were just too many operators seeking work, especially in the winter season; the company was too strong; and the union was too poorly organized. The operators' situation continued to deteriorate through the 1870s as Western Union reduced wages, the number of would-be operators increased, and the company absorbed its competitors. An attempt to form another union in 1872 fizzled. In 1881 Jay Gould took over Western Union, moving the company closer to being a true national monopoly. By the summer of 1882 a number of regional labor organizations put aside their differences to form the Brotherhood of Telegraphers of the United States and Canada under the aegis of the Knights of Labor. The Brotherhood, unlike its predecessors, accepted the female operators as members. In July, 1883 the Brotherhood presented a list of grievances to Western Union and some other firms, hoping for at least a compromise settlement and at worst a short strike. When the company made no meaningful concessions the telegraphers walked out on July 19. At first things looked good for the Brotherhood. About three fourths of Western Union operators honored the strike. Public opinion was much on the side of the telegraphers, at least to the extent that it was against the side of Jay Gould and the W.U. monopoly. One competing telegraph company settled quickly with the union; and another (B & O) came close to, but never close enough. Union leaders worked hard to keep the public on their side, urging the strikers to be models of dignity and sobriety. The women were as valiant as the men, if not more so, in upholding the strike. Still, public sympathy did not feed the hungry; and the strike dwindled until it was officially called off August 17. Operators wishing to return to work had to sign a pledge of loyalty; those considered militant unionists were blacklisted by the company. Still, it appears the company was somewhat humbled by the power of the union and made a few concessions to the operators. Failure of the strike led to some ill feeling in the larger labor movement. The telegraphers accused the Knights of insufficient support; the Knights leadership felt the telegraphers had acted impulsively and without sufficient preparation. The Brotherhood soon withdrew from the Knights; and union activity reverted to local groups. Yet by 1885 there was a new organization, the Telegraphers' Union of America, which rejoined the Knights in 1886. This seems to have faded away by the early 1890s along with the Knights. Railroad telegraphers formed the Order of Railway Telegraphers in 1886. An Order of Commercial Telegraphers was formed in 1890 but never amounted to much, and allied itself with the railway telegraphers in 1897-98. The next attempt to form a union didn't happen until 1907, with the Commercial Telegraphers' Union of America, which also suffered disaster in a strike against Western Union. Gabler concludes with a discussion of a number of labor and political issues affecting telegraphers. One of the Brotherhood's demands had been equal pay for equal work, male and female. This seems to have been widely hailed as the Right Thing to do. I wonder whether the male telegraphers supported the demand because it was right; or if they supported it because they knew if the companies had to pay men and women the same they would hire only men. Some wanted a craft union, with membership limited to telegraphers, with an apprenticeship program that would raise the quality of operators while reducing their numbers. There was some interest in government licensing of operators. Others favored an industrial union, open to all Western Union employees. Some objected to the secret fraternal rites that were a feature of the Knights of Labor; Catholic workers were forbidden to become members of secret organizations of any kind. The operators wanted to protect their new middle-class image by being models of respectability and sobriety; some of the linemen on the other hand had no scruples about cutting wires to increase pressure on the companies during a strike. Some felt that telegraphy should be a government monopoly, as was and still is the norm in Europe. Some saw salvation in a worker-owned cooperative, if they could only convince the banks or the government to put up the money necessary to establish the system. Others sought to improve the status of the working classes through political action; quite a number were attracted to the United Labor Party of Henry George. A hundred years later issues like these are still with us. Part II Dr. Gabler had access to a vast amount of material: census records, archives of the telegraph companies, contemporary newspaper accounts, magazines published for the edification and amusement of operators, and even novels in which telegraphers were used as characters. The footnotes and bibliography take up 48 pages. One page in the book is an illustration of advertisements in a telegraphers' magazine of 1883. They include a book on shorthand, a book of money-making secrets, a book on the mysteries of love-making, a book on fortune telling, watch charms with microscopic pictures, a book of advice to the unmarried, a package of stationery, a book on politeness, a book of letters for all occasions, playing cards with marked backs, a book of magic tricks, a book on business, and a book on ballroom dancing. The theme is that these appealed to working-class young adults who felt a need to learn how to behave properly as members of the middle-class. A number of telegraph operators rose to prominence. Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie are the best known; Theodore N. Vail was a founder of AT&T; others found success in business or politics; and almost all the upper management of Western Union was drawn from the ranks of operators. In 1885 there were five doctors and one dentist moonlighting as telegraph operators -- maybe medicine and dentistry didn't pay all that well in those days. Thomas Edison, as a young telegrapher in the 1860s, would work a full day and then stay in the office at night, listening to a press circuit to get high speed code practice. Later he worked the Boston end of a New York circuit with an operator named Jerry Borst. Operators formed friendships with their counterparts at the other end of the wires. The telegraph companies insisted that operators should work at whatever circuits they were assigned. Edison and Borst conspired to change three characters of the code, so that nobody else could copy their transmissions and they could always work together. Cockroaches were such a problem in the office that Edison devised a bug zapper to protect his lunch from the little beasties. Friendships over the wires were nourished during lulls in traffic by exchanges of jokes and local news, and by checker games. Sometimes love and courtship blossomed too. At other times operators were rude to one another. On one occasion two operators got so angry at each other that they arranged to meet at a town halfway between their posts and settle the matter with fists at 1:00 AM. "Salting" (sending too fast for the receiving operator) was a frequent source of irritation. Salting was also part of the common practice of hazing new operators. Operators frequently got privileges, such as free passes to theaters and on trains. With the chronic oversupply it was common for operators to travel back and forth across the country looking for work, or for better conditions. Operators didn't get vacations, paid or otherwise; but in the summer months telegraph offices would open in the resort towns where the rich took their vacations, and operators could find work there. In 1883 Western Union employed 444 telegraphers in New York City, 96 in Boston, 88 in St. Louis, and 83 in Chicago. This seems to support a conjecture of mine that W.U. was weakened all its life by overattention to serving New York City and insufficient effort to develop the business in other parts of the country. There was friction between the city operators and the rural operators. The city operators were proud of their skills, and wanted to move the traffic. They resented they way country operators would frequently interrupt transmissions. The country operators, usually working in railroad depots, countered that telegraphy was but a small part of their duties. They had to answer questions from the public, sell tickets, meet trains, tend switches and signals, handle freight, and keep the lamps burning. They commonly worked shifts as long as twelve or even sixteen hours. Development of duplex and then quadruplex operation greatly increased the pressure on operators, as the receiving operators could not interrupt the senders. Gender stereotyping held that only male operators had the stamina to handle these heavily-loaded circuits; yet the book cites a number of examples of women who worked these circuits. Women were consistently paid less than men. The companies were well aware that women were a bargain compared with men, and continually tried to replace men with women. Nellie Welch had full charge of the telegraph office in Point Arena, California in 1886. She was eleven years old. Western Union and the Cooper Union Institute in 1869 jointly started a free eight-month telegraphy course for women. It lasted through the early 1890s, turning out about 80 graduates a year. They would first take non-paying jobs assisting regular operators, and then be hired as operators on lightly loaded city circuits. This school was much despised by men for its contribution to the oversupply problem, thought it probably hurt the opportunities for women more than those for men. Beginner and less-skilled operators were called "plugs" or "hams." (Note the endless controversy over the origin of the term "ham" for amateur radio operators.) The schools that turned out these operators were called "plug factories." Craft magazines sought to shame operators who taught telegraphy. They were urged to pass on the secrets of Morse only to brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. At least one railroad operator quit his job rather than cooperate with a student placed with him by the company. ---------------- [Moderator's (10-1992) Note: My thanks for this very interesting article. Digest readers are encouraged to send book reviews and other special articles like this to Telecom for distribution on the net. PAT] ======================================================== [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: We will have more history of Western Union Telegraph Company on weekends to come. Speaking of Nellie Welch above, not only did she function as the telegraph agent in Port Arena in 1886, she also functioned as the stage coach ticket agent. In most communities in those days, and even now as appropriate, '24/7 businesses' (places which by their nature operated around the clock and were labor-intensive) tended to be in one location so the overnight employee could be shared among them. That's why you saw so many telegraph agents also selling bus or train tickets or running phone switchboards in those years. All the jobs done by one person -- even if that person still sat around idle most of the night -- meant that the agent/owner of the estab- lishment was able to scoop up whatever money there was to be had. Like (present day) Greyhound Bus, the Western Union Telegraph Company never spent money it did not need to. Profitable locations such as Chicago, New York, Boston, etc had people 'on the payroll' (since they could afford it) even if overnight hours were a bit thin on a financial basis. Those were (for Western Union and today for Greyhound Bus) considered 'corporate' locations with the usual array of corporate rules and regulations. Less profitable locations such as smaller towns, where the corporation would have gone bankrupt operating them 24/7 were handled as 'agency offices'. That is, the person who operated them was an 'agent' and was paid a commission on the money collected on messages sent out (or bus tickets sold, etc). The 'agent' hired his own employees (if any), generally followed the corporate rules if he absolutely had to, and was responsible for remitting proceeds from the telegraph messages and stage coach ticket sales (later, bus tickets). Other than that, the agent was free to do as he pleased. The telegraph agent soon discovered that if he added stage coach tickets to his 'product line' he could make money from that as well, even though it was a different kind of thing. Two different telegraph companies in town? Western Union and Postal Telegraph? That's fine! Two or three different stage coach companies coming through town? Even better! The agent would sell tickets for all of them. The woman who ran the local telephone switchboard wanted to be able to sleep all night? (Remember, these were the very early days of telephony) ... cool ... the Agent had some kid (like Nellie Welch, mentioned above), who was up all night with stage coach tickets and telegram messages. Have the kid run the switchboard as well. Child labor laws these days would prevent that sort of thing now, an 11 year old kid working all night (or any time after curfew) but those laws did not exist in those early days. My great-grandfather, Thomas Townsend was a stage coach driver as a young man. He married an older woman who was a widow who ran a 'way station' as they were called (combination telegraph agency / stage coach stop) about a hundred miles outside of Tulsa, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), in the boondocks. His wife ran a lunchroom as well, since the stage coaches would stop there to allow the passengers to eat a meal or send/receive telegrams. Since horses were considered very valuable property and could only go at most for a hundred or two hundred miles on a trip, when the stage coach pulled in each day and the passengers and the driver went inside to eat their dinner, g.g.father Thomas would unfasten the team of horses, lead them into the stable where they would eat and rest, then he would take a different, fresh team of (well-rested, fed) horses out to the street and harness them up so the stage coach could continue its trip once the driver and passengers were finished with *their* dinners. Mostly his wife did the telegraph stuff and stage coach ticket stuff in addition to her lunchroom duties. That's how he met the woman he married, I believe; she was one-quarter Cherokee (of Oklahoma) Indian. More about Western Union ancient times in a week or so. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #205 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat Apr 24 20:32:55 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3P0Wtc16441; Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:32:55 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:32:55 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404250032.i3P0Wtc16441@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 #206 TELECOM Digest Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:33:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 206 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Phone Found on Street (H. Leighton) Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Phone Found on Street (Joseph) Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Phone Found on Street (Clarence Dold) Re: Taxes on VOIP Service? (John Levine) Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review (John Levine) Re: 'Old Style' Telephone Call Recording Device (Rich Greenberg) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Henry E Schaffer) Re: Next Treo 600? (Joseph) Re: The GMail Saga (Clarence Dold) Friedman: Losing Our Edge? (Monty Solomon) Job Opportunity: Programmers Wanted in India (koshy112003) Bad Storm Overnight Causes Vonage to go Out (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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: hudsonl@skypoint.com (Hudson Leighton) Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 12:27:25 -0500 Organization: MRRP In article , Don Saklad wrote: > How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... > Where would there be postage paid mailers provided for returning > someone's lost cellular telephone you find on the street ? ... > . wireless service companies ?... > . manufacturers ?... > . or ...? > . ...? I have found phones, and have been able to find a phonebook entry for "Home" or "Office", called it and informed the person or machine that answered that I had their phone. The owners usually came over and got their phones. -Hudson http://www.skypoint.com/~hudsonl ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 13:29:18 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NONOcom On 23 Apr 2004 18:56:42 -0400, Don Saklad wrote: > How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... > Where would there be postage paid mailers provided for returning > someone's lost cellular telephone you find on the street ? ... I can think of a couple right offhand. The first thing I'd do is call the phone's carrier. Usually dialing 611 or *611 in the US would usually give you the phone's customer service for that carrier. If the phone has the carrier name stamped on it you could take it to a corporate store and turn in the phone there. You could also turn it into the police. When I was in Amsterdam my phone slipped out of the case and someone turned it in and I was able to claim it from a police station once I identified the phone and proved that it was mine. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply ------------------------------ From: dold@HowXtoXRet.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:56:45 UTC Organization: a2i network Don Saklad wrote: > How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... If it's been lost more than a day, it's probably shut off, and a new one acquired. From that phone, you could dial 611 and ask. Or maybe look for stored phone number called "home". Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:04:49 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Taxes on VOIP Service? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > One thing that puzzles me though: Although the bill is refreshingly > free of all the usual taxes, surcharges and fees found on land and > cell bills, Packet8 does charge a 3% Spanish American War Luxury Tax > (Federal Excise Tax) on the monthly subscription fee. > It's not clear to me why they should be doing this. Because it's phone service, of course. All VoIP carriers charge it. > I pay that tax on the DSL line already. I also pay it on the > underlying voice telephone line. Why should it apply to what is > essentially a data applications service? Because it's phone service, of course. It has a phone number, you can call people on the rest of the PSTN, people can call you from the rest of the PSTN, that makes it a phone. You could make an argument that it's unfair to charge FET on DSL when cable modems and point-to-point T1s aren't, but that's a separate issue. VoIP fans make a big deal about the fact that the calls are delivered over a separately billed IP connection. That should be no more relevant than whether my POTS phone line is analog all the way to the CO or is concentrated into a digital T1 or fiber on the way. The bits on a T1 are just as digital as the bits on any Internet connection, and it would be equally inane to argue that they make the phone calls they carry somehow not phone service. The real question is why, other than preferring that other people pay taxes instead of you, anyone should think that a VoIP phone should pay different taxes from other phones. Regards, John Levine johnl@iecc.com Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies" Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "A book is a sneeze." - E.B. White, on the writing of Charlotte's Web John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ Date: 24 Apr 2004 19:16:04 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA Nice review. > Packet8 supports Local Number Portability, so theoretically, you > could get you current number reassigned. Are you sure? I didn't see anything about it on their web site, and I know they didn't in the past. As far as I know, Vonage is the only one that does LNP. > While VOIP is here to stay, I'm not convinced that companies like > Packet8 (or Vonage) will survive over the long term. Part of the > savings comes from not being subject to most of the taxes and fees > levied on wire and cell service. This will quickly change as the > various governments start to feel the sting from not collecting funds > they are used to. Indeed. Of course, if VoIP can't survive without tax subsidies when it already gets a huge subsidy by piggybacking on a sepately priced IP connection, who needs it? > There's no reason that the cable companies couldn't offer VOIP > directly for little or no extra charge with their broadband service > and totally cut out the need for Packet8. At that point, the economics > become much more compelling. Cable companies typically provide high quality phone service with dedicated bandwidth, backup power, and real 911, rather than the lower quality service that Packet8, Vonage, and other pure VoIP providers do. But they still have no trouble bundling in unlimited long distance and pricing it lower than the phone company. > I am curious about how calls are handled and where they drop off the > internet on into the traditional voice net. A call I made to the UK > was very clear and had little delay. Do all calls get converted by > Packet8 at their San Jose, CA location, or are they carried around the > world as TCP packets and converted locally? When I've sniffed the packets on my Vonage connection, I've noted that all the outgoing calls go to headquarters, and the incoming calls come from the phone switch in Syracuse where my phone number is assigned. As far as I can tell, all VoIP providers do something like that. Wholesale long distance rates have gotten so cheap that I doubt there's any point to trying to do outgoing IP telephony in other countries, and those other countries are usually less tolerant of VoIP rate arbitrage games than the US is, so it couuld get politically messy. John R. Levine, IECC, POB 727, Trumansburg NY 14886 +1 607 330 5711 johnl@iecc.com, Mayor, http://johnlevine.com, Member, Provisional board, Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: 'Old Style' Telephone Call Recording Device Date: 24 Apr 2004 15:15:57 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , Diamond Dave wrote: > I'm looking for what I call an 'old style' recording device. > I'm looking for a 'ring' that you can place over the receiver of a > phone (the round 'G' style). I used to have one many many years ago > (30+) but with several moves, it either got thrown out or got lost in > one of many boxes. [...] > If someone knows where I can buy those "ring" devices, please post a > URL here. No idea about the ring; another type I have seen and used is a pickup that is approximately 1x4x.25 that you put under the phone and it inductivly couples to the coil in the phone. I am guessing that Rat Shack would have it (but haven't looked). I probably have one in my junk box. Rich Greenberg Work: Rich.Greenberg atsign worldspan.com + 1 770 563 6656 N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA Play: richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val(Chinook, Red & Shasta(Husky,(RIP),Red, husky)) Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E Schaffer) Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:45:57 +0000 (UTC) Organization: North Carolina State University In article , wrote: > Tony P. wrote: >> The other thing to keep in mind about CRT based televisions is that >> over a period of about 5 years they're pretty much shot nowadays. I >> can already see my 5 year old set redding out. But then it gets heavy >> usage. > Yougottabekidding. > My primary TV is a 1993 32" RCA CRT that still looks as good as it > ever did. ... I'm with Clarence. We are considering replacing our 1987 Sears 27" (something around that size) -- and one of our delays is trying to decide on what aspect ratio we want or need (4:3 or 16:9). (That's another thing which may change in the few years.) --henry schaffer hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Next Treo 600? Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 13:23:18 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NONOcom On 23 Apr 2004 13:30:11 -0700, drthomaspopple@hotmail.com (Thomas Popple) wrote: > I'm looking to buy a Treo 600 but someone told me today that I should > hold fire a little longer as a new Treo is coming out shortly. > Can anyone give me any details or links to info about the new model? If it is the information's secret. AFAIKS the latest Treo is the model 600 for CDMA (Sprint) or quad band GSM (T-Mobile, cingular, AT&T and others.) handspring.com doesn't have anything and neither does phonescoop If Phonescoop doesn't have it the likelihood of any significant new Treo introduction is doubtful seeing as how Phonescoop usually gets new model information well in advance of any carrier offerring a particular model. remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply ------------------------------ From: dold@TheXGMailX.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: The GMail Saga Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:55:19 +0000 (UTC) Organization: a2i network jmayson@nyx.net wrote: >> Here's a summary of some of my conclusions >> http://www.templetons.com/brad/gmail.html > And here is a summary of my impressions of the service: > http://home.austin.rr.com/jmayson/blog/archives/2004_04_22_archive.html I enjoyed Brad's article. Especially exposing the pieces I don't think about. I have Google email. I don't click on the adsense ads in GMail or in standard Google searches because they cost those folks money. They hope to make some money when I click through and buy something, but I feel guilty clicking on one when I know I'm probably not going to buy based on that link. The idea that those clicks could be tied back to a particular set of keywords is not far fetched. I presume that most adsense buyers don't do it, but only because it is inconvenient to keep track, which certainly wouldn't be true of a targeted government operation. John's comment about lack of signature caught me off guard. I hadn't even noticed. I wonder which of John's comments have been forwarded to the suggestion team at GMail? It isn't a public service yet. It is only open by invitation, and each Google employee is limited in their number of invitations. The bugs that I've noted have been fixed almost immediately. The suggestions that haven't been implemented have been answered with personalized explanations. Oddly, the bug fixes are sometimes not acknowledged, just fixed. There are cool features. One of them is that external images are not loaded while reading an html message. At first this looks odd, and seems only of interest to dialup users. But as Brad points out, there are people watching the IP addresses. One way to verify valid email addresses is to send email with an http link back to your site. You can see that a particular IP fetched the object [ as a result of reading the email ]. If you want the external images, it is a click at the top of the email. I use GMail. I won't do the personal things there that I might do on my home email, because I consider mail storage with a million users a much more attractive safe to crack than my home PC. I'll just hide over here, thanks. But for general chatting about the weather, and transferring large files, it's a pretty cool deal. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:46:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Friedman: Losing Our Edge? OP-ED COLUMNIST By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN I was just out in Silicon Valley, checking in with high-tech entrepreneurs about the state of their business. I wouldn't say they were universally gloomy, but I did detect something I hadn't detected before: a real undertow of concern that America is losing its competitive edge vis-a-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers, and that the Bush team is deaf, dumb and blind to this situation. Several executives explained to me that they were opening new plants in Asia -- not because of cheaper labor. Labor is a small component now in an automated high-tech manufacturing plant. It is because governments in these countries are so eager for employment and the transfer of technology to their young populations that they are offering huge tax holidays for U.S. manufacturers who will set up shop. Because most of these countries also offer some form of national health insurance, U.S. companies shed that huge open liability as well. Other executives complained bitterly that the Department of Homeland Security is making it so hard for legitimate foreigners to get visas to study or work in America that many have given up the age-old dream of coming here. Instead, they are studying in England and other Western European nations, and even China. This is leading to a twofold disaster. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/opinion/22FRIE.html ------------------------------ From: koshy112003 Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 07:56:42 -0000 Subject: Job Opportunity: Telecom Professionals Wanted in India Reply-To: telecom-news@yahoogroups.com A German telecom software development company is looking out for telecom professionals within Bangalore. Experience: 1-4years Good knowledge in C,C++/Linux,Unix Experience in telecom related domains ( SIP,H.323,MGCP) will be preferred. Contact details: kkv.teles@touchtelindia.net ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:30:00 CDT Friday night here in Independence, we had the mother of all rain and hail storms, replete with lightning, thunder, strong winds and then some. Three inches of rain in an hour or two, it flooded the Verdigris River (which was near its high point already) over by the water works and sewer disposal place at Second Street by Oak Street. Police put up barricades on Second Street to keep people away as the water came rolling down the street. No matter for me; I live at the *south end* of Second Street near East Poplar Street; I did not see the water until later on a battery-powered television set with Tulsa area news and it was shown. Battery-powered? Well yeah, even though I am less than six blocks from the Independence electric power plant at Maple and Cement Streets (eastern city limits) my electric power went out for several hours as well -- along with 27 other people here in town according to the service rep manning the customer service line I spoke with. Well, she said, it really did a 'number' on Independence and a lot of Montgomery County; we are restoring things as fast as we can, but no estimates right now on time. That was around 8 PM; power was restored at 2 AM Saturday morning, about six hours later. I talked to them at around 10 PM when I saw lights working down the block (a different transformer and cable I guess) and sort of went in a panic because mine were still out, plus the house next door and across the street, although I could see other places that were on. I was talking on my Vonage phone to a friend in Canada when I saw a *huge* flash of lightning and mentioned it my friend. A second or two later, a loud bang and the lights went out. Battery kept the laptop computers going long enough for an orderly shut down but Vonage went out also. My questions are: since battery will keep computers going temporarily, and assuming one's cable line/or phone and DSL line was working, I am wondering if one could not run a battery to the Motorola MTA and the router and keep your Vonage on line even when the computers otherwise are shut down? I made do with my cellular phone overnight so it was not all that critical. All the taverns in town said business was very poor last night also. PAT ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #206 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 25 00:53:22 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3P4rM618118; Sun, 25 Apr 2004 00:53:22 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 00:53:22 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404250453.i3P4rM618118@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 #207 TELECOM Digest Sun, 25 Apr 2004 00:52:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 207 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google Flirts; Investors Wonder About Date (Monty Solomon) The Bullying Pulpit (Monty Solomon) TV on Steroids (Monty Solomon) 'Crazy Like a Fox': From Start-Up to Upstart (Monty Solomon) Out-Foxed / How Rupert's Red-State Cable Channel Waved Flag (M Solomon) Google and Akamai: Cult of Secrecy vs. Kingdom of Openness (M Solomon) Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers (Monty Solomon) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Stanley Cline) Re: Taxes on VOIP Service? (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review (Stanley Cline) Re: Honesty from Earthlink (Edson C. Hendricks) Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Phone Found on Street (Mike Koerner) Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Phone Found on street (Stanley Cline) Re: 'Old Style' Telephone Call Recording Device (Diamond Dave) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Lisa Hancock) 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: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:03:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google Flirts; Investors Wonder About Date By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, April 23 - Google, the Web search company that has developed a huge following around the world, is expected to take a tentative first step next week toward a public stock offering, a person close to the company said Friday. But it is likely to stop short of filing a formal registration to sell shares, the person said. In recent days speculation on Wall Street and Silicon Valley has reached a fever pitch over Google's long-awaited offering, which has become the most highly anticipated event in the technology world here since the dot-com boom collapsed in early 2000. But Google, which prides itself on its quirky and secretive corporate culture, appears prepared to drag out any public offering as long as possible. Google is being driven to disclose basic financial details of its operations next week by an obscure provision of securities law. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/24/technology/24google.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:27:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Bullying Pulpit By Art Brodsky, TomPaine.com In the first quarter of the year, about 100,000 people each month decided they were fed up with what broadcast radio stations were feeding them. They were fed up with the same songs played dozens of times a day, fed up with car dealers screaming at them in commercials. So, these people signed up for XM Radio, a pay-radio service broadcast by satellite. This year, XM added something new to its more than 100 channels of music and talk-local traffic and weather information. That new development was too much for the powerful broadcasting lobby, which sees the local market, and local ad revenue, as its own. Rather than recognize a weakness in their programming and try to find a way to hang on to their listeners, the broadcasters instead went to their friends in Congress as part of a campaign that would restrict consumer choice. As a result, Rep. Charles "Chip" Pickering, R-Miss., and Rep. Gene Green, D-Tex., with little fanfare, introduced H.R. 4026, the Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of 2004. It's the type of a bill that's unfortunately quite common, but illustrates one of the fundamental weaknesses of our economy that you won't hear discussed in the presidential campaign. There are some American industries that are just plain afraid to compete in the marketplace. For all of the talk in favor of "the free market" and doing what's best for consumers, this bill is the poster child for the ability of one industry to try to use Members of Congress to put the screws to a competitive industry. http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10209 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:48:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TV on Steroids So Long to Analog Broadcasting and Hello to Digital, Which May Spell Good News for Viewers -- And Plenty of It BY NEIL HICKEY Columbia Journalism Review Since the dawn of television, almost six decades ago, every TV station in America has had the capacity to beam out just one program at a time -- Gunsmoke or The Huntley-Brinkley Report or Survivor or 60 Minutes. That was then; welcome to now: the Digital Era of broadcasting. The so-called analog, one-channel version of television will soon be as archaic as a 1950 Studebaker. Since the passage in 1996 of a new Telecommunications Act, all of the country's television stations are allowed to reach their viewers on as many as six channels -- simultaneously! Benefits for the public have been slow in coming, but suddenly "multicasting" -- that's the hot new word -- is on the lips of everybody in TV land. Take WRAL in Raleigh, North Carolina, for example, a pioneer in the new age of broadcasting. Last year, on one of its new digital outlets, a service called NewsChannel, the station aired live, full coverage of the murder trial of a well-known local figure accused, and eventually convicted, of killing his wife. It was a story of broad local interest, but one for which the station would not have preempted popular CBS shows on its lone analog channel. http://www.cjr.org/issues/2004/2/hickey-tv.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:11:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 'Crazy Like a Fox': From Start-Up to Upstart By DAVID CARR IN little more than seven years, Fox News set itself a place at the cable news table and then promptly upended it. All manner of convention -- presuming lack of bias, leaving the patriotism to the politicians and regarding institutions with suspicion -- has been battered by the runaway success of a news division that was initially received with up-the-sleeve snickering by its competitors, CNN and MSNBC. In 'Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN,' Scott Collins renders the fight for cable-news dominance as a schoolyard throw-down. CNN is the brainy scholar who oozes superiority, MSNBC is the new kid at school, endlessly trying to please, and then along comes Fox News, the loudmouth at the back of the class who trashes the rules everyone else lives by. By triangulating the story among the three competitors -- the book opens with the ''glitzy show'' announcing the formation of MSNBC -- Collins goes beyond transcribing the ticktock of events and infuses the story with drama. The book is breezy but avoids coming off as facile, skipping quickly across big stretches of history and landing hard on critical inflection points. ''Crazy Like a Fox'' is less about network tectonics and more about a hearts-and-minds battle for a new audience, one that sees the remote as a kind of voting machine to express disaffection with mainstream media and politics. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/books/review/18CARRLT.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:12:11 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Out-Foxed / How Rupert's Red-State Cable Channel Waved the Flag Out-Foxed How Rupert's red-state cable channel waved the flag and beat CNN. By Geraldine Sealey April 24, 2004 | Caution, you're about to enter a No Spin Zone. Or is it the Twilight Zone? We'll report, and you decide, based on this recent "unspun" news update from Fox News' flagship primetime program "The O'Reilly Factor." "Why are some Americans hindering the war on terror?" O'Reilly barked at the camera. "As we predicted, President Bush's poll numbers have gone up after last week's press conference. The elite media wanted Mr. Bush to grovel, but he remains defiant and determined to fight the terror war his way. Today the Supreme Court heard arguments that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay should have lawyers and due process. Predictably, the New York Times wants lawyers for the accused terrorists, editorializing that some of them 'may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.' "Sure. They just took a wrong turn into Uzbekistan and wandered onto the battlefield. How ridiculous is that?" Remember, the Spin Stops Here. There was a time, not too long ago, when Fox News was a joke -- albeit a bad and sick one -- to liberals and TV journalists raised on Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. But even those who rue the success of Rupert Murdoch's flag-waving cable channel have to admit: The old boy has done it. CNN founder Ted Turner once famously mocked Murdoch, saying he'd squish his cable news rival like a bug. We all know now who has squished whom. http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2004/04/24/fox/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:19:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google and Akamai: Cult of Secrecy vs. Kingdom of Openness The king of search is tapping into what may be the largest grid of computers on the planet. And it remains extraordinarily secretive about its core technologies -- perhaps because it senses a potential competitor in dotcom era flameout Akamai. By Simson Garfinkel April 21, 2004 http://www.techreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel042104.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 22:47:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Oh, Yeah, He Also Sells Computers By JOHN MARKOFF April 25, 2004 Cupertino, Calif. STROLL the corridors and the atriums on Apple Computer's corporate campus these days and you will notice that something is missing. Gone are the posters and graphics accenting the company's sleek personal computers. In their place, in the main lobby, is a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating Steven P. Jobs's brand-new billion-dollar consumer electronics business -- the iPod digital MP3 music player. In just two and a half years, Mr. Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has managed to take a well-designed hand-held gadget, add software connecting it to Macintoshes and Windows-based personal computers and convince the recording industry that he has found an elegant solution for ending its nightmare of digital piracy. In doing so, he has shifted the emphasis of Apple from what made it famous -- hip, even lovable computers -- to what he hopes will keep it relevant and profitable in the future: products for a digital way of life. In fact, the wild success that Mr. Jobs has enjoyed with the iPod may have come in the nick of time. For all the acknowledged design and ease-of-use advantages of the Macintosh, Apple's overall PC business is still growing more slowly than that of its Microsoft- and Intel-based competitors. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/business/yourmoney/25jobs.html ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:56:24 EDT Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out In a message dated 4/24/04 7:36:19 PM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes: > I did not see the water until later on a battery-powered television > set with Tulsa area news and it was shown. Battery-powered? Well > yeah, even though I am less than six blocks from the Independence > electric power plant at Maple and Cement Streets (eastern city > limits) my electric power went out for several hours as well -- > along with 27 other people here in town according to the service rep > manning the customer service line I spoke with. What else would you use than a battery-powered TV set when you're hiding in an interior closet or bathroom because all three TV channels are running nothing but the radar of the storms coming for you and the picture from their spotters in the field showing the funnel coming down and the hail hitting the ground (and cars and carports). Our yard in Oklahoma City -- and many others -- was covered with hail so it looked like snow. There were even hail stone drifts in the yard. Fortunately, from watching the battery-powered TV, we were able to see from the radar and the commentary when it was safe to come out. At one time, before going into shelter, I had the battery-powered TV on one channel and the regular AC-powered TV on another channel. This was, I think, the same night as the storm hit Independence. Our power didn't go off, but it has a number of times in bad storms. Not our SBC phone service, however. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Our storm was yesterday (Friday) night. The hail seemed to jump around us however; Parsons, Kansas, up the road a short distance from us got a large amount of hail yesterday morning, then the hail skipped past us and went to Coffeyville which like us had rotten weather all day, but they also got hail. But the *real* storm was Friday night when water was running down the streets and particularly about 10 pm when the electric went out and the Verdigris River spilled over and dumped itself by the Water Works and the Sewage Treatment Plant at the north end of Second Street. No sign of any tornadoes lately however, but this is the time of year for them. I was hoping you might have answered my question however: assuming cable or phone/DSL is working (ours was) but the computer and electricity is off in a power situation, couldn't a standby battery be used to keep the Vonage phone, MTA box and router running so the Vonage would stay alive? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 04:01:05 GMT On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:30:00 CDT, TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > My questions are: since battery will keep computers going temporarily, > and assuming one's cable line/or phone and DSL line was working, I am > wondering if one could not run a battery to the Motorola MTA and the > router and keep your Vonage on line even when the computers otherwise > are shut down? I made do with my cellular phone overnight so it was Sure -- but if you maintain power to the MTA with a UPS, you need to also maintain power to any other device the MTA's IP traffic passes through (Ethernet hub or switch, DSL/cable modem, firewall, etc.) If you use Vonage with a Motorola MTA in their recommended configuration (between DSL/cable modem and firewall/switch) you only have to power the MTA and DSL/cable modem. In my case, my Sipura SPA for VoicePulse is behind a DSL modem, a Linux firewall, and an Ethernet switch, and to keep the phones going I have to keep power to all four devices (SPA, DSL modem, Ethernet switch, and firewall.) Believe it or not, I just bought a large (1500 VA) UPS *today* for those very devices (as well as a satellite multiswitch -- I'm geeky enough that I have my TiVos on UPS too!) for when I move in a new house next month. Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject Re: Taxes on VOIP Service? Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:29:20 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Levine wrote: > The real question is why, other than preferring that other people pay > taxes instead of you, anyone should think that a VoIP phone should pay > different taxes from other phones. Well, personally, I don't think anyone should be paying a tax that was imposed on what was then a luxury to finance a war that has been over for over 100 years. That said, your note motivated me to see if I could find out a bit more about this tax. It's not a pretty picture ... The web site http://www.itaa.org/taxfinance/fedexctx.htm has a short history of the tax. Congress has promised to get rid of it almost a dozen times, but have backed out and raised the rates instead, and made it "permanent" about 14 years ago. The IRS http://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ar02.html#d0e734 has a really broad definition on what it can cover - and who can claim an exemption. An interesting point: Those really cheap phone cards you buy would be even cheaper -- the tax is included on those. Which also means sales tax is being charged on a federal tax. Good news though! No tax is required for coin paid local calls. So, why should such a trivial little tax still survive? As with most things political -- follow the money. Excise taxes were intended to be temporary taxes designed to discourage the use of the product they were applied to. (Standard tax theory says that taxes should be set at a rate that does not discourage use of the product.) The revenue from excise taxes should be applied to counter the negative aspects of said product. For example: An excise tax on tires might be useful if rubber only came from a country that we did not care to support or were at war with and revenue from said tax was used to develop a synthetic or alternate substitute. Back to reality: According an IRS spreadsheet at http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=96539,00.html for the year 2002, the federal government took in $67B (that's billion) in excise taxes from various sources. Some of the more interesting sources are: Automotive Luxury Tax $342M Fur Luxury Tax $1K Apparently, someone didn't get the word that the luxury tax on boats, aircraft, jewelry and furs was repealed in 1993. Gas Guzzler Tax $78M Highway Tire Tax $355M Gas Fuel Tax $21B (that's Billion) Diesel Fuel Tax $8B Telephone Tax $5.6B Air Travel Tax $6.9B So, at the top of the excise tax hit parade, coming in right behind motor fuel and air travel taxes, is our 100 year old temporary friend, the telephone service tax. Another interesting point -- the spreadsheet shows the total revenue generated from the telephone tax has been expanding tremendously over the past 8 years -- around $500M a year. This despite the fact that certain phone rates have dropped over that same time period. Presumably this comes from broadening the definition of what a telephone service is ... By the way -- the next time someone tries to argue that Amtrak should be getting a direct subsidy to level the playing field with all those public highways and interstates, you might point them to the $30 Billion every year that US taxpayers are paying for those roads. You might also ask why we aren't spending $30B a year on maintaining those roads, but that truely is a different subject. ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:32:58 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com John Levine wrote: > Nice review. Thank you. >> Packet8 supports Local Number Portability, so theoretically, you >> could get you current number reassigned. > Are you sure? I didn't see anything about it on their web site, and I > know they didn't in the past. As far as I know, Vonage is the only > one that does LNP. You are correct -- my mistake. I saw the heading for LNP on their website and assumed it meant they supported it. When I went back and read the detail, they stated they do not. > When I've sniffed the packets on my Vonage connection, I've noted that > all the outgoing calls go to headquarters, and the incoming calls come > from the phone switch in Syracuse where my phone number is assigned. > As far as I can tell, all VoIP providers do something like that. An email response I received from Packet8 kind of implies this as well. ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Packet8: A VOIP Review Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 04:04:30 GMT On 24 Apr 2004 19:16:04 -0000, John Levine wrote: > Cable companies typically provide high quality phone service with > dedicated bandwidth, backup power, and real 911, rather than the lower > quality service that Packet8, Vonage, and other pure VoIP providers > do. But they still have no trouble bundling in unlimited long > distance and pricing it lower than the phone company. Here in Atlanta, Comcast's phone service (which I can't get at my current apartment, and may or may not be able to get at the house I'm moving into next month) is not much cheaper than BellSouth's. :( (Note that Comcast's phone service here in Atlanta, which is provided in conjunction with AT&T Local, is traditional circuit-switched service that runs over RF/coax, not a VoIP-based service like what Time Warner, Cox, and others are rolling out right now.) Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 18:48:15 -0700 From: Edson C. Hendricks Subject: Re: Honesty From Earthlink I'm not saying that Earthlink is deliberately not fixing any bug of theirs, nor even that I believe they actually have any such bug. My implication was meant to reflect my judgment that they are not telling the truth, whatever the truth may be. I believe at least that much can be reliably deduced from the exchange. Since you've raised the question, if I had to guess, it would be that there is no real bug involved, but instead it's all a deliberate policy on their part to send marketing material to people who've asked them not to send it, while pretending not to realize they're doing it. But that's just my guess, I definitely don't believe I know. ------------------------------ From: Michael G. Koerner Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 20:57:10 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com dold@HowXtoXRet.usenet.us.com wrote: > Don Saklad wrote: >> How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... > If it's been lost more than a day, it's probably shut off, and a new one > acquired. From that phone, you could dial 611 and ask. > Or maybe look for stored phone number called "home". > Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 When I got my current cell phone (a Motorola V60I) last year, the local agent advised me to place my name and another number where I could be contacted somewhere on the phone. Mine is on the inside of the battery cover. Regards, | |\ ____ | | | | |\ Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again! Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | | ______________________________________ | | | | | | _______________ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Sorry, Michael; I think your ascii-art in your signature got hosed by accident. On my cell phone I replaced the default greeting text 'Nokia' and my phone number with the phrase 'Stolen From Patrick Townson' and my home phone number. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 03:55:21 GMT On 23 Apr 2004 18:56:42 -0400, Don Saklad wrote: > How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... If there are numbers in the phone for "home" or something similar, try calling the phone's owner. If not, or if you don't want to try to contact the owner yourself, figure out what carrier it is active on (or was last active on) and contact that carrier and see what they'd like you to do. It's funny you mention it -- I got a rental car earlier this week (since my car is having some damage from falling tree limbs repaired) and I found someone's active Verizon Wireless cell phone under one of the seats. Since it didn't have any numbers stored in it, I talked to VZW customer service (I'm a VZW customer myself) and they told me to drop it by a local store, which I did. I also called the rental car company and told them I'd found a phone and gave a description of it, and told them I'd handed it over to VZW. The one time I misplaced a phone (in L.A., when the StarTAC I had at the time popped out of its holster while getting out of a car at a restaurant) a manager of the restaurant found it and called the entry listed as "Mom" in my phone; my mother called me at my L.A. office and told me to go back to the restaurant and get my phone! :) Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Diamond Dave Subject: Re: 'Old Style' Telephone Call Recording Device Organization: The BBS Corner / Diamond Mine On-Line Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:14:58 -0400 On 24 Apr 2004 15:15:57 -0400, richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) wrote: > No idea about the ring; another type I have seen and used is a pickup > that is approximately 1x4x.25 that you put under the phone and it > inductivly couples to the coil in the phone. > I am guessing that Rat Shack would have it (but haven't looked). I > probably have one in my junk box. Again, that is one of those "suction cup" ones that don't work worth a darn. I don't need another one of those, I own two already. Dave [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The suction cup things never work very well. Why don't you switch to a modular style phone then get one of the wired things which hooks directly into your computer sound card. Mike Sandman http://sandman.com has those in stock for cheap. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: 24 Apr 2004 20:13:52 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > For your casual reading this weekend, another in the series of Digest > Archive reprints; this time on telegraphy in the 19th century. Thank you for rerunning this report. Very interesting. I'd like to know more about Western Union from the postwar era (WW II) to the present. In the 1960s they had a microwave network, they even launched satellites, and they had government defense contracts to handle data networks. It would seem a natural for them to handle the growing computer data transmissions, but it all ended up to AT&T. The only WU history I have is "The Story of Telecommunications" by George Oslin. It is a starting point, but a weak one. Oslin somewhat glosses over some very critical issues. He blames the FCC for favoring AT&T at the expense of Western Union, poor management, labor troubles, and the forced wartime merger of Postal Telegraph, but does not get into adequate detail and the time periods are somewhat merged together. We know long distance phones rates declined after WW II. At some point the cost of a voice call became cheaper than sending a telegram; I wonder when that point was reached (my guess is the late 1950s). It's amazing how in old movies people contact home with urgent messages by telegram rather than voice long distance, but in the 1940s long distance was still very expensive, especially for more distant calls. (I think short haul long distance was more affordable.) FWIW, WU says a telegram today costs $15 to send, it will be delivered by an express company. I _think_ a telegram still has more legal weight as an "official" message over a fax; kind of the equivalent of a certified letter where you need proof of sending and receipt of your message. I don't know how many people send telegrams today; their business is money transfers and other bill paying services. Note the original Western Union went bankrupt some years ago which was covered up by creating a parent corporation to file to keep their name clean. ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #207 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun Apr 25 17:46:45 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3PLkjX24184; Sun, 25 Apr 2004 17:46:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 17:46:45 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404252146.i3PLkjX24184@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 #208 TELECOM Digest Sun, 25 Apr 2004 17:46:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 208 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Google / Why World's Hottest Tech Company Will Struggle (Monty Solomon) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Linc Madison) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Tony P.) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Rich Greenberg) Seeking Telecom Site (Keith) Email Address Abuse (name withheld at request) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Wesrock@aol.com) Re: How to Return Lost Cellular Phone Found on Street (Phil Earnhardt) Senate Mulls Internet Tax Ban (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: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 01:08:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google / Why World's Hottest Tech Company Will Struggle Why the world's hottest tech company will struggle to keep its edge http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881001_mz001.htm Google's Goal: "Understand Everything" http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881010_mz001.htm What Eric Schmidt Found at Google http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881011_mz001.htm ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 11:42:54 -0700 From: Linc Madison Reply-To: lincmad@suespammers.org Organization: California resident; nospam; no unsolicited e-mail allowed In article , Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> wrote: [discussing the federal excise tax on telephone services] > The IRS http://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ar02.html#d0e734 has a > really broad definition on what it can cover - and who can claim an > exemption. An interesting point: Those really cheap phone cards you > buy would be even cheaper -- the tax is included on those. Which also > means sales tax is being charged on a federal tax. There's nothing the least bit unusual about that. All excise taxes are always included in the price on which sales tax is calculated. Show me any example where sales tax is computed with an *exemption* for the amount of the federal tax -- *that* would be noteworthy. > By the way -- the next time someone tries to argue that Amtrak should > be getting a direct subsidy to level the playing field with all those > public highways and interstates, you might point them to the $30 > Billion every year that US taxpayers are paying for those roads. Exactly the point -- the public highways and interstates are subsidized by the taxpayers, tilting the playing field. To *level* the playing field, we should subsidize rail travel, too. Linc Madison * San Francisco, California * lincmad@suespammers.org * primary e-mail: Telecom at LincMad dot com All U.S. and California anti-spam laws apply, incl. CA BPC 17538.45(c) This text constitutes actual notice as required in BPC 17538.45(f)(3). DO NOT SEND UNSOLICITED E-MAIL TO THIS ADDRESS. You have been warned. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Organization: ATCC Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:28:10 GMT In article , Wesrock@aol.com says: > This was, I think, the same night as the storm hit Independence. > Our power didn't go off, but it has a number of times in bad storms. > Not our SBC phone service, however. It's always interesting that the phone service usually stays up and running while the electrical lines get torn to hell. And I've noticed in serious storms electric lines are always the first to go, but the phone lines, short of a pole coming down stay up. Looking at the BSP's I've got it seems that drops to homes and cabling in general is well secured. Electrical lines look like something a child put together. Perfect example -- around here the electrical wire to the buildings is underground on the main street of this neighborhood. But the way they did it was every other block or so, a transformer is up on a pole and the resultant wires are sub-ducted to fan out to the buildings. But get this, further down the street everything is underground, right to the point of the generation plant. It's ridiculous -- that's what happens when you've got an industry that wasn't as closely watched as Bell was. Now the big argument is who is going to pay for the burial of HV transmission lines that create an ugly scar across India Point in Providence. True estimated cost is $12 million, Narragansett Electric (National Grid, PLC) says it'll be $20 million because if they did that they want to build in several other conduits. The thing about this is that I know what their profit margins are. Narragansett is a transmission company only. They own the distribution network so it's pure gravy for them. Not much goes back into upgrading their wire plant. They can well afford to absorb the entire cost of the project but refuse to. The above is similar to how Brayton Point (A PG&E site) is flushing cooling water in Buzzards Bay which then flows into Narragansett Bay that's tens of degrees higher in temperature than the surrounding water. It has decimated stocks like winter flounder, etc. I worked with the Environmental Unit creating the presentation evidence for a trial - the profit they make is obscene. They could well afford to put up cooling towers and return the water to the bay at approximately the same temperature but they won't. It's still being fought. Interestingly one of the questions on the Political Compass test is "What's good for big business is good for everyone." You have to answer between Strongly Disagree or Strongly Agree with the statement. Can anyone guess what I selected? ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Date: 25 Apr 2004 11:47:47 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? In article , TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > My questions are: since battery will keep computers going temporarily, > and assuming one's cable line/or phone and DSL line was working, I am Sure, I do that. My DSL modem and router run off the UPS. > wondering if one could not run a battery to the Motorola MTA and the > router and keep your Vonage on line even when the computers otherwise > are shut down? I made do with my cellular phone overnight so it was I would assume that these draw little enough power that the UPS battery could carry them for a while. Wouldn't last forever tho. Rich Greenberg Work: Rich.Greenberg atsign worldspan.com + 1 770 563 6656 N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA Play: richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val(Chinook, Red & Shasta(Husky,(RIP),Red, husky)) Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: Keith Subject: Seeking Telecom Site Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 15:49:40 -0400 I'm looking for a telecom site I used to visit a few years ago. This particular one was run rather informally, admin might have been named Tom, and had a plethora of information regarding telecom, telephones, etc. It had a section on history, a telecom book review section which was pretty huge, might have had an old payphone section, etc. I'm thinking it was called telecom resources, telephone resources, or something to that effect. No luck on google. Any idea or am I just babbling? Thanks. Keith ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 23:15:39 -0700 From: Name and Email Address Withheld Subject: Email Address Abuse When I submitted a response to your BB three days ago, I used my MIT alumni email address, which is the return address on this note. That's been my MIT-related email address for a year or two, at least. You posted it, thank you, and I want to let you know that now, no more than three days later, I've received my first spam email message addressed to (withheld) I have ever received. They obviously work really fast these days. OK, fine, I've changed my MIT email address, and any mail addressed to (withheld) will now be trashed with no notice or reply of any kind, and I'll never see it. MIT has my new email address (also withheld) for use in MIT business. Please keep it to yourself, and don't post it. As soon as I receive any spam addressed to the new one, my MIT email address will change again to something even more obscure and secret. I hate spam. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So do all of us. And its no secret that the slimy characters who rip off email addresses find TELECOM Digest to be easy pickings since there are still a few of the regulars here who are willing to use their real names and email addresses (as I do). I refuse to make the **decent guys** here (most all) have to go through hoops to be able to correspond with each other on topics here. The default here has always been 'email addresses included, notify me to have your address withheld as needed.' But some day soon the default is going to change to 'no email addresses included, notify me if you *do* want your address as part of the message'. Just as you now are expected to add a line at the start of your message (or by pre- arrangment tell me) to withhold your address, or include that request somewhere in your message, you'll have to start telling me in each message if you **do** want your email address used. And it would be a good idea to begin grepping and extracting all the names and email addreeses you find here, index them and save them for your ease in responding directly and privatly to each other, since once I start eliminating all addresses by default, I do not intend to impose on myself by forwarding mail back and forth between you. And my sincere thanks to all the list-making spammers who are gradually pushing me in that direction. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 10:24:27 EDT Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers In a message dated 24 Apr 2004 20:13:52 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) writes: > I'd like to know more about Western Union from the postwar era (WW II) > to the present. In the 1960s they had a microwave network, they even > launched satellites, and they had government defense contracts to > handle data networks. It would seem a natural for them to handle the > growing computer data transmissions, but it all ended up to AT&T. > > The only WU history I have is "The Story of Telecommunications" by > George Oslin. It is a starting point, but a weak one. Oslin somewhat > glosses over some very critical issues. He blames the FCC for > favoring AT&T at the expense of Western Union, poor management, labor > troubles, and the forced wartime merger of Postal Telegraph, but does > not get into adequate detail and the time periods are somewhat merged > together. The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company was definitely a second and did not have local service in many smaller places. > We know long distance phones rates declined after WW II. At some > point the cost of a voice call became cheaper than sending a telegram; > I wonder when that point was reached (my guess is the late 1950s). > It's amazing how in old movies people contact home with urgent > messages by telegram rather than voice long distance, but in the 1940s > long distance was still very expensive, especially for more distant > calls. (I think short haul long distance was more affordable.) Western Union provided a telephone service, primarily long distance, for many years before and after World War II. In old advertisements you will find some companies advertised "W.U. Phone." It apparently worked much like a toll terminal from the Bell System and other established telcos, which were direct to/from the inward and outward toll boards, plugged in manually by the toll operator. The Daily Oklahoman in the late 1940s-1950s had a *group* of toll terminals which were reached as L.D. 343 (connected to the manual PBX) as well as L.D. 419 which went directly to the city editor's desk ... Presumably the arrangement was not uncommon among other businesses with a good deal of toll traffic. One thing that hurt W.U. in later years was the growth of businesses to areas outside the CBD. Most businesses of any size had a teletypewriter connection to/from the main W.U. office in town to send and receive telegrams, and W.U. had extensive wire networks through the CBD and other heavy user areas. But as businesses moved further out, they had to rely on the incumbent telco to lease them lines for these WUX terminals, since it wasn't economically feasible to install their own copper over such wide ranging areas. (For W.U., as for telcos, the lion's share of the revenue came from business users.) Actually, the telcos gave W.U. numerous breaks, including billing for telegrams placed by telephone on your telephone bill (yes, and even from coin boxes, where the operator would collect the coins just as for a telephone call). AT&T and its subsidiaries, in particular, wanted to preserve W.U. as a competitor, if for nothing else to avoid being the only option for communications and even more open to charges of monopoly. They sold TWX to W.U., which eventually (but probably too late) integrated it with their Telex system. W.U. also became a competitive long distance carrier after that came into the picture, and at one time I knew their 10XXX prefix. But the message telegraph business, requiring labor to type up the messages, and then to deliver them physically, was inherently high cost. Telephone subscribers enter their messages themselves (by speaking directly to the other customer, with no transcription or delivery functions involved). (In an earlier day, telegrams were sent by telegraph operators using Morse code; this required not one but two operators, one at the receiving end as well at the transmitting end, so even more costly.) > FWIW, WU says a telegram today costs $15 to send, it will be delivered > by an express company. I _think_ a telegram still has more legal > weight as an "official" message over a fax; kind of the equivalent of > a certified letter where you need proof of sending and receipt of your > message. I don't know how many people send telegrams today; their > business is money transfers and other bill paying services. Note the > original Western Union went bankrupt some years ago which was covered > up by creating a parent corporation to file to keep their name clean. I thought W.U. had given up the message telegram business entirely and no longer had any circuits of its own. I have read several places that you can't send (or receive) a telegram now in the U.S.A., but it might be obscurely available. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Back in the days when '900 Premium service' was a big thing and AT&T was one of several carriers which billed for those calls via telephone bills, AT&T decided it wanted out, since the fraud rate was so high and the customer service requirements of dealing with dirty old men with bad memories who could never remember making 'those calls' when questioned by their wives, etc were so labor intensive. A couple of the porn vendors who were relying heavily on AT&T billing for their 900 calls filed suit to force AT&T to continue that billing arrangement. They claimed it was the only convenient and practical way for them to get their money. AT&T said 'we are not in the collection agency business'. But the argument in court by the porn vendors was to rely on the 'precedent' set by the relationship between WUTCO and Bell to insist that it was 'perfectly common for AT&T to engage in doing collecting as a phone bill item on information services, i.e. Western Union'. I imagine Bell never thought that arrangement made back in the 1920's would ever show up to bite them in the ass seventy years later. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Phil Earnhardt Subject: Re: How to Return a Lost Cellular Telephone Found on the Street Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 09:24:08 -0600 Organization: Kaos OnLine Coalition On 23 Apr 2004 18:56:42 -0400, Don Saklad wrote: > How would you return a lost cellular telephone you found ?... > Where would there be postage paid mailers provided for returning > someone's lost cellular telephone you find on the street ? ... As other posters have demonstrated, there's no specific procedure for doing this. There are two services I know of which provide a specific mechanism to get valuables such as cell phones returned to you. If you believe their marketing pitch, having such tags on your valuables will increase the odds that they will be returned to you. They both address the problem: how can you provide a mechanism to return valuables without providing identification information (e.g., an address/phone number on a tag on a keychain could cause the keys to be abused). The products these companies provide are similar: professional labels which securely attach to your valuables. There is a unique identifier, an 800 number, and a URL on each tag. The finder of an object is given instructions on how to return it to the service company, who will then return it to you. The companies are StuffBak ( www.stuffbak.com ) and BoomerangIt ( www.boomerangit.com ). I have not used either service; I'd love to hear first-hand stories from subscribers to these -- or other similar services. --phil ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 13:36:16 -0400 Subject: Senate Mulls Internet Tax Ban Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1572745,00.asp By Caron Carlson The U.S. Senate is slated to vote this week whether or not to renew a ban that keeps state and local governments from taxing Internet access. But Internet services, particularly VOIP, are likely to get snared in the debate as a potential tax target not to be covered by the ban. The Internet access tax moratorium, first enacted in 1998, expired in the fall. As senators look to renew the ban, they have to consider the changes in broadband technology that have made high-speed access affordable to small and midsize businesses. The U.S. House of Representatives last fall voted to ban taxes on Internet access permanently and limit discriminatory taxes on Internet services. The Senate, however, reached a stalemate when a small group of senators fought to protect states' taxation rights. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former governor, was the most vocal champion for the states and is sponsoring a limited extension of the moratorium for two years. This week, Alexander will press to reach a compromise, and a middle ground could be found in the area of voice over IP, an aide to the senator said. Although the technology industry and many policymakers view VOIP as a software application that should not be subject to traditional telecom regulation, states widely view it as a potential substitute for traditional telephony; such a stance could sap states of considerable revenue. Full story at: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1572745,00.asp 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/ ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #208 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 26 11:25:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3QFPEC01824; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:25:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:25:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404261525.i3QFPEC01824@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 #209 TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:25:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 209 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson A New Day for Voice (VOIP News) FCC Taps 8x8 for Washington, DC Video-Over-IP Demonstration (VOIP News) Net2Phone and Navini to Offer Wireless VoIP Company Charter (VOIP News) $10 M Wireless Telecom Network Proposed for Lower Manhattan (Nick Ruark) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Jim Haynes) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Bob Goudreau) Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out (Keith) President Bush: Internet Sales Tax Moratorium to be Continued (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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 00:17:27 -0400 Subject: A New Day for Voice Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.techcentralstation.com/042604C.html By Kevin Werbach Quick. What technology has two billion paying customers worldwide, generates over $300 billion in annual service revenues in the US, and is so important to daily life and business that we'd have a hard time functioning without it? No, not the Internet, the personal computer, or even the television. It's the humble telephone. So it's no small news that the telephone is facing its biggest revolution since Alexander Graham Bell called out for Mr. Watson. The four letters spelling out that revolution are: V-O-I-P. Voice over Internet Protocol means carrying phone calls and other forms of voice communication over data networks. It will have profound impacts on the economy, and on the way we work, socialize, get information, and entertain ourselves. It will power a transformation of the telecom industry, and of the entire information sector that depends upon it. It will generate enormous benefits for innovation, business efficiency, and individual freedom. That is, if politicians and government regulators don't smother it. And that, in a nutshell, is the rationale for this new section of Tech Central Station, focused on the important policy questions surrounding VOIP. Our goal is to make it the central meeting place for intellectuals, businesspeople, commentators, and other thought leaders concerned with this issue. Telecommunications is among the most heavily regulated segments of the economy. VOIP points towards the day when competitive free markets can replace that regulation, but we face a challenging transition to reach that point. Today's VOIP is like the early mammals scurrying around the feet of the dinosaurs: it will inherit the Earth as long as it isn't stamped out in its infancy. Full story at: http://www.techcentralstation.com/042604C.html 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:59:36 -0400 Subject: FCC Taps 8x8 for Washington, DC Video-Over-IP Demonstration Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-26-2004/0002159352&EDATE= Packet8 VoIP Video Devices Will Change the Way People Communicate and Dramatically Improve the Quality of Life and Accessibility for all SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- 8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), the Packet8 broadband voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and video communications service provider, announced today that Dr. Barry Andrews, 8x8's President, will present and demonstrate the benefits of next-generation IP-communications services for disabled citizens at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Solutions Summit on Friday, May 7, 2004. This Solutions Summit is the second in a series where government, industry leaders and stakeholders discuss creative ways to address policy issues that arise as communications services move to Internet-Protocol-based platforms. This meeting will focus on the ways in which persons with disabilities access services that will be increasingly based upon IP technologies. 8x8 plans to demonstrate the DV326 videophone with Packet8 service to illustrate how IP-based technologies can help consumers with hearing and other disabilities communicate more completely. Dr. Andrews stated, "IP-based services with real-time, two-way TV-quality video will change the way all people communicate and operate every day in society." Dr. Andrews continued, "The FCC is looking into how people living with disabilities will be able to access these new IP-based services. We believe that rich media devices like the 8x8 DV326 that include video and other data services will actually improve the accessibility of those with disabilities to communication networks, and additionally provide unprecedented access to the physicians, careworkers, family and other remote parties that need to care for the disabled on a regular basis." The summit is open to the public, and seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis. The FCC is recommending that attendees submit a pre-registration form. Pre-registration is encouraged, but not required. The pre-registration form is located at: http://www.fcc.gov/voip/. About 8x8, Inc. 8x8, Inc. offers the Packet8 broadband voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and video communications service (http://www.packet8.net), Packet8 Virtual Office and videophone equipment and services. For more information, visit 8x8's web site at http://www.8x8.com. About Packet8 Launched in 2002, Packet8 enables anyone with high-speed Internet access to sign up for voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and video communications service at http://www.packet8.net. Customers can choose a direct-dial phone number from any of the rate centers offered by the service, and then use an 8x8-supplied terminal adapter to connect any telephone to a broadband internet connection and make or receive calls from a regular telephone number. For $19.95/month, Packet8 subscribers can make unlimited calls to any telephone number in the United States and Canada, and unlimited calls to any other Packet8 subscriber anywhere in the world. All Packet8 accounts come with voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, call waiting caller ID, call forwarding, hold, line-alternate, 3-way conferencing, web access to account controls, and real-time online billing. Packet8 Virtual Office allows users anywhere in the world to be part of a virtual PBX that includes auto attendants, conference bridges, extension-to-extension dialing, ring groups and a host of other high end business class PBX features while still following true to Packet8 unlimited calling anywhere in the United States and Canada. NOTE: 8x8, the 8x8 logo, Packet8, the Packet8 logo and Packet8 Virtual Office are trademarks of 8x8, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SOURCE 8x8, Inc. Web Site: http://www.8x8.com http://www.packet8.net http://www.fcc.gov/voip ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:21:23 -0400 Subject: Net2Phone and Navini to Offer Wireless VoIP Companies Charter Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040426005365&newsLang=en Net2Phone and Navini to Offer Wireless VoIP Companies Charter the Next Wave of Wi-Fi Expansion with Telephony Bundle NEWARK, N.J. & RICHARDSON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 26, 2004--Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP) and Navini Networks, a leading Non-Line-of-Sight wireless broadband provider, today announced plans to empower wireless broadband connectivity with telephony services. The companies will jointly deliver Net2Phone's broadband telephony services over Navini's wireless broadband infrastructure, extending the flexibility and mobility of VoIP calling. Under this agreement, Navini and Net2Phone will offer VoIP telephony solutions to Navini's wireless broadband customers. Net2Phone has adapted its residential broadband telephony solution called VoiceLine to enable communications over wireless IP networks. VoiceLine provides a robust set of features and functionality, including inbound and outbound calling with applications such as phone number selection, call waiting, caller ID and voice mail. Calls are routed over Navini's Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (WMAN) solution to Net2Phone's SIP-based platform, which performs call routing and management, supplies CLASS 5 features, provides billing and provisioning integration and distributes the infrastructure required for interconnecting onto and off of the Public Switched Telephone Network. Customers can place and receive local, long distance and international phone calls miles from the Navini Ripwave Base Station while stationary or portable throughout Navini's wireless metropolitan area broadband network. "Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks are clearly the next frontier for Net2Phone, as we extend our reach beyond the wired world," said Bryan Wiener, President of Net2Phone Global Services. "Navini's technological leadership in the space and superior support for QoS will allow Net2Phone to continue its leadership position in providing high quality VoIP solutions to telecom and high speed data providers across the globe." Wide area wireless broadband has become a viable alternative for customers to receive high-speed Internet access in rural areas and areas with low high-speed data availability where wired broadband is not an option. For Net2Phone, extending its retail VoIP offerings to the wireless environment enables Net2Phone to ride the wave of wireless broadband deployments by offering a bundle of telephony in conjunction with a high-speed wireless data product. Further enhancements to wireless VoIP will likely include VoIP enabled mobile handsets that allow consumers and business users to use the VoiceLine service anytime they are within the coverage footprint. Full press release at: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040426005365&newsLang=en ------------------------------ From: Nick Ruark Subject: $10 M Wireless Telecom Network Propsed For Lower Manhattan Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 20:26:07 -0700 A Plan for Wireless Telecommunications Network By JOHN HOLUSHA A WIRELESS telecommunications system that would keep Lower Manhattan's computers and phones connected with the rest of the world in the event of a major disruption downtown has been proposed by officials of the Alliance for Downtown New York. (http://www.downtownny.com/) The proposed system would send signals through the air, rather than through fiber-optic cables or copper wires and would be the first such system in a central business district in the country, according to executives of the alliance, the downtown business improvement group. The signals would be sent to switching centers in Manhattan and some other location, probably in New Jersey, to ensure that if there is damage in one location, connections would be maintained through the links to other centers. The Lower Manhattan Wireless Redundancy System http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/articleView.cfm?articlenumber=993 is intended to carry data, like stock and bond trading and banking transactions, but could be used for voice communications, if necessary, they said. However, the system requires an investment of $10 million in public money to install the basic components -- roof-top antennas and the structure to keep them in place. The system and other initiatives are part of a strategy by the alliance to use communications technology to increase the attractiveness of the area to small and medium-size companies that want reliable connections, but cannot afford to develop systems on their own. The issue of reliability is an important one downtown because the Sept. 11 attack cut off many companies, even those who had multiple carriers, because all their wires connected at 140 West Street, which was heavily damaged. "We looked at what Merrill Lynch and other large companies did to develop private networks," after the World Trade Center attack, said John J. Gilbert, the executive vice president of Rudin Management and chairman of a committee that studied the communications problem and recommended the new backup system. He said they relied on high speed data transmission through the air, which is called broadband wireless, to locations outside the city to ensure that their operations remain connected, regardless of the emergency. "Broadband wireless is here," Mr. Gilbert said. "The question is, how do we provide access to small and medium-size business? As we rebuild the telecommunications system downtown, we do not want to do it as it was; we want to do it as it should be." Shirley Jaffe, vice president of economic development for the alliance, said the group had been making presentations to the city, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and other institutions of government to secure the financing needed to build the basic system, which could be used by multiple telephone companies. Because of this, no single telephone company is willing to make the investment. "It has a lot of support from business, but we still need an entity of government to pay for it," she said. With billions being spend to rebuild downtown, Ms. Jaffe said, "$10 million is a relatively modest amount of money." She added, "We could be in operation within six months, and it would have a major positive impact in the short term." The system would cover all of Lower Manhattan by installing antennas and related equipment on five of the tallest buildings in the area, which are called hubs. Planners said just about every office in the area would be able to "see" one of the hubs, either through a window or by a common antenna operated by the landlord near the top of a building. The hubs would collect the communications signals and transmit them to what is known as a Point of Presence, or POP, which is a large switching location connected by various types of links -- wires, fiber-optic cables and microwave links - to national and international telecommunications networks. The transmission would be to POP's in multiple locations to ensure reliability. The transmissions would use both laser light in the not-visible infrared wavelengths and radio microwaves to add to reliability, Mr. Gilbert said. He said using both compensated for light's inability to penetrate fog and the tendency of microwave beams to spread out and grow unfocused. Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/realestate/25COMM.html Forwarded from the Private Wireless Forum for Mobile Communication Professionals http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivateWirelessForum ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 23:50:32 GMT I too wish I could read somewhere about the late history of W.U. What's in the business press is pretty sketchy. Back on the subject of 19th century telegraphers, there is a more recent book, "My sisters telegraphic : women in the telegraph office, 1846-1950" by Thomas C. Jepsen, Ohio University Press. Concerning the business relationship between AT&T and W.U., Oslin's book says some of that started back when AT&T bought a controlling interest in W.U. and introduced the practice of accepting telegrams by telephone and having them appear on the phone bill. And that practice was continued even after the government forced AT&T to divest W.U. Of course at that point the new president of W.U., Newcomb Carlton, was hand-picked by Theodore Vail of AT&T. Some of the later W.U. presidents were hired from railroad companies and didn't know the telegraph business at all. The outstanding late president of W.U. was Walter Marshall, who ironically came to W.U. as part of the merger with Postal Telegraph. The last president of W.U. was a man who came up through the ranks starting as a messenger boy (trying unsuccessfully to remember his name right now). Perhaps he was the only one who could be found who would wear the captain's hat as the ship went down. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Bob Goudreau Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:50:45 -0400 [Please obscure my email address as usual. Thanks.] Linc Madison wrote: >> By the way -- the next time someone tries to argue that Amtrak should >> be getting a direct subsidy to level the playing field with all those >> public highways and interstates, you might point them to the $30 >> Billion every year that US taxpayers are paying for those roads. > Exactly the point -- the public highways and interstates are subsidized > by the taxpayers, tilting the playing field. To *level* the playing > field, we should subsidize rail travel, too. So, you are advocating charging additional taxes on rail users as a way of making rail *more* attractive? To *really* level the playing field, divert part of those rail taxes to pay for roads. After all, a portion of road fuel taxes is already diverted to other forms of transportation. Bob Goudreau Cary, NC ------------------------------ From: Keith Subject: Re: Bad Weather Storm; Vonage Goes Out Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2004 22:54:35 -0400 Pat, Yeah as others have mentioned, use a UPS. I have both a 650 and 1000 for a couple different computers. I have my cable modem and wireless router+switch on my UPS. It's pretty neat to be online surfing when the power is out to the house. With this being said, I think this is a good argument for why I would never get rid of a normal regular POTS line at home. I hear people replacing their home phones with cell phones, with VOIP phones, etc. I've got a regular el cheapo corded plugged in that takes power from the line. The uptime experienced in the voice world kicks butt over anything in the data world. Keith TELECOM Digest Editor wrote in message news:telecom23.206.12@telecom-digest.org... > My questions are: since battery will keep computers going temporarily, > and assuming one's cable line/or phone and DSL line was working, I am > wondering if one could not run a battery to the Motorola MTA and the > router and keep your Vonage on line even when the computers otherwise > are shut down? > PAT [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But a good flip side of this argument is that an independent UPS or power supply eliminates another of the excuses for the 'why Vonage could never replace traditional Bell' things, doesn't it. When the UPS is properly configured, since the 'telephone' line (DSL in this instance) is so reliable, Vonage is also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: President Bush 'No Internet Taxes' Promise Today Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:00 CDT As I compiled/edited this issue of the Digest, President Bush was speaking (over the satellite radio, from a university in Minnesota) and promising that if he is re-elected in November, the moratorium on 'taxes on sales over the internet' will be continued. Of course Bush has occassionally (?) been sometimes less than forthright in his statements and promises so it remains to be seen how this will work out when the present moratorium (established for five years in 1998-99) expires later this year. But note your records please, he is promising it today at the all-day event in Minnesota. PAT ------------------------------ 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #209 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon Apr 26 17:02:06 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3QL26G04818; Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:02:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:02:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404262102.i3QL26G04818@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 #210 TELECOM Digest Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:02:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 210 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #430, April 26, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) A Digital Video Recorder Leader Lags (Monty Solomon) A Quirky Brilliance vs. the Dreams of Venture Capitalists (M. Solomon) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Lisa Hancock) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (J Kelly) Northern Telecom Unity Controller Question (Doug Rorem) VoIP Analogy (Lisa Hancock) Dialpad Launches New Broadband Phone Service (VOIP News) SBC Sues AT&T Over Internet Phone Fees (VOIP News) Linksys Finds its Voice (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: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:21:32 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #430, April 26, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 430: April 26, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Aliant Strike Begins ** CRTC Extends VoIP Review Schedule ** GT Bundles LD with Voice Trunks ** Navigata Launches Local VoIP Service ** Canada Payphone Files for Bankruptcy ** Celestica to Lay Off Another 5,000 ** AT&T Must Pay Fees on "Phone to Phone" IP Calls ** Cities Want Oral Hearing on Allstream Disputes ** Telco Confidentiality Rules Extended to Resellers ** UBS Sues Allstream, Microcell, and Inukshuk ** Motorola Licenses Blackberry Software ** Shaw Offers Global Internet Roaming ** Telus Launches Fast Dial-Up ** Meeting to Review 9-1-1 and VoIP ** EastLink Says Aliant Flouting CRTC Order ** MCI Emerges from Chapter 11 ** FCI Broadband Names New CEO ** Rogers Provides Listings by Text ** UTStarcom Buying Vancouver CDMA Developer ** Telehop Plans Expansion ** Rogers Wireless Operating Profit Up 42% ** Angus at the Podium ============================================================ ALIANT STRIKE BEGINS: 4,300 members of the Council of Atlantic Telecommunications Unions went on strike against Aliant on April 23. Aliant says it will maintain service, but customers should expect delays. CRTC EXTENDS VoIP REVIEW SCHEDULE: In response to requests from telcos and PIAC (see Telecom Update #429), the CRTC has extended the timetable for the VoIP proceeding. Comments and evidence must now be filed by June 18 (instead of April 28), and the public consultation will be September 21-22 (instead of May 19-20). Parties will exchange interrogatories and replies over the summer. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Letters/2004/lt040422.htm ** So far, 113 interested parties have registered to participate in or monitor the VoIP proceeding. www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/public/Iplists/pn04-02.htm GT BUNDLES LD WITH VOICE TRUNKS: GT Group Telecom now offers 1,000 minutes of North American long distance calling with each $53.95/month business trunk (minimum three trunks), and 17,000 minutes with T-1 local voice access, in 16 Canadian cities where it sells local service. NAVIGATA LAUNCHES LOCAL VoIP SERVICE: SaskTel subsidiary Navigata Communications has begun offering local phone service over high-speed Internet lines in eight B.C. and Alberta cities. WebCall is initially available in two packages, bundled with 400 or 1,000 minutes of North American long distance for $29.95 or $39.95 a month. A $49.95/month version with multimedia features is "coming soon." CANADA PAYPHONE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY: Canada Payphone Corporation, the last remaining competitive payphone provider of any size, has requested and received court protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. The company says it will file a restructuring plan proposal by May 7. Appel & Co. is trustee. CELESTICA TO LAY OFF ANOTHER 5,000: Toronto-based Celestica, which makes electronic components, says it will lay off about 5,000 employees--up to 15% of its work force--over the next 12 months. First-quarter revenue of US$2.0 billion was up 27% from a year earlier. AT&T MUST PAY FEES ON "PHONE TO PHONE" IP CALLS: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has ruled that AT&T must pay access fees when its LD calls originate and terminate on traditional PSTN-connected phones, even when the calls travel in part on the Internet. www.fcc.gov CITIES WANT ORAL HEARING ON ALLSTREAM DISPUTES: Toronto and Calgary have asked the CRTC for a "more court-like procedure," including an oral hearing and the right to cross- examine witnesses, when it considers Allstream's application to amend their municipal access agreements (see Telecom Update #424). The cities say the issues cannot be dealt with fairly in a written proceeding. ** Edmonton, Vancouver, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities have asked for standing in the proceedings. TELCO CONFIDENTIALITY RULES EXTENDED TO RESELLERS: The CRTC says resellers must abide by the rules prohibiting disclosure of confidential customer information without the customer's express consent (see Telecom Update #386). The requirement is imposed through carriers' current and future contracts with resellers. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/dt2004-27.htm UBS SUES ALLSTREAM, MICROCELL, AND INUKSHUK: In the continuing dispute over who has the right to use Inukshuk Internet's 2.5 MHz spectrum, Unique Broadband Systems has filed suit against Allstream, Microcell, and Inukshuk Internet, seeking $150 million in damages. (See Telecom Update #384, 409, 423) MOTOROLA LICENSES BLACKBERRY SOFTWARE: Research in Motion has signed an agreement that allows Motorola to enable specific mobile phones to connect to BlackBerry services. SHAW OFFERS GLOBAL INTERNET ROAMING: Shaw Communications Internet customers can now get roaming access in 100 countries, through a service provided by Minneapolis-based RemotePipes, Inc. TELUS LAUNCHES FAST DIAL-UP: Telus now offers dial-up access at up to 280 Kbps in Alberta and B.C. Fast Dial-Up, which uses data compression technology from SlipStream, costs $2.95/month on top of existing fees; it will be offered in Quebec this summer. MEETING TO REVIEW 9-1-1 AND VoIP: The National Emergency Number Association will hold a "Critical Issues Forum" on E9-1-1 and Voice over IP in Markham, Ontario, May 18-20. The meeting, co-located with the VON Canada conference, will update telecom and public safety personnel on current and future plans for 9-1-1 systems. www.nena.org/Events/CIF/CIF.htm EASTLINK SAYS ALIANT FLOUTING CRTC ORDER: EastLink says Aliant is still offering the Value Packages that the CRTC ruled in Decision 2004-21 must be tariffed (see Telecom Update #427). EastLink accuses the telco of "regulatory gaming" and "disregard for Commission rules." www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2004/8622/e17_200403650.htm MCI EMERGES FROM CHAPTER 11: MCI shed US$35 billion in debt April 20 when it formally emerged from U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company, which has 50,000 employees, says it lost none of its 100 largest customers during bankruptcy proceedings. FCI BROADBAND NAMES NEW CEO: FCI Broadband, a Markham-based Competitive Local Exchange Carrier, has named Nick Melatti as its new President and Chief Executive Officer. ROGERS PROVIDES LISTINGS BY TEXT: Rogers Wireless customers who call Directory Assistance now receive the name, address, and phone number listing by text message at no additional cost. UTSTARCOM BUYING VANCOUVER CDMA DEVELOPER: Telos Technology, a Vancouver-based supplier of CDMA network technology, is being acquired by UTStarcom, a California-based specialist in IP access networking, for between $29 million and $48 million, depending on future revenue. TELEHOP PLANS EXPANSION: Telehop, a Toronto-based long distance reseller, says it plans to expand this year into the Maritimes, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. ROGERS WIRELESS OPERATING PROFIT UP 42%: Rogers Wireless reports first-quarter operating profit of $217 million, 42% higher than a year ago. Sales rose 19% to $593 million. A net loss of $1.0 million was attributed to currency fluctuations. Monthly postpaid disconnects declined to 1.73%; data services accounted for 4.9% of network revenue. ** Rogers Communications lost $65 million on revenue of $1.26 billion. ANGUS AT THE PODIUM: Principals of Angus Telemanagement and Angus Dortmans Associates will speak at several events in May: ** Henry Dortmans speaks on "Your Call Centre Credibility Quotient" at the Alberta Call Centre Association conference in Edmonton, May 12, and on "Call Centre Leadership" at the International Customer Service Association conference in Toronto, May 19. ** Ian Angus speaks on "Implementing Enterprise IP-PBXs" at customer meetings organized by SaskTel in Regina and Saskatoon, May 18 and 19, and moderates a session on the same subject at the VON Canada conference in Toronto, May 20. ** For information on booking Angus speakers for your next meeting, visit www.angustel.ca/SeminarsKeynotes.html or e-mail ianangus@angustel.ca. ============================================================ 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. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 13:48:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Digital Video Recorder Leader Lags Tales of digital video recorders, devices that record television programs on a hard drive, are finally gaining momentum, a study by IDC, a market research firm, has found. But TiVo, the company that popularized the concept, is increasingly being left behind by the success. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/business/media/26MOSTWANTED.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 13:55:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: A Quirky Brilliance vs. the Dreams of Venture Capitalists By SAUL HANSELL Not every company would coyly spurn billions of dollars and front-page attention. Yet Google seems intent on staying private as long as possible despite the clamoring of investors to own a piece of a company that has become synonymous with instant information on the Web. There are many good reasons to avoid a public stock offering and the close scrutiny it brings. Indeed, this week the scrutiny will intensify as the company approaches a deadline to file financial disclosures. But in Google's case, its hesitancy up to this point has been a symptom of a long-running battle for control between its two brainy, headstrong founders and the powerful, strong-willed financiers who gave them the money to turn their graduate school project into one of the world's leading brands, according to several people in and outside Google. The two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who own perhaps 40 percent of the company, could become billionaires several times over if they take it public. But according to people who have dealt with them, they are less interested in cashing out than in maintaining their ability to direct Google's ambitious strategy and idiosyncratic style. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/26/technology/26google.html ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: 26 Apr 2004 07:39:50 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Wesrock@aol.com wrote > Western Union provided a telephone service, primarily long distance, > for many years before and after World War II. Was this a common thing or limited to a few special places? I didn't think WU's circuits could handle voice that well -- voice requires more bandwidth than telegraph (either Morse or Baudot), and that means repeaters, loading, switching, all must take that into account. One of the challenges that the Bell System faced with direct distance dialing (and operator dialing before that) was the proper set up of amplication into the circuit. Too much or too little would make the call inaudible or create nasty echo. The Bell System history (1925-1975) spends considerable space describing what had to be over come. To provide long distance voice, WU would have to do that same stuff, which would be expensive if not their primary business. > One thing that hurt W.U. in later years was the growth of > businesses to areas outside the CBD. Most businesses of any size > had a teletypewriter connection to/from the main W.U. office in town > to send and receive telegrams, and W.U. had extensive wire networks > through the CBD and other heavy user areas. This is true, but I think WU's decline -- in the 1960s -- happened before that many businesses moved out to the suburbs. There were still plenty of traditional customers (banks, newspapers) in the downtown who would make use of WU's plant. I sense that WU, despite having microwave and even satellites, wasn't that interested in its own wire plant, and leased considerable circuits from AT&T pretty early on. Perhaps its city wire plant was old and need of upgrade or replacement but they didn't have the funds or see a justification in the 1960s. > AT&T and its subsidiaries, in particular, wanted to preserve > W.U. as a competitor, if for nothing else to avoid being the only > option for communications and even more open to charges of monopoly. > They sold TWX to W.U., which eventually (but probably too late) > integrated it with their Telex system. Oslin feels the FCC favored AT&T's TWX to the extent it hurt WU's Telex; it was sold way too late to make a difference. > W.U. also became a competitive long distance carrier after > that came into the picture, and at one time I knew their 10XXX > prefix. Again, one wonders why they didn't stick with this. Did they still have their microwave and satellites to use for this service? I remember WU long distance, but they didn't market it very hard and I don't think it lasted very long. Actually, unlike the Bell System which advertised heavily, I don't recall much WU advertising at all. But admittedly, they were focused more for business customers wouldn't advertise on mainstream consumer media. Still, I don't recall ads for them in publications targeting affluent or business customers. The only big thing I remember WU pushing in the 1970s was Mailgram, which they did push hard. I think that service was relatively successful; I know I received quite a few over the years from businesses. Compuserve in its early days had a Mailgram feature. > But the message telegraph business, requiring labor to type up > the messages, and then to deliver them physically, was inherently > high cost. Telephone subscribers enter their messages themselves > (by speaking directly to the other customer, with no transcription > or delivery functions involved). Telegrams remained big business until after WW II because long distance phone rates were so high and not everyone had phones. Once LD rates declined in the late 1950s, telegrams ceased to have an economic advertising. (I wonder in what year the rates balanced out.) > I thought W.U. had given up the message telegram business > entirely and no longer had any circuits of its own. I have read > several places that you can't send (or receive) a telegram now in > the U.S.A., but it might be obscurely available. I doubt they have any circuits of their own, transmitting everything over leased lines. They do offer telegram service, see www.westernunion.com . However, I think they only accept a message from on-line submission payable by credit card, not at any money transfer agents. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Back in the days when '900 Premium > service' was a big thing and AT&T was one of several carriers which > billed for those calls via telephone bills, AT&T decided it wanted > out, since the fraud rate was so high and the customer service > requirements of dealing with dirty old men with bad memories who > could never remember making 'those calls' when questioned by their > wives, etc were so labor intensive. ... I imagine > Bell never thought that arrangement made back in the 1920's would > ever show up to bite them in the ass seventy years later. PAT] One thing I wonder about is how AT&T dealt with toll charge complaints, both paid and collect, back in the days when long distance was very expensive. Keeping toll tickets and accurate recording of them was of course very important in those days. A toll charge of $2 in 1948 equated to $40 today; if someone called coast-to-coast and talked for 10 minutes, the charge would be quite considerable. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T did keep voluminous records on toll charges. As calls were completed and 'stamped out' they went on a clip and picked up from there by clerks who went around the various switchboard positions roughly every ten to fifteen minutes, twenty-four hours daily. A 'batch' of toll-charge tickets (maybe two or three hour's worth of tickets) were then numerically by time and telephone number *then microfilmed* prior to any further processing. This gave the company backup paper in the event of mishandling later in the processing. The microfilm machine printed indicia on each paper ticket which, combined with the time-clock stamps of 'up and down' gave a very good audit trail. Operator started a toll call, time-clock stamped the paper in; call completed and paper was stamped again, since all operator positions had a little time-clock as part of them. Now with the tickets microfilmed, the original paper work went to the 'ledger posting clerks' who traveled around the file room area with a shopping card size thing with boxes full of the paper tickets, arranged in numerical order, just as the warehouse full of filing cabinets were arranged; i.e. all the toll tickets beginning with the phone number '1' were in order with the files for same in the same order. All the '1's were here, all the '9's were over there a few aisles away, etc. As the ledger clerks pushed their shopping carts along it was sort of like 'reverse shopping'. Stop in front of the files for '1', open the drawer, riffle through the files for the telephone number you wanted, drop the slip of paper in the file, and then on the 'ledger page' on the front of each file, write in the amount of the latest charge, the other details, etc. Now close the file cabinet and move along. Maybe two hours later, when the ledger clerk had emptied her cart of tickets, she maybe went on break or to the bathroom, and then back to the microfilm area where the clerks there had been busy shoving stacks of new tickets into the microfilm machine which whirred along, spitting out microfilmed charge tickets with their indicia on them somewhere. She would load her shopping cart and set out again to the files area doing the same thing again. This went on 24/7. Of course now and then she would get to a queue of file cabinets -- let's say the '7's -- and they would be empty. Not a paper file jacket to be found anywhere. That's because the '7's were out in 'bookkeeping' (the bookkeepers had priority over *almost everyone* in the office; ledger clerks were only one step or so below them.) So then those tickets would be recycled for posting a day or so later, when the '7's files came back from bookkeeping. This was all in the 1930-50's era. The bookkeepers also traveled around the file room area daily, gathering up the files which were going to be 'in bookkeeping' for the next two or three days. They added up and balanced the ledger sheets and bundled up the charge tickets then used a 'comptometer' machine to print out the official bill the customers received. Did you ever hear of the 'Victor Comptom- eter Company'? Victor Comptometer was on the north side of Chicago and sold many of those rather large, heavy machines to companies which did heavy-duty financial stuff. The bookkeepers also printed reports of their activities each day for use by customer service people, toll misbilling investigators and others. The reason files had to be 'in bookkeeping' for three days (and thus unavailable to most of the other employees for *their* work) was because day one was to sort out the tickets and other charge/credit tickets within the files and microfilm them (in their new order) once again; day two was to caculate and balance the ledger sheets and begin printing the statements; day three was to 'finish up' and get the file folders back to the file room and in place. Customer service people were a little bit different. When they got a phone call from a customer at their desk, they put the call 'on hold' and walked into the file area where they located the file, sat down at a nearby utility desk in a stall, plugged in their headset to get the call back, and go over the parts of the bill the customer was questioning. If a ledger posting clerk was walking past and needed the file, she would just snap her fingers or otherwise make a hand motion, then reach over and take the file out of the service rep's hands, make the proper notation on the jacket, drop the ticket in the file and hand the folder back to the rep who was still conversing with the customer and walk away. Usually not a word exchanged. If the service rep went to look for the file and could not find it (because it was in bookkeeping) then she had to tell the customer some excuse such as "I cannot get your file right now, I will look for it and call you back in a day or two with the answer and correction, etc". No one ever took a file 'out of bookkeeping' without permission from the supervisor. 'Bookkeeping' released the file when they were done working on it. And if the rep was in the public cubicle reading the file and talking to the customer when a bookkeeper came around to get it she had the authority to just take it away as needed, but of course etiquette and courtesy dictated to ask the rep and not just take it out of her hands and walk away with it. It happened both ways; no one thought badly about it. Bookkeepers reigned supreme, and ledger posting clerks were a close second. It had to be that way to make the 'system' work as it should. And the overhead loud speaker would come on a few times each day asking service reps "please search on your desks for file (number) which is needed by bookkeeping. If you have the file, call a messenger to get it." Or maybe you came back from lunch prepared to work on that file, and discovered it had disappeared from your desk while you were at lunch. That was because the messenger/office mail carriers were authorized to riffle through *your personal stack of office files* when they came around a few times each day. They always carried with them a sheet of paper called a 'wind up' which was a list of the files (numbers) missing in action being searched for which were needed by other reps or the toll fraud investigators, etc, and those people had to wait in line behind the bookkeepers also. And despite all this, in the old days, customers were always right, had been misunderstood, etc. Telco wrote off some incredibly large debts because of 'misunderstandings'. Despite telco's very sophisticated filing/bookeeping system, it was always 'the service representative misunderstood your request' or 'our operator somehow copied down the wrong number when making up the toll ticket', or maybe, 'our operator somehow forgot to stamp out the ticket on your call which you claim lasted three minutes but our records show lasted for three hours'. Customers (called 'subs' or short for subscribers) would lie through their teeth and the company would say 'sorry, it was our fault' and give them credit anyway. Yes, many mistakes were the company's fault, but the customers were sort of abusive also. PAT] ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:04:51 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:45:57 +0000 (UTC), hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E Schaffer) wrote: > I'm with Clarence. We are considering replacing our 1987 Sears 27" > (something around that size) -- and one of our delays is trying to > decide on what aspect ratio we want or need (4:3 or 16:9). (That's > another thing which may change in the few years.) Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with 4:3. My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. PC Magazine just did an article on TV displays and they recommend 4:3 for most people unless they have a compelling reason to need 16:9. I really thought I wanted widescreen until I watched my dad's set for a couple of days. Now I just plan to buy a bigger 4:3 set, something large enough to still look okay for the widescreen stuff I do watch (mostly DVD's). ------------------------------ From: Doug Rorem Subject: Northern Telecom Unity Controller Question Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 14:09:51 -0500 Organization: The University of Illinois at Chicago Hello, I'm wondering if anyone has information on the pinouts for the 25 pair Amp connector to the Unity Controller console? [ours are wired for Parallel usage]. Thanks in advance! (the actual model number is NT4L14AB-35) Doug Rorem rorem@EXTRANEOUSuic.edu remove the EXTRANEOUS to contact me ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: VoIP Analogy Date: 26 Apr 2004 09:32:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. Imagine two grocery stores, A & B, located across a street from each other. "A" sells soda pop at 50c a can on a shelf. "B" sells chilled soda pop from a refrigerated display case at 75c a can. It was found that customers seeking a chilled soda would buy it from "A" at 50c, then go over and put it in the refrigerator at "B" to cool it. Thus, "B" ended up selling its competitor's product -- and extra expense -- but without the revenue. Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't mean that a service is free. The consumers putting soda in a frige to cool it think it isn't costing anything, but it really is, especially when adding up many consumers. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:59:31 -0400 Subject: Dialpad Launches New Broadband Phone Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-26-2004/0002159641&EDATE= Service Designed to Be Compatible With Multiple IP Phone Devices and Adaptors MILPITAS, Calif., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Dialpad Communications, Inc. (http://www.dialpad.com), a leading global provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, announced today that it has added a Broadband phone service to its suite of products and services. Dialpad customers equipped with a broadband Internet connection, such as Cable or DSL, can now make low-cost calls over the Internet using their standard phone and an adaptor device. With the broadband phone service, making a call is as easy as picking up the phone and dialing. Dialpad is offering the Cisco ATA 186 and the Sipura SPA2000 gateways for use with this service. Dialpad has also announced that in the coming months it will be adding other broadband phone devices to its offerings and rolling out several special calling features for its broadband phone users. "VoIP technology is changing how we think about communications. Not only are we able to provide huge cost savings to our users while making calls, but also are able to offer a service with a quality that is virtually indistinguishable from the traditional phone service. The addition of the broadband phone devices now makes it even easier for our users to access our service and gives them the increased comfort and familiarity of using their existing phones to make calls. We look forward to adding additional features to this product line over the course of the year," said Dialpad's CEO, Craig Walker. "As a leader in worldwide Internet telephony, Dialpad is in an excellent position to capitalize on the rapid growth in this industry." About Dialpad Communications(R) Dialpad Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of high-quality Internet calling services, generating over 300 million calls in more than 200 countries worldwide. Dialpad's patent-pending technology has made it the Internet's best phone call, with no large downloads or complicated installations required. The company is based in Milpitas, CA and can be reached at (408) 635-1000 or at http://www.dialpad.com. Dialpad Communications and Dialpad are trademarks of Dialpad Communications, Inc., and are registered in certain jurisdictions. This release was issued on behalf of the above organization by Send2Press(TM), a unit of Neotrope(R). http://www.Send2Press.com. SOURCE Dialpad Communications, Inc. Web Site: http://www.dialpad.com 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:52:49 -0400 Subject: SBC Sues AT&T Over Internet Phone Fees Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93163 Reuters WASHINGTON, April 23 (Reuters) - SBC Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. local phone company, has sued long-distance giant AT&T Corp. claiming it avoided paying at least $141 million in connection fees for calls carried partly over the Internet. The lawsuit by SBC, filed in a St. Louis federal court on Thursday, follows a ruling by federal regulators a day earlier that AT&T was improperly deeming long-distance calls it carried over the Internet as local calls and paying local phone companies lower fees than normal. SBC "seeks not only to recover the exchange access charges that AT&T has unlawfully avoided -- which SBC estimates to be at least $141 million and possibly much more -- but also to enjoin AT&T from perpetuating its unlawful conduct," the lawsuit said. AT&T was not immediately available for comment. Full story at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93163 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:37:04 -0400 Subject: Linksys Finds its Voice Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://news.com.com/2008-7352_3-5197172.html?part=rss&tag=feed&tag&subj=news By Winston Chai Special to CNET News.com If Victor Tsao has his way, your next broadband router could bear an uncanny resemblance to your living room telephone. Ten months after his company was bought by Cisco Systems for $500 million, the founder of consumer networking gear maker Linksys plans to embark on an aggressive product expansion trail this year. Beyond latching onto the digital entertainment wave with more offerings for multimedia streaming and wireless console gaming, Tsao will venture into an area where many before him have seen limited success -- Internet telephony. [.....] When do you plan to launch your VoIP products? We have a product right now -- an analog terminal adapter for VoIP. Within a month or two, we will work with some voice service providers in the U.S. to launch this product. That will be the first one. A lot more products will come out in the second part of this year. Full story at: http://news.com.com/2008-7352_3-5197172.html?part=rss&tag=feed&tag&subj=news ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #210 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 27 15:22:40 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3RJMdr14469; Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:22:40 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:22:40 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404271922.i3RJMdr14469@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 #211 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:21:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 211 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: VoIP Analogy (Dave Phelps) Re: VoIP Analogy (Jack Decker) Re: VoIP Analogy (Barry Margolin) New to VOIP, Can I Use workgroup Hub Instead of Router? (dannykewl) Re: The GMail Saga (John Mayson) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Mark Crispin) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Joseph) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Scott Dorsey) Qwest Drops Access Fees on 'Pure' VoIP (VOIP News) Qwest to Forgo Link-up Fee for Some Web Phone Calls (VOIP News) Nupoint Messenger 4.7 (RAH) LERG and NXX Routing Question (Brett N) Comcast Releasing its Own Set-Top Box (Monty Solomon) NAB Wrap-up (Monty Solomon) Under Assault: Cable is About to Get Whacked (Monty Solomon) Verizon Reports First-Quarter Revenue Growth of 3.9% (Monty Solomon) Digital Switch on Target Says BBC (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 22:53:51 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com There is something missing in your analogy. That is the fact that G (government) sets the price A pays to use B's refrigerator space. A does not have the financial capacity to purchase it's own refrigerator, which is required to offer cold soda. Therefore, A is required to rent refrigerator space from B to chill the soda. However, the price B gets to charge is set by G (the government). The question is not whether B is subsidizing A, but has G set a fair wholesale price for the refrigerator space? Knowing the answer to the second question will provide the answer to the first. If you listen to B's spin doctors, G has set the price too low. If you listen to A's spin doctors, G has set the price too high. In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com says: > Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying > its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing > much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. > Imagine two grocery stores, A & B, located across a street from > each other. > "A" sells soda pop at 50c a can on a shelf. "B" sells chilled > soda pop from a refrigerated display case at 75c a can. It was > found that customers seeking a chilled soda would buy it from "A" > at 50c, then go over and put it in the refrigerator at "B" to > cool it. Thus, "B" ended up selling its competitor's product -- > and extra expense -- but without the revenue. > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer > pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't > mean that a service is free. > The consumers putting soda in a frige to cool it think it isn't > costing anything, but it really is, especially when adding up many > consumers. Dave Phelps DD Networks www.ddnets.com deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 23:49:17 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Pat, please withhold my e-mail address as usual. On 26 Apr 2004 09:32:30 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying > its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing > much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. I won't quote the entire grocery store analogy again, but without further clarification it makes very little sense to me at all. Who are the two grocery stores supposed to represent? What does the pop represent? I guess what I'm saying is that this analogy doesn't seem to be truly applicable to anything I'm aware of! > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer > pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't > mean that a service is free. Okay, I'm getting really sick of hearing this sort of nonsense. When someone makes a statement like that, my thought is that he's either an idiot or a penny pincher. "Pure" VoIP is simply data flowing over the Internet. As far as the Internet is concerned, it is no different from e-mail, instant messaging, web browsing, reading Usenet news, or any of the hundreds of other types of data that can be sent over the Internet. Now one could argue that it uses more bandwidth than the activities I just named, but then I could counter with examples like streaming audio, streaming video, large file downloads, online gaming, and certain other activities that people engage in. And we're not even talking about certain types of commercial and institutional usage that consume enormous amounts of bandwidth. To give but one example, there is a particular streaming audio feed that I listen to from time to time -- it just happens to play a type of music I enjoy when I'm in the right mood. The feed just happens to be in London, England. So I am using bandwidth on a transatlantic circuit just for my own enjoyment. Don't tell the penny-pinching telecom director, he'd probably have a heart attack (by the way, Lisa, I'm just curious, does anyone in your workplace listen to streaming audio feeds while working?). All VoIP is, when you get right down to it, is two-way streaming audio. But note that with VoIP, we're only looking for voice grade quality, not FM music quality, so the speech can be highly compressed. Furthermore, I believe that most VoIP protocols actually don't transmit "silence" during pauses in speech, and the VoIP adapters use "comfort noise generation" to fool you into thinking you're hearing background noise from the other end for the duration of the call. So a 20 minute VoIP call probably uses a LOT less bandwidth than if I listen to the streaming audio feed from London for 20 minutes (and when I have that feed on, it's usually for longer than 20 minutes!). > The consumers putting soda in a fridge to cool it think it isn't > costing anything, but it really is, especially when adding up many > consumers. Well, if I'm understanding the point being made here, this gets down to the old "measured service" vs. "flat rate" argument. Certainly, it does cost to add bandwidth to an Internet link. But it's not necessarily a recurring monthly cost (at least for the owner of the fiber, or whatever underlying transport medium is used) -- once the added capacity is installed, it can probably work for years. Now, if a company buys bandwidth on a metered basis (where they pay so much per gigabyte transferred, for example), then yes, the use of VoIP might cause their costs to increase a small amount (but I would bet the amount would be negligible compared to what they'd save in toll charges). It should be noted that most home users pay a flat monthly rate and get either unlimited usage, or usage with a fairly large cap (such caps are very controversial because often the broadband provider won't tell customers how much they're allowed to download before they've exceeded the cap!). Now as for those unfortunate users with usage caps, I have yet to hear anyone complain that the use of VoIP alone caused them to exceed their cap and get a nastygram from their ISP. Typically the people who are most affected by the caps are those who engage in extensive file trading (particularly of the type of files frowned upon by certain organizations with four-letter acronyms). Some people seem to object to VoIP because it's a commercial service -- someone dares to charge money and then use the Internet for transport! Well my take on that is, each and every broadband subscriber is paying for "transport service", and should therefore be able to use that transport for anything that can be converted to bits and bytes (with certain exceptions that have nothing to do with what we're talking about). One person uses their bandwidth for real-time online gaming, another for buying and selling on eBay, another for watching Major League Baseball games -- and note that all of those activities may involve payment to another entity, above and beyond the bandwidth. So far, to the best of my knowledge, no one has suggested that when Major League Baseball sells a $14.95/month subscription to MLB.TV off their web site, they should kick back some amount to the ISP. When you buy a book from Amazon, no one complains that they are getting a free ride because you're using the Internet to browse their catalog. When some gaming company sells a subscription to an interactive online game service, nobody seems to question that. And yet, let someone do two-way audio over the Internet for the purpose of voice communications and suddenly certain special interests want to accuse them of being thieves or worse. For some reason certain people want to portray VoIP as different from *every other application* that sends data over the Internet, including those that send real-time audio and/or video. I'm afraid I just don't have a lot of patience with such folks. I figure they are either blathering idiots who have bought into the propaganda being spewed by some of the incumbent phone companies, or they have some financial interest in preserving the status quo. Okay, maybe I'm being a little harsh, maybe they've just never thought of it the way I've just explained it. But if they haven't put that much thought into it, then they ought not to be pontificating to others and displaying their ignorance for all to see (by the way, I am NOT talking about Lisa, who posted the message I'm responding to - she's just repeating something she was told by someone else, someone who probably ought to know better but apparently doesn't). Please keep this in mind: If by some really crazy turn of events VoIP is treated differently from every other application using the Internet, and required to pay for "transport" above and beyond what everyone else pays, how long do you think it will be before your ISP starts wanting to be paid by every content provider on the Internet? Once the ISP's decide they can collect at both ends on one type of application, what's to stop them from asking for money from every web site and every Internet-based service you want to access (or at least the popular and profitable ones)? Now please note that I have so far not addressed the issue of access charges that may come into play when a VoIP provider hands calls off to the PSTN. That is an entirely separate issue, and in regard to that, I'm hoping that sooner or later everyone goes to a "bill and keep" system because I think we are at, or getting very close to the point where the cost of metering a call is more than the cost of transporting the call (and the more that VoIP replaces circuit-switched telephony, the more true that will be). But there are many Internet applications that use as much or more bandwidth than VoIP and to single out VoIP as somehow not deserving of bandwidth or getting a "free ride" when all those other applications do exactly the same thing is totally ridiculous. If someone wants to complain about high bandwidth applications in general that's one thing, but it seems to me that VoIP is a lot more useful (and a lot less frivolous) than many of the other bandwidth-consuming apps out there. Jack Decker ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Organization: Looking for work Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:38:16 -0400 In article , hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying > its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing > much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. > Imagine two grocery stores, A & B, located across a street from > each other. > "A" sells soda pop at 50c a can on a shelf. "B" sells chilled > soda pop from a refrigerated display case at 75c a can. It was > found that customers seeking a chilled soda would buy it from "A" > at 50c, then go over and put it in the refrigerator at "B" to > cool it. Thus, "B" ended up selling its competitor's product -- > and extra expense -- but without the revenue. This seems like a very flawed analogy. First, B could charge for use of a refrigerator (how many grocery stores really allow people to come in and put random products in the fridge?). Second, chilled soda is a value-added product, and the value is in time -- you don't have to wait for the soda to cool down (who wants to buy a can of soda and wait an hour to drink it?). > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer > pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't > mean that a service is free. In what way is VoIP an "additional" expense? If you're calling another VoIP user, it's just an Internet-based application, and it's no more additional than HTTP or SMTP is. If you're calling someone with a POTS phone, you eventually have to go through a gateway run by your VoIP provider; they have to pay for those phone lines, and they charge their customers for the privilege of using them. They purchase these lines in bulk at a flat rate, and can then pass that flat rate on to their customers. Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: dannykewl Subject: New to Voip, Can I Use Workgroup Hub Instead of Router? Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 02:08:20 -0400 Organization: Cox Communications Hi, I'm a complete noob at this, and hope this isn't one of those questions that come up "too much". I have cable broadband (Cox Cable Ohio), and a Pentium 4 w/ Win XP Pro. I just ordered phone service via www.packet8.net, seems like a great deal for $20 a month. They say I need a router, but provide the DTA (?) adapter to plug a normal phone into the system. I'm waiting for the DTA adaptor to arrive. Years ago I bought a used PC from a friend, and I was given a bunch of extra goodies with it, and included was a Linksys EW5HUB 5 Port Workgroup Hub. It has an Uplink connection, and 5 "ports"' all which look like they take that oversize type phone connector. I got a bunch of cables with it, but never used it for anything. My question is, can I use this instead of having to buy a router? Or will I still need a router to have 2 outputs to get Net and phone? If not, is the hub of any value, say to let me share my cable Internet connection with another pc? Thanks much, Dan [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That is exactly what I was doing when I first started with Vonage. Except I had a Linksys combination 'hub' and router. I had all my computers hooked together through this network arrangement (which by coincidence, Microsoft also called 'Workgroup'). I used one of the idle, extra ports or sockets on this 'hub' to attach my (then) Cisco ATA box and telephone. You need to make certain the TA device can see through any firewalls you have and can look around the (outside, wide area) net to find the company you are using, which I think you said was 'Packet8'. As long as the TA box can see outside, and outside can see it, then it should work okay. Where my trouble came up was when the computers, doing their daily duties began to contend for the bandwidth with little Vonage. They would shove it out of the way when they wanted to FTP a large image file every ten or fifteen seconds. So I wound up having to swap out my obsolete Cisco ATA box for one of Vonage's newer models, a Motorola MTA box. By that point I had also swapped out my Linksys hub/router/firewall combination for a NetGear combination of the same thing. But the problems continued, with Vonage getting shoved out of the way when the Win98 or Win2000 (or even the little Win95) wanted to do its thing. But the Motorola MTA acts like a stop and go traffic signal, making the big guys wait their turn when the Vonage is out there speaking. It appears to sit at the head of the line and in effect serves as my internal network, of which the Netgear (and its various computers) are like a sub-net under it. However you arrange yours, make sure the TA can see the outside net and vice versa. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Mayson Subject: Re: The GMail Saga Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 23:00:37 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com > I enjoyed Brad's article. Especially exposing the pieces I don't > think about. I have Google email. I don't click on the adsense ads > in GMail or in standard Google searches because they cost those folks > money. They hope to make some money when I click through and buy > something, but I feel guilty clicking on one when I know I'm probably > not going to buy based on that link. I enjoyed the article for the same reasons. I haven't seen any ads yet. I assumed that would turn on when the service went live. > John's comment about lack of signature caught me off guard. I hadn't > even noticed. I wonder which of John's comments have been forwarded > to the suggestion team at GMail? It isn't a public service yet. It > is only open by invitation, and each Google employee is limited in > their number of invitations. The bugs that I've noted have been fixed > almost immediately. The suggestions that haven't been implemented > have been answered with personalized explanations. Oddly, the bug > fixes are sometimes not acknowledged, just fixed. Yes, I passed them along and got a quick response which did appear to be canned. I could be wrong. (I usually am ;-) I still don't know how I "qualified" for an account. I guess I can thank Pat! He mentioned blogging and as a result I revived by Blogger account. It was through this Blogger account that I was offered the account. > I use GMail. I won't do the personal things there that I might do on > my home email, because I consider mail storage with a million users a > much more attractive safe to crack than my home PC. I'll just hide > over here, thanks. But for general chatting about the weather, and > transferring large files, it's a pretty cool deal. I'm using it the same way. I moved my YahooGroups to my GMail account. I figure that is public information anyway, there's little harm to using GMail. I did send a few messages to friends basically saying, "Nah, nah, na-nah, nah, I have a GMail and you-u-u-u don't!" Okay, I wasn't that childish. But some of them are jealous. ;-) I would never use GMail for banking. I don't mind using it for mailing lists and general chatter. I do have some mail files I wouldn't mind uploading to GMail if that were possible. It's benign stuff and GMail would be a good place to store them. But I prefer to hide and encrypt on my own computer (PDA actually). John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I wish someone would offer me a GMail account. Can you use POP to get into it and read it from other sites, for example. I suppose not, because then you would miss the advertising they do. Still, it sounds like a reasonable deal. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 16:04:53 -0700 Organization: Networks & Distributed Computing On Mon, 26 Apr 2004, J Kelly wrote: > Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with > 4:3. The writing is on the wall long-term for 4:3 TV programming. I would not yet recommend replacing a working 4:3 set with a 16:9 set yet (the prices are still a bit high) but I would certainly not recommend buying a premium 4:3 set today. > My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. That's due to how he has the TV set up. A 16:9 TV typically has four modes when displaying 4:3 programming: . "full" or "wide" - this is the annoying behavior you saw . "justify" - the center is in normal proportion but the edges are stretched out even more than "full". Many people find this less obnoxious than "full". . "zoom" - the top and bottom are cropped, filling the screen in natural proportion at the cost of losing some picture. This is good for watching widescreen programming that has been letterboxed in 4:3. . "4:3" or "vertical fit" - this leaves grey or black bars at each side, thus displaying a normal 4:3 picture. This is what videophiles tend to prefer. If your TV allows grey bars, this is better on the phosphors than black. Generally, a TV automatically displays 16:9 programming in "full" mode even when you have the setup mode set to 4:3. This is also the case when there is 1080i input to the TV (e.g. HDTV). -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Joseph Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 17:57:02 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.NONOcom On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:04:51 -0500, J Kelly wrote: > Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with > 4:3. My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. PC Magazine just did an article > on TV displays and they recommend 4:3 for most people unless they have > a compelling reason to need 16:9. I really thought I wanted > widescreen until I watched my dad's set for a couple of days. Now I > just plan to buy a bigger 4:3 set, something large enough to still I find myself that watching modern "hi def" programming that uses the aspect ration of 1:78/1 the width of the black letterboxing bars is not very objectionable at all on a TV which is made for 1:33/1 i.e. standard TV. > look okay for the widescreen stuff I do watch (mostly DVD's). remove NONO from .NONOcom to reply ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: 27 Apr 2004 15:00:03 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , J Kelly wrote: > On Sat, 24 Apr 2004 19:45:57 +0000 (UTC), hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E > Schaffer) wrote: >> I'm with Clarence. We are considering replacing our 1987 Sears 27" >> (something around that size) -- and one of our delays is trying to >> decide on what aspect ratio we want or need (4:3 or 16:9). (That's >> another thing which may change in the few years.) > Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with > 4:3. My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. This SHOULD NOT be the case and is a matter of misconfiguration. It should just letterbox the image so that there are black bars on either side. PC Magazine just did an article: > on TV displays and they recommend 4:3 for most people unless they > have a compelling reason to need 16:9. I really thought I wanted > widescreen until I watched my dad's set for a couple of days. Now I > just plan to buy a bigger 4:3 set, something large enough to still > look okay for the widescreen stuff I do watch (mostly DVD's). Tell your dad to page through the menus and get his TV set up correctly. This is not the sort of thing anyone should ever have to tolerate. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 21:45:32 -0400 Subject: Qwest Drops Access Fees on 'Pure' VoIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5200236.html By Ben Charny CNET News.com Qwest Communications International has stopped levying expensive access charges on Internet phone calls made to its customers. In addition, the phone company plans to charge commercial voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers a cheaper rate for its local services, it announced. With so-called pure VoIP, voice communications completely bypass the traditional phone network and flow entirely over the Internet. Qwest's goal is twofold, said company Senior Vice President Steve Davis. It wants to set a precedent for federal regulators now drafting Net phone policies, and it's hoping that cheaper prices will attract more business from commercial Net phone providers. Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5200236.html 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: VOIP News Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:29:36 -0400 Subject: Qwest to Forgo Link-up Fee For Some Web Phone Calls Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001913535_qwestnetcalls27.html By Scott Lanman Bloomberg News WASHINGTON Qwest said it won't bill other carriers for fees of about a half-cent per minute to connect callers who use a high-speed Internet connection to reach Qwest local-telephone customers. Qwest, the fourth-largest U.S. local-telephone company, said in a statement that it is urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adopt similar rules nationally. Denver-based Qwest is using the policy in its local-service territory, which covers 14 Western states, including Washington. Qwest is the only one of the four regional-phone carriers known as Baby Bells to adopt such a stance. The move comes as Internet-phone startups such as Vonage increasingly take customers from local carriers, who are also starting to offer similar services, as Qwest has done. The move won't have a big financial effect on the company because less than 1 percent of Qwest's call-connection fees come from Internet-phone services, Qwest Senior Vice President Steven Davis said. The company collects several hundred million dollars annually in total fees, said Davis, who couldn't immediately provide a precise number. "We're trying to set this policy here at the beginning," Davis said in an interview. The policy would speed the spread of so-called Voice-over-Internet-Protocol, or VoIP, services, and would benefit customers, the industry and Qwest, the company said. Full story at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001913535_qwestnetcalls27.html ------------------------------ From: dellrich@eastlink.ca (RAH) Subject: Nupoint Messenger 4.7 Date: 27 Apr 2004 06:54:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Trying to get our Mitel voicemail to send a notification page on receipt of a message. System will dial out, but not send the dtmf tones once the pager line picks up. Is there some special code required for this? ------------------------------ From: brettlist@nemeroff.com (Brett N) Subject: LERG and NXX Routing Question Date: 27 Apr 2004 08:09:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi All, I'm hoping someone can answer a "simple" LERG question for me. I'm simply tring to build my routing tables so that I know what tandem to send what traffic to. I'm tring to route both Local and IntraLata Toll Traffic, which of the following fields in LERG 7 SHA should I use to indicate the proper homing tandem for this type of traffic: 7. Originating Feature Group B Tandem 8. Originating Feature Group C Tandem 9. Originating Feature Group D Tandem 10. Originating Operator Services Tandem 11. Originating FG B Intermediate Tandem 12. Originating FG C Intermediate Tandem 13. Originating FG D Intermediate Tandem 14. Originating Local Tandem 15. Originating IntraLATA Tandem 16. Orig. Circuit Switched Data Tandem 17. filler 18. Terminating Feature Group B Tandem 19. Terminating Feature Group C Tandem 20. Terminating Feature Group D Tandem 21. Terminating Operator Services Tandem 22. Terminating FG B Intermediate Tandem 23. Terminating FG C Intermediate Tandem 24. Terminating FG D Intermediate Tandem 25. Terminating Local Tandem 26. Terminating IntraLATA Tandem 27. Term. Circuit Switched Data Tandem 28. filler 29. Host Thanks, Brett ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 11:00:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Releasing its Own Set-Top Box SATELLITE RIVALS GET COMPETITION By Sam Diaz Mercury News After raising rates twice in a year and watching customers flee to the competition, Comcast thinks it has a new cable television box that customers will want -- and will never want to give up. The box won't be widely available until the end of the year, but the news that Comcast is preparing to offer a state-of-the-art entertainment system through a set-top box should grab the attention of satellite TV providers DirecTV and Dish Network, as well as San Jose's TiVo. Comcast is expected to announce today that it will test the Moxi Media Center, offering TV viewers enough features to make DirecTV's TiVo box and Dish Network's own DVR look primitive. http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8521855.htm ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 11:03:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: NAB Wrap-Up From Broadcasting & Cable , April 26, 2004 By Ken Kerschbaumer There is the power of positive thinking -- and the power of positive products. For the nearly 98,000 attendees at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, new technology fueled high spirits. After all, the industry has been hurt in recent years by a poor economy and broadcasters' preoccupation with DTV and HDTV transmission. Today, the DTV transmission transition is largely over. More than 1,200 broadcasters air digital signals. For manufacturers of cameras, switchers, editing systems, and graphics tools, that spells renewed interest in their gear as stations prepare for the next phase of the DTV transition: HDTV production. The one clear message on the NAB show floor was that high-definition equipment is here-and it's cost-effective. http://www.freepress.net/news/article.php?id=3277 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 11:04:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Under Assault: Cable is About to Get Whacked > From Broadcasting & Cable , April 26, 2004 By John Higgins Cable is about to get whacked. For years, cable networks exploited their immunity from the indecency restrictions that broadcast networks face, luring audience with edgier fare. Now Congress, the FCC, and advocacy groups are plotting a new assault on the cable industry. And networks like MTV, HBO, Comedy Central, and FX fear that the ride is coming to an end. Indecency critics-successful at clamping down on the broadcast networks-are trying to crack down on all television. Key critics-from FCC Chairman Michael Powell to House Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to groups like the Parents Television Council-see no difference between broadcast and cable television and are calling for new, toughened standards. http://www.freepress.net/news/article.php?id=3276 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 08:31:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Reports First-Quarter Revenue Growth of 3.9% Verizon Reports First-Quarter Revenue Growth of 3.9%, Including Industry-Leading Wireless Revenue Growth of $1.1 Billion - Apr 27, 2004 07:25 AM (PR Newswire) Company Posts Record Gains in DSL Lines, Continued Double-Digit Revenue Growth in Long-Distance, Solid Operating Income Margins First-Quarter Highlights * Verizon Wireless: Industry-leading first-quarter record of 1.4 million total net customer additions (1.2 million retail net additions), up 66.5 percent from last year's quarter; customers total nearly 39 million; lowest churn in industry; record-high revenue growth of 21.2 percent and operating income margin of 19.5 percent * Broadband DSL (digital subscriber lines): Company-record 345,000 net additions; nearly 2.7 million total lines * Long-Distance: 13.3 percent growth in revenues; 1.0 million net lines added in quarter; 17.6 million total lines * Total Company: 3.9 percent growth in operating revenues; 43 cents in fully diluted earnings per share, or 58 cents per share before special items (non-GAAP measure); operating income margin of 14.6 percent, or adjusted operating income margin of 20.4 percent excluding pension/other post-retirement benefit (OPEB) expense (non-GAAP measure) * Total Debt: $44.5 billion; $8.8 billion reduction over 12 months Notes: Growth percentages cited above compare first-quarter 2004 with first-quarter 2003. See the schedules accompanying this news release and www.verizon.com/investor for reconciliations to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) for the non-GAAP financial measures mentioned in this announcement. NEW YORK, April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Driven by its highest year-over-year revenue growth in three years, Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today reported first-quarter 2004 earnings per share of 43 cents, or 58 cents per share before special and non-recurring items. For the quarter, Verizon's reported earnings were $1.2 billion. Earnings for the quarter were $1.6 billion before a net of 15 cents per share in special and non-recurring items, primarily for previously announced pension settlements associated with a voluntary separation plan under which more than 21,000 employees left the payroll in the fourth quarter 2003. Revenue Growth Consolidated operating revenues increased 3.9 percent in the first quarter 2004 to $17.1 billion, compared with $16.5 billion in the first quarter 2003. This was Verizon's highest reported quarterly growth rate since the first quarter 2001. Verizon Wireless was the main driver of this increase, posting total revenue growth of 21.2 percent, to $6.2 billion in the first quarter 2004, up $1.1 billion compared with $5.1 billion in the first quarter 2003. Domestic Telecom revenues decreased 3.3 percent to $9.6 billion in the first quarter 2004, compared with the first quarter 2003. Verizon's overall top-line growth was supported by increases in wireline long-distance and broadband. Long-distance revenues increased 13.3 percent, from $0.9 billion in first-quarter 2003 to $1.0 billion in first-quarter 2004, as Verizon added a net of 1.0 million long-distance lines in the quarter, for a total of 17.6 million long-distance lines. In the first quarter, Verizon also added a company-record net of 345,000 DSL lines, for a total of 2.7 million DSL lines. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41176127 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 04:20:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Digital Switch on Target says BBC The BBC has said it is on target to achieve switchover from analogue to digital television by 2010. In its first report on the switchover, the BBC described progress as "astonishing", stating it "puts the UK in an enviable position". But the report to Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell stressed the industry and government must work together if it is to be achieved within the timeframe. It lists a number issues which need addressing to achieve the switchover. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3659895.stm ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #211 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue Apr 27 23:57:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3S3vE518243; Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:57:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:57:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404280357.i3S3vE518243@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 #212 TELECOM Digest Tue, 27 Apr 2004 23:56:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 212 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging (Monty Solomon) Sony's Profit Slides 23 Percent for Year (Monty Solomon) Quick Thinking and Wireless Phone Save Jackson Man's Life (M Solomon) TiVo Will Not Die (Monty Solomon) Web Portal For Sale, Slightly Used (Monty Solomon) NDS CEO Says to Compete With TiVo For DirecTV Deals (Monty Solomon) Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Lisa Hancock) Message Rate Service in Manual Offices (Lisa Hancock) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Miikka Kiprusoff) VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (agolfer) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Tom Betz) Re: VoIP Analogy (Hank Karl) Help! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed (Mikail) Last Laugh! Message to comp.dcom.telcom moderator (Bush will disarm) 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, 27 Apr 2004 15:57:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging Companies Launch War Over Web Messaging By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Instant-messaging software has evolved into the latest weapon in a fierce battle among major Internet companies to reap revenues off whatever you do, wherever you go online. Many people spend hours a day with messaging programs active, shooting text to friends and co-workers online. These free products already go well beyond the typed word: People can swap files and chat with webcams and microphones. Now there's even more. On Monday, Yahoo Inc. launched Internet radio and other new services around its messaging software. Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, is leveraging IM as a subscription gaming hub, while America Online Inc. is packaging weather. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41178700 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:00:25 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sony's Profit Slides 23 Percent for Year TOKYO (AP) -- Sony Corp. posted a narrower loss for the fourth quarter but its profit dropped 23 percent for the full fiscal year as it accelerated layoffs and its electronics, movie and video-game businesses foundered. The Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment giant said Tuesday it expected earnings would rebound in the current year as cost-cutting efforts make an impact and new products drive sales. In the January-March quarter, Sony's net loss narrowed to 38.2 billion yen ($352 million) from 111 billion yen in the same period a year earlier. Sales rose 7.1 percent to 1.77 trillion yen ($16.3 billion) from 1.65 trillion yen. Sony posted a group net profit of 88.5 billion yen ($815.16 million) for the year ended March 31, down from 115.5 billion yen a year earlier. Sony's once-trendsetting electronics division swung to an operating loss for the year, while its video-game and movie businesses each posted 40 percent declines in operating profit. Group sales edged up 0.3 percent to 7.49 trillion yen ($69.03 billion) for the year from 7.47 trillion yen a year earlier. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41179814 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 15:58:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Quick Thinking and a Wireless Phone Save Jackson Man's Life Cingular Wireless Customer Recognized as 'Wireless Samaritan' at National Ceremony in Washington, D.C. JACKSON, Miss., April 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Jeffrey Burns, a Mississippi resident and Cingular Wireless customer, has been selected as one of this year's winners of the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association's annual VITA Award. Each year, the wireless telecommunications industry honors individuals whose use of a wireless device resulted in saving a life, preventing a crime or giving heroic support in an emergency. Burns was nominated for this year's VITA Award in August 2003 after being shot at a Jackson, MS, convenience store and using his wireless phone to dial 9-1-1 for help. He will be honored at a ceremony tonight in Washington D.C. where he will have the opportunity to meet with Senator Thad Cochran and other elected officials. First presented in 1993, the VITA Awards are given to individuals who have been nominated by their wireless carriers. These individuals exemplify the importance of putting safety first, and demonstrate the critical role individuals and wireless phones can play in emergency situations. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41179032 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Most of you know that while I am not strictly confined to my home, I can effectively only go some distance from home when a good person chooses to drive me in their car. Walk a block or two, yes; a few miles to a nearby town such as Coffeyville, no. Some of my personal friends think this is silly of me, but it would not occur to me to *possibly endanger them* by not having my cell phone along when we go riding somewhere. My friend Randy drives me down to Tyro, Kansas now and then. Tryo is a tiny town of 250 people on an old back road from Independence, officially County Road 2700. Randy likes to rattle on all the time about 'people who carry cell phones like to think they are big shots', etc. We were coming back from Tyro one night last summer after dark driving down the 'Tyro Cutoff' as it is known, heading for highway 75 to come back home. County Road 2700 is a lot like the Alcan Highway between Fort Nelson BC and further south in the province. A two lane road, mostly deserted all night and maybe you pass one car every thirty minutes in the busy part of the day. And a bad, bumpy mostly gravel road at that. Somewhere in the middle, about five miles north of Tyro and five or six miles south of where highway 75 cuts in, we see a car sitting on the side of the road with its blinker lights on. Randy and I both decided to ask the driver what was wrong. It was an older lady and a young girl, 11-12 years old. The lady told me they had run out of gas; she did not want to set out on foot alone and leave the child alone in the car, so they decided to wait and see if anyone would come along. It turns out she was the girl's grandma. Can I call anyone at your house to come out here to help you? No one was at home, she said. Do you have any other friends you want me to call? She did not know anyone around town; keeping her window rolled up mostly, but down just a crack so we could talk. Can Randy and I give you a ride to your home or anywhere? She thought that was not a good idea. "But if you could drive to a phone and call the sheriff for us we would appreciate that." I told her I would get help for her on my cell phone. Now Montgomery County Sheriff does have 911 (which is in fact answered by City of Independence 911) but the real challenge in a rural, deserted area and 911 (although I just used the Sheriff's 7-D admin number 330-1000) is in describing *exactly where* help is wanted, (approximatly five miles south of Highway 75 on the Tyro Cutoff or County Road 2700, go past the two side roads and across two small bridges and streams.) And have the deputy bring at least a gallon or so of gas. Dispatcher said 'the deputy is on the other side of the county right now, in Liberty (another wide spot in the road) so he will be about twenty minutes in getting there.' The older lady seemed to be grateful that help would be coming. I got back in Randy's car, he pulled a few feet up the road and off to the side, and said 'we will sit here and wait until the sheriff shows up.' Twenty or thirty minutes later, the deputy showed up, with another truck following him which are what we here refer to as 'Minutemen', a group of boy-scout-like young guys who rescue distressed motorists. Randy pulled out and we split. When we pulled into the alley next to my house and I got out, I said to Randy, 'it could have been your mother or wife, or you: out of gas, or flat tire, or radiator boiled over or in a ditch on the road.' He said he was going to seriously re-think his objections to cell phones, and I guess he did. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:42:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TiVo Will Not Die Despite gloomy news reports, the Digital Video Recorder service will eventually find its niche in the marketplace. By Phillip Swann Washington, DC (April 27) -- It's been a rough week for TiVo, the Digital Video Recorder service. The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press just published lengthy features on how TiVo could be wiped out by DVR services offered by cable TV operators. The New York Times last week wrote a similar, albeit smaller, version of this story. And, TiVo's stock continues to be suffocated by a combination of bad news and scary scenarios. http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivo042704.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:26:35 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web Portal For Sale, Slightly Used By Jim Hu Staff Writer, CNET News.com Spanish Internet company Terra Lycos has retained investment bank Lehman Brothers to explore a possible sale of its U.S. Internet business, including its flagship Lycos.com Web site, according to a document obtained by CNET News.com. A sale of the unit, which is based in Waltham, Mass., would unwind the $12.5 billion merger of Lycos and Terra Networks, struck in 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble. Now, with a resurgence of online advertising spending, Terra is seeking a buyer for the Lycos division as it focuses on its Spanish- and Portuguese-language businesses, according to the document, prepared by Lehman Brothers and circulated to prospective buyers over the past several weeks. "An acquisition of Lycos, one of the last available premier Internet search and content properties, represents an outstanding and unique value creation opportunity at a time when advertising budgets are increasing, paid online content is gaining broader acceptance and public markets are favorably rewarding consolidation in the rapidly growing search market," the document reads. Terra Lycos is hoping to sell Lycos for cash or liquid shares. Although no purchase price was listed, one source familiar with the deal said Terra Lycos is looking to sell Lycos for $200 million, based on $98 million in pro-forma revenue that the site generated in 2003. http://news.com.com/2100-1023-5201301.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:40:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: NDS CEO Says to compete With TiVo For DirecTV Deals NEW YORK, April 27 (Reuters) - NDS Group plc. (NASDAQ:NNDS) plans to compete with TiVo Inc. to supply television recording technology to satellite TV provider DirecTV, which is TiVo's biggest source of new subscribers, NDS's chief executive said on Tuesday. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41185670 Profit falls at media anti-piracy firm NDS - Apr 27, 2004 11:48 AM (Reuters) LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) - Anti-piracy technology firm NDS Group Plc (NASDAQ:NNDS), a subsidiary of News Corp (NYSE:NWS), said on Tuesday its third-quarter income fell 38 percent due to the absence of a contract with satellite firm DirecTV. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41185811 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:16:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote > I sense that WU, despite having microwave and even satellites, wasn't > that interested in its own wire plant, and leased considerable > circuits from AT&T pretty early on. Perhaps its city wire plant was > old and need of upgrade or replacement but they didn't have the funds > or see a justification in the 1960s. I think I answered my own question: I suspect, per what Wes suggested, that WU wasn't able to serve customers after the 1960s. I am just speculating here, but as data communications got more sophisticated, WU couldn't handle the last mile to the customer as the Bell System could. That is, WU city wire plant may have been great for Baudot or even ASCII speed Teletypes, but grossly inadequate for higher speed communications that evolved in the 1970s. A 100 baud teletype line does not a lot of bandwidth just as a telegraph line uses less than a voice line. In other words, to accomodate good quality voice transmission, a Bell System phone loop had to have more bandwidth. That greater bandwidth allowed the Bell System to offer higher data speeds on plain customer loops when modems were developed, but I don't think WU local customer circuits could handle that. I suspect WU's local circuits were generally older and "dirtier" since they didn't have to worry about things like crosstalk. To get that last mile for modern needs, WU would have to lease circuits from the Bell System. Right then and there, WU was at a disadvantage, obviously the Bell System wasn't gonna give circuit space away for free. Someone suggested the Bell System gave WU a break on rates to keep them going, but I wonder if that remained true by the 1970s; I do know in the 1970s Bell rates were going up sharly for WU forcing an increase in WU customer fees. FWIW, I visited some WU offices in the 1970s and found them looking "tired", that is, they were in need for refurbishment and the people working there looked old and tired, too. Eventually WU closed almost everything in favor of agents since WU employees were well paid union members. > One thing I wonder about is how AT&T dealt with toll charge > complaints, > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: > ... combined with the time-clock stamps of 'up and down' gave a > very good audit trail. Operator started a toll call, time-clock > stamped the paper in; call completed and paper was stamped again, > since all operator positions had a little time-clock as part of them. Every part of the operation is traceable and fixable _except_ the actual time stamping by the operator. What happened if the operator pulled the stamp for the wrong ticket, or forgot to pull the stamp upon disconnect? Certainly operators were highly trained and disciplined, but still when handling a high volume of transactions errors do get made. > then used a 'comptometer' machine to print out the official > bill the customers received. Did you ever hear of the 'Victor Comptom- > eter Company'? Victor Comptometer was on the north side of Chicago > and sold many of those rather large, heavy machines to companies which > did heavy-duty financial stuff. Did Comptometer machines print? I thought they just showed the result through a little window. While other adding machines printed tapes, I thought to print something like a bill you needed an NCR bookkeeping machine which was this huge monstronsity, or an IBM tabulating machine that read cards. Victor Comptometer machines were worked a little differently than traditional adding machines. Operators went to school and could become very proficient, including doing multiplication on an adding machine. > And despite all this, in the old days, customers were always right, > had been misunderstood, etc. Telco wrote off some incredibly large > debts because of 'misunderstandings'. As I understand it, different Bell companies had different policies over the years. While the Bell System was considerably standardized, there were notable differences among different companies, partly due to the region characteristics served, partly due to different state regulations. [I don't know why Philadelphia seemed to always cheaper local service costs* than other cities and towns in the 1960s, for example]. Anyway, as comedian Allan King described it, service reps could sound like the switchboard at "Polly Adlers" (which I'm told was a house of ill repute) and pretty flexible about adjusting bills. But other times (or places) they could be as tough as an army boot camp seargent. I've dealt with both over the years. I suspect that if the local Bell company was not making enough money, it would order less flexibility on bills; but if the local Bell company had a bad P/R rap, it would try to be nicer. I'm pretty sure the Bell System ran in cycles with that sort of thing. In Philadelphia, the cost of a city flat rate line seemed much cheaper than other places, as was the cost of local message units and extension rentals. We paid 90c for an extension while other places paid $1.10, about 6 or 7c a message unit while others paid 8 or 9c, and had a bigger free calling area. I think some towns might not even had flat rate service or untimed local calls. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock Subject: Message Rate Service in Manual Offices Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:24:03 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com In the 1950s and earlier, telephone service was seen as expensive, and many people ordered the cheapest option available, if they even had a phone at all. For many, that was message rate service (pay per call) on a party line. When dial was introduced, it was easy to add a meter for each line to count up calls. For suburban calls from cities in panel offices, the meters were used to add up "message units" which accumulated based on time and distance. This was a big step since it meant that such calls didn't have to be manually handled by a toll operator and the associated ticket generation (see Pat's description for what that entailed). [Message units, now called measured service, is still in use to this day.] Anyway, I'm told my family always had message rate (also known as "limited") service even in manual days. The Bell System history doesn't explain billing for local calls. How did the manual operator, such as at a city "A"* board, bill for message rate service? We know the switchboards were pretty sophisticated by the 1920s with automatic ringing and the like, perhaps they had meters automatically updated. I can't see operators writing down every single local call coming through, that would be too cumbersome. Would anyone know if they had message rate service in cities under manual switchboards? If so, how was it tracked? *In busy places, switchboards were divided into A and B. The A operator took the call and connected you to only the exchange you desired, even if it was the home exchange. The B operator at the specific exchange was told the specific number, and plugged you into that number. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:42:38 +0100 From: Miikka Kiprusoff Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Reply-To: miikka@calgaryweb.net J Kelly wrote about Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 on Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 10:04:51 -0500: > Unless you are primarily watching 16:9 programming, I would stick with > 4:3. My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. PC Magazine just did an article > on TV displays and they recommend 4:3 for most people unless they have > a compelling reason to need 16:9. I really thought I wanted > widescreen until I watched my dad's set for a couple of days. Now I > just plan to buy a bigger 4:3 set, something large enough to still > look okay for the widescreen stuff I do watch (mostly DVD's). Either your Dad bought a very, very crappy TV, or neither of you have figured out what that little booklet that came with it is for. Despite it's title, "Manual" is not a Spanish story about a young man's journey of self discovery. Among the varied instructions contained therein will be those that direct you to disable this "fat" mode. Result: you get a 4:3 picture centered in the middle of the 16:9 widescreen display, with (typically) gray or black bars down the left and right side where the rest of the 16:9 picture would be (if it were 16:9, which it ain't). On my Sony, the various modes are called: "normal" - this is what you want "full" - this is what you've set the TV to use, and causes the "fat" picture. I agree: this looks like hell. "zoom" - zooms the picture so that it is now as wide as the TV, but does not change the aspect ratio. This means the top and bottom of the image is cropped off - which is handy if that CNN "crawl" bugs you. :-) "wide zoom" - a combination of "full" and "zoom". The picture is a little bit stretched to widen it, and a little bit zoomed to fill. There's only a bit of image lost at top and bottom, and the people on the screen are only a little bit fatter than they should be. Of course, all of this goes out the window when you're watching an actual 16:9 presentation. ------------------------------ From: dave@ces-hawaii.com (agolfer) Subject: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Date: 27 Apr 2004 13:50:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's website, it seems to imply that their telephone adapter box will port out analog voice circuit(s) that I could connect to CO line ports on my KSU. From what I've read in this forum, the adapter provides two phone circuits, however, it can only handle one voice connection at a time. Does anyone have any experience in using Vonage or other VOIP service on a multi-line key telephone system? Aloha, Dave [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As long as you *know how* (or have a technician on staff who knows how to wire multi-line phones), Vonage (and I assume net8 and Pulver/FWD and others) will work on it just fine. No one ever screws around with the innards on a Bell five line/ six-button with hold for example. The work is always done at the terminal box by punch-downs on the terminals inside. But Vonage does not care; it can make an 'appearance' on a line button as well as on a single-line instrument. I cannot predict how the 'hold circuit' would work (if the Vonage line was being 'held') or the reliability of the interuppter/annunciator notifing you of a call. I would suppose since Vonage at least has a REM-3 status, the current therein is probably sufficient to do all those ancillary tasks as well. And one of my e-coupon takers did link his Vonage line over to a 'dial 9' level trunk on a very tiny residential PBX and he said that it works fine as well. Dialing 9 on the little PBX is just like lifting the receiver on the phone connected to the Vonage. Dial tone works fine, he uses any phone on his system to dial out through Vonage. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 22:05:41 UTC Organization: XOme Quoth J Kelly in news:telecom23.210.5@telecom- digest.org: > My dad bought a 16:9 and it is terribly annoying to watch 99.5% > of programming on that thing, it squashes the picture to make it wider > so everyone looks 25 lbs overweight. Sounds to me like it's misconfigured. He should be able to set it so a properly-formatted picture is located in the center of the screen, with black panels on either side. "I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection." - W.S. ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 20:06:17 -0400 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ On 26 Apr 2004 09:32:30 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > Someone explained how VoIP (voice over Internet) isn't paying > its share of the costs by the following analogy. Not knowing > much about this, I'll leave it others to judge its validity. > Imagine two grocery stores, A & B, located across a street from > each other. > "A" sells soda pop at 50c a can on a shelf. "B" sells chilled > soda pop from a refrigerated display case at 75c a can. It was > found that customers seeking a chilled soda would buy it from "A" > at 50c, then go over and put it in the refrigerator at "B" to > cool it. Thus, "B" ended up selling its competitor's product -- > and extra expense -- but without the revenue. VoIP works over _your_ broadband connection. So the analogy is more like "you buy soda from 'A' and put it into _your own_ refrigerator". If you call a PSTN subscriber, then they will have paid for their line. A similar analogy for the guy on the PSTN line would be "regardless of whether you buy soda from 'A' or 'B', you still have to pay more to some third party" > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. Just because the end consumer > pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in the case of employees) doesn't > mean that a service is free. Some of the costs are: 1. You need more bandwith, and better bandwidth (i.e. VoIP requires less delay and jitter than data will tolerate). 2. You need a VoIP service provider. 3. You need to invest the money in IT for training, support and test equipment, as well as buying the basic VoIP gear. 4. If your VoIP call quality is not toll-quality, there are a lot of "soft" costs, like company image, customers who are not completely happy, etc. > The consumers putting soda in a frige to cool it think it isn't > costing anything, but it really is, especially when adding up many > consumers. It cost money to buy my fridge, and the electricity to run it costs more. But (I think) its cheaper to run my fridge than to buy the cold soda. If someone else wants to cool their soda in my fridge, they'd better buy me a beer first :-) A cold beer :-) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I still have Vonage e-coupons available for anyone that wants to try a month of Vonage (the second month) totally free. You order whatever kind of Vonage service you wish, pay for the first month and the adapter thing, then you get the second month of the same free with my e-coupon. Write me not-for pub and ask for one. ptownson@telecom-digest.csail.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ From: Mikail Subject: HELP! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:24:56 GMT I just acquired a Toshiba DK424 pbx with an attached AVT Phonexpress Entree voicemail system with no docs/disks for the voicemail. This obviously is an obsolete system but if it solves my voicemail requirements I would like to get it functioning. The AVT boots up w/ OS2 to a status screen but I have no idea where to go from there. Any help/hints would be appreciated. Thanks, Mikail ------------------------------ From: dakshing64@yahoo.com (Bush will disarm all workers next) Subject: Last Laugh! Message to comp.dcom.telecom moderator Date: 27 Apr 2004 14:47:36 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is a very moving message I received today. So moving, in fact, I may decide to move all my computers out to the trash can, since Thursday is our next garbage pick up day. His spelling and puncutation and grammar remain unchanged. PAT] To the comp.dcom.telcom moderator: I was enquiring about blocking factors in paging service or in general the %ge of dropped pages. Is there a reason why you didn't forward it to the newsgroup? It's a shame you don't want to deal with QoS in wishyes USA. Perhaps you want everyone to think it is hunky dory with telcom in wishyes USA. Do you have any idea about the attrition in telcom? This is an unreal newsgroup with a bunch of old farts talking about their conquests and ignoring their failures. I hope you get a *REAL JOB* Dakshin cross-posting to soc.culture.usa, soc.culture.indian, soc.culture.british [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for your kind remarks, Dakshin. It does all of us good to be abused once in awhile, including myself. As I tried to explain to you in private email, *if your email got here* then it was published here. You would have first gotten an auto-ack receipt for it. If you got an auto-ack then my internal controls on email allow me to find it if it gets lost, mutilated or otherwise unreconstructable, in which case I would have sent you a form notice apologizing for my clumsiness and asking for you to restate what it was you were saying. Oh, and by the way, tomorrow and Thursday are 'share day' this month. Please consider helping. Thanks agan, Dakshin. PAT] 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #212 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed Apr 28 15:46:09 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3SJk8526512; Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:46:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:46:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404281946.i3SJk8526512@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 #213 TELECOM Digest Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:45:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 213 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Book Review: "Network Security Essentials", Wlm Stallings (Rob Slade) Wheat Wireless Services Introduces Wireless Voice (VOIP News) S&P Cautions Bells on VOIP (VOIP News) IDT Uses Wi-Fi to Offer Cheaper Cell Service (VOIP News) How VoIP Can Connect the Disabled (VOIP News) Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (Hank Karl) Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (Scott Dorsey) Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (Jeff Spidle) Re: 19th Century Telegraphers (jhaynes) Re: HELP! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed (Dave Phelps) Evading the National Do-Not-Call List (Bob Hofkin) Cell Phones For Soldiers (jmayson@nyx.net) Share Day for April (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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Rob Slade Organization: Vancouver Institute for Research into User Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 08:58:48 -0800 Subject: Book Review: "Network Security Essentials", William Stallings BKNTSCES.RVW 20031210 "Network Security Essentials", William Stallings, 2000, 0-13-016093-8, U$48.00/C$75.81 %A William Stallings ws@shore.net %C One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 %D 2000 %G 0-13-016093-8 %I Prentice Hall %O U$48.00/C$75.81 201-236-7139 fax: 201-236-7131 %O http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130160938/robsladesinterne http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130160938/robsladesinte-21 %O http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130160938/robsladesin03-20 %P 366 p. %T "Network Security Essentials: Applications and Standards" The existence of this book is a bit odd, particularly in view of the fact that it shares so much material with Stallings' "Cryptography and Network Security." The (clear and structured) preface, however, states that the intent is to provide a practical survey of network security applications and standards, particularly those in widespread use. As with the earlier work, this book is intended to serve both as a textbook for an academic course of study, and as a self-study and reference guide for practicing professionals. There is reduced detail in regard to cryptography. Chapter one is an introduction, and provides a good list of basic concepts and vocabulary. It may not be completely apparent to all readers that the emphasis is on threats to data transmissions and there is limited review of attacks on functioning systems. Part one deals with cryptography. Chapter two covers symmetric block ciphers in fundamental but sound terms, illustrated by an explanation of DES (Data Encryption Standard). The logic is heavily symbolic at times, but that should not be an impediment to the reader. It is interesting that chapter three views asymmetric cryptography as an extension of message authentication codes, but the explanations are articulate, including both algebraic and numeric examples, although the numeric illustrations could be fuller. Part two deals with network security applications. Chapter four looks at authentication applications, concentrating on Kerberos and X.509. The examples of email security systems given in chapter five are PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and S/MIME (Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension). Security provisions for the Internet Protocol (IP) itself are reviewed in chapter six. Web security, in chapter seven, discusses SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) and SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Chapter eight reviews SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) both in terms of network management for security purposes, and in regard to cryptography for authentication of the application itself. Part four outlines general system security. Intruders and malicious software are lumped together in chapter nine, with a reasonable outline of the types of malware, but not dealing as well with viruses themselves. (Activity Monitors are referred to as "third generation" tools, when they actually predate both signature scanners ["first generation"] and heuristics ["second generation"].) Chapter ten finishes off the book with a description of firewalls, but has a rather odd inclusion of basic access control and trusted systems. Each chapter ends with a set of recommended readings and problems. Many chapters also have appendices giving additional details of specific topics related to the subject just discussed. A very reasonable guide, although possibly less practical than it intended to be. copyright Robert M. Slade, 2003 BKNTSCES.RVW 20031210 ====================== (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer) rslade@vcn.bc.ca slade@victoria.tc.ca rslade@sun.soci.niu.edu Doing evil is nothing but turning away from learning. - Augustine (354-430), On Free Choice of the Will http://victoria.tc.ca/techrev or http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~rslade ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:25:53 -0400 Subject: S&P Cautions Bells on VOIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=50994 S&P Cautions Bells on VOIP A broad warning issued last week by credit rating service Standard & Poor's has cast a lingering dark cloud over regional Bell companies (RBOCs). It's also raised new questions about VOIP regulation. S&P says RBOCs stand to lose about $5 billion in annual revenues if regulators make voice-over-IP providers exempt from federal and state access fees. RBOCs currently rely on carrier access fees for about 22 percent of their total operating revenues, or about $20 billion. In its estimate, S&P assumed RBOCs will lose about 15 percent of residential access lines with average monthly bills of $24 each to cable companies, independent carriers, and long-haul carriers that offer VOIP service. Loss of local lines would account for about four-fifths of the $5 billion shortfall, and loss of access fees would make up the rest. The overall loss could be mitigated by VOIP providers' recurring payments to RBOCs for local connectivity services such as ISDN primary rate interface or toll-free 800 service. On the other hand, the loss could soar beyond $5 billion if VOIP providers use leased facilities to terminate large volumes of long-distance calls. The issue hinges partly on whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), states, and courts require VOIP carriers to pay access fees to RBOCs for VOIP traffic transmitted over, or terminated on, the RBOC's networks. Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=50994 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 11:27:20 -0400 Subject: IDT Uses Wi-Fi to Offer Cheaper Cell Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2004-04-21-idt-wifi_x.htm By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY Believe it or not, 43% of U.S. consumers still don't have a cell phone, many for budget reasons. Now, long-distance company IDT is aiming at low- to moderate-income holdouts with a new breed of inexpensive service that offers mobile service but only in certain areas. IDT plans to introduce a semi-mobile phone service that works in areas equipped with Wi-Fi, a popular wireless technology linked to the Internet. The strategy could pose at least a modest threat to the big wireless carriers as it marries two hot new technologies: Wi-Fi and Internet-based phone service. The service price will be no more than $2 a month, with calls costing less than 5 cents a minute; initially, customers will likely prepay. Unlike with cell phones, incoming calls are free. While IDT initially will give away the phones equipped with Wi-Fi chips, they will eventually cost about $100. Full story at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2004-04-21-idt-wifi_x.htm ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 01:12:32 -0400 Subject: How VoIP Can Connect the Disabled Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040428_4395_tc116.htm Internet-based telephony holds great promise for allowing the blind and deaf to communicate much better and become more productive Don Barrett's phone is his best assistant at work. Barrett, who's blind, has a phone that uses spoken voice to let him know who the caller is or to read to him the messages people leave when he misses a call. He can even use voice commands to tell his phone to find a number in his electronic Rolodex. None of these tasks are possible with a traditional phone, but Barrett is ahead of the game. He's using a PC-based phone that runs on voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) technology. With some extra software, he can also hear his e-mail and voice mail from the Internet. At his job as assistive-technology specialist at the U.S. Education Dept., Barrett says the VoIP gear has greatly improved his performance. "I can decide whether to take a call. For me, that's huge." While VoIP is creating quite a stir in the telecommuncations field overall (see BW Online, 1/6/04, "Finally, 21st Century Phone Service"), it's an especially promising technology for people with disabilities. VoIP integrates the phone, voice mail, audioconferencing, e-mail, instant messaging, and Web applications like Microsoft Outlook on one secure, seamless network. Plus, workers can use their PC, laptop, or handheld as a VoIP phone from virtually anywhere, with the same phone number, which benefits telecommuters, including those whose mobility is impaired and must work from home. Full story at: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040428_4395_tc116.htm ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:55:10 -0400 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ One issue with this is lightning protection. Your KSU will isolate the incoming lines from its handset, and (one hopes) the other phone sets. It may not isolate one incoming line from another. Thus, if you get a lighting strike, you may burn out your VoIP TA (and possibly even more equipment down the (ethernet) line. So you probably should put some sort of external protection on the line. On 27 Apr 2004 13:50:16 -0700, dave@ces-hawaii.com (agolfer) wrote: > I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP > compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from > providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's > website, it seems to imply that their telephone adapter box will port > out analog voice circuit(s) that I could connect to CO line ports on > my KSU. > From what I've read in this forum, the adapter provides two phone > circuits, however, it can only handle one voice connection at a time. > Does anyone have any experience in using Vonage or other VOIP service > on a multi-line key telephone system? > Aloha, > Dave > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As long as you *know how* (or have a > technician on staff who knows how to wire multi-line phones), Vonage > (and I assume net8 and Pulver/FWD and others) will work on it just > fine. No one ever screws around with the innards on a Bell five line/ > six-button with hold for example. The work is always done at the > terminal box by punch-downs on the terminals inside. But Vonage does > not care; it can make an 'appearance' on a line button as well as on a > single-line instrument. I cannot predict how the 'hold circuit' would > work (if the Vonage line was being 'held') or the reliability of the > interuppter/annunciator notifing you of a call. I would suppose since > Vonage at least has a REM-3 status, the current therein is probably > sufficient to do all those ancillary tasks as well. And one of my > e-coupon takers did link his Vonage line over to a 'dial 9' level > trunk on a very tiny residential PBX and he said that it works fine as > well. Dialing 9 on the little PBX is just like lifting the receiver on > the phone connected to the Vonage. Dial tone works fine, he uses any > phone on his system to dial out through Vonage. PAT] ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Date: 28 Apr 2004 13:34:00 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) agolfer wrote: > I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP > compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from > providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's > website, it seems to imply that their telephone adapter box will port > out analog voice circuit(s) that I could connect to CO line ports on > my KSU. Yes, although you need to know that the Vonage adaptor will not do ground-start, so you need a KSU that can deal with that. > From what I've read in this forum, the adapter provides two phone > circuits, however, it can only handle one voice connection at a time. Right, but you can get multiple adaptors. They may still be available in rackmount form. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ Reply-To: Jeff Spidle From: Jeff Spidle Subject: Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 13:36:59 -0500 I know that connecting a Cisco ATA186 to a key system works. I had to do it for one of my customers Emergency Ops Center. They had an old 1A2 system. The ATA provides battery and ring to the key system identical to what the CO does. They press a line button on the key set and the ATA goes off hook with no problem. Jeff Spidle Greenwich Technology Partners jspidle at greenwichtech dot com agolfer wrote in message news:telecom23.212.10@telecom-digest.org: > I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP > compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from > providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's > website, it seems to imply that their telephone adapter box will port > out analog voice circuit(s) that I could connect to CO line ports on > my KSU. > From what I've read in this forum, the adapter provides two phone > circuits, however, it can only handle one voice connection at a time. > Does anyone have any experience in using Vonage or other VOIP service > on a multi-line key telephone system? > Aloha, > Dave > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: As long as you *know how* (or have a > technician on staff who knows how to wire multi-line phones), Vonage > (and I assume net8 and Pulver/FWD and others) will work on it just > fine. No one ever screws around with the innards on a Bell five line/ > six-button with hold for example. The work is always done at the > terminal box by punch-downs on the terminals inside. But Vonage does > not care; it can make an 'appearance' on a line button as well as on a > single-line instrument. I cannot predict how the 'hold circuit' would > work (if the Vonage line was being 'held') or the reliability of the > interuppter/annunciator notifing you of a call. I would suppose since > Vonage at least has a REM-3 status, the current therein is probably > sufficient to do all those ancillary tasks as well. And one of my > e-coupon takers did link his Vonage line over to a 'dial 9' level > trunk on a very tiny residential PBX and he said that it works fine as > well. Dialing 9 on the little PBX is just like lifting the receiver on > the phone connected to the Vonage. Dial tone works fine, he uses any > phone on his system to dial out through Vonage. PAT] ------------------------------ Subject: Western Union (was Re: Book Review: 19th Century Telegraphers) Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 17:34:57 GMT I don't believe Western Union had much in the way of "last mile" wires except in the largest cities. Elsewhere they had to lease pairs from the telephone company. It's my understanding that when W.U. acquired TWX from the Bell System there was a period of time in which they got to use the Bell wire plant at below-market rates; but when that ended they had to pay the same price as everyone else and that hastened the demise of TWX/Telex. W.U. introduced Telex to the U.S. about 1958. In my opinion this was a major mistake; obviously they thought it was a good idea. It put W.U. into direct competition with Bell, TWX versus Telex; and Bell pretty much had a lock on the local loops needed to furnish the service. Bell also soon after introduced the Data Phone data sets (modems leased from the telephone company) which allowed customers to put any kind of terminal they wanted on the switched network. While telephone toll calls were higher priced than TWX calls, the cost of telephone calls was falling rapidly. Bringing in Telex required W.U. to acquire a lot of electromechanical switching equipment (most if not all of it from Siemens) at a time when electronic switching was about to arrive and push the former off the stage. W.U. also had to acquire a bunch of 50-baud teleprinters, first from Siemens and later from Teletype. Soon after, TWX went from manual switchboards and special circuits to using the existing voice switching plant; and voice was such a major user of the plant that the marginal cost of running TWX over it was quite small. Customers were ill-served since TWX and Telex didn't interconnect (at first) and thus a customer had to subscribe to both services or be cut off from part of their business relations. Then W.U. acquired TWX at a time when the best years of both services were past. I wonder if the executives of either company realized it at the time. W.U. had spent a lot of money on fax for many years but never realized a large payoff from it. There was about to be a new generation of fax machines which blew away the market for TWX/Telex. (Aided considerably by the CarterFone decision) jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: HELP! - AVT Phonexpress Entree Voicemail Info Needed Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 00:46:46 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In article , user@teknidat.com.easynews.com says: > I just acquired a Toshiba DK424 pbx with an attached AVT Phonexpress > Entree voicemail system with no docs/disks for the voicemail. This > obviously is an obsolete system but if it solves my voicemail > requirements I would like to get it functioning. The AVT boots up w/ > OS2 to a status screen but I have no idea where to go from there. Any > help/hints would be appreciated. > Thanks, > Mikail AVT made a great voicemail. The entree was a pared down version of the callxpress product, as I recall. After the os2 screen, it should automatically come up to the AVT call processing screen. This will probably take several minutes, while the system rebuilds indexes and databases. It shows on the screen while it's doing this. If for some reason the startup script was removed from the os2 startup.cmd (IIRC) batch file, I don't recall what the executable file is. Seems like it might be px.exe (or cx.exe) ... something like that. With the Toshiba, I believe it used inband integration. The integration digits should be pre-configured on the voicemail. Dave Phelps DD Networks www.ddnets.com deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: Bob Hofkin Subject: Evading the National Do-Not-Call List Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 11:01:09 -0400 [PAT, Please remove my email address from the message. I have more than enough spam as it is.] An outfit called the National Consumer Council (NCC) placed a prerecorded phone call to my home this morning. They were offering a credit repar service. Two little problems: I am on the FTC's do-no-call list, and there was no CLID information provided. The IRS lists NCC as a public charity, so apparently the organization is exempt from the do-not-call list restrictions. I gather that NCC's contributors are a couple of credit repair companies that benefit from referrals; nowhere on their web site (www.thencc.org) did I see any solicitation for contributions from the general public. The NCC phone rep was a little vague on the charitible services they provide. He told me is was "advice." Curious readers may want to contact the organization at 800-990-3990 to inquire further. Bob That's another fine message you've gotten us in. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:20:37 -0500 From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Cell Phones For Soldiers Organization: Nyx Net, The Spirit of the Night What kind of cellular infrastructure does Iraq have? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118397,00.html http://www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com/ Girl Starts 'Cell Phones for Soldiers' Program Most of us can reach our loved ones with the press of a few buttons. But that's not the case for soldiers in Iraq. One soldier from Massachusetts recently rang up a $7,000 cell phone bill that neither he nor his family could pay. But thanks to 13-year-old Brittany Bergquist (search), who with the help of her brother started "Cell Phones for Soldiers," phoning home is now easier for men and women fighting in the war. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is the war still going on? I was almost certain Dubya Bush had declared the hostilities were over nearly a year ago, sometime around last May. And the past 'interim' period of government is to end on June 30 when Iraq will presume once again to manage its own affairs, unless in the meantime Bush gets any more religious visions and decides to keep the confict going on. Brittany Bergquist has a great idea; but John, you forgot to mention how the rest of us can help. It is a duplication of effort, since the USO (national service people's organization) is also in Iraq with their canteen services (traditional coffee and food and since about 1990 with e-canteen services). While they have coffee or other beverages and sandwhiches/donuts/other food *at no charge* the guys also can use the computers and telephones *at no charge* through arrangements the USO has made with certain telcos -- notably AT&T and Sprint -- and cell phone carriers. Brittany deserves our thanks for her efforts, but I believe it would be better if she were to join forces with USO since that organization already has things in place. If you want to help Brittany you may Google search for her and find out what to do, or likewise USO needs mega-help keeping their e-canteen services up and running, providing email, web-page browsing telephone/VOIP/cell phone service going. The Bush War Against Terrorism (sometimes referred to as his -- err, God's -- War Between the Muslim Nations and the Fundamentalist Christians) isn't scheduled to end at least until the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, or sometime much later. So check with Brittany or the USO, but whatever you do, don't leave our guys just hanging out there with no way to reach *their* friends and family. Its certainly not their fault. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 14:15:00 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day For April 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. 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. 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #213 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 29 14:30:56 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3TIUup07666; Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:30:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:30:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404291830.i3TIUup07666@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 #214 TELECOM Digest Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:30:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 214 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Good News! Four Oakland Men Cited in First US Spam Case (Joe Wineburgh) Vonage Vs. AT&T (ilyaburshteyn) VOIP Help Only Getting One Way Audio Conversation (Scott) AT&T Launches VOIP Service (Mau) Packet8 (Method to Madness) Is Anyone Using MCI Business Complete Unlimited (Mail Ias) Powerful Gadgetry: Smart Phones (Mike) VoIP: To Tax or Not to Tax (VOIP News) Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (VOIP News) How to Talk to the FCC (VOIP News) US Senate Panel Eyes Revamping Telecom Laws (VOIP News) April Share Day (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 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Joe Wineburgh Subject: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:43:33 -0400 Not too far from Ralsky's home base ... #JOE http://www.freep.com/money/tech/spam29_20040429.htm Ford, Unisys computers had unwitting role BY MIKE WENDLAND FREE PRESS COLUMNIST Four Oakland County men have become the first people in the nation to face criminal charges of violating the new federal law against sending spam. The four are accused of secretly commandeering computers that forward e-mail for some of the nation's biggest corporations -- including Ford Motor Co. -- to send millions of junk messages advertising herbal supplements, diet patches and sexual enhancement pills and products. Other unwitting companies and agencies whose computers were used include Unisys Corp., Amoco Corp., the Administrative Office of the United States Courts and the U.S. Army Information Center, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Wednesday. The charges against the four were to be officially announced at a news conference by the Federal Trade Commission in Washington today. Christopher Chung, 30, and Mark Sadek, 27, both of West Bloomfield, were arraigned in federal court in Detroit on Wednesday. Two others, Daniel and James Lin, believed to be brothers and also from West Bloomfield, were being sought, federal officials said. The four are accused of forging return e-mail addresses on millions of unsolicited advertisements sent across the Internet, often through the use of what are known as open proxy servers, or systems that will relay e-mail from any point on the Internet, owned by unsuspecting businesses and government agencies. The use of proxy servers has long been a trick used by spammers -- who now account for about 60 percent of all e-mail -- to obscure their identity. "This has been a problem that's plagued the Net for years, and the fact that corporations and government agencies still have open mail servers is scandalous," said Tony Robinson, a security consultant for Pioneer Technology in Sterling Heights. "Somebody dropped the ball." The 21-page federal complaint alleges that the Oakland foursome also forged the "from" part of the header that appears at the top of a message, using fake names and bogus e-mail addresses, in violation of the federal CAN-SPAM Act that took effect Jan. 1. They were caught through a wide-ranging investigation that involved U.S. postal inspectors, investigators from the Federal Trade Commission, technology experts from Microsoft and America Online and a network of anti-spam activists stretching across the world. Terrence Berg, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, said the government's action shows that there are teeth in the new federal law. "This is just a start," Berg said. "There will be many more prosecutions like this. The government is determined to do something about the flood of spam that is polluting the Internet." Jim Feinberg, an attorney for Sadek, said he wasn't familiar with the details of the case beyond the complaint. He said Sadek earns his living as a valet for a car-parking company and lives with his parents in West Bloomfield. "He's just a hard-working young guy," Feinberg said. Chung and his attorney could not be reached Wednesday. Besides violating the anti-spam law, which is punishable by up to five years in prison, the four are also accused of mail fraud -- which carries a 20-year maximum sentence -- for selling an allegedly fraudulent skin patch for weight loss through junk e-mail. FTC investigators ordered the patch and had it analyzed. Dr. Michael Jensen, identified in the complaint as a Mayo Clinic nutritional expert, was asked to evaluate the claims and said the ingredients in the patch "would not achieve the weight loss as advertised." The group also sent spam advertising penis enlargement pills and Viagra. Unraveling the trail of spam took four months. Berg said that because of the use of proxy servers, trying to trace the spam back to the original sender was difficult. That's where investigators tapped the network of activists who maintain lists of the top spammers around the world and try to get them banned from Internet service providers. It's a cat-and-mouse game. A spammer often can send out millions of junk messages before being detected. But sometimes, anti-spam and security experts scam the spammers. That's what the complaint alleges against the Oakland County men. In Karlsruhe, Germany, an Internet security expert and activist named Anders Henke runs what he calls a "proxy pot," a system that simulates a mail proxy but doesn't actually forward mail. It sits on the Internet, looking vulnerable to the sophisticated scanning software used by spammers to sniff out open proxies. Starting in early January, the complaint says, Henke's proxy pot intercepted 5 million attempts from computer accounts linked to the Michigan men. Berg says other anti-spam activists in the United States assisted in the investigation, too. "There's some very capable and dedicated private citizens out there whose help proved invaluable to us," he said. Besides the criminal charges, the FTC is expected to take action in civil court seeking restraining orders against the men. A preliminary hearing for Sadek and Chung will be held May 18 in federal court in Detroit. They were freed on $10,000 unsecured bond after arraignment before Federal Magistrate Mona Majzoub. Contact MIKE WENDLAND at 313-222-8861 or mwendland@freepress.com. ------------------------------ From: i_burshteyn@yahoo.com (ilyaburshteyn) Subject: Vonage Vs. AT&T Date: 29 Apr 2004 08:22:34 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I am a current Vonage customer, and their services is great (I am very happy with it). I used to be an AT&T customer, and their service was acceptable, until you have a billing problem. First they raised the price of my DSL without warning after two years of service. After I canceled it, and tried to switch to other phone companies for phone, and DSL service, AT&T blocked transfers because, get this, according to them "I had DSL" on my line. When I called them, they said I had no DSL on my line, and they would allow transferring my phone service. I kept trying. Two months later, I got cable internet. I signed up with Vonage and tried to get my phone number transferred over to Vonage. AT&T refused saying "I had DSL" on my line. I gave up and kept my new number. As if all that isn't enough, when I canceled my DSL services AT&T said there was a "slight billing glitch" which resulted in an incorrect $217 disconnection fee ($200 fee + $17 tax, but that is probably not in AT&T's hands). I called AT&T and asked them to stop my automatic card pay; their customer service rep, assured me it was stopped. He instructed me to make a payment for my phone service only, and wait for the $217 to be credited to my account which he said would take 30 days. What a surprise, after I sent the phone service payment in, they charged my card anyway. I called them, and asked them to return my money since I had been billed for nearly $300 erroneously. It turns out AT&T can't issue credit-card refunds, how convenient for them. After three months of delays and promises, I closed my account and contacted my credit-cards' fraud protection unit. Fortunately American express was able to get in touch with AT&T and resolve the matter with a full refund to my account. In the time I spent trying to get MY money back from them, I contacted the BBB (Better Business Bureau) they told me that AT&T does not respond to their inquiries, and told me to continue trying to resolve this through AT&T's so called customer service. So let me say in conclusion, I will never use AT&T services for anything (I had cellular service from them it was garbage as well). Now, saying that made me feel better. Now to be fair I will editorialize a bit about my Vonage experience. For a person like myself Vonage offers a saving of about $300 annually. My bills for local phone service went from $55 to $28; those figures include all taxes and fees. What is bad about Vonage? There are occasional outages in service I have had their service for 8 months an there was one 7 hour stretch with no service, and a 5 day period with occasional outages. I admit, it tried my patience, but for the last 5 months it has been nearly perfect. The other negative is the lack of some familiar features. I can't get blocked numbers prevented from reaching me. That is the only one I really miss. What is good about Vonage? I can check my voicemail through an internet browser anywhere in the world, or in my case from across the Manhattan Bridge in my union square office. I get pages sent to my cell, when a voicemail is left for me. When I travel to places where I can get broadband, I bring my phone service with me, so no long-distance when I call people back in NYC. Really great voice quality, better then regular phone service. Customer service that actually follows up and makes sure everything is taken care of. Let me also say their international rates are great. Before I switched to Vonage I made a call to Cancun from my AT&T; phone the call lasted 5 minutes and cost me $18. After I hooked Vonage up to my phone-jacks, my wife called her vacationing parents in Cancun for a total of over 30 minutes spanning several days. All the calls to Mexico over Vonage service came out to less then $2 that is total for over 30 minutes (I believe their rate was around $0.06 per minute). I can say this, in some ways Vonage is not as convenient as the phone company in others it is far better. The technology is in its infancy, and it has already scared the big phone companies who got caught sleeping. As Vonage service improves and more features are added, they will become a major force in home phone service. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Vonage *already is* a major force in home phone service. All the telcos hate them, the same way they used to hate the first intrusion into their cash-cow, MCI back in the late 1960's. Now they are bos'm buddies with their 'traditional-style' competitors as they all join together in ganging up on the newest arrivals on the playing field. You know, Southwestern Bell pulled that same crap on me, claiming I could not be taken away from them (with my hundred dollar plus per month residential account)'because he has DSL on his account'. My response to them was 'you want to play for all or nothing? ... okay, then you get nothing.' They blinked and thought they could continue to bluff me, I mean, how dare this ignorant residential customer in Independence, KS tell *us* what he was going to do, etc? Now, a full year after no-Bell in my house and a dozen letters and attempted bribes from them to get me back, I really feel sorry for those of you who still have not broken away once and for all. I still have more Vonage 'second month free' e-coupons for anyone who wants to try them out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sdgreymont@yahoo.com (Scott) Subject: VOIP Help Only Getting One Way Audio Conversation Date: 29 Apr 2004 08:54:01 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello to the experts. To start out with I don't know much about VOIP. We have a user who is connected to DSL through Frontier with a speedstream 5200 adsl modem. We are able to get out Axxess IP Phone Plus phone to show up on the network. The problem is that we are only getting one way communication. We can hear the end party perfectly, they just cannot hear us over this phone. We believe we have opened all the appropriate ports on the firewall to allow voice traffic through. We have tried using a packet sniffer, and unfortunately we don't see squat getting blocked from this user. All help is greatly appreciated. Please post back to this original string. Scott ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 23:38:01 -0400 From: Mau Subject: AT&T Launches VOIP Service [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Here is Johnny-Come-Lately with an important announcement for all of us. PAT] THE BOSTON GLOBE Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Page A1 Business AT&T JOINS INTERNET CALL MARKET ------------------------------- By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff The humble home telephone took a major step into the digital future yesterday as telecom icon AT&T Corp. rolled out a new $40-a-month unlimited Internet calling plan in the Boston area. Lending the Ma Bell brand and prestige to a market so far dominated by quirky start-ups, AT&T began selling its CallVantage service throughout the area inside Interstate 495. CallVantage is now available in 19 US metropolitan areas, with 80 more planned in coming months. While AT&T is the first big-name carrier to offer phone service via the Internet locally, other telecom giants are scrambling to offer similar plans. Verizon Communications Inc. is expected to roll out a comparable service locally within two months, and Comcast Corp. also is planning to move into Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VOIP, phone service over the next year. Voice-Over-Internet service is available only in households that already pay for a separate, high-speed Internet connection, such as a telephone digital subscriber line or cable modem, that can cost $33 to $45 a month. But for those people who already have a high-speed connection, including nearly 30 percent of Massachusetts households, VOIP can offer a range of advanced services such as voice-mail messages played as sound files through an e-mail account; conference calls set up instantly from a contact list on a computer; and in AT&T's case, a "find me" service that rings up to five office and wireless numbers when a subscriber's phone number is called. "It's a great development from the consumer perspective to have another choice in service from a major carrier," said Will Stofega, a senior telecom analyst with International Data Corp. in Framingham. "AT&T is coming in with their brand name, their reputation, and a very serious commitment, and they have all the things that a real phone company has to offer, like customer service and a network that they control." Besides the potential for big savings, some early adopters of VOIP calling systems primarily people using the technology at work rather than at home rave about the enhanced features enabled by CallVantage-style systems. Jim Barry, chief technology officer of OneUnited Bank, which has operations in Boston, Miami, and Los Angeles, said being able to merge voice mail with e-mail, and forward voice messages just as easily as e-mail, has been a big help. CallVantage subscribers get a paperback-sized adapter to link their computer broadband modem to a normal phone. They can then make calls through the computer connection to any phone in the world. The calling service is limited, however, to the single phone connected to the computer. For people who already have a broadband connection, the AT&T service which it sells for $20 for the first six months would cost about $15 a month less than comparable unlimited local and long distance calling services from Comcast, MCI, and Verizon that also include voice mail. It's also $15 cheaper than AT&T's own One Rate USA plan, which works on conventional telephone lines. VOIP systems carry phone calls in the same format as e-mail and Web pages, which can make them far less expensive than conventional phone calls. Instead of creating two dedicated channels for talking and listening, as conventional phone service does, VOIP breaks conversation into tiny digital data packets that are zapped across the Net and reassembled in a fraction of a second to create continuous sound. Verizon, the biggest US phone company, will offer a VOIP service within the next two months, and "it will be extremely competitive in features and price," spokesman Jack Hoey said. Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer L. Khoury said the cable company's $44-a-month Comcast Connections Any Distance plan for television subscribers "is a competitive service that has met with overwhelming success here in New England." John S. Rego, chief financial officer of Vonage Holdings Corp., which is based in Edison, N.J., said, "We're happy to have AT&T come in. It validates the market for this technology." Among other special features, the AT&T CallVantage plan lets subscribers set up "Do not disturb" hours when they do not want to take calls except those from specially designated numbers and create online lists of dialed and received calls that subscribers can then click to call again. Subscribers can unplug the adapter and move it to another computer with a broadband connection anywhere in the US and receive calls at their home number. AT&T spokeswoman Deborah Jones said CallVantage will be expanded across the state and New England in coming months, though it is being marketed for now to residents of the metropolitan area inside I-495. Although people living on Cape Cod or in Worcester County could sign up for service now, they would get a phone number assigned to an area inside 495 that could be a toll call for neighbors calling them. CallVantage has several limitations. For example, subscribers cannot use it to call 411 directory assistance, to receive faxes, or to connect a home security system, and lose phone service during power failures. AT&T also reserves the right to cancel service for subscribers making more than 5,000 minutes of calls per month. Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com. Globe Newspaper Company ------------------------------ From: Method to Madness Subject: Packet8 Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:50:08 -0400 I was thinking of getting Packet8 for phone service with my house. $19/month is not a bad price at all when Vonage is more and Verizon certainly is a huge rip off. I really need to get out of the Verizon system, since they're just sucking us dry until cable companies eventually put them out of business for home phone service. Do these type Internet phone services work with home alarm systems? It would really suck if I had to keep Verizon or "regular" phone service all because of my alarm system ... UGH! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My understanding is any device which can take a phone off hook and transmit something over it will work with VOIP. And by the way, Vonage is now down to $14.99 per month for a 500 calls per month unlimited locations. My suggestion would be to use one of the e-coupons for Vonage (many guys give them away) to get one of the $14.99 / 500 calls per month package, wire your alarm through the Vonage and test it. Remember, you may have to adjust your dialing string on the alarm box. Run in parallel for two months or so so see how well your alarm and Vonage work together, then when you are satisfied dump your Verizon line entirely. Don't expect Verizon to be flexible enough to work along with you on any of this. That just won't happen. Out of curiosity. I tried my Vonage line with an old 1200/2400 baud modem and computer once. It worked okay. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mailias@yahoo.com (Mail Ias) Subject: Is Anyone Using MCI Business Complete Unlimited Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:48:28 GMT I've been having conversations with an MCI rep about switching our business's local phone lines over to MCI. Part of the deal is their unlimited long distance calling. The first line is $59.95 and each additional line is $44.95 (you can also get regular lines without free LD for $24.95). This looks like a really good deal. It would definitely save us some money over our current setup. We don't have to get any new lines pulled in, they just take over billing, so the disruption should be minimal (cringe). I haven't seen the fine print but have been told that unlimited really means unlimited. I'd still read the fine print to be 100% sure. We're in SBC Ameritech's service area in IN. Someone from AT&T has called but I haven't talked to them yet. Also getting some quotes from a CLEC and pulling in a T1. Sounds pretty good but it doesn't have the unlimited LD feature. So, is this a pretty good plan? Are the others out there that you're aware of for businesses? Update: did some searching and found Talk America for $53.95 for the first line and $49.00 for each additional. That's a little bit higher than MCI's plan, but maybe close enough if other things balance out. ------------------------------ From: yared22311@yahoo.com (Mike) Subject: Powerful Gadgetry: Smart Phones Date: 29 Apr 2004 06:12:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Powerful gadgetry Call them smart phones, hybrid toys or convergence wonders, today's multipurpose devices pack the features of several once-unique technologies in one ever-shrinking package. Some gadgets might make James Bond sit up and take notice. http://www.washtimes.com/metro/20040428-100205-9900r.htm ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 20:08:08 -0400 Subject: VoIP: To Tax or Not to Tax Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5201671.html By Marguerite Reardon CNET News.com As the debate over Internet taxation heats up in Congress, legal experts are keeping one eye fixed firmly on Florida, where officials are poised to begin enforcing a little-known state law that could open the door to a wide range of new telecommunications taxes. For nearly two decades, Florida's Substitute Communications statute has gone relatively unnoticed and has not been widely enforced. But as the state looks for new sources of revenue, the law has emerged as an unexpected -- and controversial -- potential cash source. Using a broad interpretation of the statute, the state revenue office as soon as this summer could begin taxing voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers and businesses that use local area networks (LANs) to transmit voice calls. State lawmakers have until Friday to revise or postpone enforcement of the statute, at which point local officials said they will have no choice but to begin enforcing the law. "I do think this is a law of unintended consequences," said Dave Bruns, a spokesman for the State Revenue Department in Florida. "It was written before anyone outside of Silicon Valley had even thought of local area networks or VoIP. It's our responsibility to administer the tax policy. If the guidance we get from the legislature is to maintain the current course, we will enforce it to the best of our ability." Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5201671.html 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: VOIP News Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 22:55:03 -0400 Subject: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43047 Written by Karl Bode The Missouri state Public Service Commission is considering banning all extra provider charges and fees not mandated by state or federal regulators, reports the Kansas City Star. The move is a response to the recent increase in so called "regulatory recovery" and other fees that appear frequently on landline and wireless -- and most recently -- on DSL bills. [Comment: And also on the bills of a few VoIP providers.] The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), which represents some 43 state agencies, recently urged lawmakers to ban such "fees". "In the last few years, wireline and wireless carriers have concocted line item charges, fees, and surcharges, purporting to recover all manner of "regulatory," "administrative," or "government-mandated" costs, but which do nothing more than soak consumers for the carriers' ordinary operating costs," the group recently noted in a petition to the FCC (Word document). Full story (with links and comments) at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43047 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:42:56 -0400 Subject: How to Talk to the FCC Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com Here are a couple of must-read articles for those in the VoIP industry in the United States: How to Talk to the FCC So, you've been in business long enough to know what rules you like and what rules you don't. It's time to talk to the government. by Marlon Schafer Consultant and CEO, Odessa Office http://www.isp-planet.com/fixed_wireless/politics/2004/how_to_talk_to_the_fcc.html How I Talked to the FCC Here's how I made the connections that led to my first FCC meeting. by Marlon Schafer Consultant and CEO, Odessa Office http://www.isp-planet.com/fixed_wireless/politics/2004/how_i_met_the_fcc.html Here's a quote from the second article: "Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO). The people at the FCC keep saying, over and over again, if you don't talk to us we can't make life better for you. If you don't file comments when we ask questions, don't pick up the phone, don't stop in when you are in the area, shame on you. Others will do that (telco etc.) and they'll set the agenda. You have to come and talk to us." ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 10:50:02 -0400 Subject: US Senate Panel Eyes Revamping Telecom Laws Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93597 WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - Two top U.S. telecommunications executives on Tuesday urged Congress to avoid regulating nascent Internet-based telephone service, as lawmakers contemplate whether to overhaul the 1996 law governing the industry. The Senate Commerce Committee began a series of hearings looking into how it could modernize the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which was aimed at promoting competition for consumers but has mostly provoked legal battles over the rules instead. While the dominant local phone companies have gobbled up large chunks of the long-distance telephone market, competitors have found it more difficult to enter the local telephone market because of limited access to consumers' homes. "I will introduce a bill later this year to reform telecommunications law so that our legal framework for the next decade is not in fundamental conflict with the goals upon which our telecom policy is originally based," said Sen. John McCain, the committee chairman and an Arizona Republican. Full story at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93597 ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day For April Date: Thu, 29 Apr 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. 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. 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #214 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu Apr 29 18:30:04 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3TMU4310112; Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:30:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:30:04 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404292230.i3TMU4310112@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 #215 TELECOM Digest Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:30:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 215 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Comcast Reports First Quarter 2004 Results (Monty Solomon) Yahoo! Messenger on Verizon Wireless' Mobile IM Service (Monty Solomon) US House Panel Advances Satellite Legislation (Monty Solomon) Nextel Tests Flexible Plans in Some Markets (Monty Solomon) U.S. Cellular Reports Strong First Quarter Results (Monty Solomon) Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Phone Systems (Stanley Cline) Re: How VoIP Can Connect the Disabled (Justin Time) Re: Evading the National Do-Not-Call List (Frank@nospam.biz) Re: Evading the National Do-Not-Call List (Jim Haynes) WiFi Research in Europe: Will Europe Lead Way Compared to US (Bailey) Re: Honesty from Earthlink (Mail Ias) Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case (SELLCOM Tech) Mobile IP Networks (007) Re: IDT Uses Wi-Fi to Offer Cheaper Cell Service (Steven J Sobol) Re: TiVo Will Not Die (Method to Madness) "If I am Elected" (Dale Neiburg) Galaxy Internet Services VOIP (Fred Atkinson) Re: Packet8 (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? (Tom Betz) 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: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:03:14 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Reports First Quarter 2004 Results Cable Revenue Increased 9.8% to $4.6 Billion; High-Speed Internet Service Revenue Increased 41.9% to $698 Million Cable Operating Cash Flow Increased 21.0% to $1.7 Billion Cable Operating Income More than Doubled to $702 Million Consolidated Operating Income More than Doubled to $659 Million Generated Consolidated Free Cash Flow of Nearly $400 Million in the Quarter; On Track to Achieve $2 Billion of Free Cash Flow for Full Year 2004 PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) today reported results for the quarter ended March 31, 2004. Comcast will discuss first quarter results on a conference call and webcast today at 8:30 AM Eastern Time. A live broadcast of the conference call will be available on the investor relations website at www.cmcsa.com and www.cmcsk.com . - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41199029 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:06:13 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Yahoo! Messenger on Verizon Wireless' Mobile IM Service Customers Now Have Their Choice of Top Three IM Applications BEDMINSTER, N.J., April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless, the nation's leading wireless service provider, and Yahoo!, a leading global Internet company, today announced that Yahoo!(R) Messenger is now available on Verizon Wireless' Mobile IM service. Starting today, Verizon Wireless customers can use their wireless phones to access their pre-existing IM accounts with Yahoo! Messenger to send and receive instant messages. Using their Get It Now(R)- enabled handsets, IMers can stay in touch with friends and family with the nation's three most popular instant message applications, even when they are away from their computers. Verizon Wireless Mobile IM brings the familiar PC IM experience to mobile phones. Developed by Comverse, the full-color user interface lets customers: * View, refresh and manage Yahoo! Friends lists * Easily create messages using symbols and predictive text * Receive instant messages, even if the handset is closed * Remain logged in, without incurring airtime charges * Hold multiple IM conversations * Change availability status * Block unwanted messages * Get on-screen help - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41202823 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:12:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: US House Panel Advances Satellite Legislation WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Wednesday approved a measure requiring EchoStar Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) and DirecTV Group Inc. to put local broadcast channels they offer on a single satellite dish instead of two dishes within a year. EchoStar, the No. 2 provider, requires customers in 38 markets to have two dishes, citing capacity constraints. Local channels are split between the two dishes and broadcasters have complained that less popular channels are shunted to the second dish that some customers forgo. DirecTV, which is controlled by News Corp. (AUS:NCP), is also expected to use two dishes in some local markets when it rolls out service in more cities later this year. The bill would "help ensure that consumers where local-into-local is available have ready access to all the local broadcast stations in their market," said Rep. Fred Upton, chairman of the House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications which approved the measure by voice vote. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41207229 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:14:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nextel Tests Flexible Plans in Some Markets NEW YORK, April 28 (Reuters) - Nextel Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTL) said on Wednesday it has begun testing a more flexible way of charging for its mobile phone services with an aim to keep existing customers and attract new subscribers. Reston, Virginia-based Nextel is letting customers who talk for more time than allowed in their monthly service plans, automatically upgrade to a costlier plan with more minutes -- in a small number of markets, Nextel spokeswoman Audrey Schaefer said. This option means that talkative customers would pay a set amount extra if they go over the agreed minutes and avoid the unpredictability of expensive per-minute charges that kick in when subscribers talk for longer than expected. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41208164 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 08:56:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: U.S. Cellular Reports Strong First Quarter Results CHICAGO, April 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United States Cellular Corporation (Amex: USM) reported service revenues of $619.4 million for the first quarter of 2004, up 10% from $564.6 million in the comparable period a year ago. The company recorded operating income of $28.3 million during the quarter, an increase of $32.6 million from the first quarter of 2003, as restated. Operating expenses in 2003 included a $21.6 million loss, as restated, related to the then-pending exchange of U.S. Cellular's Florida and Georgia properties to AT&T Wireless Services, Inc. (NYSE:AWE) ("AT&T Wireless"). Net income and basic earnings per share were $9.2 million and $.11, respectively compared to a net loss and basic loss per share of $27.8 million and $.32, respectively, in the comparable period one year ago, as restated. In the first quarter of 2003, the company recorded the cumulative effect of an accounting change, net of tax, related to the implementation of Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) 143, "Accounting for Asset Retirement Obligations," which reduced net income by $14.3 million. The company's operating results include, through February 17, 2004, the operations of the southern Texas markets that were sold to AT&T Wireless on February 18, 2004. The company's operating results include the previously mentioned Florida and Georgia properties' results for the entire first quarter of 2003, but exclude those properties' results for 2004. First Quarter Highlights -- Customers totaled 4,547,000, a 7% increase from 4,240,000 customers one year earlier and includes the addition of 18,000 customers in a market that was added to the company's consolidated operations as of January 1, 2004. Customers at March 31, 2004 do not include 76,000 customers divested in the sale of the southern Texas properties to AT&T Wireless. Excluding the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, the number of customers grew 12%. -- Net customer activations from distribution channels totaled 196,000 during the quarter, compared to 137,000 activations for the same quarter of 2003. -- For the quarter, the company recorded postpay churn of 1.3%, which is favorable to industry averages and the company's lowest quarterly postpay churn rate since it began tracking the measure. -- Average monthly retail service revenue per customer increased 7% year- over-year in the quarter to $40.26, compared to $37.68 in the same period a year ago. This comparison reflects U.S. Cellular's decision to include in retail service revenue those amounts billed to customers to recover the company's payments into the universal service fund. Previously, such billings were recorded in other revenues. This change is reflected in the company's revenues in both periods. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41199900 ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 03:14:18 GMT On 27 Apr 2004 13:50:16 -0700, dave@ces-hawaii.com (agolfer) wrote: > I have a multi-line key telephone system in my office. It is not VOIP > compatible. Is there a way that I can use VOIP services from > providers like Vonage for voice/fax? From what I see on Vonage's As long as the key system can handle loop start lines, it shouldn't be a problem. Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I have even seen cases where multi- line phones could handle ground start. Picture a typical six-button five line phone. The button on the far left is *usually* a 'hold' button, and spring loaded so it pops back up instantly upon being pressed. Often times with a red plastic button instead of the usual clear colored button. Now suppose you took the pair that usually controlled the hold function and sent that pair to ground, looping it through the button on the phone. Then when the person using the phone pressed that button (of neccessity, only momentarily) then you would send ground to the phone line, right? Or take a two-line, turn button phone. (I think Bell called them 2500-sets?) Two lines, one on each side of the turn button; but the button also has a *third* position, a momentary closure when it is pressed down and released, like a doorbell. Take that pair, which is normally blue/white and send it to ground, looped through the push- button position on the turn button switch. PAT ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: How VoIP Can Connect the Disabled Date: 29 Apr 2004 06:05:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com VOIP News wrote in message news:: > http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040428_4395_tc116.htm > Internet-based telephony holds great promise for allowing the blind > and deaf to communicate much better and become more productive > Don Barrett's phone is his best assistant at work. Barrett, who's > blind, has a phone that uses spoken voice to let him know who the > caller is or to read to him the messages people leave when he misses a > call. He can even use voice commands to tell his phone to find a > number in his electronic Rolodex. Here is a perfect example of the challenged leading the challenged and both falling into a ditch. I will admit, I am not visually challenged, well at least glasses correct my problems, and my phone "reads to me the messages people leave when I miss a call." Hello - It's called VOICE mail. Now, reading the name or number from the Caller-ID display, that does require a little more equipment, but it can still be picked off a traditional phone and processed through the computer. The same with the voice command dialer connected to "an electronic Rolodex." This isn't Buck Rogers and the 24 1/2 century stuff we're talking about here. This is pretty basic stuff that has been done for at least 10 to 15 years using a modem as a dialer or to pick off the CID. > None of these tasks are possible with a traditional phone, but Barrett > is ahead of the game. He's using a PC-based phone that runs on > voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) technology. With some extra > software, he can also hear his e-mail and voice mail from the > Internet. At his job as assistive-technology specialist at the > U.S. Education Dept., Barrett says the VoIP gear has greatly improved > his performance. "I can decide whether to take a call. For me, that's > huge." I think I installed my first text reader in the late '70's -- around 78 or 79. We fed text messages from the serial port of a terminal through a VOTRAX and had it speaking the words. The output was not great, monotone with no inflection and very tiring to listen to for any period of time - but it was text to speech being done in a commercial setting. We needed it for a blind person that had come to work for us, and being a computer company it was extremely easy for us to put something together using off-the-shelf components. I think it took us less than 2 weeks to get a prototype running and a simple "finished" product was done in 3 or 4 more. > While VoIP is creating quite a stir in the telecommuncations field > overall (see BW Online, 1/6/04, "Finally, 21st Century Phone > Service"), it's an especially promising technology for people with > disabilities. VoIP integrates the phone, voice mail, > audioconferencing, e-mail, instant messaging, and Web applications > like Microsoft Outlook on one secure, seamless network. Plus, workers > can use their PC, laptop, or handheld as a VoIP phone from virtually > anywhere, with the same phone number, which benefits telecommuters, > including those whose mobility is impaired and must work from home. For all the hype, and for the most part it is nothing but hype -- VoIP isn't doing anything new. The applications are not new, they are repackaged traditional voice circuit applications that have been around for years. People are missing the point about VoIP. VoIP does not change the way we use a telephone, it doesn't add any applications or earth shaking features that aren't currently present. What it does do, and exactly how well is open to debate, is provide a different transport mechnaism. Kind of like going from open pair cable to twisted pair. As they start to work out the bandwidth requirements, quality of service and other major issues with VoIP and VoATM, then maybe, just maybe we can consider it a change from copper to fiber -- but that's all it is, a change in the transport media. Oh, by the way (or OBTW), how does VoIP help a deaf person? Rodgers Platt > Full story at: > http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2004/tc20040428_4395_tc116.htm [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A deaf person? Well, a deaf person with a TTY machine could hook it up to the Vonage, couldn't he? Ah, but if the aurally different person (to be politically correct) had Vonage and a broadband connection, he would probably also have one of the various instant messengers (Yahoo, AOL, MSN) would he not? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Frank@nospam.biz Subject: Re: Evading the National Do-Not-Call List Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 06:38:50 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Bob Hofkin wrote: > [PAT, Please remove my email address from the message. I have more than > enough spam as it is.] > An outfit called the National Consumer Council (NCC) placed a > prerecorded phone call to my home this morning. They were offering a > credit repar service. Two little problems: I am on the FTC's > do-no-call list, and there was no CLID information provided. > The IRS lists NCC as a public charity, so apparently the organization > is exempt from the do-not-call list restrictions. I gather that NCC's > contributors are a couple of credit repair companies that benefit from > referrals; nowhere on their web site (www.thencc.org) did I see any > solicitation for contributions from the general public. > The NCC phone rep was a little vague on the charitible services they > provide. He told me is was "advice." Curious readers may want to > contact the organization at 800-990-3990 to inquire further. > Bob > That's another fine message you've gotten us in. The best defense is a good offense. Although most Telco switch-based features are toys, SBC's Privacy Manager is worth its weight in gold, combined with Nortel's talking caller ID. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But SBC's chairman (or the flunky who speaks in his name) insists that ten zeros or an obviously bogus name is not an 'anonymous call'. 'Out of area' is not an anonymous call. Only if a caller deliberatly prepends *67 at the start of the dialing string is it an anonymous call, and why should a telemarketer go to the trouble of dialing *67 if their telepone system was rigged up to give false information to start with? ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Evading the National Do-Not-Call List Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:10:20 GMT I too got a call from that NCC slime. Right at the beginning it said they were exempt from do-not-call as a charity. I entered a complaint anyway. There was recently something in the paper or on the net about these supposedly non-profit debt consolidation services, and how they shift income from the nonprofit to their for-profit lending arm, and often end up charging the consumer a higher interest rate than he was paying already. I hope the FTC investigates this outfit. I could see, too, a need for finer tuning of the rules. Personally I'd ban all telephone soliciting; but if we have to allow charities then make a distinction between those who call soliciting donations and those who call to offer their "services". Also wish the online complaint form had a place for a comment, so I could comment that this one smells like a scam to me. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net [TELEOM Digest Editor's Note: One thing the credit counselors do not tell you is that while yes, they often times have the weight to get your creditors to reduce your payments, 'voluntary bankruptcy' or financial re-organization is only one step above straight bankruptcy and it winds up looking like hell on your credit report, which does say honestly, yes, the man pays his bills (not a total deadbeat), but in his own good time. You don't come out of the experience totally free and clear. PAT] ------------------------------ From: baileyw@uga.edu (Bailey) Subject: WiFi Research in Europe: Will Europe Lead the Way Compared to US? Date: 29 Apr 2004 10:29:54 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello All, I am leading a Wi Fi Zone and Cloud research project for Dr Scott Shamp at the University of Georgia at Athens in the US.  You may have heard of UGA; we have a 24 block free Wi Fi Cloud over downtown and the first location based services in that Cloud in the US. http://www.nmi.uga.edu provides an overview of the academic program. Here are some things I'm trying to understand in Europe. I would very much appreciate your input: * How much delay, if any, has typically occurred in approvals by European governments of Wi Fi implementation (indoors and outdoors) compared to the US? * More importantly, are Wi Fi providers in Europe looking at providing content such as city tour guides, games, etc as the European cellular network providers do? Are others in Europe? Europe leads the US substantially on applications and content for mobile phones. Will Europe do the same within Wi Fi? Will Japan? Thank you for any insight. Bailey ------------------------------ From: mailias@yahoo.com (Mail Ias) Subject: Re: Honesty from Earthlink Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:57:21 GMT In article , Barry Margolin wrote: > In article , Edson C. Hendricks > wrote: >> Ed.H: All right, I can see you have no more answers. Thank you very >> much for your attention, although I must tell in closing that your >> explanation doesn't satisfy me, and I doubt it would satisfy >> practically any objective reader. > Let's say you're right, and they're deliberately not fixing the > opt-out mechanism. Did you really expect a customer support rep to > admit that they're blatantly lying to customers? More likely, they're > keeping it a secret from the CSRs as well. > Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu > Arlington, MA > *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** Let's consider that the original poster is wrong -- Earthlink really is trying to fix the problem, but can't so far. Do you really expect any CSR to be able to explain it to your satisfaction? What do you want? "we use SQL Server 2000 build 5915, and there's a bug with index headers on tables larger than 6,000,007 bytes, only when the first field of the table starts with the letter J". ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:43:43 GMT Joe Wineburgh posted on that vast internet thingie: > Other unwitting companies and agencies whose computers were used > include All of the aforementioned and deliberately not quoted were *all* running open relays or unsecured email servers in 2004??????? Let's just kinda hope that the prison population will be computer literate enough to give the spammers the same courtesy formerly reserved for child molesters and such like. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: They may have very well had open relays on their sites. Many large corporations hold Usenet in such disdain anyway. Discourage reading it, certainly never take heed to anything talked about on the net, etc. Just go on doing their own thing. I cannot begin to tell you how many *huge* corporations (some of which were named) have been eaten alive on phone charges (some of which was fraud, all of which was careless administration of their phone systems. I am not trying to do 'sour grapes' here, but so many of them just will not listen or read the virtually free advice they can get in a place like this newsgroup, which is hardly unique on the net. PAT] ------------------------------ From: 007@sthilliers.com.au (007) Subject: Mobile IP Networks Date: 29 Apr 2004 01:55:08 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I need to investigate some solutions for a true mobile wireless networks and I'm looking for anyone's input. The situation is as follows: I need to design a network that will supporting IP traffic on a public bus transport system. Wireless terminals on each bus will communicate through a router onboard each bus (ie each bus is a mobile wireless LAN). At the bus depot there is a gateway for internet and telephony. The range of each LAN on each bus is limited to no more than 3km and there are no more than 10 busses within the network. What are some considerations for the planning, design and architecture of such a network? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: IDT Uses Wi-Fi to Offer Cheaper Cell Service Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 16:38:31 -0500 VOIP News wrote: > http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2004-04-21-idt-wifi_x.htm > By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY > Believe it or not, 43% of U.S. consumers still don't have a cell phone, > many for budget reasons. > Now, long-distance company IDT is aiming at low- to moderate-income > holdouts with a new breed of inexpensive service that offers mobile > service but only in certain areas. It'll mostly affect the companies like Leap Wireless/Cricket, Metro PCS and Northcoast PCS that offer flat-rate monthly local cell calls for $30-40 per month. Northcoast PCS is in the Northeast. They initially launched in Cleveland and within a month of the launch, I picked up one of the first phones they'd ever sold. They're doing horribly, though. I don't know if they went under, as was rumored, but they sold a ton of spectrum to Verizon Wireless. MetroPCS and Cricket aren't in New York at all, and I'm not sure NCPCS is either. They were supposed to have been all over the Northeast -- they're owned by Cablevision, which is headquartered on Long Island -- but I don't see coverage anywhere other than Cleveland listed on northcoastpcs.com and, in fact, they have scaled down coverage a bit. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "Someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Method to Madness Subject: Re: TiVo Will Not Die Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:52:56 -0400 Tivo will eventually just disappear. Cable companies will upgrade and tweak their DVR services and that's pretty much it. I'm not sure or would know why some one would actually have cable TV service and get Tivo instead of just upgrading their cable box via a small price with the cable company. And when DVD recorder prices eventually drop more and more ... Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom23.212.4@telecom-digest.org... > Despite gloomy news reports, the Digital Video Recorder service will > eventually find its niche in the marketplace. > By Phillip Swann > Washington, DC (April 27) -- It's been a rough week for TiVo, the > Digital Video Recorder service. > The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press just published > lengthy features on how TiVo could be wiped out by DVR services > offered by cable TV operators. The New York Times last week wrote a > similar, albeit smaller, version of this story. And, TiVo's stock > continues to be suffocated by a combination of bad news and scary > scenarios. > http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivo042704.html ------------------------------ Subject: "If I am Elected" From: Dale Neiburg Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:06:25 -0400 In Telecom Digest, number 209, the editor opined, "Of course Bush has occassionally (?) been sometimes less than forthright in his statements and promises ..." But he isn't obligated to keep his campaign promises. Remember, they all began, "If I am elected ..." --Dale Neiburg [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: "If I am elected" ... But Dale, he *was* elected. And when listening to my radio and 'All Things Considered' and other propoganda produced by your employer (locally, KRPS 89.9 FM for southeast Kansas) I get the distinct impression that your employer looks rather askance at his antics sometimes also. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 13:13:16 PDT From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Galaxy Internet Services VOIP Reply-To: fatkinson@mishmash.com I've been using a VOIP residential service offering by Galaxy Internet. They are only twenty dollars per month for unlimited long distance within the 48 continental United States and some fair decent overseas rates (includes five cents per minute to Australia). They promised voice mail is coming *soon* and I had understood that voicemail was already a part of the service. I keep asking them for a commitment as to when the voicemail service is going to be available. So far, I've gotten no answer. I've even spoken to management and they won't commit. Also, they advertise music on hold. You upload a non-compressed .wav file and supposedly it works. It didn't. When I spoke to someone in customer service, he insisted that they are not yet offering that service. But, the music on hold is a very minor issue. So, I'm seriously considering changing providers as I have to have voice mail before I can begin to give out my number. Does anyone know anything about when Galaxy Internet (www.gis.net) will be ready with their voicemail service? Fred ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Re: Packet8 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:37:52 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Method to Madness wrote: > Do these type Internet phone services work with home alarm systems? It > would really suck if I had to keep Verizon or "regular" phone service > all because of my alarm system ... UGH! > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My understanding is any device which > can take a phone off hook and transmit something over it will work > with VOIP. You need to be very careful here and run some actual tests. Packet8 most definitely does not pass fax or modem calls. Their web site says they are working on it, but not today. I understand Vonage may handle fax calls, not sure about modem calls. Alarm systems are a whole ' nuther problem. If your alarm system uses a dry pair in the same bundle as your voice line, you may be OK. If your alarm system interrupts the voice line and places a call, you need to be careful where you splice in the VOIP box. Even then, it probably won't work as most dialup alarms are making a modem like connection. ------------------------------ From: Tom Betz Subject: Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:47:51 -0000 Organization: Anything We've just moved a commercial bakery into a new building with a new phone system, and while the (working, remarkably) DR-5 and voicemail systems and cabinets are so cocoa-encrusted as to be pretty much worthless, I have 9 or 10 M7310 sets in black (from the offices) that work. Am I right to estimate that they are probably worth about $50 each on the used market? |I always wanted to be someone,| Tom Betz, Generalist | |but now I think I should have | Want to send me email? | |been a wee bit more specific. | | ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #215 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 30 03:32:26 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3U7WQd14350; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:32:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:32:26 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404300732.i3U7WQd14350@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 #216 TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Apr 2004 03:31:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 216 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Roundup: Google Aims to Raise $2.7 Billion in IPO (Monty Solomon) EFFector 17.15: Verify the Vote - Stand Up for Accountable (M Solomon) Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case (Wesrock) Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems (Wesrock) Telephony Software Recommendation (Larry Snider) Re: Packet8 (Jack Decker) Review: 19th Century Telegraphers (Charles Cryderman) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (J Kelly) Re: "If I am Elected" (J Kelly) 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: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:37:09 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Roundup: Google Aims to Raise $2.7 Billion in IPO By CNET News.com Staff The Internet's leading search engine files plans to raise $2.7 billion in an auction-style public offering. With the filing, the company's co-founders also issue a letter to potential shareholders. Google files for unusual $2.7 billion IPO The Internet search leader files documents with regulators that provide insight into its business, as it prepares to sell shares to the public. April 29, 2004 Lifting the lid on Google: A search through the company's SEC filing pulls up some interesting findings. April 29, 2004 Co-founders release Google 'owner's manual'; Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin craft a letter to map out Google's credo as a public company. April 29, 2004 http://news.com.com/2009-1024-5202045.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 20:57:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 17.15: Verify the Vote - Stand Up for Accountable EFFector Vol. 17, No. 15 April 28, 2004 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 287th Issue of EFFector: * Verify the Vote - Stand Up for Accountable Elections! * Op-ed: TSA and CAPPS II - Anatomy of a Cover Up * Sun Microsystems, Craigslist Donate Linux Servers and Bandwidth * MiniLinks (12): Diebold's "Pentagon Papers" * Staff Calendar: 04.30.04 - Cindy Cohn speaks at "China's Digital Future," Berkeley, CA * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/Misc/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/17/15.php ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:28:45 EDT Subject: Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case In a message dated Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:43:33 -0400, Joe Wineburgh writes: > Other unwitting companies and agencies whose computers were used > include Unisys Corp., Amoco Corp., the Administrative Office of the > United States Courts and the U.S. Army Information Center, according > to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Wednesday. I thought Amoco Corp. ceased to exist a number of years ago, becoming an integral part of BP, Inc. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The American Oil Company was absorbed by Standard Oil of Indiana many years ago and the new combined company became known as (AM)erican (O)il (CO)rporation, or 'AMOCO' for short. But because of regulations and laws pertaining to the ways the Standard Oil Company had to do business, with antitrust laws from years ago, and marketing rules the various Standard Oil Companies had agreed on, Amoco did business under that name everywhere *except* about five midwestern states where it was known as 'The Standard Oil Divison of Amoco'. When BP (British Petroleum) bought out Amoco, they chose to retain the 'Standard Oil Division of Amoco' name for some parts of their empire. Some of their computer facilities company wide are still known as 'Amoco' (or now) 'Amoco Division of BP'. You talk about people who would not listen to anything they were told: Amoco is/was a classic example of an unstoppable object meeting an unmoveable one. Amoco Credit Card (when it was in Chicago for about thirty years) versus Illinois Bell Telephone Company was such an example. Maybe I have told this before, I do not remember. I know that Harry Newton of Teleconnect Magazine wrote about it and my part in solving it, back about 1980 or so. The facts: Amoco Corporation was/is the largest telephone subscriber in Chicago other than (1) the City of Chicago itself [several centrex arrangements spread over five telephone prefixes] and (2) the University of Chicago which is essentially the same as (1) above. Then comes Amoco in (3)rd place with the entire 312-856 exchange, their Stanotel private network of tie-lines nationally, etc, a 'telephone bill' of only a couple *million* dollars per *month* (City of Chicago and University of Chicago by comparison each beat out Amoco's phone charges a little, not much). I worked midnight shift in Sales Authorization at the credit card office. I *knew* the amount of traffic we had on the phones all night. Nothing like the ten thousand calls per hour being recieved on the other two shifts; maybe only one call every three or five minutes. I had two clerks and one authorizer working under me on the midnight shift. The ACD (automatic call distributor) would throw the calls out to the work floor and get answered *instantly*, that's how slow it was overnight. So when the boss over me complained one day that 'dealers are complaining that the phones ring unanswered here all night, what are your guys doing?' I was very perplexed, and decided to make a few tests to see. I used the tie-line to Atlanta (where the dealer with the complaints was located) then from local (office in Atlanta) dial tone, dialed '9' for an outside line, then dialed the 1-800 number of our office in Chicago. I tried it three or four times, and always within a second or two heard a phone ringing in the room around me. Then on the fourth or fifth try (*during a silent period of a few seconds when we had no calls coming in that time of night*) I tried it again; it clicked, went through, I heard audible ring tone in my ear, but *nothing* in our room. Not a peep from the ACD. A few minutes later, during another silent period I tried it again, with the same results. Now it was obvious: **the first selected trunk in a group of how many ever toll free 800 lines coming into us was open somewhere.** As long as I kept that line 'busied out' by letting it ring open off to infinity somewhere, there were no more 'missed calls' since the dealer in question and other dealers were obliged to hunt up to the *second or subsequent lines* which were just fine. That was back in the days prior to Larry King's on-air beef with AT&T when the Mother Company started timing out 'ring/no answers' after a couple minutes. If I dialed our 1-800 and was 'lucky' and seized trunk one while it was idle, I could let it ring open until the next morning if I desired. That cured my immediate headache but gave me a new one. I reported this to my immediate supervisor the next morning (the department manager). Have you ever notice how so often your immediate supervisor or others will not note your observtions and act on them; instead they prefer to go into denial and challenge *your* credentials, i.e. "well, why hasn't anyone on the day shift ever noticed this and reported it to me?". Very simple, sir, on the day shift there is never even one second due to the volume of calls when there is not someone attempting to seize on that troubled trunk. One seizure after another, click, click, click. *Someone, some dealer somewhere* is always seizing on trunk one. After a few seconds to a minute or so with no answer, he gives up in disgust and dials again, perhaps thinking he dialed the wrong number the first time. When he abandons his call (on trunk one) and dials again, three or four seconds later, his second call may seize on trunk eighteen or wherever, because some other poor devil instantly seized on the first selected trunk and started the process over again. Now he is more convinced than ever that he dialed 'wrong' the first time. That's why no one on the day shift among your several dozen (anal retentive) clerks and authorizers ever mentioned it. Or if any of your (anal retentive) day shift people *did* hear about it, they probably wrote off the caller as a 'crank caller' the same as Illinois Bell does and did not tell you about it. Well, he did not like my little speech, my Editor's note, but two days later I was called at home in the middle of the day, and told to please stop in the office and explain all that to the Bell repair guy who had come to see me. I did, and the guy from Illinois Bell started in with the same questioning of my credentials (who was I to tell him, etc) and humoring me. With some effort I got him to go to the frames in our ACD area, and inspect the lines. Sure enough, a wire had either worked its way loose, or never been attached in the first place. Gee, so there were all the calls that had been 'lost due to inattentive clerks and authorizers' all night for goddess knows how long. Amoco came to the best conclusion they could, which was that they had not had the use of that IN-WATS line for about one or two years, and they withheld several thousand dollars from their next phone bill. Bell eventually agreed to write it off rather than risk alienating Amoco, especially since the MCI salesman was standing at the door with a big grin on his face hoping to get somewhere. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:48:50 EDT Subject: Re: VOIP Connectivity to Multi Line Key Telephone Systems Pat wrote, in a comment on a posting by Stanley Cline at Thu, 29 Apr 2004 03:14:18 GMT: > Or take a two-line, turn button phone. (I think Bell called them > 2500-sets?) The 2500 series of sets were the same series of sets as 500 sets, but with 12-button keypads (including * and #) rather than rotary dials. There were also the 1500 series, which were the same as the 500 sets but with 10-button keypads. Just about any 500 series set ultimately also became available in 2500 sets, with the same buttons, features, etc. A set desginated simply as 2500 (not 25xx) would be a basic single line telephone just like a basic 500 set except with the Touch-Tone oscillator rather than the rotary dail. Other manufacturers besides W.E. used the same desginators. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Larry Snider Subject: Telephony Software Recommendation Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 21:25:25 -0400 Organization: http://www.esnider.net I was wondering what kind of software would be best for the following hardware configuration: Alliance Server Rack Dual PIII 550Mhz CPU Card 54 Gb (3 x 18 Gb drives) 1 Dialogic VFX/40ESC 2 Dialogic D/41E 1 Dialogic D/480SC-2T1 2 Dialogic MSI/240SC Global cards each with 2 SI/80SC Global daughterboards 1 Dialogic DCB/SC Global Larry www.eSnider.net ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:44:56 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: Packet8 Pat, please conceal my e-mail address ... On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 21:50:08 -0400, Method to Madness wrote: > I was thinking of getting Packet8 for phone service with my > house. $19/month is not a bad price at all when Vonage is more and > Verizon certainly is a huge rip off. I really need to get out of the > Verizon system, since they're just sucking us dry until cable > companies eventually put them out of business for home phone service. > Do these type Internet phone services work with home alarm systems? It > would really suck if I had to keep Verizon or "regular" phone service > all because of my alarm system ... UGH! The first thing to be aware of is that Packet8 by default compresses speech to a much greater degree than, say, VoicePulse or Vonage. I have heard of people successfully sending FAXes over both of the latter services (although it works best when FAX transmission speed can be slowed to 9600 bps or less), but never over Packet8. Both VoicePulse and Vonage offer high and medium compression settings, but those are optional and not the default (G.711, which is a high quality, low compression codec is the default), whereas Packet8 only offers high compression and there is no way to disable it. And yes, it does affect voice quality also to some degree. So if an alarm system is transmitting data using a built-in modem, it's not as likely to work with Packet8 as with a service that uses the G.711 codec. This is also true of other devices that send and receive data. For example, TiVO or satellite receivers that "phone home" often won't work at all on Packet8, but *sometimes* work with the higher quality codecs (again, it often depends on whether there's a way to slow down the data transmission rate). Now, having said that, some alarm companies are seeing the handwriting on the wall and are starting to offer alarm systems that either use a broadband Internet connection directly to communicate with home base, or use other workarounds. For example, an employee of ADT in Cincinnati, Ohio posted a message to a BroadbandReports.com thread (at ) that indicates that in some cases, particularly with a VoIP provider that uses high compression, you may need a newer ADT system that uses "contact ID." This employee explains that "contact ID" is ADT's newest format that sounds like DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency) tones. Also the new system dials a 1-800 number, so it would not need to be reprogrammed for 11 digit dialing. Also, some alarm companies seem to be more "VoIP friendly" than others. A couple of people posted that they have used the services of NextAlarm.com over VoIP (see thread at ). Still, I would not expect any service to work properly over a high-compression codec -- if it does, consider yourself very lucky. One other thing to be aware of is that alarm systems are usually wired to be the first device on the phone line, so a burglar can't sabotage the system simply by picking up an extension phone. My page on "How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home" at http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html has a short section showing how alarm systems need to be connected. Basically, this is the one situation where you can't just plug your VoIP adapter into any jack on the line, but instead you have to connect it ahead of the alarm system for it to work properly (assuming the alarm connects through a RJ31X jack, which seems to be a fairly standard way to hook up these devices). Also, your alarm system must dial out using touch tones rather than dial pulses. I don't think you will have to do without an alarm system in order to use VoIP, but whether you can use your existing alarm system with Packet8 is another matter entirely. You probably won't know for sure until you try it, though. Jack ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 16:49:44 -0400 Just a FYI Western Union was taken over by MCI in the early nineties. At one time WU had run fiber across many of their right-of-ways and were selling long haul facilities to carriers as well as being a CAP (completive access provider). Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:41:47 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Tue, 27 Apr 2004 14:42:38 +0100, Miikka Kiprusoff wrote: > Either your Dad bought a very, very crappy TV, or neither of you have > figured out what that little booklet that came with it is for. > Despite it's title, "Manual" is not a Spanish story about a young > man's journey of self discovery. Among the varied instructions > contained therein will be those that direct you to disable this "fat" > mode. Result: you get a 4:3 picture centered in the middle of the > 16:9 widescreen display, with (typically) gray or black bars down the > left and right side where the rest of the 16:9 picture would be (if it > were 16:9, which it ain't). I find the gray bars unacceptable, black I could live with. But what is the point when 90%+ is in 4:3 anyway. ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: "If I am Elected" Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:53:44 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:06:25 -0400, Dale Neiburg wrote: > In Telecom Digest, number 209, the editor opined, > "Of course Bush has occassionally (?) been sometimes less than > forthright in his statements and promises ..." > But he isn't obligated to keep his campaign promises. Remember, they > all began, "If I am elected ..." > --Dale Neiburg > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: "If I am elected" ... But Dale, he > *was* elected. And when listening to my radio and 'All Things Considered' > and other propoganda produced by your employer (locally, KRPS 89.9 FM > for southeast Kansas) I get the distinct impression that your employer > looks rather askance at his antics sometimes also. PAT] Pat -- What the hell does Dale's employers opinons have to do with what Dale thinks? My employer has all kinds of crazy opinons on all sorts of things that do not agree with my own. I'm ashamed of you, I thought you had more sense than that ... You are just as bad as media who have to put their own bias into everything rather than just passing on the information. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One of the hassles with any text-based discussion group like this one is the inability to see the tongue in cheek. I *think* you failed to see Dale's humor, with him making mock of things I have stated about President Bush in the past. And I think you also failed to see my joking rejoinder back to Dale. National Public Radio is 'liberal' in their speech (i.e. no friend of Dubya who would just as soon cut them off the air if he had his way). Unlike Howard Stern who is rude, crude, and lewd, and an easy target for punishment and fining by Bush's buddies at FCC, the NPR people are more intelligent and soft-spoken. With Stern, they have a million reasons to fine him and silence him; they don't have to 'make up excuses'. With NPR, however, its a bit harder to administratively get them to shut up. 'Propoganda' is what Bush claims NPR is dishing out; they say they are neutral in their speech. And they don't spend all day talking about Bush, as Stern used to do, only some very pointed comments from time to time. When you saw my reference to 'your employer says ...' most readers -- I think -- knew I was mocking the whole thing. I never talk about 'your employer' unless I am mocking. That's the hassle with ascii-text based things; its very difficult to show any facial expressions other than simple smileys :) and simple frowns (: But, sorry if you were offended. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #216 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 30 14:58:31 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i3UIwUX20558; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 14:58:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 14:58:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200404301858.i3UIwUX20558@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 #217 TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Apr 2004 14:56:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 217 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EPIC Alert 11.08 (Monty Solomon) VoIP Summit: Industry Experts Foresee Trouble on the Horizon (VOIP News) Yak Communications Inc. Releases Its Voice Over Internet (VOIP News) Re: Telemarketers Buy Suspicious Lists (Fred Atkinson) Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case (Wesrock) Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? (Phil Stripling) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Mark Crispin) SNL Research Labs Advance Z-Quantum Physics (Tim Liverance) Re: Is Anyone Using MCI Business Complete Unlimited (Michael Sullivan) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (Sullivan) Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately (Fred Atkinson) Re: TiVo Will Not Die (Ron Chapman) Re: Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? (Dave Phelps) Re: "If I am Elected" (Michael D. Sullivan) Re: "If I am Elected" (John Smith) Find Update: Bellcore SR-320 Exchange Message Interface (Madra Beag) 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: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:13:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 11.08 ======================================================================= E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================= Volume 11.08 April 29, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.08.html ====================================================================== Table of Contents ====================================================================== [1] EPIC Files Gmail FOIA Requests; Groups Call for System Suspension [2] EPIC Files Brief in Maryland DNA Database Case [3] EPIC Urges FCC to Reject Expansion of CALEA [4] American Airlines Admits Disclosing Passenger Data [5] New U.S. Election Assistance Commission Begins its Work [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: MoveOn's 50 Ways to Love Your Country [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events ====================================================================== http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.08.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 22:38:01 -0400 Subject: VoIP Summit: Industry Experts Foresee Trouble on the Horizon Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93735 VoIP Summit Industry experts foresee trouble on the horizon - as rules change and competition erupts May 1, 2004 By: Al Senia America's Network What is the current state of VoIP technology? Where is it headed? Who will emerge as winners and losers? What role will regulators play? These were among the questions a distinguished panel of telecom executives examined several weeks ago when America's Network sponsored its first VoIP industry summit in the Washington, D.C. law offices of Swidler Berlin Shereff Friedman. The freewheeling, roundtable discussion was directed by William Wilhelm, a telecom law expert with the firm. The discussion was co-chaired by Al Senia, the managing editor of America's Network. The VoIP roundtable lasted more than two hours. Edited excerpts of the questions and answers follow. A fuller, more detailed discussion is available at America's Network Web site (www.americasnetwork.com). Full story at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93735 Full transcript of VoIP Summit at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=93524 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: VOIP News Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 12:07:09 -0400 Subject: Yak Communications Inc. Releases Its Voice Over Internet Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040430005317&newsLang=en April 30, 2004 10:37 AM US Eastern Timezone Yak Communications Inc. Releases Its Voice Over Internet Protocol Services-VOIP MIAMI & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 30, 2004-- Local & Long Distance Voice Services Over High Speed Networks Yak Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:YAKC), a provider of telecommunication services to residential and business customers, has completed Phase I of the technical and engineering testing of its VOIP services and has started a market test. Charles Zwebner, Yak President and Chief Executive Officer said "The Company continues to execute on its planned rollout of VOIP services to the residential and small business markets and expects to be in market testing to approximately 1,000 users until full commercial deployment, to consumers anywhere in the world, anticipated by September 8, 2004." The product is expected to be commercially released with full features including such options as: Caller ID, Call Blocking, Call Return, Call Forwarding, Three Way Calling, Voicemail, Free On Net Calls, local and international DID's (direct inward dialing numbers), and 911 operator services. Pricing for the bundled services including local, long distance and basic features, will be in the $24.99 to $39.99 range, all-inclusive. "We have tested our products on high speed DSL networks and currently have consumers making inbound and outbound calls using both IP phones and regular telephones, with operational connectivity between the two on both the IP and PSTN networks (public switched telephone), and it works well. Final testing for cable subscribers on high-speed cable networks is anticipated by May 15, 2004. We are extremely pleased with our engineering results and the call quality, and look forward to our anticipated full commercial rollout on September 8, 2004. We believe the market opportunities for our products are extremely large both in Canada and USA, as well as internationally," added Zwebner. For more information on YAK Broadband please visit www.yak.com About YAK Communications Inc.: YAK Communications Inc. (the "Company") (NASDAQ: YAKC) was incorporated in December 1998 in Florida with the objective of providing international long distance discount services to both business and residential customers. The Company specializes in offering these services to consumers by way of a dial-around (known as "10-10"). The Company is a facilities based reseller, which utilizes its own switching systems. For more information about YAK Communications, please visit www.yak.com ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Telemarketers Buy Suspicious Lists Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:32:48 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net If they pretend not to know about the DNC list, then that is one you should definitely report to the FTC. If they get enough complaints about them, they may well take action. Fred On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 10:11:02 -0500, McWebber wrote: > Recently I got two calls from telemarketers that ask for my name and > when I ask how they're spelling my name they give me a misspelling > that exists only on the old Internic, (now Network Solutions), whois > database. I got a call yesterday, despite being on the DNC list from > (561-338-7877 Hunter Scott Financial) a telemarketer with some > investment scam. Played dumb when I mentioned the DNC list and thought > all they had to do was promise not to call me again. > McWebber > No email replies read > If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends > please forget that I'm your friend. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:57:43 EDT Subject: Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case In a message dated 4/30/04 2:38:49 AM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes, in a comment on my message as to whether Amoco Corp. is still in existence: > From: Wesrock@aol.com > Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:28:45 EDT > Subject: as > In a message dated Thu, 29 Apr 2004 09:43:33 -0400, Joe Wineburgh > writes: >> Other unwitting companies and agencies whose computers were used >> include Unisys Corp., Amoco Corp., the Administrative Office of the >> United States Courts and the U.S. Army Information Center, according >> to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Wednesday. > I thought Amoco Corp. ceased to exist a number of years ago, > becoming an integral part of BP, Inc. > Wes Leatherock > wesrock@aol.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The American Oil Company was absorbed > by Standard Oil of Indiana many years ago and the new combined company > became known as (AM)erican (O)il (CO)rporation, or 'AMOCO' for short. > But because of regulations and laws pertaining to the ways the > Standard Oil Company had to do business, with antitrust laws from > years ago, and marketing rules the various Standard Oil Companies had > agreed on, Amoco did business under that name everywhere *except* > about five midwestern states where it was known as 'The Standard Oil > Divison of Amoco'. When BP (British Petroleum) bought out Amoco, they > chose to retain the 'Standard Oil Division of Amoco' name for some > parts of their empire. Some of their computer facilities company wide > are still known as 'Amoco' (or now) 'Amoco Division of BP'. Yes, I am familiar with all the history you provided. But the complaint specifically mentioned that the spammers had made use of Amoco Corp.'s computer system. "Amoco Corp.," or any other corporation, has or has not a specific legal existence. Regardless of whether BP uses "Standard" or "Amoco" as a trade name, or refers to one or more of its divisions or brands by those names, that does not re-create the corporation "Amoco Corp." if it has passed out of existence or ever existed. (I might note Pan-American Petroleum Corporation, later Stanolind, later Amoco, had, and I think still has, vast computer operations in Tulsa. The American Airlines and Amoco computer centers were and probably are such vast operations that they attract all kinds of computer expertise to Tulsa and in turn make it a center of all kinds of computer operations -- including First Data which was involved in the Wal-Mart double/triple billing discussed here earlier.) The corporate parent of Amoco, up until the time it was acquired by BP, was "The Standard Oil Company (incorporated in Indiana)." Note that a corporation has one and only one name. When you see a bank with the name "in Kansas City" or "at Kansas City," rather than the more normal "of Kansas City" (or whatever place), it almost always means the original bank of that name failed, usually during the Great Depression, and the reorganized bank is a different bank. Or, for that matter, when NationsBank acquired Bank of America National Trust & Savings Association, NationsBank changed its name to Bank of America National Association. Bank of America N.T.& S.A. ceased to exist and became part of Bank of America N.A., nee NationsBank. My question was only about whether "Amoco Corp." had a legal existence, not whether the name "Amoco" was used by the owner of whatever computer system was allegedly being used. My former Amoco credit card was renewed as a BP card, but is also good at Amoco stations. That does not mean that the "Amoco Corp." has a legal existence, only that it is a brand named owned by BP and used on some of its stations. I have been told by another person interested in oil company history that BP is also rebranding a few of its stations as "Standard" in the states where it succeeded to the right to the "Standard" name, to maintain its ownership of the "Standard" trademark in those states by its continuing use in trade and commerce. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While Wes is correct, he should recall that television, radio and newspapers deal with thirty second 'sound bites' for the general public, not oil company historians or economists dealing with stocks and corporate mergers, etc. I am sure the use of 'Amoco' in the source document was intended to be a convenient landmark for the public readership rather than any official statement. I am sure the official indictments, etc list the exact legal name of the 'victims' of the theft of service the spammers used. "British Petroleum" tends to make many folks think it is 'some sort of company over there somewhere' while 'Amoco' on the other hand is around them everywhere in this country. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Phil Stripling Subject: Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? Date: 30 Apr 2004 08:23:51 -0700 Organization: Legal Assistance on the Web AES/newspost writes: > I'm told there are Internet services where anyone can send a fax from > a standard fax machine to some special telephone number that's listed > as my fax number, and the fax is then transmitted to me over the > Internet as an email attachment or a temporary web page? > Anyone had direct experience with any such service? (and some idea of > the monthly or per fax cost?) I've used CallWave for years to receive faxes, with no charge. http://www.callwave.com/landing/p47c2.asp for information. Philip Stripling | email to the replyto address is presumed Legal Assistance on the Web | spam and read later. email to philip@ http://www.PhilipStripling.com/ | my domain is read daily. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:26:28 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Thu, 29 Apr 2004, J Kelly wrote: > I find the gray bars unacceptable, black I could live with. Grey bars are less likely to cause phosphor damage on the monitor, especially if you leave your TV at the default settings which generally have the white balance ("picture" or "contrast" control) much too high. > But what is the point when 90%+ is in 4:3 anyway. What was the point of buying a color TV in the early 1960s when 90% was in B&W anyway? I remember celebrating when TV listings switched from a "[C]" icon to a "[BW]"... -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: betalimit@yahoo.com (Timothy Liverance) Subject: SNL Research Labs Advance Z-Quantum Physics New Type of Physics Date: 30 Apr 2004 09:47:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com RE: SNL Research labs Advance Z-Quantum Physics new type of physics is unlocked! Has to be run with A.I THE WEB SITE http://www.beyond-science.com RESOURCE ACCESS CONTROL FACILITY IN PHYSICS , futuristic Definition: 1. [n] someone who predicts the future 2. [adj] of or relating to futurism; "futurist art" See Also: illusionist, seer, visionary " "Quantum chaos is real quantium computing!!" RUN THIS WEBSITE WITH A.I. TO UNLOCK IT"S SECRETS Infinite Dynamics Computing ( ICD ) making quantum computing out dated The Theory of everything is the quantum address Computing to infinite the fundamental laws A Quantum bomb at such a magnitude The most powerful question to ask A.I is Our D.N.A contains a book the Code of life! can you break The periodic table of quantum energy. There is light of Advance technology beyond area 51 Is there a D.N.A Echelon What is the theory of R.O.M.? Quantum replicator, One Billionth of a 1nm Data encryption 360 degrees There is a race so classified Omega partial Alpha and omega = IMAN partial Infinite Dynamics Computing ( ICD ) Making quantum computing outdated. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Is Anyone Using MCI Business Complete Unlimited Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:01:37 GMT In article , mailias@yahoo.com says: > I've been having conversations with an MCI rep about switching our > business's local phone lines over to MCI. Part of the deal is their > unlimited long distance calling. The first line is $59.95 and each > additional line is $44.95 (you can also get regular lines without free > LD for $24.95). > This looks like a really good deal. It would definitely save us some > money over our current setup. We don't have to get any new lines > pulled in, they just take over billing, so the disruption should be > minimal (cringe). I haven't seen the fine print but have been told > that unlimited really means unlimited. I'd still read the fine print > to be 100% sure. > We're in SBC Ameritech's service area in IN. Someone from AT&T has > called but I haven't talked to them yet. Also getting some quotes > from a CLEC and pulling in a T1. Sounds pretty good but it doesn't > have the unlimited LD feature. > So, is this a pretty good plan? Are the others out there that you're > aware of for businesses? MCI has, over the years. been known to engage in a habit that I will charitably call "overpromising." Salesmen will say virtually anything, without regard to the terms of the contract or the tariff, to make the sale, and then the contract or tariff terms take over, and nothing the salesman said is worth a warm bucket of spit. If you are told that unlimited really means unlimited, you have been misled. Are outgoing fax calls included? Data calls? "Excessive" calls to a given number? Calls to numbers served by independent telephone companies with high terminating access charges? You need to look at the fine print -- not just on the sales order, but on the full terms and conditions of the plan. This used to be in a tariff, now it's in a contract. Anything you don't understand in this WILL cost you money. Also, how long are these rates guaranteed for, and how long are you either contractually or practically locked in for? If you incur significant costs to switch, you don't want to have to switch again when they jack up their rates. > Update: did some searching and found Talk America for $53.95 for the > first line and $49.00 for each additional. That's a little bit higher > than MCI's plan, but maybe close enough if other things balance out. If you get a detailed quote, with terms and conditions, shop it with Talk America and with SBC Ameritech. Tell your current provider, "here's what MCI offers; what will you offer to keep me as a customer?" Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:26:21 GMT In article , VOIP News says: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43047 > Written by Karl Bode > The Missouri state Public Service Commission is considering banning > all extra provider charges and fees not mandated by state or federal > regulators, reports the Kansas City Star. The move is a response to > the recent increase in so called "regulatory recovery" and other fees > that appear frequently on landline and wireless -- and most recently -- > on DSL bills. [Comment: And also on the bills of a few VoIP providers.] > The National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA), > which represents some 43 state agencies, recently urged lawmakers to > ban such "fees". "In the last few years, wireline and wireless > carriers have concocted line item charges, fees, and surcharges, > purporting to recover all manner of "regulatory," "administrative," or > "government-mandated" costs, but which do nothing more than soak > consumers for the carriers' ordinary operating costs," the group > recently noted in a petition to the FCC (Word document). > Full story (with links and comments) at: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43047 Regulatory recovery charges typically seek to recover costs that have been imposed on carriers that are not figured into their standard rates, pursuant to provisions in tariffs or contracts that permit this. Not to say this hasn't been abused in some cases, but it's actually not an unreasonable practice in general. In a competitive business, nobody is going to raise prices in anticipation of future regulatory mandates. When the mandates come into effect, and all carriers have to spend big money to comply, the money has to come from somewhere. If a wireless carrier, for example, priced its service a year ago without regard to possible future expenses for a regulatory mandate such as LNP, unsure of whether this would actually come to pass, and then it did come to pass, it needs to pay for LNP. Mostly, it needs to pay up front, with substantial continuing expenses. These costs weren't figured in when it determined its rates, so it invokes its contractual right to pass these costs along to customers in an incremental manner -- spend $2B now for LNP and charge the customers a quarter or a dollar a month per line to recover it over time. With respect to wireless LNP, in particular, the FCC expressly said that wireless carriers were entitled to recover these costs. Would NASUCA have wireless carriers raise their basic rates in advance of possible regulatory mandates? Would it require wireless carriers to absorb these costs and go bankrupt? How does NASUCA expect carriers to pay for "services" such as LNP, CALEA wiretap capability, and E911 Phase II, which were required by regulators, not demanded by customers in contract negotiations? Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Fred Atkinson From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:36:30 -0400 I followed up on getting information about listing a number [not provided by the local telephone company] with the local telephone company's directory assistance. I sent a request for this information over their Web site with a local number where I could be contacted. I explained that I would be getting a number provided by a VOIP company and wanted to know what it would cost and how I would go about getting it listed as a residence. They replied that they couldn't discuss this account with me because I was not the contact listed for the telephone number I gave them to contact me at. When I replied and pointed out that this wasn't about the account of the telephone number where I could be reached, they responded and told me it couldn't be done. I responded telling them I knew this wasn't true and if they didn't get me the correct information, I would first contact the state Public Service Commission and if that didn't get me any relief that I would call the Federal Communications Commission (I really thought I was going to have to resort to this, too). The response was a surprise. They gave me a triple-eight toll free number I would have to call to place the order and told me that it would cost two dollars per month (billed annually) plus applicable taxes. They said I could even get a yellow pages listing (if I wanted it) for a little more money. The service is called a "Foreign Listing". I was told to ask for that when I called the triple-eight number. Why doesn't the telephone company just do it the right way the first time? If they'd just told me this up front there wouldn't have been a confrontation. Oh, well. So the answer is, it *can* be done in South Carolina and I know it can be done in Maryland. The likelihood is that it can be done anywhere in the U. S. you want to list a residential VOIP number. If anyone has additional information on this especially with another state or telco, please pass it on. Fred ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:31:49 -0400 From: Ron Chapman Subject: Re: TiVo Will Not Die In article , Method to Madness wrote: > Tivo will eventually just disappear. Cable companies will upgrade and > tweak their DVR services and that's pretty much it. I'm not sure or > would know why some one would actually have cable TV service and get > Tivo instead of just upgrading their cable box via a small price with > the cable company. Because I don't have or believe in cable boxes? I bought TVs and VCRs with tuners in them. I'd rather use them as intended, and not be tied to a separate box that does nothing but tune the channel for me. Maybe it would be different if all I watched was the box, and never actually tuned anything in. I'd have to commit to never recording anything onto tape again. > And when DVD recorder prices eventually drop more and more ... ... you'll *still* play hell getting that show out of the cable company's DVR and onto your own DVD. Next point? ------------------------------ From: Dave Phelps Subject: Re: Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:35:20 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com In article , spammers_lie@pobox.com says: > We've just moved a commercial bakery into a new building with a new > phone system, and while the (working, remarkably) DR-5 and voicemail > systems and cabinets are so cocoa-encrusted as to be pretty much > worthless, I have 9 or 10 M7310 sets in black (from the offices) that > work. Am I right to estimate that they are probably worth about $50 > each on the used market? > |I always wanted to be someone,| Tom Betz, Generalist | but now I > |think I should have | Want to send me email? | been a wee bit more > |specific. | | > Remarkably? That DR5 > |will probably run for another 10 years. ALthough the VM is probably > |a mini and has a HD that should be dead already. As far as the sets, it looks like you could start the bidding around $50 on ebay and see what happens. Dave Phelps DD Networks www.ddnets.com deadspam=tippenring ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: "If I am Elected" Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:46:08 GMT In article , dneiburg@umd.edu says: > In Telecom Digest, number 209, the editor opined, > "Of course Bush has occassionally (?) been sometimes less than > forthright in his statements and promises ..." > But he isn't obligated to keep his campaign promises. Remember, they > all began, "If I am elected ..." > --Dale Neiburg > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: "If I am elected" ... But Dale, he > *was* elected. And when listening to my radio and 'All Things Considered' > and other propoganda produced by your employer (locally, KRPS 89.9 FM > for southeast Kansas) I get the distinct impression that your employer > looks rather askance at his antics sometimes also. PAT] Pat, I think Dale was very gently suggesting that George W. Bush was *not* elected; he was *selected* by the Supreme Court, which barred a fair Florida recount. This is one reason why some refer to him as the "Resident" of the White House instead of the "President" of the United States. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: "If I am Elected" Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 06:34:23 GMT In a message by Dale Neiburg, the esteemed moderator wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: "If I [Bush] am elected" ... But Dale, he > *was* elected. No, he was appointed by the Supreme Court when the election fraud perpetrated by his brother Jeb began to unravel, and time was of the essense. ------------------------------ From: Madra Beag Subject: Find Update: Bellcore SR-320 Exchange Message Interface (EMI) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:31:34 GMT Organization: RoadRunner - West I hope someone might be able to help. I own an old copy of the Bellcore Special Report SR-320, Exchange Message Interface (EMI) Issue 12 October 1995 Is this record format still used today (by local and LD carriers)? Is this record format still called EMI? Is this some how related to CABS? I did some reading on Telcordia, but with no luck. Where might I get an updated version of this or similar record format? Thanks in advance to anyone who has thoughts on this. ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #217 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri Apr 30 22:30:54 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i412UsI23643; Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:30:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:30:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405010230.i412UsI23643@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 #218 TELECOM Digest Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:30:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 218 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson History of the Stock Ticker - Old WUTCO History (TELECOM Digest Editor) History of the Teletype Machine - WUTCO History (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. =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:02:56 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: History of the Stock Ticker - Old WUTCO History For your reading this weekend, two items from the Western Union Archives; the first one on the stock ticker machine. This first appeared in the Digest about twelve years ago. PAT Date: Sun, 5 Jan 1992 14:41:27 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator Message-Id: <199201052041.AA30068@delta.eecs.nwu.edu> To: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu Subject: Western Union History of the Stock Ticker This piece was sent to the Digest over the weekend by Jim Haynes and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. PAT From: Jim Haynes Subject: Stock Ticker History Date: 4 Jan 92 06:59:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz The following article was originally printed in {The Western Union Technical Review}, April, 1961, Vol 15, No. 2. Copyright 1961 by The Western Union Telegraph Company, formerly a leading manufacturer of chads. Telegraph History Some Early Days of Western Union's Stock Ticker Service 1871-1910 by Charles R. Tilghman [noted as deceased as of the time of publication] The Western Union Telegraph Company had been established only 15 years when Charlie Tilghman was a "stock" messenger in Cincinnati, Ohio. The story, as he tells it briefly, of early developments in Western Union's ticker service is a story also of his own resourceful rise to the position of General Superintendent of Ticker Services. -------------- About 1871 or '72 when I was a stock messenger in the Cincinnati office, the Gold and Stock quotations were received by Morse from New York and copied on manifold sheets and each boy had ten or twelve subscribers to deliver reports to every fifteen minutes. Gold was at a premium and was bought and sold like stocks, so we had the name of Gold and Stock Telegraph Company. [Photo of etching titled "E. A. Calahan's 1867 stock ticker introduced by the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. required three line wires."] One day, our 'boss' told us boys that they would not need us any more as they were going to send out the reports on electric printing machines. In a few days the equipment for a small ticker plant was received, including a dial transmitter with letters and numerals in a circle, an arrow or pointer pivoting in the center. The turning of a small crank operated a make-and-break contact point and also revolved the arrow, stopping it directly over the character desired. The operator pressed a telegraph key with his left hand to close the press circuit and print the character. Six tickers were received. They were Edison's invention with type and press magnets of six ohms and required a large amount of current to work them. There was a ratchet wheel on the type wheel shaft. An arm, extending from the type magnet and working perpendicularly into this ratchet wheel revolved the type shaft and the two type wheels at the end of it. I took a great interest in the machine, helped to set one up on a short circuit in our office and commenced to practice working the transmitter. In a short time, one machine was put in the First National Bank and two wires were run from our office to connect it. The bankers, brokers, and business men were invited to see the new wonder of printing by electricity. A crowd came and I operated the transmitter, sending out stock quotations. It created quite a lot of excitement and talk. Soon the Company had several subscribers signed up and a ticker plant started -- I was the operator. This Edison ticker became known as the Universal ticker. We operated these tickers ten years before we ever had a voltmeter or an ammeter or anything to tell us how much current was on our lines. When we added tickers, we added a few more cells and took them off when we cut out tickers. We had to judge the adjustments of relays and ticker by feeling the pull with our fingers. Bunsen and Callaud Batteries This was the start of ticker service in Ohio, and Cincinnati was the only town that had them. We used bichromate of potash and sulphuric acid solution in a porous cup set inside a circular zinc and a stick of carbon immersed in the solution. The zinc and porous cup were put in a glass of water diluted with a small amount of acid. This made a strong battery of very low internal resistance but expensive to maintain. The company was using Callaud or blue vitriol batteries on the Morse wire and had twelve thousand cells in Cincinnati. The officials at Chicago were urging me to use the Callaud for ticker service, but I objected, saying it was too slow and had too much internal resistance for ticker work. The fight went on for some time. We did not have any dynamos or motors of any kind in the Cincinnati office at that time and had no more room for Callaud batteries. Finally, I got the idea I could use Edison light current to operate the tickers. I went to the Edison company, explained what I wanted to do, and asked them to run a special wire into our office and let me see what I could do with it. They ran in a single wire from their positive side of a three-wire system. We had no resistance lamps so I used Edison light bulbs and the small resistance boxes we had. The Edison current worked the tickers fine and, to make a long story short, I worked the entire ticker plant, local and main circuits, with this current. This was in 1880. When I started the first long distance ticker circuit, Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio, 125 miles away, I required both polarities to operate the polar relay in Columbus; therefore the Edison company ran in a negative lead with no additional charge. I also used Edison current to work self-winding clock circuits. Later I put it on the main switchboard in the Cincinnati operating room and worked about fifty single lines and several duplex. To do this it was necessary to buy Edison lamps and make a lamp board above the switchboard. As I could spend five dollars without additional authority, my city foreman made the boards and I bought five dollars worth of lamps and receptacles at a time. It was necessary to take off two copper battery strips that ran across back of the board and then run wires from the lamp receptacles to the small disks. After this was completed and a reserve lead from Edison company secured, we eliminated three thousand cells of Callaud batteries and the acid ticker batteries, making a saving of over $3000 per annum. The Edison company had taken out their meter and given us a flat rate of twenty-five dollars per month. I wrote to Mr. G. B. Scott, Superintendent at New York, and asked him to have a piano key transmitter made with a motor to work on 110-volt D.C. After a lot of correspondence, they sent me a transmitter and motor for 110 D.C. and told me to be very careful not to let it burn up and be sure to let him know how it worked as it was the first one ever made to use Edison current. Self-Winding Tickers The self-winding ticker was invented by Mr. George B. Scott, Superintendent of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company in New York, and Mr. W. P. Phelps of the Philadelphia Local Telegraph Company. Mr. Phelps invented the automatic shift from letters to figures and vice versa by changing the polarity on the second or winding wire. This was a great improvement over all other styles of printer at that time. They were first called the Scott-Phelps ticker. In 1903, Mr. J. C. Barclay, then Assistant General Manager, wanted to change the ticker and make it smaller. He called Mr. Jay R. Page from Chicago to New York for suggestions on the change; and, with Mr. Scott, they decided to put the escapement magnet and adjustment screws inside the ticker frame. After this change the ticker was called the Scott-Phelps- Barclay-Page ticker. My first experience with these tickers came when Mr. Barclay transferred me from Cincinnati, where I was Assistant Superintendent of the seventh district of the Central Division by appointment of Col. Clowry, to New York, May 1, 1904, [Photo titled "Later model of Calahan ticker now in Western Union Museum, New York."] and made me general inspector of ticker service in all divisions. Up to this time, I had never even seen these tickers working for they had not been put into service in the west, and I knew not a thing about them. Yet the very first thing Mr. Barclay asked me to do was to make these two-wire tickers with four pairs of magnets in them work a long distance on one wire. A single underground wire from the ticker plant under the stock exchange to the repair shop in the Supply Department on Franklin Street was assigned for the test. I started to connect up the relays and tickers and then go down and make the connections on the ticker panel at Broad Street. At the end of the third day, when I went down to our office and told Mr. Barclay that I had the tickers working on one wire but not completed, he said in a very cross voice, "Oh, what takes you so long; hurry up." I later learned that electricians and ticker men had worked for two months and spent two thousand dollars trying to work the tickers from New York to Boston and had given up, saying it was impossible. Long Distance Service I understood the quadruplex and that night I thought of using the quad neutral relay to work the repeat and next morning I connected one up before market opened and received the full market all day O.K. on my fourth day of testing. I took the day's tape down to Mr. Barclay, who looked it over and said, "Let's go in and show President Clowry." Mr. Barclay told the president, "Now we have a one-wire long distance ticker and we can put tickers all over the country." That was the start. The next week, Mr. Barclay said, "Now, Tilghman, put up a long distance stock ticker in Philadelphia." When I went over to Philadelphia, the other inventor of the ticker, Mr. Phelps, said, "Mr. Tilghman, I will do everything I can to help you and would like to see it work, but it cannot be done. The ticker that will work from New York to Philadelphia does not exist; there is no such machine." It was much harder to work over the ninety miles to Philadelphia because of the induction from other wires. I found that when the operator in New York would strike the repeat key thus taking the current off the line for a fraction of a second, the induction from other lines would cause the polar relay in Philadelphia to jump ahead two or three characters. I went back to New York and bridged the break of the repeat relay with adjustable rheostat, leaving just enough current on the line to hold the polar and type wheel on the character the operator was holding; then adjusted my neutral relay in Philadelphia so that it would break away over the light current and repeat the character. Finally, we got it to work so that the keyboard operator in Philadelphia sent from tape of the New York ticker. [Photo titled "Thomas A. Edison's two-wire "Universal" ticker, much improved, was used for many years."] [This appears identical, as well as I remember, to a ticker I saw in operation in a Western Union office, circa 1950.] Then Barclay said, "Now go on to Baltimore and Washington." This was some task and required repeaters in the line. The installation took time and Mr. Barclay sent Mr. William Finn over to help me in order to hurry up the job. Mr. Finn certainly was a very fine man to work with and gave me some good advice about the use of condensers. It was finally accomplished and we worked to Washington, later extending the circuit to Richmond, Virginia. And so the long distance service spread. In 1905, I went all over New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana securing subscribers for stocks and baseball. One year, I secured $29,000 worth of service before baseball opened. In February 1910, Mr. Barclay left the company and Mr. Atherton, a splendid man with a very kind disposition and big heart, took his place. I was transferred from General Inspector to Mr. Atherton's staff. That summer, Mr. Kitton and I had our first vacation. I had been in the service forty one years. Mr. Atherton died the next year and I went into the office of Mr. Yorke, a perfectly splendid man to work for; fair, and just to all. I was with him all during the war; and, while in his office, was given charge of the ticker repair shop. One day, Mr. Yorke spoke of the "alphabet ticker", meaning the Scott-Phelps-Barclay-Page ticker, and wanted to know if I couldn't give it a shorter name. He didn't like all those names. I replied, "Yes, we can call it the self-winding ticker". He said to do it and drop all those names. So it has been the self-winding ticker ever since. Mr. Yorke changed my title to General Supervisor of Ticker Service. I remained with him until Mr. Titley came and was made Vice President of the Plant Department, when I was transferred to his office. He was another grand man and it was a great pleasure and honor to be associated with him. The Western Union Co. had thousands of Burry tickers for which they were paying the Stock Quotation Tel. Co. $3.00 per month rental which totalled approximately $35,000 per annum. These tickers cost $32.00 each to manufacture. At the same time Western Union had a large stock of their own tickers in the Supply Department and the Superintendent of Supplies asked for authority to sell or destroy them. He said they would never be used and took up too much room. Later he asked if he could get rid of 100 a month until they were all gone. I said, no, we would use them to replace the Burry tickers and save the rental. The Burrys were not so fast as the self-winding tickers and would get way behind on active markets. The first town I changed was Washington, then Baltimore, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and many more. Boston was using 350 Burry tickers and Chicago 750. They also used the Worisching ticker that was owned by the Stock Quotation Co. It was years before we got all these rental tickers out of our service. Superintendent Scott used two polar relays to work each self-winding ticker circuit. He said we could not possibly work with one on account of the spark on the points. These relays were 135 ohms each. This made a great load on the transmitter and great retardation in the local circuit; also created lots of sparking on the break wheel of transmitter which was revolved in oil to keep from sparking and burning. I told Mr. Scott I had put in new self-winding plant in Washington using only one polar relay on each circuit and it was working all right. There was no sparking on relay points. [Photo titled "Messrs. Scott, Phelps, Barclay and Page all contributed to "Self-Winding" ticker design." shows a ticker under a glass bell jar, and printing on the base "Quotation furnished by Western Union Telegraph apply to local manager"] The Big Blow Out The old stock ticker plant in the basement of the stock exchange was operated from a storage battery plant of 150 ampere hours cells and 350 volts, positive and negative. From these batteries there were two large size copper wires run around three sides of the ticker room. Smaller wires were connected with the larger wires and run direct to the points of the polar relays on the ticker circuit panels. The only fuse was one connected in each battery wire in the battery room. One day in September 1910 there was a short circuit on one of the stock circuits that blew out the fuse, splitting the fuse block in pieces. This cut off the entire stock ticker service in New York and all over the country for the Morse operators in the Western Union operating room were sending in all directions from the ticker tape. This blow out made some blow up! General Manager Brooks came hurrying into Mr. Athern's office and asked him to send me down to Broad Street to see what was the matter. Up to this time I had nothing to do with this New York plant as Supt. George B. Scott was in direct charge of it. I went down, investigated, came right back and made my report. Mr. Athern and Mr. Brooks both said for me to go back and take charge; do anything, order anything you need, only fix it so it will never happen again. I ordered material and started the work with six or ten men immediately after market closed each day, and worked till 9:00 or 10:00 P.M. I had a fuse put in each battery wire and through a resistance lamp to every ticker circuit panel. I found every circuit in the plant had positive pole connected to unison so the entire load of about 75 or 80 amperes was on one battery lead. When I asked why they did not put half the load on negative, they said "Why you must be crazy, the tickers would not work." Well, I had it done nevertheless -- and the tickers operated just as before. -------------- haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:01:33 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: History of Morkrum Company/Teletype Corporation Date: Sat, 16 Nov 1991 20:33:50 -0600 From: TELECOM Moderator To: telecom Subject: History of Morkrum Company - Ancestor of Teletype Corporation [Moderator's Note: Attached is a very interesting piece I received which is too large for a regular issue of the Digest. I thought it was fascinating and hope you feel the same way. PAT] From: Jim Haynes Subject: History of Morkrum Company - Ancestor of Teletype Corporation Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MORKRUM COMPANY Howard L. Krum circa 1925 ABSTRACT This is a first-hand report of Teletype's early years. Although the original manuscript was found unsigned and undated, it has been positively identified as the work of Mr. Howard L. Krum, son of Mr. Charles L. Krum, a co-founder of the original Morkrum Company. The date of writing seems to have been somewhere between 1925 and 1928. The fame of Howard Krum does not depend on his illustrious parentage. His own contributions to the printing telegraph art, among them the invention of _stop-start synchronization_, were of lasting importance. ----- In the year 1902, Mr. Joy Morton, nationally known as the founder and head of the Morton Salt Company, became interested in the possibility of developing a printing telegraph system. He called Mr. Charles L. Krum, who was at that time Mechanical Engineer of the Western Cold Storage Company, into consultation on the matter. While cold storage seems rather a far cry from printing telegraph development, Mr. Krum had had considerable experience on the design of intricate mechanisms, including adding machines. Inventors had been working on the development of printing telegraph for forty years prior to this time but had not succeeded in producing apparatus which was simple and practical enough to find any market or any considerable use by the communication systems in the United States. As is the case with most others who started work on printing telegraph, Mr. Krum was fascinated with the possibilities of this development, and Mr. Morton agreed to go ahead with the proposition and finance it. How important this decision was did not become apparent for many years, as certainly no one realized the vast sums of money and the years of hard work which would have to be expended before satisfactory printing telegraph apparatus would be produced and widespread use made of it. In 1906, Mr. Howard Krum received his degree in electrical engineering and immediately started work with his father on this problem. The combination of the electrical engineer and the mechanical engineer proved to be a happy one and experiments were diligently prosecuted for a couple of years, until in 1908 a system was developed which looked good enough to try on an actual telegraph line. The first trial of this system was made on the lines of the Chicago & Alton Railroad. While operation was secured and the results were sufficiently satisfactory to cause the inventors to feel quite jubilant, still they were hard-headed enough to see the weak points of this system in the state of development in which it was at that time. The experience acquired in this actual line test of the apparatus was made the basis for further research, and after two more years of work, the start-stop printing telegraph system which has become the basis for all successful single channel printer systems of the present day, was born. The apparatus which embodied the start-stop system at that time bore little resemblance to the present apparatus but the principles of operation were there and the working out of them was sufficiently satisfactory to justify a commercial installation. In their pursuit of a satisfactory system of transmission, the mechanism for recording the signals was not neglected. Several different kinds of commercial typewriters were modified to perform the duty of recording the received signals, but strange as it may seem, it was found that commercial typewriters were not satisfactory for the rigorous job of recording telegraph signals. It was therefore found necessary to design a typewriter especially for this work. These first tests also pointed out the advantages and superiority of mechanical over electrical operation, with a result that all functions outside of the bare selection are now performed mechanically by the Teletype in its present form. Having finally produced a system and apparatus which they felt certain was commercially practical, the inventors were then faced with the necessity for finding a communication company who would permit the installation of this apparatus in regular commercial operation. The Postal Telegraph Company proved to be the most receptive and a commit- tee headed by Mr. Minor M. Davis, at that time Electrical Engineer for the Postal Telegraph Company, visited Chicago to investigate this new Morkrum system. It is interesting to note that Mr. Davis, who had years of experience in the telegraph business and who had seen many attempts at the development of a successful printing telegraph system, was not so much concerned in the actual functioning of the recording apparatus but was more concerned in learning if the basis of the system, that is, the line signal, was of a type which would function on ordinary telegraph lines in good weather and bad. After a thorough investigation of the system, he became convinced that the start-stop line signal devised by the Krums would meet the rigorous service requirements, and the committee decided to permit an actual commercial installation on the Postal lines between New York and Boston. This installation was made in the summer of 1910. After years of work, the inventors felt that they had finally reached their goal. The apparatus was packed and shipped and Mr. Howard Krum went to Boston to supervise the installation at that end of the circuit and Mr. Charles Krum went to New York to take care of the operations at that end. However, the difficulties were not yet over, for when the apparatus arrived at its destination it was found that due to rough handling the delicate instruments were so badly damaged that instead of proceeding with the installation they had to spend months of work to get the machines back in shape for operation. Finally the day came when everything was in readiness and the two sets, one at New York and one at Boston, were hooked together by a telegraph wire and the first commercial message was transmitted by the Morkrum system. From the start good results were obtained, but as operation continued the inventors realized more and more that the operating requirements for commercial telegraph service were terribly exacting. The percentage of accuracy required was much higher than with any other form of mechanism; it must work twenty-four hours a day; it must operate on good telegraph wires and on telegraph wires whose quality was impaired by rain and other adverse weather conditions. The apparatus was too delicate to function over long periods of time without the necessity of close supervision. However, as in the case of the earlier installation, the inventors profited by their experience and went steadily along perfecting their apparatus, making changes here and there to improve its accuracy [and] to make it sturdier and simpler. Further Postal Telegraph lines were equipped and an installation was made on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad between Chicago and Galesburg, Illinois. However, in spite of the fact that these circuits gave good service, the growth of the business was very slow. Telegraph companies and the railroads seemed loath to adopt the new system. Possibly this slow growth in the early days of the Morkrum system was due to the fact that the telegraph companies and the railroads could easily secure good Morse operators at low wages. Therefore, they were loath to abandon Morse operation, concerning which they were thoroughly familiar, and to replace it with machine telegraphy which would force them to go to school all over again. However, the telegraph business continued to grow and good Morse operators became harder to secure, wages increased, and above all, the Morkrum system steadily improved and finally installations of the system were made by the Western Union Telegraph Company, and the Canadian Pacific and Great Northwestern Telegraph companies in Canada. Due to increased business, Morkrum Company were able to enlarge their plant facilities, to engage expert assistants and to steadily improve their product. In 1917, Mr. Sterling Morton, son of Mr. Joy Morton, who had had wide experience with the Morton Salt Company, became president of the Morkrum Company. Mr. Morton brought to the Morkrum Company not only his great organizing and executive ability, but also an unusual talent for machine design work. The page printer and the Simplex tape printer, which are the most widely used units at the present time, are the joint work of Mr. Morton and Mr. Howard Krum. Up to this time, the laboratory and manufacturing work had been carried on in an old building near the business district. A careful survey of the employees showed that the majority of them lived on the north side of Chicago and this study determined the location of the present factory. In 1918, the factory was moved to the first unit of the present building, which is entirely fireproof and is considered one of the finest factory buildings in Chicago. Since that time, a total of six units have been built and a seventh is just being started. [1] As the demand for printing telegraph apparatus grew, the standards were steadily raised and apparatus which was thought quite wonderful a few years previous became obsolete and was replaced with newer types having greater margins of operation, higher speeds, and which were much simpler to maintain. Installations were made in new fields and each new field offered new and more difficult problems. In 1914, Mr. Kent Cooper, who was then head of the Traffic Department of the Associated Press, became convinced that the method of delivering copy to the New York newspapers by messenger boy was decidedly unsatisfactory and asked the Morkrum Company if they could make an installation of their apparatus by which one operator in the Associated Press could transmit the press matter simultaneously to all of the newspapers in New York City. A simple problem in the light of our present-day knowledge, but at that time it was an undertaking which offered many problems as yet unsolved. However, it was undertaken; the problem was studied, suitable apparatus was designed and within a year all of the newspapers in New York City and nearby towns, as well as in Philadelphia, were receiving their press matter simultaneously from a transmitting set controlled by a single operator in the Associated Press office in New York City. From this small beginning in the service of the Associated Press, the use of printing telegraphs has spread until over 800 newspapers belonging to the Associated Press receive their news dispatches by these machines, and some of the wire circuits of which this matter is transmitted involve as much as 4,000 miles of wire. The other press associations are using the apparatus to much the same extent. Up to 1917, the Morkrum Company had devoted all their efforts to the design of single channel printing telegraph systems and had developed both direct keyboard and tape transmission, but at this time the Postal Telegraph Company asked the Morkrum Company to develop a Multiplex system to meet the requirements on their heavy trunk lines. This development was undertaken and in less than a year a satisfactory Multiplex system had been designed, manufactured and installed on the Postal Company's line and proved so valuable that its use was extended to all their main trunk lines. As the use of printing telegraph became more general, needs developed for different types of apparatus to meet different classes of service, and the Morkrum Company attacked these problems and devel- oped different types of apparatus until at present there are available both direct keyboard and perforated tape transmission systems, printing either on tape printers or page printers, operated either single channel or Multiplex, using either five-unit or six-unit code, the latter being especially valuable for stock quotation work. The use of the apparatus in the telegraph companies continued to grow until at the present time fully 80% of all commercial telegrams are handled by printing telegraph. As the use of the machines grew, the requirements became more and more rigid and these were met by intensive research and development work which has never ceased. Printers are operating today under service conditions which would not have been considered possible even two or three years back. The latest development, the so-called "Typebar Tape Teletype" has proven so simple and reliable that it bids fair to drive Morse operation even from the way wires. Always on the alert for new fields for its equipment, the Morkrum Company several years ago became convinced that its apparatus could render valuable service for the communication needs of business houses, factories, hotels, etc. To sell this idea required a lot of time and much hard work, and the first few installations proved that this service was much more exacting that the use of the machines in regular telegraph offices where expert maintenance was instantly available, The experience gained in these early commercial install- ations paid big dividends, in that it resulted in such marked improvement in the apparatus that the use has grown so that today there is scarcely a city or town in the United States where this apparatus is not used for some communication need outside of its primary field -- that of telegraphic message traffic. The development of an organization that could satisfactorily handle the complex problems of developing and manufacturing a printing telegraph system has been quite as remarkable as the development of the apparatus itself; in fact, the successful culmination of the work would not have been possible had it not been for the splendid loyalty and intelligent work of the whole organization. This is particularly true in the case of the many men who had courage enough to stick to the proposition through the many years that it took before practical commercial results were obtained. The Morkrum Company is particularly proud of the fact that the outstanding men in the organization have developed in their own organization. It is a fixed policy of the company to develop its own men for important positions wherever possible. Mr. Howard Krum met Mr. J. O. Carr, who is now head of the Sales Engineering Department, in Boston in 1910 and engaged him for testing and engineering work. About the same time, Mr. G. Heding, who is now Factory Manager, came to the company as a tool maker. During their long years of service these two men have filled practically every position of importance in the organization and much credit is due them for their part in the final success of the work. We believe there are few companies where such a large proportion of the men in supervisory positions have grown up with the company and developed as the company has developed and there are certainly few companies where there is a greater spirit of loyalty and co-operation. Just a word about the manufacture of this apparatus. The requirements which printing telegraph apparatus must meet are extremely severe. This is readily understood when it seen that when a printer is opera- ting at the rate of 60 words per minute it is printing six characters per second. The printing of a character requires at least four successive operations of the various portions of the machine; in other words, many of these mechanisms have less than a twenty-fourth of a second in which to do their job. Coupled with this is the fact that the control of this rapidly moving mechanism is by means of a current of electricity so weak that it would hardly cause the smallest electric light globe to even glow. Knowing this, it is easy to understand that continuous work and research must be carried on to secure proper alloys and devise the proper methods of heat treating and hardening to permit all of the parts of the machine to function properly. Another requirement which is successfully met by Morkrum apparatus is absolute interchangeability of parts. This has been secured by the work of a force of highly trained designers and engineers and by the policy of the company of unhesitatingly securing the finest machine tool equipment available to permit parts to be made with the highest degree of accuracy. The present plant of the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corporation [2] at Chicago contains about 135,000 square feet of floor space devoted solely to the manufacture of this type of apparatus, filled wit the best machine tool equipment that can be purchased and manned by a force of highly trained employees, many of whom have been in the service of the company for a great many years. ----- [1] This would be the building at 1400 Wrightwood Ave., in Chicago which was occupied by Teletype until early in the 1960s, when the R&D portion of the complex at 5555 Touhy Ave., Skokie, was completed. I hear it has now been remodeled into luxury apartments. [2] E. E. Kleinschmidt had a competing printing telegraph company in the 1905-1920 time frame. His company eventually merged with the Morkrum company because of the dominance of the Krum patent on start-stop operation. In the 1950s Mr. Kleinschmidt got back into the business with his own company, located in Deerfield, IL. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@ucsccats.bitnet ------------------ From: Jim Haynes Subject: History of Teletypewriter Development Date: 17 Nov 91 08:34:46 GMT Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz Here's another one (and that exhausts my supply). These two came into my hands as Monographs when I was working for Teletype in 1963-1966. The main reason I typed them in is to get them into the telecom archive since they contain information that isn't readily available so far as I know. HISTORY OF TELETYPEWRITER DEVELOPMENT R. A. Nelson K. M. Lovitt, Editor October 1963 Teletype Corporation 5555 West Touhy Avenue Skokie, Illinois ------ ABSTRACT The success of the modern teletypewriter began with Howard L. Krum's conception of the start-stop method of synchronization for permutation code telegraph systems. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief historical account of events which led to that achievement and of those which ensued. Four areas of development will be covered: (1) The contributions of Sterling Morton, Charles L. Krum and Howard L. Krum. (2) The contributions of E. E. Kleinschmidt. (3) The contributions of AT&T and Western Electric. (4) The contributions of L. M. Potts ----- _HISTORY OF TELETYPEWRITER DEVELOPMENT_ Area I. In 1902 a young electrical engineer named Frank Pearne solicited financial support from Joy Morton, head of the Morton Salt interests. Pearne had been experimenting with a printing telegraph system and needed sponsorship to continue his work. Morton discussed the matter with his friend, Charles L. Krum, a distinguished mechanical engineer and vice president of the Western Cold Storage Company (which was operated by Joy's brother, Mark Morton). The verdict for Pearne was favorable, and he was given laboratory space in the attic of the Western Cold Storage Company. After about a year of unsuccessful experimenting, Pearne lost interest and decided to enter the teaching field. Charles Krum continued the work and by 1906 had developed a promising model. In that year his son, Howard, a newly graduated electrical engineer, plunged into the work alongside his father. The fruit of these early efforts was a typebar page printer (Patent No. 888,335; filed August 22, 1903; issued May 19, 1908) and a typewheel printing telegraph machine (Patent No. 862,402; filed August 6, 1904; issued August 6, 1907). Neither of these machines used a permutation code. They experimented with transmitters as well, applications filed in 1904 and 1906 maturing into Patents No. 929,602 and No. 929,603. These patents covered modes of transmission which depended both on alternation of polarity and change in current level. By 1908 the Krums were able to test an experimental printer on an actual telegraph line. The typing portion of this machine was a modified Oliver typewriter mounted on a desk with the necessary relays, contacts, magnets, and interconnecting wires (Patent No. 1,137,146; filed February 4, 1909; issued April 27, 1915). As a result of the successful test of this printer, Charles and Howard Krum continued their experiments with a view to developing a direct keyboard typewheel printer. They sought most of all to discover a way of synchronizing transmitting and receiving units so that they would stay "in step." It was Howard Krum who worked out the start-stop method of synchronization (Patent No. 1,286,351; filed May 31, 1910; issued December 3, 1918). This achievement, which more than anything else put printing telegraphy on a practical basis, was first embodied (for commercial purposes) in the "Green Code" Printer, a typewheel page printer (Patent No. 1,232,045; filed November 28, 1909;issued July 3, 1917). The transmitters first used by the Krums were of the continuously- moving-tape variety. (A stepped tape feed, they maintained, would have reduced transmission speed.) In order to permit sequential sensing, the rows of code holes were arranged in a slightly oblique pattern (with respect to tape edges). This method of transmission is more fully elaborated in Krum Patents No. 1,326,456, No. 1,360,231, and No. 1,366,812. Keyboard-controlled cam-type start-stop permutation code transmitters were developed by Charles and Howard Krum in about 1919. Such a device is the transmitter component of the Morkrum 11-Type tape printer (Krum Patent No. 1,635,486). This kind of transmitter employs a single contact to open or close the signal line. In about 1924 the Morkrum Company introduced the No. 12-Type tape printer (H. L. Krum Patent No. 1,665,594). On December 23, 1924, Howard Krum and Sterling Morton (son of Joy Morton) filed an application on the 14-Type type-bar tape printer which matured into Patent No. 1,745,633. [1] Area II. It appears that the early efforts of E. E. Kleinschmidt were directed toward development of facsimile printing apparatus and automatic Morse code equipment. He patented first a Morse keyboard transmitter (Patent No. 964,372; filed February 7, 1095; issued January 11, 1910) and later a Morse keyboard perforator (Patents No. 1,045,855, No. 1,085,984, and No. 1,085,985). (The latter became known as the Wheatstone Perforator.) In 1916 Kleinschmidt filed an application for a type-bar page printer (Patent No. 1,448,750 issued March 20, 1923). This printer utilized Baudot code but was not start-stop. It was intended for use on multiplex circuits, and its printing was controlled from a local segment on a receiving distributor of the sunflower type. Later, around 1919, Kleinschmidt appeared to be concerned chiefly with development of multiplex transmitters for use with this printer (Kleinschmidt Patent No. 1,460,357). It seems that Kleinschmidt first became interested in modern start-stop permutation code telegraph systems when H. L. Krum's basic start-stop patent was issued in December 1918. Shortly after that Kleinschmidt filed an application entitled "Method of and Apparatus for Operating Printing Telegraphs" (Patent No. 1,463,136; filed May 1, 1919; issued July 24, 1923). The system described therein employed the start-stop principle with a modified version of his earlier multiplex distributor. That patent, accordingly, was dominated by the Krum start-stop patent. The conflict of patent rights between the Morkrum Company and the Kleinschmidt Electric Company eventually led to a merger of the two interests. Shortly after the new Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Corporation (later called the Teletype Corporation) had been established, Sterling Morton, Howard Krum, and E. E. Kleinschmidt filed an application covering the commercial form of the well-known 15-Type page printer (Patent No. 1,9904,164). [2] Area III. Teletype entered the Bell System in 1930. From this point on, advances in the Teletype product can be considered the result of the pooled efforts of the AT&T Company, the Western Electric Company, and the Teletype Corporation. Teletype Corporation, of course, holder of the basic patents and expert in the art, was the chief contributor. Although it appears from the report of R. E. Pierce, dated December 24, 1934, that the Bell System was active in the development of telegraph printers and transmitters as early as the year 1909, a review of the patents issued to Bell reveals no significant contribution to modern teletypewriter development (using start-stop permutation code) until the introduction in 1920 of the 10-A teletypewriter (Pfannenstiehl Patents No. 1,374,606, No. 1,399,933, No. 1,426,768, No. 1,623,809, and No. 1,661,012). The 10-A teletypewriter was the first embodiment of such basic design features of the 15-Type printer as stationary platen, moving type basket, and selector vane assembly, but the majority of improvements incorporated in the 15-Type were proprietary to the Teletype Corporation. Area IV. The earliest contribution of Dr. L. M. Potts to the start-stop method of synchronization appears to have been set forth in a patent application filed November 18, 1911, covering a reed-type start-stop selector (Patent No. 1,151,216). In 1914, Dr. Potts filed an application for a single magnet page printer which used an eight-unit code (Patent No. 1,229,202; issued June 5, 1917). In 1915, Dr. Potts filed an application covering another single magnet page printer, this one using the start-stop permutation code (Patent No. 1,370,669; assigned to AT&T March 8, 1921). Potts Patents No. 1,517,381 and No. 1,570,923 were also assigned to AT&T. ---------- [1] For anyone who is old enough to have seen a Western Union Telegram where the typing is on narrow gum-backed tape that is moistened and stuck to a telegram blank, this is the machine that produces that kind of printing. The same mechanism is the basis of a typing reperforator, a machine which punches received signals into a tape for retransmission and also types on the tape so an operator can read it. [2] This is the machine used until the 1960s or so by the news wire services. Some radio stations still use a recording of the sound of one of these machines as background during news broadcasts. haynes@cats.ucsc.edu haynes@cats.bitnet [Moderator's Note: Thank you for two very excellent articles this weekend on the history of Teletype and its predecessor companies. Jim's earlier article on the history of the Morkrum Company was distributed as a special mailing sent out between issues 936-937 on Saturday evening. Watch for your copy to arrive if it hasn't yet. But I am curious about something not mentioned in either article. Did the Bell System buy out Morkrum and change the name to Teletype in 1930 or did Teletype start and later buy out Morkrum? How did that transition occur? I love these history articles because so much telecom history happened right here in Chicago -- the Chicago I like to remember from years ago. PAT] ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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You can get desired files in email. ************************ All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #218 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 1 01:22:17 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i415MHM25157; Sat, 1 May 2004 01:22:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 01:22:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405010522.i415MHM25157@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 #219 TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 May 2004 01:20:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 219 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? (Tom Betz) Re: Good News! Four Oakland Men Cited in First US Spam Case (Wesrock) Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? (Clarence Dold) Re: Find Update: Bellcore SR-320 Exchange Message Interface (McIntosh) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (Stanley Cline) Re: Telephony Software Recommendation (Mail Ias) Re: "If I am Elected" (Charles Cryderman) What Remains of Western Union (Michael D. Sullivan) Chicago City Government Centrex History (Lisa Hancock) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tom Betz Subject: Re: Used Norstar M7310 Sets Worth Anything? Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 21:25:16 UTC Organization: XOme Quoth Dave Phelps in news:telecom23.217.13@telecom-digest.org: > Remarkably? That DR5 will probably run for another 10 years. I say it's remarkable because every surface (I mean EVERY nook and cranny, inside and out) is coated with a fairly thick layer of air-borne cocoa dust; this thing was mounted in a vented closet just outside the production floor, and was never cleaned in its entire life. I can't imagine how it has kept from melting down, the cooling from those cocoa-coated surfaces must be horrible. Thanks for the eBay suggestion; the Bakery's CEO is a big eBay fan. I can dump this in his hands, as I'm not one. "I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection." - W.S. ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 19:33:28 EDT Subject: Re: Good News! Four Oakland Men Cited in First US Spam Case In a message dated 4/30/04 1:58:24 PM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: While Wes is correct, he should recall > that television, radio and newspapers deal with thirty second 'sound > bites' for the general public, not oil company historians or economists > dealing with stocks and corporate mergers, etc. I am sure the use of > 'Amoco' in the source document was intended to be a convenient landmark > for the public readership rather than any official statement. I am > sure the official indictments, etc list the exact legal name of the > 'victims' of the theft of service the spammers used. "British Petroleum" > tends to make many folks think it is 'some sort of company over there > somewhere' while 'Amoco' on the other hand is around them everywhere > in this country. PAT] A check on the CBS Market Watch web site shows that the name is no longer "British Petroleum;" it is "BP plc" and is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BP. Just as the American Association of Retired Persons has changed its name to simply "AARP," presumably because it wants to be seen as a representative of the middle aged, too, to enhance the perception of its lobbying efforts. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: About a year ago, two no-good guys held up our local McDonalds, and got away with several hundred dollars. The Independence Reporter the next day noted in the police activities column that police never did catch the two guys, and quoted the manager as saying 'they had been watching for a couple days, and apparently knew my routine for going to the bank each day'. Trouble is of course there is no such entity as 'McDonalds'. There is a corporation called McDonalds Management Corporation of Tulsa, OK and there is locally the 'Tenth and Laurel Street Corporation' which is the name the local owners have for their business, d/b/a 'McDonalds'. McDonalds is a smart bunch; they don't actually *own* anything except a few (very few) corporate stores which they have not yet sold. I guess that makes it harder to find out exactly who does own one of their stores for lawsuit purposes. But when the story in the Daily Reporter said 'Armed Gummen Hit McDonalds' everyone in town knew who they were talking about. Ditto I think when the name 'Amoco' gets tossed around the same way. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@ReceivingX.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:52:07 UTC Organization: a2i network Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote: > the others -- you can send your fax in .pdf format (which means you > can use any program to create it), and you can send it via e-mail. Along that vein, I stumbled onto a "pdf printer". It appears as a Windows printer, so you can print to it from any Windows program, and it renders a pdf file as the output, which you can then send via email. Go2PDF - Freeware - Create PDF http://www.go2pdf.com/product.html If you could convince the sender to install it, they might be able to email a pdf to you instead of sending a fax. I have an eFax number, receive only, and receive generic TIFF (I signed up as a non-Windows user). I haven't used it in two years, but I think it still works. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 01:48:33 +0000 (GMT) From: mcintosh@nospam.com (Allen McIntosh) Subject: Re: Find Update: Bellcore SR-320 Exchange Message Interface ( Organization: mouse-potato.com In article , Madra Beag wrote: > I hope someone might be able to help. I own an old copy of the > Bellcore Special Report SR-320, Exchange Message Interface (EMI) Issue > 12 October 1995 > Is this record format still used today (by local and LD carriers)? > Is this record format still called EMI? > Is this some how related to CABS? > I did some reading on Telcordia, but with no luck. > Where might I get an updated version of this or similar record format? According to Verizon (found via google): Exchange Message Record/Exchange Message Interface (EMR/EMI) The standard format used for exchange of telecommunications message information among Local Exchange Carriers for billable, non-billable, sample, settlement and study data. EMR format is contained in Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore) Publication BR-010-200-010 CRIS Exchange Messaging. Searching our website for BR-010-200-010 didn't turn up anything. The Telcordia Information SuperStore didn't seem to have it, which means it's either old or out of print. Maybe you can find a real person in publications somewhere: 1.800.521.2673 (USA & Canada) +1.732.699.5800 (Worldwide) My real email address is mcintosh ##at## research ##dot## telcordia ##dot## com ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 02:14:12 GMT On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 09:26:28 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote: > Grey bars are less likely to cause phosphor damage on the monitor, > especially if you leave your TV at the default settings which generally > have the white balance ("picture" or "contrast" control) much too high. True. Even with gray bars there's still *some* risk of burn-in damage, but IMO, proper settings (either just turning brightness and contrast down, or even better, properly calibrating the set with something like the Video Essentials or Avia DVDs) make the risk of burn-in fairly minimal for the average TV user. I just bought a new Toshiba 16:9 rear projection TV for my new house; I chose 16:9 as "futureproofing", and most current HD programming that I'd watch is 16:9 *now*. This particular TV has that "normal" 4:3 mode (4:3 picture with gray bars on the sides) and four stretch/zoom modes, some of which use unequal stretching to provide a better result than the usual "basic" fix of stretching or zooming in. Now back to cell phones ... Most analog cellular traffic nowadays comes from OnStar and other legacy/embedded equipment and from roaming traffic when customers with CDMA phones are roaming on TDMA/GSM systems and vice versa; very few carriers will activate analog-only phones (usually only on low-end "safety" plans if that) nowadays. Nearly all carriers either have digital or are adding digital (urban carriers to address capacity/demand, and rural carriers to maximize roaming revenue); the only carriers of *any* size that are still analog-only are some carriers in Alaska bush country (e.g., Unicom in Bethel) -- and Sussex Cellular (aka SciTel Wireless) in rural New Jersey, who is selling "unlimited" plans on an AMPS-only network, (per FCC filings) wants to go CDMA but doesn't have the money to do so, (again per FCC filings) is trying to get someone to provide an E911 solution for AMPS, and has no roaming revenue issues to worry about since practically no one roams on them. (Why Sussex won't sell out to AT&T or Dobson is a total mystery to me. Most rural carriers *live* off roaming revenue ...) Even small rural carriers that serve only one or a few counties, such as Wilkes Cellular in Georgia, Farmers Wireless in Alabama, and Pace Cellular in Louisiana, and Commnet Wireless, a fairly unique carrier which provides roaming-only coverage in scattered areas all over the US, are going digital! Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: mailias@yahoo.com (Mail Ias) Subject: Re: Telephony Software Recommendation Organization: Insight Broadband Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 18:45:19 GMT In article , Larry Snider wrote: > I was wondering what kind of software would be best for the following > hardware configuration: > Alliance Server Rack > Dual PIII 550Mhz CPU Card > 54 Gb (3 x 18 Gb drives) > 1 Dialogic VFX/40ESC > 2 Dialogic D/41E > 1 Dialogic D/480SC-2T1 > 2 Dialogic MSI/240SC Global cards each w/ 2 SI/80SC Global daughterboards > 1 Dialogic DCB/SC Global > Larry > www.eSnider.net You may want to look into Asterisk - The Open Source Linux PBX. http://www.asterisk.org I believe it supports some Dialogic hardware, but maybe not every piece you listed. ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: "If I am Elected" Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 16:40:05 -0400 All, It just amazes me the way you people keep going on about this. First the media did a recount of their own and found that there was no difference in who won the Florida vote. Second, if these people in Florida are so stupid that they can't figure out how to vote then maybe they are to stupid to even be permitted to vote. I have used the old lever machines, optical scan machines as well as absentee and punch cards. Found them all easy to use and understand. Besides, if they are that stupid there are people at the polling places to teach them how to vote. President Bush won the election; get over it and move on. This November you can vote for the person that you believe will do the best job, who knows, you may get lucky. Also, Pat, in a recent issue you implied (I may be wrong on this) that come November if Senator Kerry wins that he'll get us out of Iraq, don't bet on it. We are going to be there for many years no mater who is in the White House. Now for my disclaimer, I am not a President Bush fan and do not plan to vote for him again (Yes, I did in 2000) but I also would never vote for Senator Kerry either. For me, I am writing in Senator John McCain and Secretary Colin Powel. Chip Cryderman [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: So either President Bush won the election in which case 'he was elected' and has not been very good about keeping his election promises or he did not win the election and was appointed by Supreme Court fiat. Either way, President or resident or resident President now in power, as I sometimes say, the situation is very grim, IMO. I think what I implied was the the earliest opportunity to get out of Iraq (not that it would happen that day) would be on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, assuming people get totally fed up with the fundamentalist Christian now in office. No guarentees of course. Remember in Viet Nam, President Kennedy got us into that mess and it was twelve or thirteen years later under President Nixon that we got out of it, so no, there is no guarentee that Kerry will end it either, but sure as hell, Bush isn't going to end it. By the way, if you have a Greek dictionary, check out the two parts of our common word these days, 'fundamentalist': 'fundle' and 'mental' and don't forget that the first /a/ in the middle serves to negate the rest of the word which follows. You can write in whomever you wish, and I am inclined to do the same for whichever Libertarian candidates are running for election, but as the Democrats angrily point out if you do that you have given your vote to Bush. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: What Remain of Western Union Re: Review: 19th Century Telegraphers Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 03:35:33 GMT In article , Charles.Cryderman@globalcrossing.com says: > Just a FYI > Western Union was taken over by MCI in the early nineties. At one > time WU had run fiber across many of their right-of-ways and were > selling long haul facilities to carriers as well as being a CAP > (completive access provider). MCI bought a fair amount of physical plant from WU (including Telex/TWX?), but it didn't take over the company. WU the company, including what was left of its telegram and Mailgram service, its funds- transfer business, and an enhanced service called Desk Mail (electronic access to telegram and Mailgram) became New Valley Corp., which continued to offer these services through a subsidiary, Western Union Data Services Co., for a while. It had shed the telegram and mailgram (and presumably Desk Mail) by the early 1990s and was no longer a common carrier. It's still around today as a funds-transfer company. Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Chicago City Govt Centrex History? Date: 30 Apr 2004 20:44:59 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com In the Amoco post, the Centrex used by the city of Chicago was mentioned. I was curious about its history, particularly in the early days. By way of comparison, for many years the City of Phila had a quasi centrex -- MUnicipal 6-9700. While many city agencies were served by direct dial lines, a great many had 5 digit extension numbers that outside callers had to go through the switchboard. (Today there is 685 as well as 686 and the main number is 686-1776, renumbered for the bicentennial.) Anyway, in 1970, City Hall had a 24 position (divided into two sections of 12) type 608 switchboard to handle incoming calls, despite so many lines being directly dialable. The 608 was the Bell System's last cord board, developed in the late 1950s. The operators had jack fields for extension groups. That is, if you wanted ext 3-1234, she'd plug into the 3- group and dial (on a key pad) 1234. While the City upgraded the centrex, many station sets, such as in the libraries, remained old WE 500 sets with the old number plates. The City didn't get around to converting to touch tone until very late. The city had a private PABX system that apparently was phased out in the late 1970s. You could see the distinctive AE 40 sets in certain places. An odd quirk was modern signs at the airport directing people to report a fire to use "any city automatic telephone", which referred to the city's PABX which no longer existed. The city's transit system also had its own private PABX, also discontinued, and replaced by a Bell Centrex. For emergency calls, most people dialed 0 and asked for the police or fire dept. Around the late 1960s, the city introduced an easy number for police -- 231-3131. Later, they had 911, but kept the 231 number for minor calls and asked the public to use 911 only for life/crime emergencies. They have 911 only now, but I believe some cities are introducing a second number (311?) for low level calls. The fire dept dispatcher before 911 was interesting. Calls at street pull boxes (now discontinued) sounded a loud beep in response to the callbox #. The dispatcher looked up the number then used a simple cord switchboard to notify the appropriate fire house. Voice calls were handled the same way. Many callboxes were false alarms. The fire dispatcher's office was pretty quiet. The School District adm offices had a simple centrex, 448-3000. nI discovered that all extensions began with 3, and that numbered was absorbed. So, if an extension was 3453, you could just dial 453. My co-workers were impressed with that discovered. If the ext began with 3 (ie 3343), you still had to dial the leading 3. Individual schools had their own local number, though today many are part of a new city wide school centrex. The Adm Bldg had a small old style cord switchboard for the centrex. I was surprised since I presumed all Centrexes had modern consoles. The board had some features such as auto flashing and auto ringing. Note that Philadelphia had a separate Keystone Telephone company that served business lines only. It provided flat rate service to businesses while Bell provided only message rate. Keystone folded after WW II and Bell took it over. There are still some manholes downtown. Years ago the city police dept had callboxes for cops to use to check in, before the days of radios. I think they were part of that city PABX. Newer sections of the city did not have them. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: City of Chicago had the switchboard number RANdolph 8000 for about sixty years, and cord boards like you described. Police and Fire were respectively POLice 1313 and FIRe 1313 and each central office translated those into other numbers-1313 at the Police Administration Building and the City Hall Fire Alarm office. In the mid to late 1960's (the Vietnam era and a time of much civil unrest in Chicago [consider the 1968 Democratic National Convention for example] Illinois Bell got City of Chicago to ditch their cord boards and go with centrex. Remember in those days, there was no rush on prefixes or area codes like in more recent times; when City decided to take Bell's suggestion and go with centrex, 'someone' employed by Illinois Bell looked through a list of available prefixes and 'for some reason, quite coincidentally' chose 312-744 as the prefix to use; it had to be sent to AT&T to be entered in routing tables, etc. Then that person (most likely a phreak, IBT had lots of them on the payroll in the 1960's mostly by accident) kept his mouth shut until it was too late to make any changes, i.e. centrex was cut in, all routing tables updated to reflect it, etc, then 'someone' told the Chicago Seed, which was a very anti-war, anti-most government, anti-everything in Chicago newspaper that '744' could be remembered as 'PIG'. Pig was the very derogatory name by which police officers were often times known. So the Chicago Seed decided as a 'public service' to the community to print a new, revised telephone directory explaining the new phone system to residents. It went like this: 'To reach any pig or other government official in Chicago, just dial PIG and the last four digits of the pig's phone number; here are some common often used numbers in the new system:' Chief of Pig Police, PIG-xxxx, Mayor Daley, PIG-xxxx, and on through a few hundred of the internal extensions on the centrex. Everyone of them showing the phone number as PIG-xxxx. Mayor Daley the First (father of the present Mayor Daley the Second who has been in office for almost twenty years; his father was in office at the time and for thirty years) was, to say the least, furious when he saw it. The mousy little men who worked as clerks in the offices downtown, the women doing the same work, everyone liked to read the Chicago Seed because it was clever, witty and *very* anti-everything the 'establish- ment' wanted. In summary, the 'anti-war crowd' were their heros, and witty and funny at that. You'd see them grab a copy of the Seed from the 'take one free' rack in the subway station, then stash it under their arm until they found a seat on the train where they could read it and snicker at the latest antics in City Government while hoping no one saw them reading that 'trash'. 1968 was the year Mayor Daley the First made his now infamous comment about the large number of people who referred openly or in secret about police as pigs. He said, 'our police officers are not pigs! They are Human Beans like everyone else.' Then about a month later, at the riotous Democratic National Convention where police were clubbing and gassing everyone, the cameras caught Mayor Daley referring to one of the US senators at the convention as 'that Jew Bastard, Ribicoff, who started this riot our city is having right now; the Jews started all the trouble.' In the past few years, the City has increased their phone system to the point they now have four centrexes (312-744, 745, 746, 747) with all kinds of things tied on it such as police, the libraries, all the schools, Fire Department and others. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #219 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 1 14:01:01 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i41I11o00739; Sat, 1 May 2004 14:01:01 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 14:01:01 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405011801.i41I11o00739@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 #220 TELECOM Digest Sat, 1 May 2004 14:00:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 220 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Wal-Mart Using 'Smart' Label Technology (Monty Solomon) Wal-Mart Starts RFID Test, Promises Privacy (Monty Solomon) EchoStar in Tentative Deal With Turner (Monty Solomon) New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity (Monty Solomon) Digital Video Recorders Take Off (Monty Solomon) Google-Like Technologies Could Revolutionize TV, Other Media (M Solomon) California Bans E-Vote Machines (Monty Solomon) Lawfully Surfing the Net: Disabling Public Library Internet (M Solomon) The Internet in Developing Nations: Grand challenges (Monty Solomon) The State of Copyright Activism (Monty Solomon) High-Tech Voting System Is Banned in California (Monty Solomon) Re: Good News! Four Oakland Men Cited in First US Spam Case (Wesrock) Share Day for April/May, 2004 (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 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: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:50:15 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wal-Mart Using 'Smart' Label Technology Wal-Mart Using 'Smart' Label Technology - Apr 30, 2004 01:47 PM (AP Online) By CHUCK BARTELS Associated Press Writer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and a number of its suppliers are using a Dallas distribution center as the starting point for a technology that's targeted to one day replace the bar code. The radio frequency information, or RFID, tags provide automatic tracking of pallets and cases of goods. Starting Friday, eight suppliers are to participate, using 21 products to be tracked. Wal-Mart said Thursday that it will have more than 100 suppliers using the tags by January. Wal-Mart chief information officer Linda Dillman would not say how much the Bentonville, Ark.-based company is spending but said the tags are on the top line of Wal-Mart's technology budget. The RFID tags contain a chip that is imparted with information. In a backshop retail environment, the tags will contain the details of what is in a case or on a pallet of goods. Rather than have a worker with a handheld scanner logging in barcodes, the system will let a computer system use a radio signal to log the goods as they arrive at the loading dock. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41227467 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:52:21 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wal-Mart Starts RFID Test, Promises Privacy By Emily Kaiser CHICAGO, April 30 (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) on Friday launched its first live test of new merchandise-tracking technology and tried to quell concerns that the devices could pose a consumer privacy risk. Wal-Mart said a distribution center and seven stores in the Dallas, Texas, area would begin testing radio frequency identification -- or RFID -- tags, which use radio frequencies to send such information as where the item came from and when perishable items expire. Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, thinks RFID will speed up distribution, cut costs and help it keep shelves better stocked, and it has aggressively pushed for the technology to become the industry standard. The retailer has asked its 100 biggest suppliers to affix RFID tags to pallets and cases of goods by January. Readers installed at Wal-Mart distribution centers and stores can then scan the tags for details on what the box contains or where the goods are stored. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41225239 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 23:54:12 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EchoStar in Tentative Deal With Turner NEW YORK, April 30 (Reuters) - Dish Network owner EchoStar Communications Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH) said it tentatively resolved a contract dispute with Turner Broadcasting System that could have led to the loss of the Cartoon Network, CNN and Turner Classic Movies channels for its 8 million subscribers. EchoStar said on Thursday the parties agreed in principle to a new contract, but details were still being worked out. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41224750 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 00:06:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Hard Drives to Expand DVR Capacity By May Wong, Associated Press SAN JOSE, Calif. - The power of the U.S. cable and satellite TV industries rests on the 85 million households they count as subscribers. But the influence of Hollywood, which controls the entertainment flow, is even more formidable. That's why new external hard drives that are being designed to expand the capacity of cable or satellite industry digital video recorders will likely have to subscribe to the same copy protection standards dictated by Hollywood. Maxtor Corp., the world's second largest hard-drive maker, announced a new 160-gigabyte external drive this week that will be built as an expansion for cable or satellite set-top boxes. Seagate Technology, the world's No. 1 hard-drive maker, plans to announce next week a similar offering aimed at capitalizing on the growth of DVRs, now quickly gaining steam as the cable industry embarks on introducing DVR-equipped boxes to its massive customer base. The offerings by the two hard-drive companies will be tailored to order for their network operator customers, but both say they are certain their new external drives won't become unrestricted portable video storage boxes for TV viewers who want to move their recorded shows onto a computer or to someone else's DVR. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2004-04-29-dvr-expands_x.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 00:11:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Digital Video Recorders Take Off By MAY WONG AP Technology Writer In the new world of digital video recording, TV viewers can forgo videocassettes, easily recording their favorite shows on a hard disk and watching them whenever they desire. It's "Saturday Night Live" on Wednesday or "Nightline" in the morning. DVR users can even pause live TV to tend to a crying baby, or do an instant replay to catch a missed line. DVRs have been around since 1999 _ with Echostar's Dish satellite TV receivers and standalone devices by TiVo and ReplayTV. Consumer adoption was initially slow, and getting TV viewers to understand the technology's groundbreaking features remains a challenge. But consumer interest in DVRs is gaining momentum, especially as the cable industry catches up to its satellite TV rivals by offering DVR-equipped set-top boxes. http://finance.lycos.com/qc/news/story.aspx?story=200404301342_APO_V5985 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 00:14:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Google-Like Technologies Could Revolutionize TV, Other Media By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com The same joke has been around the ad industry for decades: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The problem is, I don't know which half." But that line, as old as Madison Avenue itself, may be headed toward obsolescence, as the dawning era of digital advertising helps identify those two halves. After years of failed promises for ads that can pinpoint targeted consumers, traditional media are finally taking interactive advertising seriously, on the Web and beyond. Companies that have advertised for years on platforms ranging from television to billboards are rethinking their marketing strategies, as Internet advertisers work through the technology glitches and privacy issues that have challenged the first wave of the technology. Rather than simple brand exposure, advertisers are adopting a new mantra: accountability. Pointing to the success of Internet pioneers like Google, advertisers are seeking similarly efficient kinds of correlation between their products and what consumers are searching for, especially as devices like digital video recorders (DVRs) enable viewers to skip standard TV commercials. It is nothing short of a seismic shift for many established advertising agencies, which have often been cast as dinosaurs in the Information Age. http://news.com.com/2009-1025_3-5201803.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 00:40:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: California Bans E-Vote Machines By Kim Zetter California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley ended five months of speculation and announced Friday that he was decertifying all electronic touch-screen voting machines in the state due to security concerns and lack of voter confidence. He also said that he was passing along evidence to the state's attorney general to bring criminal and civil charges against voting-machine-maker Diebold Election Systems for fraud. "We will not tolerate deceitful tactics as engaged in by Diebold and we must send a clear and compelling message to the rest of the industry: Don't try to pull a fast one on the voters of California because there will be consequences if you do," he said. Shelley said the ban on touch-screen machines would stay in effect unless and until specific security measures could be put in place to safeguard the November vote. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 09:28:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lawfully Surfing the Net: Disabling Public Library Internet Lawfully Surfing the Net: Disabling Public Library Internet Filters to Avoid More Lawsuits in the United States by Mary Minow Abstract As the 1 July 2004 E-rate deadline approaches, many U.S. public libraries are scrambling to understand the requirements of the Children's Internet Protection Act, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2003. Of paramount importance are disabling policies that must be administered without significant delay. The Court and the FCC have given little guidance on this issue, leaving it to the libraries to establish norms and weather future lawsuits. To minimize the risk of an "as-applied" lawsuit, the safest position is one that minimizes overblocking and maximizes the ease of disabling the filter (or TPM) for adults, and unblocking for children. Contents Introduction Background facts, legal doctrines Application of legal doctrine to disabling filters in public libraries Conclusion and recommendations http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_4/minow/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 09:25:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Internet in Developing Nations: Grand Challenges by Larry Press Abstract This is a call for a "Grand Challenge" project for achieving truly global connectivity. For over a decade, we have hypothesized that the Internet could raise the quality of life in developing nations. We have conducted hundreds of studies of the state of the Internet and "e-readiness," done extensive training of technicians and policy makers, run pilot studies, and held local, regional and global conferences and workshops. After all of this activity, Internet connectivity is nearly non-existent in rural areas of developing nations, and far below that of developed nations in the urban areas of developing nations. This is not to say the activity of the past decade has been a waste. We have demonstrated the value of the Internet and raised awareness. The United Nations and the administrations of nearly all nations have acknowledged the potential of the Internet. The way has been paved, and it is time to act on what we have learned. After outlining the work of the last decade, we explore one possible Grand Challenge: Connecting every village in the rural developing world to the Internet using a strategy similar to that used in building the NSFNet. We speculate on wireless technologies that might play a role in working toward that goal: Terrestrial, high-altitude platform, and satellite. We conclude with a brief discussion of alternative Grand Challenges and a call for action. The time is ripe for an audacious project. What could we achieve with US$15 billion and ten years time? Contents Paving the way A grand challenge Conclusion http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_4/press/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 09:31:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The State of Copyright Activism by Siva Vaidhyanathan Abstract One of the great hopes I had while I researched and wrote Copyrights and copywrongs (New York: New York University Press, 2001), a cultural history of American copyright, during the late 1990s was that copyright debates might puncture the bubble of public consciousness and become important global policy questions. My wish has come true. Since 1998 questions about whether the United States has constructed an equitable or effective copyright system frequently appear on the pages of daily newspapers. Activist movements for both stronger and looser copyright systems have grown in volume and furor. And the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in early 2003 that the foundations of American copyright, as expressed in the Constitution, are barely relevant in an age in which both media companies and clever consumers enjoy unprecedented power over the use of works. Contents Introduction Political success, actual failure Effects on teaching and scholarship Opposition emerges and organizes The brilliance of real copyright Eldred v. Ashcroft Building a better system Conclusion http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_4/siva/index.html ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 09:38:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: High-Tech Voting System Is Banned in California By JOHN SCHWARTZ California has banned the use of more than 14,000 electronic voting machines made by Diebold Inc. in the November election because of security and reliability concerns, Kevin Shelley, the California secretary of state, announced yesterday. He also declared 28,000 other touch-screen voting machines in the state conditionally "decertified" until steps are taken to upgrade their security. Mr. Shelley said that he was recommending that the state's attorney general look into possible civil and criminal charges against Diebold because of what he called "fraudulent actions by Diebold." In an interview, Mr. Shelley said that "their performance, their behavior, is despicable," and that "if that's the kind of deceitful behavior they're going to engage in, they can't do business in California." The move is the first decertification of touch-screen voting machines, which have appeared by the tens of thousands across the nation as states scramble to upgrade their election technology. Opponents of the high-tech systems argue that the systems are less secure than what they replace, making it possible for the electoral process to be hacked. Without a paper trail, created at the time of the voting, to show the votes, they argue, electoral flaws or fraud could go undetected and recounts could be impossible. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/national/01VOTE.html ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 10:28:49 EDT Subject: Re: Good News! Four Oakland Men Cited in First US Spam Case In a message dated 5/1/04 12:25:05 AM Central Daylight Time, editor@telecom-digest.org writes: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: About a year ago, two no-good guys > held up our local McDonalds, and got away with several hundred > dollars. The Independence Reporter the next day noted in the police > activities column that police never did catch the two guys, and quoted > the manager as saying 'they had been watching for a couple days, and > apparently knew my routine for going to the bank each day'. Trouble is > of course there is no such entity as 'McDonalds'. > Ditto I think when the name 'Amoco' gets tossed around the same way. > PAT] But it was not tossed around the same way. The original story specified a computer of "Amoco Corp.", not a computer at an Amoco installation or an Amoco gas station. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Share Day For April/May Date: Sat, 01 May 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. 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. 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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You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #220 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 3 00:52:48 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i434qmm12581; Mon, 3 May 2004 00:52:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 00:52:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405030452.i434qmm12581@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 #221 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 May 2004 00:50:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 221 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Sipura Low Ring Voltage Problem ... (giasone) Morkrum-Teletype (Jim Haynes) Telecom Tax Cancelled (Clark W. Griswold, Jr.) Analog-Only Cell Phone Carriers (Mark Crispin) VOIP Books (Fred Atkinson) Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 (R. T. Wurth) Re: VoIP Analogy (Henry E Schaffer) Re: Honesty From Earthlink (Edson C. Hendricks) Anyone Local to These Scum? (Garrett Wollman) BellSouth Imposes a Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee (Jim) Iraq/Westchester Area Code (sidd@lyonesse.membrane.com) Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet (Gary Novosiewski) A Web Site of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (Fred Atkinson) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: giasone888@nym.hush.com (giasone) Subject: Sipura Low Ring Voltage Problem ... Date: 1 May 2004 11:40:13 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I am having trouble with my Sipura SPA-2000 (through BroadVoice). I am fairly sure that the problem is related to low ring voltage. I have had several problems related to caller ID. I cannot get caller ID to show up on my InTeleScreener device and I have trouble with call-waiting caller ID on some older Uniden 900Mhz phones (DXI 386-2). I am unable to experiment with the Sipura because the regional settings are locked by BroadVoice. Today, I bought a voltage meter so that I could check actual ring voltage. I still have my SBC POTS line as well as the BroadVoice sipura to compare. Sure enough, the SBC POTS line consistently provided an AC ring voltage of 84-85 volts. Running the same test, the Sipura only provided a maximum ring voltage of 44-45 volts even though the configuration says that it should be set to 70 volts with a range of 60-90 volts. I was very careful with my measurements and used a .1 microfarad capacitor to filter out DC when measuring AC ring voltage. Based on these findings, I have to assume that the Sipura is probably defective, or that it needs a firmware update. Has anybody else run into a similar problem? Is the unit defective and should I ask for a replacement, or is this common across all Sipuras? Other than this issue, the Sipura has worked extremely well. I currently have BroadVoice as well as FWD on line 2 running. ------------------------------ Subject: Morkrum-Teletype Reply-To: jhaynes@alumni.uark.edu Organization: University of Arkansas Alumni From: haynes@alumni.uark.edu (Jim Haynes) Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 01:40:06 GMT There is some uncertainty. One essential reference is "$30,000,000 Worth of Teletype" (author unstated) in Fortune Magazine, March 1932, p. 40. This covers some early history of Teletype, and especially the Bell System purchase. As all that history says, Morkrum (Morton + Krum) was started in Chicago. E. E. Kleinschmidt was working in New York City on things like printing telegraphy and a keyboard perforator for the Wheatstone system of transmitting Morse code from punched tape. The two companies were fighting each other over patents and also were competing for the same few customers. So it made sense for them to merge, creating Morkrum-Kleinschmidt in Chicago. The product was called various things, including Telegratype. Ran Slayton's memo says "It also may be that the word TELEGRATYPE was the inspiration of the name TELETYPE when the latter was submitted in a contest to rename the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Company several years later." I need to plow through the patent index again to see in what year they switched issuing patents from Morkrum-Kleinschmidt to Teletype. jhhaynes at earthlink dot net ------------------------------ From: Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <73115.1041@compuserve.com> Subject: Telecom Tax Cancelled Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 17:55:10 -0600 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Don't get too excited though -- it was less than .50 a month. One of the pseudo "listed as a tax but really isn't a tax as it goes to the phone company" charges actually dropped off my bill this month. When the FCC mandated local number portability, they also told the phone companies that they could add a charge to everyone's phone bill to pay for implementing the feature. The good news was that the surcharge was limited to two or three years. It not only dropped off my Qwest bill this month, but I also received a credit as they should not have collected last month either. ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Analog-Only Cell Phone Carriers Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 10:57:42 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Sat, 1 May 2004, Stanley Cline wrote: > Nearly all carriers either have digital or are adding digital (urban > carriers to address capacity/demand, and rural carriers to maximize > roaming revenue); the only carriers of *any* size that are still > analog-only are some carriers in Alaska bush country (e.g., Unicom in > Bethel) Copper Valley Wireless (Glennallen, Valdez) is another one, and unlike Bethel is on the North American highway system. They have a plan for "summer people" (I own property up there), but because they're still AMPS-only I'm still using a prepay Dobson (TDMA) phone. I keep it on life-support (minimum recharge) most of the year, and then use it heavily when I'm up there. Dobson is planning to go GSM but hasn't yet, and will probably keep prepay on TDMA for the foreseeable future. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Fred Atkinson From: Fred Atkinson Subject: VOIP Books Date: Sat, 1 May 2004 23:21:58 -0400 I was hoping for some advice in choosing the right book to bring my technical understanding of VOIP up to date. I find that most books that are 'on the cutting edge' are actually books that try to sell managers on the idea of the new technology. They don't really go into the practical considerations in any detail. Or, they write it as something for a Ph.D to read. I'm looking for something that explains it so a technical support representative can understand the issues to the point of choosing equipment, configuring the service, and troubleshooting problems with the service. Any feedback would be appreciated. Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ From: rwurth@att.net (R. T. Wurth) Subject: Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 15:46:13 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet In article , sc1-news@roamer1.org wrote: > Now back to cell phones ... > Most analog cellular traffic nowadays comes from OnStar and other > legacy/embedded equipment and from roaming traffic when customers with > CDMA phones are roaming on TDMA/GSM systems and vice versa; very few > carriers will activate analog-only phones (usually only on low-end > "safety" plans if that) nowadays. > Nearly all carriers either have digital or are adding digital (urban > carriers to address capacity/demand, and rural carriers to maximize > roaming revenue); the only carriers of *any* size that are still > analog-only are some carriers in Alaska bush country (e.g., Unicom in > Bethel) -- and Sussex Cellular (aka SciTel Wireless) in rural New > Jersey, who is selling "unlimited" plans on an AMPS-only network, (per > FCC filings) wants to go CDMA but doesn't have the money to do so, > (again per FCC filings) is trying to get someone to provide an E911 > solution for AMPS, and has no roaming revenue issues to worry about > since practically no one roams on them. (Why Sussex won't sell out to > AT&T or Dobson is a total mystery to me. Most rural carriers *live* > off roaming revenue ...) Even small rural carriers that serve only one > or a few counties, such as Wilkes Cellular in Georgia, Farmers > Wireless in Alabama, and Pace Cellular in Louisiana, and Commnet > Wireless, a fairly unique carrier which provides roaming-only coverage > in scattered areas all over the US, are going digital! > Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ > "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might > be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune A friend from Morris County (adjacent to Sussex County) reports that Sussex offers service to roamers on a direct-charge credit card basis. Apparently they have found it more profitable to charge roamers directly than through roaming agreements. Third hand reports would seem to indicate that their charges are on the high side. In their defense, despite being part of NJ (please, no NJ jokes), Sussex County is not that densely populated and is quite hilly, so they probably have less traffic and fewer customers than average, but the hilly terrain requires many sites to fully cover the valleys, and yet they have to avoid the hilltops because the long range afforded by an hilltop antenna spoils the frequency re-use that cellular systems are based on. All in all, I'm sure many folks with hunting or fishing cabins up there wish Sussex Cellular would be bought out by a major carrier that would offer sane roaming agreements. Rich Wurth / rwurth@att.net / Rumson, NJ USA ------------------------------ From: hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E Schaffer) Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 19:57:28 UTC Organization: North Carolina State University In article , Lisa Hancock wrote: > Our telecom director emphasizes that the Internet is NOT free, and > VoIP represents an additional expense. He's sort of right. The usual Internet billing models are not like those for buying groceries, lumber, cars, etc. For the Internet it is common to buy a certain amount of *capacity* -- and to pay the same amount per month for it -- regardless of whether it is used or not. So it doesn't cost the purchaser any more to send another packet (or series of packets) across it - *until* the purchased capacity is inadequate and the purchaser must pay for an upgrade in service capacity. (Will that "next packet" then be assessed the entire cost of the upgrade? Of course it would be silly to do that - the flip side is that it is silly to assess zero cost to the previous packets.) > Just because the end consumer pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in > the case of employees) doesn't mean that a service is free. That's right -- but leaves out the reasoning. The service costs $$/month the added packets cost nothing *extra* (within the purchased capacity.) --henry schaffer hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 2004 15:27:58 -0700 From: Edson C. Hendricks Subject: Re: Honesty from Earthlink > In article , Barry Margolin > wrote: > Let's consider that the original poster is wrong -- Earthlink really is > trying to fix the problem, but can't so far. Do you really expect any > CSR to be able to explain it to your satisfaction? What do you want? > "we use SQL Server 2000 build 5915, and there's a bug with index > headers on tables larger than 6,000,007 bytes, only when the first > field of the table starts with the letter J". I'm not sure whether or not I'm the "original poster," but in case I am, again, it is my "judgment" that Earthlink is not telling the truth, and not my proof. I base it on the fact that I get a widely varying range of versions about it from different Earthlink representatives. On two occasions I was assured flatly that the spam was in fact not orginating with Earthlink, but rather with some imposter. One of these was from someone identified as a "supervisor," despite a long list of reasons why that makes no sense. Others would acknowledge the problem. In my chat exchange when I inquired as to the anature of the problem, the original person responded by passing me off to someone else rather than simply answering, and the other person tried to evade answering. Actually, it is very difficult even to get Earthlink to assert that this behavior is real and due to a bug. If that were the fact, then I'd have to figure out why they don't simply say so without all the misdirection. I've dealt with Earthlink long enough to know that they've never before been reluctant, at least with me, to admit technical shortcomings. In other experiences, I don't even have to ask, they simply explain what I'm describing to them as such. My judgment here does not rely on what might be plausible, but rather on how I see Earthlink behave when asked politely to explain things. ------------------------------ From: wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) Subject: Anyone Local to These Scum? Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 23:45:23 UTC Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science I receive about a dozen spams a day from an outfit calling itself "InfoSource Group" advertising the "2004 American Medical Directory". They seem to be incredibly persistent; I've observed (and reported) them using dozens of different cable-modem ISP accounts, mostly on Comcast. They seem to have at least figured out that spamming doesn't pay for on-line merchants, so they are doing it the old-fashioned way: > complete the information below and fax it to 905-751-0199. > (tel: 905-751-0919). Now, I certainly would not suggest that someone in the 905 area code call up their fax machine and send a copy of the Toronto phone book, since that would violate Bell's copyright and besides, it might be considered telephone harassment. However, if you happen to be in a position to track down the particular telemarketing office that is accepting these calls, and explain to them that it would not be wise to associate themselves with these sleaze, I would certainly owe you the beverage of your choice should you ever be in Boston. Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every wollman@lcs.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own Opinions not those of| search for greater freedom. MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. ___ (2003) ------------------------------ From: time50@hotmail.com (Jim) Subject: BellSouth Imposes a Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee Date: 2 May 2004 17:46:26 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com This is the message BellSouth sent me: Thank you for taking time to contact BellSouth Internet Service. We appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns because it is our goal to provide the highest quality Internet service available. BellSouth imposes a Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee of $2.97 per month to offset its costs incurred in complying with obligations and charges imposed by state and federal regulatory bodies, including the recovery of the Federal Universal Service Charge, and state regulatory orders affecting broadband. BellSouth's Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee is not a tax or charge imposed by a government entity. The Federal Universal Service Charge: All telecommunication service providers are required to contribute to the Federal Universal Service Fund. The universal service fund subsidizes programs for schools, libraries, and health care providers. BellSouth recovers the cost of these contributions through a surcharge on its customers' bills. Again, thank you for this opportunity to address your concerns. Please feel free to contact BellSouth Internet Service again if you have additional questions or comments. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 21:25:47 -0400 From: sidd@lyonesse.membrane.com Subject: Iraq/Westchester Area Code Hi, First thank you for the excellent work with Telecom Digest. I have a question: In the article http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1396 that speak of with a satellite phone, a regular Iraqi cell phone ("Iraqnafone"), and a special CPA phone with a 914 (Westchester, NY) area code just to stay in touch with people. Even then, most of the time you can't call one type of phone from the others. Why would you not be able to call one from another except for lack of coverage perhaps? Thank you again for the excellent Telecom Digest! sidd [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for your compliments, Sidd. I do not know the answer to your question regards compatibility, but perhaps the guys who click on the link in your message will read the Nation Institute article and be able to explain it better. I do know that over the weekend two guys I know from Fort Riley US Army got back here after a year in the war in Iraq. They mentioned to me the satellite phones in their canteens over there which they are allowed to use as desired to call back to the USA, but they said sometimes the line of guys waiting to make calls was very long, yet the canteen phone clerk had two or three phones to 'spare' but they could only be used 'a certain way' because they were incompatible with the other phones, and could not be used in calls back to the USA. Maybe that will say something about it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Receiving Faxes via the Internet? Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 03:58:05 GMT Phil Stripling wrote: > I've used CallWave for years to receive faxes, with no charge. > http://www.callwave.com/landing/p47c2.asp for information. Years ain't what they used to be. The web site says it's no charge for only 30 days, and $~4 a month thereafter. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Fred Atkinson From: Fred Atkinson Subject: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 18:53:20 -0400 Some time back, I sent you an email asking for another link on the telecom-digest.org site. I never saw it up there. Did you ever see it? It's for ham radio operators, but it's IT related. And there are a good number of hams in the IT/telecom community. The name of the article is Your Own Ham Domain and the URL is (on my ham domain site, appropriately enough): http://www.wb4aej.com/hamdomain Use your own judgement as to whether or not it is appropriate. If it is, I'll appreciate the post. Best wishes, Fred ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #221 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 3 16:39:56 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i43Kduo01075; Mon, 3 May 2004 16:39:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 16:39:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405032039.i43Kduo01075@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 #222 TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 May 2004 16:38:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 222 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #431, May 3, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? (Marcus Jervis) Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? (Frank@nospam.biz) Re: Iraq/Westchester Area Code (Scott Dorsey) Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case (Scott Dorsey) Re: Honesty from Earthlink (Scott Dorsey) How to Block Unknown Caller (David Courmanof) Winning the Election The Republican Way (Gary Novosielski) 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, 03 May 2004 10:29:19 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #431, May 3, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 431: May 3, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Nortel Fires Frank Dunn ** BCE Exec Demands New Telecom Policy ** Allstream Challenges Dark Fibre Ruling ** Sprint Expands Local Phone Coverage ** AT&T Plans Sale of Rogers Shares ** CRTC Chair Outlines Principles for VoIP Review ** Yak Market-Tests IP Phone Service ** Northern Satellite Projects Approved ** Bell to Market E-Payment Cards ** Bell Cells Work in Montreal Subway ** Cogeco Small Business Package Offered in Quebec ** Jury Convicts Four of Directory Fraud ** Russians Will Launch Anik F3 ** U.S. Prosecutes Spammers ** Microcell Raises $97 Million ** Aliant Wireless Up, Wireline Down ** Telecom Conference Seeks Speakers ** Angus on Issues in CRTC VoIP Review ============================================================ NORTEL FIRES FRANK DUNN: Nortel Networks has terminated CEO Frank Dunn and two financial executives "for cause," in connection with the ongoing review of its financial statements from 2000 to mid-2003. Four other financial managers have been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the review. ** Nortel says it expects the review will cut its previously announced 2003 net earnings in half. The company again delayed publication of its final financial statements for 2003, and did not release preliminary results for 1Q 2004. ** Nortel's new President and CEO is William Owens, former CEO of Teledesic and former Vice-Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. BCE EXEC DEMANDS NEW TELECOM POLICY: Speaking in Quebec City last week, BCE CEO Michael Sabia said that Canada's leadership role in IP is being "jeopardized by a public policy environment that is outdated and sorely removed from the realities of today's marketplace." He called for new policies based on "treating all players equally." ** Sabia said Canada's communication policy must "change this year -- the window of opportunity is that short." www.bce.ca/en/news/eventscalendar/webcasts/2004/20040427/ ALLSTREAM CHALLENGES DARK FIBRE RULING: Allstream has applied to the Federal Court for leave to appeal CRTC Telecom Decision 2004-20 (see Telecom Update #426), which approved three Bell Canada dark fibre CSAs for Villages Branches projects in Quebec. Allstream says the Telecom Act does not allow the CRTC to approve a rate it has found not to be just and reasonable. SPRINT EXPANDS LOCAL PHONE COVERAGE: Sprint Canada says it expanded the service areas for its existing local telephone service coverage in Burlington, Mississauga, and Oakville, and established new service areas in 11 other communities. ** Sprint says it is now co-located in 148 wire centres serving 31 municipalities across Canada. AT&T PLANS SALE OF ROGERS SHARES: AT&T Wireless says it wants to sell its 34% stake in Rogers Wireless Communications. Rogers Communications, which has the right of first refusal, says it has not yet decided whether to buy the shares. CRTC CHAIR OUTLINES PRINCIPLES FOR VoIP REVIEW: In a speech prepared for an industry conference on April 20, CRTC Chairman Charles Dalfen outlined four principles that will guide the Commission's response to VoIP and other "disruptive technologies." ** Dalfen's speech was delivered in his absence by Broadcasting Vice-Chair Andree Wylie. www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/NEWS/SPEECHES/2004/s040420.htm YAK MARKET-TESTS IP PHONE SERVICE: Yak Communications says it has started market testing a VoIP local telephone service it plans to roll out beginning September 8. The company says it will offer bundles including local, long distance, and basic features, priced between $24.99 to $39.99 a month. NORTHERN SATELLITE PROJECTS APPROVED: Ottawa has announced the first four projects that will be allocated satellite capacity for broadband Internet access in remote northern communities, under the National Satellite Initiative. (See Telecom Update #402) http://broadband.gc.ca/pub/program/nsi/applications/index.html http://broadband.gc.ca/pub/media/news/kuujjuaq042604.html ** Industry Canada has posted a report on its February consultations with satellite service providers and operators in preparation for Round 2 of the NSI. http://broadband.gc.ca/pub/program/nsi/reports/consultations/index.html BELL TO MARKET E-PAYMENT CARDS: Bell Canada has acquired exclusive marketing rights to a service that allows consumers to pay for small items like coffee or newspapers using a prepaid electronic debit card. The service, developed by Toronto-based Dexit Inc, will initially be offered in the 416 and 905 areas, then extended across the country. BELL CELLS WORK IN MONTREAL SUBWAY: Bell Canada has extended its 1X digital wireless network underground to five stations and associated tunnels in the Montreal subway system. The telco says the pilot will let it assess the feasibility of providing coverage in subway systems in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada. COGECO SMALL BUSINESS PACKAGE OFFERED IN QUEBEC: Cogeco Cable's small business Internet service, launched in Ontario in February, is now available in Quebec. Business Starter provides downloads at up to 5 Mbps, uploads at 640 Kbps, and five e-mail addresses for $49.95/month on a 12-month contract. JURY CONVICTS FOUR OF DIRECTORY FRAUD: A jury has found four men associated with Yellow Business Pages.com and Yellow Business Directory.com guilty of sending phony directory invoices to businesses across Canada in 2002. The scam, which took in over $1 million in seven months, produced more than 4,400 complaints to the Competition Bureau. ** The offences carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine, or both. RUSSIANS WILL LAUNCH ANIK F3: Telesat Canada has chosen Russia's International Launch Services to launch Anik F3 in 2006. The satellite, Telesat's 17th, is currently being built at Europe's EADS Astrium. U.S. PROSECUTES SPAMMERS: The U.S. Justice department last week filed the first criminal charges for violations of federal anti-spam legislation. Four Detroit area men are accused of sending millions of e-mails advertising a weight-loss patch, using false return e-mail addresses. MICROCELL RAISES $97 MILLION: Microcell Telecommunications' fully subscribed rights offering, completed last week, should net about $97 million. The company expects to raise another $50 million selling Class B Non-Voting Shares to COM Canada, owned by Craig McCaw. ALIANT WIRELESS UP, WIRELINE DOWN: Aliant's first quarter consolidated revenues were $504.4 million, up just 0.7% over last year. Local revenue was down 0.9% and LD was down 8.6%, while wireless increased 18.3% and Internet 14.2%. ** Local residential lines in service are down 1.8% from 1Q 2003; business lines are down 0.4%. TELECOM CONFERENCE SEEKS SPEAKERS: Telemanagement Live! will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, October 20- 21. Anyone interested in speaking at this new national conference on enterprise telecom and networking should read the Call for Presentations at the Telemanagement Live! website. ** Telemanagement Live! is organized and presented by Angus Dortmans Associates and PW Ritchie & Associates. www.telemanagementlive.com/attendee.html ANGUS ON ISSUES IN CRTC VoIP REVIEW: The May issue of Telemanagement, now available online, features a report by Lis Angus on issues facing the CRTC and the telecom industry in the current review of regulations for IP-based telephone service. Also: Is wireless competition in local phone markets as strong as Bell and Aliant claim? ** Telemanagement Online subscribers can access this issue, and our extensive library of past issues, columns, editorials, and feature reports, at http://online.angustel.ca. To subscribe or to add online access to your existing subscription, go to 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: Marcus Jervis Subject: Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 07:18:47 +0000 wollman@lcs.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote: > I receive about a dozen spams a day from an outfit calling itself > "InfoSource Group" advertising the "2004 American Medical Directory". > They seem to be incredibly persistent; I've observed (and reported) > them using dozens of different cable-modem ISP accounts, mostly on > Comcast. > They seem to have at least figured out that spamming doesn't pay for > on-line merchants, so they are doing it the old-fashioned way: >> complete the information below and fax it to 905-751-0199. >> (tel: 905-751-0919). According to the www.whitepages.com reverse directory, 905-751-0919 is for: Rosin, K 5 Offord Cr Aurora, ON L4G 3G8 (905) 751-0919 (see http://whitepages.com/search/Reverse_Phone?phone=9057510919 ) Aurora is north of Toronto. To get to 5 Offord Crescent, take 404 north to exit 41, take Bloomington Road E. west about a mile and a quarter to BabcockBlvd, go right for 200 yards to Offord Crescent and turn left. Number 5 is on the left (south) side about 100 feet from Babcock. Good luck! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thank you for your research on this. I imagine many guys would probably prefer to make personal visitations to find out what it is all about. Those who cannot make personal visits because of the distance involved may prefer to use regular phone or even request information via fax. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Frank@nospam.biz Subject: Re: Anyone Local to These Scum? Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 06:01:29 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications Why don't you subscribe to one of the many nation-wide flat-rate long distance plans available these days and do your own dirty work? Garrett Wollman wrote: > I receive about a dozen spams a day from an outfit calling itself > "InfoSource Group" advertising the "2004 American Medical Directory". > They seem to be incredibly persistent; I've observed (and reported) > them using dozens of different cable-modem ISP accounts, mostly on > Comcast. > They seem to have at least figured out that spamming doesn't pay for > on-line merchants, so they are doing it the old-fashioned way: >> complete the information below and fax it to 905-751-0199. >> (tel: 905-751-0919). > Now, I certainly would not suggest that someone in the 905 area code > call up their fax machine and send a copy of the Toronto phone book, > since that would violate Bell's copyright and besides, it might be > considered telephone harassment. However, if you happen to be in a > position to track down the particular telemarketing office that is > accepting these calls, and explain to them that it would not be wise > to associate themselves with these sleaze, I would certainly owe you > the beverage of your choice should you ever be in Boston. > Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every > wollman@lcs.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own > Opinions not those of| search for greater freedom. > MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. __ (2003) ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Iraq/Westchester Area Code Date: 3 May 2004 11:17:31 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) wrote: > First thank you for the excellent work with Telecom Digest. > I have a question: In the article > http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1396 > that speak of with a satellite phone, a regular Iraqi cell phone > ("Iraqnafone"), and a special CPA phone with a 914 (Westchester, NY) > area code just to stay in touch with people. Even then, most of the > time you can't call one type of phone from the others. > Why would you not be able to call one from another except for lack of > coverage perhaps? Almost certainly political issues. Everybody has their own fiefdom. In Nigeria, there is a government telephone system, and there is a Shell Oil telephone system, and there are only limited interconnection trunks between them, whick work poorly when they work. In the US, we had a number of businesses with independant telephone networks, like the railroads. Bell Telephone did not like interconnecting with them, for fear people would "leak" long distance calls through the company networks. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Good News: Four Oakland Cited in First U.S. Spam Case Date: 3 May 2004 12:16:13 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) SELLCOM Tech support wrote: > Joe Wineburgh posted on that vast > internet thingie: >> Other unwitting companies and agencies whose computers were used >> include > All of the aforementioned and deliberately not quoted were *all* > running open relays or unsecured email servers in 2004??????? Well, with all of these nifty Outlook viruses, just about any Windows user can be inadvertently running a mail relay. Viruses that turn infected machines into spam zombies are the latest in spam technology and they are extremely popular, as the huge influx of spam from home broadband address blocks will show. > Let's just kinda hope that the prison population will be computer > literate enough to give the spammers the same courtesy formerly > reserved for child molesters and such like. It will be interesting to see. No doubt they will be going into the sort of minimum security facility reserved for white-collar criminals, so the chances are better than one might expect. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Honesty from Earthlink Date: 3 May 2004 15:10:09 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Mail Ias wrote: > Let's consider that the original poster is wrong -- Earthlink really is > trying to fix the problem, but can't so far. Do you really expect any > CSR to be able to explain it to your satisfaction? What do you want? > "we use SQL Server 2000 build 5915, and there's a bug with index > headers on tables larger than 6,000,007 bytes, only when the first > field of the table starts with the letter J". That's the sort of service I came to expect from Netcom before they got borged by Mindspring and then shortly afterward by Earthlink. I remember using the Netcom shell servers when the /var partition overflowed, calling the shell experts at Earthlink and explaining what was going on. I spent twenty minutes with this moron explaining what was going on with his machine, and that it was not at all an issue with my configuration. He had enough trouble getting it through his head that I wasn't using either a PC or a Mac. After a long discussion, he finally said, "maybe I should escalate this. A lot of people have been calling about this thing." Watching how Earthlink mutilated and destroyed the shell systems, dropped support with only limited notice, and generally treated the shell users rudely and with total ignorance, this does not give me a warm feeling about Earthlink's ability to run _any_ computer system. Not to mention that Earthlink continues to have a severe spam problem overall. For a very short period, Earthlink was a very fine example of how to deal with spam effectively, and then the one guy running their abuse department left and the whole thing collapsed. There was about a six month time period when they actually had their act together, after abandoning the Elron management structure but before their growth got totally out of control. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: moulbai@hotmail.com (David Courmanof) Subject: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: 3 May 2004 03:24:26 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is there a way to block or on my mobile? I have an Sony Z-600. Thanks, Alex [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably not. Privacy Manager (at least the SBC version of it, which I think the same generics most telcos are using), only works when the caller **deliberatly** does *67 on their call or their phone system deliberatly inserts *67 in the dialing string. I do not know if the Sony Z-600 has any hardware on the phone itself (or built in firmware, etc) to make it happen. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 05:11:35 GMT Charles Cryderman wrote in the thread "If I am Elected": > It just amazes me the way you people keep going on about this. First > the media did a recount of their own and found that there was no > difference in who won the Florida vote. Second, if these people in > Florida are so stupid that they can't figure out how to vote then > maybe they are to stupid to even be permitted to vote. I have used the > old lever machines, optical scan machines as well as absentee and > punch cards. Found them all easy to use and understand. Besides, if > they are that stupid there are people at the polling places to teach > them how to vote. Not quite right. Consider the following quote from Greg Palast, investigative reporter for BBC, and author of _The Best Democracy Money Can Buy_: "Five months before the election, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris ordered the removal of 57,700 names from Florida's voter rolls on grounds that they were felons. Voter rolls contain the names of all eligible, registered voters. If you're not on the list, you don't get to vote. "If you commit a felony in Florida, you lose your right to vote there, and you're 'scrubbed' from the rolls. You become a non-citizen, like in the old Soviet Union. This is not the case in most other states; it's an uncivilized vestige of the Deep South. "My office carefully went through the scrub list and discovered that at minimum, 90.2 percent of the people were completely innocent of any crime except for being African American. We didn't have to guess about that, because next to each voter's name was their race. "When I questioned Harris' office about the high percentage of African Americans on the scrub list, they responded, 'Well, you know how many black people commit crimes.'" {OOTC: I understand that the above questioning took place by telephone.) This and several other types of election fraud covered in the article (and the book) would never be detected by any recount, since these ballots were never cast. But there were also thousands of optical scan ballots that were cast but didn't scan properly, and were therefore marked "spoiled" (even though a human could easily discern the markings). In predominantly black districts the ballots were simply shoved in storage and never counted (or recounted). In case you're wondering, neighboring predominantly white districts had available on-site verifying scanners in each polling place. Voters in those districts whose ballots didn't scan were given the opportunity to re-mark a fresh ballot before leaving the polls, so those districts had no "spoiled" ballots. Read the full article, "Winning the Election The Republican Way: Racism, Theft and Fraud in Florida"; The Weekly Dig, Boston, MA; Tuesday, April 22, 2003, at http://tinyurl.com/3bne2 . [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That's the way things happen in Chicago also, and the Democratic 'Machine' hardly has its hands clean, either. The very same article could have been entitled 'Winning the Election the Democratic Way', etc and set in northern Illinois. Nationally, the whole system of elections needs such bad reform. And racism remains a serious problem also, not just in the deep south, although it is more obvious some places than others. People do not become less racist as time goes on, they simply become more sophisticated in the ways they hide their feelings. Years ago they used to use poll taxes, read/writing tests, or downright refusals to allow voting. Now they use more sophisticated methods such as taking people police have selected to go to jail (guilt not a factor on that) and eliminate them with the same results. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #222 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 3 18:11:48 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p2/8.11.3) id i43MBld14405; Mon, 3 May 2004 18:11:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 18:11:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405032211.i43MBld14405@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 #223 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on massis.lcs.mit.edu X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-0.5 required=4.0 tests=BAYES_00,MSGID_FROM_MTA_SHORT, NO_REAL_NAME,TO_MALFORMED autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Level: Status: RO TELECOM Digest Mon, 3 May 2004 18:08:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 223 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Motorola HD and Dual-Tuner DVR (Monty Solomon) Motorola Announces Home Media Architecture (Monty Solomon) Microsoft Introduces Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7 (Monty Solomon) ADP Announces PATRIOT Act Customer ID Program Solution (Monty Solomon) Comcast Home Networking (Monty Solomon) New Version of Windows Media Digital Right Management Software (Solomon) Hollywood's New Lesson For Campus File Swappers (Monty Solomon) PayPal Announces 'PayPal Web Services' Suite of PayPal APIs (M Solomon) Verizon E-mail Problems (Monty Solomon) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' -- Part of Larger Backlash (Robison) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (William Warren) COMMENTARY: Big VoIP Dogs Will Have the Sharpest Bite (VOIP News) Hoping to Attract Callers to the Internet (VOIP News) Level 3 Launches Residential VoIP Service (VOIP News) Net2Phone Teams With Level 3 to Expand Cable VoIP Offerings (VOIP News) Re: Vonage Vs. AT&T (ilyaburshteyn) 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. =========================== See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:29:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola HD and Dual-Tuner DVR Motorola Extends Industry's Leading High-Definition Set-Top Platform by Integrating Dual-Tuner Digital Video Recording - May 3, 2004 08:02 AM (PR Newswire) Motorola Further Supports Broadband Operators' Plans to Drive Digital Penetration by Introducing an Advanced Set-Top Platform That Integrates the Powerful Combination of HD and Dual-Tuner DVR NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today expanded the company's successful platform for high-definition television (HDTV) by introducing the Motorola DCT6400 series -- a digital set-top family that integrates HDTV with dual-tuner digital video recording (DVR) capabilities. Part of Motorola's "connected home" strategy, the DCT6400 will enhance the value of a digital cable subscriber's package by providing simple, unified access to the latest digital entertainment services, including HDTV decode and watch-and-record DVR. The Motorola DCT6400 Platform With over one million HD units shipped as of April 1, 2004, Motorola's digital set-top platform is the recognized leader for enabling operators to deliver high-definition services to subscribers. The new DCT6400 advanced set-top extends this digital entertainment platform by adding dual-tuner DVR capabilities -- enabling consumers to watch live HD content from one source, while recording HD content from another. With its integrated hard drive, the DCT6412 set-top enables users to record standard digital television as well as HDTV programming. Additionally, the DCT6400 family supports a full array of advanced interactive applications, including interactive program guide, and video-on- demand. With the HD capabilities of the Motorola DCT6400 platform, operators can realize additional revenue opportunities through such services as HD video-on-demand (HD-VOD). The platform's standard features include an integrated DOCSIS-compatible cable modem, a smart-card reader, Ethernet and Universal Serial Bus (USB) interfaces, Y-Pb-Pr video output, S/PDIF optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, and baseband and RF audio-video I/Os. All models enable direct digital connection to consumer audio and video devices via 1394-DTV and DVI interfaces. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237277 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:32:38 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Motorola Announces Home Media Architecture Motorola Announces Home Media Architecture, Extending Digital Video Recording Capabilities Throughout the Home Motorola's Solution Provides a Cost-Effective Way to Share Digital Entertainment Programming Across 'Connected Home' Devices NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) today announced that it has extended the functionality of its industry-leading digital set-top platform with the introduction of the Motorola Home Media Architecture (HMA). Providing cost-effective hardware and software solutions, Motorola HMA enables operators to bring the experience of multi-room digital video recording (DVR) and media distribution functionality to their subscribers. As part of Motorola's "connected home" strategy, Motorola HMA allows consumers to enjoy access to stored media on connected devices throughout the home. Motorola's highly scaleable and extensible architecture enables operators to deploy a basic multi-room DVR solution by leveraging legacy digital set-tops and currently deployed interactive program guide (IPG) or video on demand (VOD) applications. The architecture also provides a growth path to enable advanced services and capabilities utilizing technology from Ucentric Systems, a provider of home media networking software. These advanced capabilities of HMA, enabled by Ucentric Systems Multi-TV DVR technology, add a new level of in-home media networking. In addition to enhanced multi-room DVR functionality such as management of recording and viewing resources across the entire home network, advanced HMA leverages standards based IP technology to enable subscribers to connect a range of compatible devices through their in-home network. Consumers will be able to configure set-tops, digital cameras, camcorders, mp3 players, laptops, PCs and mobile phones through a simple user interface. With a Java-based open architecture for applications, the advanced capabilities of Motorola's HMA solution offers service providers the ability to introduce new IP-based services in areas such as home security, home monitoring, smart home management, remote education and remote health management. Motorola's basic multi-room architecture provides an easily-deployed solution for the access of DVR content throughout the home. Specifically, the solution enables content recorded on a DCT6208 or DCT6412 digital video recorder set-top to be accessed from any HMA-enabled DCT digital set-top. Further, the solution allows for the continued use of current program guides and application suites. Using IP-over-coaxial technology developed by Entropic for the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA), the HMA enables "whole-home" networking for core and advanced digital set-tops already in the home. The Entropic technology enables multiple standard and high-definition video and data services to be simultaneously distributed throughout the home, over existing unmodified coaxial cable, without the need for a service call by a technician. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237350 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:35:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft Introduces Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7 Microsoft Introduces Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7, One of the First Software Platforms to Support Motorola DCT6400 Series Set-Tops With Integrated Dual-Tuner DVR and High-Definition Functionality Enhanced Software Platform Offers Industry-Leading Digital Video Recording Functionality NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today at The National Show, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association's (NCTA's) Annual Convention and International Exposition, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced Microsoft(R) TV Foundation Edition 1.7, the latest update of its digital cable software platform and one of the first to support the Motorola DCT6412 set-top with integrated dual-tuner digital video recording (DVR) and high definition functionality. Microsoft TV Foundation 1.7 provides cable operators with a comprehensive and flexible solution to deploy, market and merchandize premium services such as video on demand (VOD) and high-definition television (HDTV), and provides some of the most advanced support for DVR available today, taking full advantage of the new dual-tuner capabilities of the Motorola DCT6400 advanced digital set-top platform. Microsoft TV Foundation Edition 1.7 will be on display at Microsoft Booth No. 2223. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237384 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:38:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ADP Announces PATRIOT Act Customer Identification Program Solution NEW YORK, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ADP Brokerage Services Group (ADP), a division of Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (NYSE:ADP), announced today the launch of its new customer identity verification system. This system is fully integrated with ADP's Brokerage Processing Services (BPS) securities processing system to streamline the back office operation. This system enables a broker-dealer's compliance and new accounts departments to efficiently verify their customers' identities in accordance with the USA PATRIOT ACT and securities industry best practices as part of the firm's comprehensive Anti-Money Laundering Program. This new customer identification verification system, built in partnership with RemitPro, maximizes operational efficiency through the use of a web accessible case management tool with built-in exception handling and complete audit trail functionality. RemitPro's Risk Alert application receives customer identification information through a direct interface with the BPS Name and Address records. Based on client-controlled requirements, Risk Alert accesses multiple vendor and public databases to verify the identity of potential customers using sophisticated, automated matching criteria. Through the interface, Risk Alert provides extensive functionality to research and manage exceptions with complete audit trails, including updates to BPS. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237529 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:43:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Comcast Home Networking Comcast Delivers Home Networking the Way Consumers Want It First CableHome(TM)-Certified Platform Offers Smart, Simple, Solution That Removes Technology Questions - and Replaces Them With Excitement NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Comcast today announced the national launch of Comcast Home Networking -- the home networking solution designed for the consumer who wants to experience all of the benefits of home networking -- without needing to know technical jargon like: router, DMZ or Ethernet versus USB. While "simple home networking" may sound revolutionary, Comcast has made it reality by launching the first home networking platform to be certified under the CableHome(TM) specification. Comcast, the nation's top broadband provider, helped lead the development of CableLabs(R) CableHome specification, after speaking with consumers and identifying the need for an interoperable platform that would: -- Enable the cable service provider to manage the technology part of the home networking equation - enabling customers to simply focus on enjoying the experience. -- Help speed the development of advanced broadband applications and devices for the home. -- Ensure true seamless integration among these devices. About Comcast Home Networking Comcast Home Networking expands beyond simply sharing files and printers -- to a world that encompasses gaming, music, streaming video, and more. Installation and maintenance are simple, with Comcast handling set-up, equipment management, system management, and any troubleshooting. The Comcast Home Networking service package offers enhanced speeds, a wireless home gateway device (integrated cable modem and router), and networking gear for up to five devices in the home. Users can connect PCs or broadband-capable devices, and households can share access to the Internet, files, CD drives and printers across the network. In addition, users can access speeds of up to 4 Mbps downstream and 384 kbps upstream for seamless high-speed access across multiple devices. Comcast is also working with the industry's most innovative companies to ensure rapid development and seamless integration of new applications and devices to provide the ultimate consumer experience. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237969 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 07:26:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: New Version of Windows Media Digital Rights Management Software Microsoft Announces New Version of Windows Media Digital Rights Management Software America Online, CinemaNow, Creative, Dell, Disney, Motorola, Napster and OD2 Embrace New DRM to Enable Delivery of Subscription or Video-on-Demand Content to Portable Devices and Over Home Networks REDMOND, Wash., May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today unveiled the features of the next version of its Windows Media(R) Digital Rights Management (DRM) software, and announced early adopters of the platform, including leading online music and movie services entertainment companies, consumer electronics manufacturers and chip makers. Microsoft's next generation of Windows Media DRM technology will make new scenarios possible, such as protecting, delivering and playing subscription- based or on-demand digital music and video. These scenarios span Windows(R)- based PCs and devices, including portable audio devices, Portable Media Centers, cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as Windows Mobile(TM)-based Pocket PCs and Smartphones, and networked devices connected within the home, including those that connect over a wireless network. The promise of how this DRM technology enables these new scenarios has already attracted support from the following companies: -- Content companies America Online Inc., The Disney Co. and OD2 -- Service providers CinemaNow Inc., Movielink LLC, MusicNow LLC, Napster LLC, VirginMega France and Yacast -- Consumer electronic device manufacturers Archos SA, Creative, Dell Inc., Digital 5 Inc., iRiver International, PRISMIQ Inc., PURE Digital, Rio, Samsung Electronics Company Ltd., SimpleDevices Inc. and 2Wire Inc. -- Chip makers BridgeCo AG, Equator Technologies Inc., Imagination Technologies, Micronas, Motorola Inc., Sigma Designs Inc. and SigmaTel Inc. There is also support for the new DRM by manufacturers of Windows Media Center Extender Technology and Windows Media Connect devices, including Alienware Corp., Creative and Dell. This new version of Windows Media DRM reinforces Microsoft's strong commitment to the digital media marketplace supporting the company's vision of enabling the seamless flow of music and movies for consumers while ensuring that content owners are able to build robust businesses. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41235912 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 07:34:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Hollywood's New Lesson For Campus File Swappers By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Hollywood is poised to up the ante in its war against file swappers, with new technology that could make it easier to remove suspected pirates from campus networks, CNET News.com has learned. Movie studios, record labels and technology companies have been testing the system for months, according to sources familiar with the project. Known as the Automated Copyright Notice System (ACNS), the technology promises to make copyright enforcement easier on peer-to-peer networks, saving schools and Internet service providers (ISPs) time and money. ACNS allows them to automatically restrict or cut off Internet access for alleged infringers on notice from a record label or movie studio. For example, universities using ACNS could instantly send notices of copyright infringement to students by e-mail and restrict their network access until they have removed the file. Though not specifically ACNS, a similar system is set to go live Monday at the University of California at Los Angeles, one of the nation's largest universities with 37,500 students. http://news.com.com/2100-1027-5194341.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:19:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PayPal Announces 'PayPal Web Services' Suite of New PayPal APIs PayPal Announces ''PayPal Web Services'' Suite of New PayPal APIs Enables Merchants and Developers to Automate Interaction with the PayPal eCommerce Platform SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 3, 2004--PayPal, the global online payment service, today introduced PayPal Web Services, a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to the PayPal platform based on open standards. PayPal Web Services, currently in beta release, is comprised of four new informational and transactional APIs enabling developers and merchants of all sizes to create ecommerce solutions and applications that integrate with the PayPal platform. This new offering expands PayPal's existing family of Website Payments functionality and reporting features, and includes PayPal's popular Instant Payment Notification (IPN) service. In its initial release, the PayPal Web Services beta provides access to the following four API calls: -- TransactionSearch: Based on specified search criteria such as payment date or customer name, returns a set of matching transaction IDs and basic transaction details. -- GetTransactionDetails: For a given transaction, returns all details associated with the transaction, such as customer email address, time of payment, and purchase details. -- RefundTransaction: For a given transaction, reverses the transaction and issues a refund or partial refund to the purchaser. -- MassPay: Transfers funds to one or many recipients by providing an automated alternative to cutting paper checks or manually initiating individual payments (available end of second quarter, 2004). PayPal Web Services enables more streamlined and automated access to the PayPal platform, and broadens the audience for PayPal's ecommerce tools to include advanced technical developers and enterprise customers. PayPal Web Services are based on open standards, supporting Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41237272 ------------------------------ Subject: Verizon E-mail Problems Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 15:50:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Scott Citron In the last several months I uncovered an unnerving problem that appears to be related to my Verizon DSL service. It seems emails sent to me from a number of my friends and business associates never arrive in my Inbox. Not only do they not arrive, but most times they never bounce back to the sender informing he or she that their message was never received. Apparently I'm not alone with this problem. Two other Verizon subscribers I know have reported the same behavior to the point where they've had to simply tell those with whom they communicate not to bother contacting them via email. http://www.macintouch.com/isp03.html ------------------------------ From: William Robison Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Organization: Universitry of Iowa Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:19:27 GMT On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:26:21 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > Regulatory recovery charges typically seek to recover costs that have > been imposed on carriers that are not figured into their standard rates, > pursuant to provisions in tariffs or contracts that permit this. The problem, as I see it, is that I can't compare rate structures of two carriers. They never adversitse these "regulatory" fees, so about the only way to compare is to find frieds with each service and do a detailed analysis of these fees. In addition, I have (as would most consumers) difficulty determining which are really mandated fees, they seem to blame FCC, PUC, or any other agency that's convenient at the time). Perhaps having to live under this morass of regulation is the price the vendor pays for being a monopoly? -Willy ------------------------------ From: William Warren Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Organization: Comcast Online Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 15:44:36 GMT Fred Atkinson wrote in message news:telecom23.221.13@telecom-digest.org: > Some time back, I sent you an email asking for another link on the > telecom-digest.org site. I never saw it up there. Did you ever see > it? > It's for ham radio operators, but it's IT related. And there are > a good number of hams in the IT/telecom community. > The name of the article is Your Own Ham Domain and the URL is (on > my ham domain site, appropriately enough): > http://www.wb4aej.com/hamdomain Pat, Fred's basically saying that ham operators can get their call sign as a domain name. Since I'm a ham, I'll mention a couple of things hams (or anybody, for that matter) can do. 1. Use Godaddy: they're charging $7.95 a year for new domain right now. If anyone knows a better price, please pass it along. http://www.godaddy.com/. 2. You can put your web site on your own server if you have dsl or cable (always on) connections. You'll need a "dynamic" dns like http://www.dyndns.org/, but that's easy to set up. You can either pay the dns provider to handle your domain (dyndns is about $25/year), or Godaddy will forward it for you, free, and you can get the Javascript from Fred's site to show it as the destination when people click in. Just be sure you know what you're doing, because it means keeping a computer on 27/7/365, and keeping up with patches too. On the plus side, you can assign yourself any email address you want, and then delete it if it gets spam; this is great for those places that make you supply an email address when you register, because you can turn one on, get the serial number, and then never be annoyed by them again. 3. The ampr.org domain, which is the 44.0.0.0 network, is the ham's "real" home, since it's for AMateur Packet Radio. Any ham can get a free domain name that looks like http://w1aw.ampr.org/, and if you ask nicely, they'll even put in an MX record so that email coming from the Internet is redirected to your regular account at AOL or wherever, so you can get email addressed to, e.g., w1aw@w1aw.ampr.org. Of course, ampr.org is mostly for doing IP over AX.25, but they're not hard assed about it. 4. It's usually better to host your site on your ISP's computers, since they do all the backups and maintenance for you. That way, you get the best of all worlds. Most ISP's provide at least 5 MB of space as part of your basic package, and that's more than enough for a simple site, and you probably have an extra email address from your ISP anyway, unless your kids already took them. HTH. William Warren (Filter the noise out of my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 11:27:33 -0400 Subject: Commentary: Big VoIP Dogs Will Have the Sharpest Bite Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=94083 May 3, 2004 By: Al Senia With the Big Dogs barking, how long can the Little Dogs keep their bite? That was one of the principal questions left unanswered in the aftermath of the recent America's Network VoIP roundtable held in Washington, D.C. (A special report about the roundtable is featured in our May 1 issue, and the full transcript of the gathering is available online at http://www.americasnetwork.com ) As the co-moderator of this VoIP industry debate, I was fascinated to view firsthand the at times heated arguments among service provider executives about the fairness of the existing status quo and what is likely to occur as the market changes. Full story at: http://www.americasnetwork.com/americasnetwork/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=94083 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 11:34:50 -0400 Subject: Hoping to Attract Callers to the Internet Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/technology/03voice.html?ex=1399003200&en=9167f90435a9a494&ei=5007&partner=Google By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL NEW ORLEANS, May 2 - Some of America's biggest telecommunications companies are meeting here this week to discuss how best to provide phone services to consumers. It will not be telephone companies talking, though, but cable providers. The effort by the cable companies to make deeper inroads into telephone services by using Internet technology will be the No. 1 topic at the industry's annual trade show here that continues through Wednesday. There will be much backslapping given the success cable providers have had rolling out high-speed Internet, and they will be eager to show how their new Internet-based phone services that use those broadband connections will be just as triumphant. But selling high-speed connections and phone services are two different things, and cable companies are certain to face an uphill climb beating the telephone industry in this latest contest. Many consumers still see high-speed Internet connections as a largely generic service, which they can buy from many different vendors. But choosing a phone service is a more emotional decision. Telephone companies have well-established brands and have been reliable providers of voice calls for decades. Cable companies are still viewed, not as phone providers, but in terms of the television programming they offer. Moreover, phone calling over the Internet is relatively new, and providers of all types are still working out the technological flaws as well as customer and billing services. Those gaps in service may alienate customers, analysts said, if cable companies introduce Internet calling too quickly. Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/technology/03voice.html?ex=1399003200&en=9167f90435a9a494&ei=5007&partner=Google ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 11:59:31 -0400 Subject: Level 3 Launches Residential VoIP Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-03-2004/0002164885&STORY&EDATE= Level 3 Launches Residential VoIP Service in More Than 50 U.S. Markets New Service Enables Cable Operators and Others to Accelerate Rollout of Consumer VoIP Offerings NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced that its (3)VoIP Enhanced(SM) Local residential phone service is commercially available in more than 50 U.S. markets, completing the first stage of a phased rollout in over 300 U.S. markets by the end of 2004. The company made the announcement at The 2004 National Show hosted by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). "(3)VoIP Enhanced Local service provides cable operators, enhanced service providers, and others the essential building blocks needed to cost-effectively accelerate their deployment of VoIP service to millions of consumers throughout the U.S.," said Sureel Choksi, president of Softswitch Services for Level 3. "We're pleased to be introducing our new (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service in over 50 U.S. markets, and are on schedule to complete the deployment of this service to more than 300 markets by the end of the year." (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service allows companies to develop and offer residential voice service using Level 3 provided building blocks, including local phone numbers, interconnection with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for local and long distance services, local number portability and E911 emergency services. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service provides these essential components while enabling the voice service provider to retain the flexibility to manage and control end-user features without the headaches of implementing complex interconnection arrangements. Key features of (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service include: * Local and long distance calling including access to the PSTN * Local phone numbers * Operator assistance * Directory listings and assistance * E911 emergency services * Local number portability "We believe today's commercial launch of (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service underscores Level 3's growing leadership in VoIP," said Jack Waters, CTO and president of Voice Technologies for Level 3. "Level 3 is proud of its leadership role in helping to pioneer VoIP technology, having built its network to be completely optimized for IP and having introduced the first PSTN-quality VoIP service in 1999." "With today's announcement, Level 3 now enables residential VoIP service to be offered -- with local phone numbers -- to over 16 million households, with plans to increase its reach to approximately 63 million households by the end of year," said Myrle McNeal, vice president of (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service is now available in many major markets including: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Portland, Tampa, and Orlando. For a complete list of market availability, please visit http://www.level3.com/userimages/DotCom/pdf/(3)VoIP_Enhanced_Local_Serv_Avail.pdf. In addition to residential VoIP services, Level 3 offers a full range of wholesale and business voice services. For more information about Level 3's portfolio of VoIP services, please stop by NCTA booth 4065, or visit http://www.Level3.com. About Level 3 Communications Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) is an international communications and information services company. The company operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, is one of the largest providers of wholesale dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers, through its cable and DSL partners. The company offers a wide range of communications services over its 22,500 mile broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, and patented Softswitch managed modem and voice services. Its Web address is http://www.Level3.com. The company offers information services through its subsidiaries, Software Spectrum and (i)Structure. For additional information, visit their respective Web sites at http://www.softwarespectrum.com and http://www.i-structure.com. The Level 3 logo is a registered service mark and (3)VoIP Enhanced is a service mark of Level 3 Communications, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service is offered by Level 3 Communications, LLC. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 12:01:13 -0400 Subject: Net2Phone Teams With Level 3 to Expand Cable VoIP Offerings Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-03-2004/0002164902&STORY&EDATE= Leading VoIP Companies Join Forces to Offer Expansive End-to-End Telephony Solutions for Cable Operators NEW ORLEANS, May 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Net2Phone (Nasdaq: NTOP) and Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced that they will join forces to offer end-to-end telephony solutions to cable operators. Net2Phone will use Level 3's new (3)VoIP Enhanced(SM) Local residential phone service as an enhancement to its current cable telephony solutions. The companies made the announcement today at The 2004 National Show hosted by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). Net2Phone -- which currently empowers cable operators with both PacketCable and SIP compliant fully integrated broadband phone service -- plans to use Level 3's new VoIP offering to enhance and expand its end-to-end telephony solutions. By outsourcing telephony deployments to Net2Phone, cable operators can minimize their upfront cost to deploy telephony services while benefiting from accelerated time to market and drawing on Net2Phone's nine years of retail VoIP expertise, servicing more than 500,000 users worldwide. "Level 3's residential VoIP service will provide us with enhancements to our current telephony network, enabling us to accelerate and expand the availability of our innovative telephony solutions to cable operators," said Stephen Greenberg, CEO for Net2Phone. "Complementing our existing VoIP offerings with Level 3's industry-leading local coverage and expertise will only improve our value proposition, as we market diversified cable telephony solutions." "Our relationship with Net2Phone will enable cable operators to receive a robust suite of features, functionality, network availability and enhanced services from two of the most well-respected VoIP players in the market today," said Sureel Choksi, president of Softswitch Services for Level 3. "We're pleased that Net2Phone has elected to use our new (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service to augment the deployment of the VoIP services provided by Net2Phone to business and residential customers in the U.S." As a hosted service provider, Net2Phone enables cable operators with a choice of either PacketCable-compliant or SIP-based full-featured broadband phone service that they can sell as an enhancement and/or bundle to their existing product set. Net2Phone's PacketCable and SIP platform performs call management, provides Class 5 features, billing, provisioning, and seamlessly integrates into its partners' front and back office systems, thereby facilitating a unified bill for bundled services. Level 3 rounds out Net2Phone's solution with its (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service, which includes local phone numbers, interconnection with the public-switched telephone network for local and long distance services, local number portability and E911 emergency services. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local Service Now available in more than 50 U.S. markets, (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service allows companies to develop voice services using Level 3 provided building blocks while retaining the flexibility to manage and control the features offered to residential customers. Key Features of (3)VoIP Enhanced Local Service include: * Local calling including access to the PSTN * Local phone numbers * Operator assistance * Directory listings and assistance * E911 emergency services * Local number portability In addition to residential VoIP services, Level 3 offers a full range of wholesale and business voice services. For more information about Level 3's portfolio of VoIP services, please stop by NCTA booth #4065, or visit http://www.Level3.com. This relationship will serve as a complement to Net2Phone's agreement with IDT Solutions, formerly known as Winstar, which is currently providing local and long distance telecom services in major metropolitan markets. To learn more about Net2Phone's suite of services, please stop by NCTA booth #1859, or visit http://www.net2phone.com. About Net2Phone Net2Phone provides PacketCable, SIP and wireless VoIP solutions around in the world. As a leader in enabling telecom service providers and cable operators with turn-key hosted VoIP telephony services, Net2Phone has routed billions of retail VoIP minutes globally, servicing more than 100,000 users in the US as well as hundreds of thousands of more overseas. Net2Phone's hosted SIP platform provides partners with residential broadband telephony, calling cards, prefix dialing and enterprise services in over 100 countries. Net2Phone's PacketCable platform provides cable operators with the ability to deliver a primary line replacement service with guaranteed QoS and features such as E911. Traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners and investors include Liberty Media Corporation and IDT Corporation. For more information about Net2Phone's products and services, please visit http://www.net2phone.com. About Level 3 Communications Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) is an international communications and information services company. The company operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, is one of the largest providers of wholesale dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers, through its cable and DSL partners. The company offers a wide range of communications services over its 22,500 mile broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, and patented Softswitch managed modem and voice services. Its Web address is http://www.Level3.com. The company offers information services through its subsidiaries, Software Spectrum and (i)Structure. For additional information, visit their respective Web sites at http://www.softwarespectrum.com and http://www.i-structure.com. The Level 3 logo is a registered service mark and (3)VoIP Enhanced is a service mark of Level 3 Communications, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service is offered by Level 3 Communications, LLC. ------------------------------ From: i_burshteyn@yahoo.com (ilyaburshteyn) Subject: Re: Vonage Vs. AT&T Date: 3 May 2004 08:28:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I got a couple of emails asking for a free second month coupon. I wanted to make some things clear to avoid any misunderstanding. I wrote my post with only one purpose to give some honest and firsthand information on the Vonage service, not to solicit referrals. If anyone is interested in a free second month I would be more then happy to refer you. This is a Vonage program, where a current customer can refer a new customer thereby getting a free second moth of service for the new customer and for himself. Just so all of you are aware of the fine print, when you sign up there is a $30 or $35 dollar activation fee, and a $10 delivery charge (the numbers might be off by a few bucks check the website for details). If you don't like the service cancel it with in the first 14 days and ship the box back. All you risk are the shipping costs. If you choose to keep the service, you will get the second month free of charge, and so will the person that referred you. If anyone wants this referral email me or any other Vonage customer. Once you are referred you will get an email from Vonage with a link. Press the link, and register. It's that simple. Vonage will send you a box the size of an external modem or a cable modem. Just put it in front of your router, and plug a phone into it. If you decide to keep the service, you can plug the Vonage box into one of your phone jacks, and all the phone jacks in your house will work of the Vonage service (before you do that, disconnect the phone wires coming in from the phone company, or you might fry the Vonage box). If you have questions, call or email Vonage support they respond quickly. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A couple clarifications needed here. Vonage has no activation fee **as far as I know.** At least they did not when I first signed up more than a year ago. (Or was our writer speaking about AT&T?) When I first signed up using John Levine's e-coupon, I think Vonage charged my credit card about $83, which was the cost of the Cisco ATA box plus a month's service and tax. The fourteen day 'trial period' seems to kick in about the time they estimate your box arrived, so effectively you get 18-20 days of free trial. It used to be their residential plan was closer to $35; now they have a $14.99 plan which gives you 500 minutes per month to anywhere in the USA or (to) Canada. When I started with Vonage there was no 411 or 911 service. Now there are both; whomever they broker their directory service out to gets one dollar per call. I understand they are going to soon be starting zero operator service before too long; I do not know who is going to handle it for them, probably some company out of New Jersey where they are located, maybe Verizon? I do know they have vastly improved their overall quality of service since they started using the new Motorola MTA box with its built in Quality of Service firmware; they are getting their customer service/tech support holding queues down to a more reasonable time. When I first started using them they were only an east coast/west coast operation. (The east coast corridor is where the money is at, just ask MCI or ATT). Now they have service in every area code, often times in multiple. They started local service here in rural 620 territory not long ago, not just in Wichita(316) but actually **two** locations, one a few miles down Highway 169 from me, and they offer toll free 800 numbers as 'virtual numbers' now in addition for $4.99 per month, which includes, I think, a hundred minutes per month 'free' in the package. So Vonage is not a bad deal, and is getting better. Oh, e-coupon givers and recipients never pay to talk to each other; their traffic is free (that is, not counted against their allotment each month. So if you decide to try them and want a 'second month free' e-coupon and no one else will give you one, then write and ask me at ptownson@massis.csail.mit.edu . PAT] ------------------------------ 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 URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #223 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 4 14:13:54 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i44IDrl01749; Tue, 4 May 2004 14:13:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 14:13:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405041813.i44IDrl01749@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 #224 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 May 2004 14:13:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 224 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Top US Cable Operators Announce 'On Ramp' to Advanced Java (M Solomon) Nextel May Pay For Broadcasters Move to New Airwaves (Monty Solomon) OpenTV and Motorola Announce 5-Year Licensing Agreement (Monty Solomon) Florida Paves Way For VoIP Taxation (VOIP News) Charter Communications Selects Nortel Networks Cable VoIP (VOIP News) Internet Phone Service Attracts Wider Use (VOIP News) AT&T Plans Overseas Drive For VoIP (VOIP News) Re: VoIP Analogy (Lisa Hancock) Re: How to Block Unknown Caller (Frank@nospam.biz) Re: How to Block Unknown Caller (Ray Normandeau) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (Fred Atkinson) 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, 4 May 2004 11:07:03 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Top US Cable Operators Announce 'On Ramp' to Advanced Java Technology-Based TV Services - May 4, 2004 07:02 AM (PR Newswire) New Java Set-Top Box Standard Plans to Leverage Successful Technology Already on 250 Million Cell phones NEW ORLEANS, NCTA, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Top U.S. cable operators and technology providers today jointly announced the formation of a Java Community Process (JCP(SM)) Expert Group (EG) to develop a new Java (TM) technology-based digital television API standard -- OnRamp to OCAP -- targeted at legacy, resource-constrained cable television set-top boxes. CableLabs, Charter, Cox, GoldPocket, Liberate, Motorola, Philips, Sun Microsystems, Time Warner Cable, and Vidiom Systems are working together as members of the Expert Group to define the new specification. Upon finalization of the specification (JSR 242), OnRamp to OCAP, a profile of the J2ME CLDC technology specification, will be available to all set-top box vendors, DTV application developers and service providers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41246559 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:05:06 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nextel May Pay For Broadcasters Move to New Airwaves WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) - Nextel Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTL) on Monday proposed paying about $512 million to move the electronic news gathering operations of television broadcasters from airwaves Nextel wants to use. The proposal, part of a larger plan to resolve interference with public safety communications, would free up airwaves Nextel has been seeking access to from the Federal Communications Commission. Broadcast auxiliary services are used to send signals, like video footage, between two points, like from a remote truck to a studio. The services are used by local television stations across the country. The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television joined Nextel in proposing the plan for moving their broadcast news gathering operations from the 1.9 Ghz band to 2025-2110 Mhz band. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41244842 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 11:09:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: OpenTV and Motorola Announce 5-Year Licensing Agreement OpenTV and Motorola Announce 5-Year Licensing Agreement; Motorola and OpenTV Extend Their Long-Term Relationship in the Delivery of Interactive Television Solutions SAN FRANCISCO & NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2004--NCTA/ OpenTV (Nasdaq:OPTV), one of the world's leading interactive television companies, and Motorola, Inc., (NYSE:MOT) Broadband Communications Sector today announced the signing of a five-year licensing and porting agreement for OpenTV's interactive television middleware products. Under the agreement, Motorola will be able to offer cable and satellite operators a wide range of digital receivers that have been fully integrated and tested with OpenTV's Core 1.1 middleware. The agreement also covers a variety of OpenTV extension packages, including support for Motorola's family of receivers with built-in digital video recording capability. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41247601 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 11:41:21 -0400 Subject: Florida Paves Way For VoIP Taxation Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5204656.html By Marguerite Reardon CNET News.com Florida could become one of the first states in the country to tax networks running voice over Internet Protocol. On Friday, the last day of the legislative session, the Florida House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would have postponed the enforcement of a tax levied on businesses and individuals using substitute communications such as VoIP. The law, which has been on the books since 1985, has not been widely enforced. The statute was originally meant to tax businesses that bypassed the local telephone network by establishing their own communications network. While it was originally written with technologies such as satellite and microwave in mind, it could be applied to businesses carrying voice traffic over their IP data networks as well as individuals using VoIP services from companies like Vonage. On Friday, the Florida Senate passed a bill that would have prevented collection of the tax until 2006, and sent it to the House. But House Speaker Johnnie Byrd refused to consider it, said John Stargel, a Republican in the Florida House of Representatives. "I don't think the speaker really understood the issues or took the time to understand what this tax will do to businesses in Florida and businesses looking to relocate here," he said. "We have now created an atmosphere of uncertainty. In a state that prides itself on being pro-business and pro-growth, it's sad that this message is being sent." Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103_2-5204656.html 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/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VoIPnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: VoIPnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 11:37:56 -0400 Subject: Charter Communications Selects Nortel Networks Cable VoIP, Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20040504005513&newsLang=en&beanID=202776713&viewID=news_view Charter Communications Selects Nortel Networks Cable VoIP, Multimedia Communications Solutions NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2004-- Network Expansion Expected to Drive VoIP Momentum, Multimedia Communications Services in Charter's Midwest, Great Lakes Operating Divisions Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) today announced that it has been selected by Charter Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq:CHTR) to expand voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service offerings in Charter's Midwest and Great Lakes operating divisions using Nortel Networks cable VoIP solution featuring Succession Communication Server (CS) 2000-Compact softswitches. This selection, which extends a relationship announced in December 2002, is subject to execution of a definitive agreement. "We've rebuilt and upgraded our infrastructure to deliver advanced products and services including voice over IP," said Wayne Davis, senior vice president, Engineering and Technical Operations, Charter. "As such, Nortel Networks has played a strategic role in our packet network transformation, delivering a cable voice over IP solution that is very robust and mature. Their extensive knowledge of cable telephony, together with a strong background in services and professional support, has enabled us to aggressively enter and compete in the telephony market." As part of its overall expansion, Davis also said Charter intends to deploy Nortel Networks Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5200 in a 2004 market trial, giving both residential and business customers access to multimedia services independent of location. The new Charter VoIP architecture will include the capability to communicate between a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) server and a PacketCable(TM) qualified Call Management Server (CMS), effectively bringing the rich world of SIP-based features to a PacketCable environment. "Nortel Networks is fundamentally changing interpersonal communications across all markets," said Dan Mondor, general manager, Global Cable Solutions, Nortel Networks. "We have generated critical momentum in the cable market and continue to focus efforts on delivering carrier-grade cable solutions that enable providers like Charter to pave the way for new integrated video, voice, and data services. Charter continues to be a leader in cable IP telephony and this addition to their services portfolio will help them to drive increased revenue opportunities." To speed time to market and ensure carrier grade service for its customers, Charter will use Nortel Networks professional services to support the planning and deployment of the VoIP solution. In September 2002, Charter deployed the first commercially available cable VoIP service in North America using Nortel Networks equipment, and has experienced virtually no downtime on the softswitch since launch. Full press release at: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20040504005513&newsLang=en&beanID=202776713&viewID=news_view ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 12:04:34 -0400 Subject: Internet Phone Service Attracts Wider Use Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001918128_btnetphone03.html By Michael Bazeley Knight Ridder Newspapers When was the last time you oohed and ahhed at your telephone? Probably never. Let's face it, the traditional home phone may be amazingly reliable, but its coolness factor is almost zero. This might be the year that changes. Internet phone service -- where you make calls through your broadband Internet connection using a regular telephone -- is picking up steam. And for the first time since mobile phones hit the market, the technology could make people seriously rethink Alexander Graham Bell's 127-year-old invention. Want calls to your home phone to find you wherever you are? Done. Want to automatically send all your calls straight to voice mail while you watch "The Sopranos"? Done. Want to take your home phone and number wherever you travel, or send a voice-mail message via e-mail? How about programming your own "hold" music? Done, done and done. Internet phone service -- also known as VoIP for voice over Internet Protocol -- has been widely available to consumers for more than a year through small companies such as VoicePulse, Vonage and Packet8. So far, Americans have been slow to sign on. Full story at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001918128_btnetphone03.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 12:48:15 -0400 Subject: AT&T Plans Overseas Drive For VoIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180244177 By Paul Taylor in New York AT&T, the US long distance telecommunications carrier, is planning to launch its consumer broadband VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service in overseas markets, possibly including the UK and other European countries. The company launched its consumer VoIP service, dubbed CallVantage, in the US at the end of March. The service enables consumers with a high-speed cable or DSL internet connection to make and receive calls over the internet using an ordinary phone. Vonage, one of the pioneers of broadband VoIP services in the US, has also announced plans to expand overseas. It has begun to roll out its flat-rate service in Canada and plans to launch its service in the UK and Switzerland later this year. Full story at: http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1083180244177 ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: 3 May 2004 10:31:31 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hes@unity.ncsu.edu (Henry E Schaffer) wrote: > The usual Internet billing models are not like those for buying > groceries, lumber, cars, etc. For the Internet it is common to buy a > certain amount of *capacity* -- and to pay the same amount per month for > it -- regardless of whether it is used or not. This is all true, but there is one other factor. For many products and services we buy, there are many little extras available to us "free of charge", whether we use them or not. This could be as simple as a free cup of coffee and donut while we're there or use of a restroom. Likewise, in a restaurant, there are "free" condiments available to us. I don't like relish or pickels, but the next person may take tons of it. The owners of such facilities work the cost of those little extras into the product/service price. They estimate the typical usage. But what happens is sometimes those freebies get overused by customers. You'll often see people stuffing their pockets with "free" condiments to take home. Some people use a restroom to wash up their entire family of kids and not buy a thing. As a result, store owners will limit or restrict access to such freebies. Public restrooms, for example, are often now kept locked and not easily available. Condiments must be requested. (On the flip side, some business purposely leave out all freebies and become a discount -- originally McDonald's had pickup windows only specifically intended for customers to get in and out fast -- which saved them money). Now, let's look at telecom. At my home I have flat rate service. The phone company assumes I -- along with other residence customers -- will NOT be making many extended calls all day and night because their switch and cabling just won't accomodate it. Now if all of us began making extended calls the phone company will take a hard look at its rate structure and adjust it accordingly -- charging us more money. So, in the short run, things like VOIP seems "free" since it takes advantage of current pricing. It's almost like customers making a meal out of the free condiments. (In poor times, people would go into a cafeteria and take free hot water and ketchup to make soup). But VOIP is using capacity, and sooner or later someone will have to pay for it. At that time, it won't seem like the bargain it is. > So it doesn't cost the purchaser any more to send another packet (or > series of packets) across it - *until* the purchased capacity is > inadequate and the purchaser must pay for an upgrade in service > capacity. (Will that "next packet" then be assessed the entire cost > of the upgrade? Of course it would be silly to do that - the flip > side is that it is silly to assess zero cost to the previous packets.) >> Just because the end consumer pays a flat rate (or nothing at all in >> the case of employees) doesn't mean that a service is free. > That's right -- but leaves out the reasoning. The service costs > $$/month the added packets cost nothing *extra* (within the purchased > capacity.) > --henry schaffer > hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu ------------------------------ From: Frank@nospam.biz Subject: Re: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 14:16:15 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably not. Privacy Manager (at least > the SBC version of it, which I think the same generics most telcos are > using), only works when the caller **deliberatly** does *67 on their > call or their phone system deliberatly inserts *67 in the dialing > string. I do not know if the Sony Z-600 has any hardware on the phone > itself (or built in firmware, etc) to make it happen. PAT] SBC's Privacy Manager works both with blocked calls and calls without delivery of caller ID (i.e, "out of area" calls). So far as I know, no wireless carrier, including SBC, offers Privacy Manager as a cellular service option. The network control issues would probably be too complex with wireless. ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: 3 May 2004 21:42:06 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com moulbai@hotmail.com (David Courmanof) wrote in message news:: > Is there a way to block or on my mobile? > I have an Sony Z-600. I answer and say: "Your number is not coming thru on caller ID. Please hang up and try again." Then I hang up before they can speak. One friend using a calling card couldn't send caller ID tho. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 01:50:04 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Yes, Godaddy is a little cheaper, but they don't provide you with an email address. I prefer using ZoneEdit.com to dyndns.org. It works pretty well and you have as many subdomains on each of your accounts as you want. Up to five domain names can be used on ZoneEdit.com with no charge. Only after you exceed the bandwidth limit (which is rather high) or have more than five domain names in your account do they start charging. And their rates are really very low. I suggest you go ahed and pay the little bit of extra money and get an email account with your domain registration on Registernames. And with the arrangement described in my article, you have total control of your DNS and you domain registration. You can update and alter it at any time without any extra charge. Also, ZoneEdit.com supports dynamic IP addresses. There are a number of programs you can install on your PC that will report a change in IP address to the ZoneEdit.com server if you get a new IP address when you boot up. The program I am using on my PC for that purpose is called 'Dynamic DNS Client' and can be purchased on the Internet for a mere ten dollars. Then you can set your PC up on your cablemodem, DSL, or whatever other high speed Internet connection you might have. 73, Fred, WB4AEJ On Mon, 03 May 2004 15:44:36 GMT, William Warren wrote: > Fred Atkinson wrote in message > news:telecom23.221.13@telecom-digest.org: >> Some time back, I sent you an email asking for another link on the >> telecom-digest.org site. I never saw it up there. Did you ever see >> it? >> It's for ham radio operators, but it's IT related. And there are >> a good number of hams in the IT/telecom community. >> The name of the article is Your Own Ham Domain and the URL is (on >> my ham domain site, appropriately enough): >> http://www.wb4aej.com/hamdomain > Pat, > Fred's basically saying that ham operators can get their call sign as a > domain name. Since I'm a ham, I'll mention a couple of things hams (or > anybody, for that matter) can do. > 1. Use Godaddy: they're charging $7.95 a year for new domain right > now. If anyone knows a better price, please pass it > along. http://www.godaddy.com/. > 2. You can put your web site on your own server if you have dsl or > cable (always on) connections. You'll need a "dynamic" dns like > http://www.dyndns.org/, but that's easy to set up. You can either pay > the dns provider to handle your domain (dyndns is about $25/year), or > Godaddy will forward it for you, free, and you can get the Javascript > from Fred's site to show it as the destination when people click > in. Just be sure you know what you're doing, because it means keeping > a computer on 27/7/365, and keeping up with patches too. On the plus > side, you can assign yourself any email address you want, and then > delete it if it gets spam; this is great for those places that make > you supply an email address when you register, because you can turn > one on, get the serial number, and then never be annoyed by them > again. > 3. The ampr.org domain, which is the 44.0.0.0 network, is the ham's > "real" home, since it's for AMateur Packet Radio. Any ham can get a > free domain name that looks like http://w1aw.ampr.org/, and if you ask > nicely, they'll even put in an MX record so that email coming from the > Internet is redirected to your regular account at AOL or wherever, so > you can get email addressed to, e.g., w1aw@w1aw.ampr.org. Of course, > ampr.org is mostly for doing IP over AX.25, but they're not hard assed > about it. > 4. It's usually better to host your site on your ISP's computers, > since they do all the backups and maintenance for you. That way, you > get the best of all worlds. Most ISP's provide at least 5 MB of space > as part of your basic package, and that's more than enough for a > simple site, and you probably have an extra email address from your > ISP anyway, unless your kids already took them. > HTH. > William Warren > (Filter the noise out of my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #224 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 4 20:09:48 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4509mQ04681; Tue, 4 May 2004 20:09:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 20:09:48 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405050009.i4509mQ04681@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 #225 TELECOM Digest Tue, 4 May 2004 20:09:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 225 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Network Card Theft Causes Internet Outage (Monty Solomon) Groups Seek to Block Cingular-AT&T Wireless Deal (Monty Solomon) Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service (M Solomon) Phone Companies Gain Ground in Speedy Web Access (Monty Solomon) Nextel Launches International Walkie-Talkie Links (Monty Solomon) Re: How to Block Unknown Caller (CharlesH) Re: How to Block Unknown Caller (Scott Dorsey) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (J Kelly) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (Tony P.) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (Fred Atkinson) SMS Secure Query ("Vikram Sareen) Firewall (Pix) Not Getting IP (DHCP) on SBC DSL (jsinger986) Ip Telephony Service Provider (Karim T) GE Phone Issues (Craig) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (Wesrock) Re: Telemarketers Buy Suspicious Lists (Hank Karl) Re: Iraq/Westchester Area Code (Justin Time) Re: Internet Phone Service DOESN'T Attract Wider Use (AES/newspost) Do Modem Calls Work Over Vonage? (Mark Rejhon) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Mark Crispin) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Charles Cryderman) HDTV and Bush (Miikka Kiprusoff) Re: VoIP Analogy (Charles Cryderman) 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, 4 May 2004 14:22:39 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Network Card Theft Causes Internet Outage By Sean Gallagher, Chris Gonsalves and Craig Newell The theft of network cards from a Verizon central office in New York has caused some customers there to lose their Internet access. A handful of corporate customers were left without e-mail and Internet access Monday after the theft of networking equipment from a New York City office late Sunday. Law enforcement officials said four DS-3 cards were reported missing from a Manhattan co-location facility owned by Verizon Communications Inc. The theft at 240 E. 38th St. occurred just after 10:30 p.m. on Sunday and is being investigated by New York City Police and members of the joint terrorism task force, according to NYPD spokesman Lt. Brian Burke. The outage affected area customers of Sprint Corp., including Ziff Davis Media Inc., the publisher of eWEEK.com. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1583347,00.asp ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:09:45 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Groups Seek to Block Cingular-AT&T Wireless Deal WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - Two top U.S. consumer groups on Tuesday urged communications regulators to block Cingular Wireless' proposed purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc. (NYSE:AWE), citing concerns that it would lead to higher prices and poor service. Cingular, a joint venture of local phone companies BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS) and SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC), has agreed to buy its smaller rival for $41 billion in cash to create the largest U.S. wireless company, leapfrogging ahead of Verizon Wireless. Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to prevent the combination on the grounds that it would cut competition and consolidate too much valuable spectrum in a single company. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41251581 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:08:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service Voice-Over-IP Package First-Quarter Record Sales of Verizon Online DSL Help Fuel DSL Industry Market-Share Growth NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on momentum from a record DSL sales quarter, Verizon will spur its home broadband growth by offering an additional higher-speed DSL service to consumers this summer and by developing new service packages that include residential voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41251008 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:10:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Phone Companies Gain Ground in Speedy Web Access By Justin Hyde WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - For the first time, U.S. local telephone companies have sold more high-speed Internet connections than than cable providers, a milestone that could intensify competition and lower prices. After taking a leisurely approach to high-speed Internet access for years, phone companies now see broadband as essential to their survival, committing billions of dollars to extend their networks, market their services and offer extras like free wireless home networking gear. The four largest "Baby Bells" -- Verizon Communications Inc., (NYSE:VZ) SBC Communications Inc., (NYSE:SBC) BellSouth Corp. (NYSE:BLS) and Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q) -- added 1.05 million digital subscriber lines (DSL) during the first quarter of 2004. While some cable companies have yet to report results, analysts with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank estimate new DSL lines barely outsold new high-speed cable connections in the quarter, with a total for both of about 2.3 million. There's some desperation behind the phone companies' drive for broadband. Revenues from traditional phone service has been in decline for years, as prices fall and customers switch to wireless phones. The Baby Bells have tried to compete by bundling services but face numerous competitors. And with the rise of phone service over the Internet, customers who shut off their phone lines for cable broadband may never have a reason to turn them on again. With DSL, the Baby Bells do not have to open their service to competitors, and can sell DSL as an add-on to local service. Thanks to rising demand for high-speed Internet access, DSL has become the anchor that keeps the Baby Bells in many households. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41251601 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:11:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Nextel Launches International Walkie-Talkie Links NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Mobile service provider Nextel Communications Inc. (NASDAQ:NXTL) said on Tuesday it expanded its service to allow walkie-talkie users in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and Peru to talk with each other. The Reston, Virginia-based company said its customers can now just press a button to connect immediately with subscribers of Telus' (TSE:T) service in Canada and NII Holdings Inc.'s (NASDAQ:NIHD) customers in Latin America. Nextel has used this feature, also known as push-to-talk, to attract business clients as it reduces the few seconds delay it takes workers in transportation or construction to reach their colleagues on a standard mobile phone call. Nextel, which was the only provider of a combined walkie-talkie and mobile phone service for years, began beefing up its offer last year amid new competition from bigger U.S. rivals like Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ)(LSE:VOD) and Sprint (NYSE:FON). Latin American and European companies are also hoping to build a business clientele with push-to-talk style services. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41251613 ------------------------------ From: hoch@exemplary.invalid (CharlesH) Subject: Re: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: 4 May 2004 19:19:45 GMT Organization: http://newsguy.com In article , wrote: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Probably not. Privacy Manager (at least >> the SBC version of it, which I think the same generics most telcos are >> using), only works when the caller **deliberatly** does *67 on their >> call or their phone system deliberatly inserts *67 in the dialing >> string. I do not know if the Sony Z-600 has any hardware on the phone >> itself (or built in firmware, etc) to make it happen. PAT] > SBC's Privacy Manager works both with blocked calls and calls without > delivery of caller ID (i.e, "out of area" calls). > So far as I know, no wireless carrier, including SBC, offers Privacy > Manager as a cellular service option. The network control issues > would probably be too complex with wireless. When my SBC landline phone is forwarded to my Verizon Wireless cell phone, and SBC Privacy Manager needs to ask me how to deal with a CID-blocked call (for example, the caller spoke their name), I get the call from Privacy Manager on my cell phone, and it manages the call per my instructions just as if I were on my landline phone. ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: 4 May 2004 15:49:40 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) In article , Ray Normandeau wrote: > moulbai@hotmail.com (David Courmanof) wrote in message > news:: >> Is there a way to block or on my mobile? >> I have an Sony Z-600. > I answer and say: > "Your number is not coming thru on caller ID. Please hang up and try > again." > Then I hang up before they can speak. > One friend using a calling card couldn't send caller ID tho. Yes, and I have a number of friends on the Pembroke, Virginia Telephone Cooperative, which does not send caller ID information. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: J Kelly Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 14:02:11 -0500 Organization: http://newsguy.com Reply-To: jkelly@newsguy.com On Tue, 04 May 2004 01:50:04 GMT, Fred Atkinson wrote: > I prefer using ZoneEdit.com to dyndns.org. It works pretty well and > you have as many subdomains on each of your accounts as you want. Up > to five domain names can be used on ZoneEdit.com with no charge. Only > after you exceed the bandwidth limit (which is rather high) or have > more than five domain names in your account do they start charging. > And their rates are really very low. > I suggest you go ahed and pay the little bit of extra money and get an > email account with your domain registration on Registernames. Zoneedit can also do email forwarding to the ISP you already have. For me, that works great because my ISP has BrightMail spam filtering. You can forward as many email accounts as you want through Zoneedit, each can be forwarded to a different 'real' address if you wish. And as Fred mentioned, it is free. I've never gone over the bandwidth limit and I've been using it for 3 years for both regular DNS and for the email forwarding. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 19:37:07 GMT In article , fatkinson@mishmash.com says: > Yes, Godaddy is a little cheaper, but they don't provide you with an > email address. Actually they have several plans where they'll not only setup your MX, but your A record as well and host it on their servers. I think I was paying a little under $10 a month to host my page and had 5 or 10 email addresses under that domain. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 01:50:04 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Yes, Godaddy is a little cheaper, but they don't provide you with an email address. I prefer using ZoneEdit.com to dyndns.org. It works pretty well and you have as many subdomains on each of your accounts as you want. Up to five domain names can be used on ZoneEdit.com with no charge. Only after you exceed the bandwidth limit (which is rather high) or have more than five domain names in your account do they start charging. And their rates are really very low. I suggest you go ahed and pay the little bit of extra money and get an email account with your domain registration on Registernames. And with the arrangement described in my article, you have total control of your DNS and you domain registration. You can update and alter it at any time without any extra charge. Also, ZoneEdit.com supports dynamic IP addresses. There are a number of programs you can install on your PC that will report a change in IP address to the ZoneEdit.com server if you get a new IP address when you boot up. The program I am using on my PC for that purpose is called 'Dynamic DNS Client' and can be purchased on the Internet for a mere ten dollars. Then you can set your PC up on your cablemodem, DSL, or whatever other high speed Internet connection you might have. 73, Fred, WB4AEJ On Mon, 03 May 2004 15:44:36 GMT, William Warren wrote: > Fred Atkinson wrote in message > news:telecom23.221.13@telecom-digest.org: >> Some time back, I sent you an email asking for another link on the >> telecom-digest.org site. I never saw it up there. Did you ever see >> it? >> It's for ham radio operators, but it's IT related. And there are >> a good number of hams in the IT/telecom community. >> The name of the article is Your Own Ham Domain and the URL is (on >> my ham domain site, appropriately enough): >> http://www.wb4aej.com/hamdomain > Pat, > Fred's basically saying that ham operators can get their call sign as a > domain name. Since I'm a ham, I'll mention a couple of things hams (or > anybody, for that matter) can do. > 1. Use Godaddy: they're charging $7.95 a year for new domain right now. If > anyone knows a better price, please pass it along. http://www.godaddy.com/. > 2. You can put your web site on your own server if you have dsl or > cable (always on) connections. You'll need a "dynamic" dns like > http://www.dyndns.org/, but that's easy to set up. You can either pay > the dns provider to handle your domain (dyndns is about $25/year), or > Godaddy will forward it for you, free, and you can get the Javascript > from Fred's site to show it as the destination when people click > in. Just be sure you know what you're doing, because it means keeping > a computer on 27/7/365, and keeping up with patches too. On the plus > side, you can assign yourself any email address you want, and then > delete it if it gets spam; this is great for those places that make > you supply an email address when you register, because you can turn > one on, get the serial number, and then never be annoyed by them > again. > 3. The ampr.org domain, which is the 44.0.0.0 network, is the ham's > "real" home, since it's for AMateur Packet Radio. Any ham can get a > free domain name that looks like http://w1aw.ampr.org/, and if you ask > nicely, they'll even put in an MX record so that email coming from the > Internet is redirected to your regular account at AOL or wherever, so > you can get email addressed to, e.g., w1aw@w1aw.ampr.org. Of course, > ampr.org is mostly for doing IP over AX.25, but they're not hard assed > about it. > 4. It's usually better to host your site on your ISP's computers, > since they do all the backups and maintenance for you. That way, you > get the best of all worlds. Most ISP's provide at least 5 MB of space > as part of your basic package, and that's more than enough for a > simple site, and you probably have an extra email address from your > ISP anyway, unless your kids already took them. > HTH. > William Warren > (Filter the noise out of my address for direct replies) ------------------------------ From: Vikram Sareen Subject: SMS Secure Query Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 15:49:36 +0530 Regarding your query posted in the URL : http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/telecom-archives/TELECOM_Digest_Online/0007.html Did you get the answer? If yes, then kindly share it with me. vikRAM ------------------------------ From: jsinger986@yahoo.com (jsinger986) Subject: Firewall (Pix) Not Getting IP (DHCP) on SBC DSL Date: 4 May 2004 08:50:02 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com My Cisco Pix 501 doesn't seem to be obtaining an IP address over my SBC Yahoo DSL connection. This identical configuration has worked properly with two other dsl providers and this is the first time I haven't been able to get it to work. Everything behind the firewall is working properly (multiple machines using NAT/DHCP). The pix's outside interface won't pick up an ip address and shows the following as its IP address: IP address 127.0.0.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.255 The SBC equipment I was provided with was a Efficient Networks Speedstream 5100. Here is some info from the Pix: Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.1(1) Cisco PIX Device Manager Version 1.1(2) Hardware: PIX-501, 16 MB RAM, CPU Am5x86 133 MHz Result of PIX command: "sh int" interface ethernet0 "outside" is up, line protocol is up Hardware is i82559 ethernet, address is 0008.e317.c2a7 IP address 127.0.0.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.255 MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit half duplex 0 packets input, 0 bytes, 0 no buffer Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants 0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort 9 packets output, 5310 bytes, 0 underruns 0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets 0 babbles, 0 late collisions, 0 deferred 9 lost carrier, 0 no carrier input queue (curr/max blocks): hardware (128/128) software (0/0) output queue (curr/max blocks): hardware (0/1) software (0/1) interface ethernet1 "inside" is up, line protocol is up Hardware is i82559 ethernet, address is 0008.e317.c2a8 IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.1, subnet mask 255.255.255.0 MTU 1500 bytes, BW 10000 Kbit full duplex 482 packets input, 53478 bytes, 0 no buffer Received 100 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants 0 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 0 abort 377 packets output, 169529 bytes, 0 underruns 0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets 0 babbles, 0 late collisions, 0 deferred 0 lost carrier, 0 no carrier input queue (curr/max blocks): hardware (128/128) software (0/3) output queue (curr/max blocks): hardware (1/7) software (0/7) Result of PIX command: "sh conf" ip address outside dhcp setroute ip address inside xxx.xxx.xxx.1 255.255.255.0 ip verify reverse-path interface outside arp timeout 14400 global (outside) 1 interface nat (inside) 1 xxx.xxx.xxx.0 255.255.255.0 0 0 http xxx.xxx.xxx.0 255.255.255.0 inside Thanks! ------------------------------ From: karimatmariano@yahoo.com (Karim T) Subject: Ip Telephony Service Provider Date: 4 May 2004 08:51:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi! I live in Montreal, Canada and want to use IP telephony through an IP phone (that I can connect through a device to my regular DSL phone line, right?) Does anyone know of any service provider which offers this service? Also, I heard that I can connect my IP phone anywhere in the world, so does it really matter that I live in Montreal? (Thus, does the service provider have to be in Montreal?) Thank you. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Yes you can do that, and http://vonage.com not long ago added Canada to the list of countries they serve. It does not matter if you are in Montreal or not, but you may want to get a local area number in Montreal if that is where you are located. Ask me for a promotional coupon (month's free service) if you want to check it out. PAT] ------------------------------ From: cphite@hotmail.com (Craig) Subject: GE Phone Issues Date: 4 May 2004 09:01:53 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have a GE 24.ghz phone that's been giving me some issues; I've tried contacting service (it's made by a company called Thomson) but so far I've not been able to get through, so I'm hoping someone here can offer some suggestions ... The problems started sometime after we got our DSL service turned on at a new apartment, but I think it's the phone and not the line. Anyway ... The main issue is with the answering machine. It will hang up on people who try to leave a message more than half the time, usually right after the beep but occasionally while they're recording. Also, there have been some occasions when we'll pick up the phone to answer a call and it seems to just hang up at that point. Also, if there is a phone message and we try to listen to it, it will sometimes stop playing partway through and "Initializing..." will be displayed on the base. If I remove the handset from the cradle and try playing the same message, it works perfectly. If I put the handset back in the cradle and try to play the same message, it is interrupted as before. This is why I suspect the phone and not the line. I suspected that it might be an issue with the handset, but I've switched that -- it's one of those models with the main base and a secondary base that can be placed in another room. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I suspect it's the phone, but don't want to buy a new one if it might be a line problem. The phone company did check the line and found no problems. Thanks, Craig ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 19:38:09 EDT Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:26:21 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan wrote: >> Regulatory recovery charges typically seek to recover costs that have >> been imposed on carriers that are not figured into their standard rates, >> pursuant to provisions in tariffs or contracts that permit this. Other regulated businesses do not charge a "regulatory recovery charge." The food industry, for example, is heavily regulated from the farmer, and the farmer's suppliers, through each step of the way until the food reaches the consumer. Railroads and truck lines would be greeted with incredultiy if they tried to charge a "regulatory recovery charge." Both types of businesses are heavily regulated, particularly as to safety issues, and while they have much more freedom than before on economic and service issues, railroads in particular have to deal with the Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Railroad Administration. Would your stockbroker or your banker try to impose a "regulatory recovery charge"? Almost every business is heavily regulated. To impose a separate "regulatory recovery charge" is ridiculous. It's part of the cost of doing business. Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: Telemarketers Buy Suspicious Lists Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 12:52:06 -0400 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:32:48 GMT, Fred Atkinson wrote: > If they pretend not to know about the DNC list, then that is one > you should definitely report to the FTC. If they get enough > complaints about them, they may well take action. From the FTC's publication on the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR): "It is a violation of the Rule to substantially assist a seller or telemarketer while knowing or consciously avoiding knowing that the seller or telemarketer is violating the Rule. Thus taking deliberate steps to ensure one's own ignorance of a seller or telemarketer's Rule violations is an ineffective strategy to avoid liability." Note It's illegal for most telemarketers to call into an area code without having a copy of the DNC list, but there are some exceptions. Per the TSR: "In addition, it's against the law for a telemarketer, calling on behalf of a seller, to call any person whose number is within a given area code unless the seller has first paid the annual fee for access to the portion of the National Registry that includes numbers within that area code." > Fred > On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 10:11:02 -0500, McWebber > wrote: >> Recently I got two calls from telemarketers that ask for my name and >> when I ask how they're spelling my name they give me a misspelling >> that exists only on the old Internic, (now Network Solutions), whois >> database. I got a call yesterday, despite being on the DNC list from >> (561-338-7877 Hunter Scott Financial) a telemarketer with some >> investment scam. Played dumb when I mentioned the DNC list and thought >> all they had to do was promise not to call me again. >> McWebber >> No email replies read >> If someone tells you to forward an email to all your friends >> please forget that I'm your friend. ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Iraq/Westchester Area Code Date: 4 May 2004 12:14:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote in message news:: > wrote: >> First thank you for the excellent work with Telecom Digest. >> I have a question: In the article >> http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1396 >> that speak of with a satellite phone, a regular Iraqi cell phone >> ("Iraqnafone"), and a special CPA phone with a 914 (Westchester, NY) >> area code just to stay in touch with people. Even then, most of the >> time you can't call one type of phone from the others. >> Why would you not be able to call one from another except for lack of >> coverage perhaps? > Almost certainly political issues. Everybody has their own fiefdom. > In Nigeria, there is a government telephone system, and there is a > Shell Oil telephone system, and there are only limited interconnection > trunks between them, whick work poorly when they work. > In the US, we had a number of businesses with independant telephone > networks, like the railroads. Bell Telephone did not like > interconnecting with them, for fear people would "leak" long distance > calls through the company networks. > --scott Gee, you wouldn't be referring to SP Comm, the Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Network Telecom system by any chance would you? Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: AES/newspost Subject: Re: Internet Phone Service DOESN'T Attract Wider Use Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 13:45:09 -0700 In article , VOIP News wrote: > Internet phone service -- also known as VoIP for voice over Internet > Protocol -- has been widely available to consumers for more than a > year through small companies such as VoicePulse, Vonage and > Packet8. So far, Americans have been slow to sign on. <<<<<<<<<<<<<< I'd suggest that this is in a large part a consequence of what happened to phone services broadly following deregulation: 1) A lot of the new phone services that emerged were in one way or another scams or were offered by scammers (e.g., all the offshoots of the 900 number system, or long distance services that advertised "two hour calls only 75 cents!" -- not mentioning that if you signed up for their service 30 second calls were 75 cents also). 2) As a general proposition, quality and reliability of service deteriorated all around. 3) Compatibility also -- one new service might or might not interface with another one. 4) Stability also -- new services and vendors came, went, and disappeared. 5) In general the complexity of offerings and of dealing with "the phone system" went way up, leading to massive confusion. I'm not listing these points to argue that deregulation should not have happened, just to note that all these negative consequences of deregulation *did* happen -- and that as a consequence of that, public trust of "the phone system" has gone *way* down. Perhaps equally important, the ability of consumers to get detailed, reliable and understandable information about services offered by either old line telcos or by innovators offering new services has gone way down as a result of telco cost-cutting and innovations in automation. The phrase "phone tree Hell" entered the language; a quick Google search will show how ubiquitous it is, and how universally it's hated. Bottom line: I'm a reasonably technically savvy "early adopter" of many technologies (computers, digital cameras, PDAs, consumer GPS, even residential WiFi and DSL), and I have no problem beliving that VOIP is the future -- but at the same time I believe that many others share my attitude of total distrust and disinterest toward *any* kind of new telephone service, until it's been around and checked out by many others, for several years at least. ------------------------------ From: spamguard@marky.com (Mark Rejhon) Subject: Does Modem Calls Work Over Vonage? Date: 4 May 2004 14:02:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I am considering switching to Vonage Canada (which uses the same system as Vonage USA, including the Fax port option, etc). Right now, I use Primus TalkBroadband. At the moment, I use Magma DSL (www.magma.ca), which is a high-uptime business quality DSL provider in Ottawa that is only 17 milliseconds ping away from the TalkBroadband VoIP gateway, from my home. I successfully made a flawless 52Kbps modem connection over VoIP over TalkBroadband (Yes, 52Kbps). Because I am deaf, I require the ability to call modem and TDD phone numbers, (including Relay Services that converts typed text into voice and vice versa). Does faxes or modem calls work over Vonage (without getting a second modem phone line). Does Vonage use a lossless codec like Primus TalkBroadband does? (i.e. reliability will only be limited by quality of my ISP) Thanks, Mark Rejhon http://www.marky.com ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 14:22:53 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Mon, 3 May 2004, Gary Novosielski wrote: > "If you commit a felony in Florida, you lose your right to vote there, > and you're 'scrubbed' from the rolls. You become a non-citizen, like in > the old Soviet Union. This is not the case in most other states; it's an > uncivilized vestige of the Deep South. Hardly an unbiased article. Nothing like appealing to clueless northeast liberal prejudices about the south. "Most other states" (including northeast liberal states) also deny felons the right to vote, unless that felon goes through a fairly elaborate procedure to have civil rights restored. Besides voting, felons are also stripped of other civil rights. This includes Second Amendment rights. A middle-aged man found that out when he tried to buy a hunting rifle because of a "violent felony" on his record. The "violent felony" turned out to be a statutory rape conviction when he was 17. The "rape" had been discovered when the 17 year old "victim" became pregnant. They had subsequently been married for 35 years. The only reason why it ever got to court was that a Bible-thumping DA wasn't satisfied with a shotgun wedding. Unlike the procedure to get voting rights restored, it is almost impossible to get gun rights restored. There is a procedure in law to do that via application to the Justice Department, but the Democrats in Congress have blocked any funding for the procedure. The legal term for extinction of civil rights is "Attainder". Contrary to what the uneducated may think, attainder *does* exist in the US. The Constitutional prohibition is of a "Bill of Attainder"; that is, a law passed in the legislature or a regulation in the executive branch to extinguish a named individual's civil rights. Courts, on the other hand, are quite able to attaint. The English Parliament was quite willing to pass Bills of Attainder at the whims of the ruling monarch, and this was an abuse that the Founding Fathers wanted to prevent in the US. There's a related concept in English law called "corruption of blood" which was also significantly limited by the US Constitution; this bars an attainted person from inheriting, retaining, or transmitting any assets. In the US, corruption of blood ceases when the attainted person dies, thus his heirs can claim any assets still in his possession. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 08:52:40 -0400 Gary Novosielski whined some more: > Consider the following quote from Greg Palast, investigative reporter for > BBC Considering the BBC is one of the biggest of the media left wing I don't care what he says. As to his "quote" about the blacks I have no doubt he made that up for effect, it wouldn't be the first time the BBC made up a lie for their political purposes. You talk about the optical scan ballots not scanning correctly, well how dumb are you that you can't complete a arrow, I don't think they are qualified to vote if they can't do something that simple. And of course leave it to a BBC reported the imply that there are other problems out there without providing proof, or was it so little you chose not to provide it because it wouldn't advance your cause? But then you missed the whole point of my e-mail in the first place, "Get over it". Gore couldn't even win his own state. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 15:27:01 +0100 From: Miikka Kiprusoff Subject: HDTV and Bush Reply-To: miikka@calgaryweb.net J Kelly wrote about Re: Feds: No Analog TV by '09 on Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 17:41:47 -0500: > I find the gray bars unacceptable, black I could live with. But what > is the point when 90%+ is in 4:3 anyway. As somebody else already pointed out, the gray bars are easier on your TV than the black ones. "Unacceptable" is an absolute. Are gray bars really a deal-breaker for you? Wow. That's incredibly picky. Your figure of 90%+ is inaccurate, at least as far as the big networks are concerned. Much of their primetime lineup is now HDTV widescreen. Heck, even reruns of TV shows such as Babylon 5 (which went on the air in 1992, 14 years ago) are in widescreen. If you can't find widescreen content, then you're not looking for it. (That said, watching ABC's Saturday afternoon broadcasts of the hockey playoffs is laughable: their entire broadcast is 4:3 standard definition, but the locally-inserted commercials and promos are 16:9 widescreen. ABC should be hanging their collective heads in shame.) But more to the point: in five year's time, pretty much all first-run programming is going to be 16:9 widescreen. Sure, you can buy a 4:3 TV today and smirk at us idiots who are "wasting" precious screen real estate. But five years down the road, the situation is going to be reversed. We're going to be using every inch of our screens, while you'll be watching letterboxed content on your 4:3 set (which you had to equip with a digital-to-analog converter box), wasting several inches on the top and bottom of the screen. Enjoy your sense of superiority while you can. Then Pat chimed in with: > With NPR, however, its a bit harder to administratively get them to > shut up. 'Propoganda' is what Bush claims NPR is dishing out; I must have missed this Bush quote. You'd think it'd be a well known quote, as it's quite a controversial thing to say. Can you cite the date he claimed NPR is dishing out propaganda (note correct spelling), and which publications carried it? Or is this just another example of you inventing facts to fit your bias? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: And I must have missed reading the Digest the day I added the above quote to what began as a message on 'No Analog TV by 09'. I *did* make the statement attributed to me, but do not recall it getting in with the 'No Analog TV' thread. As I said to you in private email, I do not know the exact dates when NPR made statements Bush disagreed with, nor the instance of Bush speaking against NPR for their alleged statements, only that it was earlier this year; check the news tickers on the net or Yahoo News, etc. But as I also said to you, I will mark and remember the date (April 30/May 1) when ABC News and others broke the news about how American soldiers were abusing Iraqi prisoners of war sexually and otherwise in complete contravention of the Geneva code. All the while Bush was telling us that the Iraqi goverment was so horrible (I agree), Bush's military was busily engaged in sodomizing and otherwise humiliating Iraqi men. Bush finally (as of yesterday, Monday) owned up to it once some twenty prisoners of war told their horrible stories of getting photgraphed nude in lewd postures, and frequently raped. The Iraqi papers have been full of the news and pictures, etc for two or three days; even the very conservative news sources here in the USA have been dealing with it a lot in the past two days. It appears that the American atrocities were committed in the very same prison where Saddam Hussein had committed his, according to Bush. Now we can understand why a country that was beginning a little to calm down after the war exploded as much as it has in the past month or so. The people there are quite offended by all this. So am I; so are most decent people. I have to wonder if the American soldiers who were involved in this will be put on trial, and upon conviction be stigmatized by the very same 'sex offender' label placed on civilians who are found guilty of the same crimes. It is all very doubtful, IMO. I doubt Bush will remember this for very long, if he is allowed to forget about it. What is more amazing to me is why *Canadians* (even those in Alberta, who it is alleged feel quite strongly about conservative USA politics) can't just get the point and 'BUTT OUT' of USA affairs. Damn, you'd think *they thought* they were USA citizens. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: VoIP Analogy Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 16:04:39 -0400 Lisa Hancock wrote: "(In poor times, people would go into a cafeteria and take free hot water and ketchup to make soup." Ketchup soup was a main stay in the barracks when I was in Germany with the Army. Come to the end of the month we'd be broke (working shift we got separate rations and didn't use the mess hall) so we'd buy a bottle of ketchup and saltines, nuke some water, and there you have it, tomato soup. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #225 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 5 18:29:23 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i45MTNj15763; Wed, 5 May 2004 18:29:23 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 18:29:23 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405052229.i45MTNj15763@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 #226 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 May 2004 18:28:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 226 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson ITU Urges Caution on Pulver.com .tel Proposal (VOIP News) Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service (VOIP News) Nortel Notches Charter VoIP Deal (VOIP News) Canada's Phone Giants Face Internet Threat (VOIP News) A Broadband Broadside (VOIP News) Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators (John Smith) Re: Does Modem Calls Work Over Vonage? (DevilsPGD) Re: How to Block Unknown Caller (Steven J Sobol) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 07:58:01 -0400 Subject: ITU Urges Caution on Pulver.com .tel Proposal Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.cbronline.com/currentnews/6cc9896f426e913f80256e8b003a1f18 The International Telecommunications Union looks set to attempt to block Pulver.com Inc's attempt to have a new top-level internet domain approved that would map telephone numbers into the domain name system, for the second time. ITU secretary Yoshio Utsumi last week wrote to the Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers, urging caution before approving Pulver's .tel proposal, and any other domain that would use telephone numbers. Pulver, which provides a popular PC-to-PC voice over IP service called Free World Dialup, is proposing that ICANN approve .tel as a means to kickstart adoption of voice over IP services, letting people use regular telephone numbers online. Utsumi wrote in a letter to ICANN president Paul Twomey: "Any application for a new internet top level domain name that envisages interfacing with the global telephony addressing system merits careful consideration." The ITU is concerned because Pulver's .tel would use normal telephone numbers, which are administered by the ITU according to a numbering plan known as E.164. This plan ensures no two phone numbers in the world are the same. Full story at: http://www.cbronline.com/currentnews/6cc9896f426e913f80256e8b003a1f18 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/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VoIPnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: VoIPnews-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 21:39:45 -0400 Subject: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-04-2004/0002166780&EDATE= First-Quarter Record Sales of Verizon Online DSL Help Fuel DSL Industry Market-Share Growth NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on momentum from a record DSL sales quarter, Verizon will spur its home broadband growth by offering an additional higher-speed DSL service to consumers this summer and by developing new service packages that include residential voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services. "We've created one of the best overall values in broadband today, with content, speed, and great service at a very affordable price," said Judy Verses, senior vice president -- marketing for Verizon's Retail Markets Group. "Our sales growth shows that when consumers in the mass market think about broadband, more and more often they're choosing DSL for their high-speed connection. And we're not stopping now." Faster DSL speeds are coming this summer when Verizon Online plans to add a new, additional tier of consumer DSL service with a maximum connection speed of 3Mbps/768Kbps for qualified customers. In addition, when Verizon introduces its consumer VoIP service this quarter, the company will provide it to qualifying Verizon Online DSL customers at a discount. "Fifty-one percent of Verizon's residential customers have purchased local calling in combination with either Verizon long-distance or Verizon DSL, or both," said Verses. "Our ability to offer customers a compelling array of local, long-distance, wireless, broadband and video services is unmatched by our cable competitors. Expanding our DSL service will allow us to offer even more innovative packages that include services like voice over IP." Pricing for the higher-speed DSL service and VoIP package will be announced later. Verses said that, like all Verizon Online DSL offerings, pricing for these services will be highly competitive. This quarter Verizon Online will triple to 384Kbps the upstream speed of its basic DSL offering for qualifying customers. The price for this 1.5Mbps/384Kbps service will remain the same as the current 1.5Mbps/128Kbps service -- $34.95 a month for stand-alone service or $29.95 a month when purchased as part of a package of local and long-distance calling services. Verizon Helps Fuel DSL Market Share Growth A recent Pew Internet & American Life study shows that DSL now has a 42 percent share of the home broadband market, up from 28 percent in March 2003, and that more and more Internet-users are moving from dial-up to broadband. The study also shows that the number of DSL users at home has more than doubled since March 2003, while the number of home cable-modem users grew by less than one-quarter. Last week, Verizon announced record sales for its Verizon Online DSL business with the addition of 345,000 new high-speed Internet customers in the first quarter of 2004, representing a 46 percent year-over-year growth rate. The company now has 2.7 million DSL lines in service. Several Verizon Online initiatives during 2003 contributed to this growth. In May 2003, Verizon Online doubled the maximum connection speed of its entry-level DSL offering to 1.5Mbps/128Kbps while lowering the price of the up to 1.5Mbps service from $59.95 a month to $34.95 a month. At the same time, Verizon lowered the price of basic DSL service to $29.95 a month when purchased as part of a package of Verizon local and long-distance calling services. Also in May, Verizon launched its partnership with MSN and began offering its DSL customers the broadband-enabled content and services of MSN 8 at no additional charge. Today the MSN service has been upgraded to MSN Premium, which includes critical tools like firewalls, virus protection and parental controls. Customer satisfaction has improved. The company streamlined its do-it-yourself DSL installation kit, reducing the process to three steps and providing an online tutorial that takes customers through the process from start to finish. The company also continued to make improvements in service-provisioning and customer-care processes. In 2003 Verizon also made DSL service available to 10 million more lines. Aggressive deployment of DSL in remote terminals allowed Verizon to provide service to more households in communities where Verizon central offices are already provisioned with DSL. In 2004, the company plans to make 7 million more of its lines capable of delivering the service. A Dow 30 company, Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services, with approximately $68 billion in annual revenues. Verizon companies are the largest providers of wireline and wireless communications in the United States. Verizon is also the largest directory publisher in the world, as measured by directory titles and circulation. Verizon's international presence includes wireline and wireless communications operations and investments, primarily in the Americas and Europe. For more information, visit http://www.verizon.com. VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at http://www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases. DSL service generally is available to homes and offices located within approximately three miles of Verizon's local switching center or "central office." Some technical limitations may interfere with the ability of individual telephone lines to get DSL, even when the lines are within three miles of a DSL-equipped central office. Downstream and upstream speeds describing Verizon Online's services are maximum connection speeds between the customer's computer and Verizon's DSL equipment. Actual connection speeds may vary from the maximum speeds and may be lower than the advertised line rate. Throughput (download and upload) speeds will be lower than connection speeds and vary based on the telephone line's condition and distance from Verizon's central office, home or office wiring and the server or router speed of sites visited on the Internet, among other factors. The Pew Internet & American Life Project bears no responsibility for the interpretations presented or conclusions reached based on analysis of its data. SOURCE Verizon Web Site: http://www.verizon.com ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 17:16:03 -0400 Subject: Nortel Notches Charter VoIP Deal Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3349291 By: Ron Miller Nortel Networks extended its relationship with cable provider Charter Communications this week in a new deal to provide softswitch equipment. The agreement announced Tuesday covers Charter's Midwest and Great Lakes operating divisions and builds on a December 2002 joint partnership between the two companies. [.....] Elaine Smiles, director of cable marketing at Nortel, says Charter is moving into new territory with this agreement. "What's unique is about this is Charter's intention to use SIP (session initiation protocol) to provide multimedia services to customers," Smiles said. Full story at: http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3349291 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 02:42:59 -0400 Subject: Canada's Phone Giants Face Internet Threat Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/05/business/worldbusiness/05canada.html?ex=1084334400&en=76e6cfc68ee38c10&ei=5062 By BERNARD SIMON TORONTO, May 4 - For the first time since regulators opened Canada's telephone services to competition more than a decade ago, the giants of the industry are confronting a serious threat to their long-entrenched dominance. The threat comes chiefly from rivals offering the increasingly popular technology known as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VoIP. Their entry has ignited a vigorous debate over the future regulation of Canada's telecommunications services. The crux of the discussion is whether the upstarts in VoIP will be regulated at all, while the two closely regulated market behemoths clamor to be set free. The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, or C.R.T.C., which oversees the industry, recently began an extensive review of its policy toward Internet telephony. Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/05/business/worldbusiness/05canada.html?ex=1084334400&en=76e6cfc68ee38c10&ei=5062 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 03:05:35 -0400 Subject: A Broadband Broadside Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/05/05/a_broadband_broadside/ As DSL gains on cable in providing Net services, Verizon launches its attack By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | May 5, 2004 After years of lagging cable broadband Internet services by a consistent 2 to 1 margin, telephone companies' broadband alternative has been zooming toward parity in gaining subscribers as high-speed Net service begins to achieve mainstream adoption. And yesterday, Verizon Communications Inc. unleashed a flurry of plans to make its digital subscriber line services even more competitive with Comcast Corp. and other cable giants. The Verizon moves reflect the key role that broadband services are playing as phone and cable giants compete to win and retain customers with service bundles incorporating phone, television, wireless, and high-speed Internet services. Over the next two months, many of Verizon's 2.7 million DSL subscribers will be notified that they can request a free service upgrade tripling their upstream Net access to 384 kilobits per second from 128 now, which makes transmitting computer files much faster and can improve connections for cheap voice-over-Internet services. Download speeds for the main Verizon DSL service, which costs $34.95 a month by itself or $29.95 combined with local and long-distance telephone, will remain capped at 1.5 megabits, and new customers will automatically get the new 384 kilobit service. This summer, Verizon will launch DSL with downstream connections at up to 3 megabits per second -- matching Comcast cable modems -- at a yet-to-be-revealed price. Judy Verses, a Verizon senior vice president for marketing, said the price for the 3-megabit DSL will be "very competitive" with cable companies such as Comcast, which charge $42.95 a month for broadband for subscribers also buying TV or phone service, and $57.95 for those taking cable modems as a stand-alone. And by year's end, Verses said, Verizon plans to: Upgrade 7 million more phone lines to support DSL, including millions in rural areas where Verizon will use new technology that extends DSL availability beyond the current limit, which is generally a zone within three miles of a Verizon switching station. Verizon added DSL coverage to 10 million phone lines last year to make the service available to over 80 percent of its phone customers. Offer a reduced-price voice-over-Internet service to compete with companies such as Vonage and BroadVoice and AT&T's new CallVantage service, which offer unlimited calls for $20 to $40 per month. And deploy so-called naked DSL, which enables people to get a DSL connection without also having to buy local phone service from Verizon, so they can use a VOIP phone connection instead of more expensive conventional local phone service. Full story at: http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/05/05/a_broadband_broadside/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 03:14:38 -0400 Subject: AT&T Chief David Dorman, on Call of the Net Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2004/05/02/qa_att_chief_david_dorman_on_call_of_the_net/ Using Internet technologies to make phone calls got a huge endorsement last week when industry icon AT&T Corp. rolled out its 'voice over Internet protocol' service, called CallVantage in Greater Boston, offering unlimited local and long distance calls for $35 a month over a broadband Internet connection. AT&T chief executive David W. Dorman spoke with Globe telecommunications reporter Peter J. Howe. Q. Was there a 'Come here, Watson!' moment when you decided that voice over IP was finally a good enough technology to carry the AT&T brand? A. The epiphany for me came when Hossein Eslamblochi, our chief technology officer, and I were having dinner last fall. He said the ability to manage a stream of voice packets in a very elegant fashion and provide voice over IP in a very-high-quality way is quickly becoming a reality. My question was, if that's true, how quickly can we get there, and what are the impediments for a broadbased deployment? After looking at that for the next several days we concluded that, gosh, this is a moment in time that we just can't miss. Full story at: http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2004/05/02/qa_att_chief_david_dorman_on_call_of_the_net/ ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: A Link of Interest to Ham Radio Operators Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 22:24:09 GMT Fred Atkinson wrote: > Yes, Godaddy is a little cheaper, but they don't provide you with an > email address. They don't provide you with server space or SMTP servers, but they certainly provide e-mail address forwarding from your owned domain name, including specific e-mail addresses and one "catch all" address, each of which can be forwarded to a different "real" e-mail address. I'm not sure how many you get, but I'm showing a capacity of 300 and I own three domain names, so it may be 100 addresses per name, or 300 per customer, I don't know. Apparently I could use all 300 on one domain, however. There's no extra charge for them, they're just automatically "there". ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Does Modem Calls Work Over Vonage? Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 00:26:02 GMT In message <> spamguard@marky.com (Mark Rejhon) did ramble: > I am considering switching to Vonage Canada (which uses the same > system as Vonage USA, including the Fax port option, etc). Right > now, I use Primus TalkBroadband. > At the moment, I use Magma DSL (www.magma.ca), which is a high-uptime > business quality DSL provider in Ottawa that is only 17 milliseconds > ping away from the TalkBroadband VoIP gateway, from my home. I > successfully made a flawless 52Kbps modem connection over VoIP over > TalkBroadband (Yes, 52Kbps). > Because I am deaf, I require the ability to call modem and TDD phone > numbers, (including Relay Services that converts typed text into voice > and vice versa). > Does faxes or modem calls work over Vonage (without getting a second > modem phone line). Does Vonage use a lossless codec like Primus > TalkBroadband does? (i.e. reliability will only be limited by quality > of my ISP) Faxes are supported over Vonage ... Try dialing *99 first. In general, slower modem connections will work. Higher speed ones will sometimes work, but will rarely be stable for an extended period of time due to internet latency. Tired of telemarketers? This little script will get you off their list ... Are you wearing boxers or briefs? It's important, because boxers are the work of Satan, and I can't talk to you if you're a minion of Satan. Are you a minion of Satan? ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: How to Block Unknown Caller Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 21:04:24 -0500 CharlesH wrote: > When my SBC landline phone is forwarded to my Verizon Wireless cell > phone, and SBC Privacy Manager needs to ask me how to deal with a > CID-blocked call (for example, the caller spoke their name), I get the > call from Privacy Manager on my cell phone, and it manages the call > per my instructions just as if I were on my landline phone. And SBC Privacy Manager sends a number on Caller ID, and as far as I know it's a unique number -- when I had the service, screened calls would always come from 216-830-something_or_other (I forget the number, but it was always the same). You can take advantage of that if your cellular handset supports different ringers for specific phone numbers. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #226 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 5 19:37:29 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i45NbTA16483; Wed, 5 May 2004 19:37:29 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 19:37:29 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405052337.i45NbTA16483@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 #227 TELECOM Digest Wed, 5 May 2004 19:36:28 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 227 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: GE Phone Issues (Tony P.) Data Validation and Certification Server Protocols (Majeri, M.I.) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban UnFees Part of Larger Backlash (Mike D. Sullivan) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban UnFees Part of Larger Backlash (Gary Novosielski) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Lisa Hancock) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Gary Novosielski) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (John Smith) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Tony P. Subject: Re: GE Phone Issues Organization: ATCC Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 05:18:43 GMT In article , cphite@hotmail.com says: > I have a GE 24.ghz phone that's been giving me some issues; I've tried > contacting service (it's made by a company called Thomson) but so far I've > not been able to get through, so I'm hoping someone here can offer some > suggestions ... Welcome to the world of Thompson Electronics, by far the crappiest electronic gear out there. I've got a 4 year old GE television that's starting to red out. But then, my other gripe is my RS 900MHz phone that supposedly understands CLID on CW. But I don't CLID on CW - and listening on a regular phone I don't hear the data stream and I should. Verizon has been unable to figure out the problem. > The problems started sometime after we got our DSL service turned on > at a new apartment, but I think it's the phone and not the line. > Anyway ... > The main issue is with the answering machine. It will hang up on > people who try to leave a message more than half the time, usually > right after the beep but occasionally while they're recording. Also, > there have been some occasions when we'll pick up the phone to answer > a call and it seems to just hang up at that point. Sounds like the volume level is low. You've got DSL so your loop length is more than likely < 15K feet. Might be a bad phone. > Also, if there is a phone message and we try to listen to it, it will > sometimes stop playing partway through and "Initializing..." will be > displayed on the base. If I remove the handset from the cradle and > try playing the same message, it works perfectly. If I put the > handset back in the cradle and try to play the same message, it is > interrupted as before. This is why I suspect the phone and not the > line. Yes, it's sounding more and more like a bad handset. It looses sync with the base too often. > I suspected that it might be an issue with the handset, but I've > switched that -- it's one of those models with the main base and a > secondary base that can be placed in another room. > Any suggestions would be appreciated. I suspect it's the phone, but > don't want to buy a new one if it might be a line problem. The phone > company did check the line and found no problems. Out of curiosity, you're not by chance running a wireless network are you? They sit right on the 2.4GHz band where phones do. Talk about a problem just waiting to happen. ------------------------------ Subject: Data Validation and Certification Server Protocols Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 15:03:20 +0200 From: Majeri, M.I. I am trying to write a summary report about "Data Validation and Certification Server Protocols". I was wondering if it could be possible that you provide me with some useful informations to help me in my task ? I look forward to hearing from you. Best regards, IKBAL ------------------------------ From: Michael D. Sullivan Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 06:28:37 GMT In article , Wesrock@aol.com says: > On Fri, 30 Apr 2004 05:26:21 GMT, Michael D. Sullivan > wrote: >>> Regulatory recovery charges typically seek to recover costs that have >>> been imposed on carriers that are not figured into their standard rates, >>> pursuant to provisions in tariffs or contracts that permit this. > Other regulated businesses do not charge a "regulatory recovery > charge." The food industry, for example, is heavily regulated from > the farmer, and the farmer's suppliers, through each step of the way > until the food reaches the consumer. > Railroads and truck lines would be greeted with incredultiy if > they tried to charge a "regulatory recovery charge." Both types of > businesses are heavily regulated, particularly as to safety issues, > and while they have much more freedom than before on economic and > service issues, railroads in particular have to deal with the Surface > Transportation Board and the Federal Railroad Administration. Looked at your gas or electric bill lately? An airline ticket? All of these pass through to the end-user various government "fees," "charges," and "taxes" that are levied on the provider. How about a car rental? A 1-week rental with a base rate of, say, $300, ends up being about $500 when all of the mandatory line items (gross receipts taxes levied on the provider, airport surcharge, etc.) are added on -- and this is before the CDW and similar charges are computed. The big difference between RR/Truck and telecom companies is that the RR and trucking companies are not assessed separate charges by regulators based on their customers' usage to, for example, subsdize the construction of loading docks for schools, libraries, or hospitals or to subsidize rural area delivery services or rural track-laying. That's what USF, in effect, does: it subsidizes services and facilities unrelated to the telecom carrier who is required to pay (internet wiring of schools and libraries and broadband access for rural healthcare). Moreover, wireless carriers have had to lay out significant dollars to make it easier for customers to desert their service (wireless number portability). Is there some reason this ought to come out of the carriers' profits, if any (or increase their losses), instead of coming from the pockets of the customers who now have the ability to port their numbers? And what about the fees or taxes imposed by state regulators on wireless carriers' gross receipts to fund upgrades to emergency centers' ablility to respond to E911 calls? Should the carrier internalize these costs, too, by taking them out of earnings as a cost of doing business? What if the state diverts the funds collected to fix up state trooper barracks (as happened in NY)? It seems to me that these are external costs that the carrier is entitled to pass through to the consumer. If the state doesn't follow through on the purpose of the assessment, it seems to me, consumers should be pissed at the state, not the carrier who jacked up their rates. > Would your stockbroker or your banker try to impose a > "regulatory recovery charge"? Actually, yes. I have gotten confirmations from Merrill Lynch, Citibank Smith Barney, and E*Trade with line items next to the commission for SEC Fee or the like. Not on every one, just some. No explanation. > Almost every business is heavily regulated. To impose a > separate "regulatory recovery charge" is ridiculous. It's part of the > cost of doing business. I don't suppose you pay the costs imposed on the oil companies to support the highway trust fund, known as the gasoline tax. And then there's the sales tax. It should just be a cost of doing business, you would think. I also suppose that when you go to the auto dealer's service department, you take exception to the 10-15% "shop supplies" or similar charge and the dollar- or percentage-based recycling charge for used oil and fluid disposal? Michael D. Sullivan Bethesda, MD, USA Delete nospam from my address and it won't work. ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 07:02:39 GMT Wesrock@aol.com wrote: The Regulatory Recovery Charge is important to do away with on principle, before the telcos get the idea of expanding these "recovery charges" into other areas for which they failed to properly plan. Imagine the cost to consumers if they ever decided to pass on a management malfeasance recovery charge, for instance. You can probably think of others. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: 4 May 2004 15:26:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Gary Novosielski wrote > If you commit a felony in Florida, you lose your right to vote there, > and you're 'scrubbed' from the rolls. You become a non-citizen, like in > the old Soviet Union. This is not the case in most other states; it's an > uncivilized vestige of the Deep South. I need to correct an inaccuracy in the above post. In _many_ states (if not most), you lose your right to vote upon conviction of a felony crime. This is by no means just Florida or southern states. The use of the comparison phrase "like in the old Soviet Union" suggests the writer is using propaganda, not facts. It is also not accurate. In the Soviet Union, those declared non-citizens disappeared, that is, were shot in the head and buried in a mass grave, or sent out to slave labor camps. FWIW, many people in the news media painstakingly recounted by hand the ballots and found that Bush won by a very small margin. Apparently it is easier to blame Bush and the Repubs for the outcome rather than perhaps the Dems not working harder to get out the vote, designing a confusing ballot, and getting Nader out of the race. Had Nader been out, Gore would've easily won. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My question is for *what period of time* does a 'convicted felon' lose the right to vote or his other rights? Is it for some number of years, or forever, or? If it is forever then it would appear to me that as more and more American citizens get convicted of rather petty (yet, feloneous) acts such as minor drug things -- a very popular type of police 'bust' then fewer and fewer people would be eligible to vote. Prisons are overloaded with people convicted on drug charges. Don't any of them ever get to vote again? And what happens to someone situated like this who goes ahead and votes in an election anyway? Is that still another felony he committed? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 06:51:41 GMT Mark Crispin wrote: > Hardly an unbiased article. Nothing like appealing to clueless northeast > liberal prejudices about the south. > "Most other states" (including northeast liberal states) also deny felons > the right to vote, unless that felon goes through a fairly elaborate > procedure to have civil rights restored. Be that as it may, you've missed the point of the article. A follow-up test showed that over 90% of the people on the so-called "felons" list were NOT actually guilty of ANY crime whatsoever. They were improperly deprived of their right to vote, and the primary selection criterion for doing so appeared to be their race. Since blacks voted overwhelmingly for Gore where their votes WERE counted, any strategy designed to depress turnout, eligibility, or counting of ballots in predominantly black districts would act to benefit Bush. If not for these fraudulent activities by Jeb and Kathleen, George would have lost Florida by thousands to tens of thousands of votes. =Gary [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, many of that 90 percent were 'guilty' of being black, weren't they, and probably some police officer somewhere took a dislike to them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: John Smith Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Wed, 05 May 2004 07:13:54 GMT Charles Cryderman wrote: > You talk about the optical scan ballots not scanning correctly, well > how dumb are you that you can't complete a arrow, I don't think they > are qualified to vote if they can't do something that simple. It's not an arrow, it's a circle or other small mark. The ballots looked perfectly fine to the researchers who checked them, but were marked "spoiled" allegedly because the machine could not read them. You assumed that the ballots were actually marked incorrectly, and you assumed it was due to stupidity. And when you're done assuming all that without any apparent basis, you turn around and say that I've provided no proof? Of what earthly use would proof be to someone with that many preconceptions. > And of course leave it to a BBC reported the imply that there are > other problems out there without providing proof, or was it so > little you chose not to provide it because it wouldn't advance your > cause? No, I didn't provide it because I'm not the one who wrote the book. If you want the full details and footnotes, visit your library. ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #227 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 6 17:09:46 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i46L9kn26308; Thu, 6 May 2004 17:09:46 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 17:09:46 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405062109.i46L9kn26308@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 #228 TELECOM Digest Thu, 6 May 2004 17:09:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 228 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Pulver.com Announces Inaugural VON Canada (VOIP News) Africa Can Only Gain From Legalising VOIP (VOIP News) Phone Service Of The Future Saves Money (VOIP News) Free World Dialup Now Supports Asterisk (VOIP News) Vonage (John Jones) Blackberry Won't Delete Web Email (Brent Wheeler) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Gary Novosielski) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Michael Chance) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Charles Cryderman) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Lou Jahn) Re: HDTV and Bush (Gene S. Berkowitz) Re: Important (verification) (Clive) Hopefully, Last Word on Voting Democratic/Republican (Charles Cryderman) Newspaper Promotes Nonsense on Guns (alan@gunlaws.com) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 10:25:02 -0400 Subject: Pulver.com Announces Inaugural VON Canada Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-06-2004/0002168662&EDATE= Skype Speaks: CEO Niklas Zennstrom to Deliver First Ever North America Speech in Conference Keynote MELVILLE, N.Y., May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Pulver.com announces that the inaugural VON Canada 2004, the premier global Conference series bringing together key executives and thought leaders from the IP Communications and VoIP industry, will take place May 18th-20th in Toronto, Canada at the Markham Conference Centre. IP Communications, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in particular, has emerged as the most pressing telecom issue in Canada this year. VON Canada 2004 (http://www.voncanada.com) provides the ideal venue for stakeholders to gather together to discuss, explore and debate the critical issues impacting the Canadian IP Communications industry today, and developments that will shape the industry going forward. According to a study released last year by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada ranks third in the world with just over 11 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants. Because the Canadian market is ripe for innovation that can capitalize on high broadband penetration, it is not surprising that the VoIP industry has received increased attention from regulators, traditional phone service providers, cable companies, investors and government officials in Canada. This year's Conference will examine the industry's pressing issues, showcase new products and services, and enable participants to hear from the industry leaders, regulators and key decision-makers shaping VoIP's future. Featured speakers include: * Niklas Zennstrom, CEO, Skype (First North America Speech) * Dr. Robert Pepper, Chief of Policy Development, Federal Communications Commission * John Yoakum, Emerging Opportunities, Nortel Networks * Lawson Hunter, Executive Vice President, Bell Canada & Bell Canada Emergis * Eugene Romans, CTO, Bell Canada * Jeff Pulver, CEO, Pulver.com * Peter Briscoe, CEO, Convedia * Girish Pathak, Chief Customer Strategist, Telus * David Cork, COO, Natural Convergence VON Canada 2004 will examine the most critical and thought-provoking issues facing the IP Communications industry today, including: * The VoIP Regulatory Climate in Canada * VoIP in the Enterprise * VoIP for Call Centers * Canadian VoIP Venture Capital * The Roll Out of Consumer Voice Services * VoIP Implications for Social Policy * SIP Standards * The Future of VoIP in Canada The VON exhibit hall will feature companies demonstrating the best of what the industry has to offer. For additional Conference information on attendee registration, accommodations, directions, sponsoring and exhibiting, please visit http://www.voncanada.com About VON Conferences Today, expected attendance at the United States VON's, held in the fall and spring, reaches over 2,000. Additional VONs are held in Europe and Canada as well. Attendees include leading technologists and business people from major telephone and networking companies, as well as small Internet start-ups. Hundreds of speakers and exhibitors complement registered delegates to establish a vibrant atmosphere of networking and learning. Jeff proudly proclaims a zero "walking-dead" index -- in other words, everybody you encounter will be a potential supplier, customer, partner, or competitor. This is a focused industry conference, not a flashy show for disinterested outsiders. About Pulver.com Jeff Pulver is the President and CEO of pulver.com, and one of the true pioneers of the Internet telephony/VoIP industry. Mr. Pulver is a globally renowned thought leader, author and entrepreneur. He is the publisher of The Pulver Report and VON magazine, and creator of the industry standard Voice on the Net (VON) conferences. Additionally, Mr. Pulver is the founder of Free World Dialup (FWD), the VON coalition, LibreTel, WHP Wireless, pulverinnovations, Digisip, and is the co-founder of VoIP provider, Vonage. Recently, Mr. Pulver's petition for clarification declaring Free World Dialup as an unregulated information service was granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This landmark decision by the FCC, now referred to as "the Pulver decision", was the first decision made by the FCC on IP communications, and provides important clarification that computer-to- computer VoIP service is not a telecommunications service. SOURCE pulver.com Web Site: http://www.voncanada.com http://www.pulver.com ---------------------------------------- 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: VOIP News Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 10:23:14 -0400 Subject: Africa Can Only Gain From Legalising VOIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2004/0405061007.asp?A=AFN&S=All%20Africa%20News&O=FPT BY RODNEY WEIDEMANN, ITWEB TELECOMS EDITOR [Cairo | ITWeb, 6 May 2004] - Africa only stands to gain through the legalisation of voice over IP (VoIP) technology, as it can allow developing nations to 'leapfrog' to the forefront of the telecommun- ications market. This is the view of Dan Powdermaker, senior VP for worldwide sales at iBasis, a VOIP provider, addressing delegates at the ITU Telecom Africa 2004 conference in Cairo. He said there are numerous myths surrounding the concept of VOIP, such as that it is an idea that does not work, it is a technology that can be blocked and it is designed to aid new entrants into the telecoms market, while hurting incumbent operators. Full story at: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/telecoms/2004/0405061007.asp?A=AFN&S=All%20Africa%20News&O=FPT ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 11:18:21 -0400 Subject: Phone Service Of The Future Saves Money Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.theksbwchannel.com/money/3269527/detail.html Consumers Need Broadband Connection, Special Adaptor SALINAS, Calif. -- How would you like to have several phone numbers linked to your home phone, all with different area codes? Or how would you like to be able to get your home calls wherever you go? It's all possible, thanks to the phone service of the future -- and the future is here. Charlie Roffe recently switched to using a broadband Internet connection to talk on the phone. "The quality of the sound is great. Most people have not been able to tell that there's a difference," Roffe said. The Internet phone service, which is officially called Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, has been around for a while, but consumers used to have to use a computer to talk. Now that consumers can use their ordinary handset, experts say VOIP is about to burst onto the scene. "It is the communications technology for the next century. So, buckle your seat belts because you're going to have access to technologies, and they're going to blow you away," said telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan. Full story at: http://www.theksbwchannel.com/money/3269527/detail.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 11:55:43 -0400 Subject: Free World Dialup Now Supports Asterisk Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com This is from The Jeff Pulver Blog at http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/ These days user of real-time communication networks including Free World Dialup are at times still challenged when needing to traverse some home NATs and Firewalls. Last year the FWD team started work on supporting protocols in addition to SIP and I'm happy to announce that we are formally supporting the Inter-Asterisk eXchange Protocol (version 2) - IAX2 on the FWD Network. This is in addition to our "experimental" peering support of both H.323 and Cisco Call Manager. We have found that there are times that IAX2 is able to traverse NATs and Firewalls better than SIP. In fact, Free World Dialup now encourages all members who are using Asterisk to connect with FWD using our IAX2 proxy. Details regarding the FWD/IAX support is available on the FWD website. After subscribing to this new feature, Asterisk users can use their FWD number and password to register their asterisk service and connect with any FWD number. Posted by jeff at 05:13 AM ------------------------------ From: John Jones Subject: Vonage Questions Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 11:34:28 -0400 I am considering switching to Vonage from SBC. I would like your advice on the matter. I have a WideOpenWest 4Gbs connection with an SMC 7004ABR Router. My connection is lightly used (I stress lightly). I am in the 614 area code. What type of service can I expect from Vonage? I have heard about no dial tones, poor sound quality (duplexing), etc. Do you recommend switching? Thanks, John T. Jones 2003 National Dean's List Honoree "Talent does what it can; Genius does what it must" -- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, bearing in mind that I am possibly a little prejudiced (I do not think so, but I am sure that some readers would say I am), I would suggest that Vonage would be a good thing for you to try. Its not a 'typical phone service' in the sense you call the company, they turn it on, install it and your only 'obligation' is to pay the bill each month and otherwise bitch and moan about the cost, the rules and regulations, etc. It greatly helps if you have some knowledge about computers, networking and stuff like that. The 'no dial tone' problems generally occur when vonage.com is unable to 'see your box' becaause of firewalls, network congestion, etc. 'Poor sound quality' is nearly always a bandwidth issue, and the newer style Vonage adapters (they are now giving out Motorola MTA adapters instead of the older style Cisco ATA-186 boxes) to cure most of that. My suggestion is DO NOT give up your SBC service, at least not at first. Have it available; run SBC and Vonage in parallel until you are satisfied. You can get Vonage (the adapter and first month of service paid in advance) for a hundred dollars or less. Plug it in, try it and fine tune it as needed for your own network. Then, whatever type of service package you bought (prices range from $14.99 per month to around $50 per month; whatever you need) you can get the **second month of service** completely free with an e-coupon. (Ask me). After two months you should have been able to make your mind up. PAT] ------------------------------ From: mrbrent62@yahoo.com (Brent Wheeler) Subject: Blackberry Won't Delete Web Email Date: 6 May 2004 09:05:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I wonder if anyone has heard of this or maybe has a fix. There are two people in my company who use Blackberry's for their email. One's provider is T-Mobile the other is Cingular. When they get an email on their Blackberry and delete it, it doesn't delete from their web in-box through the provider. They have to go online from a PC and delete the messages. Shouldn't the message delete from the web-client if they delete on the Blackberry. The mailbox ends up filling up. We have another user with a Blackberry minus the built-in phone and his works fine. T-mobile says it's Groupwise which is our email here at work. Any help would be appreciated C. Brent Wheeler BPJ ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 04:35:02 GMT Lisa Hancock wrote: > FWIW, many people in the news media painstakingly recounted by hand > the ballots and found that Bush won by a very small margin. INWM. I'm curious about how could they count ballots which were never cast. The tens of thousands of predominantly black law abiding citizens on the scrub list had been denied the right to vote, remember? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way I read that, they were not denied the right (in the first place) to approach the ballot box and cast their vote; but rather, in a regular, routine audit of the voters who appeared to cast votes, they were disqualified later on the basis of their alleged felony crimes. Did I get that wrong? PAT] ------------------------------ From: Michael Chance Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 09:15:26 GMT John Smith wrote: > No, [Bush] was appointed by the Supreme Court when the election fraud > perpetrated by his brother Jeb began to unravel, and time was of the > essense. You know, it continues to amaze me that somehow the facts that: 1) A Democrat designed the infamous "butterfly ballot" that supposedly cost Gore votes; 2) Several counties with high African-American populations had a disproportionately high number of voters turned away by election authorities controlled by Democrats; 3) In many of the same counties, sheriffs departments headed by elected Democrats were reported to have intimidated minority voters into not voting; 4) lawyers for Democrat candidate Al Gore succeeded in disqualifying hundreds of absentee military votes (which were cast predominantly for George W. Bush); 5) the Voters News Service announced an hour before the polls closed in the western panhandle part of Florida that Gore had won Florida, depressing the predominantly Republican vote in that part of the state; are evidence of a *Republican* conspiracy to steal the election for Bush. But, of course, none of this discussion is telecom related. Michael Chance [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are right, none of it is telecom- related, which is the reason for our existence here, so as much fun as this discussion has been, I really need to close it down, after maybe another day. Meanwhile, a couple more last minute thoughts from some readers on the same topic will follow. Regards your point number 5 above on announcements being made while polls are still open, the east coast people have messed up the west coast voters like that for years. At least now the news services do not announce at 6 PM *Eastern time* the purported winners and screw the west coast people out of three hours of voting time. I've heard of plans that could eliminate the time differences entirely, by adjusting the times of polls open/closed such as opening/closing east coast polling places three hours later i.e. open 9 to 9 while west coast places were open 6 to 6 so they would all open and close in a contemporaneous fashion. Or maybe split the difference by two hours, and having Alaska and Hawaii start at midnight and close at noon. Guam and the Pacific Trust area would vote on *Monday* instead of Tuesday. Then unless the news services wanted to use the Hawaii and Pacific Trust areas as their predictions of winners, they would just have to cool their heels and wait until the others closed **at the same time**. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 10:54:16 -0400 Master Pat, our esteemed moderator asked: > My question is for *what period of time* does a 'convicted felon' > lose the right to vote or his other rights? Is it for some number of > years, or forever, or? If it is forever then it would appear to me > that as more and more American citizens get convicted of rather > petty (yet, felonious) acts such as minor drug things -- a very > popular type of police 'bust' then fewer and fewer people would be > eligible to vote. Prisons are overloaded with people convicted on > drug charges. Don't any of them ever get to vote again? And what > happens to someone situated like this who goes ahead and votes in an > election anyway? Is that still another felony he committed?" Pat, This is decided by each state by law. Here in Michigan you lose your right to vote after being convicted of a felony and are serving time. Once you are out of jail or prison your right to vote is fully restored. I believe this is as it should be. If there was a attempt to restrict voter rights more then that I don't think they could get any further then maybe adding the time you are on parole or probation. Michigan is a strong "voter's right" state and I plan to do my best to make it that way. Now some other states take away the right with a "venting process" that is dang near impossible to meet. That is wrong. Chip!!! ------------------------------ From: Lou Jahn Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 21:31:46 -0400 Organization: Info Partners Corp. In V23#227: Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way Gary Novosielski wrote responding to Mark Crispin: > Since blacks voted overwhelmingly for Gore where their votes WERE > counted, any strategy designed to depress turnout, eligibility, or > counting of ballots in predominantly black districts would act to > benefit Bush. If not for these fraudulent activities by Jeb and > Kathleen, George would have lost Florida by thousands to tens of > thousands of votes. Obviously Gary does not let facts get in the way of his argument. Is good that history recorded the true facts: 1) The voting registration and voting procedures in four major districts having voter problems were managed by Democrats. 2) The four counties had 2 recounts by November 8, 2000, with President Bush still winning. 3) If Gore's campaign had asked for a total Florida "manual" recount (of all 67 counties) rather than their request for only four counties to be recounted in an attempt to "pick and choose" selective districts they expected to be favorable to his cause, he would have had a legitimate and legal recount. 4) When the Florida Supreme Court violated their own Florida law on granting selective versus total recounts, and allowed the four recounts to proceed without establishing an overall standard of measurement, they effectively created "new voting law" for those four districts. This rightfully opened the Republican suit to the Federal Supreme Court, asking them to stop the Florida Supreme from making "new voting law". So while the Democrats in "charge of the four districts" in effect blew the voting process, that was then mis-managed by the Gore team in not asked for a full recount, where and how did the Republicans do anything wrong? If Gore was not smart enough to manage a simple recount based on established law, how could he have ever managed the countries business? I suggest it is time for many people to get on with their lives! Lou Jahn ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: HDTV and Bush Date: Wed, 5 May 2004 22:46:52 -0400 In article , miikka@calgaryweb.net says: > But more to the point: in five year's time, pretty much all first-run > programming is going to be 16:9 widescreen. Sure, you can buy a 4:3 TV > today and smirk at us idiots who are "wasting" precious screen real > estate. But five years down the road, the situation is going to be > reversed. We're going to be using every inch of our screens, while > you'll be watching letterboxed content on your 4:3 set (which you had to > equip with a digital-to-analog converter box), wasting several inches on > the top and bottom of the screen. Enjoy your sense of superiority while > you can. Actually, no. In five years time, I'll be watching 16:9 content on a _new_ monitor, which, thanks to advances in technology and stiff competition among the set manufacturers, will cost 30-50% less, will be intelligent enough to discern 4:3 from 16:9 content automatically, will have improved power management to preserve pixels not used when displaying 4:3 content, have better interpolation algorithms so that old NTSC doesn't look like it's being viewed through a radiator grille, will incorporate the CableCard standard so no set-top box is required, and will have Tivo-like DVR functionality built in. And I will have to thank the early adopters for making it all possible, by paying too much today. --Gene ------------------------------ From: Clive Reply-To: Clive Subject: Important (Verification) Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 07:54:01 -0700 Clive here, I'm protecting myself from receiving junk mail. Just this once, click the link below so I can receive your emails. You won't have to do this again. http://spamarrest.com/a2?ZGp2ZQZjZGcjqT93oaAioxOgLKAmnKZhoTAmYz1cqP5yMUHj Spam Arrest - Take control of your inbox! http://spamarrest.com/affl?1760301 You are receiving this message in response to your email to Clive, a Spam Arrest customer. Spam Arrest requests that senders verify themselves before their email is delivered. When you click the above link, you will be taken to a page with a graphic on it. Simply read the word in the graphic, type it into the form, and you're verified. You will only need to do this once per Spam Arrest customer. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My problem, Clive, is in typing in such a huge, ugly URL or cut and paste, etc when I am working with a *text-based* journal. Yes, I could easily forward this message to my personal account and then yes, the link for me to click on would stand out and I could just click on it, but I am afraid your Spam Arrest would then white list or authorize 'Patrick Townson' at my personal cableone.net address instead of 'TELECOM Digest' or 'editor@telecom-digest.org' and I do not think that is what you want to do. On the other hand, in the process of getting sent out, this Digest is also run through a pseudo 'HTML on the fly' sort of thing called 'TELECOM Digest Online' on our web page. So in a few minutes I will go by there, and click on the link at that point. Presuming your Spam Arrest only looks at what response is typed to the graphics then I should be all set. If that is true -- that only an answer to a graphic matters, and Spam Arrest pays no attention to the actual site of the 'sender' of the message, then we are all set. On the other hand, so is everyone else around here who can read English and respond, including the more advanced and sophisticated among the Spammer species. That 'click on this link and respond to this graphic' thing should get quite a workout when this message goes out. I hope they are all the responses you want. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: The Last Word, Hopefully, on Voting like a Republican in Florida Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 11:00:07 -0400 John Smith (real name?, just kidding) replied to me: > It's not an arrow, it's a circle or other small mark. The ballots looked > perfectly fine to the researchers who checked them, but were marked > "spoiled" allegedly because the machine could not read them. You assumed > that the ballots were actually marked incorrectly, and you assumed it was > due to stupidity. And when you're done assuming all that without any > apparent basis, you turn around and say that I've provided no proof? Of > what earthly use would proof be to someone with that many preconceptions. As I told you in my private e-mail, I have only used the arrows and never seen the dots. But again, if you can't fill in a dot there should be question raised about your competency. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 13:03:00 -0400 From: alan@gunlaws.com Subject: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense The story, "Dad, Teen Track Gun Use" reaches unsupported conclusions, but gets front-page coverage anyway. By Alan Korwin, Author Gun Laws of America In a nutshell: An ASU professor and his young son counted some newspaper stories on gun use, and from this concluded that guns are rarely used in self defense. The results of this "research" appeared on the front page of "The Tribune" (Arizona) and is being published in the Canadian journal "Injury Prevention." The results, declared scientific by the professor, were said to cast doubt on a famous scholarly study (Kleck, 1995) that found guns are used constantly in self defense. The father and son conclude that perhaps guns should be sold, "without bullets." My open letter to Prof. Fabricius (and ASU leaders, the newspaper brass and the journal editor) appears below. The original story appears at the end for reference, after some devastating remarks exchanged candidly by the reporter, another contact at "The Tribune," and myself. Alan. May 6, 2004 From: BLOOMFIELD PRESS 4718 E. Cactus #440 Phoenix, AZ 85032 gunlaws.com Office 602-996-4020 Fax 602-494-0679 Sales 1-800-707-4020 To: Associate Professor William Fabricius Dept. of Psychology Arizona State University P.O. Box 871104 Tempe, AZ 85287-1104 Dear Professor Fabricius, I was dismayed to read the recent story in "The Tribune" about you, your son, and your tabulation of old newspaper stories, presented as a scientific study of guns used in self defense in America. It's hard to believe that no one in the editing chain saw the obvious errors in the tale, "Teen, Dad Track Gun Use" (4/8/04). I'm sorry to inform you that you have merely tracked the story selection choices of the newspaper, not the use of firearms in American life. The story reflects an unfortunate and embarrassing lack of judgment. Although you declared in the story that the work was scientific, it is clearly anything but that. The concept is flawed, the sample unrepresentative, and the published conclusion is literally preposterous. It is a glaring instance of what is meant by the term, "junk science." Perhaps an example will help illuminate the problem. Can you imagine conducting a similar "study" that finds most black people are either criminals, entertainers or sports figures, based on an analysis of blacks who are covered in the paper? It is too outrageous to consider! Can you then see how similarly flawed your father-and-son project was, as far as meaningful research goes? Can you see how the newspaper's non-critical retelling of this nonsense, with no counterpoint whatsoever, is biased and derogatory? Every ethical tenet of journalism and scholarship requires a prominent correction. I understand how difficult this is, but admitting the errors is the honorable course and it is the best choice. Your mistake has been detected, acknowledge it, and move on. Although your child is quoted as saying: "Almost nobody uses their guns in self-defense," the only accurate statement he could have made from the research described by reporter Marija Potkonjak is that "almost no stories about using guns in self defense appeared in the newspaper clippings I collected when I was 12 years old, six years ago." While it is clever that you spent time to track down judicial resolutions of those shoot-em-up stories, that is no substitute for, and does not mitigate, using such an egregiously biased sample. This misrepresentation harms a huge segment of the body politic that exercise their civil right to keep and bear arms. It is typical of a kind of endemic bias that observers have noted for many years. By any measure it is a great enough deception to warrant a prominent correction to the front-page Tribune story. People who unfortunately hate guns and gun owners -- and there are many of them out there, paradoxically thinking of themselves as beyond hate -- no doubt loved your story, took heart in its unsupported conclusions, and will retell it. They have been misled. Your report falsely denigrates cherished rights Americans have, and have always had. You have exposed, and are a victim of, a situation gun owners know about and constantly lament -- many people think guns are mainly linked to crime, because that's normally all the news media ever show. You and your son were erroneously led to this very conclusion yourselves. The fact that guns save lives, guns stop crime, guns are for safety and guns are why America is still free, these are themes the mainstream media somehow consistently omit. It's not a conspiracy, just business as usual, and would make a good story by itself. In contrast, true scholarly work is substantial on DGUs (Defensive Gun Uses), with three university-level studies and a study from the U.S. Justice Department under President Clinton. These all point to several million DGUs annually. The virtually total lack of coverage of such incidents by the news media, which your work detected, is thoroughly documented in John Lott's scrupulously researched new book, "The Bias Against Guns." That book would be illuminating for you. You and your son have taken steps to confirm Dr. Lott's work, but nothing more. It's widely recognized that reported incidents have little bearing on total incidents. The FBI and other authorities don't even routinely collect data on self defense because it, and justifiable homicide, are not crimes. Blatant errors like this, which are obvious on their face to even a simple reader, contribute to the severe lack of credibility the press has been enduring lately. People do not trust the media because the media isn't earning any trust. Your contribution to this sorry state of affairs cries out for a retraction. If you allow "Injury Prevention" to publish your specious report, knowing now how unfounded it is, you would bring shame to yourself, your son, your university, and the publishers of that hurtful material. One must wonder about the bona fides of a Canadian journal that would give ink to such amateur silliness, and an ASU associate professor who would publicly state this methodology is scientific. Please do the right thing and make a prompt and prominent correction to "The Tribune" and to "Injury Prevention." A count and analysis of newspaper stories about guns says nothing meaningful about self defense or actual gun use in America. If you feel a correction to the newspaper story is not warranted, please let me know why, so I can explain that to people when they ask me. I've copied this letter to some folks I know at "The Tribune", at ASU, and elsewhere, who might have seen your story and been misled. Sincerely, Alan Korwin, Author The Arizona Gun Owner's Guide Gun Laws of America I suggested a correction that would be accurate if run by "The Tribune": "The Tribune" ran a page-one story by staff reporter Marija Potkonjak (4/8/04) that said a new study shows that guns are rarely used in self defense. Further examination however shows that the study, conducted by amateurs, was not scientific and its conclusions were not supported by the limited and inadequate research conducted. The study only confirmed that newspaper coverage of gun incidents is neither complete nor representative of what actually occurs in society. The scholarly studies that have found millions of defensive gun uses annually are not impacted by this father-and-son project, as we had erroneously reported. "The Tribune" deeply regrets the errors, apologizes for the aspersions it cast, the abusive denigration of human rights it implied, and is forwarding a copy of this retraction to the Canadian journal "Injury Prevention" that we indicated intends to publish the inaccurately produced report." Excerpts of what a reporter at "The Tribune" told me: I loved your "correction," but I hope you realize it's hardly appropriate for our corrections section... Of course I'm squirmy on this. I agree with a lot of what you said, but I'm not about to trash Marija for this story. Nor do I feel comfortable telling my editor he was an idiot for running this story, which is basically what I'd be telling him if I do what you ask... I'll trash the content of the story all day long, though. As far as running what people say, we print BS the cops and the governor and our "leaders" tell us all the time ... We depend on our readers to keep us on our toes sometimes when we don't have the time, resources or know-how to check stuff out 100 percent. When people see BS in our paper they need to call us on it. Just like you intend to do. I'll talk to you later ... Alan, I agree the "study" was pure nonsense. However, what you call an "error" I call a matter of opinion. I went back over Marija's story just now and saw no "editorializing." Everything was clearly attributed to the people who were the subject of the article. I did not see any errors of Marija's that could be corrected in the correction section ... The original story: William Fabricius, left, and his 17-year-old son, John Denton, have been collecting newspaper articles about the use of guns in self-defense from April through June 1998. Teen, dad track gun use By Marija Potkonjak, Tribune A study debunking the notion that guns are used in self-defense started out as a question in the mind of a 12-year-old boy from Tempe. After reading a 1998 Tribune article about a woman facing prosecution for a shooting she claimed was in self defense, John Denton wanted to know how many people actually used guns in self-defense. With the help of his father, William Fabricius, a psychology professor at Arizona State University, Denton collected articles in "The Tribune" from April through June 1998 and tracked the cases through the courts to get an answer. His conclusion? "Almost nobody uses their guns in self-defense," said Denton, now a 17-year-old senior at Mountain Pointe High School. Denton's study, "Reality check: Using newspapers, police reports and court records to assess defensive gun use," will be published in the April edition of the Canadian journal "Injury Prevention." Fabricius said the study was conducted in a scientific manner. Of 81 incidents in which a gun was used, only two were legitimately for self-defense, "and both those instances were socially irresponsible because a child could have been caught in the crossfire," Fabricius said. In one instance, there were "bullets flying all over the place in broad daylight." Fabricius said the study calls into question a widely cited 1995 study by researchers Gary Kleck and Mark Gertz, who in a telephone survey of civilians found that 1.1 percent of the population used guns in self-defense. Using the findings of Kleck and Gertz, there should have been 98 killings or woundings and 236 instances of guns fired in self-defense during the period Denton and Fabricius monitored the newspapers, Fabricius and Denton said. "People in a phone survey might say it was self-defense, but a judge might not agree," Fabricius said. Denton and Fabricius found that in six cases where self-defense was claimed, the court ruled only two were actually self-defense. One unfounded claim involved an elderly Scottsdale resident who fired shots into his ceiling after he heard what he thought were "footsteps" in his attic. The police found no intruder and the man was charged with disturbing the peace. In another incident, a man shot and wounded two teenagers driving past his home at 3 a.m. because he felt "threatened" by them. He was charged with aggravated assault. Using newspaper articles and supplementing them with police reports and court records was an innovative approach, said Barry Pless, a pediatric epidemiologist and editor of "Injury Prevention." "These researchers were imaginative and creative to realize this is an important data set," Pless said. At first, Denton and Fabricius started a Web site and posted their research in the hopes other kids across the country would start tracking these cases in the newspaper. "At first we thought it would be very easy," Denton said. "If people know about this they might think about it before buying a gun or think about whether they really need bullets for (the gun)." Denton said he has no illusions about the impact the study will have on Arizona's gun-toting population. "We're kind of a Wild West state," he said. "It's obviously not going to turn the state into a bunch of hippies spouting peace and love." But, he would like to see stricter guidelines for gun purchases and thinks buying a gun without bullets might be enough of a deterrent. Contact Marija Potkonjak by email (mpotkonjak@aztrib.com) or phone (480) 898-6818. Contact: Alan Korwin BLOOMFIELD PRESS "We publish the gun laws." 4718 E. Cactus #440 Phoenix, AZ 85032 602-996-4020 Phone 602-494-0679 FAX 1-800-707-4020 Orders http://www.gunlaws.com alan@gunlaws.com Call, write, fax or click for a free catalog. Check out our new best seller: "Supreme Court Gun Cases Two Centuries of Gun Rights Revealed" If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you're reading this in English, thank a veteran. ------------------------------ 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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Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #228 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 7 02:01:16 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4761GL00576; Fri, 7 May 2004 02:01:16 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 02:01:16 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405070601.i4761GL00576@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 #229 TELECOM Digest Fri, 7 May 2004 01:55:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 229 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson NIST Offers Guidelines For Securing VOIP (VOIP News) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (CharlesH) Re: Norvergence (Dave M) 3-D TV is Closer Than You Think (Monty Solomon) Sharing Digital Resources: Web-Wise 2004 (Monty Solomon) Virtuoso MC-500 (Monty Solomon) Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV, Radio Programming (Mark Crispin) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Dave Garland) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (jmayson@nyx.net) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Matt J. Britt) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (David) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (Gary Novosielski) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way (ranck@vt.edu) Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense (Paul Vader) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 17:01:20 -0400 Subject: NIST Offers Guidelines For Securing VOIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25844-1.html By William Jackson GCN Staff Voice over IP technology offers potential cost savings and increased functionality, but it also may introduce new security headaches for systems administrators, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has warned. "VOIP adds a number of complications to existing network technology, and these problems are magnified by security considerations," the agency said in a draft version of security guidelines released today for public comment. Full story at: http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/25844-1.html 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: hoch@exemplary.invalid (CharlesH) Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: 6 May 2004 19:58:12 GMT Organization: http://newsguy.com In article , Michael D. Sullivan wrote: > Is there some reason this ought to come out of the > carriers' profits, if any (or increase their losses), instead of coming > from the pockets of the customers who now have the ability to port their > numbers? I don't think that anyone objects to the companies recovering the cost of these various assessments. What people object to is that the product is advertised at one price, but the net total the customer pays is substantially larger. Why aren't these fees just rolled into the advertised price, just as are other costs of doing business? The answer is easy: the low advertised price draws in the customer, and they hope that the customer will not back out as all these additional charges are added in at the time of sale. ------------------------------ From: dave@mshop.com (Dave M) Subject: Re: Norvergence Date: 6 May 2004 13:50:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com We have been a Norvergence customer since 4/29/03. Since then: 1. Our cell phones have been disconnected five times by AT&T wireless because Norvergence wasn't paying the bills. 2. Without warning, Norvergence switched carriers on one of our phones from AT&T wireless to T-Mobile leaving my employee without a working phone on a trip. 3. We have had two collection agencies contact us to try to get bills paid that were the responsibility of Norvergence. 4. The leasing company is charging us insurance on the entire $16000 lease even thought the replacement cost of the "matrix box" (actually a WatchGuard SOHO 6 router) is only $300. These are the facts. You can make your decision accordingly, but I think the more you research the company, the less likely you will be to sign a contract. Tim Trump wrote in message news:: > Our company is also evaluating this company as a telecom provider > which I now understand is a reseller? > Somewhat disturbing but would like additional info if anyone has it. > Best regards, > Tim Trump > Project Manager > Dominion Metallurgical, Inc. > 5304 Valleypark Drive > Roanoke, VA 24019 > Ph: 540/362-8500 > Fx: 540/362-8362 > email: ttrump@dom-met.com > MSN messenger: domettimt@hotmail.com > web site: www.dom-met.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 01:07:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: 3-D TV Is Closer Than You Think Penelope Patsuris, 05.05.04, 8:00 AM ET NEW YORK - While we're busy comparison shopping for flat-screen TVs and upgrading to high definition broadcasts, the consumer electronics industry is readying a whole new television proposition to sell us. The new "new thing" is three-dimensional television viewing, sans glasses. And although it sounds more sci-fi than Circuit City (nyse: CC - news - people ), engineers who are working on bringing this technology to the masses say it should arrive within the next ten years. For the most part, the technology already exists, but with the exception of some videogames and scientific and engineering modeling programs, the content does not. With the technology ready long before the content, it's an evolution that's similar to that of HDTV, and it will require equally daunting upgrades to the infrastructure that delivers television signals into homes. Nevertheless, a small New York startup called X3D Technology demonstrated a 3-D 50- inch plasma screen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, and it had a roomful of analysts and attendees transfixed. "It was the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I've been in technology for 20 years," says Andrew Shulklapper, an analyst with DisplaySearch, which is not doing or seeking to do business with X3D. X3D is starting out by shopping its screens to retailers looking for displays that are literally eye-catching, with its sights set on 3-D TV down the line. http://www.forbes.com/2004/05/05/cx_pp_05053dtv_ii.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 22:08:59 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Sharing Digital Resources: Web-Wise 2004 Sharing Digital Resources: Web-Wise 2004 This month, First Monday features papers from the Fifth Annual Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World, sponsored by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services and the University of Illinois at Chicago, 3-5 March 2004, Chicago. http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_5/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 00:24:23 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Virtuoso MC-500 The Virtuoso MC-500 was created with the user in mind. As a debut product of the Virtuoso series, the MC-500 sets the new platform for media files playback from multiple computers through wireless or wired network. Simply download movies from the internet through a computer, keep them available on your hard disk and the MC-500 will retrieve these files for playback on your television. The MC-500 allows you to enjoy internet movies and digital content on television so you never have to watch them on a computer monitor again. Comprehensive Video, Audio and Picture formats Supporting multiple formats and digital media, the Virtuoso MC-500 is everything you need to enjoy networked home entertainment in your home or office. The MC-500 is capable of MPEG-4 playback. It can connect wirelessly to your computer, and it even allows you to enjoy internet surfing on a television or home theater setup. http://www.neuston.com/en/mc500.asp ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 21:48:28 -0700 Organization: University of Washington The Canadian House of Commons is considering a bill, C-2, which will make it illegal to receive foreign satellite TV and radio programming in Canada. Canada already has censorship of US newspapers and US TV programming carried on carried on Canadian cable TV systems. The text of the bill can be found here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-2/C-2_1/90248bE.html The penalty for watching Al-Jazerra, Telemundo, or any other foreign programming that the Canadian provers say isn't worth their while to carry, or that the Canadian government does not want its residents to see (such as FOX News), in Canada is C$25,000 and a year in the slammer. It doesn't matter that you are paying the provider for the service. If it's not approved by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (who have donated heavily to the ruling Liberal Party), you aren't allowed to see it. Also in favor of C-2 are Bell Canada and Shaw Communications, the only autorized satellite providers in Canada, who have also donated over C$320,000 to the Liberal Party. Among the interesting provisions of this bill is one that permits the Canadian police to examine any "computer or data processing system", and copy anything stored on that system. "We don't need no stinkin' warrant, eh!" It also provides for summary conviction. One Canadian was quoted by the CBC as saying: ""This is the equivalent of somebody going into Chapters and trying to find a book and Chapters says 'we don't actually sell that book.' So you buy it from Amazon.com. If Chapters then turned around and complained, you'd have to say 'well, look, you had the choice of selling me the book but you chose not to do that.'" In answer, Philippe Tousignant of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said "we have to give priority to Canadian services." It isn't just Canadians with a DirecTV dish (with the bill going to a relative in the US) at home who are up in arms. Many members of Canada ethnic minorities are also complaining bitterly that Canadian cable and satellite providers say that the Canadian market is too small to bother with foreign language programming -- even when the CRTC has licensed these channels to be carried! -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Dave Garland Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 17:43:53 -0500 Organization: Wizard Information > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way I read that, they were not > denied the right (in the first place) to approach the ballot box and > cast their vote; but rather, in a regular, routine audit of the voters > who appeared to cast votes, they were disqualified later on the basis > of their alleged felony crimes. Did I get that wrong? PAT] Yah, you got that wrong. They were not permitted to vote. (Once they voted there would not have been any way to void their vote, since how a person votes is not recorded.) Secretary of State Katherine Harris provided counties with a "purge list" of alleged felons compiled by ChoicePoint, a private company with Republican connections. Counties were supposed to attempt to verify the information, but if they could not demonstrate it was incorrect, remove the names from the voter rolls. Counties varied a lot in what they did to verify the information, from nothing, to sending a letter to the voter, to sending multiple letters and publishing the list. The potential voter (if they were notified at all) had the burden of proving they were not a felon. ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 22:48:40 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com >> "Most other states" (including northeast liberal states) also deny felons >> the right to vote, unless that felon goes through a fairly elaborate >> procedure to have civil rights restored. > Be that as it may, you've missed the point of the article. > A follow-up test showed that over 90% of the people on the so-called > "felons" list were NOT actually guilty of ANY crime whatsoever. They > were improperly deprived of their right to vote, and the primary > selection criterion for doing so appeared to be their race. Okay ... Clinton ordered many Florida-based military personnel on manoeuvers just prior to election and they didn't get to vote. It was too late for absentee voting and they were out of the state on election day. Some counties refused to count overseas ballots, many of which were military. Both of these facts came up in the news. The felon issue was news to me. I'm from Florida and followed this issue closely and I don't remember hearing about it until now. I did hear reports the highway patrol was preventing blacks from voting, but I think was a bunch of hogwash. Whether all, some, or none of this is true I think we need to overhaul our election process to make it easier for people to vote. I like what Texas does. We have early voting. For a few weeks prior to election day we can vote at supermarkets, malls, shopping centers, etc. It makes it very easy. If the state needs to purge its voting rolls for whatever reason I believe this should be done far ahead of the election to settle any disputes. But this is all common sense and will never get implemented. ------------------------------ Reply-To: Matt J. Britt From: Matt J. Britt Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 23:30:13 GMT Lou Jahn wrote in message news:telecom23.228.10@telecom-digest.org: > In V23#227: > Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way > Gary Novosielski wrote responding to Mark Crispin: >> Since blacks voted overwhelmingly for Gore where their votes WERE >> counted, any strategy designed to depress turnout, eligibility, or >> counting of ballots in predominantly black districts would act to >> benefit Bush. If not for these fraudulent activities by Jeb and >> Kathleen, George would have lost Florida by thousands to tens of >> thousands of votes. > Obviously Gary does not let facts get in the way of his argument. Is > good that history recorded the true facts: > 1) The voting registration and voting procedures in four major > districts having voter problems were managed by Democrats. > 2) The four counties had 2 recounts by November 8, 2000, with > President Bush still winning. > 3) If Gore's campaign had asked for a total Florida "manual" recount > (of all 67 counties) rather than their request for only four counties > to be recounted in an attempt to "pick and choose" selective districts > they expected to be favorable to his cause, he would have had a > legitimate and legal recount. > 4) When the Florida Supreme Court violated their own Florida law on > granting selective versus total recounts, and allowed the four > recounts to proceed without establishing an overall standard of > measurement, they effectively created "new voting law" for those four > districts. This rightfully opened the Republican suit to the Federal > Supreme Court, asking them to stop the Florida Supreme from making > "new voting law". > So while the Democrats in "charge of the four districts" in effect > blew the voting process, that was then mis-managed by the Gore team in > not asked for a full recount, where and how did the Republicans do > anything wrong? If Gore was not smart enough to manage a simple > recount based on established law, how could he have ever managed the > countries business? > I suggest it is time for many people to get on with their lives! > Lou Jahn AMEN! [TELECOM Digest Editor's Amen: This thread, which has brought much vigorous activity here is closed as of today. PAT] ------------------------------ From: David Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 23:40:53 GMT PAT: I am suprised you let all of this political discussion into this group. David [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, it was a refreshing change of pace for a couple of days, but enough is enough which is why the thread is now closed. I said that yesterday and have allowed today for final comments. That is it. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 03:16:37 GMT TELECOM Digest Editor wrote: > [...The way I read that, they were not > denied the right (in the first place) to approach the ballot box and > cast their vote; but rather, in a regular, routine audit of the voters > who appeared to cast votes, they were disqualified later on the basis > of their alleged felony crimes. Did I get that wrong? PAT] I'm afraid so. Their names were "scrubbed" from the voter rolls in the months and weeks leading up to the election. They were not notified that their names had been removed, so there was no way to appeal, and there were no crosschecks to determine if their identity was correct. Social Security numbers, for example, were not checked. A firm that HAD been hired to do this job was caught doing careful cross-checks and audits of the names was fired by Kathleen Harris and replaced by the firm in question. Ultimately, when the people showed up at the polls on election day, they were informed at that time that they were not registered to vote, and were turned away without having the opportunity to cast a ballot. Lou Jahn wrote: > Obviously does not let facts get in the way of his argument. Is > good that history recorded the true facts: [fascinating but irrelevant "facts" about registration, voting, and recounts snipped] All the talk of recounts, and Democrats in charge of the voting machines is not relevant to the fact that the people in question, tens of thousands of them, were removed from the voting rolls, so they never got to see a voting machine and never cast a ballot, which non-ballot was therefore never counted in the first place, by any Republican or Democrat, let alone recounted by Faux News or anyone else. I have no doubt that if Gore had the brains of a clam he would have demanded a state-wide recount, which undoubtedly would have won him Florida (there are conflicting reports of how a recount would have gone, but I find those by far the more convincing). Be that as it may. None of that relates to *this* issue, which was the disenfranchisement of voters, mostly black, by Republicans Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. Gary ------------------------------ From: ranck@vt.edu Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 20:16:16 UTC Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My question is for *what period of > time* does a 'convicted felon' lose the right to vote or his other > rights? Is it for some number of years, or forever, or? If it is forever Depends on which state you live in. Here is a link to a report on the subject: http://www.millercenter.virginia.edu/programs/natl_commissions/commission_final_report/task_force_report/hansen_chap8_disfranchisement.pdf It states, in part, that only 2 states (Maine and Vermont) allow currently convicted and incarcerated felons to vote. All others remove voting rights at least during the period of incarceration. I think it says 11 states remove voting rights for life after a felony conviction. The report is from 2001, so some states may have changed since then. Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va. ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD BEING CLOSED Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 21:40:30 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations alan@gunlaws.com writes: > The story, "Dad, Teen Track Gun Use" reaches unsupported conclusions, > but gets front-page coverage anyway. Why was this wildly off-topic post approved by the moderator? * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, as my competitor, the New York Times would say, "All the news that fits, print it." I figured as long as I put my deseased brain on hold -- gave it a couple days rest while the discussion on being certain to vote democratic next time around was going on we might as well deal with that perennial favorite, gun control for a while also. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #229 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 8 14:24:30 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i48IOUl16512; Sat, 8 May 2004 14:24:30 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 14:24:30 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405081824.i48IOUl16512@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 #230 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 May 2004 14:24:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 230 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play Nice (VOIP News) ENUM is Happening in the Cable Industry (VOIP News) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (dannykewl) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Steven J Sobol) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Jared) Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD BEING CLOSED (Paul Vader) Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (Janet K) IBM Card Programmed Calculator (Lisa Hancock) IP Office 403 (Mark P) ZDnet Reviews VOIP - Vonage Their Pick (John Bartley) Best Price on Home Phone Service? (Dave Hauss) Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED (mcook@prodigy) Employment Opportunity: Looking for Telecom (BSCS/Arbor) Consultants (jobs) USR 5410 Wifi PC Card Not Transmitting (Mario) 5.8GHz 2 line phones (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: 3-D TV Is Closer Than You Think (Phil McKerracher) Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD BEING CLOSED (Frank@nospam) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 11:23:54 -0400 Subject: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax machines and VoIP to play nice Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43548 While VoIP is a fantastic new toy for many, it often doesn't play particularly well with older copper reliant technology (like many security systems ). Many broadband users have often reported problems with fax machines working properly with their VoIP service. One user in our VoIP forum finds that by using a DSL filter in reverse orientation, their fax problems all but disappeared. The question now is, does the same method allow users to conquer one of the last great VoIP roadblocks: allowing your DirecTV/Tivo modem to dial out via your VoIP connection. Article plus comments found at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43548 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: VOIP News Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 11:55:32 -0400 Subject: ENUM is Happening in the Cable Industry Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com This is excerpted from The Jeff Pulver Blog at: http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/index.html ENUM is Happening in the Cable Industry This week at NCTA, VeriSign announced the launch of their MSO-IP Connect VoIP Routing Service. Leveraging private ENUM technology, VeriSign has put themselves in the position to offer to interconnect the Broadband IP Networks of Cable Operators and provide a means for IP calls to/from each of their members to stay on the Cable Network and not touch the public switched telephone network. In effect, offering an implementation that might be covered by aspects of the FCC's "Pulver Order." VeriSign's product also provides billing and settlement services. I'm not sure why this would be needed since in my book, all calls that traverse these private IP networks should be free. Looking at the evolution of end-to-end IP, VeriSign's announcement is significant insomuch that it is a foreshadowing of things to come. I expect to see others come forward in the near future and offer similar services for other types of service providers. Posted by jeff at 11:06 AM ------------------------------ From: dannykewl Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 02:32:01 -0400 Organization: Cox Communications In my opinion, this act will not affect your ability to watch/listen to foreign broadcasts. I believe this bill restricts the importation of the *equipment* itself that may be used to view or decode cable/satellite programming. The FCC in the US has all kinds of regulations regarding receiving and encoding equipment. These restrictions may be to limit getting paid services for free (such as the descramblers being offered in Spam mail) and/or restricting devices that may cause RFI (radio frequency interference). Mark Crispin wrote in message news:telecom23.229.7@telecom-digest.org... > The Canadian House of Commons is considering a bill, C-2, which will > make it illegal to receive foreign satellite TV and radio programming > in Canada. Canada already has censorship of US newspapers and US TV > programming carried on carried on Canadian cable TV systems. > The text of the bill can be found here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/chambus/house/bills/government/C-2/C-2_1/ 90248bE.html > The penalty for watching Al-Jazerra, Telemundo, or any other foreign > programming that the Canadian provers say isn't worth their while to > carry, or that the Canadian government does not want its residents to see > (such as FOX News), in Canada is C$25,000 and a year in the slammer. > It doesn't matter that you are paying the provider for the service. If > it's not approved by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (who have > donated heavily to the ruling Liberal Party), you aren't allowed to see > it. Also in favor of C-2 are Bell Canada and Shaw Communications, the > only autorized satellite providers in Canada, who have also donated over > C$320,000 to the Liberal Party. > Among the interesting provisions of this bill is one that permits the > Canadian police to examine any "computer or data processing system", and > copy anything stored on that system. "We don't need no stinkin' warrant, > eh!" > It also provides for summary conviction. > One Canadian was quoted by the CBC as saying: ""This is the equivalent of > somebody going into Chapters and trying to find a book and Chapters says > 'we don't actually sell that book.' So you buy it from Amazon.com. If > Chapters then turned around and complained, you'd have to say 'well, look, > you had the choice of selling me the book but you chose not to do that.'" > In answer, Philippe Tousignant of the Canadian Radio-television and > Telecommunications Commission said "we have to give priority to Canadian > services." > It isn't just Canadians with a DirecTV dish (with the bill going to a > relative in the US) at home who are up in arms. Many members of Canada > ethnic minorities are also complaining bitterly that Canadian cable and > satellite providers say that the Canadian market is too small to bother > with foreign language programming -- even when the CRTC has licensed these > channels to be carried! > -- Mark -- > http://staff.washington.edu/mrc > Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. > Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 10:19:30 -0500 Mark Crispin wrote: > Among the interesting provisions of this bill is one that permits the > Canadian police to examine any "computer or data processing system", and > copy anything stored on that system. "We don't need no stinkin' warrant, > eh!" > It also provides for summary conviction. Wow, and I thought the Patriot Act and the RIAA sucked. It's nice to know you can buy high-quality legislators in Canada just as you can here. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 11:12:37 -0600 From: jared@nospam.au (jared) Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Many countries recognise a danger that American dross will swamp their own culture. Canada not only shares a border but also a language (for the majority) and so is particularly at risk. Looks as if by trying to protect against their southern neighbor's lowest-common-denominator programming they are blocking the rest of the world, too. Culture aside, money talks. Exporting movies and radio & TV programming is gravy for the USA exporter as their own country's large market has paid for production costs. It's hard on the other country's producers as they have to pay all costs for their work across a small market vice import pricing at marginal cost. Hence we see entrenched media interests putting their cash on the line to block imports under the guise of cultural protection. > The Canadian House of Commons is considering a bill, C-2, which will > make it illegal to receive foreign satellite TV and radio programming > in Canada. Canada already has censorship of US newspapers and US TV > programming carried on carried on Canadian cable TV systems. > In answer, Philippe Tousignant of the Canadian Radio-television and > Telecommunications Commission said "we have to give priority to Canadian > services." ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD BEING CLOSED Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 15:43:41 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) writes: > was going on we might as well deal with that perennial favorite, gun > control for a while also. PAT] If I want to participate in a gun debate, I'll go to a newsgroup with 'gun' in the name. I'm in a moderated group with 'telecom' in it because I expect to see stuff related to telecommunications there, not flame bait. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am thinking about starting an 'alt' newsgroup for the political discussions which get in here, and am trying to decide what name to give it. Make your suggestions, please. Some suggestions already made for your consideration to give you an idea what direction this would go: alt.dcom.telecomdigest.politics, alt.moderator.knows.best, alt.patrick.townson.is.always.right, alt.netwits, and others suggested. Make your suggestions if you want to see such a thing started. Obviously it would have to be unmoderated, both by virtue of how alt groups are set up, and because I am getting increasingly dizzy (physically, mentally, etc) and a new newsgroup right now is just a bit too much for me to chew. Anyway, make your suggestions, I will eventually ask John Levine to newgroup it and it will be off and running. PAT] ------------------------------ From: janetk@ieee.org (janet k) Subject: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Date: 7 May 2004 10:33:33 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make her long distance calls. Recently, she cannot use the service because her home phone number is being blocked and the service does not recognize her as a subscriber. She has tried *82 and *67 options and has repeatedly contacted both companies. Each company blames the other for the problem and will not initiate a call on her behalf. She is a 90 year old woman who lives by herself with her children out of state. It has been over a month since she has been able to call them using her USA datanet access. I have also tried calling the companies, the FCC and the Ohio PUC with very little success. Any idea on getting her number unblocked? We're at a stalemate. Janet K. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My suggestion would be instead of wasting your time and hers trying to correct a problem with a long distance service which may not be the best deal around anyway, just get her converted to some other company at more or less the same prices or possibly a little better. SBC comes to mind. You could get her converted to one-plus dialing on SBC for three or four cents per minute, depending on her volume of calls. Check through the various SBC plans and choose what is appropriate for her needs. Or if you will tell us here about how much long distance calling she does in a month's time, I am sure guys here could help you plan her package. SBC is just an example; there are many dial one plus arrangements which bill through her regular phone account for convenience and are cheap enough. DO NOT get her all wrapped up in situations where she has to dial either an 800 number or some other 'local access number' first. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: IBM Card Programmed Calculator Date: 7 May 2004 10:53:21 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Most histories of computers and communications focus on the big things, such as the ENIAC and UNIVAC. But machines like the CPC did valuable day-to-day work. Programming this machine and developing improved control circuitry laid the ground floor for improved computers and commmunications. IIRC, IBM invented the wire contact relay which was vital in the crossbar switch logic. As a result of technological advances made during the WW II, there was a big push for aerospace and other advanced engineering development. This work required considerable calculations. To meet that need, companies quickly snatched up the IBM's punched card tabulating machines which included a simple electronic calculator. IBM interconnected its otherwise independent tab machines and the result was the CPC which had sophisticated programming control. While not a true stored-program computer like today, the machine was quite powerful. More importantly, the CPC filled a need that no other machine at the time could meet. There were only a few electronic computers available in the early postwar era and they were enormously expensive to acquire and operate. The CPC was essentially a poor man's computing device and allowed a smaller companies to take advantage of electronic calculations. IBM has a webpage now up on this machine: http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/space/space_card.html ------------------------------ From: madman_37412@yahoo.com (Mark P) Subject: IP Office 403 Date: 7 May 2004 11:21:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm having to record some malicious phone calls. I have the record feature setup, but it comes on with a warning message. This would probably cause the caller to hangup. I'm in TN so only one party needs to know prior to recording the calls. Any ideas? ------------------------------ From: John Bartley Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 12:35:12 -0800 Subject: ZDnet Reviews VOIP - Vonage Their Pick http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Internet_Phones/4520-9140_16-5131535-1.html Anyone find any points in the reviews they don't concur in? Was anything relevant omitted? Many thanks, all. John E. Bartley, III 503-BAR-TLEY K7AAY This post quad-ROT13 encrypted; reading it violates the DMCA. ... We're living in a collaborative SF novel... and now, of course, it's Philip K. Dick's turn. In a back room somewhere, Vernor Vinge and George Orwell are currently arguing about who gets to take over in 2025. (Ross Smith) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The review is rather good, and I hope everyone who is considering VOIP will take some time to read it. And since just by asking, you can get a free month of Vonage (actually the second month of whatever service plan you chose) why not give Vonage a try? Just write me and ask for an e-coupon to use when signing up. After a month or three of running in parallel with your existing phone service, if Vonage does not work for you, then just dump it with no other obligations. Write ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu ------------------------------ From: dahauss@unlimitedsounds.com (Dave Hauss) Subject: Best Price on Home Phone Service? Date: 7 May 2004 13:40:57 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I live in the southern NJ (856) area code. Can someone provide me with the best rate on flat rate phone service? IE local and long distance? Can you also tell me if the service provides DSL? Thanks. ------------------------------ From: mcook@prodigy.net (mcook@prodigy.net) Subject: Re: Winning the Election The Republican Way THREAD CLOSED Date: 7 May 2004 16:23:19 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Dave Garland wrote in message news:: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way I read that, they were not >> denied the right (in the first place) to approach the ballot box and >> cast their vote; but rather, in a regular, routine audit of the voters >> who appeared to cast votes, they were disqualified later on the basis >> of their alleged felony crimes. Did I get that wrong? PAT] > Yah, you got that wrong. They were not permitted to vote. (Once they > voted there would not have been any way to void their vote, since how > a person votes is not recorded.) "Some ... claim that many legitimate voters "of all ethnic and racial groups, but particularly blacks" were illegally swept from the rolls through the state's efforts to ban felons from voting. There is no evidence of that. Instead, the evidence points to just the opposite, that election officials were mostly permissive, not obstructionist, when unregistered voters presented themselves." See: Miami Herald Report, Democracy Held Hostage p. 105 > Secretary of State Katherine Harris provided counties with a "purge > list" of alleged felons compiled by ChoicePoint, a private company > with Republican connections. According to Mary Berry (D), the chairwomen for the USCCR: "What happened in Florida is that there was bipartisan disenfranchisement - Democrats who were county supervisors did not do what they were supposed to do, and neither did the governor nor the secretary of state," she said. And "The commission inquiry found no "conclusive evidence" that officials "conspired" to disenfranchise minority and disabled voters, the report said." http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-06-05-election.htm > Counties were supposed to attempt to verify the information, but if > they could not demonstrate it was incorrect, remove the names from > the voter rolls. "Then director of the Division of Elections, Ethel Baxter, issued the first of a series of memos on August 11, 1998, regarding the list maintenance activities performed by the supervisors of elections. At that time, Ms. Baxter described the central voter file as the division's "first experience with a statewide database" and said that it "cannot be a 100 percent accurate list." and "It is your responsibility to attempt to verify the accuracy of the information on the list, and remove, prior to the next election, any person who is deceased, convicted of a felony, or mentally incapacitated with respect to voting. If you have doubts as to whether or not the felony information is accurate or are unable to verify the accuracy of the information, we recommend that affected persons execute the affidavit prescribed in section 101.49, Florida statutes. In short, if there is reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of the information, you should allow a person to vote." http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/ch5.htm With 41 of Florida's 67 county election boards controlled by Democrats, I find it hard to believe the Democrats would be involved in a wholesale removal of voters who would vote 90% for their canidiate. > Counties varied a lot in what they did to verify the information, > from nothing, to sending a letter to the voter, to sending multiple > letters and publishing the list. It does not seem that the protential felon list changed the election. "At least 108 law-abiding people were purged from the voter rolls as suspected criminals, only to be cleared after the election. DBT's computers had matched these people with felons, though in dozens of cases they did not share the same name, birthdate, gender or race. One Naples man was told he couldn't vote because he was linked with a felon still serving time in a Moore Haven prison." "Florida officials cut from the rolls 996 people convicted of crimes in other states, though they should have been allowed to vote. Before the election, state officials said felons could vote only if they had written clemency orders, although most other states automatically restore voting rights to felons when they complete their sentences. This policy conflicted with a 1998 court ruling that said Florida had "no authority" to deny civil rights to those who had them restored in other states. After the election, the state changed its policy." Source: The Palm Beach Post, Felon Purge Sacrificed Innocent Voters, 5/27/2001 See: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0527-03.htm The Post also found that is was Gore may have benefited errors on the felon list, not Bush. They found 5,643 felons illegally cast ballots. The registrations came down 68% Democrat. Do the math and you will see that Gore benefited from these illegal votes by a net of some 2,000 votes. This number clearly defeats the claim of 1,104 by the Palm Beach Post. Source: The Palm Beach Post, Thousands of Felons Voted Despite Purge, 5/28/2001 This was the original link, http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/epaper/editions/today/news_1.html Here is another. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Gore-2004-Community/message/11378?source=1 > The potential voter (if they were notified at all) had the burden of > proving they were not a felon. Fla. Stat. 98.0975 was enacted under Gov. Lawton Chiles(D)in 1997. Why would a Democrat Governor enact a law that would work in that way? [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My question would be how can you prove you are NOT something? (as in felon). It seems like it would be a lot easier for the state to prove I *was* a felon rather than me having to prove I was *not* a felon. Anyway, THREAD is CLOSED. Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jobs Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 12:57:38 +0800 Subject: Looking for Telecom (BSCS/Arbor) Consultants Reply-To: telecom-news@yahoogroups.com We are an international Information Technology (IT) company, with focus in providing Software Solutions, Software Products/tools, Software Consultancy and Out Sourcing. We are looking for the following resource for our project. Job Location : Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Contract Duration : 2 years -extendable Salary : Negotiable Requirement details: Experience in the telecommunication Industry preferably in area of prepaid services and systems. Minimum Technical Requirement: * 7 years minimum programming experience in the below i)Unix Shell/Awk/Perl script (Important) ii)RDBMS/ ORACLE Database Management iii)SQL iv)Pro-C V)C++ * Experience in the telecommunication Industry, BSCS (Postpaid) * Experience in the Windows NT * Familier with the Post Paid bill format * Experience in CMSS system (user) * Good problem solving and advisory skill * Good verbal, written and documentation skill Desirable Requirements : * Knowledgeable in the EBPS application and the relevant checkfree utilities used by the application. * Knowledgeable in the Electronic Bill Presentment, Online Credit Card and M-Billing applications Interested candidates, kindly send your detailed resume with expected salary & availability to jobs@technoforce.biz ------------------------------ From: mandm@flashnet.it (Mario) Subject: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting Date: 8 May 2004 05:28:45 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hello, I have an ADSL wifi network, and in a laptop I have a usr5410 wifi turbo pc card, which is green enabled , link quality 100%, signal strength 84% and it sees the right mac address adsl gateway on the network, but if I do a ping to the wifi access point or try to navigate it doesnt seam to transmit at all. Why? What maybe the problem? Thanks, Mario ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: 5.8GHz 2 Line Phones Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 04:29:55 GMT In a desperate attempt to start an "on topic" thread ... A sincere question. Why are there no 2 line 5.8GHz cordless phones? Is there a technical or legal (FCC yada yada) reason for it to be impractical for manufacturers? We get many requests for multiline 5.8 cordless phones. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: Phil McKerracher Subject: Re: 3-D TV Is Closer Than You Think Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 15:01:22 GMT Organization: blueyonder (post doesn't reflect views of blueyonder) Monty Solomon wrote in message news:telecom23.229.4@telecom-digest.org... > ... With the technology ready long before the content, it's an > evolution that's similar to that of HDTV, and it will require > equally daunting upgrades to the infrastructure that delivers > television signals into homes... Hmm, maybe not. One big advantage of the digital infrastructure that is now replacing the old analogue one is that the bits can encode any type of content. So, although the infrastructure for production and display of 3D content will indeed require daunting upgrades, the infrastructure that actually distributes this content may not have to change at all. Also, backward compatibility is easier to achieve, therefore it's not necessary to upgrade the whole infrastructure at once. So I would guess it will be significantly easier to deploy than HDTV was (assuming the deployment starts in ten years' time). Phil McKerracher www.mckerracher.org ------------------------------ From: Frank@nospam.biz Subject: Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD BEING CLOSED Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 07:24:54 -0700 Organization: Cox Communications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, as my competitor, the New York > Times would say, "All the news that fits, print it." I figured as long > as I put my deseased brain on hold -- gave it a couple days rest while > the discussion on being certain to vote democratic next time around > was going on we might as well deal with that perennial favorite, gun > control for a while also. PAT] Control Ashcroft, not guns. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Nothing like a little joke, some good humor to close out a thread. And 'control Ashcroft' is such a thing. I mean, can you actually see that happening? This thread, like the one about voting democratic is no longer 'being closed'. It *IS* closed, at least until/if/when a new alt group is started for devotees of telecomdigest.politics and moderator.knows.best gets started. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #230 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 8 18:16:56 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i48MGtd18946; Sat, 8 May 2004 18:16:56 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 18:16:56 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405082216.i48MGtd18946@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 #231 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 May 2004 18:15:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 231 Inside This Issue: Happy Mother's Day! Fires and Telecommunications (TELECOM Digest Editor) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 17:56:01 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Fires and Telecommunications For your casual reading this weekend, I am presenting an item from our archives sixteen years ago, in May, 1988, when one of the worst disasters in telecom history occurred on Mother's Day, Sunday, May 8, 1988 with the fire in Hinsdale, Illinois. The repercussions of that fire, which completely destroyed a telephone central office building down to the four walls more or less -- went on for more than a month afterward, as Illinois Bell struggled to restore service in Northern Illinois. Next week we will return to our items about Western Union. PAT Below are issues of the Digest during May, 1988 which specifically commented on the Illinois Bell/Hinsdale, IL fire on May 8, 1988 which caused extensive damage to phone service in northern Illinois during May/June, 1988. Service was largely restored by the end of May. The digests below are only the opnes immediatly afterward. An occassional article appeared during June as well. TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 10, 1988 8:04PM Volume 8, Issue 75 Today's Topics: Re: (none) (really Maryland +1 dialing) Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) Submission for comp-dcom-telecom Running out of area codes Re: "Party" lines Chicago telco disaster? "Party Lines" ------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Chicago telco disaster? Date: 10 May 88 16:40:10 GMT I have been trying to call an exchange in Chicago for the past two days to no avail. A recording states that "Due to local telephone company problems in the area you are calling, your call cannot be completed. Please try again later". After a few calls to the AT&T operator and their long distance repair number, I finally found out that an Illinois Bell building serving the Chigago area caught fire and there was serious damage. I'm told that hundreds of exchanges are affected. (!!) Calls via MCI, Sprint, etc. also came up with similar results, just different recordings. From what I understand, Ill. Bell is working on the re-routing of calls through the office that burned, and service *may* be restored by Wednesday. Anyone else have any info. regarding this? Is this similar to the fire that hit the CO in New York City a couple years ago? I thought that disasters like these were preventable to a large extent by using halon and other measures... How can something of this degree occur with relatively modern equipment? Enough questions, I'm just curious.. A posting to this newsgroup would probably be most appropriate for discussion. Thanks for sharing! --- David M. Kurtiak UNC - Greensboro UUCP: dmkdmk@ecsvax.UUCP {decvax,rutgers,gatech}!mcnc!ecsvax!dmkdmk Bitnet: DMKDMK@ECSVAX.BITNET (mail ONLY) Internet: dmkdmk@ecsvax.uncecs.edu -------------------- TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 10, 1988 10:36PM Volume 8, Issue 76 Today's Topics: Central Office Fire in Chicago The Great Fire Re: Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) ------------------------------------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Central Office Fire in Chicago Date: Sun May 8 21:13:57 1988 A fire Sunday, May 8 caused severe damage at the Illinois Bell switching center in Hinsdale, IL. Hinsdale is a western suburb of Chicago. As of this posting (11:00 PM Central time) the entire center is off-line, and nearly one hundred thousand subscribers in the west suburban area served from the Hinsdale office are without phone service. There is no estimate at this time as to when service to the affected communities will be restored. The Hinsdale office is also responsible for communications relating to air traffic control between Midway and Ohare Airports in Chicago and the FAA Center in Aurora, IL. Consequently, voice communications between control locations which depended on landline phones has been severely disrupted. Many airlines whose reservation systems are located in other cities also have foreign exchange service through the Hinsdale office, and this has been halted. The fire was struck about an hour after it started, but damage estimates are not yet available, nor specific plans made for the restoration of service to the affected area. Another update will be posted as soon as I have specifics. You can hear more precise reports by calling the internal employee newsline at the General Headquarters Building -- The Illinois Bell Communicator - 312-368-8000 Calls to the affected area at the present time are being intercepted with a recording 'all circuits are busy now'. ------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: The Great Fire Date: Mon May 9 23:19:29 1988 In my earlier posting, details were very sparce and I was unable to be specific in describing the disaster which struck us here over the weekend. I now have a more detailed accounting for the net -- An extra alarm fire broke out Sunday, May 8 at 5:30 PM in the Illinois Bell Central Office, 120 North Lincoln Avenue, Hinsdale, Illinois. At the time of the fire, the Chicago area, and the west suburbs in particular, were experiencing a very bad electrical storm. There had been a great deal of lightning; rain was quite heavy, and winds were about 40 miles per hour. Fire Departments from 15 nearby communities battled the blaze before bringing it under control at about 8:30 PM. The fire was officially struck at 11:30 PM Sunday night. Deemed the worst disaster in the history of Illinois Bell, and one of the worst disasters ever in the telephone industry, the fire virtually gutted the two story building. The Hinsdale central office is a *major* switching center for the west suburban area. In addition to serving ten prefixes covering various communities including Oak Brook, Westmont, Darien, Hinsdale and others, the office housed the Directory Assistance Data Base for downstate Illinois; it served as the communications apex for air traffic control between Ohare, Midway, and the Aurora, IL aviation center; it was the headquarters for a majority of the cellular phone service in the greater Chicago area; *and* it handled long distance calls in and out of most of Dupage County, Will County and southern Cook County. *And the office is now almost gutted* The reason for the fire has not been detirmined, but fire department officials have reason to believe the building was struck by a tremendous bolt of lightning during the worst of the electrical storm which was in progress when the first fire alarms were called in at 5:30 PM. The fire caused another problem: the emission of toxic fumes which required the evacuation of several blocks of homes in the vicinity. These fumes came from batteries described as 'highly toxic' which were stored in the premises and a large amount of fiber optic cable. The Hinsdale office was very much a fiber optic center in the area. Because of the toxic release, at one point firemen working in the building had to be called out, in the interest of their own safety, and as firemen relieved each other working inside in ten to fifteen minute shifts, they were required to strip to their underwear and be hosed down with a special solution so that the contamination would not be carried elsewhere. After the fire was first reported, Illinois Bell employees on duty at the time followed company procedures by first notifying the Fire Department. Others then began fighting the fire, and a few began a process known as an emergency telephone tree, calling other employees and company management at home to notify them of the circumstances. Each employee thus notified was responsible for calling a few more employees. Within about an hour, while the fire was raging at its worst, several dozen employees had already gathered on location, waiting for a go ahead to begin clean up and restoration work. *But no one dreamed it would be nearly as bad as it was* Although the fire was struck at 11:30 PM, fire officials would not permit anyone to enter the building for several more hours, pending exhaustion of the toxic fumes. Illinois Bell employees were allowed access to the building beginning at 4:00 AM to survey the damage. Most of Monday was spent merely bailing out the water and removing the rubble from the fire. Emergency lighting was installed and cleaning crews began scrubbing soot from the walls, ceilings and floors. The cleanup was still in progress late Monday afternoon. At this writing (12:50 AM Tuesday, May 10), Illinois Bell has not announced any date that service will be restored. It is estimated that it will be at least 4-5 days before *emergency* service is restored. Hinsdale, you see, is also the main center for 911 services in over a dozen west suburban communities. Ordinarily in circumstances like this, the phone company will set up special phones in public areas. They will often times be mobile or cellular type instruments available for the public to use for emergency calls. But since Hinsdale *is* the cellular center for Chicago, even this option is not available. When the first firemen arrived on the scene, heavy black smoke was pouring out of all the windows on the first floor. By that time, employees were evacuating after having given up on their own emergency proceedures. What we are faced with now is a *major* traffic jam on the network in the Chicago area. Long distance calls in and out of the area are very sluggish in getting through. Directory Enquiry in downstate Illinois is only able to handle about ten percent of the calls they are receiving, those being requests that are being searched manually through paper directories on hand in the communities affected. Hinsdale was the major center for MCI/Sprint long distance also....and those services are severely crippled in the area. Obviously, data transmission lines and the like are dead. About 40,000 subscribers, representing 100,000 residents are without phone service for the indefinite future. In Hinsdale and the other communities affected, the Police Departments have stationed patrol cars a few blocks apart on the street, and residents have been told to go to the nearest police car to report emergencies. Illinois Bell has not announced -- as of Monday evening -- any schedule of priorities for restoration of service. Jim Eibel, vice president of operations for Illinois Bell said emergency phones would be set up within a day or two, when crews were able to reroute at least limited traffic through the LaGrange, IL center. Of equal importance of course is the restoration of 911 service, and the restoration of long distance service. Eibel said restoring service to the ten prefixes in the area, which would return regular phone service to local residents would probably not occur for 'several' days. Naturally, cellular service also has to be placed in the table of priorities somewhere. About fifty percent of the cellular service in the entire Chicago area is out right now due to the fire. Other Bell companies around the nation have responded by dispatching emergency crews to come to the aid of Illinois Bell, and these out of town crews will remain on site for several weeks as needed. In addition, while the fire was in progress, executives from MCI and Sprint met with their counterparts from Illinois Bell on location and immediatly offered their full assistance and cooperation during the period of turmoil we will be facing for the next several weeks. For up to the minute announcements during the next several days, it is recommended that you call a special recorded announcement service for company employees. Called the 'Illinois Bell Communicator', this recorded announcement will be updated 4-5 times daily, and can be recieved by dialing 312-368-8000, a number at IBT Chicago Headquarters Building. It goes without saying on this forum that everyone is requested to avoid making all but emergency calls into the Chicago west suburban area for at least the next several days. And if your call is met with an 'all circuits busy' message, kindly refrain from repeated dialing attempts, as this simply clogs the network even worse. A further update will be posted here when I have news available. The last fire to occur in a telephone center was in Manhattan a few years ago. You may recall the resulting damage and confusion from that situation. The last fire *in the Chicago area* occurred in the River Grove, IL central office in 1946...then an all manual exchange. Unlike that fire, considered bad at the time, the fire in Hinsdale this past weekend was many times worse, since Hinsdale is responsible not only for its local calling area but so many of the overall network services for the Chicago area. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Saturday, May 14, 1988 1:31AM Volume 8, Issue 78 Today's Topics: Re: Chicago telco disaster? link between internet and MCImail Continuously Ringing Phone Re: Continuously Ringing Telephone (on VHF) Re: (none) (really Maryland +1 dial ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: netsys!len@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Len Rose) Subject: Re: Chicago telco disaster? Date: 12 May 88 00:15:27 GMT Reply-To: netsys!len@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Len Rose) I also noted that many of our 800 calls are now being affected. Repeated calls to the ATT repair line,have revealed that no one knows when they will be back online.. So much for the damned Bell System breakup.. -- Len Rose - len@ames.arc.nasa.gov TELECOM Digest Monday, May 16, 1988 8:44PM Volume 8, Issue 79 Today's Topics: proposed rate cut in western Fairfax Co., Va. Fiber optics Five-Year Plan TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS 2600? Hinsdale - Wednesday night update ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale - Wednesday night update Date: Wed May 11 17:14:34 1988 The cleanup and service restoration goes on, slowly it seems, yet an overview shows tremendous progress at the Illinois Bell Hinsdale Central Office, in the wake of the disasterous fire Sunday night which gutted what IBT has termed 'one of the four super centers in the Chicago area'. Bell officials have still given no date for the complete restoration of service. The closest estimate is 'several days - perhaps another week'. Wednesday brought these accomplishments -- Five additional emergency telephone centers were installed in various areas. In addition to the center located outside the burned out building at 120 N. Lincoln Street, the huge communication trailers have been moved into shopping malls and near the City Hall. These centers are operating and attended 24 hours per day. Calls are placed free of charge for anyone with urgent business. The calls are limited to a few minutes and two calls per person. The users are then requested to go to the back of the line(s) and wait their turn again. The one center open on Tuesday was literally swamped for hours with hundreds of people waiting in several lines, snaking their way forward to the phones. Illinois Bell attendants rushed around taking notes and helping the customers establish connections. The five additional centers opened on Wednesday should relieve the crowding. Moving vans and trailer trucks blocked Lincoln for several blocks Tuesday night and Wednesday. Each contained new equipment and supplies for the office which is literally being built from scratch. As a truck was unloaded, another vehicle moved up into its place. Two Greyound busses were parked nearby, serving as places for employees to eat, rest and clean up between work shifts. I was amazed to see a virtual ant-hill like atmosphere when passing by earlier today. Dozens of people were busy at their assigned tasks. Some were painting and cleaning. Others were installing lighting, air conditioning and such. Carpenters were working to intall doors and windows. Several people were working with circuit boards, assembly line fashion, passing them along to others. The main switch, which they had hoped to save, now looks like it will have to be replaced -- if not in its entirety, then with virtually one hundred percent new components. The corrosion and rust from the high humidity level of Sunday night and Monday are very evident. The work is going on 24 hours per day. Workers take breaks when they must. When they quit after several hours, others who had been eating/sleeping in the Greyhound busses take their places. Directory Assistance has been restored for everyone except in the immediate area. The data base was rerouted through another central office. Microwave dishes have been installed and are being used by the hospitals, police and fire departments in the troubled area. Although residents still have no phone service and must go out into the street to locate police help, the police are now able to communicate among themselves, as are the hospitals. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Illinois Bell employees visited schools and shopping malls throghout the area. School children were given notices to take to their parents giving the locations of the emergency communication centers. *Do Bell employees have dedication to their calling?* I would say so... the internal newsline for employees (Illinois Bell Communicator 312-368-8000) on Wednesday asked that, 'employees not specifically assigned to restoration should *NOT* come to the site to assist. The limited working space was already overcrowded with people, working in some cases only 2-3 feet apart from each other at their tasks. Yet show up they did, by the hundreds if it was otherwise their day off Tuesday or Wednesday. Some came after their regular work was done; some to assist in the public communications centers; others to man the rest/feeding busses. How badly has the fire hurt folks? Hardest hit are not the teenagers of the village of Hinsdale, as they would claim (smile), but the businesses which relied heavily on data services. 400 agents of the Illinois State Lottery are off line.... Several dozen ATM's serving the banks are off line.... Two major telemarking firms have closed 'for the duration', idleing several hundred employees.... Stock and Option guys are tearing their hair out..... Radio Shack reports that several hundred cellular units have been sold in the past two days...units that function on channels assigned to Bell's competitor and are in service.... I'll have more news for you tomorrow, and will continue to provide updates until the crisis has passed. Patrick Townson ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest Wednesday, May 18, 1988 10:44PM Volume 8, Issue 82 Today's Topics: Hinsdale - Thursday update Hinsdale Update (Friday) Special Spkr Phone wanted... More Fun With COCOTs ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: Thu May 12 18:12:59 1988 Life goes on.... Jim Eibel, Vice President Operations for Illinois Bell announced a restoration schedule for Hinsdale at a press conference on Thursday. While the news was not pleasant, it probably is realistic. Until now, IBT had responded to inquiries about service restoration by saying, 'in a few days'. The switch has been abandoned. Due to extensive corrosion from the water damage the night of the fire, the switch cannot be salvaged. Replacement will take 10-14 days of technicians working around the clock. Residents of Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills, Darien and Oak Brook who have no service should not expect to have service restored until *near the end of the month*. About 35,000 subscribers, representing a population of 100,000 people in those communities will continue to use the emergency communication trailers set up about town until further notice. Most emergency requirements in the area have been met by rerouting through the LaGrange, IL center. Emergency service for hospitals, police and fire agencies and certain other government agencies is in place now, or will be by the evening of May 15. The long distance toll center operation at Hinsdale has been rerouted to other centers for the most part, and residents of the several south suburban communities who have been only able to make strictly local calls for the past week will have their full service restored by May 15, albeit under somewhat cramped network facilities. Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. Again, some network congestion is to be expected for at least a couple weeks until the Hinsdale office is fully operational once again. WAS THE DAMAGE INTENSIFIED BY IMPROPER EMERGENCY HANDLING? The [Chicago Sun Times] for Thursday, May 12 reported an interview with an 'unnamed executive of Bell' who gave a somewhat different accounting of the tragic events last Sunday. According to this source, the fire was first noted in Springfield, IL, when an emergency alarm was automatically tripped by the Hinsdale office. This was about 4:30 PM. A human being in Springfield called the duty supervisor for Hinsdale to ask what was going on. According to the newspaper report, by the time office personnell got around to calling the Fire Department, *the lines had already burned out* -- making the call impossible. A supervisor stuck his head out the door at a minute or two before 5 PM and told a passer by to please go to the Fire Department immediatly. Apparently the person did not do so. Finally someone -- as yet unknown or unnamed -- went to the police station in Hinsdale to report the fire at about 5:15 PM...by that time, the phones throughout the area had already been dead for half an hour. If this report is true, then there need to be some very serious discussions at corporate level to find out why local employees discovered the fire *after* someone downstate manning a computer terminal, and why it took another 45 minutes for someone to go to the Fire Department personally if necessary, to rouse the firemen. Bell executives would not comment on the [Sun Times] report. For most intents and purposes then, the word is that network services for the greater Chicago area will be restored in total by Sunday evening. Local residents will be brought up gradually over the next 10-14 days as the new switch is installed. Updates can be heard on the Illinois Bell Communicator: 312-368-8000 ------------------------------ From: Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.com Subject: Hinsdale Update (Friday) Date: Fri May 13 20:54:36 1988 The plot seems to thicken.... Illinois Bell has tossed in the deck and said rehab of the old switch is impossible. Since they are getting a new one, they are going with a #5 ESS from AT&T which was delivered to the site on Friday afternoon. Working around the clock, they say it will be operational for most subscribers by the end of May, and for all subscribers by mid-June. Several additional emergency communication trailers have been installed in the area, bringing to eight the number of such locations in the west suburbs where calls can be made. In addition, various company facilities in the area have opened their doors to the public and installed several lines where calls can be made. In a distressing development, Vice President of Operations Jim Eibel admitted in a press conference Thursday that there had been a *40 minute delay* in calling the Fire Department. The [Chicago Sun Times] had testimony from an 'unnamed executive' earlier saying the delay was more like an hour... The timetable for the afternoon seems to go like this now -- At 3:50 PM, Sunday, May 8, a technician in Springfield, IL got an alarm trip from Hinsdale, saying a fire was in progress. *THAT PERSON CHOSE TO IGNORE THE ALARM*. Due to the heavy rain and high winds, it was 'assumed' the alarm was false. Shortly after 4:00 PM, other alarms in Springfield induced our technican person to think the matter over more carefully. A decision was then made to call the weekend duty supervisor in Chicago and ask what it was all about. Where the newspapers and others in the media had first been told that the employees *on location in Hinsdale* had discovered the fire, now we find out that in fact NO EMPLOYEES WERE ON DUTY. THE BUILDING WAS DESERTED. The duty supervisor drives over and goes inside; discovers the fire -- then apparently well under way -- and goes to call the Fire Department. At this point, about a quarter past four, it is discovered by the duty supervisor that they cannot call for help *because the phones were already dead, and apparently had been dead all over town for several minutes at that point.* Around 4:20 PM, someone sticks their head out the front door and says to a passer by, 'Will you please call the Fire Department to come here.' This passer by may or may not have bothered; no one knows who it was. Let's give the person credit in assuming they probably went to the nearest pay phone and *tried* to call; but finding the phone dead walked away bewildered by it all. A little while later, the person in the doorway is able to convince a motorist driving past to go to the Fire Department. That person does so, and around 4:30 PM the first firefighters show up on the scene. What an utterly wasteful, ineffecient approach. We might term this the hour that cost several million dollars, since this delay probably cost them their switch. The new #5 ESS is coming from AT&T. Although Jim Eibel refused to discuss the cost, communications experts familiar with similar equipment from other manufacturers/distributors estimate the cost at sixteen million dollars. Eibel would not confirm or deny this estimate. Here are some questions you won't hear asked/answered on the Illinois Bell Communicator Line (312-368-8000) -- 1. Why did the person in Springfield who first got the alarm tripping decide that a fire alarm did not mean a fire was in progress? Why would a fire alarm mean anything other than a fire? 2. Whether it meant fire or not, why wasn't a call placed to Chicago immediatly, instead of several minutes later when other alarms had begun tripping? Why did the Springfield person need several symptoms of trouble before being induced to call for help? 3. Why, when the Springfield person called the duty supervisor in Chicago did s/he not also call the Fire Department and report the possibility of a serious problem, and advise them a supervisor was on the way to meet them at 120 North Lincoln Street in Hinsdale? *That would have saved about half an hour right there -- and maybe saved the switch.* 4. When the duty supervisor arrived at the site, seeing as how Springfield had not bothered to tell police/fire personnel to meet them on location, how come that person did not immediatly try to phone the Fire Department? Or did they? This is not yet known to me. Apparently the supervisor did attempt to call in a minute or two, but the phones were already dead. (Remember now, at this point the fire had apparently started nearly 20 minutes before, if the alarm trip in Springfield is to be believed.) 5. Why was there no one on duty at Hinsdale? Not even a watchman? Is this lack of any personnel on duty part of the 'economy' Bell talks about when they put so many major operations all under one roof? While many's the night and weekend a watchman would sit and do nothing, his salary would have been paid many times over before last Sunday night was ended. 6. Having discovered (a) the fire, and (b) the phones all being dead, why didn't the duty supervisor *immediatly* leave the premises, get in their car and drive to a police/fire station for help? Why didn't they drive 90 miles an hour, drive through red lights, honk their horn continously, yell and scream at the top of their voice as they were driving, and otherwise get help in there fast? Instead, the supervisor leans out the front door and asks a passer-by to call for help...a few minutes pass, and a motorist going by is also asked to secure help. The motorist, name unknown, did go to the Fire Department, and should be praised for this help. But it was no skin off his nose. What if he had ignored the plea like the first one did? 6. Why the lack of adequate fire protection in the building? I can understand why automatic ceiling sprinkers would be frowned upon: if activated, they would do as much damage as the firemen did, if you want to think of the firemen's heroic efforts as 'damage' under the circumstances. I have splendid news for the heirarchy at IBT: Halon has been invented! This charming chemical can be sprayed in *great quantities* on everything in sight and its endearing charm is that it *makes fast work of fires*. Halon can be dispensed from the ceiling, through piping just like conventional water sprinklers. But what did Bell say when asked why Halon was not in place if they were so concerned about potential water damage to the switch? Well, said Jim Eibel, it would have cost too much money also.... Well now folks, you see what your false economy has cost you in real terms. And its not a matter that you could write a check today for 20 million dollars or so and like magic have everything operational tomorrow. And quite frankly, 20 million is a *low -- very low -- estimate* of the cost to Illinois Bell, to say nothing of the tremendous economic hardship caused in the areas affected. Like I say, these questions are not likely to be answered with any candor anytime soon. It may well take a forced confrontation to get the answer, which isn't likely to be broadcast on the Communicator. I began entering this message with the idea in mind that I would conclude with a demand that Jim Eibel, and the people who report immediatly to him either resign or be fired. Now I am not so sure. Maybe there are valid reasons for the 40-60 minute delay which caused the worst disaster in the history of the telephone industry to occur last week. If there are valid reasons, perhaps Jim Eibel will see this message and kindly enlighten us. But in the event Bell decides to try and recoup its losses from this event through its rate base instead of its stockholders, then I think without question Eibel and the people around him who set policy which even begins to tolerate the sloppy handling of last weekend's emergency have got to go. Spiegel Catalog is located in Oak Brook. Hundreds of employees laid off work for the duration....the phones are their lifeblood. Eight telemarketing firms in the area closed until further notice. An insurance claims processing center. Numerous sales and service organizations doing business on the phone. Travel agencies; theatres and restaurants taking reservations. All in a bind. When asked about restitution to the community, Eibel noted that the affected subscribers would receive credit on their phone bill. No one has to pay for the period - now up to a month in some cases, ha ha! - when service was not operative....as for other restitution, Eibel says its not corporate policy. No, and I can't blame him on that point: no one has a constitutional right to phone service. No one has a right to be that reliant upon it. But it was the fault of his own people -- and the policies he helped write -- which made the disaster as bad as it was. We do not have a right to demand phone service at all times; we do have a right to expect the telco to take prudent and reasonable steps to provide continuity of service; something apparently lacking in priority when 'the economy involved in operating a central office' was considered in the operation of Hinsdale. TELECOM Digest Sunday, May 22, 1988 7:33PM Volume 8, Issue 84 Today's Topics: Re: TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS? Submission for comp-dcom-telecom Re: Mass 550 numbers --------------------------------------------------------------- D ate: Thu May 19 17:12:36 1988 From: mordor!lll-crg!lll-winken!ddsw1!karl@rutgers.edu (Karl Denninger) To: codas!comp-dcom-telecom Path: ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Chicago telco disaster? Summary: One view of the impact and other items of interest. Keywords: Great fire of '88?? Message-ID: <1097@ddsw1.UUCP> Date: 19 May 88 22:12:34 GMT References: <5058@ecsvax.UUCP> Reply-To: karl@ddsw1.UUCP (Karl Denninger) Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc., Mundelein, IL Lines: 96 In article <5058@ecsvax.UUCP> dmkdmk@UNCECS.EDU (David M. Kurtiak) writes: > > >I have been trying to call an exchange in Chicago for the past two days >to no avail. A recording states that "Due to local telephone company >problems in the area you are calling, your call cannot be completed. >Please try again later". After a few calls to the AT&T operator and >their long distance repair number, I finally found out that an >Illinois Bell building serving the Chigago area caught fire and there >was serious damage. I'm told that hundreds of exchanges are affected. (!!) >Calls via MCI, Sprint, etc. also came up with similar results, just >different recordings. From what I understand, Ill. Bell is working on >the re-routing of calls through the office that burned, and service >*may* be restored by Wednesday. > >Anyone else have any info. regarding this? Is this similar to the >fire that hit the CO in New York City a couple years ago? I thought >that disasters like these were preventable to a large extent by using >halon and other measures... How can something of this degree occur >with relatively modern equipment? Enough questions, I'm just curious.. > >A posting to this newsgroup would probably be most appropriate for >discussion. Thanks for sharing! Well, we're on the outside of Chicago, and luckily a good ways from the hub that burned. Illinois Bell's central office facilities in Hinsdale were nearly destroyed by fire May 8th. The building was gutted, all the equipment (read: the switch) is being replaced. They are currently re-wiring the building, top to bottom, and have stated that 30,000 of the 35,000 lines that were completely off the air now have a dialtone -- sometimes. IBT also openly admits that service will be spotty and horrid in general for some time (probably mid-June). The fire's exact cause is still undetermined, but it is believed that it started in one of the racks on the lower floor. In any event, it was over an *hour* from the time the first alarm was seen in Springfield's monitoring station until fire equipment arrived on the scene! The fire alarm was not locally connected, there was no halon or sprinkler system, and phones were already out by the time someone tried to call it in from the local area (about 20-30 minutes after the first indication of a problem). Our first indication that something was wrong was when we went to complete a wiring job on that Sunday AM and found that the cellular phones didn't work -- all throughout the city. The real fun and games began Monday, when we tried to contact some of our business customers -- and got nowhere. The situation is not nearly back to normal yet -- several of our clients still cannot dial or receive long distance calls, our service here (50 miles away) is spotty as well. It's very common to redial a call a dozen or more times before it goes through; the remaining capacity is badly overloaded. Today things seem better -- for the first time since the fire we got a normal news feed, a good sign that our computers (and humans) can once again reach each other by phone. It also seems a little better -- calls that were a "no chance" attempt a few days ago now go through after a half-dozen tries or so.... And my car-phone is working properly again. There are a few questions I want to ask of Illinois Bell: 1) Why was that building, which is (obviously) extremely important to the integrity of the network: a) Un-manned (a single person would have prevented this) b) Not have a fire alarm connected with local fire departments c) Have no fire-suppression system installed (yeah, Halon is expensive. How expensive is something like *this*?) 2) Who's going to pay for this obvious negligence. We the customers? 3) What is IBT going to do to *prevent* future occurrances? I believe that IBT should be forced to bear, without passing through, the cost of this disaster. As with other businesses who make mistakes, they should have to pay out of their own pockets (and/or insurance, if there was any -- somehow I doubt that there was considering that they didn't even bother with a local fire alarm!) When I moved to Chicago about three years ago, it took IBT three weeks to get two residential lines correctly installed. My phone would ring and no one would be on the other end -- and calls to my number would ring someone else's phone! IBT failed to make good on their "will be working by xxx" time at least a half-dozen times -- and when the phone finally did ring, my custom calling features were missing. Two more weeks elapsed before those worked, and even then the "*70" disable for call waiting was inoperative (this they told me they *couldnt* fix). That little episode left me with a strong feeling that IBT was incapable of performing their job with competence. This fiasco leaves no room for doubt. Ps: To all of the IBT employees who are working right now to restore to normalcy the phones in Chicagoland -- a big thanks. I have a few more choice words for IBT management, but those I will keep to myself. -- Karl Denninger | Data: +1 312 566-8912 Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910 ...ihnp4!ddsw1!karl | "Quality solutions for work or play" TELECOM Digest Friday, May 27, 1988 1:00AM Volume 8, Issue 87 Today's Topics: Submission Toll-free zone Re: TOLLS/LOCAL CALLS? Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Re: Explain why.... Re: Special Spkr Phone wanted... How are V&H Coordinates Computed, Who Computes Them? Re: CCITT bis Phone Company Billing Question 2 line wiring ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: gast@CS.UCLA.EDU (David Gast) Subject: Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: 24 May 88 23:48:29 GMT Reply-To: lanai!gast@seismo.CSS.GOV (David Gast) In article <8805121812.1.137@cup.portal.com> Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM writes: > > [discussion of the fire at IBT]. >Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored >and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. > It seems to me that order of the restoration of services is slightly mixed up. Certainly, emergency service should be restored first, but why should cellular service get priority over regular phone lines? IBT's primary responsibility is to provide telephone service to the people and businesses within its service area. The fire has obviously disrupted its ability to provide telephone service. Fixing competetive service first seems to indicate further abdication of IBT's responsibilities. (No one on duty, no fire fighting equipment, etc are others). This abdication will be only more severe if IBT asks the rate payers to pay for the damage. I can see the next ad for IBT's cellular service: Buy a cellular phone today. Don't be without service after the next fire. If IBT does not fix cellular service, then cellular customers could go to other companies, but regular customers do not have the option of switching phone companies. It seems unfair. These opinions may only be my own, but I hope the Illinois Public Service Commision (or whatever its name is) adopts similar feelings. David Gast gast@cs.ucla.edu {ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!gast TELECOM Digest Tuesday, May 31, 1988 6:42PM Volume 8, Issue 88 Today's Topics: New AT&T dialable countries Why cellular was restored so fast Re: Submission Various Three wire lines (was 2 line wiring) mnemonics AT&T announces new phone systems speaker phones Looking for an answering machine ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: covert%covert.DEC@decwrl.dec.com (John R. Covert) Date: 27 May 88 07:10 Subject: Why cellular was restored so fast Although the fact that cellular is a competetive service may have been somewhere in the equation, the real reason cellular service was restored so quickly is two-fold: 1. It allowed IBT to use cellular phones in emergency phone centers to provide temporary service to people whose service had not yet been restored. 2. Cellular service is really easy to restore. The cellular switch for Chicago was not in Hinsdale; all that had to be done to restore cellular service was to reconnect the land-line facilities going through the Hinsdale office which interconnected the cell sites in the area. If there actually was a cell site in Hinsdale, replacing it involved bringing in only about two or three new 19 inch racks, and hooking them up to power, trunk facilities, and the antennas on the roof -- something that can be done in just a few hours. /john ------------------------------ TELECOM Digest Wednesday, June 1, 1988 8:28PM Volume 8, Issue 89 Today's Topics: Intellidial Re: European billing and privacy Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Re: Three wire lines no 215-976 from Delaware TT charges dropped. Re: Another reason why cellular was restored so fast Re: TELECOM Digest V8 #88 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Re: Hinsdale - Thursday update Date: 1 Jun 88 05:38:48 GMT Reply-To: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu (James Fitzwilliam) In article <12629@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU> lanai!gast@seismo.CSS.GOV (David Gast) writes: * *In article <8805121812.1.137@cup.portal.com> Patrick_A_Townson@cup.portal.COM writes: *> *> [discussion of the fire at IBT]. *>Pagers, beepers, cellular service and similar functions are largely restored *>and the restoration will be complete by the evening of May 15. *> * *It seems to me that order of the restoration of services is slightly *mixed up. Certainly, emergency service should be restored first, but *why should cellular service get priority over regular phone lines? One of the earlier articles on this (fascinating) topic mentioned that in cases of wide service outage the telco often sets up cellular convenience phones in the affected neighborhoods, but that in this case since the cellular service was zapped in the same fire, this was not possible. By restoring cellular service first, IBT can set up emergency phone stations pending full service restoration. Disclaimer: This answer is based on what I've read on the subject, so if I'm completely off target I welcome correction! Another service this fire has interrupted that I haven't seen mentioned is GEnie access in several neighborhoods; alternate numbers are being provided. (My source is "New on GEnie") I assume this also affects CompuServe, The Source, etc. etc. Hopefully this incident will prompt the telcos' insurance carriers to apply pressure to get adequate fire protection installed for the switching centers -- far less expensive than the losses that could occur. James domain: syap@tut.cc.rochester.edu path: rochester!ur-tut!syap "Piano is my forte" (-: GEnie: FITZWILLIAM ------------------------------ From: gatech!ihnp4!ihlpf!jjs@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Sowa) Subject: Re: Another reason why cellular was restored so fast Date: 1 Jun 88 13:45:50 GMT Reply-To: gatech!ihlpf!jjs@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (54442-Sowa,J.J.) In article <8805271115.AA08520@decwrl.dec.com> covert@covert.DEC.COM (John R. Covert) writes: >Although the fact that cellular is a competetive service may have been >somewhere in the equation, the real reason cellular service was restored >so quickly is two-fold: > >1. It allowed IBT to use cellular phones in emergency phone centers to > provide temporary service to people whose service had not yet been > restored. > >2. Cellular service is really easy to restore. The cellular switch > for Chicago was not in Hinsdale; all that had to be done to restore > cellular service was to reconnect the land-line facilities going through > the Hinsdale office which interconnected the cell sites in the area. If > there actually was a cell site in Hinsdale, replacing it involved bringing > in only about two or three new 19 inch racks, and hooking them up to > power, trunk facilities, and the antennas on the roof -- something that > can be done in just a few hours. > >/john 1. The Hinsdale, Illinois Office (does/normally should have) provided distribution services to both the wireline and non-wireline cellular providers. Even though from the location of the MTSO the wireline office was hit harder. 2. The Ameritech Mobile Hinsdale cell site was reconfigured to provide service to the outage area. Cellular is used also by emergency services not only for the business class. Restoration service was enhanced by site personal having the ability to communicate with distribution services. 3. Evan Richards, the Illinois Bell Telephone representative handling the disaster recovery for the Hinsdale office, recently lateraled from Ameritech Mobile Communications Inc. to the IBT side of the Ameritech Corporation. 4. The level of service provided to cellular was not initially at normal high quality since it was only patched also. It is also easier to patch one or two light guide cables and get service restored faster then having to engineer, ship, install, test, and cutover new frames. Jim ------------------------------ These were the articles during May, 1988. A few minor follow up articles appeared in June, 1988. Most of the reports were written by myself from Portal Communications. As a resident in Chicago, I was affected first hand by the fire, although my personal service was not disrupted. As a point of information, on May 18, 1989 (Thursday), phones in the same area were down for four hours, from 9:30 AM until 1:40 PM due to some unidentified failure in the computer in that phone office. See Digest Volume 9 #170-171 and later issues for this report. Patrick Townson TELECOM Digest Moderator (jsol was Moderator at the time of the fire in May, 1988). telecom@eecs.nwu.edu ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V23 #231 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 8 21:18:17 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i491IHD20632; Sat, 8 May 2004 21:18:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 21:18:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405090118.i491IHD20632@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 #232 TELECOM Digest Sat, 8 May 2004 21:18:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 232 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Laura Halliday) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Mark Crispin) Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines; VoIP to Play Nice (F Atkinson) Re: GE Phone Issues (Craig) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (Dave Close) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (Tony P.) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (John Levine) Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? (John Levine) Last Laugh! Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD CLOSED (J Galt) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: marsgal42@hotmail.com (Laura Halliday) Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: 8 May 2004 11:15:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Mark Crispin wrote in message news:: > The Canadian House of Commons is considering a bill, C-2, which will > make it illegal to receive foreign satellite TV and radio programming > in Canada. Canada already has censorship of US newspapers and US TV > programming carried on carried on Canadian cable TV systems. Huh? The Bill (did you actually read it?) makes it illegal to import gear for decrypting satellite signals unless the Powers That Be say it's OK. This has *nothing* to do with actually receiving the signals or watching the programs -- it just makes it a little harder to do. If al-Jazeera, Telemundo et al were in the clear, Bill C-2 wouldn't apply. Nor do I see any provisions for retroactivity, though owners of DirectTV and similar systems have been hassled under other legislation. In Canada it's legal to receive any signal (AMPS cell phone users take note!). But, with fairly narrow exceptions, it's illegal to divulge what you hear. It's all in the Radio Act and General Radio Regulations. Since the Feds are likely to call an election in the next few days, this bill is unlikely to pass anyway. It will die on the order paper. Oh, BTW: *what* censorship? Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..." ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 11:56:42 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Fri, 7 May 2004, dannykewl wrote: > In my opinion, this act will not affect your ability to watch/listen > to foreign broadcasts. Did you read the text of the act? It specifically bans watching/listening to foreign encrypted broadcasts -- regardless of whether or not the receiver is authorized by the service provider -- and establishes draconian penalties. Currently, there is a grey area if the receiver is not a "pirate" receiver; that is, it is authorized by the service provider and someone is paying its bills. The typical trick is to use a relative's address in the US to get your bills. Although this arrangement is technically illegal, the Canadian courts have not enforced it. They've only gone against the producers and users of illegally modified receivers that steal the signal without paying. Although the Canadian government has authorized Canadian service providers to carry some foreign language channels, the Canadian satellite companies refuse to do so on the grounds that there isn't enough of a customer base. The Canadian government does not allow any of its service providers to carry FOX News, and the state-run media vigorously denounces FOX News on a regular basis. Canadians watch FOX News to get an alternative to the state-run media; and for the same reason that Americans smuggle liquor-filled chocolates, 222s, and Cuban cigars from Canada -- because it's forbidden. On Sat, 8 May 2004, jared wrote: > Many countries recognise a danger that American dross will swamp their > own culture. Canada not only shares a border but also a language (for > the majority) and so is particularly at risk. I find this an interesting comment, coming from Rupert Murdoch's home country. I'll grant that Murdoch is now a US citizen and has moved News Corp. operations in all but name from Australia to the US. > Culture aside, money talks. Exporting movies and radio & TV > programming is gravy for the USA exporter as their own country's large > market has paid for production costs. It's hard on the other country's > producers as they have to pay all costs for their work across a small > market vice import pricing at marginal cost. Hence we see entrenched > media interests putting their cash on the line to block imports under > the guise of cultural protection. Most Canadian media sucks. The "Bob & Doug McKenzie" parody on "Second City TV" (and the movie "Strange Brew") of Canadian content was, like many parodies, funny because there was so much truth to it. The only really worthwhile Canadian network is APTN (aboriginal people's television network) which I wish would be carried on US satellite providers instead of the dreary NWI (put together by the Canadian state-run media and recent sold to Al Gore). Given a choice, Canadians vote with their channel selectors. Even in the far north of Canada, the cable networks offer the Seattle ABC, CBS, and NBC stations (forget UPN, WB, and especially FOX). The most recent time I was in Canada was during the east coast blackout last year. I was in central BC and driving south. The state-run media was full of coverage about the blackout, and about how those evil Americans were blaming Canada for it. They came back to that point every 10 minutes or so, all based upon one quote from a Consolidated Edison spokesman: "the problem started somewhere in the midwest, possibly Ontario." They only played the quote once or twice, perhaps realizing how weak the actual quote made their case, but harped over and over again about how Canadian power authorities had proven that it started at a substation in Manhattan. As it turned out, the problem started at a small power company in Ohio, spread to Ontario, and from there took down New York and the rest of the eastern US and Canada. The power grid is completely interconnected. It indeed was not "Canada's fault", but this stuff about a Manhattan substation was bullshit. The Canadian state-run media made it up. Canadian radio is not nearly as obnoxious nearer to the border; the competition with US stations forces Canadian radio to be interesting. It's only when you're in the interior, out of range of the foreign influence, that you get the relentless propaganda. Perhaps that's why many people in the interior don't listen to radio. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax machines and VoIP to play nice Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 18:39:48 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net I guess that my question on this one is why would you want to perpetuate fax machines? Why not just send to a printer (via the Internet) in some other part of the world. VOIP seems to be like killing an ant with a sledge hammer for FAX. Maybe create a subdomain that points to the printer. Example: fax.mishmash.com would point to a printer within my company. All that would be necessary is to come up with the software to transmit the images directly over the Internet. If it's on paper, use a scanner and transmit it to a printer somewhere. In my opinion, FAX should become obsolete. It's going to outlive its usefulness. Fred On Fri, 07 May 2004 11:23:54 -0400, VOIP News wrote: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43548 > While VoIP is a fantastic new toy for many, it often doesn't play > particularly well with older copper reliant technology (like many > security systems > ). Many broadband > users have often reported problems with fax machines working properly > with their VoIP service. One user in our VoIP forum > > finds that by using a DSL filter in reverse orientation, their fax > problems all but disappeared. The question now is, does the same > method allow users to conquer one of the last great VoIP roadblocks: > allowing your DirecTV/Tivo modem to dial out via your VoIP connection. > Article plus comments found at: > http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43548 > 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: cphite@hotmail.com (Craig) Subject: Re: GE Phone Issues Date: 8 May 2004 11:40:26 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Tony P. wrote in message news:... > In article , cphite@hotmail.com > says: >> I have a GE 24.ghz phone that's been giving me some issues; I've tried >> contacting service (it's made by a company called Thomson) but so far I've >> not been able to get through, so I'm hoping someone here can offer some >> suggestions ... > Welcome to the world of Thompson Electronics, by far the crappiest > electronic gear out there. I've got a 4 year old GE television that's > starting to red out. Their customer service is just as bas as their products. > But then, my other gripe is my RS 900MHz phone that supposedly > understands CLID on CW. But I don't CLID on CW - and listening on a > regular phone I don't hear the data stream and I should. Verizon has > been unable to figure out the problem. >> The problems started sometime after we got our DSL service turned on >> at a new apartment, but I think it's the phone and not the line. >> Anyway ... >> The main issue is with the answering machine. It will hang up on >> people who try to leave a message more than half the time, usually >> right after the beep but occasionally while they're recording. Also, >> there have been some occasions when we'll pick up the phone to answer >> a call and it seems to just hang up at that point. > Sounds like the volume level is low. You've got DSL so your loop length > is more than likely < 15K feet. Might be a bad phone. I asked my phone company about this and the loop length is less at our new place than our old place. I'm almost certain it's the phone at this point ... >> Also, if there is a phone message and we try to listen to it, it will >> sometimes stop playing partway through and "Initializing..." will be >> displayed on the base. If I remove the handset from the cradle and >> try playing the same message, it works perfectly. If I put the >> handset back in the cradle and try to play the same message, it is >> interrupted as before. This is why I suspect the phone and not the >> line. > Yes, it's sounding more and more like a bad handset. It looses sync with > the base too often. Over the past few days it's gotten worse - the thing won't play back messages all the time even with the handset off the cradle. >> I suspected that it might be an issue with the handset, but I've >> switched that -- it's one of those models with the main base and a >> secondary base that can be placed in another room. >> Any suggestions would be appreciated. I suspect it's the phone, but >> don't want to buy a new one if it might be a line problem. The phone >> company did check the line and found no problems. > Out of curiosity, you're not by chance running a wireless network are > you? They sit right on the 2.4GHz band where phones do. Talk about a > problem just waiting to happen. I considered that, and tried it for a while with the wireless turned off, and then with my modem physically turned off -- same issues. I think at this point I'll just get a new phone. Thanks for taking the time to help :) ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: 8 May 2004 17:41:45 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Michael D. Sullivan writes: > The big difference between RR/Truck and telecom companies is that the RR > and trucking companies are not assessed separate charges by regulators > based on their customers' usage to, for example, subsdize the > construction of loading docks for schools, libraries, or hospitals or to > subsidize rural area delivery services or rural track-laying. That's > what USF, in effect, does: it subsidizes services and facilities > unrelated to the telecom carrier who is required to pay (internet wiring > of schools and libraries and broadband access for rural healthcare). The biggest difference is that, except for some freight charges, the prices charged are not regulated in most industries. There certainly is a cost imposed on those businesses by regulation, but they are free to adjust their actual prices to compensate whenever they please. Telcos, at least the ILECs, have to file tariffs, then can't easily adjust them, so they use any subterfuge they can to get extra revenue. FedEx and UPS add a fuel surcharge. But they announce the charge in advance and apply it to individual shipments, not to the overhead cost of maintaining an account. I have no objection in principal to any vendor charging prices which are sufficient to make a profit. But if their prices are regulated, then all of those prices need to be subject to the same rules. As it is, we have no way to audit a particular fee to determine if it bears any relationship at all to the declared costs. We know that, because such fees vary between carriers and exceed the direct costs imposed by the regulations, each carrier is inserting its own profit margin. If the industry were not regulated, I would be free to insist on a contract with a fixed price that could not be changed without advance notice and agreement. But I don't get to have an individual contract with a telco, I can only agree to be subject to the tariff. Even other regulated industries, like airlines, are free to offer special pricing to large customers. (I have no doubt that telcos do that too, but they have to do it in a backdoor way.) Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises." -- Teresa Heinz Kerry ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 19:09:40 GMT In article , janetk@ieee.org says: > My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA > datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local > access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make > her long distance calls. Recently, she cannot use the service because > her home phone number is being blocked and the service does not > recognize her as a subscriber. She has tried *82 and *67 options and > has repeatedly contacted both companies. Each company blames the > other for the problem and will not initiate a call on her behalf. > She is a 90 year old woman who lives by herself with her children out > of state. It has been over a month since she has been able to call > them using her USA datanet access. I have also tried calling the > companies, the FCC and the Ohio PUC with very little success. > Any idea on getting her number unblocked? We're at a stalemate. Probably SBC isn't transmitting the ANI correctly to USA Datanet -- it has to transmit the exact telephone number or else it won't allow you onto the network. That being said, I think they have a mechanism built in where you can dial into the 800 number, key your phone number and pin and then make your call. That being said, I don't think a 90 year old wants to dial a string of 35 digits to make a long distance call. (That's 11 to dial the 800 number using 1+, then ten for the phone num, 4 for the pin, then ten for the destination number.) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My suggestion would be instead of > wasting your time and hers trying to correct a problem with a long > distance service which may not be the best deal around anyway, just > get her converted to some other company at more or less the same > prices or possibly a little better. SBC comes to mind. You could get > her converted to one-plus dialing on SBC for three or four cents per > minute, depending on her volume of calls. Check through the various > SBC plans and choose what is appropriate for her needs. Or if you will > tell us here about how much long distance calling she does in a > month's time, I am sure guys here could help you plan her package. SBC > is just an example; there are many dial one plus arrangements which > bill through her regular phone account for convenience and are cheap > enough. DO NOT get her all wrapped up in situations where she has to > dial either an 800 number or some other 'local access number' first. PAT] USA Datanet worked for me because I have speed dialers on all phones and a local access number or three. But I don't really use it other than for my 800 service now because I've since switched to Verizon's unlimited ld plan. ------------------------------ Date: 8 May 2004 23:57:58 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA > datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local > access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make > her long distance calls. Their 800 access number is not particularly cheap, about 14 cents/min. If she makes as much as an hour a month of calls, I'd suggest she sign up for SBC's "Just Call 60 II" plan which is $3 for the first 60 minutes per month, then 7 cpm after that, billed on her local phone bill so there's no separate check to write or bill to pay. If she makes fewer calls than that, I'd suggest looking at Cognigen's Cognicall card which is 6.9 cpm with 800 access, billed to her credit card with no monthly fee or minimum. I've used it for dialaround for ages since their international rates are quite good. See http://ld.net/products/?product=cogcall 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: 9 May 2004 00:16:50 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > I live in the southern NJ (856) area code. Can someone provide me with > the best rate on flat rate phone service? IE local and long distance? > Can you also tell me if the service provides DSL? The only local telco down there is Verizon, so anyone else will be reselling VZ's local service, perhaps bundled with someone else's long distance. VZ's Freedom package is $55 for your phone, unlimited (for some version of unlimited) calls anywhere in the US and Canada, and a bunch of features like voice mail and call waiting. DSL would be another $30, but VZ says it's not available on your line. If you want VZ wireless, they'll bundle that in and give a modest discount, too. My mother in law has that plan which works fine. You might be able to piece together something a little cheaper from other vendors, but it's nice to have a single place to complain when something breaks. 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. ------------------------------ From: John David Galt Subject: Last Laugh! Re: Newspaper Promotes Nonsense ANOTHER THREAD CLOSED Date: Sat, 08 May 2004 15:43:58 -0700 Organization: Diogenes the Cynic Hot-Tubbing Society Paul Vader wrote: > If I want to participate in a gun debate, I'll go to a newsgroup with > 'gun' in the name. I'm in a moderated group with 'telecom' in it because I > expect to see stuff related to telecommunications there, not flame bait. * snip > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I am thinking about starting an 'alt' > newsgroup for the political discussions which get in here, and am > trying to decide what name to give it. Make your suggestions, please. How about using alt.usenet.kooks for this purpose? (For the uninitiated, AUK is a group of vandals, mostly hiding behind fake addresses, who claim the "right" to crosspost random chatter anywhere they please within Usenet. It's about time somebody returned the favor in THEIR backyard.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Or what about alt.usenet.cooks where guys could post recipies and instructions for cooking dinner. I hope people would not get 'cooks' confused with 'kooks'. PAT] ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #232 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 9 18:20:59 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i49MKxP28826; Sun, 9 May 2004 18:20:59 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 18:20:59 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405092220.i49MKxP28826@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 #233 TELECOM Digest Sun, 9 May 2004 18:21:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 233 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting (SELLCOM Tech support) Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting (Gene S. Berkowitz) Multi-Line POTS Phone Switch, Controlled by Serial/Parallel Port (Bakhash) Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? (Dave Hauss) Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash (Dave Close) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV, Radio Programming (Cline) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV, Radio Programming (Crispin) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (Wesrock) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (jak) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 03:42:08 GMT mandm@flashnet.it (Mario) posted on that vast internet thingie: > Hello, > I have an ADSL wifi network, and in a laptop I have a usr5410 wifi > turbo pc card, which is green enabled , link quality 100%, signal > strength 84% and it sees the right mac address adsl gateway on the > network, but if I do a ping to the wifi access point or try to > navigate it doesnt seam to transmit at all. > Why? What maybe the problem? Check that any security features are the same on both. Start by making sure that security features are off, but don't live that way once you get it working. Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 14:57:10 -0400 In article , mandm@flashnet.it says: > Hello, > I have an ADSL wifi network, and in a laptop I have a usr5410 wifi > turbo pc card, which is green enabled , link quality 100%, signal > strength 84% and it sees the right mac address adsl gateway on the > network, but if I do a ping to the wifi access point or try to > navigate it doesnt seam to transmit at all. > Why? What maybe the problem? > Thanks, > Mario Missing WEP key, perhaps? --Gene ------------------------------ From: cadet@alum.mit.edu (Dave Bakhash) Subject: Multi-Line POTS Phone Switch, Controlled by Serial or Parallel Port Date: 9 May 2004 12:24:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I need a black-box device that can do the following: For some number of phone lines, control whether the lines are in the open- or closed-circuit position, ideally using a parallel port to control the positions of the switches. The black-box device will probably be powered, of course. Basically, I have a program that I would like to use to sometimes disconnect certain telephone lines that are otherwise in the default (closed-circuit) position. The application would have to be able to both open and close these connections, and again, I think that the parallel port would be the ideal way. Does anyone know of something like a 4-, 8-, or even 1- or 16-port device that's nothing more than a bank of RJ11 jacks that has can be switched externally via parallel port? If not, would it make more sense to just have a simple wire switch, and connect it serially to the RJ11 jacks? dave ------------------------------ From: dahauss@unlimitedsounds.com (Dave Hauss) Subject: Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? Date: 9 May 2004 07:37:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com DSL is available on my line and I have ordered it. BUT what about MCI Neighborhood? My relatives who live right near me have it .. I think it was only $39.95? then can I still get DSL? John Levine wrote in message news:: >> I live in the southern NJ (856) area code. Can someone provide me with >> the best rate on flat rate phone service? IE local and long distance? >> Can you also tell me if the service provides DSL? > The only local telco down there is Verizon, so anyone else will be > reselling VZ's local service, perhaps bundled with someone else's long > distance. > VZ's Freedom package is $55 for your phone, unlimited (for some > version of unlimited) calls anywhere in the US and Canada, and a bunch > of features like voice mail and call waiting. DSL would be another > $30, but VZ says it's not available on your line. If you want VZ > wireless, they'll bundle that in and give a modest discount, too. My > mother in law has that plan which works fine. > You might be able to piece together something a little cheaper from > other vendors, but it's nice to have a single place to complain when > something breaks. > 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. ------------------------------ From: dave@compata.com (Dave Close) Subject: Re: Missouri Moves to Ban 'UnFees' - Part of Larger Backlash Date: 8 May 2004 17:41:45 -0700 Organization: Compata, Costa Mesa, California Michael D. Sullivan writes: > The big difference between RR/Truck and telecom companies is that the RR > and trucking companies are not assessed separate charges by regulators > based on their customers' usage to, for example, subsdize the > construction of loading docks for schools, libraries, or hospitals or to > subsidize rural area delivery services or rural track-laying. That's > what USF, in effect, does: it subsidizes services and facilities > unrelated to the telecom carrier who is required to pay (internet wiring > of schools and libraries and broadband access for rural healthcare). The biggest difference is that, except for some freight charges, the prices charged are not regulated in most industries. There certainly is a cost imposed on those businesses by regulation, but they are free to adjust their actual prices to compensate whenever they please. Telcos, at least the ILECs, have to file tariffs, then can't easily adjust them, so they use any subterfuge they can to get extra revenue. FedEx and UPS add a fuel surcharge. But they announce the charge in advance and apply it to individual shipments, not to the overhead cost of maintaining an account. I have no objection in principal to any vendor charging prices which are sufficient to make a profit. But if their prices are regulated, then all of those prices need to be subject to the same rules. As it is, we have no way to audit a particular fee to determine if it bears any relationship at all to the declared costs. We know that, because such fees vary between carriers and exceed the direct costs imposed by the regulations, each carrier is inserting its own profit margin. If the industry were not regulated, I would be free to insist on a contract with a fixed price that could not be changed without advance notice and agreement. But I don't get to have an individual contract with a telco, I can only agree to be subject to the tariff. Even other regulated industries, like airlines, are free to offer special pricing to large customers. (I have no doubt that telcos do that too, but they have to do it in a backdoor way.) Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA +1 714 434 7359 dave@compata.com dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu "Political campaigns are the graveyard of real ideas and the birthplace of empty promises." -- Teresa Heinz Kerry Dave Close, Compata, Costa Mesa CA "Politics is the business of getting dave@compata.com, +1 714 434 7359 power and privilege without dhclose@alumni.caltech.edu possessing merit." - P. J. O'Rourke ------------------------------ From: Stanley Cline Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Organization: Myself, in Dunwoody/Sandy Springs/Atlanta, GA, USA :) Reply-To: sc1-news@roamer1.org Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 13:48:06 GMT On Sat, 8 May 2004 11:56:42 -0700, Mark Crispin wrote: > Did you read the text of the act? It specifically bans > watching/listening to foreign encrypted broadcasts -- regardless of > whether or not the receiver is authorized by the service provider -- > and establishes draconian penalties. What does this do to Americans crossing the border who have perfectly legal (in the US) satellite radio or TV equipment installed in their vehicles? Do I need to pull my Sirius receiver out of my car before crossing the border? Do truckers with DirecTV need to do the same? (I know there are all sorts of exemptions and reciprocal arrangements for things like amateur radios/licenses, cell phones, etc., but I can't seem to find one that covers this particular situation.) Stanley Cline -- sc1 at roamer1 dot org -- http://www.roamer1.org/ "Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time." -/usr/games/fortune ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 12:05:36 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Sat, 8 May 2004, Laura Halliday wrote: > The Bill (did you actually read it?) makes it illegal to import gear > for decrypting satellite signals unless the Powers That Be say it's > OK. You have to read more than just the added text. You also have to work out the effect of those modifications to existing law. It's as bad as C-68 (Canada's draconian gun law); lots of people *think* they know what it means (including the MPs who passed it) but what the law actually says is totally different. > If al-Jazeera, Telemundo et al were in the clear, Bill C-2 wouldn't > apply. But they aren't, and that's where C-2 gets you. It is illegal to operate equipment to decrypt encrypted communications unless you are paying a Canadian service provider for it. Actually, it's always been illegal in Canada. However, Canadian courts have ruled that there's no offense if the signal was not actually "stolen"; that is, if the service provider is being paid for the programming and the only issue is operating it on the wrong side of the border. This creates a grey market, and C-2 is aimed at closing it. Governments hate grey markets. They hurt the protected domestic markets as much as the black market does, but unlike the black market it is almost impossible to get convictions against grey marketeers. > Since the Feds are likely to call an election in the next few days, > this bill is unlikely to pass anyway. It will die on the order paper. You should hope so. Canada has been taking some fairly alarming steps down the road to authoritarianism in recent years. > Oh, BTW: *what* censorship? I personally witnessed an incident in which US newspapers were blocked at the border and US TV channels on Canadian cable censored, because they covered something that the Canadian government did not want disclosed to its population. Of course, individuals brought in newspapers and you could tune in the US channels over the air, and find out what the Canadian government didn't want you to hear. But then again, in the mid-1930s you could listen to the BBC in Germany without getting arrested. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Maybe someone can explain this to me. *Many* years ago (perhaps 30-40 years ago) when I would go to visit friends who lived in Detroit, we would then drive across the river to see friends (of my friends) who lived in Windsor, Ontario. Or I would sometimes take the local bus which went from the Greyhound Station in Detroit to Windsor. I think it cost 25 cents. But from Windsor, the bus continued on to Sandwhich, Ontario where there was or is a General Motors plant. I guess a lot of people lived in Detroit but worked at GM in Sandwhich. What would happen *today* if I made that little trip and had a satellite radio I was carrying along? Would it get confiscated, or would I have to turn it off and not listen to it, etc? Are people in USA (or Canada) allowed these days to travel back and forth to go to work or do shopping or has Bush (or the Canadian authorities) put a stop to all that? Back in the 1960's and 70's, when the bus from Detroit going to GM in Sandwhich went past the international checkpoint, everyone would get off the bus except for the driver who took the bus to the other side, take some sort of ID card from their pocket and hold it in plain view as they walked past the persons handling the checkpoint, who, so far as I know, never looked at (or only casually glanced at the ID card.) Everyone walked past, went and re-boarded the bus and the trip continued for the few more blocks to the bus station in Windsor. I suppose it is a lot more difficult these days, with everyone being either a Patriot or a Terrorist. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Wesrock@aol.com Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 09:16:57 EDT Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help In a message dated Sat, 08 May 2004 19:09:40 GMT, Tony P. < kd1s@nospamplease.verizon.reallynospam.net> writes: > That being said, I don't think a 90 year old wants to dial a string of > 35 digits to make a long distance call. (That's 11 to dial the 800 > number using 1+, then ten for the phone num, 4 for the pin, then ten for > the destination number.) I think you are guilty of thinking all older people are doddering incompetents, which doesn't seem to be borne out by the facts. Certainly some 90-year-olds are doddering incompetents, but so are some 20-year-olds. The television programs seem to make a point of warning "the elderly" about "scams" because "the elderly are more likely to be taken in." This statement appears to be contrary to fact, or only very marginally true, since reports on the percentage of people conned by "scams" (telephone or otherwise) is pretty small for all ages and for "the elderly" is only a fraction of a percentage point higher than the rate for persons of all ages. "The elderly" are said to be "more trusting," although they have more experience of the world and should be more skeptical, not "more trusting," and in my observation that is true of most "elderly" people. I had an aunt who died at 96 and I could never detect any sign that she lost any of her competence right up to her finally illness. How many people of any age want to dial a string of 35 digits? Why would a 90-year-old person find it more undesirable than a younger person? Wes Leatherock wesrock@aol.com wleathus@yahoo.com ------------------------------ From: jak Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 07:54:31 -0700 John Levine wrote in message news:telecom23.232.7@telecom-digest.org: >> My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA >> datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local >> access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make >> her long distance calls. > Their 800 access number is not particularly cheap, about 14 cents/min. > If she makes as much as an hour a month of calls, I'd suggest she > sign up for SBC's "Just Call 60 II" plan which is $3 for the first > 60 minutes per month, then 7 cpm after that, billed on her local phone > bill so there's no separate check to write or bill to pay. > If she makes fewer calls than that, I'd suggest looking at Cognigen's > Cognicall card which is 6.9 cpm with 800 access, billed to her credit > card with no monthly fee or minimum. I've used it for dialaround for > ages since their international rates are quite good. See > http://ld.net/products/?product=cogcall > 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. Thanks for your input, but the 800 number she uses gives her unlimited minutes for 1.49, same as a local access number. She only calls 4 or 5 people, has the numbers programmed and can talk for hours without clock watching. She loves the service, as do I. We're just trying to find out if SBC or USA datanet is causing the problem. If SBC doesn't transmit her number properly, she is also going to have potential problems with her modem dialup and ISP provider. Tony P. wrote in message news:telecom23.232.6@telecom-digest.org: > In article , janetk@ieee.org says: >> My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA >> datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local >> access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make >> her long distance calls. Recently, she cannot use the service because >> her home phone number is being blocked and the service does not >> recognize her as a subscriber. She has tried *82 and *67 options and >> has repeatedly contacted both companies. Each company blames the >> other for the problem and will not initiate a call on her behalf. > Probably SBC isn't transmitting the ANI correctly to USA Datanet -- it > has to transmit the exact telephone number or else it won't allow you > onto the network. Bingo! But how do we correct this? She could potentially have dialup ISP problems as well. > That being said, I think they have a mechanism built in where you can > dial into the 800 number, key your phone number and pin and then make > your call. She can't even use this -- the 800 won't let her through. > That being said, I don't think a 90 year old wants to dial a string of > 35 digits to make a long distance call. (That's 11 to dial the 800 > number using 1+, then ten for the phone num, 4 for the pin, then ten for > the destination number.) >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My suggestion would be instead of >> wasting your time and hers trying to correct a problem with a long >> distance service which may not be the best deal around anyway, just >> get her converted to some other company at more or less the same >> prices or possibly a little better. SBC comes to mind. You could get >> her converted to one-plus dialing on SBC for three or four cents per >> minute, depending on her volume of calls. Check through the various >> SBC plans and choose what is appropriate for her needs. Or if you will >> tell us here about how much long distance calling she does in a >> month's time, I am sure guys here could help you plan her package. SBC >> is just an example; there are many dial one plus arrangements which >> bill through her regular phone account for convenience and are cheap >> enough. DO NOT get her all wrapped up in situations where she has to >> dial either an 800 number or some other 'local access number' first. >> PAT] > USA Datanet worked for me because I have speed dialers on all phones > and a local access number or three. But I don't really use it other > than for my 800 service now because I've since switched to Verizon's > unlimited ld plan. We both love USA datanet unlimited minutes and no sign up charges. We both make few calls which tend to be long - no clock watching, no unexpected fees or bills. She doesn't mind the extra numbers and is very capable of programming her speed dial. If SBC is not transmitting her number, she could potentially have problems with all types of phone services. Thanks, Janet K. ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #233 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 10 17:29:21 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4ALTLg12092; Mon, 10 May 2004 17:29:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 17:29:21 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405102129.i4ALTLg12092@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 #234 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 May 2004 17:25:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 234 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #432, May 10, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Obituary: Comedian Alan King (Lisa Hancock) Software to Analyze AT&T OCDD Raw Data (from FTP feed) (Craig Stevenson) Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax machines and VoIP to play nice (CharlesH) Re: Firewall (Pix) Not Getting IP (DHCP) on SBC DSL (Daniel J McDonald) AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Lisa Hancock) Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offering With New, Higher-Speed Service (FL@L&ER) Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? (Steven J Sobol) Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? (John Levine) 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, 10 May 2004 10:31:10 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #432, May 10, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 432: May 10, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Profits Up at BCE and Telus ** Call-Net Swings to Loss ** MTS Profits Boosted by Bell West Sale ** Higher Expenses Push Microcell to Loss ** BCE Selling Emergis, But Not MTS ** Push-to-Talk Goes International ** CRTC to Review TPIA Rates ** Bell's Revised Tariffs Don't Pass Muster ** Part of Craig-Look Suit Dismissed ** Chatham Internet Project to Use SR Wireless ** Canada Payphone Delays Reorg Plan ** Mitel Completes Financing Deals ** Telus Wins $66 Million IP Contract ** Utility Telcos Form Council ** CAIP Merges with CATA ** VON Canada Program Announced ** Going Beyond Voice in IP Telephony ============================================================ PROFITS UP AT BCE AND TELUS: Canada's two largest telecom companies reported first quarter financial results last week. ** BCE's revenues were $4.7 billion, virtually unchanged from last year, but net earnings were $470 million, up from $451 million. ** Telus's operating revenues were up 3.6% from last year, reaching $1.8 billion, and net income jumped 13.2% to $101 million. ** Some statistics that may indicate trends: - Wireless Revenue: Bell up 18%; Telus up 18.9% - Wireline Long Distance Revenue: Bell down 11.7%; Telus down 8.6% - Local phone lines in service: Bell down 1%; Telus down 1.3% CALL-NET SWINGS TO LOSS: Foreign exchange fluctuations took Call-Net Enterprises to a first quarter net loss of $29.9 million, compared to a gain of $7.6 million last year. Total quarterly revenue was $202.5 million, nearly the same as in 2003. ** Call-Net says it added 34,000 local phone lines in the quarter, bringing total local lines in service to more than 300,000. The company plans a "modest launch" of Internet phone service, probably by September. MTS PROFITS BOOSTED BY BELL WEST SALE: Manitoba Telecom Services' operating income for the first quarter was $211.1 million, up only $400,000 from a year ago, but net income jumped from $24 million to $218.5 million, as a result of the sale of MTS's share of Bell West to Bell Canada. ** Long distance revenue was down 10% from 1Q 2003. Wireless was up 14.4%. HIGHER EXPENSES PUSH MICROCELL TO LOSS: Microcell Telecommunications had a $14.7 million loss in the first quarter. The company attributes the loss to foreign exchange and customer activation costs. ** The wireless carrier reports a net gain of 12,366 subscribers in the first quarter, compared to a net loss of 39,935 in 1Q 2003. BCE SELLING EMERGIS, BUT NOT MTS: BCE has agreed to sell its 64% stake in e-commerce supplier BCE Emergis to an underwriting syndicate for $355 million. BCE CEO Michael Sabia says the company has no plan to sell its 22% stake in Manitoba Tel, despite that company's acquisition of Allstream. PUSH-TO-TALK GOES INTERNATIONAL: Users of Telus Mobility's Mike service in Canada and Nextel's wireless service in the U.S. can now call each other using the push-to-talk Direct Connect feature. ** Telus is now selling the BlackBerry 7510, described as the first BlackBerry device equipped with Direct Connect. CRTC TO REVIEW TPIA RATES: The CRTC has ordered the major telcos and cablecos to file updated Internet access cost studies, so the Commission can review whether their Third- Party Internet Access rates are appropriate. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/dt2004-28.htm BELL'S REVISED TARIFFS DON'T PASS MUSTER: The CRTC has turned down two Bell Canada customer specific arrangement tariffs, both filed for the second time after a first denial (see Telecom Update #426), because they still do not cover costs. Bell must file compliant tariffs in 45 days, or the CRTC will register this decision with the Federal Court. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-142.htm www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Orders/2004/o2004-143.htm PART OF CRAIG-LOOK SUIT DISMISSED: The Ontario Superior Court has dismissed the Craig Wireless application for an interim injunction that would have blocked Unique Broadband from voting its shares of Look Communications. (See Telecom Update #421) ** Separately, Craig has withdrawn its Federal Court appeal against a CRTC decision that permitted UBS to acquire a controlling interest in Look. CHATHAM INTERNET PROJECT TO USE SR WIRELESS: SR Telecom says its wireless technology will be used to bring high-speed Internet access to residential customers in the Chatham-Kent area of Ontario over the next year. Chatham Internet Access will receive funding from Industry Canada's BRAND initiative. www.ciaccess.com/ CANADA PAYPHONE DELAYS REORG PLAN: B.C. Superior Court has allowed Canada Payphone Corporation to delay filing its reorganization plan until June 21. The original date proposed when CPC filed for bankruptcy was May 5. (See Telecom Update #430) MITEL COMPLETES FINANCING DEALS: Mitel Networks has obtained $20 million in new equity investment from EdgeStone Capital Partners, and other investors have agreed to convert $50 million in debt to equity. The company says it has also doubled its banking and credit facilities to approximately $65 million. TELUS WINS $66 MILLION IP CONTRACT: Telus says it has signed a six-year, $66 million contract to provide Wide Area, Local Area and voice services to over 600 offices of The Co- operators insurance group across Canada. UTILITY TELCOS FORM COUNCIL: Canadian utilities have formed UTC Canada, to represent their telecom and IT interests. The association is affiliated with the U.S.-based United Telecom Council. http://canada.utc.org/ CAIP MERGES WITH CATA: The Canadian Association of Internet Providers, which has been sharing administrative support with the Canadian Advanced Technology Association since late 2002 (see Telecom Update #363), has voted to merge with the larger organization. The CAIP Board of Directors will become CATA's Internet Advisory Committee. VON CANADA PROGRAM ANNOUNCED: Pulver.com has announced the program for VON Canada 2004, to be held in Markham, Ontario, May 18-20. Speakers at the conference, which focuses on the convergence of the telecom and Internet industries, will include senior executives from Bell Canada, Telus, Mitel, Nortel, Avaya, Primus, and Vonage. www.voncanada.com/schedule.html GOING BEYOND VOICE IN IP TELEPHONY: In the May issue of Telemanagement, John Riddell presents five case studies of advanced applications based on IP PBXs. Also in this issue: - Wireless Substitution: How Accurate are Telco Claims? - Toronto Airport Implements Multi-User IP Network - Understanding and Managing Wi-Fi Performance ** Telemanagement Online subscribers can access this issue, and our extensive library of past issues, columns, editorials, and feature reports, at http://online.angustel.ca. ** To subscribe or to add online access to your existing subscription, go to 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: Obituary: Comedian Alan King Date: 10 May 2004 07:20:44 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Long time comedian and actor Alan King died this weekend at age 76. He was noted for his jokes about life in the suburbs. One of his topics was the telephone. While developed many years ago, his jokes still are funny today. He joked about how his wife was _always_ on the phone, which included multiple calls to her mother and sister all day long. He called the phone company to get basic telephone service -- wanting a simple phone that you can talk on and rings. They countered about a choice of ringer (in those days they pushed the "Bell Chime" which sounded like a doorbell or fire alarm). He suggested two choruses of Jeanette McDonald singing "When I'm Calling You". (Of course, today are cell phones give us just that. I'll never forget Edith Bunker singing that song (or I should say screeching that song) on All in the Family). He didn't like 10 digit dialing (added when he had to use 516 to call home on L.I.) or the loss of exchange names. He didn't like people using the phone to order stuff delivered when they could get off their butt and walk to the store. Other topics included suburbanites obsession for perfect lawns, parents overdone passion at Little League, banks and their undecipherable policies, insurance companies, lawyers, airlines, a night out on the town, and fitness fanactics. He had two classic books, "Help I'm a prisoner in a Chinese Fortune Cookie Bakery" and "Anyone who owns their own home deserves it", as well a more recent book. ------------------------------ From: Craig Stevenson Subject: Software to Analyze AT&T OCDD Raw Data (From FTP Feed) Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 17:02:06 GMT Is there any software out there (commercial or free/shareware) that will parse and analyze AT&T OCDD raw data records? Minimally, would need software that extracts the data from AT&T's "BCD format" to allow moving the records into an SQL database. Ideally, would like software that will parse through the data to identify all legs of a call (e.g., initial call and subsequent transfers) and combine the records into a single "combined call record". The goal is to allow us to perform call path analysis to answer some basic questions such as those below. Unfortunately, we can only answer these when we have matched the "from" and the "to" call records in OCDD. -- How many hops (transfers) are executed for each type of toll free call -- When a call center transfers calls, to which site(s) are those calls sent? -- For calls transferred to a site, from which site(s) did those calls come? Thanks, Craig Stevenson ------------------------------ From: hoch@exemplary.invalid (CharlesH) Subject: Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play Nice Date: 10 May 2004 17:21:44 GMT Organization: http://newsguy.com In article , VOIP News wrote: > The question now is, does the same > method allow users to conquer one of the last great VoIP roadblocks: > allowing your DirecTV/Tivo modem to dial out via your VoIP connection. Wait a minute ... if you have VoIP, you have broadband of some sort. And a TiVo can be configured to use a broadband connection to "call home" rather than use dialup. So why is TiVo an issue here? ------------------------------ Subject: Re: Firewall (Pix) Not Getting IP (DHCP) on SBC DSL Organization: io.com From: djmcdona@fnord.io.com (Daniel J McDonald) Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 12:49:36 -0500 In article , jsinger986 wrote: > My Cisco Pix 501 doesn't seem to be obtaining an IP address over my > SBC Yahoo DSL connection. When I was afflicted with SBCglobal DSL, I had to use PPPoE on my PIX 501. > Here is some info from the Pix: > Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.1(1) That's like FCS code for that hardware -- maybe 3 years old. If you can get 6.3.3 on there it may help as well. Daniel J McDonald CCIE # 2495, CNX Visit my website: http://www.austinnetworkdesign.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 14:32:01 GMT From: joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) Subject: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? Organization: Excelsior Computer Services My parents recently started receiving a bill from AT&T for a *non-existant* line. They have always had two numbers on the same line, a main number ("line 1"), and a second number ("line 2") that rings on the same line but with a special ring pattern. (This is called identi-ring here. It has other names.) Last Fall they discontinued their AT&T LD service and switched to Verizon. About two months ago, though, they started getting bills from AT&T for *line 2*! Line 2 doesn't exist, and cannot make outgoing calls! They are being charged about $3.50 for a "standard line." and then a handful of regulatory nonsense that brings the bill up to about $7.50/month. This seems like out and out fraud. But it has been my experience, that, by and large, AT&T earns money with decpetive but legal practices, unlike the fly-by-night outfits that earn money illegally. Is this likely to be just a clerical error on AT&T's part? Is it willful deception? Has AT&T done this to anyone else? More importantly, which regulatory office should receive a copy of the letter I'm going to write to AT&T? Surely it must be illegal to bill for a non-existant number. Thanks. -Joel [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T would probably tell you, and whichever regulators you chose to complain to, that Verizon made the mistake by informing them that the identi-ring line was an actual existent number instead of just an alias pointing at your first line. I would not blame AT&T for this -- not at first, anyway -- I would blame Verizon for whatever good it would do. Identi-ring alias numbers, by whatever name they go under -- are relatively rare phenomena, at least according to the chairman's office at SBC. People seem to prefer actual, physical second lines in most instances, and telco does not sell a lot of indenti-call service. I know when I got my identi-call line, SBC looked me as though I was nuts (and who knows, maybe I am). The local tech here at the Independence central office over at 6th and Maple said to me he could not recall anyone around town here ever ordering one before. My main reason was with my relatively low phone usage, I did not need a 'second' line; I wanted a way to have my 800 line get a different ringing cadence so I could use the appropriate answer-phrase (and to discretely know whose nickle was paying for the call without having to ask the caller.) As luck would have it, the number assigned to me as the alias identi-ring had formerly been one of our town's most notorious deadbeats, so for quite a while I did not know if a good person using my 800 number was calling me when the ring-ring sound was heard, or if it was a collection agency calling for the deadbeat, dialing straight in on it. AT&T was one such caller (on the ring-ring line) since the deadbeat had taken them also. Took me a *long* time to get them to stop calling on that ring-ring line. PAT] ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Minter) Subject: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Date: 10 May 2004 08:44:26 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Verizon Wireless (cell phones) has introduced what they call a: "shorter, simpler, 'streamlined bill' thatt is simpler to understand while using less paper". Nonsense. What they did is remove the detailed billing listings. It's funny on how in the two months they've done this, my cell phone bill is $5-$10 more than it usually is, especially when I rarely use it. I have no idea what they've billed me for. It's very possible they made errors; they have made errors in bill calculations in the past (1-they charged me peak rates for offpeak usage and 2-overcharged the landline fee). I tried to get a detail listing online, as they encourage, but I don't want to give them my email address (required) because I do not want to receive "news items that may interest me" on my email. So I called them, went through the long phone mail jail ladder, waited for a customer service rep who put me on hold then disconnected me, then got someone else, and complained. They can't fax me bill detail, but will mail it to me and include detail in the future. It annoys me when companies claim they're doing something wonderful and special for us customers when in reality they're saving themselves money. A lot of companies do this now. Whenever they say "for your protection" or "for better customer service", I know it really means better for THEM, not me. FWIW, elimaining the detail listing on my cell phone didn't save them any paper at all-it was still three pages long, including a full page of "news". FWIW, when I was a kid the phone company managed to put our bill a single SMALL piece of paper -- not 8.5 X 11", but only 8.5 x 4". They had service/equipment, message units and taxes on one side, and tolls calls on the other. If there were many toll calls, they used multiple slips of paper. Their advertising was on a separate leaflet of glossy paper. The power company did even less: They used a postcard -- name and address on the right side, beg/end KWH usage, tax, and total on the left side. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Lisa, the phone bill I found in my grandmother's things after she died (12-31-1978) came from Southwestern Bell Telephone Company dated *1924*; it was the size you mentioned, written out in pen and ink in a most ecquisite handwriting, (obviously a bookkeeper/school teacher style of writing) stating her total bill for that month was $6.28 which included the long distance charges. The other old phone bill among her stuff was dated *1931* and it was typewritten, like an old fashioned invoice, for about $7.50 if I recall correctly. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Temporary FL@L&ER Subject: Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 00:50:50 -0500 Reply-To: w9vhe@arrl.net Unless I am mistaken, on Tue, 04 May 2004 21:39:45 -0400, VOIP News wrote: > http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-04-2004/0002166780&EDATE= > First-Quarter Record Sales of Verizon Online DSL Help Fuel DSL Industry > Market-Share Growth > NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on momentum from a record > DSL sales quarter, Verizon will spur its home broadband growth by > offering an additional higher-speed DSL service to consumers this > summer and by developing new service packages that include residential > voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services. "We've created one of > the best overall values in broadband today, with content, speed, and > great service at a very affordable price," said Judy Verses, senior > vice president -- marketing for Verizon's Retail Markets Group. "Our > sales growth shows that when consumers in the mass market think about > broadband, more and more often they're choosing DSL for their > high-speed connection. And we're not stopping now." > Faster DSL speeds are coming this summer when Verizon Online plans to > add a new, additional tier of consumer DSL service with a maximum > connection speed of 3Mbps/768Kbps for qualified customers. In > addition, when Verizon introduces its consumer VoIP service this > quarter, the company will provide it to qualifying Verizon Online DSL > customers at a discount. "Fifty-one percent of Verizon's residential > customers have purchased local calling in combination with either > Verizon long-distance or Verizon DSL, or both," said Verses. "Our > ability to offer customers a compelling array of local, long-distance, > wireless, broadband and video services is unmatched by our cable > competitors. Expanding our DSL service will allow us to offer even > more innovative packages that include services like voice over IP." > Pricing for the higher-speed DSL service and VoIP package will be > announced later. Verses said that, like all Verizon Online DSL > offerings, pricing for these services will be highly competitive. > This quarter Verizon Online will triple to 384Kbps the upstream speed > of its basic DSL offering for qualifying customers. The price for > this 1.5Mbps/384Kbps service will remain the same as the current > 1.5Mbps/128Kbps service -- $34.95 a month for stand-alone service or > $29.95 a month when purchased as part of a package of local and > long-distance calling services. > Verizon Helps Fuel DSL Market Share Growth > A recent Pew Internet & American Life study shows that DSL now has > a 42 percent share of the home broadband market, up from 28 percent in > March 2003, and that more and more Internet-users are moving from > dial-up to broadband. The study also shows that the number of DSL > users at home has more than doubled since March 2003, while the number > of home cable-modem users grew by less than one-quarter. > Last week, Verizon announced record sales for its Verizon Online > DSL business with the addition of 345,000 new high-speed Internet > customers in the first quarter of 2004, representing a 46 percent > year-over-year growth rate. The company now has 2.7 million DSL lines > in service. > Several Verizon Online initiatives during 2003 contributed to this > growth. In May 2003, Verizon Online doubled the maximum connection > speed of its entry-level DSL offering to 1.5Mbps/128Kbps while > lowering the price of the up to 1.5Mbps service from $59.95 a month to > $34.95 a month. At the same time, Verizon lowered the price of basic > DSL service to $29.95 a month when purchased as part of a package of > Verizon local and long-distance calling services. > Also in May, Verizon launched its partnership with MSN and began > offering its DSL customers the broadband-enabled content and services > of MSN 8 at no additional charge. Today the MSN service has been > upgraded to MSN Premium, which includes critical tools like firewalls, > virus protection and parental controls. > Customer satisfaction has improved. The company streamlined its > do-it-yourself DSL installation kit, reducing the process to three > steps and providing an online tutorial that takes customers through > the process from start to finish. The company also continued to make > improvements in service-provisioning and customer-care processes. > In 2003 Verizon also made DSL service available to 10 million more > lines. Aggressive deployment of DSL in remote terminals allowed > Verizon to provide service to more households in communities where > Verizon central offices are already provisioned with DSL. In 2004, > the company plans to make 7 million more of its lines capable of > delivering the service. > snip What most folks fail to realize is that most of Verizon's customers are in an urban environment, which is much cheaper and easier to deploy DSL technology. In their lower tiered markets, and the larger switches in areas considered "rural", don't even offer it, despite the big push in 2003 to deploy DSL in their DLC systems. Still the Bell + GTE mentality at work. Use the usual techniques if you wish to reply via email. Molon Labe! ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? Date: Sun, 09 May 2004 22:47:57 -0500 Dave Hauss wrote: > DSL is available on my line and I have ordered it. BUT what about MCI > Neighborhood? My relatives who live right near me have it ... I think > it was only $39.95? then can I still get DSL? Not from the ILEC (Verizon, in your case), who will probably require you to get the phone line from them. On the other hand, MCI are a bunch of criminal thugs. I wouldn't give them any money. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ Date: 10 May 2004 00:38:29 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Best Price on Home Phone Service? Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > DSL is available on my line and I have ordered it. BUT what about MCI > Neighborhood? My relatives who live right near me have it .. I think > it was only $39.95? then can I still get DSL? Everyone I know who's done business with MCI has ended up regretting it. I sure did, I had to get rid of two collection bureaus trying to collect on calls they knew I didn't make. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, Mayor "I shook hands with Senators Dole and Inouye," said Tom, disarmingly. ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. 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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #234 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 10 22:24:51 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4B2OpC14322; Mon, 10 May 2004 22:24:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 22:24:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405110224.i4B2OpC14322@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 #235 TELECOM Digest Mon, 10 May 2004 22:25:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 235 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Cellphone Tax Produces Little for Cellphones (Monty Solomon) Recordable DVDs New Target of Hollywood (Monty Solomon) EchoStar's DISH Network Satellite TV Conference Sold Out (Monty Solomon) Wi-Fi Phones May Help Cut Calling Costs (Monty Solomon) Web TV changes way programming is watched, sold (Monty Solomon) Re: Cable TV Franchise Fees (was Missouri Moves to Ban...) (Neal McLain) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Lisa Hancock) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (Dink) Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help (John Levine) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Jack Hamilton) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (cfarrar@spamcop) Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? (Clarence Dold) Re: Vonage Questions (Hank Karl) Weekend Woes - Packet8 VoIP Service Issues, With no Support (VOIP News) KaZaA Chiefs Tackle VoIP (VOIP News) Wi-Fi Phones Could be Next Trend in Thrift (VOIP News) Phone Line Busy Out Toggle Switch? (Tom Beckman) Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play Nice (C Dold) 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: Sun, 9 May 2004 23:33:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cellphone Tax Produces Little for Cellphones By EDWARD WYATT New York State has collected $440 million since 1991 in special taxes on cellphones. But only about $30 million of that has gone to the program named on most cellphone bills as the purpose of the tax: enhanced 911 service, which can help police, fire and ambulance dispatchers locate a cellphone caller in need of emergency help. Most of the money goes far afield. Fifty cents of the $1.20-a-month tax paid by nearly every cellphone user goes not to the 911 system but to the state's general fund, the all-purpose budgetary pot that finances whatever the governor and the Legislature want. Twenty-four cents a month goes to the state police, which built and operates a statewide 911 system but has also used the money to pay for things like dry cleaning and travel. About 34 cents goes for "homeland security," including the budgets of other state agencies, like Corrections and Parks and Recreation. Last week, the Pataki administration awarded the contract for a proposed $1 billion wireless radio network that will also be paid for using the money. That leaves only about 12 cents of the monthly fee for the still-developing cellular 911 system, whose advocates complain that the state has misled its taxpayers and placed politics ahead of public safety. Poor planning, they say, is at the root of the problem. They point out that even though the state collected $132 million in the last year alone from the 911 surcharge on cellphones, it had to sell bonds to raise an additional $100 million so that counties could afford to buy the necessary equipment for their own enhanced wireless 911 systems. And despite years of work, only a few counties are currently able to locate cellphone callers who dial 911. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/nyregion/10phone.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Something many people do not realize is that telco (none of them) can lawfully cut you off, or disconnect your service for your refusal to pay telecom 'taxes'. As long as you pay the tariffed charge for the telco service (but taking care to notify telco of your refusal to pay the 'taxes') telco has to continue providing your service. Telco can, and frequently does report to the taxing agency that 'John Doe, account number X phone number Y refuses to pay the tax accessed' but that's *all* they can do is report it. We found this out during the Viet Nam War -- err, police action -- when many millions of people were withholding taxes to show their displeasure. Now, if a class action suit was started on behalf of 'all taxpayers' which required the various governments to spend the tax money *exactly* on the stated purposes of the taxation (at which point the plaintiff class would resume paying of taxes) it might end much of this foolish squandering of money for other than stated purpose. Consider the various state and multi-state lotteries for example. Has there yet been a state which did not insist the 'only reason' for the lottery was to improve (take your pick) the schools, the highways, whatever? Yet look at the dreadful condition of those things as the money gets sucked off into everything else. And the best example of how this works was the worthless promise by the various states in the infamous tobacco settlement: all the money collected will go to help cure tobacco addiction, related illneses, and fund education programs for same. What a bunch of bologna that turned out to be! So the tobacco companies have gone as a group (formed a class) to the judge overseeing the tobacco settlement saying that a deal was made and the deal should be kept. If we are to fund such efforts under the settlement, they (the states) have to keep their part of the bargain also; otherwise it would appear to just be additional taxes against our products going in the back door without approval to give the states more money which winds up getting stolen from our (legitimate and lawful) customers. Where it will all end up, I do not know; but I do think it is about time to clamp a lid on all the wasteful spending of money originally intended for E-911 service, etc. Oh, of course the IRS and other agencies would bluff and threaten, but I know for a fact during Vietnam they did not put millions of people in jail for refusing to pay telephone tax. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 08:49:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Recordable DVDs New Target of Hollywood By Liza Porteus WASHINGTON - Some lawmakers are introducing a bill that Hollywood is not happy about - one that would allow consumers to make personal copies of digital entertainment like DVDs to be played on whatever device they want. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., author of the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (search), says consumers should not always have to worry about being slapped with a lawsuit every time they make a copy of their favorite videos. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119414,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 08:55:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EchoStar's DISH Network Satellite TV Conference Sold Out EchoStar's DISH Network Satellite TV Conference Sold Out; 2,200 Retailers to Gather in Dallas for DISH Network's Three-Day ''Team Summit 2004'' ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 10, 2004--EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH) announced today that its 2004 Team Summit satellite TV retailer conference is sold out, with 2,200 DISH Network(TM) retailers from across the nation gathering in Dallas, Texas, May 20 - 22. Special attractions include Jay Leno, entertainer and host of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, motivational speaker Mike Krzyzewski, the three-time champion basketball coach of Duke University's Blue Devils, and Grammy Award winning country music star Vince Gill. The seventh annual Team Summit conference features EchoStar CEO and Chairman Charlie Ergen sharing his vision on the future of satellite TV. Keynote speaker Joseph P. Clayton, President and CEO of SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ:SIRI), will reveal rollout plans for the EchoStar-SIRIUS entertainment alliance. Also, a panel of industry executives will provide a roadmap to the future of high definition TV. The three-day conference, which educates retailers about DISH Network satellite TV equipment and services, will enhance the ability of DISH Network retailers to serve their communities in offering a true alternative to rising cable TV rates. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41301768 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 09:02:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wi-Fi Phones May Help Cut Calling Costs By ELLEN SIMON AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Now that some Wi-Fi "hot spots" have grown into broader neighborhood "hot zones," the next wave is waiting: Phones and gear that send conversations over wireless Internet networks _ for free or at a fraction of the cost of traditional calls. Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. plans to introduce a device that would seamlessly switch calls from cellular networks to cheaper Wi-Fi networks wherever they're available. Discount carrier IDT Corp. is testing consumer Wi-Fi phone service in Newark, N.J. If successful, Wi-Fi calling would be one more factor decreasing calling costs and shrinking revenue at traditional carriers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41304158 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 12:49:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Web TV Changes Way Programming is Watched, Sold By LEE GOMES The Wall Street Journal via Associated Press Meet Hari Sreenivasan, journalism graduate, television anchor and media disintermediator. Mr. Sreenivasan is the host of ABC News Live, a news channel available only on the Internet. It's one of many early examples of the next phase of the Internet's evolution: as a competitor -- or, perhaps, a complement -- to the way people watch TV over satellite and cable. The movie and TV industries initially viewed the Internet through the prism of Napster -- simply as a means through which their content could be stolen. Lately, though, they have begun to realize that the Web gives them all manner of new ways to sell programming that has already aired. Who would say "no" to that sort of opportunity? Thus, a growing number of big content companies are putting programming from "regular" TV out on the Web. Walt Disney, which also owns ABC and ESPN, has been especially aggressive in this regard. So has the BBC, which already has most of its radio broadcasting online. It announced last week that it would be putting much of its TV up, too -- though initially as a very limited test inside the United Kingdom. Sports is another growing source of Internet TV. You can pay $14.95 a month and watch Major League Baseball games at your desk -- or even pay-per-view cricket, courtesy of Ireland's Setanta.com. Don't go rushing over to your PC and expect to see a high-definition picture with Dolby surround sound. Video on a personal computer, while better than the matchbook-sized images of a few years ago, is still confined to a relatively small portion of the screen, and it offers quality levels that would get booed out of most living rooms. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20040510-0634-wsj-portals.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 14:48:24 -0500 From: Neal McLain Reply-To: nmclain@annsgarden.com Subject: Re: Cable TV Franchise Fees (was Missouri Moves to Ban...) In the recent discussion about regulatory-fee-recovery charges, nobody has mentioned the charges that cable TV companies add to subscriber bills in order to recover the franchise fees they pay to local franchising authorities (LFAs). Federal regulations allow cable companies to pass franchise fees through to subscribers, and to identify them as such. Most cable companies do so. Federal regs set the maximum franchise fee at 5%. At first glance, one might assume that it's calculated like a tax: an extra 5% tacked onto the advertised monthly-service charge for cable service. Not so: it's based on "gross revenues," a figure that includes: (1) The charge for everything that's related to providing cable service to a specific customer: installation charges, monthly service charges, equipment charges (converter boxes, inside wiring, remotes), miscellaneous charges such as returned-check fees. [1] (2) "Non-subscriber revenue" (revenue from locally-inserted advertising and from commissions received from home- shopping networks), allocated to each subscriber for each tier. Keep this in mind as you watch services like ESPN or CNN: the revenue that the cable company derives from locally-inserted advertising is subject to the same 5% franchise fee. But the fee is passed through to subscribers, not to the advertisers. LFAs are, of course, in an absolute snit over this practice; however, the cable companies' rationale is fairly straightforward: federal regs allow them to pass *all* franchise fees through to subscribers, and if the LFAs insist on imposing franchise fees on non-sub revenue, then the cable companies are merely exercising their federal right to pass it along. If the LFAs don't like it, they are free to stop imposing franchise fees on non-sub revenue. The cable companies' right to do this has been upheld by the FCC and by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. [2] (3) The amount collected to pay the franchise fee. Take the total from (1) and (2) above, and add 5%. Then add 5% of that 5%. Then add 5% of that 5%. Then add ... etc. Or, as a close approximation, take the total of (1) and (2) and add 5.26%. This situation results from a complaint filed by two Texas cities (Dallas and Laredo) against certain cable operators who had been treating the franchise fee like a tax, adding only 5%. The FCC ruled in favor of the cable companies, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the cities' position, holding that Congress' use of the term "gross revenues" should include *all* revenues received by the cable operator, including revenue received to pay the franchise fee. [3] So here's how it works. Assume the advertised monthly-service charge is $30.00, and that your cable company allocates $1.00 of its non-sub revenue to you. Your bill would be calculated as follows: Monthly service ............... 30.00 Non-sub revenue ............... 1.00 ------- Subtotal ...................... 31.00 Franchise fee 5.25% of 31.00 .. 1.63 ------- TOTAL ........................ 32.63 Plus state and local taxes. Of course, you wouldn't see it broken down like this on your bill: at most, you'd see the monthly service charge, the total franchise fee, taxes, and the final total. As this illustration shows, the "franchise fee" portion of your cable bill will likely exceed 5% of the advertised monthly-service charge by at least another percentage point. Cobb County, Georgia estimates that the actual franchise fee works out to "between 6.3 and 6.7 [percent] of your total cable bill." [4] I find it interesting to compare the two decisions handed down by the Fifth Circuit. One favors the cable industry and the other favors the LFAs, but both result in higher cable bills. [1] 47 CFR 76.922-23 . . [2] Texas Coalition of Cities, et al. v. FCC. . [3] City Of Dallas, Texas; City of Laredo, Texas v. FCC. . [4] Cobb County Cable TV Franchise Authority Further information: http://www.kagan.com/archive/kagan/2003/04/01/20030401cable.shtml http://www.detnews.com/2004/editorial/0404/21/a08-128654.htm http://www.beaconhill.org/Editorials/Cableedit.html http://www.sbe24.org/archive/c24aug97.html#eleven Neal McLain nmclain@annsgarden.com ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: 10 May 2004 13:52:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com TELECOM Digest Editor wrote about the May, 1988 fire at Illinois Bell in Hinsdale, Illinois. Some questions: 1) Was it confirmed officially that the building was unattended and a fire detector signal was initially ignored? If so, why was the response to the initial alarm so bad? 2) Were the primary and secondary causes of the fire established in detail? That is, were they sure it was lightning, and if so, what did the lightning touch off? I would think buildings such as that would be very well protected from lightning by 1988. 3) What was in the batteries that made them so toxic? 4) What kind of switche(s) were in the building (ie xbar, ESS?) 5) 1988 was after divesture, the company was not part of the Bell System anymore. Was there any analysis done to see if divesture resulted in the local company cutting back, such as eliminating 24/7 coverage of a critical building? Was the question of why no attendance ever answered? What is today's practice? 6) What about internal protection to prevent a fire from spreading? Large or critical buildings usually have fire doors and floors designed to limit spread of a flame. (Asbestos may be dangerous to breath, but in older buildings it did the job of fire protection and heat insulation.) [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Much of my reporting then was a compila- ation of the news reports during May from the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune. (1) it was confirmed officially by Illinois Bell that the building was always unoccupied over weekends; not even a security guard or a data entry clerk (whose salary could have been pro-rated between departments in order to have at least one person there who would have been 'sort of busy' part of the time as they periodically walked the floors between doing data entry tasks and watching television, etc). Charles Eibel, then VP of Operations for Illinois Bell said it would have cost too much. Of course we know now that such a person's salary would have been amortized for years in the past and many years in the future even if all the person had done in the way of 'work' was a handful of punch cards over the weekend and mostly watched TV, compared to what happened that Sunday night. (2) All company facilities in those days (maybe still?) were monitored remotely from a location in Springfield, Illinois, a couple hundred miles away. Their excuse was 'the alarms out of Hinsdale had been falsing all day for various reasons', so they saw no reason to look further when the fire alarm first went off two hundred miles to the north. When several attempts to reset the fire alarm remotely from Springfield (there's that 'money saving' mentality again) failed, the alarm person in Springfield decided to call the 'weekend duty supervisor' for the entire Chicago area at home, and ask that person, "when you get a few minutes would you mind driving over to Hinsdale and see what is going on there?" (3) Lightning caused a spark in the cables somewhere; much like the Manchester Guardian fire a month ago in the UK. In the Hinsdale case however, that particular Mother's Day had been a hell of a bad mother, with heavy rains, extremely high wind, generally vicious weather conditions much lightning, many dark overcast (almost pitch black) skies the entire day. The very sort of a day, indeed, that alarm signals at some distant point would be 'falsing' about all the time. (4) They had a variety of central office equipment in the building but the damage caused by the firemen squirting water on everything (remember, when firemen arrive an inferno like that, typically they walk right in and start chopping out windows and doors, spraying water everywhere) was so severe that the amount of oxidation which started building up and the age of the oldest equipment there turned everything into a giant party line when they first turned the equipment back on, which was why the decision was made the switch had to be abandoned as junk. (I am reminded of a certain seventeen year old boy, left unamed here, who was employed by University of Chicago on hot Sunday afternoon in August, 1959 to work in the switchboard room on the afternoon shift. He sashayed into work with a large size McDonald's soft drink, and despite having been warned to **NEVER** take a soft drink **anywhere** around the switchboard proceeded to do so and on the first busy period of grabbing for a pen or paper knocked over the large container of ice-cold coke and the board went pzzzzz, flashed off and on and that was it. The Illinois Bell tech who came out 30 minutes later on an emergency basis sat there for over an hour picking at those switches and wires, but never got rid of the cross talk on that position, even though he did get the lights to quit flashing off and on.) So it was in Hinsdalem thirty years later; they could do nothing to get the equipment back in working order without cross talk and false supervisions. It was a terrible mess. So was the UofC switchboard position. (4) I dunno what the batteries had in them; they were big giant things also, already burning by the time the firemen reached them. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Dink Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Organization: Frijoles Refritos Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 02:37:08 GMT On 7 May 2004 10:33:33 -0700, janetk@ieee.org (janet k) wrote: > My mother in Ohio has phone service with SBC and has been using USA > datanet for long distance calls. USA datanet does not have a local > access number in Ohio, so she has been dialing an 800 number to make > her long distance calls. Recently, she cannot use the service because > her home phone number is being blocked and the service does not > recognize her as a subscriber. She has tried *82 and *67 options and > has repeatedly contacted both companies. Each company blames the > other for the problem and will not initiate a call on her behalf. > She is a 90 year old woman who lives by herself with her children out > of state. It has been over a month since she has been able to call > them using her USA datanet access. I have also tried calling the > companies, the FCC and the Ohio PUC with very little success. > Any idea on getting her number unblocked? We're at a stalemate. > Janet K. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: My suggestion would be instead of > wasting your time and hers trying to correct a problem with a long > distance service which may not be the best deal around anyway, just > get her converted to some other company at more or less the same > prices or possibly a little better. SBC comes to mind. You could get > her converted to one-plus dialing on SBC for three or four cents per > minute, depending on her volume of calls. Check through the various > SBC plans and choose what is appropriate for her needs. Or if you will > tell us here about how much long distance calling she does in a > month's time, I am sure guys here could help you plan her package. SBC > is just an example; there are many dial one plus arrangements which > bill through her regular phone account for convenience and are cheap > enough. DO NOT get her all wrapped up in situations where she has to > dial either an 800 number or some other 'local access number' first. PAT] Get her a cell phone and have her old number transferred to it under the new number portability rules and tell SBC and USA Datanet both to go pound sand. Or keep SBC, drop USA Datanet and use prepaid cards from Wal-Mart or Albertson's or any number of other places for LD calling. The use of the prepaid cards is almost the same ... call a toll-free number, press 1 for English, enter a PIN, hear your card balance read to you, then dial 1-AC-nnn-xxxx. ------------------------------ Date: 10 May 2004 00:16:36 -0000 From: John Levine Subject: Re: Caller ID Blocked to Long Distance Service - Please Help Organization: I.E.C.C., Trumansburg NY USA > Thanks for your input, but the 800 number she uses gives her unlimited > minutes for 1.49, same as a local access number. She only calls 4 or > 5 people, has the numbers programmed and can talk for hours without > clock watching. Do you know what her monthly bill is? If it's $30/mo or more, which it is if she makes 20 calls a month, she should sign up for SBC's unlimited plan which is $30, billed on her home phone bill. She may qualify for the $20 unlimited plan if she has CLID, voice mail and some other odds and ends. See SBC's web site for details. > She can't even use this -- the 800 won't let her through. When she calls the 800 access number, exactly what happens? Does she get the guy saying to enter the account number, the gal saying to enter the number to call, or something else? If it's something else, can you describe what the something else is? Also, is she calling 800-313-1533, 877-832-8263, or another number? ------------------------------ From: Jack Hamilton Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 22:11:37 -0400 Organization: http://newsguy.com > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Back in the 1960's and 70's, when the > bus from Detroit going to GM in Sandwhich went past the > international checkpoint, everyone would get off the bus except for > the driver who took the bus to the other side, take some sort of ID > card from their pocket and hold it in plain view as they walked past > the persons handling the checkpoint, who, so far as I know, never > looked at (or only casually glanced at the ID card.) Everyone walked > past, went and re-boarded the bus and the trip continued for the few > more blocks to the bus station in Windsor. I suppose it is a lot > more difficult these days, with everyone being either a Patriot or a > Terrorist. PAT] I crossed the border on a bus last week (I took Amtrak's Coast Starlight up to Seattle and had a connecting bus to Vancouver; having taken VIA Rail most of the way across the country, I'm posting from Montreal). When I got on the bus, the driver checked my passport (he didn't examine it closely). At the border, we all got off the bus, went inside, and stood in line. The douaniere asked where I was going and how long I would be there, looked at my passport, and waved me through. Pretty easy for me, but not for two people whose entry was refused -- not something I would want to have happen at 3am in the middle of nowhere. I suspect that coming back into the country will be more difficult. On the telecom side, I switched from AT&T Wireless to Verizon Wireless back in February (ATTWS service has deteriorated very badly). Before starting travel, I changed to VZW's North America's Choice plan, which adds much of Canada to my "home" area. I had service in all the large cities (Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto), and in some of the smaller ones (Jasper). The rural areas (and there's a *lot* of rural area in Canada) did not, in general, have service, even in analog mode. If I hadn't switched plans, calls would have been around US$1 per minute. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 18:45:31 -0400 From: cfarrar@spamcop.net Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Pat, With regards to your inquiry in Digest #233. If you were to travel with your little Sirius or XM radio, nothing would happen to you. The problem lies with CDN broadcasters. A few years ago Bell Canada Enterprises launched "Bell ExpressVu" as a Direct To Home (DTH) satelite TV service, similar to Dish Network. A competing system, Star Choice, also exists. Since the launch of thses two systems, Bell has been pressuring the federal government to wage war on all other satelite services. They've even tried to get the old type of satelite dishes (the 2 meter+ size) banned. Most of the problems have to deal with the broadcast rights. Canadian cable tv carries US programming. Dealing with Rogers here in Mississauga, I get ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC et al. The problem is that not all the desired US stations are carried, or to get a particular US network I have to pay for several CDN channels that I have no desire to watch. I'd much prefer to get the Cartoon Network rather than Teletoon, the SciFi channel rather than Space, USA network, Turner Classic Movie, etc rather than the Aborigional Channel or some French language station. The problem is the US stataions I want aren't licenced for broadcast here or don't hold the Canadian transmission rights so if I want to receive them I either need a US based address to pay for a legitimate feed from Dish Network or a "hacked" satellite system where I get it for free. For instance "The Movie Netwok (TMN)" pays HBO a lot of money for the Canadian broadcast rights to "The Sopranos" or "Six Feet Under", they wouldn't be too happy if I could plug into HBO and watch it there. Space pays for the Canadian rights to the new Battlestar Galactica miniseries or the Frank Herbert "Dune" miniseries. Sirius and XM radios are available in the US on Ford and GM cars respectively. In Canada, Ford and GM can't offer vehicles with these radios We're stuck with standard radio (AM & FM albeit with DBS), though I understand XM is close to completing a deal to creat XM Canada to meet Canadian broadcast requirement (X% of Canadian content per hour) The reverse also happens wtih regards to illegal reception of signals. Ex-patroit and "snowbird" Canadians are know to take Bell ExpressVu satellite receivers down to their winter homes in Florida, South Carolina, and Nevada so they can received CBC and other "home" programming. However. Bell isn't licenced for use in the US and the FCC could just as easily start seizing their receivers. As for the newspapers blocked at the border, I quite clearly remember that happening during the Paul Bernado trial. There was a publication ban in place in Canada to protect the victim's family. US newspapers, which are beyond the judge's jurisdiction, decided to publish information about the trial. All copies of the Detroit Free Press that carried the article had the pages torn out at the border before they could be sold in Windsor. ------------------------------ From: dold@ATXTXBillX.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 21:39:34 UTC Organization: a2i network Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote: > Is this likely to be just a clerical error on AT&T's part? Is it > willful deception? Has AT&T done this to anyone else? > More importantly, which regulatory office should receive a copy of the > letter I'm going to write to AT&T? Surely it must be illegal to bill > for a non-existant number. That would be an odd one, if there were never any outbound calls with an ANI of that number. If there were ever an outbound call from that number, then AT&T would dutifully start billing on it. If you answered a call ringing in on that number, and then did a flash to pick up a second dial tone, I wonder if the outbound ANI would be the second number. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: No, it would not. Because the phone only shows one number (main line). Other numbers are just aliased on to it. In other words if you call my ring-ring line, teh switch is told 'this is really number X, ring X instead but give it that cutesy ring instead. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Hank Karl Subject: Re: Vonage Questions Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 12:04:35 -0400 Organization: NETPLEX Internet Services - http://www.ntplx.net/ Try the www.testyourvoip.com site first to see if your Internet connection will support VoIP. 4Gbs shouldn't have a problem. Nor should 4Mbs. But VoIP raw bandwidth is not an adequate measure of quality for VoIP, you need to know something about the packet loss rate, delay variation (ie jitter) and delay. Hank On Thu, 6 May 2004 11:34:28 -0400, John Jones wrote: > I am considering switching to Vonage from SBC. I would like your advice on > the matter. > I have a WideOpenWest 4Gbs connection with an SMC 7004ABR Router. My > connection is lightly used (I stress lightly). > I am in the 614 area code. > What type of service can I expect from Vonage? I have heard about no dial > tones, poor sound quality (duplexing), etc. > Do you recommend switching? > Thanks, > John T. Jones > 2003 National Dean's List Honoree > "Talent does what it can; Genius does what it must" > -- Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Well, bearing in mind that I am > possibly a little prejudiced (I do not think so, but I am sure that > some readers would say I am), I would suggest that Vonage would be a good > thing for you to try. Its not a 'typical phone service' in the sense > you call the company, they turn it on, install it and your only > 'obligation' is to pay the bill each month and otherwise bitch and > moan about the cost, the rules and regulations, etc. It greatly helps > if you have some knowledge about computers, networking and stuff like > that. The 'no dial tone' problems generally occur when vonage.com is > unable to 'see your box' becaause of firewalls, network congestion, etc. > 'Poor sound quality' is nearly always a bandwidth issue, and the newer > style Vonage adapters (they are now giving out Motorola MTA adapters > instead of the older style Cisco ATA-186 boxes) to cure most of that. > My suggestion is DO NOT give up your SBC service, at least not at > first. Have it available; run SBC and Vonage in parallel until you are > satisfied. You can get Vonage (the adapter and first month of service > paid in advance) for a hundred dollars or less. Plug it in, try it and > fine tune it as needed for your own network. Then, whatever type of > service package you bought (prices range from $14.99 per month to > around $50 per month; whatever you need) you can get the **second > month of service** completely free with an e-coupon. (Ask me). After > two months you should have been able to make your mind up. PAT] ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 11:08:19 -0400 Subject: Weekend Woes - Packet8 VoIP Service Issues, With No Support Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43618 Weekend Woes Users of the Packet8 VoIP service have reported sporadic service related issues this weekend. We have previously discussed similar issues with Packet8 service on multiple occasions. The connectivity problems have been occurring during times when no customer support is available. Packet8 customer service telephone support is only offered Monday through Friday from 8 am until 5 pm Pacific Time as per their web site , this is a growing concern for many of their customers. Article plus reader comments (not shown above) found at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/43618 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 11:24:42 -0400 Subject: KaZaA Chiefs Tackle VoIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9524843%5E15322%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html Simon Hayes KAZAA creators Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are planning paid voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) services that will integrate with local telephony networks. Eight-month-old Skype which has five million registered users, 30,000 of whom it hosts daily is moving to take on veterans such as Vonage, Packet8 and VoicePulse to provide local dial. Skype is free at present but can only connect to other Skype users on PC or pocket PC. Mr Zennstrom said the paid service would allow access to standard telephony. Full story at: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9524843%5E15322%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 11:55:36 -0400 Subject: Wi-Fi Phones Could be Next Trend in Thrift Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1084124643311630.xml By ELLEN SIMON The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) Now that some Wi-Fi "hot spots" have grown into broader neighborhood "hot zones," the next wave is waiting: Phones and gear that send conversations over wireless Internet networks for free or at a fraction of the cost of traditional calls. Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. plans to introduce a device that would seamlessly switch calls from cellular networks to cheaper Wi-Fi networks wherever they're available. Discount carrier IDT Corp. is testing consumer Wi-Fi phone service in Newark, N.J. If successful, Wi-Fi calling would be one more factor decreasing calling costs and shrinking revenue at traditional carriers. "The potential is enormous as an alternative to conventional telephony," said John Jackson, a wireless-technology analyst at The Yankee Group. Full story at: http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/lateststories/index.ssf?/base/business-2/1084124643311630.xml ------------------------------ From: tom@heartmath.com (Tom Beckman) Subject: Phone Line Busy Out Toggle Switch? Date: 10 May 2004 15:25:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm planning on having several phone lines in a hunt group. I'd like to be able to busy out lines when not in use so that calls will roll over to other lines. I looked around for a little box with a toggle switch that would be placed between the phone and the wall jack that would switch between on hook and off hook states. Does anyone know if such a device exists? Thanks. Tom [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: When I had my bank of voice recorder machines back in the 1970's, Illinois Bell had me set up this way. When it was time to change the daily three minute message, I flipped this switch which busied out all lines. Calls in progress were allowed to finish but no new calls would be answered; the caller would get a busy signal. When I finished making my new recording through one master unit which then spread to all the 'slave' machines, I had to flip the switch back to allow call-ins to resume. PAT] ------------------------------ From: dold@DitchingXC.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play Nice Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 22:31:13 UTC Organization: a2i network CharlesH wrote: > Wait a minute ... if you have VoIP, you have broadband of some sort. > And a TiVo can be configured to use a broadband connection to "call home" > rather than use dialup. So why is TiVo an issue here? DirecTivo won't "call" on broadband the way a Standalone Tivo will. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #235 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 11 13:57:51 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4BHvpu21927; Tue, 11 May 2004 13:57:51 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 13:57:51 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405111757.i4BHvpu21927@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 #236 TELECOM Digest Tue, 11 May 2004 13:58:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 236 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Online Intrusions More Than Criminal (Monty Solomon) Re: Comcast Home Networking (Monty Solomon) Verizon Wireless North American Continent Calling Plan (Monty Solomon) Cablevision is Adding 3,200 Consumer VoIP Lines per Week (VOIP News) Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? (Nick Landsberg) Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? (Carl Navarro) Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? (Dan Lanciani) Alternatives, was Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. (Danny Burstein) Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play (G Berkowitz) Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service (Sobol) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Mark Crispin) Terminating Feature Group D for Terminating Traffic (blakestelecom) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Lisa Hancock) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Steven J Sobol) Dialogic D/600SC 2E1 120 Problems (C. Breitbach) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Gordon S. Hlavenka) 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, 11 May 2004 01:40:37 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Online Intrusions More Than Criminal By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | May 10, 2004 You should never put any personal information on the Internet that you wouldn't want to see in the newspapers. That's the government's job. With hardly any fuss, federal, state, and local governments routinely publish on the Internet a variety of sensitive information about us. File for bankruptcy lately? It's probably on there. Did you contribute money to John Kerry's campaign? That's online too. Here's hoping you paid up your property taxes and haven't fallen behind on child support; otherwise there may be an Internet page with your name on it. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/05/10/online_intrusions_more_than_criminal/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 02:02:10 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Comcast Home Networking Comcast working on Mac support for "Home Networking" initiative We previously reported that Comcast's new "Home Networking" service add-on -- which simply allows users to share the company's high-speed cable Internet connection, printers and other devices, and provide other functionality -- was labeled by the company as not Macintosh compatible. We've now received word from the company's technical support department indicating that official support is forthcoming. http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20040510080857154 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 02:16:40 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Wireless North American Continent Calling Plan North America's Choice(SM) Offers Business and Leisure Travelers A Calling Plan That Stretches Beyond the U.S. to Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon Wireless is introducing the nation's first North American calling plan that lets customers call from the U.S. to Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico with no roaming or long distance fees. Beginning today, Verizon Wireless customers, nationwide can sign up for North America's Choice, a unique calling plan that includes Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico as part of their monthly plan's calling area. Customers who sign up for North America's Choice will also be able to call within these countries and back to the U. S. without incurring roaming or long distance charges while in the coverage area. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41316500 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 03:49:13 -0400 Subject: Cablevision is Adding 3,200 Consumer VoIP Lines per Week Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/lastmilearticle.asp?ID=11068 Cablevision is Adding 3,200 Consumer VoIP Lines per Week in New York Cablevision System's new residential VoIP service, which is available in the New York metro area, is adding about 3,200 new customers per week. The cable company ended Q1 with 70,800 VoIP customers, up by 42,200 for the quarter. Full story at: http://www.convergedigest.com/DSL/lastmilearticle.asp?ID=11068 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: Nick Landsberg Reply-To: hukolau@NOSPAM.att.net Subject: Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 23:32:57 GMT Organization: AT&T Worldnet Dr. Joel M. Hoffman wrote: [Snippage regarding erroneous billing for a a phantom second line.] > More importantly, which regulatory office should receive a copy of the > letter I'm going to write to AT&T? Surely it must be illegal to bill > for a non-existant number. > Thanks. > -Joel > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: AT&T would probably tell you, and > whichever regulators you chose to complain to, that Verizon made the > mistake by informing them that the identi-ring line was an actual > existent number instead of just an alias pointing at your first line. > I would not blame AT&T for this -- not at first, anyway -- I would > blame Verizon for whatever good it would do. Identi-ring alias > numbers, by whatever name they go under -- are relatively rare > phenomena, at least according to the chairman's office at SBC. People > seem to prefer actual, physical second lines in most instances, and > telco does not sell a lot of indenti-call service. I know when I got > my identi-call line, SBC looked me as though I was nuts (and who > knows, maybe I am). The local tech here at the Independence central > office over at 6th and Maple said to me he could not recall anyone > around town here ever ordering one before. My main reason was with my > relatively low phone usage, I did not need a 'second' line; I wanted a > way to have my 800 line get a different ringing cadence so I could use > the appropriate answer-phrase (and to discretely know whose nickle was > paying for the call without having to ask the caller.) [Snipped funny part about dead-beat owner of second number] This kind of SNAFU seems to happen all too often (mis-billing after a switch in carriers). I recently switched from Verizon as my local carrier to AT&T. I did the arithmetic, and, with my billing plans and such, it came up about $15 per month cheaper to have AT&T as both my local and LD carrier, thanks mostly to a $10.00/month reduction for my ISP charges. So, I switched. The first bill came in and my eyes popped. During the switch their software (or so the service rep told me) had wiped out all information about my previous AT&T LD plans so I was paying full rates for LD! I called customer service, and they were very nice about it and said it was a known problem (Hello? if it was a known problem, why hasn't it been fixed?), and they re-rated the calls using almost the same plan as I had (some of the small details were different, but essentially the same plan) and I got a credit to the tune of $170.00 . The next month, I got a more reasonable bill but still higher than I expected. I checked the statement, and, although it says that I have the "international plan", the phone calls to friends in Canada were still rated at full price! Again, the service representative was very nice and re-rated those few calls (about $40.00 worth became $4.00 worth) and gave me a credit. That was last month. I'm still waiting for next month's bill. The moral of the story would seem to be that when you switch carriers, scrutinize your first few months' bills very carefully! I have no reason to believe that this was intentional, but better safe than sorry. Nick L. P.S. - Funny thing is, on the electronic statement which lists all of my plans and services, it says that I have not chosen a LD carrier, even though AT&T is my LD carrier. I figure that this will be the source of yet another gripe/complaint at some time in the future. "It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious" - A. Bloch ------------------------------ From: Carl Navarro Subject: Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? Reply-To: cnavarro@wcnet.org Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 04:51:35 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com On Mon, 10 May 2004 14:32:01 GMT, joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) wrote: > My parents recently started receiving a bill from AT&T for a > *non-existant* line. They have always had two numbers on the same > line, a main number ("line 1"), and a second number ("line 2") that > rings on the same line but with a special ring pattern. (This is > called identi-ring here. It has other names.) > Last Fall they discontinued their AT&T LD service and switched to > Verizon. About two months ago, though, they started getting bills > from AT&T for *line 2*! Line 2 doesn't exist, and cannot make > outgoing calls! They are being charged about $3.50 for a "standard > line." and then a handful of regulatory nonsense that brings the bill > up to about $7.50/month. > This seems like out and out fraud. But it has been my experience, > that, by and large, AT&T earns money with decpetive but legal > practices, unlike the fly-by-night outfits that earn money illegally. > Is this likely to be just a clerical error on AT&T's part? Is it > willful deception? Has AT&T done this to anyone else? No, no, yes. > More importantly, which regulatory office should receive a copy of the > letter I'm going to write to AT&T? Surely it must be illegal to bill > for a non-existant number. It's not a non-existant number, it just never has any outgoing calls. I had one of those annoying aggregators and was blindly paying the $3.50 or whatever they charged on my "three" numbers. When I pointed it out to them, it was MY fault for not calling them when I noticed the error. Of course they went back 6 months for credit, then they disconnect my 800 number for non-payment. That was a nightmare to jerk back Resp-Org from those clowns, but all is well and I'll NEVER use AT&T anything. The best part was when they were going to sue me over $30 worth of minimum charges which occurred because they cut my service in half. I'm still waiting for the papers. Carl Navarro ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 01:33:58 -0400 (EDT) From: Dan Lanciani Subject: Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do?? joel@exc.com (Dr. Joel M. Hoffman) wrote: > My parents recently started receiving a bill from AT&T for a > *non-existant* line. They have always had two numbers on the same > line, a main number ("line 1"), and a second number ("line 2") that > rings on the same line but with a special ring pattern. (This is > called identi-ring here. It has other names.) > Last Fall they discontinued their AT&T LD service and switched to > Verizon. About two months ago, though, they started getting bills > from AT&T for *line 2*! Line 2 doesn't exist, and cannot make > outgoing calls! They are being charged about $3.50 for a "standard > line." and then a handful of regulatory nonsense that brings the bill > up to about $7.50/month. Back when I actually answered my distinctive ring numbers (they are currently used for a fax and modem) I received periodic calls from representatives who claimed to work for AT&T. The dialog was always the same. They would say that because of a computer problem they had 'lost' the billing address for my number and they needed me to give it to them "again." My first response would be that this was not a billable number, to which they would reply, "yes, sir, I don't understand exactly what you mean, but we still need a billing address." I would then suggest that any company as big as AT&T surely had backups for its computers and should be able to recover any lost data from those. The reply would be along the lines of, "yes, sir, normally that would be true, but we are unable to recover your billing information and you must provide it again." I would then move on to pointing out that I don't use AT&T long distance in the first place, at which time they would thank me (or not) and hang up. I always assumed that these amusing calls were from non-AT&T scammers, but now I wonder ... > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: [...] Identi-ring alias numbers, by > whatever name they go under -- are relatively rare phenomena, at > least according to the chairman's office at SBC. Distinctive ring isn't too common around here either as far as I can tell. What's even less common, though, is voice-only ISDN service. The interesting thing is that they have been ramping up the price on the distinctive ring option and the caller id option such that a voice-only ISDN line with two fully independent numbers and 'free' caller id (but not name) now costs less than an analog line with caller id and distinctive ring. Moreover, the ISDN line's two numbers both operate under whatever local calling plan you subscribe to (I have an almost-all-state unlimited service) even though you pay only once. The problem, of course, is that it takes ~6 months to convince Verizon to configure a voice-only ISDN line as such. Level after level of representatives will tell you that the tariffs don't allow such a thing (even as you are quoting the order codes from that tariff). The last time I installed a voice-only ISDN line for my new (old) house I ended up (after ~5 months) with a great message on my answering machine from a technical support advisor. He said that even though he had never heard of such a thing (a fact he had emphasized often in our previous conversations), he had found that it was "not illegal" in my state, so he would "let it go." I'd like to switch my remaining analog line to ISDN, but, unfortunately, the conversion option is no longer available so I'd have to order a fresh line and then try to get them to switch the numbers from my analog line. Such an operation is so frighteningly complex that I'm sure I would be without my main numbers for months, assuming I didn't lose them altogether ... Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com ------------------------------ From: Danny Burstein Subject: Alternatives, was Re: AT&T Bill For *Non Existant* Line. What to Do? Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 02:41:40 UTC Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC In dold@ATXTXBillX.usenet.us.com writes: [ snip of Yet Another set of improper bills from AT&T ] My recommendation: don't waste time trying to work through AT&T. Spend fifteen minutes writing a letter to your State's Public Service Commission, cc'ing it to the Attorney General. Point out that AT&T has been cited by a half dozen State AGs in the past month for sending out improper bills and that you are not going to clean up their act for them [a]. For example, check out NYS's press release from 04-May-2004 titled: PSC Chairman Flynn Announces New AT&T Commitment to Fix Remaining Bill Problems available at www.dps.state.ny.us, then choose the press release section. (the direct url is a javascript monstrosity). [a] A couple of side notes: 1) the press release describes the problems and how AT&T agrees to not charge people who complain, and will, after their investigation, refund the improper bills. There is *nothing* in the release that talks about any penalties against them. Keep in mind that, let's say, twenty percent of the people getting these bills simply paid them, and are continuing to pay them... So there's every incentive to the companies that do this stuff to keep doing it. 2) There's no relief for the customers who had to waste their time, effort, and money, to get AT&T to fix this. 3) Any other business sending out improper bills of this sor, by the thousands, would find the treasurer walking out of the office with a pair of chrome bracelets. 4) I suspect that many places have recognized that making "the usual errors" of this sort have no downside, and plenty of pluses... (and yes, I've written to the PSC stating these points). _____________________________________________________ Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key dannyb@panix.com [to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded] ------------------------------ From: Gene S. Berkowitz Subject: Re: Ditching Copper - Getting Fax Machines and VoIP to Play Nice Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 22:33:12 -0400 In article , hoch@exemplary.invalid says: > In article , VOIP News > wrote: >> The question now is, does the same >> method allow users to conquer one of the last great VoIP roadblocks: >> allowing your DirecTV/Tivo modem to dial out via your VoIP connection. > Wait a minute ... if you have VoIP, you have broadband of some sort. > And a TiVo can be configured to use a broadband connection to "call home" > rather than use dialup. So why is TiVo an issue here? I believe that TiVo requires using the modem for the INITIAL registration; from then on, a broadband connection can be used. --Gene ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 18:53:21 -0500 Temporary FL@L&ER wrote: > What most folks fail to realize is that most of Verizon's customers > are in an urban environment, Correction. The former Bell Atlantic areas were largely urban, and there are some former GTE markets like various Texas cities and the chunks of Los Angeles that GTE used to have that were also large(ish) cities, but there are plenty of GTE areas that were not urban. I don't know that I'd say "most" of Verizon's customers live in the city. Many, for sure. Perhaps not most. (And then there are areas like mine, which are a weird combination of rural and more populated areas. Verizon [former GTE] is my ILEC.) JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Mark Crispin Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 20:23:41 -0700 Organization: University of Washington On Mon, 10 May 2004 cfarrar@spamcop.net wrote: > Ex-patroit and "snowbird" Canadians are know to take Bell ExpressVu > satellite receivers down to their winter homes in Florida, South > Carolina, and Nevada so they can received CBC and other "home" > programming. However. Bell isn't licenced for use in the US and the > FCC could just as easily start seizing their receivers. There is nothing illegal under US law in taking your legitimate Bell ExpressVu receivers into the US and using them in the US. -- Mark -- http://staff.washington.edu/mrc Science does not emerge from voting, party politics, or public debate. Si vis pacem, para bellum. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 04:41:16 +0400 (MSD) From: blakestelecom Subject: Terminating Feature Group D Tandem for Terminating Traffic To whoever asked this question: Hey, Use row 20. Terminating Feature Group D Tandem for your terminating traffic. I assume your checked the npa-nxx in LERG 6 and verified its SHA indicator. Insure your checking the correct thousands group. Some are split eg. 212-345-0010 may have a different EO and tandem office than 212-345- 2000. The SHA indicator depicts which EO/tandem to route to. If LERG 6 SHA says SHA 02 then look up your EO switch CLLI in LERG 7SHA table and find the one corresponding to SHA 02. By the way this is all assumed on ISUP traffic for SS7 access tandems. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Date: 11 May 2004 07:10:38 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Minter) wrote > Southwestern Bell Telephone Company dated *1924*; it was the size > you mentioned, written out in pen and ink in a most ecquisite > handwriting, (obviously a bookkeeper/school teacher style of writing) I always had trouble with handwriting and it drove my parents and teachers crazy. They were raised in the day when handwriting was almost an art. By my day the cursive script standard had been revised with less curly-cues. Anyway, as soon as my teachers would accept typewritten reports (8th grade) I typed everything and haven't stopped since. (Of course now my employer doesn't like my typewriter and wants stuff done on the word processor ). (In high school I used our computer-timesharing Teletype machine for stuff, with the paper tape it made a crude word but usable processor although the all-caps was limiting.) > stating her total bill for that month was $6.28 which included the The inflation factor from then to now is about 21, which makes that a pretty expensive phone bill! For all their talk about universal service, it wasn't until well after WW II that the Bell System achieved it. In the Depression they lost customers. Many people lived in high density cities where a hallway or corner store payphone sufficed. In the war and immediate postwar era, there was no equipment or capacity. Also in the postwar era was a big shift from party to single line service. I remain curious as to what is the party-line usage today in the U.S. Some states have none at all, others limit it to existing customers. I suspect in the 1980s and 1990s there was a big push to rewire old rural loops; by then the technology was cheap enough. ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 19:01:12 -0500 Lisa Minter wrote: > Verizon Wireless (cell phones) has introduced what they call a: > "shorter, simpler, 'streamlined bill' thatt is simpler to understand > while using less paper". > Nonsense. > What they did is remove the detailed billing listings. > It's funny on how in the two months they've done this, my cell phone > bill is $5-$10 more than it usually is, especially when I rarely use > it. I have no idea what they've billed me for. It's very possible > they made errors; they have made errors in bill calculations in the > past (1-they charged me peak rates for offpeak usage and 2-overcharged > the landline fee). You are supposed to have been grandfathered if, like me, you had the detailed billing at no charge, but you had to call. I called at least a month ago (deadline is 6/30/04), once for each line I have active with Verizon Wireless, and both times was told I already had detailed billing. (Duh!) SO ... this month I get a bill without call details. I call and complain, and the CSR says she'll reset my account and send me out a properly-generated bill. We'll see if I get charged. Incidentally, Lisa, if you use verizonwireless.com, the online bill includes call details and has some interesting other tools that'll let you see how you are spending your cellular money. I strongly suggest using the web site. > I tried to get a detail listing online, as they encourage, but I don't > want to give them my email address (required) because I do not want to > receive "news items that may interest me" on my email. Heh. You don't have to. I trust them not to e-mail me. I don't believe VZW are a bunch of scumbag spammers. Actually, I initially told them I did want promotional emails, got a few, and got nothing since then. :) I don't even get the monthly notices that my bill is available online! > The power company did even less: They used a postcard -- name and > address on the right side, beg/end KWH usage, tax, and total on > the left side. Just be glad you don't receive AT&T Business Long Distance bills. I think AT&T must be in bed with the paper mills. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: cbreitbach@braintags.de (C. Breitbach) Subject: Dialogic D/600SC 2E1 120 Problems Date: 11 May 2004 08:52:30 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hallo, I have a Dialogic D/600SC 2E1 120 on a new instaled Win2000 Server. I instaled "SR 5.1.1" and "SR 5.1.1 SP" My problem is, that windows doesn't know the card (doesn't load the drivers), but in the DCM the right card is diplayed. When I start the card I there were the following messages in the syslogs and the starting proces ends. ################### 1. "dlgcmpd" not started because windows can't find the device 2. CTBBAPI.exe 01.50 bld 3 (release). 0x20000000 : CTBB_ERROR_SUCCESS: Function completed properly. Exit value : 0x0. 3. Dialogic Generic Downloader Version 5.11 (Build 31) Copyright (c) 1992-2000 by Dialogic Corp. System Download ........................................................................... D/600SC-2E1 (ID 2) Download .. SPAN Firmware Version 6.65 1 Dialogic Board Successfully Installed 4. StartDrv.exe: Started device:dtiB1 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dtiB2 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB1 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB10 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB11 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB12 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB13 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB14 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB15 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB16 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB2 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB3 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB4 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB5 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB6 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB7 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB8 StartDrv.exe: Started device:dxxxB9 5. sctsdtdx : 2.0 (Build 2) sctsdtdx : dxxxB1 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB1 sctsdtdx : dxxxB2 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB2 sctsdtdx : dxxxB3 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB3 sctsdtdx : dxxxB4 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB4 sctsdtdx : dxxxB5 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB5 sctsdtdx : dtiB1 :- Assigned 30 time slots for DIGITAL device dtiB1 sctsdtdx : dxxxB6 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB6 sctsdtdx : dxxxB7 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB7 sctsdtdx : dxxxB8 :- Assigned 2 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB8 sctsdtdx : dxxxB9 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB9 sctsdtdx : dxxxB10 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB10 sctsdtdx : dxxxB11 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB11 sctsdtdx : dxxxB12 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB12 sctsdtdx : dxxxB13 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB13 sctsdtdx : dtiB2 :- Assigned 30 time slots for DIGITAL device dtiB2 sctsdtdx : dxxxB14 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB14 sctsdtdx : dxxxB15 :- Assigned 4 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB15 sctsdtdx : dxxxB16 :- Assigned 2 time slots for VOICE device dxxxB16 sctsdtdx : CTBus time slot assignment completed successfully 6. BRISTART Application Version 66.0 Build(0) Data Driver not Installed on any BRI/2 Board. 7. BriStart.exe -LBriStart.log returned fatal error. Dialogic System Service stopping 8. BRISTOP Application Version 66.0 Build(0) Data Driver not Installed on any BRI/2 Board. 9. StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dtiB1 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dtiB2 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB1 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB10 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB11 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB12 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB13 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB14 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB15 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB16 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB2 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB3 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB4 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB5 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB6 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB7 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB8 successful StopDrv.exe: Stopping device:dxxxB9 successful 10. CTBBAPI.exe 01.50 bld 3 (release). 0x20000000 : CTBB_ERROR_SUCCESS: Function completed properly. Exit value : 0x0. 11. Dialogic System Service stopped 12. The Proces "Dialogic" ended with error 16383. ############## I need everything for developments on this card. Thanks for helping a newbie. Chris "sorry for my bad english" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 00:00:37 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Pat wrote: > (4) I dunno what the batteries had in them; they were big giant things > also, already burning by the time the firemen reached them. PAT] When I worked for a telecom company (American Satellite Company, later "Contel/ASC") at about that time, our satellite and microwave sites floated on banks of batteries that held a gallon or two of sulfuric acid per 1.5 volt cell. AC came in, was rectified and regulated to -48vdc, and dumped onto the power bus. Much of the equipment ran directly off the -48vdc bus, for other stuff inverters (redundant, of course) produced clean 117vac. If the input power failed, the batteries could hold the site up for at least half an hour, long enough to start the generator (theoretically that was automatic). The generator had a 30-day minimum fuel supply and was rated for continuous duty. Since we always ran off the batteries, a power failure would not cause any glitches. Pretty sure our CO had the same kind of power system, but I didn't do maintenance there, they had their own guys. I'm guessing Amsat "borrowed" the idea from Ma Bell, so that, or something quite similar, is probably what was in the Hinsdale Office. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? When it catches on fire or gets disturbed is it the thing which goes up in the atmosphere in a plume like cloud? Would a release of same into the atmosphere as the result of an explosion or disturbance be the kind of thing you would evacuate the neighbors for? Then that may have been what it was. The firemen broke out a couple of windows and doors to let this stuff vent into the atmosphere, then the 'rotten egg' smell got bad everywhere. And it was still raining heavily much of the early evening. And there was also quite a bit of what appeared to be fiberglass cabling in large rolls which had melted and also made quite a mess of 'glop' everywhere, and the firemen said 'that stuff is quite dangerous also'. Early May, so the outside temperature combined with humidity from the heavy rain and the intense heat from the fire made an awful mess. The fire was most intense in an area on the first floor near a cable vault where they say it started, but due to incompetence of phone company in getting it reported and attended to, the entire building was in flames and gutted by the time it got under control. The firemen would not allow anyone to go near the building once the fire had been 'struck' until that rotten egg smell went away. PAT] ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #236 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 12 23:46:38 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4D3kcc07488; Wed, 12 May 2004 23:46:38 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 23:46:38 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405130346.i4D3kcc07488@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 #237 TELECOM Digest Wed, 12 May 2004 23:47:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 237 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson FTC Chairman Timothy Muris Resigns (Monty Solomon) US to Propose Using Airwaves Between TV Stations (Monty Solomon) Top Advertisers May Warn U.S. Networks on Pricing (Monty Solomon) Cisco Systems Reports Third Quarter Earnings (Monty Solomon) GoVideo Networked DVD Player Streaming Rhapsody Online Music (M Solomon) U.S. to Build Fastest Civilian Computer (Monty Solomon) TV Cabo Lowers Cost of Real-time Contribution Content Delivery (M Solomon) Verizon CEO Calls for Sweeping Revision of U.S. Telecom Policy (M Solomon) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Tony P.) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Al Gillis) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Paul Vader) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Global Numbering Plans (Matt) Murder Predicted in Text Message (Joe Wineburgh) Re: Phone Line Busy Out Toggle Switch? (Scott Dorsey) Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New Higher-Speed Service (FL@L&ER) 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, 11 May 2004 23:14:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FTC Chairman Timothy Muris Resigns By JENNIFER C. KERR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris is stepping down and the Bush administration has tapped a former Justice Department official to replace him. Muris has held the job for three years. Spokeswoman Nancy Ness Judy said late Tuesday that he plans to remain in the post until his replacement is confirmed by the Senate. "The chairman wants to make sure it's a smooth transition," Judy said. Deborah Majoras, a former Justice Department deputy assistant attorney general, was picked to succeed Muris. Majoras was one of the lead attorneys in the government's lawsuit against Microsoft Corp., and she argued the appeal of that case before the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Judy said Muris was leaving his chairmanship to return to the faculty of George Mason University School of Law, where he was the interim dean of the law school from 1996 to 1997. Muris is credited with overseeing the agency during its implementation last fall of the government's popular do-not-call list. The registry allows people to place their home or cell phones numbers on the list to stop unwanted calls from telemarketers. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41365521 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:24:43 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: US to Propose Using Airwaves Between TV Stations By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - Wireless companies would be able to use the airwaves between television channels, provided they don't cause interference, under a proposal expected to be issued by U.S. regulators on Thursday. Officials familiar with the proposal say Federal Communications Commission staff believe the airwaves between channels could help meet growing demand and encourage innovations like the Wi-Fi wireless Internet services that now connect consumers to the Web in places like airports, coffee shops and even the swimming pool. Despite objections by some television broadcasters, the FCC and the wireless industry -- particularly technology companies like Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) -- are eyeing the airwaves that are mostly used as a buffer to avoid interference between television signals. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41361986 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:26:46 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Top Advertisers May Warn U.S. Networks on Pricing By Michele Gershberg NEW YORK, May 11 (Reuters) - Top advertisers will fire warning shots next week in a showdown with U.S. television networks over buying commercial time, but their discontent over rising prices and falling ratings won't translate yet into a major shift of budgets, ad executives and media watchers said. As a group, in surveys and through their media buyers, top ad spenders expressed outrage over steep price increases commanded by the top four networks during last year's upfront marketplace for buying commercial time. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41356780 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:28:04 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Cisco Systems Reports Third Quarter Earnings SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 11, 2004--Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO) -- Q3 Net Sales: $5.6 billion (21.7% increase year over year; 4.1% increase quarter over quarter) -- Q3 Operating Cash Flows: $2.4 billion -- Q3 Earnings Per Share: $0.17 GAAP; $0.19 pro forma Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today reported its third quarter results for the period ended May 1, 2004. Net sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2004 were $5.6 billion, compared with $4.6 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, an increase of 21.7 percent, and compared with $5.4 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2004, an increase of 4.1 percent. Net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2004, on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, was $1.2 billion or $0.17 per share, compared with $987 million or $0.14 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, and compared with $724 million or $0.10 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2004. Pro forma net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2004 was $1.4 billion or $0.19 per share, compared with $1.1 billion or $0.15 per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2003, and compared with $1.3 billion or $0.18 per share for the second quarter of fiscal 2004. A reconciliation between net income on a GAAP basis and pro forma net income is provided in a table immediately following the Pro Forma Consolidated Statements of Operations. Net sales for the first nine months of fiscal 2004 were $16.1 billion, compared with $14.2 billion for the first nine months of fiscal 2003, an increase of 13.7 percent. Net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2004, on a GAAP basis, was $3.0 billion or $0.43 per share, compared with $2.6 billion or $0.36 per share for the first nine months of fiscal 2003. Pro forma net income for the first nine months of fiscal 2004 was $3.9 billion or $0.54 per share, compared with $3.2 billion or $0.44 per share for the first nine months of fiscal 2003. During the third quarter of fiscal 2004, Cisco(R) completed the acquisition of Riverhead Networks, Inc. for a purchase price of approximately $36 million and completed the acquisition of Twingo Systems, Inc. for a purchase price of approximately $5 million. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41356336 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:42:41 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: GoVideo Networked DVD Player Streaming Rhapsody Online Music RealNetworks'(R) Rhapsody Online Music Service - May 11, 2004 08:02 AM (PR Newswire) * GoVideo's StreamLink(TM) Technology Brings More Than 650,000 Songs Into the Living Room * Free 30-day Rhapsody Trial Offer for All GoVideo Networked DVD Player Owners SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- GoVideo announced it is introducing the world's first Networked DVD Player streaming the critically- acclaimed Rhapsody music service from RealNetworks(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK) to any TV or stereo in the home. Now more than 650,000 songs can be enjoyed by GoVideo Networked DVD Player users at the touch of a button, raising the bar for innovation and simplicity in home media servers. Owners of the D2730 Networked DVD Player, and the D2740 model scheduled for introduction this summer, will now be able to view their personal Rhapsody library on the TV screen and enjoy their favorite music and Internet radio stations on any stereo or home theater system. Networked DVD Player users can effortlessly browse their personal Rhapsody library by artist, album, and song title, choosing from a growing library of more than 50,000 albums, and can also quickly review the custom radio stations and playlists they have created using Rhapsody. GoVideo has optimized its StreamLink(TM) Technology for UPnP-certified music services like Rhapsody and others. These new advanced and easy-to-use capabilities, developed in partnership with Digital 5, Inc., open new and exciting possibilities for accessing and enjoying music, movies and pictures throughout the home. No other Networked DVD Player on the market today offers this level of convenience. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41339525 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:48:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: U.S. to Build Fastest Civilian Computer By H. JOSEF HEBERT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- Viewing supercomputers as crucial to scientific discovery, the Energy Department will announce plans Wednesday to build the world's fastest civilian computer at a research laboratory in Tennessee. The supercomputer to be built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee will be funded over the initial two years by federal grants totaling $50 million. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham was to make the formal announcement in a speech Wednesday, in which he will call development of the computer for general science "critical to our nation's competitiveness." The Associated Press obtained a copy of Abraham's announcement Tuesday. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41365558 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 08:33:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: TV Cabo Lowers Cost of Real-time Contribution Content Delivery Using Cisco IP Transport - May 12, 2004 04:00 AM (BusinessWire) COLOGNE, Germany & LISBON, Portugal--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2004-- Cisco-based IP Video Contribution Network Will Provide Flexibility and Cost Savings for Delivery of Broadcast Quality Video Content to Transmission Centre Cisco Systems(R) (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that TV Cabo, Portugal's largest cable operator, is successfully utilising a quality of service (QoS) enabled broadband IP network backbone based on Cisco solutions to contribute high-quality digital video content. This single converged IP infrastructure will help it to make significant cost-savings over traditional methods of video contribution, which traditionally involve hiring either satellite space or a dedicated leased line. TV Cabo first looked at contributing video over its broadband network in 2002 in an effort to cost-effectively integrate one of its regional channels, which is produced some 300 km away from the broadcast center in Lisbon, into the rest of its channel line up. Using Cisco technology, the company has been able to take advantage of its existing nationwide multi-service broadband IP network for real-time contribution of content for more than a year now. This has been achieved at no more than the cost of Cisco routing technology connected to the rest of TV Cabo's multi-service IP backbone and TT6120 MediaLink units, providing ASI / Fast Ethernet adaptation, from TANDBERG Television. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41367508 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 12:38:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon CEO Calls for Sweeping Revision of U.S. Telecom Policy Ivan Seidenberg Says Policy Must Be Based on Three Major Principles to Encourage Investment, Innovation and Empower Consumers WASHINGTON, May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Telling the Senate Commerce Committee, "that U.S. telecommunications policy is broken and must be fixed," Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg today called on Congress to enact a major reform to create a new policy for the broadband era. Seidenberg said that it must be national in scope, leave pricing to the marketplace rather than regulators, and ensure common rules for all competitors. The new policy must be: "One that encourages investment in both wireline and wireless infrastructure; that puts power in the hands of consumers, not government; and that permits and even encourages innovation, rather than trying to force new services into old regulatory models," Seidenberg said. He said the policy should be based on three principles that govern other technology companies, including cable and wireless companies: -- Provide stability and uniformity across the industry and across the nation -- Be free of economic regulation and permit markets to determine prices -- Common rules for enforcement, technical standards and public safety where they are needed Seidenberg pointed out that only a few major telecom companies, led by Verizon, have both the will and financial resources to invest billions of dollars to build the infrastructure needed to bring high-speed broadband networks to the nation. Such investment would restore "America's leadership in an industry that drives productivity, stimulates innovation and creates jobs," he said. However, Seidenberg told the commerce committee, the current regulatory system imposes costs, injects ambiguity and introduces bureaucratic red tape into every investment decision involving the wireline network. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41379272 ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Organization: ATCC Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 20:52:42 GMT In article , nospam@crashelectronics.com says: > Pat wrote: >> (4) I dunno what the batteries had in them; they were big giant things >> also, already burning by the time the firemen reached them. PAT] > When I worked for a telecom company (American Satellite Company, later > "Contel/ASC") at about that time, our satellite and microwave sites > floated on banks of batteries that held a gallon or two of sulfuric > acid per 1.5 volt cell. AC came in, was rectified and regulated to > -48vdc, and dumped onto the power bus. Much of the equipment ran > directly off the -48vdc bus, for other stuff inverters (redundant, of > course) produced clean 117vac. If the input power failed, the > batteries could hold the site up for at least half an hour, long > enough to start the generator (theoretically that was automatic). The > generator had a 30-day minimum fuel supply and was rated for > continuous duty. Since we always ran off the batteries, a power > failure would not cause any glitches. > Pretty sure our CO had the same kind of power system, but I didn't > do maintenance there, they had their own guys. I'm guessing Amsat > "borrowed" the idea from Ma Bell, so that, or something quite > similar, is probably what was in the Hinsdale Office. Everybody follows Ma Bell's example when it comes to that. I remember touring the Brooks Fiber (Now MCI - haha!)CO in Providence. It's a building that's in a flood plain and the switch is on the ground floor. That being said, at the back of the switch room are huge banks of lead- acid batteries. I would imagine that when sulfuric acid burns it does in fact smell like rotten eggs, same as with sulfur. > Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com > "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, > we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells > very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? When it catches on > fire or gets disturbed is it the thing which goes up in the atmosphere > in a plume like cloud? Would a release of same into the atmosphere as > the result of an explosion or disturbance be the kind of thing you > would evacuate the neighbors for? Then that may have been what it > was. The firemen broke out a couple of windows and doors to let this > stuff vent into the atmosphere, then the 'rotten egg' smell got bad > everywhere. And it was still raining heavily much of the early > evening. And there was also quite a bit of what appeared to be > fiberglass cabling in large rolls which had melted and also made quite > a mess of 'glop' everywhere, and the firemen said 'that stuff is quite > dangerous also'. Early May, so the outside temperature combined with > humidity from the heavy rain and the intense heat from the fire made > an awful mess. The fire was most intense in an area on the first floor > near a cable vault where they say it started, but due to incompetence > of phone company in getting it reported and attended to, the entire > building was in flames and gutted by the time it got under control. The > firemen would not allow anyone to go near the building once the fire > had been 'struck' until that rotten egg smell went away. PAT] That had to be a serious mess. Is it still in the same building? If so I would hope they've installed active lightning protection. They've already lost at least one switch (Which was likely a 5ESS given that it handled toll and local traffic.) CO's seem to be built in places that aren't so great. I suppose early Bell companies bought the cheapest land they could find, even if they did have to back-fill it. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Still at 120 North Lincoln in Hinsdale. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Al Gillis Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 20:03:26 -0700 Organization: http://extra.newsguy.com Lisa Hancock wrote in message news:telecom23.235.7@telecom-digest.org: > TELECOM Digest Editor wrote about the > May, 1988 fire at Illinois Bell in Hinsdale, Illinois. (Some Snipping)... > 2) Were the primary and secondary causes of the fire established in > detail? That is, were they sure it was lightning, and if so, what > did the lightning touch off? I would think buildings such as that > would be very well protected from lightning by 1988. (A few more lines of Snipping)... > (3) Lightning caused a spark in the cables somewhere; much like the > Manchester Guardian fire a month ago in the UK. In the Hinsdale case > however, that particular Mother's Day had been a hell of a bad > mother, with heavy rains, extremely high wind, generally vicious > weather conditions much lightning, many dark overcast (almost > pitch black) skies the entire day. The very sort of a day, indeed, > that alarm signals at some distant point would be 'falsing' about > all the time. I thought that the cause of the fire was some work contractors had done a day of two before, wrecking out some old power conductors which, as they were being removed (without being disconnected), arced through some other cables to the grounded ironwork and started a smoldering fire. Then, as these things tend to do when left alone, they smoldered until they caught some flamible material on fire (after the normal staff had left for the weekend) and the rest is as Pat described. That is, widespread and lengthy outages, technicians working for days on end, customers loosing business without compensation and such. This was a nice recap of the Hinsdale fire, Pat, and I appreciate your delving into your vast archives to remind us of where we came from. Thanks!! Al [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I have heard that version also, and Illinois Bell did file suit against some contractors or another several months later. I do not know what the final outcome was. PAT] ------------------------------ From: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 16:27:49 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to nospam@crashelectronics.com: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells > very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? When it catches on Yes, sulphur is pretty stinky, and if the sulphuric acid electrolyte gets loose, it's going to stink up the place something terrible. But that's actually the least of your problems. If you're close enough to smell it, your lungs are quite possibly being severely damaged. > fire or gets disturbed is it the thing which goes up in the atmosphere > in a plume like cloud? Would a release of same into the atmosphere as > the result of an explosion or disturbance be the kind of thing you > would evacuate the neighbors for? Then that may have been what it I don't know that it would explode, but it's incredibly toxic, and if enough were released it would certainly justify an evacuation of the immediate area. > building was in flames and gutted by the time it got under control. The > firemen would not allow anyone to go near the building once the fire > had been 'struck' until that rotten egg smell went away. PAT] No real surprises there, for all sorts of reasons. Besides all the ruptured lead-acid batteries, there's a wealth of nasty chemicals like PCBs in old phone equipment. The situation has improved greatly in the last decades, but Hinsdale was no doubt a hazmat nightmare. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That may explain why the newspapers said what they did in the Tuesday (of that first week) papers. I do not think the severity of the situation had sunk into their heads on Monday. By Tuesday the papers knew full well this was going to be a very long, drawn out affair, almost as you put it, of hazmat-nightmare proportions; futhermore, the phones were going to be dead for a month, but that little but significant detail *still was not known*. I mean, after all, what do newspapers or the general public know about phone systems and central offices? Bell was still stalling everyone with the 'give us a day or two to get things back in order' routine, so the newspapers bought that line. But in an interview with the papers and the fire chief on duty that night, he said "I smelled those rotten eggs, saw one of my men coming out with that stuff all over his clothes, holding a handkerchief over his nose, and I immediatly told the crew inside to get out of there now for their own safety, ordered all the men to get totally hosed down, and started an evacuation of the entire block around the building. When the new crew went inside to take over the fire, they had masks on their faces and protective clothing. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 17:03:50 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells > very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? When it catches on > fire or gets disturbed is it the thing which goes up in the atmosphere > in a plume like cloud? Would a release of same into the atmosphere as > the result of an explosion or disturbance be the kind of thing you > would evacuate the neighbors for? That would be the stuff, yes. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin ------------------------------ From: matt_ac_jones@hotmail.com (Matt) Subject: Global Numbering Plans Date: 12 May 2004 01:09:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I've seen various organisations on the web offering 'global numbering plans'. Some offerings are absurdly cheap. Has anyone any idea of whether these are worthwhile ? Is the data any good ? Any thoughts ? ------------------------------ From: Joe Wineburgh Subject: Murder Predicted in Text Message Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 14:50:16 -0400 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F05%2F07%2Fnt xt07.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=47624 By Graham Tibbetts A mother wrote a text message predicting her own murder on the day she was stabbed to death by her former husband, a court heard yesterday. In the message, which she did not send to anyone but stored on her mobile phone, Julie Sheppard said Howard Woodin had threatened to knife her and would claim he had acted in self-defence. Both predictions proved accurate but a jury at Winchester Crown Court dismissed Woodin's plea and he was jailed for life for murder. The message was found by police after they were called to the couple's home in Southsea, Hants, following the frenzied attack. It read: "20 march 03, twice 2 day howard threatened to knife or stab me put hand round my throat tried to push me b-wards into kitchen. Said he would say self def." Twenty minutes before her death Miss Sheppard, 41, also made an emotional phone call to police saying she feared her violent ex-husband would attack her. The call was cut short when Woodin, 45, a plumber, arrived at their home. After arguing about money and the sale of the house, Woodin stabbed Miss Sheppard 26 times, stopping halfway through to change knives when one broke through the ferocity of the blows. He then called his solicitor and daughter before requesting an ambulance. Woodin had claimed during the trial that his ex-wife attacked him first before turning the 5in vegetable knife and 10in bread knife on herself. But Dr Hugh White, a pathologist, said it was ludicrous to suggest that Miss Sheppard's wounds - some of which were five inches deep - could have been self-inflicted. Jailing him for life, Judge Michael Brodrick told Woodin: "This was a savage attack. You are a devious, domineering, manipulative, self-centred man." ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: Phone Line Busy Out Toggle Switch? Date: 11 May 2004 16:11:23 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Tom Beckman wrote: > I'm planning on having several phone lines in a hunt group. I'd like > to be able to busy out lines when not in use so that calls will roll > over to other lines. I looked around for a little box with a toggle > switch that would be placed between the phone and the wall jack that >would switch between on hook and off hook states. Does anyone know if >such a device exists? Thanks. A switch in series with a 600 ohm resistor will do nicely. There's probably a commercial box that has it all together but it's no problem to build your own. --scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." ------------------------------ From: Temporary FL@L&ER Subject: Re: Verizon to Expand DSL Offerings With New, Higher-Speed Service Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 00:14:54 -0500 Reply-To: w9vhe@arrl.net You are correct. Where I live is fGTE territory as well. Most of our state may not really be called urban, even with the rust belt influence. Either way, with VZ, if you are in a rural-type area, forget DSL for the most part. Unless I am mistaken, on Mon, 10 May 2004 18:53:21 -0500, Steven J Sobol wrote: > Temporary FL@L&ER wrote: >> What most folks fail to realize is that most of Verizon's customers >> are in an urban environment, > Correction. > The former Bell Atlantic areas were largely urban, and there are some > former GTE markets like various Texas cities and the chunks of Los > Angeles that GTE used to have that were also large(ish) cities, but > there are plenty of GTE areas that were not urban. I don't know that > I'd say "most" of Verizon's customers live in the city. Many, for > sure. Perhaps not most. > (And then there are areas like mine, which are a weird combination of > rural and more populated areas. Verizon [former GTE] is my ILEC.) > JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED > Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net > Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ > "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush > out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl > '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 Use the usual techniques if you wish to reply via email. Molon Labe! ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #237 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 13 01:04:12 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4D54Cw08284; Thu, 13 May 2004 01:04:12 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 01:04:12 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405130504.i4D54Cw08284@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 #238 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 May 2004 01:04:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 238 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson TI Spells Future 'VoIP' - Chipmaker Counting on Boost (VOIP News) IP-Based Softswitches are the Key to Successful Carrier VoIP (VOIP News) Residential VOIP Will Boom, Says Study (VOIP News) Ottawa Gets Another Internet-Based Telecom Service (VOIP News) Telephony's VoIP: Service Provider Strategies Conference (VOIP News) VoIP Is `Killer' Application to Drive Wireless Development (VOIP News) VoIP Competition will Negatively Impact Revenue of U.S. LECs (VOIP News) Cell Phone Service Taps Into Net For VoIP (VOIP News) Cox Communications Issues a White Paper: Voice Over Internet (VOIP News) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio (Geoffrey Welsh) Video Messaging on 3G Mobile Phones (sqm89805) Phantom Cell Phone Call. What's Going On ...? (zerge) Wireless FireWire (Monty Solomon) Window Smashed; Data Lost (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 04:39:09 -0400 Subject: TI Spells Future 'VoIP' - Chipmaker Counting on Boost Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/051204dnbusti.3d110.html Chipmaker Counting on Boost From Internet telephony By CRAYTON HARRISON / The Dallas Morning News RICHARDSON This is the year for Internet telephony, Texas Instruments Inc. believes. The technology is one of TI's biggest areas of potential growth, executives proclaimed Tuesday at a meeting with analysts. Voice over Internet protocol, known as VoIP, chops sound into tiny packets of data that get reassembled on the other end of the phone line. TI makes chips for phones that use VoIP, for broadband modems that can route VoIP data throughout the home and for the equipment used to handle multiple VoIP lines. The company also sells VoIP software based on technology it acquired in 1999, when it bought a small Maryland company, Telogy Networks, in a $455 million stock deal. That acquisition, plus TI's investments in smaller, faster chips, is beginning to pay off. Full story at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/051204dnbusti.3d110.html 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: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 04:32:41 -0400 Subject: IP-Based Softswitches are the Key to Successful Carrier VoIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.convergedigest.com/blueprint/ttp04/z2utstar1.asp?ID=135&ctgy=2 by Bill Huang, CTO UTStarcom Over the last ten years, a big change has been taking place in the Central Office (CO). Originally designed to initiate, terminate, route, and manage Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) voice calls, COs today handle an ever-growing amount of data traffic. At the same time, many TDM voice users are migrating to wireless voice, either for cost or convenience. While data traffic grows at double- and triple-digit rates on most carrier networks, the growth of TDM voice traffic is stagnating. This change in network traffic has resulted in a fundamental shift within the telecom industry to migrate from Class 5 telephony switches to next-generation IP-based softswitching. Service providers and carriers around the world have already announced plans to adopt softswitching as the foundation for their CO infrastructure moving forward. Verizon recently made public a five-year plan to migrate its legacy switching architecture to IP-based softswitch technology, with plans to spend more than $3 billion to expand its broadband service capacity to be able to support VoIP services for both businesses and consumers. Analyst firm Infonetics Research reports that softswitch revenues will grow approximately 50% in 2004. Full story at: http://www.convergedigest.com/blueprint/ttp04/z2utstar1.asp?ID=135&ctgy=2 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 13:32:07 -0400 Subject: Residential VOIP Will Boom, Says Study Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=52620 In a new report, research firm Frost & Sullivan says explosive growth in the North American residential voice-over-IP (VOIP) market during the next three years will be accompanied by a 77-fold increase in sales of 'endpoints' -- that is, analog telephone adapters (ATAs), VOIP residential gateways, IP phones, and session initiation protocol (SIP) phones. That's good news for companies like Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO - message board) and Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT - message board), which make ATAs, the little boxes that connect an analog telephone to a broadband modem. D-Link Systems Inc. and Telco Systems (BATM) will also benefit as suppliers of VOIP residential gateways, which are like ATAs with built-in routers. But ATA and gateway makers will eventually face stiff competition from vendors like Clarisys and Grandstream Networks Inc., which make IP and SIP phones -- handsets that don't require an adapter box to link to a broadband connection. Frost & Sullivan predicts that sales of residential VOIP endpoints in the U.S. and Canada will grow from $9 million last year to $700 million in 2007. Right now, ATAs account for most of those sales, since few consumers are ready to throw out perfectly good analog phones, and popular residential VOIP service providers like Vonage Holdings Corp. supply ATAs to all of their customers (see Vonage Claims VOIP First ). "The ATA will probably remain the dominant device for at least another year or so," says Jon Arnold, a Frost & Sullivan analyst and author of North America Residential VOIP Market: Everybody's Talking at Me. Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=52620 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 13:39:54 -0400 Subject: Ottawa Gets Another Internet-Based Telecom Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/281479465540273.php By Leo Valiquette, Ottawa Business Journal Staff New Jersey firm Vonage has arrived in Ottawa with a new Internet-based telecom service to rival a similar offering from Primus Telecommunications Canada and put more pressure on traditional phone companies. Vonage's new service, available at www.vonage.ca provides bundled telecom services through the 613 area code. The services are offered over a Voice over Internet Protocol network, which offers voice and data services over a high-speed Internet connection. The push is on to sign up consumers for VoIP at the expense of the traditional fixed line phone services that remain the mainstay of incumbent phone companies such as Bell Canada and Telus. Full story at: http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/281479465540273.php ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:17:28 -0400 Subject: Telephony's VoIP: Service Provider Strategies Conference Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040512005670&newsLang=en Telephony's VoIP: Service Provider Strategies Conference Debuts in Chicago with Strong Line-up of Key Industry Leaders CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2004--Voice over IP (VoIP) is poised to dramatically change the telecommunications landscape, offering potential benefits to both end users and service providers alike. Telephony Magazine and Shorecliff Communications today announced the conference agenda and speaker line-up for their VoIP: Service Provider Strategies Conference, Monday, June 21 at the Embassy Suites Hotel Chicago-Downtown. The event will feature keynote addresses by Oliver Valente, Vice President Technology Development for Sprint Corp.; Jack Waters, CTO & President of Voice Technologies, Level 3 Communications; Jeff Pulver, President & CEO, Free World Dialup & pulver.com; and Dale Fox, Vice President of Digital Phone, Time Warner Cable. These addresses along with technology- and marketing-focused educational tracks will detail the realities of VoIP deployments for carrier networks and cover areas such as softswitch deployments, emerging applications, network transitioning, Voice over WLAN and regulatory developments. The show will also provide attendees with networking opportunities and the chance to exchange ideas with event sponsors and exhibitors including Tekelec, NetRake, VeriSign, and VocalData. Full press release at: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040512005670&newsLang=en ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:15:47 -0400 Subject: VoIP Is the `Killer' Application to Drive Wireless Development Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com [Comment: The second paragraph of body text (the one that begins, "WiMAX is seen by many as an indicator and also a driver in the market for VoIP applications"), in my opinion deserves special notice, as perhaps the most confusing paragraph I've read yet in a press release. If Lewis Carroll had written press releases, he might have come up with something like this ... on an incredibly bad day, perhaps!] http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-12-2004/0002172752&STORY&EDATE= Market Research Report Offers Comprehensive Forecasts and Strategic Analysis of All Growing Wireless Component Technologies, Relates Them to Protocols and International Standards, and Reviews Their Relationships with Economic and Political Driving Forces MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- West Technology Research Solutions, LLC ("WTRS"), a market research firm focusing solely on emerging wireless technologies, today announced the availability of their just released, expanded Comprehensive Wireless Component Market Report, that provides a comprehensive review of wireless components spanning WAN technologies and protocols to PANs and Sensors. It compares and explains the relationships between technologies and protocols including UWB, Bluetooth, 802.15.4, ZigBee, 3G, 4G, WiMAX, 802.11a through g, and 802.20. "WiMAX is seen by many as an indicator and also a driver in the market for VoIP applications. We are now at the intersection of wireless rapid data transfer and communication, realizing the final link, the Golden Spike, the saxum medium, the Key Stone: voice as data, Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP. In the near future, invariably and inevitably, VoIP will replace switched telephony, i.e. it will eliminate and replace a complete stratum of our infrastructure that has served us so well for over one hundred years: the telephone. To be frank about this, we simply will no longer have need of it," said Kirsten West, one of the principals of WTRS. "Now that the significance of VoIP and its threat to telecommunications is becoming clear, the genie is out of the bottle, and the proverbial horse has left the barn. The FCC wants to keep the decision in the market place, that sphere of the survival of the fittest. Such an outcome would give the advantage to cable operators, the likes of AT&T, but also the `little guy', the average person looking to reduce and finally eliminate the barriers of regulations and fees. The losers would be the telecommunication market and industry and that incredibly layered maze of service providers and hangers-on: federal, state, local taxes, fees, and their bureaucratic infrastructure, attached like remoras to the mouth and underside of a shark." West estimates that, given a 4% global GDP growth rate, annual shipments for WiMAX chipsets will exceed $2.2 billion in 2008. The Comprehensive Wireless Component Market Report and Analysis provides sales volume, unit shipments, and average selling price by area network (WAN, MAN, LAN, PAN, and Sensors) as well as by the protocols and technologies within each area network from 2004 through 2009. In addition, it provides technology driver & shift analysis, analysis of technologies and standard protocols, summary and analysis of parent activity for each area network, economic indicator and geographic analysis, and general industry analysis. This 115-page report has 81 tables and 62 graphs. About West Technology Research Solutions, LLC West Technology Research Solutions, LLC (d.b.a. WTRS), is a market research and consulting company focused solely on new and emerging wireless technologies. WTRS's unique approach generates market forecasts using macro- economic methodologies that provide historically more accurate forecasts. Areas of expertise include wireless technologies, macroeconomic forecasting, and semiconductor technology. Services include comprehensive market research reports, concise market briefings, targeted industry assessments, monthly wireless technology newsletters, custom research and consulting, and custom channel marketing & sales program development. For more information, contact West Technology Research Solutions at info@westtechresearch.com or 650-940-1196. Contact: Karin Hall Company: West Technology Research Solutions Title: Principal Phone: 650-940-1196 Email: khall@westtechresearch.com This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 14:24:05 -0400 Subject: VoIP Competition Will Negatively Impact Revenue of U.S. LECs Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/7410 The deployment of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies by U.S. telecom competitors will materially erode local exchange revenues over the next decade, according to a new study by Fitch Ratings. Fitch estimates that VoIP will represent approximately 10 million lines by 2008, resulting in a projected annual revenue loss of more than $7 billion for the local exchange carrier industry. Using 2003 as a base year and analyzing key data and trends for the industry, Fitch believes VoIP erosion could lead to a local exchange-based EBITDA reduction of 7 percent by 2008. VoIP offers a more flexible and cheaper alternative for voice calls than the switch technologies utilized by the local carriers. Full story at: http://www.telecomdirectnews.com/do.php/105/7410 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 17:55:38 -0400 Subject: Cell Phone Service Taps Into Net For VoIP Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.internetwk.com/allStories/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20300657 By W. David Gardner, TechWeb News Cell-phone users can make calls over the Internet using a technology developed by i2 Telecom International. The company said the service works with all popular cell-phone services. "You just make a call from your cell phone to your i2 Telecom box at home," said the firm's Rick Scherle in an interview Wednesday. "And we hook you onto the Internet." Scherle, who is i2 Telecom's senior vice president of marketing, said the service will be available when shipments of the company's new InternetTalker MG-3 begin next month. The patent-pending technology behind the feature is embedded in the InternetTalker, which connects to existing broadband phone lines and Web connections at users' homes or offices. When a user dials into his home number, the InternetTalker recognizes the cell phone caller ID and immediately links the caller to the VoIP network. The InternetTalker can recognize up to three cell-ID numbers. Full story at: http://www.internetwk.com/allStories/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=20300657 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 17:57:45 -0400 Subject: Cox Communications Issues a White Paper: Voice over Internet Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20040512005881&newsLang=en --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ISSUE: With multiple trials and one commercial VoIP technology launch complete, Cox believes that VoIP is ready for prime time. How will this impact its telephone strategy for 2004 and beyond? NEWS: Today, Wednesday, May 12, Atlanta-based Cox Communications, Inc. announced it has published to its web site (www.cox.com/pressroom) a white paper outlining its telephony strategy and deployment of VoIP technology. PERSPECTIVE: VoIP technology has arrived. Driven in large part by Cox's commitment to customers and quality of service, Cox's VoIP architecture clearly differentiates the company from many other VoIP technology offerings that are currently available in the marketplace. -- With more than 1 million residential telephone customers and 100,000 commercial customer locations, Cox will continue to extensively leverage its back-office systems, experienced people and processes for further VoIP market launches - without stranding the capital it has invested in its circuit-switched operations. -- Cox will expand its phone service footprint via VoIP to commercial customers, thereby furthering its leadership position in voice amongst its peers in the commercial telecom marketplace. -- The regionally distributed architecture allows Cox to introduce phone services to customers in markets where the economics do not support the cost of a circuit-switched architecture. -- In the white paper, Cox outlines its strategy for deploying VoIP; highlights its VoIP architecture; examines cost comparisons of VoIP vs. circuit-switched technology; and highlights its success as a telecom provider. WHO: David Pugliese, vice president of product marketing and management will be available for interviews about VoIP, and Cox Communications' overall telephone strategy. WHERE: The white paper is available online at www.cox.com/pressroom. Contacts Cox Communications, Atlanta Bobby Amirshahi, 404/843-7872 bobby.amirshahi@cox.com or Laura Oberhelman, 404/269-7562 laura.oberhelman@cox.com ------------------------------ From: Geoffrey Welsh Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 09:08:49 -0400 Organization: Primus Canada Mark Crispin wrote: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: [...] What would happen *today* if I > made that little trip and had a satellite radio I was carrying along? > Would it get confiscated, or would I have to turn it off and not > listen to it, etc? Are people in USA (or Canada) allowed these days > to travel back and forth to go to work or do shopping or has Bush (or > the Canadian authorities) put a stop to all that? No one would even notice your satellite radio, but you can't work across the border without a lot of paperwork. I've flown many times and driven a few times across the border (I'm a Canadian) on business in the past decade, and ridden a bus to Detroit to see a baseball game. In my experience, once you've proven who you are and that you are eligible to enter the country (and they determine that you're not likely a drug smuggler, etc.), the U.S. border guards are concerned about Canadians going into the States to work and will ask me about the nature of my business, trying to steer me towards the question, "why can't an American do that job?", i.e. if I don't have a green card I'll be turned back. One of my colleagues was detained and theen turned back at Toronto's Pearson airport. The Canadian border guards, on the other hand, seem to be more concerned with how much I bought in the U.S. because there are limits (based on the amount of time I spent out of the country) to how much I can import. At no point does anyone ask about relativly unimportant (compared to catching criminals, drugs, etc.) questions like what kind of radio or cellphone I'm carrying -- as long as I brought it with me and I plan to take it back with me. ------------------------------ From: sqm89805@yahoo.co.uk (sqm89805) Subject: Video Messaging on 3G Mobile Phones Date: 12 May 2004 13:03:52 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi Folks, What software is available for streaming video messaging on mobile phones? Many ads are appearing in papers where moving video pictures(adult content etc) can be downloaded. Would like to better understand the mechanics and the software available to enable this. Thanks, Sqm ------------------------------ From: zerge@hotmail.com (zerge) Subject: Phantom Cell Phone Call; What's Going On ...? Date: 12 May 2004 14:44:16 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com This happened to me recently. Could anybody give a technical explanation? I'm in Mexico City, my cellular provider is Telcel. I have a Nokia 3320, and my wife has a Motorola C200. So, I'm sitting in a doctor's waiting room, and my cell phone rings. I look at the caller ID, and I see that it's my wife. Except that my wife is sitting in front of me, and I can see she is not calling me. Her cell phone is in her purse, on the floor. I answer the phone, and hear only faint static. Not really white noise, more like the tiny sounds a phone makes when nobody is talking. I hang up. The phone call stays recorded in my call log. Then my wife opens her purse and takes out her cell phone. Two facts: she does not have my cell phone, or any other number, programmed into her phone, and my cell phone was not the last number she dialed. So that rules out an accidental call. Plus the phone was inside the purse, not being moved or manipulated in any way. She checks her call log, and there is no call to my cell phone registered. She puts away her phone, but checks again 10-15 minutes later; the call log, and then the call to my cell phone was recorded, exactly at the time it happened. Pretty darn weird. Before I consider any Twilight Zone explanations, do any of you have a logical, technical explanation for this phenomenon? Thanks. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 23:14:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Wireless FireWire 1394 Trade Association Approves New Wireless Protocol Adaptation Layer; "Wireless FireWire" Product Development Set to Move Forward Also Sets Liaison with WiMedia Alliance to Collaborate on Future "Wireless FireWire" Specifications Dallas, May 10, 2004 -- The 1394 Trade Association today approved the new Protocol Adaptation Layer (PAL) for IEEE 1394 over IEEE 802.15.3, which enables new "Wireless FireWire" product development that will let consumers easily connect wireless electronics components to each other and to the wired home entertainment network. The Trade Association's Board of Directors approved the PAL specification developed by its Wireless Working Group, chaired by Peter Johansson. The PAL is designed as a standard convergence layer between the 802.15.3 MAC and applications developed for wired 1394. It builds upon the 1394 infrastructure -- for example, data formats, connection management schemes and time synchronization procedures -- and takes advantage of the excellent quality of service (QoS) available in 802.15.3. Adaptation of the 1394 infrastructure to 802.15.3 makes possible the reuse of existing middleware for audio and video streaming and other multimedia applications. http://1394ta.org/Press/2004Press/may/5.10.a.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 00:21:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Window Smashed; Data Lost David Lazarus A thief smashed the rear window of Larry Saltzman's Saab not long ago and stole his gym bag, a gold watch, credit cards, a few hundred dollars and the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of about 95,000 Bay Area residents. At issue -- yet again -- is the question of whether people's personal information can ever be truly safe once it's handed to an outside contractor, as a local insurer did with Saltzman. A series of thefts involving confidential data in recent months suggests that no matter how extensive a company's security measures may be, they can be easily undone by human error, negligence or random circumstances. Consumers, in turn, face the very real possibility of their personal info falling into the wrong hands. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/12/BUG8O6JPV71.DTL ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #238 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 13 15:34:31 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4DJYVI16774; Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:31 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405131934.i4DJYVI16774@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 #239 TELECOM Digest Thu, 13 May 2004 15:34:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 239 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service (VOIP News) VOIP Raising Questions About Rules of the Game in U.S. (VOIP News) 360net Connects on U.S. Deal (VOIP News) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Howard S. Wharton) Re: Fires and Telecommunications (Dennis Ritchie) Scrambled Channels Irk Cable Viewers (Monty Solomon) Cisco CallManager and Integration With Other Web Applications (Karol) SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom (Press Release) Hello, Pay Phone Information? Enthusiast Provides Answer (Marcus Jervis) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 12:25:52 -0400 Subject: RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-13-2004/0002173497&EDATE= RadioShack Introduces Broadband Internet Telephony Service in Nearly 4,000 Stores in 38 States Consumer Electronics Retailer to Offer Vonage(R) Broadband Telephony Retail Distribution Base Six-Times Larger Than Nearest Competitor; Expected to Enhance Adoption Rate By Consumers FORT WORTH, Texas, May 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- RadioShack Corporation (NYSE: RSH), the leading consumer electronics specialty retailer, today announced it is now offering broadband Internet telephone service, commonly known as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), in nearly 4,000 of its retail stores across the country. This gives RadioShack a retail distribution base for VoIP services that is approximately six-times larger than the next closest retail chain. In addition, more than 1,600 of these RadioShack stores are expected to be offering in-store demonstrations as early as July. The new VoIP service will be provided by Vonage, the nation's leading broadband telephony service provider. Broadband phone service allows people to make and receive phone calls using a high-speed Internet connection instead of a traditional phone line. This service will be available primarily through RadioShack's stores located in U.S. markets that have wide-spread cable or DSL broadband Internet penetration. Customers can sign up or inquire about Vonage broadband phone service availability at their local RadioShack store, by visiting http://www.radioshack.com/voip or by calling 1-800-877-0072. According to RadioShack officials, broadband telephony is a perfect fit with the company's strategy to offer products and services that are creative, innovative and of high value that solve customers' wants and needs. "VoIP plays directly to the core strengths of RadioShack -- superior customer service and knowledgeable sales associates," said Stu Asimus, RadioShack's senior vice president, chief merchandising officer. "The low, yet rapidly growing number of subscribers shows that broadband phone service is still in the early adoption phase of the technology. VoIP is simply not quite ready for a self-service environment. "In fact, the majority of individuals and families either do not understand VoIP at all or believe it's only for computer geeks, which is where RadioShack can play a huge role," Asimus said. "With more than 1,600 stores soon featuring in-store demonstrations along with almost 2,400 additional stores offering the service, we are uniquely equipped to explain to customers how this new technology works. We can also help them understand why it can enhance their lives, how it provides a superior, cost-effective value over traditional phone services, and then hold their hand through the installation process to remove any worries they may have about making VoIP work in their homes or businesses." "The national roll out of Vonage's broadband telephony product presents a great opportunity, which will allow us to prove the value of our products on retail shelves," said Matt Deatrick, vice president Retail Channel Sales of Vonage. "We are changing the telecommunications industry with the help of one of the nation's top consumer electronics retailers, as RadioShack's market savvy and educated sales representatives demonstrate the value of broadband phone service to an untapped market segment." According to Asimus, VoIP has been around since the mid '90s, but slow connection speeds in major U.S. markets and restrictive equipment severely hampered its adoption. "Today's explosive growth of broadband DSL and cable Internet access, which is now in more than 20 million U.S. households, as well as major improvements in telephony hardware, has put us on the edge of a disruptive communications revolution that is quickly gaining momentum," said Asimus. How does Broadband Telephony work? The technology works by turning voice calls into data packets and sending them over the Internet. When the data packs approach their destination, they are reassembled, and delivered in the form of a traditional call. Vonage customers require only a high-speed Internet connection and a regular home telephone to utilize the service. The Vonage offer through RadioShack allows customers to select from monthly plans starting as low as $14.99. Rates for small businesses will vary. In addition, new customers who sign up for Vonage broadband phone service and purchase a Vonage starter kit receive a free month of unlimited calling, no activation fee and a $30 Vonage mail-in rebate -- a $94 value. Certain restrictions may apply. All rate plans include a full set of features, including caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, call forwarding, and emergency calling service. In addition, Vonage offers a number of enhanced voicemail and code selection features, including: -- Voicemail: Vonage offers three options for checking voicemail: you can dial into a menu and listen over the phone; listen to voicemail online, or listen to voicemail in your email box (a .wav file will be sent to your account) -- Area Code Selection: Vonage customers can choose any area code, regardless of location. Vonage's technology offers RadioShack's customers other substantial benefits, including: -- Cost savings versus traditional phone service -- Increased functionality versus traditional phone service -- Improved call quality versus traditional phone service -- Free calls to other Vonage subscribers -- Service portability, wherever broadband is available About RadioShack Corporation: Fort Worth-based RadioShack Corporation is the nation's most trusted consumer electronics specialty retailer of wireless communications, electronic parts, batteries and accessories as well as other digital technology products and services. With nearly 7,000 outlets nationwide, it is estimated that 94 percent of all Americans live or work within five minutes of a RadioShack store or dealer. The company's knowledgeable sales associates and brand position -- "You've Got Questions. We've Got Answers.(R)" -- support RadioShack's mission to demystify technology in every neighborhood in America. For more information on the company, visit the RadioShack Corporation Web site at http://www.radioshackcorporation.com . For more information on RadioShack products and services, visit its e-commerce Web site at http://www.radioshack.com . About Vonage(R) Vonage is redefining communications by offering consumers and small businesses an affordable alternative to traditional telephone service. The fastest growing telephony company in North America, Vonage's service area encompasses more than 1900 active rate centers in over 125 North American markets. Vonage is sold directly through http://www.vonage.com and retail partners such as Amazon.com, Circuit City, Best Buy and RadioShack. Wholesale partners such as EarthLink, ARMSTRONG(R), Advanced Cable Communications and the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities resell the Vonage broadband phone service under their own unique brands. With more than 135,000 lines in service, Vonage continues to add more than 20,000 lines per month to its network. Over 5 million calls per week are made using Vonage, the easy-to-use, feature-rich, flat rate phone service. Vonage is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey. For more information about Vonage's products and services, please visit http://www.vonage.com or call 1-VONAGE-HELP. Vonage(R), Vonage Digital Voice(TM), Toll Free Plus(SM) and Virtual Phone Number(SM) are trademarks of Vonage Holdings Corp. 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: VOIP News Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 10:30:10 -0400 Subject: VOIP Raising Questions About Rules of the Game in U.S. Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrvoipus13/BNStory/Technology/ By BARRIE McKENNA Globe and Mail Update WASHINGTON A resident of Portland, Ore., can call Miami -- 5,300 kilometres away -- for about 7 cents a minute. But a quick chat with someone in Eugene, Ore. -- barely an hour's drive away -- costs more than twice as much. That kind of extreme price anomaly has set the stage for an explosion of Internet-based phone traffic across the United States. Newly developed Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology has made it possible to turn voice traffic into data and vice versa. More importantly, it allows aspiring local providers to duck hefty state taxes as well as access charges levied by the regional "Baby Bells," such as SBC Communications Inc., Qwest Corp. or Verizon Inc. U.S. regulators insist they love VoIP, and want to do everything possible to help the business flourish. But a batch of recent court cases, and competing industry interests, are already shaping the regulatory landscape of Internet phone service. "I think [VoIP] is going to turn the telephone industry on its head," U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Michael Powell told a recent industry conference. Full story at: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrvoipus13/BNStory/Technology/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 10:27:06 -0400 Subject: 360net Connects on U.S. Deal Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrv360net13/BNStory/Technology/ By PETER KENNEDY Globe and Mail Update VANCOUVER 360networks Corp., the company that almost went bankrupt trying to build a global fibre-optics network, has a new role for itself, as facilitator to the telecommunications sector's next big thing. The Vancouver company recently struck a deal that has paved the way for Edison, N.J.-based Vonage Holdings Corp. to introduce its Internet phone service to subscribers in Canada. Vonage is one of a handful of U.S. and Canadian companies that are leading the race to offer services that permit subscribers to pick up their phone and have calls routed over the Internet. [...] Because Vonage operates over the Internet, but does not own network assets, it needed 360networks to provide the facilities that would allow it to offer VoIP to customers in Canada. Under the agreement, 360networks, through its GT Group Telecom Services subsidiary, is providing switching, transmission infrastructure and Canadian telephone numbers. Full story at: http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040513.gtrv360net13/BNStory/Technology/ ------------------------------ From: Howard S. Wharton Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 09:07:08 -0400 Organization: The University at Buffalo Sulfuric Acid has a health rating of 2 - Moderate, A Flammabiltiy Rating of 0 - None, a Reactivity Rating of 1, slight and a contact rating of 3 - severe (corrosive). As a corrosive, liquid and mist can cause severe burns to all body tissue. May be fatal if swallowed or contacted with skin. And rask of cancer depends on duration and level of exposure. It is not combustible, but is a stong oxidizer and it's heat of reaction with reducing agents or combustibles may cause ignition. Contact with most metals (such as switching equipment) causes formation of flammable and explosive hydrogen gas. I read the report written by the National Fire Protection Assn. (NFPA) after the fire. But it was years ago. As a fire inspector, I just shake my head how the alarms were monitored and the lack of a fire suppression system such as a what we call a clean agent system. The severally of the fire could have been minable. Howard S. Wharton Fire Safety Technician Occupational and Environmental Safety Services State University of New York at Buffalo ------------------------------ From: Dennis Ritchie Subject: Re: Fires and Telecommunications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 05:35:23 -0000 Organization: Bell Labs Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote in message news:telecom23.237.12@telecom-digest.org: >> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Is Sulphuric Acid the stuff that smells >> very much like rotten eggs when it gets disturbed? .... > That would be the stuff, yes. The rotten-egg smell would be hydrogen sulfide. It's more likely produced from things other than fires. Sulfur dioxide ("burning tire" smell is more likely, but the place probably did produce a witch's brew. Dennis ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 01:31:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Scrambled Channels Irk Cable Viewers By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | May 12, 2004 Comcast Corp. is cracking down on a free lunch many of its Boston cable television customers have been enjoying for years. The largest cable provider in Greater Boston has started scrambling or terminating broadcasts of channels that thousands of its customers have been watching for free. City Hall officials said yesterday the move appears to be entirely legal, but is still drawing many complaints from Hub residents who are finding that channels like CNN, ESPN, Comedy Central, and the History Channel, which they once watched regularly, are showing up as an unintelligible blur. In some cases, the move is also obstructing customers' use of TiVo-style digital video recording devices. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/05/12/scrambled_channels_irk_cable_viewers/ ------------------------------ From: Karol Subject: Cisco CallManager and Integration With Other Web Applications Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 15:59:05 +0200 Organization: POZMAN - http://www.man.poznan.pl/ Hello, Does anyone have used Cisco CallManager (Expresss) with own software using XML/SOAP interface? I want to know from my web application who is calling and be able to make calls. Scenario: - IP phone calls; - at browser in my web app I can click on link - my web app connects to CallManager and receive caller number and show me details of my caller from webapp database Another scenario: - I browse my webapp adressbook - I click at "Make call" - webapp connects to device and dial the number from my webapp database My webapp is built on PHP technology. I must (?) use XML/SOAP interface. I can't use TAPI or JTAPI interfaces. I have been reading docs all day and I haven't found solution. Have you got any experiences or any idea how to do it? I'll be gratefull for help. Karol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 20:29:17 +0400 From: Editor PressReleaseNetwork Subject: SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com SLC's Ratchet Rating System Implemented at LecStar Telecom Ann Arbor, MI - May 13, 2004 (PRN): Service Level Corporation (SLC) announces the completed delivery of the Ratchet Rating System at LecStar Telecom, Inc., an Atlanta-based telecommunications company and wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX). With a 15-year license to Ratchet, LecStar uses the Ratchet application to process call records before putting them into its billing application. "Ratchet's services reduce LecStar's operational costs while increasing customer satisfaction. Rating problems had frustrated customers and increased customer care staff costs," says Carl Wright, SLC President. "We look forward to working with LecStar to ensure that its customers' concerns about billing are eliminated in the future." Ratchet Rating System delivers a double-barreled solution of rules-based rating with built-in data mediation facilities. Rules-based rating delivers flexible pricing and rating services to speed business change and rate plan development. Built-in data mediation adapts the rating processes to input and output formats from binary to AMA to XML without programming. Costs for interfacing to other systems disappear. "Ratchet Rating System provides a much-needed service in billing applications," says Matt Sines, Vice President of Operations at LecStar Telecom. "By front-ending our billing system with Ratchet, we were able to solve a rating problem and provide improved service to our customers. We expect to use Ratchet to integrate new sources of call data currently unsupported by our billing system." The Ratchet solution has been successfully installed without disruption to LecStar's billing schedule. In addition, rating tariff updates are automatically integrated into the Ratchet solution to reduce on-going data maintenance. About LecStar Telecom, Inc. LecStar Telecom Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix® Corporation (OTC BB: FNIX). LecStar is a facilities-based integrated communications carrier (ICC) certified by the Federal Communications Commission and by nine states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee) as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) to provide regulated local, long distance and international telecommunications services. In close alliance with its agents and local electric utility company partners, LecStar offers a full array of fixed wire-line voice, data, Internet and operator services to business and residential customers throughout BellSouth's southeastern operating territory. LecStar was recently acquired by Fonix Corp., an industry leader in delivering conversational speech solutions to consumer systems and devices for everyday use. Manufacturers and developers incorporate Fonix's award-winning technology to provide their customers with an easy, convenient and reliable user experience. Fonix currently offers voice technology for mobile/wireless devices; computer telephony systems; games, game consoles, toys and appliances; the assistive market and automobiles. For more information regarding LecStar Telecom, Inc., its products or services, please contact LecStar at (404) 659-9500 or visit www.lecstar.com. About Service Level Corporation (SLC) Service Level Corporation is dedicated to the creation of technologies to deliver value to our customer's end customers. Service Level's products are focused on rating software and turnkey rating applications. The team that makes up the company has a history of innovation evidenced in previously issued patents and patents pending. SLC has products in production at LecStar Telecom, General Services Administration, and 1 Com Incorporated. As Lynn-Arthur Associates and then as SLC, its customers included wireline and wireless carriers in the North and South America, Europe and Asia over the last twenty years. For more information, contact: Mr. Carl Wright Service Level Corporation Tel: +1 734 827-2000 Email: wright@servicelevel.net http://www.servicelevel.net #### Editor & CEO Press Release Network editor@pressreleasenetwork.com http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com ------------------------------ From: Marcus Jervis Subject: Hello, Pay Phone Information? Enthusiast Provides the Answer Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 07:29:42 +0000 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/nyregion/13PAYP.html?th By IAN URBINA The New York Times It started as an art project. Blue spiral notebook in hand, Mark Thomas spent afternoons walking the streets of Manhattan, compiling the numbers and locations of public pay phones. He posted them on his Web site in the hope that people would call them. "There is real beauty in whimsical acts of contact between strangers," he explained. Soon his list expanded to include public phones at the top of the Eiffel Tower, in the basement of the Vatican, in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and at about 450,000 other places around the world. Word of his project spread, and Cindy in Hawaii reported having had the strangest conversation about beaches with a man answering a pay phone in Brazil. Kim from Sydney, Australia, said she called a phone on the corner of 57th and Broadway in Manhattan, where a guy answered, "Wassup" and said he had never heard of Australia. Most surreal of all was the conversation Mr. Thomas had when he picked up a pay phone in Queens, at the 36th Avenue stop of the N line, and the person on the other end explained that he had found the number on Mr. Thomas's Web site. But soon the project changed as panicked e-mail messages started arriving from people who needed to learn the location of a certain pay phone: A mother in rural Texas was desperately looking for her pregnant 15-year-old daughter, who had run away a month earlier and had tried to call home from a pay phone; an anti-pedophile group was racing to find a man who had used a pay phone to arrange a sexual meeting with a young boy; a real estate broker in Phoenix wanted to put an end to the daily calls from a stalker who was threatening to kill him. In an age of cellphone ubiquity, Mr. Thomas's passion for pay phones, while initially little more than fanciful, has thus yielded both entertaining and more urgently practical applications. His Web site, www.payphone-project.com, which gets about 45,000 visitors per month, is one of the only places where people can match an incoming pay phone number to a location. The Web site, he said, has become what the pay phone once was: a lifeline for those in sudden moments of need. Mr. Thomas's enthusiasm for the topic is unmistakable. He raises his voice to describe the hodgepodge of people who, shifting from one impatient foot to the other, stand in line at what has been called the nation's busiest pay phone, in Grand Central Terminal. His face flushes with excitement as he recounts some of the bizarre conversations he has had in answering pay phones that rang as he walked by. Like the lady who called the pay phone on the corner of 30th Street and 34th Avenue outside Salamis, a deli in Astoria, Queens. She persuaded Mr. Thomas to stay on the line with her for 20 minutes on a frigid December night until her daughter showed up to receive the call. Or the gravelly-voiced man who called the same phone and said: "Hello, is Louise there?" "No, this is a pay phone." "I know. Look, when she walks by, could you tell her that Julio called and I'm going to be at Rikers longer than I thought." Pay phones are a preoccupation that Mr. Thomas, 36, a professional concert pianist who lives in Long Island City, Queens, says dates back to his teenage years growing up in Tampa, Florida. Bored and stuck at home on Friday nights, he made a habit of calling a pay phone on Kennedy Boulevard near the University of Tampa, along what was then one of the seediest sections of the city. "When you're 15 and you can't even drink yet, there is something really titillating in talking to prostitutes and winos," he said. David Letterman's random calls to public phones near the Ed Sullivan Theater provided further inspiration. And with the Web site, started in 1995, Mr. Thomas suddenly opened the door to a robust subculture of similar aficionados. "You'd be amazed at how many people share this odd habit," he said. People began collecting numbers while they were researching in Antarctica or vacationing in New Zealand and e-mailing them to him when they arrived home, he said. The list's biggest growth spurt occurred in 1999 with the arrival of two anonymous submissions. "These people saw the utility of the information I was posting, and they wanted to help," he said. One person described himself only as a police investigator with special access to law enforcement archives. The other was an employee of one of the major phone companies. Their contributions brought Mr. Thomas's searchable databank up to its current total of about half a million numbers. But the Web site could be a lot more effective if the phone companies would hand over their full lists, Mr. Thomas said. "It makes no sense that you need to get a subpoena or hire a private investigator to find out where a certain public phone is located." Daniel Diaz Zapata, a spokesman for Verizon, one of the largest owners of pay phones in the country, explained that public pay phone lists have never been published. Although the phone company is required by law to print the phone number on the front of each pay phone, he said, it is not required to release its compiled list. "Like most phone companies, we don't see there being any advantage in making this information public," he said. Jean Ritter of Conroe, Tex., disagrees. After her 15-year-old daughter, Lannette, ran away from their home, near Houston, Ms. Ritter turned to Mr. Thomas's Web site for help. Lannette, who was five months pregnant, had been gone for four weeks when she called her mother one rainy afternoon, crying and sounding panicked. But before Lannette could say where she was, someone took the phone from her and hung it up. "I thought I was going to throw up, I was so sick with worry," said Ms. Ritter, explaining that she took the phone number from her caller ID and entered it into Mr. Thomas's Web site. "It told us the exact location of the gas station where she was, and we jumped in the car to go get her." Del, a woman who would not give her last name, works for a Web site, perverted-justice.com, which monitors the Internet looking for pedophiles. She described Mr. Thomas's lists as indispensable. "We pose online as young boys, and when the potential predators decide to make a call to set up an in-person meeting, they often do so from pay phones," she explained. Since the group hands over its information to the police for final investigation, Del said she could not be sure how many pedophiles had actually been stopped with help from the Web site. Darrell Blomberg, 45, offered his own testimonial. A real estate broker from Phoenix, Mr. Blomberg started getting several threatening calls a day from a man. "He knew my address and kept describing the gruesome things he was going to do to me," Mr. Blomberg said. Aside from being tormenting, the calls, which came in daily for 13 months, were costing Mr. Blomberg about $20 per month because they were directed to his 800 number, which bills the recipient. "It was galling," he said. "I lived constantly wondering whether this guy was actually coming to get me." Mr. Blomberg began keeping his .38-caliber pistol loaded and in his bedroom, but he said that it was Mr. Thomas' Web site that eventually provided a small sense of security. After taking the suspicious phone numbers from the calls listed on his bill and plugging them into Mr. Thomas' Web site, Mr. Blomberg realized that the stalker was calling from several pay phones within a six-block area of downtown Syracuse. "I felt a lot less terrorized," he said. "It dawned on me that this guy was really far away and that he hadn't left this one neighborhood in nearly a year." Mr. Thomas said he welcomes the newfound use of his hobby. And since almost all pay phones reject incoming calls these days, he said that he recognizes that his original hope of instigating capricious acts of contact between strangers is now nearly moot. He is less accepting, however, of other trends. "Cellphones just don't stack up," he said. A collector of antique radios who prefers records to CD's, Mr. Thomas laments the creeping obsolescence of pay phones. As their quantity dwindles nationally to fewer than 1.8 million from a peak of 2.7 million in the mid-'90s, Mr. Thomas sees more than just a loss in public convenience. "Pay phones are lifelines for the down and out; their booths are rainy-day cocoons," he said. "You lose those, and you lose a lot of windows onto the human condition." ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #239 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Fri May 14 16:00:39 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4EK0c628175; Fri, 14 May 2004 16:00:39 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 16:00:39 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405142000.i4EK0c628175@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 #240 TELECOM Digest Fri, 14 May 2004 16:01:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 240 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson EFFector 17.17: Action Alert - DMCA Reform Gains Momentum (Monty Solomon) EPIC Alert 11.09 (Monty Solomon) EPIC Alert 11.07 (Monty Solomon) AA-2004.02 -- Denial of Service Vulnerability in IEEE 802.11 (M Solomon) ICANN Dispute Tests New Internet Services (Monty Solomon) Will Souping Up TiVo Save It? (Monty Solomon) PalmOne Updates Software For Treo 600 Smart Phone (Monty Solomon) Verizon Applying For Cable Franchises - Report (Monty Solomon) FCC Proposes Using Empty TV Slots For Wireless (Monty Solomon) MergerTalk: Adelphia Auction Could Unleash Flurry of Cable (Monty Solomon) T-Mobile USA Reports First Quarter 2004 Results (Monty Solomon) Symantec Multiple Firewall Remote DNS KERNEL Overflow (Monty Solomon) Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately (Fred Atkinson) Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Claire Schatz) Florida Sues AT&T For Billing Errors (Paul Robinson) Re: NANP Numbering (Paul Robinson) New Way to Read USENET (jmayson@nyx.net) 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: Thu, 13 May 2004 21:49:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EFFector 17.17: Action Alert - DMCA Reform Gains Momentum EFFector Vol. 17, No. 17 May 11, 2004 donna@eff.org A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424 In the 289th Issue of EFFector: * Action Alert: DMCA Reform Gains Momentum - Stand Up for the Public's Rights in Digital Media! * WANTED: EFF Seeks Writing Intern * MiniLinks (10): Japanese Professor Arrested for Writing P2P Application * Staff Calendar: 05.13.04 - 05.15.04 - Lawrence Lessig speaks at the Berkman Center's Internet Law Program, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA; 05.14.04 - 05.16.04 - Brad Templeton speaks at the Foresight Institute, Palo Alto, CA * Administrivia http://www.eff.org/Misc/EFF/Newsletters/EFFector/17/17.php ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 21:41:22 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 11.09 ======================================================================= E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================= Volume 11.09 May 13, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.09.html ====================================================================== Table of Contents ====================================================================== [1] FOIA Doc Shows Massive Disclosure of Passenger Data to FBI [2] Wiretap Reports Released; Secret Warrants Exceed Standard Warrants [3] Groups Ask California to Investigate Google's Gmail [4] EPIC Urges Opt-In Privacy for Wireless Devices [5] Commission Holds Hearing on E-Voting Technology [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: All The Laws But One [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.09.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 21:42:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: EPIC Alert 11.07 ======================================================================= E P I C A l e r t ======================================================================= Volume 11.07 April 8, 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) Washington, D.C. http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.07.html ====================================================================== Table of Contents ====================================================================== [1] Homeland Security Dept. Expands Visitor Tracking System [2] European Parliament Slams EU-US Agreement on Passenger Data [3] EPIC Comments on Short Notices, Spam, Biometrics [4] Canadian Court OKs Peer-to-Peer Sharing [5] Bill Criminalizing Inaccurate Domain Info Advances In House [6] News in Brief [7] EPIC Bookstore: Overruling Democracy [8] Upcoming Conferences and Events http://www.epic.org/alert/EPIC_Alert_11.07.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 23:17:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AA-2004.02 -- Denial of Service Vulnerability in IEEE 802.11 AA-2004.02 -- Denial of Service Vulnerability in IEEE 802.11 Wireless Devices A vulnerability exists in hardware implementations of the IEEE 802.11 wireless protocol that allows for a trivial but effective attack against the availability of wireless local area network (WLAN) devices. http://www.auscert.org.au/render.html?it=4091 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 09:40:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ICANN Dispute Tests New Internet Services By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- When the company under contract to run much of the Internet's core decided last fall to launch a new online search service, it saw an opportunity to help lost Web surfers find their way. But critics saw it as a bald grab for dollars and worried that the Site Finder search system could cause Internet instability. The Internet's key oversight agency responded by pressuring the company, VeriSign Inc., to pull it. That dispute has turned into a key test of whether financial or public interest ultimately drives decisions on how Internet users worldwide visit Web sites and send e-mail. A federal lawsuit that grew partly from that dispute has a hearing Tuesday in Los Angeles. The lawsuit, filed by VeriSign, is the latest threat to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which was selected by the U.S. Commerce Department in 1998 to oversee key aspects of cyberspace. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41428174 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 09:49:49 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Will Souping Up TiVo Save It? INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Why investors, spooked by the competition, may be fleeing its stock too soon Michael Ramsay, chief executive of TiVo Inc., has heard the eulogies for his pioneering company many times before. Yes, digital video recorders, which let viewers pause live TV, zip through commercials, and automatically record their favorite programs, are suddenly hot. And yes, TiVo's name has become virtually synonymous with the technology. But the five-year-old company faces an onslaught of competition, and its strategic position seems hopeless. Most of its customers buy stand-alone boxes, then pay $12.95 a month for TiVo's "time-shifting" service. Now, cable companies are beginning to offer similar services for lower subscription rates with no up-front cost. Worse, Rupert Murdoch's DirecTV, TiVo's biggest customer, is considering using technology from another Murdoch company to replace TiVo in at least some of its satellite boxes. Investors certainly are spooked. TiVo's stock is down 50% since last July, to less than $7. "People are assuming the worst," says analyst David Farina of investment bank William Blair & Co. But tap that pause button for a moment. A close look at Ramsay's new plans for the company suggests that any requiem for TiVo may be premature. He's pushing to make TiVo less dependent on stand-alone boxes by striking alliances to have TiVo's software incorporated into hot-selling consumer electronics such as DVD recorders. He's aiming to get more revenue from subscribers by offering them cool new features, including satellite radio, digital photo editing, and the ability to surf the Web from TiVo boxes. And although many of his customers get TiVo to avoid advertising, he expects to build a significant business from selling opt-in ads specially crafted for his much-coveted audience. "TiVo has a lot of irons in the fire. I wouldn't write them off just yet," says analyst Michael Paxton of researcher In-Stat/MDR. http://businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_20/b3883087_mz063.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 10:16:36 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PalmOne Updates Software For Treo 600 Smart Phone By Ina Fried Staff Writer, CNET News.com Handheld maker PalmOne released a software update for its Treo 600 smart phone on Thursday that's designed to make the device more reliable. The update is initially only for those who own a Sprint version of the phone, with other carriers still in the process of testing the update on their networks. http://news.com.com/2100-1041-5212258.html ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 11:12:48 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Applying for Cable Franchises - Report WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) has applied to offer cable television service to customers in nine states as part of a new high-speed fiber-optic network, Business Week magazine reported on Thursday. The U.S.'s largest telephone company has said it would spend $1 billion on extending fiber-optic cables to homes this year with a target of connecting 1 million homes. Such fiber-optic connections are capable of handling video, data and voice signals at far higher speeds than cable connections. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41425811 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 11:24:27 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: FCC Proposes Using Empty TV Slots For Wireless By Jeremy Pelofsky WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - New wireless communications services could be deployed using vacant television airwaves in cities and rural areas, under a proposal issued by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. Despite objections by television broadcasters, the FCC voted to propose using empty spaces protecting television channels from interference as long as the new services like high-speed Internet do not cause problems themselves. The additional airwaves could help meet growing demand and spur innovations like the Wi-Fi wireless Internet services that now connect consumers to the Web in airports and coffee shops. The FCC has been looking for ways to deploy high-speed Internet services, known as broadband, to hard-to-reach areas. The issue has garnered attention on the campaign trail with candidates calling for broader access to boost the economy. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41417468 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 11:28:17 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: MergerTalk: Adelphia Auction Could Unleash Flurry of Cable M&A By Julie MacIntosh and Michael Learmonth NEW YORK, May 13 (Reuters) - The frequent wheeling and dealing among U.S. cable companies has ground to a halt now that the potential sale of bankrupt Adelphia Communications Corp. (PK:ADELQ) threatens to redraw the industry's borders. Pockmarked maps showing which companies serve which subscribers aren't likely to change much until a victor emerges in the bid for Adelphia's 5.4 million subscribers. But when the gavel drops on the No. 5 cable operator, a flurry of system-swapping could erupt among major players aiming to consolidate certain markets, analysts and investment bankers said. So could other acquisitions -- particularly on the content-providing side. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41408932 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 11:34:33 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: T-Mobile USA Reports First Quarter 2004 Results BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2004--T-Mobile USA, Inc. (NYSE:DT): -- Record 1.174 million new net customers added in Q1 2004 -- Customer base up 9% in Q1 from Q4 2003 -- $492 million in Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization (OIBDA) in Q1 2004, up 60% from Q1 2003 T-Mobile USA, Inc. ("T-Mobile USA") the U.S. operation of T-Mobile International AG & Co. KG ("T-Mobile International"), the mobile communications subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG ("Deutsche Telekom") (NYSE:DT), today announced first quarter 2004 results. All financial figures are in USD and are based on accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP") in order to provide comparability with the results of other U.S. wireless carriers. T-Mobile USA results will also be included in the consolidated results of Deutsche Telekom, but are not consistent as the information provided by Deutsche Telekom is in accordance with German accounting principles. In the first quarter of 2004, T-Mobile USA added 1,174,000 net customers, compared to 1,015,000 net customers added in the fourth quarter of 2003 and 921,000 in the first quarter of 2003. Most of the growth in 2004 was from new postpay customers, which now comprise 89% of the customer base. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41397654 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 13:53:31 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Symantec Multiple Firewall Remote DNS KERNEL Overflow Release Date: May 12, 2004 Date Reported: April 19, 2004 Severity: High (Remote Kernel Access) Vendor:no, w Symantec Systems Affected: Symantec Norton Internet Security 2002 Symantec Norton Internet Security 2003 Symantec Norton Internet Security 2004 Symantec Norton Internet Security Professional 2002 Symantec Norton Internet Security Professional 2003 Symantec Norton Internet Security Professional 2004 Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2002 Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2003 Symantec Norton Personal Firewall 2004 Symantec Client Firewall 5.01, 5.1.1 Symantec Client Security 1.0, 1.1, 2.0(SCF 7.1) Symantec Norton AntiSpam 2004 Description: eEye Digital Security has discovered a critical remote vulnerability within the Symantec firewall product line. A buffer overflow exists within a core driver component that handles the processing of DNS (Domain Name Service) requests and responses. By sending a DNS Resource Record with an overly long canonical name, a traditional stack-based buffer overflow is triggered. Successful exploitation of this flaw yields remote KERNEL access to the system. With the ability to freely execute code at the Ring 0 privilege level, there are literally no boundaries for an attacker. It should also be noted, that due to a separate design flaw in the firewalls handling of incoming packets, this attack can be successfully performed with all ports filtered, and all intrusion rules set. http://www.eeye.com/html/Research/Advisories/AD20040512D.html ------------------------------ From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 10:36:39 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Well, folks, I called their triple-eight number to list my Vonage number. I got bounced everywhere. When I demanded to speak to a supervisor, I was transfered back into the queue. I threatened to call the PSC and it didn't do me any good (to threaten). So, I *did*. Believe it or not, the SC PSC told me that they weren't required to list me. Can you believe that? They hold a monopoly on directory assistance and they aren't required to list you. The woman I spoke to at PSC said she could call them and *ask* that they list me, but could make no requirement for them to actually do it. She told me she'd make the call for me. Well, it took a couple of more days, but I got a phone call from someone who was responding to a request from the president's office (not Bush, the company president). She told me she was getting the matter resolved for me and that an appropriate person would be contacting me shortly to make the listing. I thanked her. A couple of days later, I got an email from her designee who told me she had been instructed to make my listing for me. She asked me to send her (on email) my listing exactly as I wanted it to appear. I gave my full name as the listing and told her I wanted it listed as Columbia, SC (without my street address). Then I gave the billing address and told them to send the bill to me. I quoted the rate I had been previously told (two dollars per month plus tax on an annual bill). I also told her to code the account so that my number wouldn't be given to telemarketers. She responded with my account number and told me I'd be listed by the weekend. She said it would take a few more days than that before it trickles down to all of the directory assistance services. I asked her for her phone number so I could ask her a few questions in person. She gave it to me and I'll probably call her today. I'm hoping that she can tell me an easy way to get this done without having to get an act of Congress passed. If so, I'll pass this information along to all of you. Now that competition in residential service is so prevalent, I'd like to see some kind of solidarity among residential users [that use other than the standard local provider] to address the problems encountered by (I'm coining a term here) 'Special Residential Service Users'. Regards, Fred Atkinson On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 23:36:30 -0400, Fred Atkinson wrote: > I followed up on getting information about listing a number [not > provided by the local telephone company] with the local telephone > company's directory assistance. > I sent a request for this information over their Web site with a > local number where I could be contacted. I explained that I would be > getting a number provided by a VOIP company and wanted to know what it > would cost and how I would go about getting it listed as a residence. > They replied that they couldn't discuss this account with me > because I was not the contact listed for the telephone number I gave > them to contact me at. When I replied and pointed out that this > wasn't about the account of the telephone number where I could be > reached, they responded and told me it couldn't be done. > I responded telling them I knew this wasn't true and if they > didn't get me the correct information, I would first contact the state > Public Service Commission and if that didn't get me any relief that I > would call the Federal Communications Commission (I really thought I > was going to have to resort to this, too). > The response was a surprise. They gave me a triple-eight toll > free number I would have to call to place the order and told me that > it would cost two dollars per month (billed annually) plus applicable > taxes. They said I could even get a yellow pages listing (if I wanted > it) for a little more money. The service is called a "Foreign > Listing". I was told to ask for that when I called the triple-eight > number. > Why doesn't the telephone company just do it the right way the first > time? If they'd just told me this up front there wouldn't have been a > confrontation. Oh, well. > So the answer is, it *can* be done in South Carolina and I know it > can be done in Maryland. The likelihood is that it can be done > anywhere in the U. S. you want to list a residential VOIP number. > If anyone has additional information on this especially with > another state or telco, please pass it on. > Fred ------------------------------ From: Claire Schatz Subject: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 09:01:53 -0700 Hello Mr. Townson, My name is Claire Schatz, and I'm a college student. I'm currently doing a reseach paper on "Transoceanic data communication cables: the technology, history and future" for my data communication concepts class. I was reading a narrative history about submarine cables written by Donald E. Kimberlin and it led me to the Telecom Digest. From what I can make out on the page, I might be able to find a lot of material and resources for my research. But I'm quite lost as to where to begin or how to search for archives and history. I was hoping that you might be able to steer me in the right direction. Your reply would be greatly appreciated. Sincerely, Claire Schatz [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could any reader please give Claire some help; a point in the right direction? Thanks. PAT] ------------------------------ From: Paul Robinson Subject: Florida Sues AT&T For Billing Errors Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:14:10 GMT On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:52:31 EDT, Frank Carey writes in (comp.Risks 23.35) Florida Attorney General Charlie Christ is suing AT&T, accusing the giant of overcharging [ ] and billing people who are not even AT&T customers. A week ago Christ issued a consumer alert urging all telephone customers to check their bills carefully for possible billing errors by AT&T. Since the alert was issued, more than 600 Florida residents have contacted Christ's office. Christ is seeking up to $10,000 restitution for each allegation of wrong billing. He also said the company violated the state's unfair and deceptive business law. This report brought two puns to mind. First, the Attorney General's serious interest in this issue immediately made me think it could have been titled "The Passion of the Christ." Also, based on the huge fines he wants to collect, it could be said he wants to "crucify" AT&T after having "nailed" them for their overcharges! Paul Robinson "Above all else... We shall go on..." "...And continue!" "If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us." ------------------------------ From: Paul Robinson Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 18:28:28 GMT Mark J Cuccia wrote in message ... > Earle Robinson (no email address indicated), from France, claims: > And most all of us are *QUITE WELL AWARE* that there are the overlay > areas with *mandatory* (1+)ten-digit local/same-NPA dialing, such as > the entire state of Maryland (301/240, 410/443), New York City > (212/646, 718/347, 917) [] the VA suburbs of DC (703/571), [ ] > I THINK that I've covered all of the overlay areas (which all have > mandatory (1+)ten-digit local/same-NPA dialing). All area codes in Virginia are shared on an overlay, so the entire Commonwealth of Virginia is mandatory 10 digit dialing for all calls, not just the DC suburbs. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 13:28:34 -0500 From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: New Way to Read USENET Organization: Nyx Net, The Spirit of the Night Google has launched Google Groups 2. This is a service to compete with YahooGroups. While nosing around that I discovered I could follow USENET postings using an RSS aggregator. My personal favorite is http://www.bloglines.com since I can view RSS feeds at work or at home without having to keep to two in sync. Here's a screenshot of c.d.t.: http://www.nyx.net/~jmayson/cdt.html Here's more on Google Groups 2: http://groups-beta.google.com/ John ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #240 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 15 00:43:57 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4F4hvG01997; Sat, 15 May 2004 00:43:57 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 00:43:57 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405150443.i4F4hvG01997@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 #241 TELECOM Digest Sat, 15 May 2004 00:44:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 241 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Introducing Easy411 (Jon Spector) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (GlowingBlueMist) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Bill Burns) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Randolph J. Herber) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Tony P.) Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless With Several Features (John Sevinsky) Re: NANP Numbering (ranck@vt.edu) Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately (Tony P.) PDAs and Terminal Emulator (Keith) Rousing the Dead Spot (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jon Spector Subject: Easy411 Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 23:30:18 -0400 Pat: We've recently started a company, Easy411, to provide retail directory assistance. The service is very similar to Infone, but focused exclusively on directory assistance (no additional services such as directions, maps, travel assistance, etc.) and offered at a significantly lower cost: $.65 per call. Customers sign up for an account on the web (www.easy411.com ) or by phone (877-Easy411) and access the service by dialing 877-Easy411. We're using LSSi data, enhanced somewhat, so our listings are extremely accurate and up-to-date. There's also very little automation - customers always speak to a live operator. We're targeting mobile phone users, since the price of 411 is so high from the major wireless carriers, but our service can be accessed from landlines as well. For corporations, we offer corporate account management for large blocks of mobile phone users, and we also offer "PBX DA" and "desktop DA" -- but our core offering is for mobile phone users. We will be introducing call completion in a few months, as well as some new features that I don't think anyone has ever offered before, to reduce the frustration of having to call 411 repeatedly to get the same number. We recently were reviewed on CNN. I wanted you to be aware of the service, since from time to time you mention Infone -- and I thought you should at least know about us as well! Also, given that you are obviously so knowledgeable about the industry in general, if you had any ideas for partnerships or opportunities for us we'd be very happy to entertain them. I can be reached via this email address or at the numbers below, if you have any ideas or would like to learn more about us. Regards, Jon Spector Chief Executive Officer Easy411, Inc. 10 Mall Road, Suite 200 Burlington, MA 01803 www.easy411.com Office: 781-229-1680 ------------------------------ From: GlowingBlueMist Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 21:46:01 -0400 Claire Schatz wrote in message news:telecom23.240.14@telecom-digest.org: > Hello Mr. Townson, > My name is Claire Schatz, and I'm a college student. I'm currently > doing a reseach paper on "Transoceanic data communication cables: the > technology, history and future" for my data communication concepts > class. I was reading a narrative history about submarine cables > written by Donald E. Kimberlin and it led me to the Telecom > Digest. From what I can make out on the page, I might be able to find > a lot of material and resources for my research. But I'm quite lost > as to where to begin or how to search for archives and history. I was > hoping that you might be able to steer me in the right direction. > Your reply would be greatly appreciated. > Sincerely, > Claire Schatz > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could any reader please give Claire > some help; a point in the right direction? Thanks. PAT] Try the following links: http://www.atlantic-cable.com/ http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1395/MR1395.appi.pdf http://www.telecommagazine.com/default.asp?journalid=2&func=articles&page=0106i33&year=2001&month=6 or a Google search with "submarine cable history" ------------------------------ From: Bill Burns Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: 15 May 2004 02:23:19 GMT Organization: FTL Claire Schatz wrote: > My name is Claire Schatz, and I'm a college student. I'm currently > doing a reseach paper on "Transoceanic data communication cables: the > technology, history and future" for my data communication concepts > class. I was reading a narrative history about submarine cables > written by Donald E. Kimberlin and it led me to the Telecom > Digest. From what I can make out on the page, I might be able to find > a lot of material and resources for my research. But I'm quite lost > as to where to begin or how to search for archives and history. I was > hoping that you might be able to steer me in the right direction. > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could any reader please give Claire > some help; a point in the right direction? Thanks. PAT] My Atlantic Cable website is probably a good place to start: http://atlantic-cable.com Lots of original source material and images from the early days of ocean telegraphy. Bill Burns, Long Island, NY, USA mailto:billb@ftldesign.com History of Technology Websites: http://ftldesign.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 22:01:04 GMT From: herber@dcdrjh.fnal.gov (Randolph J. Herber) Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory In article , Claire Schatz wrote: > My name is Claire Schatz, and I'm a college student. I'm currently > doing a reseach paper on "Transoceanic data communication cables: the > technology, history and future" for my data communication concepts > class. I was reading a narrative history about submarine cables > written by Donald E. Kimberlin and it led me to the Telecom > Digest. From what I can make out on the page, I might be able to find > a lot of material and resources for my research. But I'm quite lost > as to where to begin or how to search for archives and history. I was > hoping that you might be able to steer me in the right direction. > Your reply would be greatly appreciated. > Sincerely, > Claire Schatz > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could any reader please give Claire > some help; a point in the right direction? Thanks. PAT] http://isbndb.com/d/book/engineering_and_operations_in_the_bell_system.html Engineering and operations in the Bell System prepared by members of the technical staff and the Technical Publication Department, AT&T Bell Laboratories; R. F. Rey, technical editor; reorganized adn rewritten telecommunications in teh Bell System in 1982-1983 Publisher: Murray Hill, N.J. : AT&T Bell Laboratories, 1983. ISBN: 0-93276-404-5 I quote myself from a much earlier time: From: rjh@yclept.chi.il.us (Randolph J. Herber) Subject: Re: What Happened to the EOBS Book? Organization: Leptons and Quarks, Winfield, IL 60190-1412 In article jimmyk@dasys1.UUCP (James Kirchner) writes: > AT&T Bell Labs used to publish a book called Engineering and > Operations in the Bell System, known among Bell Labs employees as > "EOBS". Does anyone know if any revised copies were printed/published > after 1983? If so, does anyone know how to obtain this book? Thanks. I know that it was reprinted as late as 1986 -- I have a copy so dated. (My wife has a copy of the 1st edition printed in 1978.) The book is Select Code 500-478. It is ordered via the AT&T Customer Information Center. I checked this last summer and at that time, at least, the second edition was still orderable. Call 1-800-432-6600 (U.S.A, maybe Canada), or 1-800-255-1242 (Canada). Write AT&T Customer Information Center P.O. Box 19901 Indianapolis, IN 46219 Randolph J. Herber, Computer Polymath, @ home: {att|amdahl|clout|mcdchg|laidbak|obdient|wheaton}!yclept!rjh, rjh@yclept.chi.il.us << All of the quoted e-mail address above are now non-functional for me. >> http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/longlines_book1.html http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/longlines_book4.html AT&T's first _telephone_ (T)rans(A)tlantic (T)elephone cable was called TAT-1. http://www.att.com/history/nethistory/milestones.html -> 1956: AT&T opens for service TAT-1, the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable. The initial capacity is 36 calls at a time at a price per call of $12 for the first three minutes. Since trans-Atlantic service opened in 1927, calls had traveled across the ocean via radio waves. But cables provide much higher signal quality, avoid atmospheric interference and offer greater capacity and security. http://www.att.com/news/0392/920302.cib.html FOR RELEASE MONDAY, MARCH 2, 1992 NEW YORK, N.Y. -- AT&T today activated service on a new $450-million undersea fiber optic cable system linking the United States and Canada with the United Kingdom, France and Spain. The new system will be able to handle the equivalent of 80,000 simultaneous phone calls or any combination of voice, data and video signals -- double the capacity of previous-generation submarine fiber optic cables. --------------------- AT&T also is currently working on construction of TPC-4, a major transPacific route linking the United States with Canada and Japan. Like its sister TAT-9 and TAT-10 Atlantic systems, TPC-4 -- slated for service this fall -- also will be capable of handling up to 80,000 simultaneous phone calls. http://www.att.com/news/0298/980211.cia.html Columbus III to carry 20 times the capacity of current system. The synchronous digital hierarchy system will consist of two optical fiber pairs, and will include within-system restoration. Each fiber pair will initially operate at 2.5 gigabits per second, per wavelength, with full path duplication in each direction, for a total of 10 gigabits per second, allowing the transmission of approximately 120,000 simultaneous calls. The system eventually can support up to 8 wavelengths per fiber pair, or 40 gigabits per second, the equivalent of approximately 500,000 simultaneous calls. http://www.att.com/news/1095/951016.cia.html TAT-12 fiber cable linking U.S. and Europe starts service 1866 telegraph cable -> http://www.atlantic-cable.com/smcable01.jpg http://collections.ic.gc.ca/canso/earlycab/tech.htm http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Undersea%20telegraph%20cable Perhaps, that will get you started. Randolph J. Herber, herber@dcdrjh.fnal.gov, +1 630 840 2966, CD/CDFTF PK-149F, Mail Stop 318, Fermilab, Kirk & Pine Rds., PO Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510-0500, USA. (Speaking for myself and not for US, US DOE, FNAL nor URA.) (Product, trade, or service marks herein belong to their respective owners.) ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Organization: ATCC Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 00:01:21 GMT In article , claireschatz@hotmail.com says: > Hello Mr. Townson, > My name is Claire Schatz, and I'm a college student. I'm currently > doing a reseach paper on "Transoceanic data communication cables: the > technology, history and future" for my data communication concepts > class. I was reading a narrative history about submarine cables > written by Donald E. Kimberlin and it led me to the Telecom > Digest. From what I can make out on the page, I might be able to find > a lot of material and resources for my research. But I'm quite lost > as to where to begin or how to search for archives and history. I was > hoping that you might be able to steer me in the right direction. > Your reply would be greatly appreciated. > Sincerely, > Claire Schatz > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Could any reader please give Claire > some help; a point in the right direction? Thanks. PAT] If you can find it at your library, get "A history of Engineering and Design in the Bell System: Electronic Technology" They go into the tube based amplifiers used for the early sub-oceanic cables. While you're at the library, they should have an electronic catalog. Just keyword search on the terms you need. Tony ------------------------------ From: jsevinsk@yahoo.com (John Sevinsky) Subject: Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless Phone With Several Features Date: 14 May 2004 13:02:39 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm in the market for a multi-handset cordless phone, and I'm having a hard time finding all the features that I want in one system. I would like: * 5.8 ghz, but 2.4 ghz would be OK. * Must support at least 6 handsets, but 8 or 10 would be better. * Must support a common phone directory, or at least have the ability to transfer the directory from one handset to the others. I'm not typing in names/numbers for each of the handsets. * Should have room monitor. * Must have caller ID / call waiting ID. * Should be able to match caller ID number to directory and display the directory name instead of caller ID name. This is most useful when the caller ID has the number but not the name. * Must be able to name the handsets. * Must have handset-to-handset intercom feature. Should be able to call handsets using name and not number. With eight handsets, I'm bad at remembering the handset numbers for all of them. These are all features that I've seen on different systems, but no one system has all the features that I want. Am I just asking for too much? What I would really like is a flash-upgradable phone system and the source code and compiler to go with it, but that's really asking for too much. :) John ------------------------------ From: ranck@vt.edu Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 20:15:48 UTC Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA Paul Robinson wrote: > All area codes in Virginia are shared on an overlay, so the entire > Commonwealth of Virginia is mandatory 10 digit dialing for all calls, > not just the DC suburbs. Not in the part of Virginia where I live, unless you are talking about toll calls. Locals are 7 digit, and local is a pretty big area here. Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va. ------------------------------ From: Tony P. Subject: Re: Getting Your Number Listed Deliberately Organization: ATCC Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 23:57:20 GMT In article , fatkinson@mishmash.com says: > Well, folks, > I called their triple-eight number to list my Vonage number. > I got bounced everywhere. When I demanded to speak to a supervisor, I > was transfered back into the queue. I threatened to call the PSC and > it didn't do me any good (to threaten). > So, I *did*. Believe it or not, the SC PSC told me that they > weren't required to list me. Can you believe that? They hold a > monopoly on directory assistance and they aren't required to list you. > The woman I spoke to at PSC said she could call them and *ask* that > they list me, but could make no requirement for them to actually do > it. She told me she'd make the call for me. Oddly, you can insert a free business listing on Verizon's Superpages. I've listed two business entities that way. And they don't have to be Verizon issued numbers either. Totally bizarre. I'm pretty sure that Verizon DA now uses SuperPages for both business and personal but apparently the listings submitted via the web are only listed there. ------------------------------ From: Keith Subject: PDAs and Terminal Emulator Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 01:43:42 GMT Hi Gang, I'm a field tech working on various pieces of telecom gear, turn-up & troubleshooting. I'm trying to get some feedback from anyone out there who is successfully using a terminal emulator (i.e. hyperterminal or procomm type apps) on a PDA. What PDAs are you using, what OS, what applications & finally do those USB-to-serial cables (DB9) that I've seen in electronic stores as well as on eBay have drivers for PDAs that work? Thanx for any feedback or input. "Eliminate annoying spam! My mailbox is protected by iHateSpam, the #1-rated spam buster." http://www.ihatespam.net ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 23:35:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Rousing the Dead Spot By WALTER S. MOSSBERG FOR EVERY ADVANCE in personal technology, there's always a headache, a downside you didn't expect, that diminishes some of the magic. The latest example of this truism is Wi-Fi, the brilliant wireless networking technology that allows people to share a broadband Internet connection, invisibly, all over a house. In the ideal Wi-Fi setup, you could carry a laptop anywhere in your home and be online at high speed, with nary a wire in sight. When it works like this, Wi-Fi can be liberating. But it doesn't always quite live up to the ideal. The biggest problem with Wi-Fi is its range. The networks usually reach anywhere between 150 and 300 feet from the base station - the distance varies substantially depending on the layout of the house, or even on the construction materials from which it was built, since both are factors that can affect your reception. As a result, in many homes there are whole rooms where the Wi-Fi signal is either weak or absent. The companies that make wireless gear have a one-size-fits-all suggestion for this problem: Move your base station to another location. But that's easier said than done. In most houses, the base station must reside in the same room as the incoming cable or DSL connection and can't readily be moved very far. So I've been testing some add-on gadgets designed to resolve range problems. And after surveying the options, I can recommend what I think is the best, but least-advertised, answer. My solution involves combining Wi-Fi with another simple plug-and-play network technology, called Powerline, to make an end run around the range issue. But more on that later. http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/report-200405.html ------------------------------ 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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End of TELECOM Digest V23 #241 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sat May 15 16:29:17 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4FKTGQ08487; Sat, 15 May 2004 16:29:17 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 16:29:17 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405152029.i4FKTGQ08487@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 #242 TELECOM Digest Sat, 15 May 2004 16:29:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 242 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Western Union, Chicago, October, 1871 (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: NANP Numbering (Michael G. Koerner) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Bill Burns) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Alan Burkitt-Gray) Phone and DSL Companies Heap on Extra Fees; Look Like Taxes (Karen Witter) Television's 'Bubble' Shows Face Uncertain Future (Monty Solomon) 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: Sat, 15 May 2004 15:36:56 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Western Union, Chicago, October, 1871 Last week in this space, articles appeared regarding the May, 1988 fire in the Illinois Bell Central office in Hindsale, Illinois. But 117 years prior, long before the sophistication of a Hinsdale, Illinois telephone network location and its fire, on October 8, 1871, another fire of disasterous proportions caused havoc on another method of communication, the (then still a new company) Western Union Telegraph Company. There is *so much* documentation on the great fire in Chicago, (use search engines for 'Chicago Fire 1871') that I won't even begin to touch on it here. Instead we will deal in this article with just one aspect of that fire: the destruction of the telegraph office in Chicago. You have probably all heard the famous abbreviation 'TGIF' which means 'Thank God it is Friday', often times said with a sigh of relief at the end of a busy, often times frustrating week. A somewhat lesser known abbreviation is 'OHIM' which stands for 'Oh Hell, it is Monday' for the start of another work week, possibly as frustrating as the week just finished. The Hinsdale fire started Sunday evening, roared on through the late night hours and was finally struck around 11 PM that Sunday night. The Great Fire in Chicago started on Sunday, Oct- ober 8, 1871, and would rage on for two days until burning itself out early Tuesday morning, October 10, 1871, when a driving rain finally extinquished the blaze at Fullerton Avenue on the north side of the city. After the fire started on the west side of the city about 9 PM, people elsewhere in the city watched with much interest. Although it was obviously a 'problem', they were safe since the fire was on the *west* side of the Chicago River; that would surely protect them on the *east* side of the river, they thought. At the telegraph office, on LaSalle Street downtown, the single agent on duty watched it all with interest -- the bright flames in the distance, as he 'chatted' on the wire with other clerks in other cities in his spare time, and this was Sunday night, after all, and not a very busy time, with much free time to listen to the wire as it delivered its soap opera like messages everywhere. Between the various messages, known as 'traffic' in the industry, the various clerks would chat among themselves, and the fire in Chicago, which some predicted would be the worst thing to ever happen was one topic of the chatter. There was a system that they would chat as desired, but if any agent somewhere on the wire had traffic to be sent, that person would 'rattle' or bang the key in such a way to cut into the conversation telling the others to 'shut up for now, I have traffic'. And when the wire quieted down, someone would tap out 'go with your traffic' and the one who had the message between customers would then proceed. Chicago being the center of the United States, the office there has many interconnection lines or circuits between other cities, and mechanical methods of hooking the wires together to pass traffic from, let's say, New York or Washington to St. Louis or Des Moines, via, naturally, Chicago. The trains all came through Chicago, so should, logically, the telegraph wires. The clerk on duty that Sunday night expressed some annoyance that instead of getting off duty at 11 PM as he normally did, the clerk who would have taken over at that time had said he would not be coming into work that night; some other business would keep him away. So our man would be 'stuck there' for a double duty shift until 7 AM Monday morning, when all the regular crew of clerks, telegraphers and message delivery people began their workday. Little did he know that by 7 AM Monday morning the office would be gone, completely burned out. Like a play-by-play radio announcer describing a baseball game or other sporting event, as he listened to the chatter on the wires, which by midnight had largely turned in to gossip about 'that fire they are having in Chicago' he would interuppt now and then to say something of significance about the event, but the biggest and most frightening event came at 1:00 AM Monday morning when the wind came up and blew some smoldering embers *across the river* onto the (had thought to be) 'safe side' (east side of the river), and those embers then ingited. Some of the smoldering scraps blew through the air and landed on the roof of the People's Gas Works on Van Buren Street. After a mighty roar which sounded a lot like an atomic bomb explosion, when a large 'gasometer' (or distributing system for gas) caught fire and exploded, the gas lamps all over the city went out, and many places were in darkness. At about 3:00 AM, Mayor Mason and four other men rode up to the office on their horses, and the Mayor instructed the clerk to get a message off to (United States) President Grant and others in Washington informing him that in his authority as Mayor of Chicago, he had a few minutes earlier declared a state of Martial Law, and had asked for assistance from the Army and General Sheridan in maintaining order and that he had told his council members of his intention to seize all incoming railroad trains and their supplies to use to feed the people. President Grant answered back a few minutes later saying that General Sheridan and his troops were on the way. (They would actually arrive in mid-day Tuesday, having come from Indianapolis, IN.) About 4:00 AM the Water Works building caught fire and with the cessation of water pressure that was the end of the fire fighting, but not the fire itself. Our clerk watched anxiously as other buildings around his own began to catch fire. (Remember, in those days before elevators the tallest buidings anywhere were only two or three, occassionally four stories tall.) But then it happened: flames jumped from the building next to his, and his roof caught on fire as well. The company has a large, 'walk-in' fire proof safe there in the office, so he walked around the room, gathering up all the ledgers and bookkeeping records, and the cash box, put it all in the safe, which he locked up. Then 'breaking' on the still chattering wire, he said "I think I had better get out of here, our roof just caught on fire also," and he grabbed his personal possessions and walked out the door. It was a good thing he did, I guess, since about a minute later, maybe less, the enflamed roof collapsed in an inferno on the office. What a hell of a way to start Monday and a new work week. The interconnecting apparatus was gone a minute or so later and within five minutes the entire building had collapsed. Within two or three days, the telegraph office was back in service at its temporary location, the US Customs House office on South Canal Street, south of where the fire had been which would eventually, by the time it was extinguished due to the heavy rain on Tuesday morning, claim the lives of three hundred people, destroy over 17,000 buildings, and cause about three million dollars (in 1871 money) damage. How did the fire travel so quickly and do so much damage? **All the buildings were wooden structures**. There were no fire codes in those days requiring brick or metal structures. They had wooden sidewalks everywhere. The newer 'fire-proof' buildings were made out of brick and here and there was a metal structure. The total population of Chicago at that time was 324,000 people. Even the Chicago Tribune and its supposedly 'fire-proof' structure burned to the ground, but a very inspirational story says that Horace White (Tribune editor at the time of the fire -- search for Horace White in the search engines), like the telegraph people, missed a day of business because of the fire. There was no issue of the Tribune published on Monday, October 8, 1871, but White went out and bought the neccessary supplies to start the paper again the next day. He saw a man on the street who had been put out of work by the fire that was still going on, told him "you are hired now to work for me, I just now bought that building over there to be the new office for our newspaper, paint a sign that says 'Chicago Tribune' to hang over the doorway, then go inside and report to Mr. Smithers (the manager) and tell him to find other work for you to do." The telegraph office relocated to the Customs House on Tuesday and by late Wednesday new wires had been installed to replace all the melted wires and charred poles everywhere around town. With the final connection of the wires allowing circuits to be completed, the wires came back to life with their familiar chatter. In 1901, the Chicago Historical Society published a little book which was entitled 'Rememberances of the Great Fire' and the Society said the purpose of the book was "now thirty years later, before the few people left who remember the fire and were in it are dead and no one is left who remembers it, we wanted to get their stories down in writing." Several individuals who lived through the fire contributed to the book. In 1911, on the fortieth anniversary of the Great Fire, the Chicago Tribune in its Sunday magazine section interviewed the fellow who had been employed in the telegraph office on that fateful Sunday night/Monday morning when it had happened. The Western Union Telegraph Company by that point in time had built its modern skyscaper building at 427 South LaSalle Street (LaSalle and Van Buren Streets) on the location where the 1871 building had stood. In 1971, Mayor Daley and the Chicago City Council commemorated the hundreth anniversary of the fire by strengthing and updating the fire safety codes which had been originally put in place after the great fire. To its credit, Chicago has among the most agressive and vigorous fire safety codes in the United States today. Some other references for you to check out: http://www,nationalcenter.org/ChicagoFire.html http://chicagohs.org/fire/intro Next week: A more modern (1950-ish) Western Union Public Office. PAT ------------------------------ From: Michael G. Koerner Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 02:20:23 -0500 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com ranck@vt.edu wrote: > Paul Robinson wrote: >> All area codes in Virginia are shared on an overlay, so the entire >> Commonwealth of Virginia is mandatory 10 digit dialing for all calls, >> not just the DC suburbs. > Not in the part of Virginia where I live, unless you are talking about > toll calls. Locals are 7 digit, and local is a pretty big area here. > Bill Ranck > Blacksburg, Va. IIRC, in Virginia, mandatory '10D local' dialing only applies to calls placed from the 571/703 area (DC suburbs). ___________________________________________ ____ _______________ Regards, | |\ ____ | | | | |\ Michael G. Koerner May they | | | | | | rise again! Appleton, Wisconsin USA | | | | | | ___________________________________________ | | | | | | _______________ ------------------------------ From: Bill Burns Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: 15 May 2004 11:41:07 GMT Organization: FTL Tony P. wrote: > If you can find it at your library, get "A history of Engineering > and Design in the Bell System: Electronic Technology" > They go into the tube based amplifiers used for the early > sub-oceanic cables. An excellent book, and a good recommendation, but the first tube repeaters came a hundred years after the beginning of undersea cable communications so I don't know if this should be considered "early". Bill Burns, Long Island, NY, USA mailto:billb@ftldesign.com History of Technology Websites: http://ftldesign.com ------------------------------ From: Alan Burkitt-Gray Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 16:04:10 +0100 Claire Schatz wrote: > I'm currently doing a reseach paper on 'Transoceanic data > communication cables: the technology, history and future' for my data > communication concepts class. Claire, a great historical read about the very earliest transoceanic cables is The Victorian Internet, written a couple of years ago by Tom Standage. It's just over $10 from amazon.com Alan Burkitt-Gray Editor, Global Telecoms Business Euromoney Institutional Investor plc, Nestor House, Playhouse Yard, London EC4V 5EX, UK tel +44 20 7779 8518 fax +44 20 7779 8248 email aburkitt@euromoneyplc.com Global Telecoms Business http://www.globaltelecomsbusiness.com is official publication at TeleManagement World, Nice, France, May 17-20 2004, with supplement plus three daily newspapers. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Alan, I am curious, and will ask you since you are in that part of the world. What was the final outcome with the fire in Manchester about a month ago? Has all service finally been restored? Was the blame ever made official? How were you, in your part of UK affected by it? PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 10:30:08 -0400 From: Karen Witter Subject: Telephone and DSL Companies Heap on Extra Fees That Look Like Taxes Boston Globe/ Associated Press Regulatory Programs Fee. It sure sounds like a government tax. It isn't. The latest addition to T-Mobile's monthly bill is merely the latest example of telephone companies passing their own cost of doing business to their customers with an array of surcharges that one might easily mistake for taxes being collected on behalf of the government. Actually, T-Mobile's monthly charge of 86 cents is among the more clearly labeled. At Verizon Communications Inc., monthly bills for high-speed DSL Internet service will now include a surcharge ranging from $2 to $3 a month called 'Supplier FUSF Recovery,' while DSL bills at SBC Communications Inc. now show an 'FUSF pass-through fee' of $1.86 for new and renewing subscribers. Full Story http://www.boston.com/dailynews/135/economy/ALL_BUSINESS_Telephone_and_DSLP.shtml ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 15:44:19 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Television's "Bubble" Shows Face Uncertain Future By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES, May 14 (Reuters) - Will "Arrested Development" come to a premature end? Can "8 Simple Rules" live on for another season without its original star, John Ritter? And just what will become of "Whoopi?" Those are but a few of the more high-profile question marks floating over the heads of network executives as they decide which of this season's ratings misfires deserves one more chance and which ends up on the prime-time chopping block. Their fate will be sealed next week as NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox -- in that order -- unveil their fall 2004 schedules in a series of presentations launching their "upfront" sales of commercial time to advertisers. The upfront market typically accounts for 70 to 80 percent of all ad sales by the networks. And Randy Falco, president of NBC Universal Television Networks Group, has said he expects the entire upfront to reap "a couple of percentage points" above last year's roughly $9 billion total for prime time. Besides deciding which existing shows will be renewed for the upcoming season, the Big Four broadcasters must choose from dozens of new pilots competing to fill the gaps left by current shows that get the ax. This year's crop of likely newcomers is especially heavy on spinoffs, including "Friends" progeny "Joey" and a fourth variation of "Law & Order" on NBC, a new edition to the "CSI" crime drama franchise on CBS and a successor to departing legal drama "The Practice" on ABC. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41458444 ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #242 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Sun May 16 23:59:27 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4H3xQ603349; Sun, 16 May 2004 23:59:27 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 23:59:27 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405170359.i4H3xQ603349@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 #243 TELECOM Digest Sun, 16 May 2004 23:58:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 243 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Report: Jammed Phones Skew 'Idol' Tallies (Monty Solomon) The Making of an Idol (Monty Solomon) Let's Have Less Of Lessig (Monty Solomon) Novell Wins Breach-of-Contract Dispute With Canopy Group (Monty Solomon) Internet Groceries Continue to Expand (Monty Solomon) Spyware Sneaks Into the Desktop (Monty Solomon) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (John McHarry) Need an Answering Machine Phone Combo Without This Problem (David) Combi Phone - Mixing Board (cadbury) Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting (Mario) Invitation to Montenegro and Sweden (IPSI conference) Blackberry Etiquette (Glen McGregor) Last Laugh! Man Angry at Verizon Hurls Phones (jmayson@nyx.net) 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: Sun, 16 May 2004 09:40:55 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Report: Jammed Phones Skew 'Idol' Tallies LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Many would-be "American Idol" voters are disenfranchised by overburdened phone lines and by "power dialers" who hog the system, the magazine Broadcasting & Cable reported. According to the magazine's issue being released Monday, "the only people choosing the next 'American Idol" are the ones lucky enough to get through _ or skilled enough to get around _ tremendously overtaxed phone lines." Fox TV, which airs the talent contest, has failed to address the difficulties viewers must overcome to log votes, the magazine said. The show is a ratings winner and valuable property for its producers and Fox, but Broadcasting & Cable said the network is alienating viewers who repeatedly get a busy signal when they try to call in their votes. The voting system has been called into question in recent weeks as contestants who appeared to be front-runners were dumped in favor of others who many viewers have complained were lesser performers. Last week, favorite La Toya London was voted off while Jasmine Trias survived a shaky performance. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41466010 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 18:53:30 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Making of an Idol Talent show or popularity contest? An inside look at how reality's No. 1 show works-and is worked over by-the fame biz. By JAMES PONIEWOZIK http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040524-638335,00.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 20:57:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Let's Have Less Of Lessig Stephen Manes, 04.02.04, 3:00 PM ET I suspect the Mies van der Rohe estate won't sue me for saying it's clearer than ever that when it comes to copyright law, Lessig is Moron. Stanford law professor Lawrence "Larry" Lessig has lately been the Great Oz of copyright law, with student acolytes, members of the self-important blogosphere and Tin Woodmen of the press hanging on the latest droppings from his Palo Alto, Calif., Emerald City tower about the supposedly pernicious evils of today's copyright system. Lessig has had a remarkable free ride in the public prints, but apparently he had a nightmarish vision of the curtain coming down on his radically silly ideas when he read my lambasting of his wacky new book, Free Culture, in the March 29 issue of Forbes (see "The Trouble With Larry"). Not only did Lessig take to blustering and bloviating in his March 20 blog entry, but he seems to have been the victim of a meltdown worthy of the Wicked Witch of the West. http://www.forbes.com/2004/04/02/cz_sm_0402manes.html ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 10:03:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Novell Wins Breach-of-Contract Dispute With Canopy Group By Bob Mims The Salt Lake Tribune The Utah Court of Appeals has backed Novell's breach-of-contract victory over the Canopy Group, but in so doing unveiled a once-secret pact under which Novell sought to sue Microsoft by proxy. That 1996 antitrust lawsuit by Canopy and its subsidiary Caldera (now SCO Group) brought a reported $250 million settlement from Microsoft in 2000. The litigation, the three-judge appellate panel found, came as an oral quid-pro-quo for the sale of source code for DR DOS, a computer operating system targeted by Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive practices in the early 1990s. "Novell's board of directors worried that, if they brought suit against Microsoft in a private antitrust action, Microsoft would retaliate with further unfair practices that could neutralize the value of any antitrust recovery," Utah Appellate Judge Norman Jackson wrote. The court further stated that Novell used DR DOS as the lure, verbally reaching an agreement that Canopy -- in return for a $1 million deal for the OS source code -- would then sue Microsoft. Novell also was to receive a cut of any lawsuit awards in the form of so-called "royalties." "Novell insisted that its role be completely undetectable to avoid retaliation from Microsoft," the appeals court stated. http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05152004/business/business.asp ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 17:21:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Groceries Continue to Expand By JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press Writer PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- After the spectacular crashes of big-name Internet grocers in the late 1990s, the dream of a grand new wave of online food stores appeared to fizzle. But with intentionally meager fanfare, grocers have made Internet shopping available to tens of millions of consumers nationwide, and upcoming expansions will expand it to millions more. Industry watchers say it's no longer a question of whether Internet grocery can be successful, but rather of how big it will become. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41467288 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 22:42:20 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Spyware Sneaks Into the Desktop http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92784,00.html Sidebar: The Cost of Freeware http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92779,00.html Sidebar: Legislating Away Spyware http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92780,00.html Sidebar: 10 Tips to Stop Spyware http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92781,00.html Sidebar: Counterespionage Measures http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92786,00.html Spyware Wake-up Call http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,92775,00.html ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 22:45:07 EDT Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 22:51:47 -0400 Bill Burns wrote: > Tony P. wrote: >> If you can find it at your library, get "A history of Engineering >> and Design in the Bell System: Electronic Technology" >> They go into the tube based amplifiers used for the early >> sub-oceanic cables. > An excellent book, and a good recommendation, but the first tube > repeaters came a hundred years after the beginning of undersea cable > communications so I don't know if this should be considered "early". Anyone who is interested in this stuff who gets the chance should visit the old Cable and Wireless College museum at Porthcurno, Cornwall, UK. It is the devil to get to, being the first cove in on the south side from Land's End. The train ends at Penzance, some miles to the east. I rode out by bicycle, so it isn't all that far. I don't know if there is a bus, but a cab fare shouldn't kill you. There is a nice beach as well. The docents a few years ago when I visited were retired C&W people who really knew their stuff. Porthcurno is where the first successful transatlantic cable landed, and many current ones still do. They have pieces of some of the cables from those of that era up through the more modern tube amplifiers and beyond. The very early cables were a single conductor keyed both ways against ground. The signal was so weak, it was used to deflect a tiny mirror mounted on a torsion wire. A light was shined on the mirror and bounced back on a wall maybe fifteen feet away. There was a line on the wall, and the operators watched the deflections. Once a message was received it was retransmitted on the landline system. As I recall, this thing could do maybe 10-12 words per minute, and was extremely expensive to use. The cable landing at Porthcurno was considered of utmost importance during WW2, and much of the museum is in the bunkers built there. The Installation is much more heavily fortified than the cabinet bunker in London. Odd thing is that the cables came right up on the beach to a connection point in a small shack. I guess it could be replaced with little bother if hit. The C&W college is interesting in itself. The company built it to train university grads for underseas telegraphy, and later telephony, service. Since many of these assignments were extremely isolated, the isolation of the college location served to wash out those who couldn't take it before they ended up on a rock in some ocean with two supply ships a year. ------------------------------ From: geercon@alltel.net (David) Subject: Need an Answering Machine Phone Combo Without This Problem Date: 16 May 2004 17:42:46 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have an all in one phone and answering machine that works good but one problem. You can turn the volume all the way down on the answering machine monitor but it comes back up after the first message is left. I want the answering machine on and the volume on the monitor off without it doing that. Can anyone recommend a make and model of answering machine that they know doesn't do that? ------------------------------ From: dee2tee28@yahoo.com (cadbury) Subject: Combi Phone - Mixing Board Date: 16 May 2004 06:10:24 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Is there a single device which would enable me to do all of the following? 1. Have a hands free conversaton over the phone 2 . Be able to play a cd on my computer, hear it in my headset AND have the other person on line hear it too 3 . Be able to adjust the volumes of both audio sources (mine over the phone and the output from the computer). This is so that I can comment the audio source while we both listen to it. Thanks a lot Dee ------------------------------ From: mandm@flashnet.it (Mario) Subject: Re: USR 5410 WiFi PC Card Not Transmitting Date: 15 May 2004 22:39:35 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Here is a follow up on the problem hopefully you can help me. I think the wifi card is working because link quality 100% and the strenght inscrease as i get closer to the access point. The green led also blips once in a while. I did configure the tcp/ip of the wifi card with the right ip, submask 255.255.255.0, gateway is the access point itself ip address, I have two dns servers. If I ping the wifi card itself it answers, anything else I ping it wont answer. why? Where is the problem ? It want resolve any url and it doesnt navigate at all either. It doesnt ping the access point or any ohter ip on the wifi lan. What can I do? where maybe is the problem? the same wifi card on other networks works fine. Thanks, Mario >> Hello, >> I have an ADSL wifi network, and in a laptop I have a usr5410 wifi >> turbo pc card, which is green enabled , link quality 100%, signal >> strength 84% and it sees the right mac address adsl gateway on the >> network, but if I do a ping to the wifi access point or try to >> navigate it doesnt seam to transmit at all. >> Why? What maybe the problem? >> Thanks, >> Mario > Missing WEP key, perhaps? > --Gene ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 11:49:27 +0200 From: IPSI Conference Subject: Invitation to Montenegro and Sweden Dear Potential Speaker: This is an invitation for you to attend two IPSI BgD multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary conferences, one in Sweden, and one in Montenegro, as follows: Sveti Stefan, MONTENEGRO (arrival: 2.10.2004. departure 9.10.2004.) Keynote: Dr. de Gennes, Nobel Laureate, France Contact: vipforum@internetconferences.net Deadlines: May 31 2004 (abstract) + June 30 2004 (full paper) Stockholm, SWEDEN (arrival: 24.9.2004. departure: 26.9.2004.) Contact: stockholm@internetconferences.net Deadlines: May 15 2004 (abstract) + June 15 2004 (full paper). Keynote: Dr. Dino Karabeg, University of Oslo, Norway For more information on both conferences, see the web (www.internetconferences.net). All IPSI BgD conferences are non-profit! They take place in the leading hotels of the world, and are aimed at bringing together the elite of the world science. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: Internet, Computer Science and Engineering, Management and Business Administration, Education, e-Medicine, Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, Environment Protection, and e-Economy. Sincerely Yours, Prof. Veljko Milutinovic, Chairman If you are not able to attend IPSI BgD conferences, you may like to submit a paper for one of the IPSI BgD journals. Please, check the web (www.internetjournals.net) and write to us at the email address given on the web. Thank you! PS - If you plan to submit an abstract/paper, let us know immediately. If you are not able to attend now, but you like to be informed about the future IPSI BgD conferences, please let us know. If you do not like to receive future invitations, let us know, as well! ------------------------------ From: Glen McGregor Subject: Blackberry Etiquette Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 08:50:34 -0400 Organization: Bell Sympatico I'm a newspaper reporter researching a story on the etiquette of using Blackberries and other hand-helds. Would like to hear the thoughts of users and non-users. I'm especially interested in any workplace that has banned or curbed their use in meetings. Glen McGregor Ottawa Citizen 613.235.6685 gmcgregor@thecitizen.canwest.com ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Last Laugh! Man Angry at Verizon Hurls Phones Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 00:31:10 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/05/14/store.rampage.ap/index.html "FARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- A man who said he was fed up with his cellular phone service went to a Fargo mall and started hurling phones across a store, striking an employee and causing more than $2,000 in damage, authorities said." John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #243 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 17 14:26:14 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4HIQEw27396; Mon, 17 May 2004 14:26:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 14:26:14 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405171826.i4HIQEw27396@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 #244 TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 May 2004 14:26:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 244 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Telecom Update (Canada) #433, May 17, 2004 (Angus TeleManagement) Internet Phone Service Vonage Hits 155,000 Users (VOIP News) Vonage Calls on Behavioral-Based Ads (VOIP News) With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Canada) (VOIP News) VoIP in a Dynamic Communications Market (VOIP News) Vonage Cuts Prices [and Eliminates Additional Line Discounts] (VOIP News) Level 3 Expands Availability of Wholesale VoIP Service (VOIP News) Cox Declares VOIP 'Ready for Prime Time' (VOIP News) AT&T's CallVantage Service Expands to Serve Western US (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: Mon, 17 May 2004 10:50:34 -0400 From: Angus TeleManagement Subject: Telecom Update (Canada) #433, May 17, 2004 ************************************************************ TELECOM UPDATE ************************************************************ published weekly by Angus TeleManagement Group http://www.angustel.ca Number 433: May 14, 2004 Publication of Telecom Update is made possible by generous financial support from: ** ALLSTREAM: www.allstream.com ** BELL CANADA: www.bell.ca ** CISCO SYSTEMS CANADA: www.cisco.com/ca ** CYGCOM INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGIES: www.cygcom.com ** GROUP TELECOM: www.360.net ** JUNIPER NETWORKS: www.juniper.net ** PRIMUS CANADA: www.primustel.ca ** SPRINT CANADA: www.sprint.ca ** TELUS: www.telus.com ************************************************************ IN THIS ISSUE: ** Telus Bids to Buy Microcell ** Toronto City Fido Launch Expected ** Criminal Probe Targets Nortel ** Allstream Shareholders Approve Purchase by MTS ** Ottawa Creates Anti-Spam Panel ** New Entrant Joins Internet Phone Market ** First Nation Seizes MTS Infrastructure ** CRTC Bars Phone Cutoffs for Unpaid LD ** Ericsson Exec to Chair SR Telecom ** Two Million in U.S. Use Number Portability ** MCI Challenges Bell Contract ** Look Loss Grows ** Spotnik Signs Seven Hotels for Wi-Fi ** Bell Offers Music Downloads ** Think Tank Says Telecom Regulation Not Needed ** Toronto, Los Angeles Carrier Hotels Form Alliance ** Cisco Sales, Profits Rise ** IP Net Expands Airport Capacity ============================================================ TELUS BIDS TO BUY MICROCELL: Telus Corp. is offering $1.1 billion to buy all outstanding shares of wireless competitor Microcell Telecommunications, owner of the Fido brand. Telus says the unsolicited offer represents a premium of 38.1% and 36.5% over May 13 prices for Microcell Class A Shares and Class B Shares. TORONTO CITY FIDO LAUNCH EXPECTED: Microcell Telecommunications tells us it will make a "very important" announcement today. We expect they plan to launch City Fido, their wireline-replacement service, in the Toronto market. CRIMINAL PROBE TARGETS NORTEL: Nortel Networks says that a U.S. grand jury in Dallas has asked it to turn over "certain documents, including financial statements and corporate, personnel, and accounting records" dating back to 2000. The company says it will cooperate with the authorities. ALLSTREAM SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE PURCHASE BY MTS: Allstream shareholders have voted 99.7% in favour of the company's purchase by MTS. The deal, expected to close in early June, has also received court approval; regulatory approval is still pending. ** Allstream had first quarter sales of $297 million, down 1.6% from the previous quarter and down 16% from a year ago. Net income of $15.4 million was down 6% from the previous quarter. OTTAWA CREATES ANTI-SPAM PANEL: Industry Canada has announced an "Anti-Spam Action Plan for Canada," and appointed a ten- member "Special Task Force on Spam" to oversee implementation. http://e-com.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inecic-ceac.nsf/en/h_gv00246e.html NEW ENTRANT JOINS INTERNET PHONE MARKET: BabyTel, a division of Montreal-based Voice & Data Systems, has launched a telephone-over- broadband service with residential price plans ranging from $10.95 to $34.95 a month. www.babytel.ca FIRST NATION CLAIMS MTS INFRASTRUCTURE: Responding to Manitoba Tel's refusal to lease it unbundled local loops, the Brokenhead Ojibway band council has passed a resolution allowing a band-owned Internet and VoIP provider to use MTS local loops without paying. ** MTS says there is no Central Office on the reserve, and its tariffs do not permit competitor co-location at remote units. It says the band has not yet acted on its plan to "nationalize" the telco's infrastructure on the reserve, which is about 80 km north of Winnipeg. CRTC BARS PHONE CUTOFFS FOR UNPAID LD: CRTC Telecom Decision 2004-31 bars incumbent telcos from disconnecting local phone service for non-payment of non-tariffed services such as long distance, so long as the customer has made sufficient payments to cover all tariffed services. www.crtc.gc.ca/archive/ENG/Decisions/2004/dt2004-31.htm ERICSSON EXEC TO CHAIR SR TELECOM: Lionel P. Hurtubise, Chair of Ericsson Canada, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of SR Telecom, replacing Paul Dickie, who remains on the Board. Former Bell Canada executive Louis Tanguay has been added to the Board. TWO MILLION IN U.S. USE NUMBER PORTABILITY: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission says that over two million customers have taken advantage of Wireless Local Number Portability since cellular carriers were required to offer it last November. Most have moved their numbers from one wireless carrier to another, but some made wireline-to- wireless transfers. ** Wireless Local Number Portability is currently mandatory in the top 100 U.S. markets; it must be offered everywhere in the U.S. starting May 24. MCI CHALLENGES BELL CONTRACT: MCI Canada (formerly WorldCom) says Bell Canada has refused to apply CDNA rates to its Digital Network Access services, on the grounds that they are part of a bundle provided under a Bell Nexxia contract. In a Part VII application to the CRTC, MCI says the contract is illegal because it has not received Commission approval as required under Decision 2002-76. www.crtc.gc.ca/PartVII/eng/2004/8622/w25_200404210.htm LOOK LOSS GROWS: Look Communications reports a first quarter loss of $1.7 million, up from $1.3 million a year ago. It lost 8,000 subscribers in the quarter, ending with 117,000 subscribers on March 31. SPOTNIK SIGNS SEVEN HOTELS FOR WI-FI: Spotnik Mobile has signed deals to install wireless LANs in seven Ontario hotels, including Hockley Valley Resort and Sheraton on the Falls. Spotnik, part-owned by Telus, says it has installed Wi-Fi in more than 50 hotels during the past year. BELL OFFERS MUSIC DOWNLOADS: Bell Canada's "Sympatico Music Store," announced last week, claims it offers more than 250,000 songs for downloading at 99 cents each. THINK TANK SAYS TELECOM REGULATION NOT NEEDED: The Montreal Economic Institute, a private research group, says that new developments in technology have made CRTC intervention in telecom obsolete. TORONTO, LOS ANGELES CARRIER HOTELS FORM ALLIANCE: 151 Front Street West, a Toronto "carrier hotel" that provides facilities to over 150 telecom companies, has formed a co-marketing alliance with One Wilshire, a similar facility in Los Angeles. CISCO SALES, PROFITS RISE: For the quarter ended May 1, Cisco Systems had sales of US$5.6 billion, 22% higher than the same period a year ago. Net income was $1.2 billion, compared to $987 million. During the quarter, Cisco shipped its three-millionth IP phone. IP NET EXPANDS AIRPORT CAPACITY: The Greater Toronto Airport Authority says its new IP-based fibre network has increased the airport's ability to handle passengers, planes, and baggage by 15%. The May issue of Telemanagement, now available online for subscribers, features an special report on a unique installation other airports will emulate. Also in this issue: ** Understanding and Managing Wi-Fi Performance ** CRTC Sets VoIP Policy Review ** How Real Is Wireless Substitution? You can subscribe or add online access to your existing subscription from Angus TeleManagement's website. 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 04:13:37 -0400 Subject: Internet Phone Service Vonage Hits 155,000 Users Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.forbes.com/technology/networks/newswire/2004/05/17/rtr1373314.html WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Vonage, which provides phone service over high-speed Internet lines, said on Monday it had hit the 155,000 customers mark and was adding more than 20,000 users a month. The company, which reached 100,000 users in February, also said it was lowering the price of its unlimited calling plan for new and existing residential customers to $30 from $35. Full story at: http://www.forbes.com/technology/networks/newswire/2004/05/17/rtr1373314.html 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: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 04:22:50 -0400 Subject: Vonage Calls on Behavioral-Based Ads Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=27725 By: Mickey Alam Khan Senior Editor mickey@dmnews.com Vonage, a telecommunications company that delivers telephone calls over the Internet, this week breaks the first three subsets of an online advertising campaign to gain subscribers for its flat-fee service. The campaign uses Oddcast-technology animated conversational characters in Claria sliders and pop-unders -- behavioral-based ads served while the user surfs -- in addition to a presence on Yahoo. "This is about finding ways to speak more specifically to those audiences out there that could become Vonage customers," said Judy Gern, vice president and group account director at Vonage agency Carat Interactive, Boston. [.....] All the Claria banners use Flash technology, without requiring special downloads. Users have to activate the voice feature, though the character already is moving its lips. [.....] "The reality is that you have to work with these banners," Gern said. "These Oddcast characters follow your cursor. Their mouth is moving. These are Flash lip-synching files. It's Flash, this isn't a new format for people to accept. This was easy to use on Yahoo, too. There's nothing here that a publisher needs to worry about." [Comment: Except maybe annoying the hell out of web surfers! It's things like this that cause me to refuse to allow Flash to be installed on my system.] Full story at: http://www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=27725 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 04:35:05 -0400 Subject: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Canada) Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084745406936&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851 TYLER HAMILTON Shai Burstein is where the future of telecommunications is going. Like many Ontarians, he resists the authority and monopoly-like dominance of Bell Canada whenever the opportunity allows. So when Primus Canada launched its TalkBroadband voice-over-Internet telephone service earlier this year, he was among the first to sign up. But he didn't stop there. When Vonage, the leading broadband voice provider in the United States, launched in Canada at the end of March, Burstein signed up for that as well. He now uses both the Primus and Vonage services and is saving oodles of money at home and work. For example, with the Vonage service Burstein pays $35 a month for a local calling plan that also gives him unlimited calling to anywhere in the province and 500 minutes of free long-distance calls to any location in North America outside of Ontario. "It's a great plan," says Burstein, who uses the service at his company Trend Marketing, a small importer and wholesaler of women's shoes. He's talking through his Vonage service during the interview, and from where I'm sitting on the other end, the quality of the call nearly matches a traditional phone line. "I was paying about $250 a month for long-distance fees calling customers only in Canada." Now, his bill rarely exceeds $35. One of the things currently protecting the big telephone companies from losing local telephone revenues is that they bundle local service with high-speed Internet services. This is important. If you're one of the millions of Canadians who use Bell's High-Speed Sympatico but decide one day you want to want to go all-wireless or all-VoIP for your local calling, you've still got to pay for Bell's local service in order to keep getting the high-speed product. Call-Net Enterprises Inc., parent of Sprint Canada, cited this disadvantage last year when it asked the telephone regulator to force Bell and other incumbents to "unbundle" local from high-speed Internet service. Full story at: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1084745406936&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Southwestern Bell (SBC) also tried that tactic here in the USA. If you want high-speed computer service (for example, Vonage or FWD; others) then you gotta keep us around to use the DSL line. My answer was to throw them out anyway, and get CableOne for high speed and Prairie Stream for backup landline service. You can't really tell the difference. Anyone who is tempted to try Vonage, you can get an e-coupon for a month of free service by writing to me and asking for it. ptownson@massis.csail.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 04:27:57 -0400 Subject: VoIP in a Dynamic Communications Market Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.convergedigest.com/blueprint/ttp04/z3ti1.asp?ID=117&ctgy=2 by Joe Crupi, Vice President, Broadband Communications Group Texas Instruments Once thought of as a simpler, cheaper replacement for circuit switched telephony, VoIP is proving to be a much more useful, and as a result, much more ubiquitous technology. In a very short amount of time, VoIP has found its way onto the desktop and into servers, gateways and operating systems for consumer electronics products. VoIP is growing in ways that could not have been foreseen at the time of its introduction in 1997. That growth is fueled largely by integration of the technology into many different communications environments. VoIP applications already extend well beyond traditional telephony, and other media are quickly merging. In addition, the proliferation of WiFi hotspots and home networking are enabling mobile VoIP. A real money saver One important driver of VoIP's increasing surge in popularity is that the cost per channel has become affordable making it cost effective to incorporate the technology into nearly every connected device. In 1997, VoIP cost about $1,000 per port. A T1 VoIP gateway device, such as a PBX, sold for $20,000. And price wasn't the only drawback -- there were no VoIP phones. The best digital signal processor (DSP) could handle only two channels of compressed IP voice. Needless to say, the VoIP environment has changed a great deal since then. Full story at: http://www.convergedigest.com/blueprint/ttp04/z3ti1.asp?ID=117&ctgy=2 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 11:21:34 -0400 Subject: Vonage Cuts Prices [and Eliminates Additional Line Discounts] Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/44056 Vonage Cuts Prices Takes $5 off Unlimited local plan Amidst heavy competition in the sector, a Vonage rep has stopped by our VoIP forum to inform users the company will be dropping the base price of their US Residential Premium Unlimited Plan from $35 to $30. The company will however be discontinuing discounts given by having additional VoIP lines. The new pricing changes should be applied automatically to Unlimited customers as of May 17. Article plus reader comments at: http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/44056 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 11:39:58 -0400 Subject: Level 3 Expands Availability of Wholesale VoIP Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-17-2004/0002175287&STORY&EDATE= (3)VoIP(SM) Local Inbound Service to Deliver Local Calling Capability in More Than 300 U.S. Markets by End of June (3)VoIP Local Inbound Traffic Increasing an Average of 30 Percent Monthly BROOMFIELD, Colo., May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Level 3 Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVLT) today announced that the availability of its (3)VoIP Local Inbound service will be expanded from 73 U.S. markets to more than 300 U.S. markets by the end of June. (3)VoIP Local Inbound service significantly reduces communications costs for foreign carriers, call center operators, conferencing providers, and other service providers that require a reliable and geographically expansive local calling infrastructure. The service complements Level 3's worldwide (3)Voice(R) Termination service and (3)VoIP Toll Free(SM), the company's toll-free, nationwide calling solution. "Level 3 has the most experience and expertise in the industry in originating, transporting and terminating IP-based telephone calls," said Kevin Dundon, senior vice president of Wholesale Voice Services for Level 3. "Since January 2004, (3)VoIP Local Inbound traffic has been increasing at an average monthly rate of approximately 30 percent. The expansion we announced today gives Level 3 much broader geographic coverage that significantly enhances our customers' ability to cost-effectively develop and deliver new and existing services for their end-user customers." The expansion of (3)VoIP Local Inbound service enables more than 80 percent of the U.S. population to have local dialing access to Level 3's customer base. Level 3 will receive calls that typically originate on the traditional telephone network and convert them to Internet Protocol for delivery to the customer's IP address. Customers can use (3)VoIP Local Inbound and (3)VoIP Toll Free services to leverage traditional telephone service capabilities while maintaining the control they need to create new products and services. With these services, customers can create and deliver applications faster, maximize call routing and back-end signaling efficiency, reduce maintenance and equipment costs, and increase their overall return on investment. "(3)VoIP Local Inbound teams with (3)VoIP Toll Free to provide local and nationwide call-origination options," said Gordon Boyes, vice president of Wholesale Voice Services for Level 3. "Customers can leverage the power, scope and economics of IP networks by converting PSTN calls into IP and directing them across Level 3's MPLS-enabled backbone for delivery to their own IP end- points." (3)VoIP Local Inbound service -- and its complementary (3)VoIP Toll Free service -- ride Level 3's softswitch platform, which is one of the largest in the world. The (3)VoIP Local Inbound service enables customers to: * Establish an immediate local presence in more than 300 markets across the United States; * Leverage the coverage and economics of the Internet; * Design and deliver new applications quickly and cost-effectively; * Streamline call flows. (3)Voice Termination Service (3)Voice Termination service, originally launched in December 1999, enables foreign and U.S. carriers, inter-exchange carriers, enhanced service providers, cable operators and other companies to terminate calls in the U.S. and abroad. (3)Voice Termination was the world's first long-distance voice service that offered customers voice quality indistinguishable from traditional telephone networks, but with the efficiencies and inherent cost advantages of IP. "Level 3's voice termination business has increased approximately 40 percent since the beginning of this year," said Frank de Bloois, vice president of (3)Voice Termination services for Level 3. "We believe the significant growth we're seeing is attributable to the quality and reliability of our IP network, and the cost-efficiencies and broad geographic coverage that our softswitch-based VoIP platform delivers." In December 2003, Level 3 significantly expanded its softswitch-based (3)Voice Termination service by enabling customers to hand off traffic directly to Level 3 using an IP interface, further lowering their fixed network costs and capital expenses. Level 3's expanded voice capability allows IP-to-IP interconnection with the Level 3 network at the high levels of security required for voice traffic. For more information about (3)VoIP Local Inbound and Level 3's full suite of wholesale voice services, please visit http://www.level3.com/2192.html. About Level 3 Communications Level 3 (Nasdaq: LVLT) is an international communications and information services company. The company operates one of the largest Internet backbones in the world, is one of the largest providers of wholesale dial-up service to ISPs in North America and is the primary provider of Internet connectivity for millions of broadband subscribers, through its cable and DSL partners. The company offers a wide range of communications services over its 22,500 mile broadband fiber optic network including Internet Protocol (IP) services, broadband transport and infrastructure services, colocation services, and patented softswitch managed modem and voice services. Its Web address is http://www.Level3.com. The company offers information services through its subsidiaries, Software Spectrum and (i)Structure. For additional information, visit their respective Web sites at http://www.softwarespectrum.com and http://www.i-structure.com. The Level 3 logo and (3)Voice are registered service marks, and (3)VoIP and (3)VoIP Toll Free are service marks of Level 3 Communications, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. (3)Voice, (3)VoIP and (3)VoIP Toll Free services are provided by Level 3 Communications, LLC. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 11:14:06 -0400 Subject: Cox Declares VOIP 'Ready for Prime Time' Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=52825 Cox Communications Inc. last week quietly released a white paper on voice-over-IP (VOIP), declaring the technology 'ready for prime time' -- a reversal of its opinion expressed in a white paper 15 months ago. The cable company says it can save 40 percent in capital expenditures per customer by deploying VOIP instead of circuit-switched telephony. Much of the savings comes from deploying relatively inexpensive multimedia terminal adapters (indoor devices that connect subscribers' phones to their cable modems) instead of costlier network interface units (outdoor devices that connect telephone wires to homes). Further savings come from using Cox's cable modem termination system (which provides data communications to subscribers' cable modems) instead of a headend interface terminal (which connects a circuit switch to a network). In a white paper released last year, Cox threw cold water on bullish predictions of 50 percent savings from VOIP, saying it expected 'about an 8-to-10 percent cost improvement when VOIP services are compared apples-to-apples with primary-line, circuit-switched, network-powered phone services.' In the apples-to-apples comparison, the cost of providing VOIP included a network interface unit mounted on the side of a home and powered by Cox. If subscribers instead bought and powered their own multimedia terminal adapters, VOIP could cost as much as 75 percent less than circuit-switched phone service, Cox said. So, what has changed in the past 15 months? "Over that span of time, we've tested several different vendors and pieces of equipment in the network and had time to actually put it in the hands of our employees and some market-test customers," says Mike Pacifico, director of marketing for Cox's digital telephone business. "At the end of the trial, we felt it was on par with circuit-switched quality." Full story at: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=lightreading&doc_id=52825 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 12:10:31 -0400 Subject: AT&T's CallVantage Service Expands to Serve the Western United States Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-17-2004/0002175772&EDATE= Coast-to-Coast Rollout Continues With Expansion to 16 Western Markets Including Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington Introductory Promotion Offers Unlimited Calling and Advanced Features at 50 Percent Off Regular Price of $39.99 Per Month BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T today announced the availability of its residential Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service, called AT&T CallVantage(SM) Service, providing residents throughout the Western United States a high-tech alternative for their personal communications needs. AT&T CallVantage Service began setting benchmarks six weeks ago for what the company believes will be the industry's most reliable and innovative broadband phone service in the country. To date, it has made the service generally available to consumers in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Now the company is expanding its service footprint in Phoenix; Boulder- Longmont, Denver and Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado; Portland-Vancouver and Salem, Oregon; Bellingham, Bremerton, Olympia, Seattle and Tacoma, Washington; as well as the Sacramento, Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Santa Rosa, Vallejo- Fairfield-Napa and Ventura areas of California. "AT&T already provides traditional residential local service to more than 4 million households nationwide, but AT&T CallVantage Service marks the beginning of an exciting new era in voice communications that gives customers another competitive choice," said Cathy Martine, AT&T senior vice president for Internet Telephony, Consumer Marketing and Sales. "AT&T continues to lead the adoption of VoIP services by both businesses and consumers as it delivers the next generation of communications that our customers demand," said Martine. Full (and very verbose) press release at: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-17-2004/0002175772&EDATE= ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #244 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Mon May 17 16:40:54 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4HKesT28776; Mon, 17 May 2004 16:40:54 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 16:40:54 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405172040.i4HKesT28776@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 #245 TELECOM Digest Mon, 17 May 2004 16:41:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 245 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Internet Phone Service Vonage Hits 155,000 Users (Monty Solomon) Acoustic Cryptanalysis (Monty Solomon) Prepaid Wireless: From Bad Rap to Hip (Monty Solomon) Microsoft Turning Attention to Research (Monty Solomon) The Fight Against Spam, Part 1 (Monty Solomon) Re: Let's Have Less Of Lessig (Monty Solomon) No, Let's Have Less Of Manes (Jack Decker) Re: NANP Numbering (Scott Dorsey) Re: Combi Phone - Mixing Board (ranck@vt.edu) Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables (Bill Burns) Re: Seeking Telecom Site (onesimus1776) Re: With Voice-Over-Internet, Bell Tolls, Finally For Bell Canada (A. Bell) Re: VOIP Only Getting One Way Conversation (Scott) Re: Blackberry Etiquette (Chip G.) Warning to all Readers About 090 5000 3784 (Ben Smith) 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, 17 May 2004 00:32:42 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Internet Phone Service Vonage Hits 155,000 Users WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - Vonage, which provides phone service over high-speed Internet lines, said on Monday it had hit the 155,000 customers mark and was adding more than 20,000 users a month. The company, which reached 100,000 users in February, also said it was lowering the price of its unlimited calling plan for new and existing residential customers to $30 from $35. Vonage is the largest retail provider of so-called voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, which allows low-cost phone calls over high-speed Internet connections. Vonage has set a target of garnering 250,000 customers by the end of this year and is expanding internationally. Vonage Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Citron said the company had hit an "inflection point," where its growing base of users had allowed it to lower costs and pass some savings to customers. The market for phone service over broadband Internet connections has been heating up in recent months, as larger firms such as AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) stake their claims in a business that smaller companies like Vonage have had mostly to themselves until now. AT&T began rolling out its CallVantage service two months ago, and Verizon is expected to unveil its VOIP offering by June. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41470328 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: If you have been thinking about pulling the plug entirely on Bell and going with a computer wide band phone system, now is a good time to try one and see how it works. You can get an e-coupon good for a month of free service on Vonage by simply writing and requesting it. ptownson@massis.csail.mit.edu PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 00:43:14 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Acoustic Cryptanalysis On nosy people and noisy machines [preliminary proof-of-concept presentation] Adi Shamir Eran Tromer Introduction and FAQ One of the methods for extracting information from supposedly secure systems is side-channel attacks: cryptanalytic techniques that rely on information unintentionally leaked by computing devices. Most side-channel attack research has focused on electromagnetic emanations (TEMPEST), power consumption and, recently, diffuse visible light from CRT displays. The oldest eavesdropping channel, namely acoustic emanations, has received little attention. Our preliminary analysis of acoustic emanations from personal computers shows them to be a surprisingly rich source of information on CPU activity. http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~tromer/acoustic/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 16 May 2004 23:45:57 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Prepaid Wireless: From Bad Rap to Hip By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff Prepaid wireless phones, once regarded as a last-resort option for those with bad credit, are suddenly hip. More and more consumers, particularly the young and the old, are viewing prepaid wireless as a smart choice, a way to stay connected without having to sign a long-term contract with a wireless carrier. For as little as $40 to $50, consumers can buy a phone and start making calls on a pay-as-you-go basis. Calling rates are generally more expensive than with contract plans, but prepaid can be ideal for infrequent users or people who want to manage their wireless spending. http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/05/16/prepaid_wireless_from_bad_rap_to_hip/ [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There are a lot of those here in Independence. So many people have gotten tired of calling SBC because of the size of their phone bills and requested some feature or another be dropped so that they can simply keep up with the bill each month only to then the next month get a bill even higher once the features were dropped that they have gone to prepaid cellular as an alternative, and fixed amount spending. A good deal here with Alltel is you can now get a prepaid *monthly* account (instead of prepaid call-by-call) and wind up getting that for not much more money than a 'regular' cell phone account. That is, you get a certain number of minutes per month, along with caller ID and various other features; I think it is around $30 per month. Alltel calls it 'Smart Choice' or some similar name. Long distance is included in however you choose to spend your minutes. Our cellular carriers here in town are Alltell, US Cellular, Cellular One, and Cingular Wireless. They've all got prepaid service plans among their other offerings. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 10:36:29 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Microsoft Turning Attention to Research By ALLISON LINN AP Business Writer SEATTLE (AP) -- When it comes to the latest technology craze, Microsoft Corp. isn't known for being first or best: It's known for being biggest. The software behemoth has used its strength, money and reach to go from underdog to top dog on everything from Internet browsers to digital content players. Now, its attention turns to the growing field of search, with a broad-based push that extends from its dominant Windows operating system to its MSN online division. Google Inc. currently dominates Internet search, something analysts say could pose problems for Microsoft _ and not only because Google takes away advertising dollars. The popularity and simple, alluring user interfaces of the best search sites threaten to reduce the control that Microsoft maintains over people's computing experience through popular products like the Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser. Plus, as the amount of digital information explodes, Microsoft also recognizes that computing today is not just about creating work documents, e-mails and pictures of your sister's new puppy _ it's also about finding all that later. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41480808 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 12:03:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: The Fight Against Spam, Part 1 by François Joseph de Kermadec Spam has become a supreme annoyance on the Internet. Everyone has to deal with it, just as everyone has to deal with telemarketers and mail-order catalogs in the real world. However, assuming that we cannot get totally rid of it, spam can, to a large extent, be avoided by following a few simple rules. My goal in this series of three articles is not to provide you with the ultimate, fool-proof anti-spam strategy. Why? Because there isn't one, and I would be lying to you if I wrote that there was. What I will try to do is to list a few common-sense, easy-to-follow rules that should allow you to spend most of your time on the Web without having to worry. In the first part of this series, we're going to focus on defining spam -- not an easy task, despite the appearances -- and see how you can start fighting against it. Once you have followed these steps, you will be just in time to read the following installments that focus on fine-tuning our strategy. They also feature an exclusive interview with Kim Silverman, principal research scientist and manager of spoken-language technologies at Apple, about Mail.app's junk-mail filtering capabilities. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2004/05/14/spam_pt1.html ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 10:29:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Re: Let's Have Less Of Lessig Larry Lessig's response to Stephen Manes piece in Forbes "It's Simple" says the MANes I hadn't realized how sensitive Mr. Manes is. For a guy who feels no hesitation in calling someone a "moron," "idiot," and "buffoon," it's a bit surprising he'd find this as "blustering and bloviating" or filled with "rage." Once again, his colorful abuse while funny, if a bit overworked, is still wrong. What follows is Mr. Manes' latest, excerpted at places where a response is required. I've cut some of the personal attacks, so if you want to get a true measure of this man, be certain to read the originals. But here's his charges of error, and the errors they manifest. Manes' words are in bold. http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001840.shtml Earlier pieces The Trouble With Larry Stephen Manes, 03.29.04, 12:00 AM ET http://www.forbes.com/columnists/business/free_forbes/2004/0329/084.html TalkBack: Manes http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001794.shtml#001794 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 05:26:18 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: No! Let's Have Less Of Manes Pat: Please conceal my e-mail address. The most ironic comment in this commentary was, "It's always fun to watch an intellectual bully stumbling over his shoelaces when he finally gets pushed back", because Mr. Manes strikes me as exactly the sort of writer who bullies his opponents with words. He may finally get around to actually attempting to make his point, but not before he roughs up the victim of his attack a little first. It always bothers me when someone pounces on another's idea because they got a few historic facts wrong. Mr. Lessig is a lawyer, not a history teacher. There's no evidence given that Lessig knew that he was giving out incorrect Disney history -- indeed, as pervasive as Disney is, it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that there are several different Disney histories floating around, each a little different than the others. Perhaps Mr. Lessig came across a different version than Mr. Manes did. I sort of doubt that either were around when Steamboat Willie came out, so to begin an attack on the fact that Mr. Lessig got his history a bit wrong seems pretty weak to me. But the real point I wanted to make, and my reason for sending this message, is that you probably can't expect a fair discussion of copyright issues by people who basically use the existing copyright laws to their own advantage. It would be like expecting the president of a labor union to give a fair and balanced assessment of a labor vs. management issue. Those who use the copyright laws (and other so-called "intellectual property" laws) for their own protection can hardly be considered unbiased in such debates. The reason we've never seen a fair discussion, beginning with the question of whether the concept of "intellectual property" should ever have been considered valid in the first place, is because all the media "gatekeepers" have a strong interest in perpetuating the current system. So Mr. Manes gets to pontificate in Forbes, while Mr. Lessig is probably lucky if his ideas get anything even approaching fair coverage in the press. Media bias is nothing new, of course, but what's sickening is that while Mr. Manes gets his attacks published in a major business publication (hmmm, a business publication, any surprise which side they'd favor?), Mr. Lessig has to resort to publishing his response in his blog. And then Mr. Manes pulls quotes out of that, brackets them with paragraphs of vitriol, and comes up with yet another attack. And he has the unmitigated gall to call Mr. Lessig a bully?!?! Let's have less of Mr. Manes! ------------------------------ From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: 17 May 2004 11:09:11 -0400 Organization: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) Paul Robinson wrote: > Mark J Cuccia wrote in message: >> Earle Robinson (no email address indicated), from France, claims: >> And most all of us are *QUITE WELL AWARE* that there are the overlay >> areas with *mandatory* (1+)ten-digit local/same-NPA dialing, such as >> the entire state of Maryland (301/240, 410/443), New York City >> (212/646, 718/347, 917) [] the VA suburbs of DC (703/571), [ ] >> I THINK that I've covered all of the overlay areas (which all have >> mandatory (1+)ten-digit local/same-NPA dialing). > All area codes in Virginia are shared on an overlay, so the entire > Commonwealth of Virginia is mandatory 10 digit dialing for all calls, > not just the DC suburbs. Huh? Down here in Williamsburg, I have 7-digit dialing to most of the tidewater area. I have friends on the Pembroke Telephone Cooperative (540 area code) with 5-digit dialing still. -- scott "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Scott, how do the users of Pembroke get out of town when they wish to? There must be some one or more reserved digits to dial when they wish to call a neighboring community or some other 'long distance' point. PAT] ------------------------------ From: ranck@vt.edu Subject: Re: Combi Phone - Mixing Board Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 15:20:20 UTC Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA cadbury wrote: > Is there a single device which would enable me to do all of the > following? > 1. Have a hands free conversaton over the phone > 2. Be able to play a cd on my computer, hear it in my headset AND > have the other person on line hear it too > 3. Be able to adjust the volumes of both audio sources (mine over the > phone and the output from the computer). This is so that I can comment > the audio source while we both listen to it. I don't know if there is anything off-the-shelf just for this, but I have an Autocom intercom system on my motorcycle that pretty much does what you want. It has an input for an audio source which I can listen to, and I can converse with my passenger mixed with the music. It also has an over-ride input that cuts off the music and intercom designed for use with a radar detector, but I don't use that and it is not useful for your purpose. The Autocom has a version that connects to cell phones. Oh, my model does not adjust volume, it relys on the audio source for that, but the version that conncts to cell phones does adjust volume separately for the passenger. Not exactly what you are looking for, but could probably be adapted. A small audio mixing console would also be adaptable for your purpose I think. Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va. ------------------------------ From: Bill Burns Subject: Re: Transoceanic Data Communication Cables Date: 17 May 2004 17:31:29 GMT Organization: FTL John McHarry wrote: > Porthcurno is where the first successful transatlantic cable > landed, and many current ones still do. Porthcurno wasn't the first transatlantic cable station, but I second John's advice to visit the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, a first class telecomms museum at the very end of England. It's there for a good reason, of course, as this is the westernmost point of the English mainland and thus an ideal place to send cables out to the west. The first Atlantic cables (1858, 1865, 1866) and many subsequent ones originated in Valentia, Ireland, which is closer still to the North American landing points in Newfoundland. The first cable to land in Porthcurno was in 1870, forming part of the Britain-India route; PK's first transatlantic cable was laid in 1882. Lots more info on my page at: http://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/Porthcurno/index.htm and the museum's own website: http://www.porthcurno.org.uk/ And for a comprehensive list of (just about) every submarine communications cable ever laid (1850-2004), see: http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Cables/CableTimeLine/index.htm I also have quite a few historical cable route maps on line, from 1858 to 1992. It's interesting to see the rapid growth of worldwide cable systems after the first successes: http://atlantic-cable.com/Maps/index.htm Visitors to that part of Cornwall should also see the Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station on the next peninsula over: http://www.goonhilly.bt.com/ The original dish first used in 1962 with the Telstar satellite is still working. Bill Burns, Long Island, NY, USA mailto:billb@ftldesign.com History of Technology Websites: http://ftldesign.com ------------------------------ From: Andrew Bell Subject: Re: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell Canada Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 14:52:35 -0400 (Pat, please print this from andrewb314@yahoo.com) > For example, with the Vonage service Burstein pays $35 a month for a > local calling plan that also gives him unlimited calling to anywhere > in the province and 500 minutes of free long-distance calls to any > location in North America outside of Ontario. Actually, it's $37 a month with the "regulatory recovery fee" added back where it belongs. Plus 7% GST (Goods and Services Tax) since he's in Ontario. That's about $39.50 (in Canadian pesos, of course - about $30 US.) Still a pretty good deal. > "It's a great plan," says Burstein, who uses the service at his > company Trend Marketing, a small importer and wholesaler of women's > shoes. He's talking through his Vonage service during the interview, > and from where I'm sitting on the other end, the quality of the call > nearly matches a traditional phone line. "I was paying about $250 a > month for long-distance fees calling customers only in Canada." > Now, his bill rarely exceeds $35. I wonder what his bill will be after Vonage reads this and reminds him that he's on a residential plan? From the Vonage terms of service: 1.2.1 Residential Use of Service and Device If you have subscribed to Vonage's Residential services, the Service and Device are provided to you as a residential user, for your personal, residential, non-business and non-professional use. This means that you are not using them for any commercial or governmental activities, profit-making or non-profit, [...] Andrew [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: I think Vonage sort of adopted the United States Army's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. I am certain a lot of guys are using Vonage residential service who rightfully should be on a business plan. But Vonage has not been in business long enough to have the luxury of being all that picky about customer. Not yet at any rate. PAT] ------------------------------ From: sdgreymont@yahoo.com (Scott) Subject: Re: VOIP Help Only Getting One Way Audio Conversation Date: 17 May 2004 12:35:29 -0700 sdgreymont@yahoo.com (Scott) wrote in message news:: > Hello to the experts. > To start out with I don't know much about VOIP. We have a user who is > connected to DSL through Frontier with a speedstream 5200 adsl modem. > We are able to get out Axxess IP Phone Plus phone to show up on the > network. The problem is that we are only getting one way > communication. We can hear the end party perfectly, they just cannot > hear us over this phone. We believe we have opened all the > appropriate ports on the firewall to allow voice traffic through. We > have tried using a packet sniffer, and unfortunately we don't see > squat getting blocked from this user. > All help is greatly appreciated. Please post back to this original > string. > Scott Solved it ourselves. We put a small SOHO inbetween the DSL Modem and the phone. Now NAT was forwarding the ports correctly. ------------------------------ From: "Chip G" Subject: Re: Blackberry Etiquette Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 18:57:43 GMT "Glen McGregor" wrote in message news:telecom23.243.12@telecom-digest.org: > I'm a newspaper reporter researching a story on the etiquette of using > Blackberries and other hand-helds. Would like to hear the thoughts of > users and non-users. > I'm especially interested in any workplace that has banned or curbed > their use in meetings. > Glen McGregor > Ottawa Citizen > 613.235.6685 > gmcgregor@thecitizen.canwest.com Crackberries are strictly managed in our business. There must be a very strong business case to get one and their use is strongly discouraged during meetings due to the disruptive nature of their use. Please post the results of your research here ... sounds very interesting! ------------------------------ From: onesimus1776 Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 13:26:52 -0500 Subject: Re: Seeking Telecom Site Dear Pat, ****Please Withhold My Address. Thank You!**** On 4-25-04, Keith wrote: > I'm looking for a telecom site I used to visit a few years ago. This > particular one was run rather informally, admin might have been named > Tom, and had a plethora of information regarding telecom, telephones, > etc. It had a section on history, a telecom book review section which > was pretty huge, might have had an old payphone section, etc. > I'm thinking it was called telecom resources, telephone resources, or > something to that effect. Probably you mean http://www.privateline.com/ At one time it was called TelecomWriting.com. A fine site with lots of resources, but IMO not as much fun as comp.dcom.telecom. Best, Joe ------------------------------ From: bensmithtoonfan@hotmail.com (Ben Smith) Subject: Warning to Readers About 090 5000 3784 Date: 17 May 2004 07:12:37 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I recieved the following text message today from telephone number: 090 5000 3784. It is a scam to get you to phone a premium rate number which costs a fortune. Here is what the text said: 'URGENT! We are trying to contact u. Todays draw shpws that you have won a £800 prize GUARANTEED. Call 090 5000 3784 from land line. Claim H97. Valid 12hrs only.' Regards, Ben Smith [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Thanks for the warning, Ben. By having it here in the Digest, others can be alert also. One problem I see with the 'urgent message' however is that the phone number appears to be good only in the UK?? There was an alarm like that in the USA several years ago where businessmen were getting paged with a message saying urgent to call a certain number 212-540 something trouble was it was only good for use in New York City even though the warning message was going all over the USA. PAT] ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #245 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 18 14:19:20 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4IIJJw08654; Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:20 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405181819.i4IIJJw08654@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 #246 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 May 2004 14:19:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 246 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Driven to Distraction/Some Complicated Dashboards Take Too Long (Solomon) AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses (Monty Solomon) PalmSource And RIM Introduce Blackberry Connect For Palm OS (Monty Solomon) Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways (VOIP News) Re: NANP Numbering (Paul Vader) Re: NANP Numbering (John McHarry) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Gordon S. Hlavenka) Re: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Lisa Hancock) Reporter Asks: Do You, or Did You Recently, Work at Nortel? (Bernard Simon) Re: Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless Phone With Features (SELLCOM Tech) Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers? (Lisa Hancock) Neax 2400 Software Question (JaBrIoL) 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, 17 May 2004 16:41:58 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Driven to Distraction/Some Complicated Dashboards Take Much Time Some complicated dashboards take just too much attention By Craig Fitzgerald, Globe Correspondent So there I am, trundling over the Green Mountains on my way to Nashua from my new home in Shaftsbury, Vt. As I'm hurtling down the mountain, my favorite radio station fades. In the car I'm driving, I first have to select 'radio' from the multifunction screen. A bunch of stations come up. The station I want is nowhere to be found, meaning that it's not coming in at 100 percent strength. But it doesn't stop with the radio. I'm also forced to study a screen with menus for heat, navigation, and even telecommunications, breaking eye contact with the road ahead. It's no wonder that driver inattention is a serious problem. A 2002 study by Canada's transportation bureau found that even when communication and 'infotainment' devices are hands-free, they pose a significant safety risk. Drivers asked to complete simple addition problems while talking on a hands-free phone were 13 to 38 percent more likely to focus their vision on the central 15 degrees of the windshield. Drivers almost completely stopped looking to their left periphery, while right peripheral vision dropped by nearly 50 percent. http://www.boston.com/cars/articles/2004/05/16/driven_to_distraction/ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 08:58:18 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses Offered Nationwide Through Agreement with Sprint - May 18, 2004 07:45 AM (PR Newswire) BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE:T) today announced that it has taken its first step in re-entering the wireless market by reaching an agreement with Sprint that will allow AT&T to sell AT&T-branded wireless service to its over 30 million business and consumer customers. As a result of the five-year agreement, AT&T expects to significantly expand the wireless services it is currently testing in select U.S. markets with hopes of a launch later this year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41511984 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 09:07:02 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: PalmSource And RIM Introduce Blackberry Connect For Palm OS CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004-- PalmSource to Give Sneak Preview During Keynote PalmSource, Inc. (NASDAQ:PSRC) provider of Palm OS(TM), a leading operating system powering next generation mobile devices and smartphones, and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM) (TSX:RIM), a leading developer of wireless solutions, have completed their distribution agreement to make BlackBerry Connect(TM) available to Palm OS licensees. Together, BlackBerry Connect and Palm OS will extend email and corporate data connectivity to Palm Powered(TM) smart mobile devices, facilitating workforce productivity while away from the office. PalmSource(TM) President and CEO David Nagel will demonstrate the BlackBerry Connect offering for Palm OS during his keynote presentation at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium on Tuesday, May 18 at 9:00 am CDT. The BlackBerry(R) Connect offering for Palm OS is the result of a joint development effort between PalmSource and RIM, announced in December 2003, to provide Palm OS licensees with access to the industry-leading, push-based, BlackBerry wireless infrastructure and to enable seamless connectivity between Palm Powered smart mobile devices and BlackBerry wireless services (including BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) and BlackBerry Web Client(TM)), as well as global address list look-up and IT policy support. PalmSource is expected to make the Palm OS Mail Client that supports BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees in the second half of 2004, as previously announced. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41514577 ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 12:08:07 -0400 Subject: Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-17-2004/0002175718&EDATE= Oki Network Technologies Launches Two New VoIP Gateways for Service Provider and Enterprise Markets Oki Network Technologies Ships New BV7100 and BV7060 VoIP Gateways SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Oki Network Technologies (Oki NT), a division of Oki America, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. of Japan, today announced the release of two new Voice over IP (VoIP) broadband media gateways -- the Oki BV7100 series, a high-performance high-bandwidth T1/E1 VoIP gateway, and the Oki BV7060 series, an analog FXS and FXO VoIP gateway. Both are geared for service provider and small to medium sized enterprise environments, which require seamless IP telephony integration with existing traditional telephone and PBX equipment. "As VoIP continues to take hold in the enterprise, due to significant savings and vastly improved voice quality, many companies are looking for VoIP gateways that can be quickly and easily integrated into their existing telephony and data systems," said Kenzie Nicoll, Director of Sales at Oki Network Technologies. "These new Oki VoIP gateways satisfy needs for both small enterprises, that require up to 10 voice channels and larger enterprises where 24 VoIP channels or more are needed. The BV7060 and BV7100 are a second-generation platform, utilizing the field-proven reliability and quality of our earlier gateways, adding enhanced manageability, QoS, and connectivity solutions. We are very excited about this new product line and expect our customers will be as well." Both Oki BV7100 and BV7060 VoIP gateways support H.323 v 4, SIP, T.38 fax, and G.711, G.723 and G.729 audio codecs for maximum interoperability. Both gateways are engineered for toll-quality QoS. The BV7100 and BV7060 incorporate advanced jitter buffers, silence suppression, echo cancellation, VLAN tagging, DiffServ, ToS and NAT Traversal features. BV7100 (BV7200 Dual T1/E1) KEY FEATURES Ideal for connecting digital telephony environments to IP networks, the BV7100 series supports either T1 or E1 interfaces, and hosts up to 60 VoIP channels, based upon configuration. For environments that call for dual T1/E1 connectivity, Oki is offering a dual mode version of the BV7100, called the BV7200. Both versions of the BV7100 series can simultaneously connect PBX and PSTN systems to achieve extended flexibility in call routing and seamless configuration options, without disrupting existing equipment configurations. Other highlights include: -- QSIG Feature Transparency (H.323) -- Channel Associated Signaling (CAS) signaling -- Radius Accounting BV7060 (BV7060 FXO and BV7060 HYBRID) KEY FEATURES For analog phone system environments, the BV7060 is a 10-channel, multiport FXO VoIP gateway that can be configured to connect standard analog lines or PBX extensions to an IP network, or route calls from an IP network to the PSTN. The BV7060 HYBRID provides 8 FXS and 2 FXO lines, with a hard-wired bypass feature that enable PSTN calls in the event of a power failure. Pricing and Availability The BV7100 and BV7060 series gateways are available now from select value-added resellers, distributors and service providers, or call Oki direct for additional information at 800-641-8909, Website (http://www.okint.com), fax and e-mail. About Oki Network Technologies Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Oki Network Technologies (http://www.okint.com) is the telecommunications and voice over IP networking division of Oki America, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. -- one of Japan's first and largest telecommunications manufacturers. Oki Network Technologies provides carriers and enterprises throughout North and Latin America with advanced Internet voice gateways and broadband telecommunications products that combine and transform voice and data technologies into powerful, affordable and reliable business solutions. NOTE: All other products, brand names or companies are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. SOURCE Oki Network Technologies Web Site: http://www.okint.com 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: pv+usenet@pobox.com (Paul Vader) Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 21:42:30 -0000 Organization: Inline Software Creations Paul Robinson writes: > even a century or more, look at your keyboard and realize the QWERTY > pattern was developed back in the 1880s to *slow people down* on manual > typewriters that would jam. We're still using a system designed to slow This is an urban legend. The intent wasn't to slow down the typist, but to arrange the keyboard so that two letters that commonly appeared together weren't adjacent on the keyboard. If you've ever used a manual, you know that pressing two adjacent keys on the same row results in the key levers getting stuck against the ribbon. Doing this didn't slow the typist, it sped them up, because they didn't have to deal with the stuck keys or wait for the levers to fall back before typing the next letter. * * PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something like corkscrews. ------------------------------ From: John McHarry Subject: Re: NANP Numbering Organization: BellSouth Internet Group Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 18:55:06 -0400 Scott Dorsey wrote: > Down here in Williamsburg, I have 7-digit dialing to most of the tidewater > area. > I have friends on the Pembroke Telephone Cooperative (540 area code) with > 5-digit dialing still. > -- scott > "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Scott, how do the users of Pembroke get > out of town when they wish to? There must be some one or more > reserved digits to dial when they wish to call a neighboring community > or some other 'long distance' point. PAT] The little town I grew up in had that, until they upgraded their switch to a DMS-10. The prefix was 543, and all you had to dial was the 3. The only other local exchange was 595, so that cinched it. You did have to dial the full 7 digits for 595. I forget what type of switch this was, but I think it just dumped the 54 if you dialed them. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 00:54:34 -0500 From: Gordon S. Hlavenka Reply-To: nospam@crashelectronics.com Organization: Crash Electronics Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Lisa Hancock wrote: > Verizon Wireless (cell phones) has introduced what they call a: > "shorter, simpler, 'streamlined bill' thatt is simpler to understand > while using less paper". > Nonsense. > What they did is remove the detailed billing listings. This statement appeared on my Feb. 13 Verizon Wireless bill: >> Beginning in March 2004, your monthly bill will be a shorter, simpler >> "Streamlined Bill." This new streamlined bill will result in a >> monthly statement that is simpler to understand while using >> significantly less paper. The first page of your bill will show your >> Account Summary, Total Amount Due and Due Date - all on one page for >> quick reference. The details for individual calls will no longer >> appear on your monthly bill, but you can view call details and print >> them at no charge from "My Account" at www.verizonwireless.com. If >> you prefer to continue receiving calt details on your monthly bill at >> no charge, please call 1-800-894-3504 by June 30, 2004. After June >> 30, 2004, you may request Detailed Billing for $1.99 per month for >> each wireless phone number. So, I knew that I had to call in before June 30 to keep my detail billing. But I didn't call right away -- I've got until June 30, fercryinoutloud, and it's only February... Then, I got my March 13 bill, which includes detailed billing PLUS a charge of $5.00 for "Detailed Billing 3/14/04 - 4/13/04" Now, notice that at this point I have not contacted them AT ALL -- they _should_ have simply dropped the detail; instead they charged me $5.00 for it. What about the $1.99??? Anyway, I immediately called 1-800-894-3504 and punched all the buttons to get the no-charge detailed billing. Then I called Customer Disservice and griped. The Nice Lady(TM) reminded me that there had been a notice on my Feb. bill about this change. So I read her the notice, and she agreed it did sound like I had until the end of June to call in. She credited my account for the $5.00, and told me to go ahead and pay the reduced rate on my March bill. April rolls along, my bill is marked "Due Upon Receipt" and shows a $5.00 balance carried forward, plus the promised $5.00 credit (it actually shows up as "Detailed Billing -$5.00" under monthly charges). There's also "Detailed billing - charge for partial month 3/14/04 - 3/29/04 $2.58" so they're still trying to nick me more than the advertised $1.99 for a partial month of a service I never ordered in the first place. My May bill hasn't arrived yet; I can't wait to see what they've got on this one ... > I have no idea what they've billed me for. It's very possible > they made errors; they have made errors in bill calculations in the > past... I don't think _they_ know what they've billed you for, either. Gordon S. Hlavenka http://www.crashelectronics.com "If we imagined he could _find_ the car, we could pretend it might be fixed." - Calvin ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Re: With Voice-Over-Internet Bell Tolls, Finally, For Bell (Can Date: 18 May 2004 07:31:43 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com VOIP News wrote: > He's talking through his Vonage service during the interview, > and from where I'm sitting on the other end, the quality of the call > nearly matches a traditional phone line. ~~~~~~ So this so-called wonderful new technology gives me LESS quality than what I have now. Why don't they hold off their super hype until they get it to be _superior_ to a traditional phone line? And will the internet connection pay all the taxes (ie 911 fee, deaf relay fee, etc.)? ------------------------------ From: bernard.simon@writeitright.ca (Bernard Simon) Subject: Reporter Asks: Do You, or Did You Recently, Work at Nortel? Date: 18 May 2004 07:53:09 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I'm a reporter for The New York Times in Toronto covering recent developments at Nortel. I'd like to make contact with some folks currently working there, or recently departed (within the past six months). Please contact me by email at bernards@nytimes.com or bernard.simon@writeitright.ca. Discretion assured. Thanks, Bernard Simon ------------------------------ From: SELLCOM Tech support Subject: Re: Looking For Multi-Handset Cordless Phone With Several Features Organization: www.sellcom.com Reply-To: support@sellcom.com Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 17:01:24 GMT jsevinsk@yahoo.com (John Sevinsky) posted on that vast internet thingie: > I'm in the market for a multi-handset cordless phone, and I'm having a > hard time finding all the features that I want in one system. I would > like: > * 5.8 ghz, but 2.4 ghz would be OK. > * Must support at least 6 handsets, but 8 or 10 would be better. > * Must support a common phone directory, or at least have the ability > to transfer the directory from one handset to the others. I'm not > typing in names/numbers for each of the handsets. The Siemens 8825 might be the best shot to have most of the features you are looking for. We try to list the phone features on our website to make it easy to "feature shop" Steve at SELLCOM http://www.sellcom.com Discount multihandset cordless phones by Siemens, AT&T, Panasonic, Motorola Vtech 5.8Ghz; TMC ET4000 4line Epic phone, OnHoldPlus, Beamer, Watchguard! Brick wall "non MOV" surge protection. Mini-Splitter log splitter! If you sit at a desk www.ergochair.biz you owe it to yourself. ------------------------------ From: hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) Subject: Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers? Date: 18 May 2004 10:26:05 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com With telephone service now available from new independent companies instead of former Bell System companies, how is the issue of listings in the telephone book and directory assistance handled? As part of providing the local loop, is the former Bell company required to provide a listing in its directory and directory assistance bureau? Who provides information to the 911 database? It doesn't seem fair that the Bell company provide listings without compensation since it bears the expense of printing and distributing the phone books. ------------------------------ From: Jabriol@excite.com (JaBrIoL) Subject: Neax 2400 Software Question Date: 18 May 2004 10:28:15 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com All, I am running a Neax 2400 PBX. I have the software for it ICS Generic 6000-IMGx version DE4.10. Of course, I can load the software to run the PBX. What I would like to do is, to make a backup copy of the software; they are about 8 diskettes. I've notice that I can not use Norton Ghost, or any other known OS to duplicate these disks. My question is: can I duplicate these disks on Neax 2400 itself? ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #246 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Tue May 18 20:55:06 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4J0t5U11729; Tue, 18 May 2004 20:55:06 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 20:55:06 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405190055.i4J0t5U11729@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 #247 TELECOM Digest Tue, 18 May 2004 20:55:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 247 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Anyone With Surplus Computer to Sell or Give Away? (TELECOM Digest Editor) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (Steven J Sobol) Re: Phone Books and D/A For non-Bell Subscriber (Charles Cryderman) Re: Combi Phone - Mixing Board (cadbury) Re: PDAs and Terminal Emulator (John Bartley) Re: The Making of an Idol (Gary Novosielski) Verizon Adds Dial-In Access for News Conference on Advanced (Monty Solomon) HP Reports Second Quarter 2004 Results (Monty Solomon) Yahoo Releases E-mail Standard to Fight Spam (Monty Solomon) Last Laugh! Is Google on Drugs? (jmayson@nyx.net) 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, 18 May 2004 20:24:42 EDT From: TELECOM Digest Editor Subject: Anyone With a Surplus Computer to Sell or Give Away? I woke up Tuesday morning to see that my Windows 98 Winbook XL-2 laptop had bit the dust totally. Probably a motherboard problem; not really sure. I cannot even get into the BIOS to check it out. The machine appears to be booting up, goes through the opening screen then recycles back and does that part over. It won't shut down short of pulling the plug entirely. Pressing DELETE does not get me into Bios set up. I also tried to boot from a floppy, but the computer does not even see the floppy drive. I talked to the Winbook people in Columbus, OH today also; they said they no longer manufacture or support the Winbook XL-2. No spare parts, no way to fix them. I really do need at least one spare machine here, so am making this appeal to readers. If you have any surplus laptops (preferably due to space requirements) or desktops capable of running at least Windows 98 (maybe a 286 or 386 ??) and you feel like donating it to the Digest for my work -- or selling it for a hundred dollars or so, please let me know. If you want some money for it, I can pay using PayPal or a credit card or send you a check. Thanks, Patrick Townson ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless Detail Missing New Bills Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:35:21 -0500 Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote: >>> no charge, please call 1-800-894-3504 by June 30, 2004. After June >>> 30, 2004, you may request Detailed Billing for $1.99 per month for >>> each wireless phone number. > Anyway, I immediately called 1-800-894-3504 and punched all the buttons > to get the no-charge detailed billing. Then I called Customer > Disservice and griped. The Nice Lady(TM) reminded me that there had > been a notice on my Feb. bill about this change. So I read her the > notice, and she agreed it did sound like I had until the end of June to > call in. She credited my account for the $5.00, and told me to go ahead > and pay the reduced rate on my March bill. Sound like? "Please call 1-800-894-3504 by June 30, 2004." That's exactly what they DID say. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Phone Books and D/A For Non-Bell Subscriber Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 15:36:30 -0400 Ms Lisa Hancock inquired: > With telephone service now available from new independent companies instead > of former Bell System companies, how is the issue of listings in the > telephone book and directory assistance handled? > As part of providing the local loop, is the former Bell company required to > provide a listing in its directory and directory > assistance bureau? Who provides information to the 911 database? > It doesn't seem fair that the Bell company provide listings without > compensation since it bears the expense of printing and distributing the > phone books. Lisa, the owners of the Telephone Book make millions of dollars selling add space to business. At one point prior to selling theirs, it was QWorst most profitable endeavor. Adding a one or two lines for a residential number would cost nothing in comparison and in my opinion they deserve nothing for it. Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: dee2tee28@yahoo.com (cadbury) Subject: Re: Combi Phone - Mixing Board Date: 18 May 2004 13:08:47 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com ranck@vt.edu wrote in message news:: > cadbury wrote: >> Is there a single device which would enable me to do all of the >> following? >> 1. Have a hands free conversaton over the phone >> 2. Be able to play a cd on my computer, hear it in my headset AND >> have the other person on line hear it too >> 3. Be able to adjust the volumes of both audio sources (mine over the >> phone and the output from the computer). This is so that I can comment >> the audio source while we both listen to it. > I don't know if there is anything off-the-shelf just for this, but I > have an Autocom intercom system on my motorcycle that pretty much does > what you want. It has an input for an audio source which I can listen > to, and I can converse with my passenger mixed with the music. It > also has an over-ride input that cuts off the music and intercom > designed for use with a radar detector, but I don't use that and it is > not useful for your purpose. > The Autocom has a version that connects to cell phones. Oh, my model > does not adjust volume, it relys on the audio source for that, but the > version that conncts to cell phones does adjust volume separately for > the passenger. Not exactly what you are looking for, but could > probably be adapted. > A small audio mixing console would also be adaptable for your purpose > I think. > Bill Ranck > Blacksburg, Va. Thanks for the lead. Looked at their site and found a model which seems as if it could work. Going to check it out in person. Thanks again. Dee ------------------------------ From: John Bartley Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 13:25:55 -0800 Subject: Re: PDAs and Terminal Emulator If you have not already posted to comp.sys.palmtops.pilot and microsoft.public.pocketpc, I'd make sure to, as well as in the rec.radio.amateur.digital.misc and rec.radio.amateur.equipment NGs. On Sat, 15 May 2004 Keith wrote: > Hi Gang, > I'm a field tech working on various pieces of telecom gear, turn-up & > troubleshooting. I'm trying to get some feedback from anyone out there > who is successfully using a terminal emulator (i.e. hyperterminal or > procomm type apps) on a PDA. > What PDAs are you using, what OS, what applications & finally do those > USB-to-serial cables (DB9) that I've seen in electronic stores as well > as on eBay have drivers for PDAs that work? > Thanx for any feedback or input. > "Eliminate annoying spam! > My mailbox is protected by iHateSpam, the #1-rated spam buster." > http://www.ihatespam.net ------------------------------ From: Gary Novosielski Subject: Re: The Making of an Idol Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:54:48 GMT Monty Solomon wrote: > Talent show or popularity contest? An inside look at how reality's > No. 1 show works-and is worked over by-the fame biz. > By JAMES PONIEWOZIK > http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040524-638335,00.html That article is only available to paying subscribers of Time Magazine. If you're not prepared to quote it, posting the URL serves as little more than spam. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 20:23:52 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Verizon Adds Dial-In Access for News Conference: Advanced Fiber Optic Fiber-Optic Technology Deployment, New Products in Keller, Texas, on Wednesday, May 19 KELLER, Texas - Due to interest from the news media, Verizon has added dial-in access to its planned news conference here Wednesday, May 19, at 10 a.m. CDT (11 a.m. EDT) to announce details about deployment of an advanced fiber-optic technology, new products and the creation of North Texas jobs to support the multi-state initiative. WHEN: Wednesday, May 19, 10 a.m. CDT (11 a.m. EDT) Listen-only dial-in number: 800-475-2151, Replay for 24 hours, 877-519-4471, pin 4801810 - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41532405 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 20:25:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: HP Reports Second Quarter 2004 Results PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2004--HP (NYSE:HPQ)(Nasdaq:HPQ) -- Record revenue of $20.1 billion, up 12% year-over-year -- Non-GAAP operating profit of $1.3 billion, up 17% year-over- year; Non-GAAP EPS $0.34, up 17% year-over-year -- GAAP operating profit of $1.1 billion, up 77% year-over-year; GAAP EPS $0.29, up 32% year-over-year -- Both Non-GAAP and GAAP earnings include a $70 million charge for HP's settlement with the Canadian government -- Revenue in Personal Systems grew 17% year-over-year; HP Services grew 15%; Imaging and Printing grew 11%; Enterprise Storage and Servers grew 8%; Software grew 23% -- Cash flow from operations totaled $2.6 billion HP today reported financial results for its second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2004, including record revenue of $20.1 billion, an increase of 12% year-over-year. Non-GAAP(1) operating profit was $1.3 billion for the quarter, an increase of 17% year-over-year. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $0.34 for the quarter, up 17% from $0.29 last year. Non- GAAP diluted EPS and non-GAAP net earnings include a $148 million adjustment on an after-tax basis, or $0.05 per diluted share. GAAP operating profit for the quarter was $1.1 billion, an improvement of $495 million or 77% year-over-year. GAAP diluted EPS was $0.29 per share, up 32% from $0.22 year-over-year. On May 13, HP Canada agreed to reimburse the Government of Canada $105 million in U.S. dollars. This settlement, net of a previously recorded amount of $35 million, had an impact of approximately 2 cents per share on second quarter GAAP and non-GAAP earnings. All non-GAAP financial information in this release is reconciled in the table below titled, "Non-GAAP Consolidated Condensed Statement of Earnings." Q2 Y/Y Q2 FY04 Growth FY03 Revenue (billions) $20.1 12% $18.0 Non-GAAP operating margin(1) 6.7% 6.4% GAAP operating margin 5.7% 3.6% Non-GAAP diluted EPS(1) $0.34 17% $0.29 GAAP diluted EPS $0.29 32% $0.22 During the quarter, and on a year-over-year basis, revenue in the Americas grew 4% to $8.4 billion; Europe grew 17% to $8.3 billion; Asia Pacific grew 22% to $2.4 billion; and Japan grew 21% to $967 million. On a total company basis, and when adjusted for the effects of currency, second quarter revenue grew 4% year-over-year. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41533451 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 20:26:51 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Yahoo Releases E-mail Standard to Fight Spam By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - Internet portal Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) on Tuesday released an e-mail standard that prevents "spam" marketers from hiding unwanted messages behind legitimate e-mail addresses. The technique, if widely adopted, could help Internet providers more easily block the unwanted bulk messages that currently account for up to two-thirds of all e-mail traffic. Yahoo's proposed standard, known as DomainKeys, would embed outgoing messages with an encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the message. Internet providers could check the signatures on incoming messages and block those that do not match up. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41534400 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 16:59:45 -0500 From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Last Laugh! Is Google on Drugs? Organization: Nyx Net, The Spirit of the Night This morning I noticed my Google Mail account said I was using about 10 MB of my 1000000 MB quota. Apparently they've upped their mail storage limit from 1 GB to 1 TB. http://www.scripting.com/images/archiveScriptingCom/2004/05/18/terabyte.gif At my current rate, if I deleted nothing, I was going to hit my 1 GB limit in 2014. Now I should make it to 12004 before needing more space. ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #247 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 19 14:48:26 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4JImPa19319; Wed, 19 May 2004 14:48:26 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:48:26 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405191848.i4JImPa19319@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 #248 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 May 2004 14:41:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 248 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Monty Solomon) Privacy Jam on California Highway (Monty Solomon) ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit (Monty Solomon) Point, Click and Swap -- Digital Photos go P2P (Monty Solomon) E-Mail Scammer Gets Four Years (Monty Solomon) Identity Crisis / Stations Hay Have to Change Channels in shift (Solomon) DomainKeys (Monty Solomon) Re: Phone Books and D/A For Non-Bell Subscribers? (Fred Atkinson) Re: Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers? (Jack Decker) Best Consumer Answering Machine? (zmike6) Re: The Making of an Idol (David Quinton) Flat-Rate International VoIP Providers? (Zed) Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills (William Robison) Pulver: CRTC Shouldn't Treat VoIP Like Phone Service (VOIP News) AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses (VOIP News) Gradwell dot com Ltd. launches VoIP Centrex Service (VOIP News) Pundits Sound Off on VoIP's Future (VOIP News) Skype Signs Deal With Two Carriers (VOIP News) Unconventional Activity; Unconventional Phone Number Parsing (Carl Moore) 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, 19 May 2004 08:58:47 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks By Stefanie Olsen Staff Writer, CNET News.com Auto insurance company Geico has sued Google and Overture Services for allegedly violating its trademarks in search-related advertisements, in the latest legal salvo against the Internet companies. Geico, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, filed suit against Google and Yahoo-owned Overture on May 4, in federal court in Alexandria, Va. The insurer charged the two companies with infringing on its trademarks when they sold them as keywords to Geico's rivals, so that the protected terms could appear in sponsored search results. According to the suit, that practice causes consumer confusion, in violation of the Lanham Act, the primary federal law covering trademark registration and protection. http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5215107.html [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Older readers may recall when what is now called 'Geico' used to -- many years ago -- be 'Government Employees Insurance Company'. It was a federal level quasi-governmental agency dealing with automobile insurance for government employees, who were the company's only customers. I do not know when it got disttached from the government or when its name changed to the initials 'GEICO' only, or when its mascot became the cute little reptile character, and I do not know if the little reptile's name is pronounced 'Geckko' or 'G-eye-co'. I have heard both. I know a huge number of its customers are still federal employees, etc. PAT] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 09:19:50 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Privacy Jam on California Highway By John Borland Staff Writer, CNET News.com The pictures show a driver peering angrily out his window at the photographer. In one, his middle finger is raised at the camera. In the last, his license plate is captured on digital film as he drives away. These are the kinds of photos that until a few weeks ago made up the front page of a Web site called CarpoolCheats.org, where a pair of frustrated San Jose, Calif., commuters posted photos of single drivers who they spotted using the carpool lanes. As highway vigilantism goes, it was mild. There were no legal repercussions for the drivers caught on film, and the state highway patrol, while aware of the site, can't use the information. But it drew enough rancor that creator Sean Mcintyre has temporarily closed the site down. http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5212280.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 09:48:28 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit By Declan McCullagh Staff Writer, CNET News.com A federal judge on Tuesday handed domain name registry VeriSign a preliminary setback in its dispute with Internet regulators over proposals to add controversial new features to .com and .net addresses. U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dismissed allegations that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers had violated federal antitrust laws in its attempts to bar VeriSign from adding services like Site Finder, which effectively took control of all unassigned .com and .net domain names and redirected them to the company's Web site. During a hearing Tuesday morning, Matz gave VeriSign until June 7 to try again to make its antitrust claims stick, which the company said it would do. "We ultimately believe we'll prevail on the matter," VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy said. "This is part of the process ... Antitrust certainly has a higher burden. When a court asks for more detail and more specificity in essentially proving your claim, that's what you do." http://news.com.com/2100-1028-5215324.html ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 09:53:32 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Point, Click and Swap -- Digital Photos go P2P By Paul Festa Staff Writer, CNET News.com Peer-to-peer technology, made famous by music-sharing networks like Napster, may have found a new lease on life in the digital pictures business. OurPictures, a Palo Alto, Calif., start-up, on Tuesday plans to launch its service for letting subscribers share pictures over the Internet but without the constraints of e-mail attachments or Web sites. The idea behind OurPictures, which is set to conclude a three-month test of its service, is that subscribers can post pictures to a network of fellow subscribers who transfer the pictures directly from one computer to another. http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5214575.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 21:45:56 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: E-Mail Scammer Gets Four Years By David McGuire washingtonpost.com Staff Writer An Internet scammer who used e-mail and a fraudulent Web site to steal hundreds of credit card numbers was sentenced to almost four years in jail Tuesday, one of the stiffest-ever penalties handed down for online fraud. Houston, Texas federal court Judge Vanessa Gilmore sentenced Houston resident Zachary Hill to 46 months in jail for his role in duping consumers into turning over 473 credit card numbers. The Justice Department said the sentence is "one of, if not the longest" ever handed down against an e-mail scammer, said spokesman Michael Kulstad. Hill, 20, used a "phishing" scheme to make his e-mail look like it came from America Online, the nation's largest Internet service provider, or PayPal, the online payment subsidiary of auction giant eBay. The message told victims that their accounts had lapsed and that the companies required their credit card numbers and passwords to restart them. Hill prompted recipients to enter their information into Web forms designed to look like pages run by the companies, the Justice Department said. Hill then used the credit card numbers to buy $47,000 in goods and services. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37406-2004May18.html ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:10:08 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Identity Crisis / Stations May Have to Change Channels in Shift By Bill McConnell -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/17/2004 For more than 50 years, WWOR New York has built a brand around its location on the dial: channel 9. The station bills its 10 p.m. newscast "UPN9 News," and callers with tips for the investigative team are asked to phone 1-800-CH9-News. The latest headlines can be accessed on UPN9.com, and, of course, the number 9 is prominent in its logo-in type twice as big as its call letters or network affiliation. But WWOR may be facing an identity crisis. As soon as 24 months, the Fox-owned station may lose its highly prized single-digit spot on the TV dial for a new channel, 38, erasing enormous brand identity built up since the station was founded in 1949. That's because WBPH Philadelphia has first call on channel 9 when stations shift to an all-digital-TV format as mandated by law. Because the two stations' transmitters are so close, WWOR can keep using channel 9 only if it gives up some of its coverage area-a loss of audience WWOR can ill afford. But moving to channel 38 may be a worse fate, allowing WWOR to keep its coverage area but exiling it to what Paxson Communications chief Bud Paxson calls the UHF "wasteland," the bank of double-digit channels known for bad reception and low ratings. The DTV transition is forcing hundreds of big-market stations to make a similar choice. Because of interference from new neighbors, some of the more than 300 major-market stations in the Northeast, the Great Lakes area, and northern California will be forced by the government to return their longtime analog channel when they go all-digital. Others will find their old location unappealing because they may have to surrender audience-the decision WWOR faces-so a move to a new channel may be the only choice. For stations, the transition calls for aggressive new marketing-new logos, new promos, even new jingles-to coax viewers into changing the channel. The difficult choice is being forced on stations by the TV industry's switch to all-digital channels, which some hard-liners in Congress want to complete by 2006. The FCC estimates the transition will be completed by 2009. http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA417940 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:38:26 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: DomainKeys DomainKeys: Proving and Protecting Email Sender Identity http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys IETF Draft Domain-based Email Authentication Using Public-Keys Advertised in the DNS (DomainKeys) http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-delany-domainkeys-base-00.txt ------------------------------ Reply-To: Fred Atkinson From: Fred Atkinson Subject: Re: Phone Books and D/A For Non-Bell Subscribers Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 21:23:09 -0400 Well, I believe that I pointed out earlier that you can pay to have your Vonage (or any other company) residential number listed in directory assistance. So, they do make money on it and you get your number made available to anyone who is looking for you. It is called a 'Foreign Listing'. You have to request it and then they have to create a 'Miscellaneous Account' for the purpose of billing you. Someone told me that one of the other VOIP companies actually arrange to have your number listed for you. Vonage does not. I guarantee you that they are arranging compensation for it. Fred Atkinson ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:55:26 -0400 From: Jack Decker Subject: Re: Phone Books and D/A for non-Bell Subscribers Pat, please conceal my e-mail address. On 18 May 2004 10:26:05 -0700, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com (Lisa Hancock) wrote: > It doesn't seem fair that the Bell company provide listings without > compensation since it bears the expense of printing and distributing > the phone books. Funny, it's never seemed fair to me that a telephone company would charge customers an extra monthly charge to keep their private information private (the unlisted/nonpublished number charge). But they do, so obviously each listing much be worth something to them. Unfortunately, what I suspect happens (and someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is that the baby Bells charge they own customers the extra monthly fee to not be listed, but they charge other telephone companies to list their customers. So it seems to me that something's not right about this. Either a listing is an added cost to them, and therefore they shouldn't charge their own customers to keep their info out, or it's a profit maker for them, in which case they should be willing to list the customers of other companies for free (in fact, they should even share some of the revenue with those companies). But, as Lily Tomlin as "Ernestine" might have said (if CLEC's had been around back then), "It's our phone book, so we make the rules. We don't care if they're not fair. We don't have to. We're the phone company." However, I suspect that not a few of the customers who have given up their landlines in favor of wireless or VoIP (and by the way, Lisa, we know you don't like VoIP but we're going to talk about it anyway, whether you like it or not) have switched away from the traditional wireline phone company because neither wireless companies nor VoIP companies at present list their customers' numbers. While some people may find that a negative, a lot of people find it a plus, because you effectively get an unlisted number with no bogus unlisted number charge. ------------------------------ From: zmike6 Subject: Best Consumer Answering Machine? Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 04:14:05 GMT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net A google search suggested that this group had the most discussion of answering machines. My 10-year-old dual microcassette unit is acting flaky, and I fear will have to be replaced soon. This entire product category has been replaced with digital units (only new dual cassette unit I could find was $250!) and in looking at product reviews of AT&T, GE, Panasonic and other brands, I could find NO product that was widely praised. General complaints ranged from horrible sound and/or horrible reliability. So, can anyone recommend a currently-available answering machine, with good sound and no glaring defects? Leading contenders I've found are AT&T model 1726, and some mid-level GE models, but even of those, reviews were very mixed. Rant: In general, I find audio quality has gone sharply downhill on most telecom products, compared to the old models. My ears and/or brain don't seem to process "digital" well, I have to strain more to understand it and recognize who is speaking. I really liked my dual-cassette machine and wish these were still available at reasonable cost. Judging from other comments I've seen I'm not alone, there should still be a significant market for analog tape units (hint to product designers). Is this a case where the marketers forced an inferior technology (in terms of sound fidelity) on the market? ------------------------------ From: David Quinton Subject: Re: The Making of an Idol Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 08:54:42 +0100 On Tue, 18 May 2004 22:54:48 GMT, Gary Novosielski wrote: > Monty Solomon wrote: >> Talent show or popularity contest? An inside look at how reality's >> No. 1 show works-and is worked over by-the fame biz. >> By JAMES PONIEWOZIK >> http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101040524-638335,00.html > That article is only available to paying subscribers of Time Magazine. > If you're not prepared to quote it, posting the URL serves as little > more than spam. I haven't been able to read it either. However, here in the UK a principle known as "call gapping" is used to lessen congestion. This means that one in every X calls will receive a congestion message advising the caller to try again. I also think that for some of the busiest Televoting services, the calls never actually get switched any further than one of the main BT centres. Call Accounting is handled at each of the centres and the totals are then calculated ... UK Computer stuff from Morgan Auctions. Bids start at 1. No reserve. Sign up NOW! Track a Mobile phone: . ------------------------------ From: zzuser@yahoo.com (Zed) Subject: Flat-Rate International VoIP Providers? Date: 19 May 2004 07:03:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi everybody! Does anybody know of any other VoIP provider with flat-rate plans to Europe or Scandinavia other than Packet8? Thanks in advance for any pointers! Zed ------------------------------ From: William Robison Subject: Re: Verizon Wireless "Detail Missing" New Bills Organization: Universitry of Iowa Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 13:55:38 GMT On Tue, 18 May 2004 00:54:34 -0500, Gordon S. Hlavenka wrote: > Now, notice that at this point I have not contacted them AT ALL -- they > _should_ have simply dropped the detail; instead they charged me $5.00 > for it. What about the $1.99??? Is this the point where you send a check for what you believe is the correct balance, along with a note that you are cancelling your service with them as they will not honor the contract? It seem unfortunate that the only way to get the attention of some vendors is to have a signifigant portion of the customer base leave (running and screaming). -Willy ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:11:47 -0400 Subject: Pulver: CRTC Shouldn't Treat VoIP Like Phone Service Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=55635&adBanner=Networking 5/18/2004 5:00:00 PM - Vonage co-founder says regulators should hold off for five to 10 years by Derek Abma OTTAWA -- The guru of Internet telephony is in Canada, and he's talking revolution. Jeff Pulver, president of Pulver.com and co-founder of Vonage, was in the nation's capital on Monday for a speaking engagement just before heading to Toronto for VON Canada, a voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) convention being held at the Markham Conference Centre Tuesday through Thursday. Pulver helped start Vonage, a U.S. broadband phone-service company that recently began serving Canada. Currently, he heads Pulver.com, which offers VoIP-related products and information, and hosts events such as the one happening in Markham this week. Pulver is an outspoken opponent of over-regulating VoIP service. His lobbying played a factor in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's decision not to regulate computer-to-computer VoIP communications. It's known by many as "the Pulver decision." Meanwhile, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) has said it will likely regulate VoIP phone service similar to the way it does traditional phone service. But both Canadian and U.S. authorities have much work to do before VoIP policies are finalized and all-encompassing. Full story at: http://www.itbusiness.ca/index.asp?theaction=61&lid=1&sid=55635&adBanner=Networking 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: VOIP News Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 22:20:32 -0400 Subject: AT&T To Offer Wireless Services to Consumers and Businesses Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-18-2004/0002176405&EDATE= AT&T Makes Agreement with Sprint BEDMINSTER, N.J., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T Corp. (NYSE: T) today announced that it has taken its first step in re-entering the wireless market by reaching an agreement with Sprint that will allow AT&T to sell AT&T-branded wireless service to its over 30 million business and consumer customers. As a result of the five-year agreement, AT&T expects to significantly expand the wireless services it is currently testing in select U.S. markets with hopes of a launch later this year. "In a world where customers increasingly desire the flexibility of mobile communications, we are confident that they will want to buy AT&T wireless services from one of the most trusted names in communications," said AT&T Chairman and CEO David W. Dorman. "AT&T has proved it is capable of rolling out bundles of new and complex services quickly and cost-effectively, with top-notch customer service, and we are excited to have this important capability that will help us better serve customers." "We are delighted that AT&T has expressed their strong vote of confidence in the performance and capabilities of our nationwide CDMA network," said Len Lauer, Sprint's President and COO and President of Sprint Consumer Solutions. "We believe this agreement provides substantial positive benefits for both of our companies and we look forward to serving AT&T's wireless communications needs. " Dorman said the company intends to widen availability of its wireless service later this year by aggressively adding the service to the company's other popular consumer bundles of communications products. Among them: the AT&T OneRate local and long-distance plans, and AT&T's CallVantage Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that is delivered over broadband connections. What's more, as integration of wireless handsets with WiFi networks improves over the next 18 months, AT&T plans to offer handsets that also allow customers to make VoIP calls over broadband connections in homes and businesses. AT&T's wireless service also will be offered to enterprise, small and medium business customers. With a large base of customers and expertise in selling new products, AT&T is excited about the opportunities that this agreement presents. The arrangement with Sprint combines the unique strengths of AT&T's brand, customer base, marketing reach and innovation with a state-of-the-art wireless network that can deliver the voice and data services that customers want. Under the agreement announced today, AT&T, which will offer wireless service as a "mobile virtual network operator," will provide its own unique content and applications, operator assistance, 411 information service, customer care, billing and handsets, allowing it to differentiate much of its customers' experience. AT&T also has the added benefit of carrying the long distance and international calls made by its wireless customers over its own long haul network. Additional terms of the agreement include: * Non-exclusive five-year deal * Freedom for both parties to compete in market without restrictions * The ability of AT&T to utilize existing customer channels and technology to provide directory assistance, customer support, and billing for customers. * The ability of AT&T to sell AT&T-branded handsets through its own vendor relationships * The ability to leverage Sprint's existing wireless data network and innovate on top of it with AT&T-developed content and ISP platforms, value-added voice services and Virtual Private Networking services. * No financial terms of the deal were disclosed "The MVNO model has achieved great success in Europe and is showing promise in the U.S. when executed with the right strategy," said Dorman. "AT&T plans to take that experience to a new level by giving customers innovative ways to integrate wireless into all of their communication needs. Residential, small business and enterprise customers can anticipate a wide array of choices -- whether as a casual talker who wants a mobile phone for safety or a road warrior whose business depends on it." Dorman said AT&T is confident in its ability to offer AT&T branded wireless services for several reasons. Although the wireless industry is competitive, demand for wireless voice and data service continues to grow. Also, recently introduced local number portability rules that let customers take their wireless phone numbers with them when they switch carriers mean that carriers who market successfully face fewer barriers to taking market share. Dorman added that the MVNO model allows AT&T to re-enter the market without incurring significant capital spending costs. AT&T also hopes to benefit from its scale and streamlined internal systems, as well as its status as one of the world's most recognizable companies. About AT&T: For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 07:27:56 -0400 Subject: Gradwell dot com Ltd. launches VoIP Centrex Service With Free Trial Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.w3reports.com/index.php?itemid=359 Technology and Internet product and services provider, Gradwell dot com Ltd. launch their VoIP service with free trial through VoIP.org.uk. The trial has been devised to allow users to test this new technology, before committing to the service and is intended to remove some of the mystery and scepticism surrounding Internet-based telephony. VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony is a way of sending voice calls over the Internet using either software or a hardware telephone, which is currently experiencing rapid growth amongst SME and corporate sectors. Voip.org.uk, a joint venture between Gradwell dot com Ltd. and Call UK (http://www.calluk.com/), covers the hardware, the software, the service providers and the jargon from the point of view of the UK small business and/or the end user. The free trial service, which is available at http://www.gradwell.com/voip/ gives the user 50p of credit (for calling public telephones) and a free public network number (0870 930 NNNN), which is valid forever, providing it is used once every three months. Everyone can use it (one trial per customer); providing they have broadband. The free trial will allow users to (a) experiment with voice on the Internet for free, and (b), 'self prove' that it works for those individuals that are not convinced. Peter Gradwell, Managing Director at Gradwell dot com explains, "VoIP is beneficial because you can get your phone, plug into your broadband line and make and receive high quality calls. Calls to other VoIP users are free and PSTN (public telephone network) calls are competitively priced at UK 2.5ppm Mobiles 16ppm. It also provides a range of features, such as call transfers, conferencing and voicemail etc., 'out of the box' and 'for free.' " The full-blown service is a virtual office PBX (telephone exchange) with a Web control panel, and is fully integrated with the public network (PSTN). Customers receive a recognisable ‘real world’ phone number and can make and receive calls with standard telephone users in addition to those also using VoIP. Where other services, such as Skype, are closed user systems, VoIP.org.uk is a full second line service. Gradwell explains how this innovative technology works within their own organisation, "We are a virtual company that exists as proof of the model. For example, I am in Bath, my colleagues Richard and Ben are in Tunbridge Wells and Leeds respectively. When a customer rings the main contact number, each phone rings at the same time and whoever gets there first picks up. If we need to transfer a call, have a quick conference etc., we just push a button on the phone and off we go. It saves a fortune in divert costs and means that we don't have people waiting for ages whilst we hunt around the country. It also means we can use 'proper' phone numbers and don't have to hide behind a 0870 number. We support a range of geographic numbers with more coming in June 2004", Gradwell concludes. ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 12:31:50 -0400 Subject: Pundits Sound Off on VoIP's Future Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/040519voipfuture/ Stefan Dubowski, ITWorldCanada.com Voice over IP (VoIP) technology may well usher in a new communication paradigm for the enterprise, but it could also be tough on telecom service providers. That was one of the insights provided by high-tech pundits at VON Canada, a communication technology conference held in Markham, Ont., from May 18 to 20 that gathered industry insiders and commentators to present their views on the telecom sector's future. Among the crystal-ball gazers was Jeff Pulver, a VoIP advocate and VON Canada's organizer. He described a future wherein big businesses connect with each other directly, bypassing the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) and leaving carriers out of the loop. "There's no reason why one large enterprise can't talk to another large enterprise peer to peer, IP PBX to IP PBX," Pulver said, noting that in his estimation, IP presents an opportunity for businesses to have more control over their communication infrastructures. However, Pulver also outlined some of the barriers that stand before this peer-to-peer vision. He pointed to regulations, saying that governments should not regulate IP-based telecom services. "Give a window for things to grow," he said, explaining that IP would mature in the market, and stagnate in a highly regulated environment. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is reviewing VoIP regulations these days. The Commission recently put out a public notice saying local VoIP service provided by incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) like Bell Canada and Telus Corp. should fall under the same rules as do PSTN-based local voice service. Full story at: http://www.itworld.com/Net/3303/040519voipfuture/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 12:37:05 -0400 Subject: Skype Signs Deal With Two Carriers Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/8701585.htm NEW SERVICE WILL ALLOW CALLS TO ANY STANDARD PHONE IN U.S. By Dawn C. Chmielewski Mercury News TORONTO - As a waiter serves breakfast, Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom puts his head down and starts tapping on his handheld computer. Zennstrom's not checking the time of his next appointment or reading his e-mail. He's showing off a new version of Skype's free Internet phone service that will turn any wireless-equipped PDA into a no-cost mobile phone. More than a million people use Skype's software to make and receive free long distance and international phone calls on their computers. On Tuesday, Zennstrom revealed agreements with two telecommunications carriers that by summer will allow Skype calls to be made to standard phones anywhere in the United States. Zennstrom would not name his telecommunications partners in advance of an official announcement. But the deal overcomes Skype's major shortcoming: Skype users only can call people who have Skype software installed on their computers. ``It's really taking off now,'' said Zennstrom, the Swedish-born co-creator of Kazaa, the online file-swapping service whose peer-to-peer technology has become synonymous with disruptive, industry-rattling change. Full story at: http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/8701585.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 13:29:42 EDT From: Carl Moore Subject: Unconventional Parsing KYW news-radio in Philadelphia has a report about (condemnation of) human trafficking (i.e. slavery). It gives a telephone number to report such: 888-3737-888 . It then says, and I quote: "Officials are promoting the unconventional parsing of the phone number in the hope that people can remember it better that way." ------------------------------ 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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Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #248 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Wed May 19 21:32:34 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4K1WYM22451; Wed, 19 May 2004 21:32:34 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 21:32:34 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405200132.i4K1WYM22451@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 #249 TELECOM Digest Wed, 19 May 2004 21:33:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 249 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls to Pennies (VOIP News Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices (VOIP News) Can Convergence Thrive Under Old Laws? (VOIP News) AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted (A User) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Steven J Sobol) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Daryl R. Gibson) Re: Unconventional Parsing (Barry Margolin) Question About Verizon Home Voicemail (Dave Hauss) Interesting License Plate (Rich Greenberg) Re: ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit (George Mitchell) Re: The Making of an Idol (Charles Cryderman) Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area (Daryl R. Gibson) Lockheed Lauches High Definition TV Satellite (Monty Solomon) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 14:00:15 -0400 Subject: Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls to Pennies Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/business/17voip.html?ex=1085457600&en=fec11120b8ab2792&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL Mobile phone users have in recent years enjoyed plummeting rates for local and long-distance calling thanks to new technology and fierce competition among cellular companies. Now several entrepreneurs want to use Internet technology to reduce to pennies the cost of using cellphones to call overseas. Dialing internationally on cellphones is typically so expensive that the service is used mostly by businesspeople on expense accounts. But a two-year-old company called i2Telecom, based in Boca Raton, Fla., plans to release a modemlike device this month that effectively turns an international call into a local one by routing it over the Internet. Another company, Skype Technologies, recently introduced free software that lets people turn hand-held computers into mobile phones by sending calls over the Internet. Both ventures take to a new level the market-disrupting potential of the technology called voice over Internet protocol. And both will be on center stage at VON Canada 2004, a conference on Internet telephony opening in Toronto tomorrow that will bring together telecommunications heavyweights like Nortel and Bell Canada, as well as dozens of entrepreneurs and media companies. Using the Internet to route calls could significantly reduce costs, in part, because data and voice traffic will use a single network, advocates say. The shift presents a threat to traditional telephone companies, which have invested heavily in their networks. Full story at: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/business/17voip.html?ex=1085457600&en=fec11120b8ab2792&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE 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: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 16:43:02 -0400 Subject: Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/19/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/ Revving the VOIP market Vonage cuts its prices, while AT&T continues its aggressive rollout. By Eric Hellweg, CNN/Money contributing columnist SAN FRANCISCO (CNN/Money) - It's been a busy few days for Vonage, the voice-over-Internet-protocol company. Last week, the Edison, N.J., outfit announced a big distribution deal with RadioShack that puts its service in approximately 4,000 of the chain's stores in 38 states. And on Monday, it announced that it has signed up 155,000 customers, is adding new subscribers at a rate of 20,000 per month, and is lowering the price of its premium calling plan by 14 percent, from $35 per month to $30. Lou Holder, a vice president at Vonage, says the cost-cutting move was a result of "economies of scale. To build the customer relationship, you don't want to nickel-and-dime your customers. You want to be fair." A glimpse of the future? As a consumer, I applaud whenever a company decides to lower its prices; it doesn't happen nearly enough, even when economies of scale or new technologies reduce the cost of production (cough, music industry). But the Vonage move is more than a laudable consumer play. For investors, it provides a glimpse at the next phase of the increasingly fevered Internet-based calling world. Full story at: http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/19/technology/techinvestor/hellweg/ ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 19:20:49 -0400 Subject: Can Convergence Thrive Under Old Laws? Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116196,00.asp Telecommunications law accused of stifling merging multimedia services. Grant Gross, IDG News Service WASHINGTON -- New and near-future technologies that combine voice, data, and video services could prompt rewriting the 1996 Telecommunications Act--or scrapping it altogether. Several Congressional representatives made the observation during a "show-and-tell" hearing on voice-and-data convergence technologies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Wednesday's hearing was one in a series as the subcommittee considers ways to revise the far-reaching 1996 Telecommunications Act, says Michigan Republican Fred Upton, who chairs the subcommittee. Upton questioned what he called "stovepipe" regulation focused only on telecommunications providers. For example, cable and Internet providers are starting to provide voice over IP service, competing with incumbent telephone carriers that inherited their networks after the early '80s breakup of AT&T. He predicted Congress will begin rewriting the '96 Telecom Act next year. Competitors Emerge New technologies are blurring the lines between telecommunications services, which are traditionally regulated, and unregulated Internet services, Upton said. Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) went a step further and questioned whether Federal Communications Commission regulations are needed at all. Cox didn't advocate abolishing the FCC, but cited a 1997 book by lawyer Peter Huber that does suggest the agency is no longer needed. Full story at: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116196,00.asp ------------------------------ Reply-To: A User From: A User Subject: AVT PhoneXpress Entree Voicemail Info Wanted Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 22:01:15 GMT We have just acquired a Toshiba DK424 PBX and a 4-port AVT PhoneXpress Entree voicemail system and am unable to modify the voice mail with my company prompts. The AVT box works fine altho under OS/2 and without passwords or any other info it is not of much value. Any information on how the setup functions can be accessed or the password functions bypassed would be appreciated. Thanks, MCL ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:37:06 -0500 TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Monty Solomon's report on Geico lawsuit: > or when its mascot became the cute little reptile character, and I do > not know if the little reptile's name is pronounced 'Geckko' or 'G-eye-co'. > I have heard both. I know a huge number of its customers are still > federal employees, etc. PAT] It's "gekko" and it's pronounced that way too. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Daryl R Gibson Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:34:26 -0600 Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks On 19 May 2004 at 14:40, editor@telecom-digest.org noted in response to Monty Solomon's article on Geico Suing Google: > [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Older readers may recall when what is > now called 'Geico' used to -- many years ago -- be 'Government Employees > Insurance Company'. It was a federal level quasi-governmental agency > dealing with automobile insurance for government employees, who were > the company's only customers. I do not know when it got disttached from > the government or when its name changed to the initials 'GEICO' only, > or when its mascot became the cute little reptile character, and I do > not know if the little reptile's name is pronounced 'Geckko' or 'G-eye-co'. > I have heard both. I know a huge number of its customers are still > federal employees, etc. PAT] Although Geico marketed largely to government employees, it was not a government agency. See http://www.geico.com/about/geicoHistory.htm It may have flourished partly by the impression that it was Government- owned, expecially in the 30s and 40s when people were still skeptical about insurance companies. As far as mascots go, I prefer the duck. Aflac! ------------------------------ From: Barry Margolin Subject: Re: Unconventional Parsing Organization: Looking for work Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 19:57:17 -0400 In article , Carl Moore wrote: > KYW news-radio in Philadelphia has a report about (condemnation of) > human trafficking (i.e. slavery). It gives a telephone number to > report such: 888-3737-888 . > It then says, and I quote: > "Officials are promoting the unconventional parsing of the phone > number in the hope that people can remember it better that way." Isn't there a standup comic who does a bit about people who pronounce phone numbers wrong, with the pauses in unusual places? Can someone remind me who it is? Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** ------------------------------ From: dahauss@unlimitedsounds.com (Dave Hauss) Subject: Question About Verizon Home Voicemail Date: 19 May 2004 11:41:56 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com I have Verizon home voicemail and am trying to find out if there is any possible way I can have it sent a text message to my cell phone when a voicemail comes in. Right now, the only thing verizon told me it can do is ring a number when a voicemail comes in. I don't want it to do that. Any ideas? ------------------------------ From: richgr@panix.com (Rich Greenberg) Subject: Interesting License Plate Date: 19 May 2004 15:48:40 -0400 Organization: Organized? Me? Saw a BMW today with a license plate "CLEC". I wonder what business that person is in? :-) Rich Greenberg N6LRT Marietta, GA, USA richgr atsign panix.com + 1 770 321 6507 Eastern time zone. I speak for myself & my dogs only. VM'er since CP-67 Canines:Val, Red & Shasta (RIP),Red, husky Owner:Chinook-L Atlanta Siberian Husky Rescue. www.panix.com/~richgr/ Asst Owner:Sibernet-L ------------------------------ From: George Mitchell Subject: Re: ICANN Wins Round in Internet Suit Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 13:39:25 -0700 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Monty Solomon wrote: > U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz dismissed allegations that the > Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers had violated > federal antitrust laws in its attempts to bar VeriSign from adding > services like Site Finder, which effectively took control of all > unassigned .com and .net domain names and redirected them to the > company's Web site. To refresh people's memory, Site Finder was a VeriSign "service" which made nonexistent second-level domain names under .com and .net appear to exist, rendering one popular spam test useless. VeriSign nominally discontinued this "service" months ago, but I still see as many as a dozen instances per day where the root name servers are supplying addresses instead of name server referrals in response to queries in the .com and .net zones. I haven't investigated any further, but this seems to contradict VeriSign's statement that they have stopped doing this. -- George Mitchell (obfuscated email address) ------------------------------ From: Charles Cryderman Subject: Re: The Making of an Idol Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 15:19:03 -0400 Reader Master David Quinton wrote: > However, here in the UK a principle known as "call gapping" is used to > lessen congestion. This means that one in every X calls will receive a > congestion message advising the caller to try again. I also think that for some of the busiest Televoting services, the calls never actually get switched any further than one of the main BT centres. Call Accounting is handled at each of the centres and the totals are then calculated ... " With SS7 implemented there is no need to actually complete a call. What I don't understand is with ANI why are they accepting more then one call per number. With SS7 and the abilities of computers it should set up so only one vote per telephone number and that information be put out. If they truly wanted to know which performed the best it would be limited this way. The congestion would be reduced and demon dialers would be useless. Now my disclaimer, I have watched it only a few times and found it unworthily of my time. If you want to see quality programming watch the Fox show "24". Chip Cryderman ------------------------------ From: Daryl R Gibson Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:46:56 -0600 Subject: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area I was surprised a couple of months ago to find a Verizon-branded payphone at the local 7-Eleven, complete with the Bell logo. I since have seen other Verizon-branded payphones at 7-11 locations in Nevada. Both here (Utah) and there (Nevada) are non-Verizon (landline) areas. I look at the phone and it's a pre-divesture Western Electric phone, with a new Verizon coinbox cover. I'm interested if other people in other states have also seen this. I note Verizon has also started distributing a phone book in this area, which is served by Qwest (U.S. West/Mountain Bell). Qwest has never used the Bell logo, which was only briefly used in transition by U.S. West shortly after the Bell breakup, but you would assume there would be some restrictions on its use in areas where the RBOC had the rights to it. It seems to me that Verizon would not be building up brand visibility without a purpose. Verizon Wireless operates in this area (former Airtouch/former U.S. West Cellular), so maybe that's enough. Daryl Gibson ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 21:04:44 -0400 From: Monty Solomon Subject: Lockheed Launches High Definition TV Satellite CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 19 (Reuters) - A Lockheed Martin Atlas 2 rocket blasted off from Florida on Wednesday carrying a 2.5 tonne high-definition television satellite that will bring the new format to some familiar cable offerings in the United States. Lockheed (NYSE:LMT) reported a clean lift-off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:22 p.m. EDT (2222 GMT), followed 28 minutes later by the separation of the AMC-11 satellite, built by Lockheed for SES AMERICOM, from the rocket's second stage. This was one of the last rockets launched in what has become an old-fashioned way, with the launch team hunkered down in a concrete bunker with 12-foot (3.6-metre) thick walls just 800 feet (240 metres) from the launch pad. The launch controller actually pushed a button. Both Lockheed and its chief U.S. rival, Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), are quickly phasing out older generation rockets in favor of new models that are more powerful, more flexible and, if the industry is correct, more reliable. Lockheed's Atlas 5 does away with such trappings as the launch tower and the button and can be rolled out to a nearly bare pad just 12 hours before launch. - http://finance.lycos.com/home/news/story.asp?story=41564243 ------------------------------ 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! URL information: http://telecom-digest.org Anonymous FTP: mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/ (or use our mirror site: ftp.epix.net/pub/telecom-archives) Email <==> FTP: telecom-archives@telecom-digest.org Send a simple, one line note to that automated address for a help file on how to use the automatic retrieval system for archives files. You can get desired files in email. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from * * Judith Oppenheimer, President of ICB Inc. and purveyor of accurate * * 800 & Dot Com News, Intelligence, Analysis, and Consulting. * * http://ICBTollFree.com, http://1800TheExpert.com * * Views expressed herein should not be construed as representing * * views of Judith Oppenheimer or ICB Inc. * ************************************************************************* ICB Toll Free News. Contact information is not sold, rented or leased. One click a day feeds a person a meal. Go to http://www.thehungersite.com Copyright 2004 ICB, Inc. and TELECOM Digest. All rights reserved. Our attorney is Bill Levant, of Blue Bell, PA. ************************ --------------------------------------------------------------- Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of fifty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. Please make at least a single donation to cover the cost of processing your name to the mailing list. If you donate at least fifty dollars per year we will send you our two-CD set of the entire Telecom Archives; this is every word published in this Digest since our beginning in 1981. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. 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 #249 ****************************** From editor@telecom-digest.org Thu May 20 13:55:09 2004 Received: (from ptownson@localhost) by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.11.6p3/8.11.3) id i4KHt9T01938; Thu, 20 May 2004 13:55:09 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 13:55:09 -0400 (EDT) From: editor@telecom-digest.org Message-Id: <200405201755.i4KHt9T01938@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 #250 TELECOM Digest Thu, 20 May 2004 13:55:00 EDT Volume 23 : Issue 250 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson New York Defines Vonage as Telco Provider (VOIP News) New York Classifies Vonage as Phone Company (VOIP News) Dorman Tells of AT&T's Advances in VoIP, and Wireless (VOIP News) Jeff Pulver Statement on New York Public Services Commission (VOIP News) New York Classifies Vonage as Phone Company (Alex) Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area (Justin Time) Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area (Steven J Sobol) Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area (Kenneth P. Stox) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (Clarence Dold) Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks (jmayson@nyx.net) Re: Unconventional Parsing (Henry) Re: Unconventional Parsing (DevilsPGD) Re: Unconventional Parsing (Clarence Dold) Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming (Wales) Re: Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices (DevilsPGD) 802.16(Wi-Max) (Gangadhar) Re: Question About Verizon Home Voicemail (Temporary FL@L&ER) Re: The Making of an Idol (David Quinton) Re: Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls (Ray Normandeau) Re: Best Consumer Answering Machine? (Ray Normandeau) Infozech/TransNexus Launch Product for Small Service Providers (D Charles) 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 23:51:16 -0400 Subject: New York Defines Vonage as Telco Provider Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20040519S0012 A state regulatory agency in New York ruled Wednesday that Vonage Holdings is a telco provider, a significant classification that has important ramifications for the ongoing debate over government regulation of the emerging technology. In its ruling, the New York State Public Utilities Commission determined the Internet telephony provider offers competitive telephone services via Voice over IP technology and is therefore a telephone corporation as defined by New York state law. Specifically, the commission noted a core public interest in ensuring public safety and network reliability, but it also suggested only minimal regulation would be advised because of the rapid growth of the new field. Full story at: http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20040519S0012 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: VOIP News Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 23:49:53 -0400 Subject: New York Classifies Vonage as Phone Company Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5216639.html By Evan Hansen CNET News.com Handing a setback to emerging Internet phone services, the New York State Public Service Commission on Wednesday ruled that Vonage Holdings is a telephone company and thus subject to state regulation. In a statement announcing its decision, the agency sought to soften the blow, saying that it nevertheless hoped to apply "only minimal regulations to ensure that it does not interfere with the rapid, widespread deployment of new technologies." New York is the latest state to weigh in on regulation of so-called voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, a hot-button policy issue that has some local officials worried about potential tax losses as the technology grows in popularity. Full story at: http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5216639.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 10:05:02 -0400 Subject: Dorman Tells of AT&T's Advances in VoIP, Wireless and Alternatives Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com http://www.wi-fitechnology.com/displayarticle1173.html AUSTIN, Texas -/May 20, 2004 The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/- AT&T Chairman and CEO David W. Dorman, addressing shareowners at the company's 119th Annual Meeting yesterday, said AT&T is enriching its array of services and choices for consumers and businesses to assure the company's position of industry leadership for years to come. Speaking at the Austin Convention Center here, Dorman cited AT&T's continued technological and strategic progress while transforming into the industry's leader in Internet Protocol (IP) services and continuing to innovate for businesses and consumers. "We're confident that we have the right strategy in place to position this company for leadership and success over the long-term," Dorman said. "We're on the right path, and we fully intend to stay the course." The most recent example: AT&T's announcement Tuesday that it has chosen Sprint as a wireless network supplier, enabling AT&T to offer wireless voice and data services to consumers and businesses nationwide. This agreement will help AT&T compete and give customers what they increasingly desire -- mobility -- while AT&T also will gain a unique opportunity to build a wireless business quickly via the power and reach of its brand and an existing customer base of more than 30 million. AT&T has been aggressively expanding its business model beyond long distance, Dorman said. The company is investing to create a single global IP network to better serve enterprise and consumer customers. The delivery of new and advanced application services over AT&T's core IP backbone remains central to the company's customer strategy, Dorman said. Full story at: http://www.wi-fitechnology.com/displayarticle1173.html ------------------------------ From: VOIP News Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 00:06:13 -0400 Subject: Jeff Pulver Statement on New York Public Services Commission Reply-To: VoIPnews@yahoogroups.com From The Jeff Pulver Blog at http://192.246.69.231/jeff/personal/index.html May 19, 2004 New York State Rules Vonage is a "Telecom Company" Earlier today the New York Public Services Commission announced their decision that Vonage is a telecom company under NY State rules. Specifically the Commission determined that " ...Vonage owns and manages equipment that is used to provide telephone service to Vonage's customers and to connect Vonage's customers to the customers of other telephone corporations via their public networks and thus, like other owners of telecommunications-provisioning equipment, is subject to the NYS Public Service Law." This is a very troubling development. I am quite disappointed to see that New York State decided to apply legacy telephone regulation to Internet based communications while the FCC is in the process of figuring out the right regulatory treatment for VoIP. Between this decision in New York and a pending decision in California, these new developments may lead to the introduction of new regulatory barriers that in fact could slow the adoption of IP Communication services and delay the extraordinary benefits available from such services. This is not a good day for Telecom Policy in New York. Posted by jeff at 05:10 PM [Comment: I'm guessing that the ILEC's in New York State had something to do with this, and I'm also assuming that Vonage will probably take this to court as they did in Minnesota. I hope the precedent set in Minnesota will be followed by the judges in New York, or that the FCC or Congress will simply strike down state level regulation. As far as I know, no VoIP company is headquartered in New York, so it would seem to me that every VoIP call would be inherently interstate and subject to FCC regulation (if subject to regulation at all), and not to New York PSC regulation.] ------------------------------ From: alex@totallynerd.com (Alex) Subject: New York Classifies Vonage as Phone Company Date: 20 May 2004 08:30:42 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com http://news.com.com/2100-7352_3-5216639.html I'm still waiting for them to be available in my area in Texas, but I'm now wondering if they'll be changing their rates or services if other states do as New York is doing. FYI, Alex ------------------------------ From: a_user2000@yahoo.com (Justin Time) Subject: Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area Date: 20 May 2004 05:20:13 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Daryl R Gibson wrote in message news:: > I was surprised a couple of months ago to find a Verizon-branded > payphone at the local 7-Eleven, complete with the Bell logo. I since have > seen other Verizon-branded payphones at 7-11 locations in Nevada. Both > here (Utah) and there (Nevada) are non-Verizon (landline) areas. I look at > the phone and it's a pre-divesture Western Electric phone, with a new > Verizon coinbox cover. > I'm interested if other people in other states have also seen this. I > note Verizon has also started distributing a phone book in this area, > which is served by Qwest (U.S. West/Mountain Bell). Qwest has never > used the Bell logo, which was only briefly used in transition by > U.S. West shortly after the Bell breakup, but you would assume there > would be some restrictions on its use in areas where the RBOC had the > rights to it. > It seems to me that Verizon would not be building up brand visibility > without a purpose. Verizon Wireless operates in this area (former > Airtouch/former U.S. West Cellular), so maybe that's enough. > Daryl Gibson Verizon has a contract with the Southland Corporation to provide pay phones at all their locations. Much as Ameritech has/had a contract with McDonalds to provide payphones in their stores. Rodgers Platt ------------------------------ From: Steven J Sobol Subject: Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 10:21:55 -0500 Daryl R Gibson wrote: > I was surprised a couple of months ago to find a Verizon-branded > payphone at the local 7-Eleven, complete with the Bell logo. I since have > seen other Verizon-branded payphones at 7-11 locations in Nevada. Both > here (Utah) and there (Nevada) are non-Verizon (landline) areas. I look at > the phone and it's a pre-divesture Western Electric phone, with a new > Verizon coinbox cover. > I'm interested if other people in other states have also seen this. Cuyahoga Falls (Akron), Ohio. Bell Atlantic-branded phones at the Sheetz on Steels Corners Road. HOWEVER, Sheetz is a Pennsylvania company and PA is Bell Atlantic territory, so perhaps this isn't so weird. Cuyahoga Falls/Summit County is SBC, but parts of neighboring Medina and Portage counties are Verizon (former GTE, not former Bell Titanic). Walgreens in Cleveland have Cincinnati Bell phones outside. There are no other sites in Northeast Ohio that have Cincinnati Bell phones, as far as I know. JustThe.net Internet & New Media Services, Apple Valley, CA PGP: 0xE3AE35ED Steven J. Sobol, Geek In Charge / 888.480.4NET (4638) / sjsobol@JustThe.net Domain Names, $9.95/yr, 24x7 service: http://DomainNames.JustThe.net/ "someone once called me a sofa, but i didn't feel compelled to rush out and buy slip covers." -adam brower * Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '86, Windows 98/2000/2003 ------------------------------ From: Kenneth P. Stox Organization: Imaginary Landscape, LLC. Subject: Re: Verizon Payphones in non-Verizon Area Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 04:02:24 GMT Daryl R Gibson wrote: > I'm interested if other people in other states have also seen this. Just saw one at a gas station down the street here in Westmont, Illinois ( a western suburb of Chicago ). ------------------------------ From: dold@GeicoXSues.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 02:09:39 +0000 (UTC) Organization: a2i network Monty Solomon wrote: > The insurer charged the two companies with infringing on its > trademarks when they sold them as keywords to Geico's rivals, so that File suit first, ask if the premise is correct later. I believe that the participants in Google's paid advertising select their own keywords. You don't "buy" keywords from a search engine. And if Google is selling this one, they aren't doing a very good job, since they only seem to have one buyer. A Google search for "I hate Geico" shows up 25 listings, and one "Sponsored Link" on the right side. It goes to geico-comnn.com. I would think that would be the target of Geico's wrath, a misuse of their (presumably) trademarked name as part of someone else's domain name. Since that page is merely a listing of competitive insurance companies, it would seem like a misuse of "geico" to me. The only entry for "geico" at dictionary.com is as an acronym for "Government Employees Insurance Company". Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The weird thing to me is the company name (or acronym) is phonetically pronounced G-eye-co yet the little reptile mascot's name is pronounced 'g-ekk-o'? To the biologists among us: is there such a reptile as a gekko/g-eye-co? The little guy looks more like a baby frog to me. They have got some very clever commercials on TV-land in any event, all based on the "I have good news, I saved money" theme. PAT] ------------------------------ From: jmayson@nyx.net Subject: Re: Geico Sues Google, Overture Over Trademarks Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 03:33:05 GMT Organization: Road Runner High Speed Online http://www.rr.com > Although Geico marketed largely to government employees, it was not > a government agency. See Sounds like it was a civilian version of USAA. USAA caters to military officers and their dependents. Military folks moved from state to state and often had trouble getting car insurance, so former officers started the company. John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA ------------------------------ From: henry999@eircom.net (Henry) Subject: Re: Unconventional Parsing Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 09:08:43 +0300 Organization: Elisa Internet customer Barry Margolin wrote: > Carl Moore wrote: >> telephone number... >> 888-3737-888 . >> "Officials are promoting the unconventional parsing of the phone >> number in the hope that people can remember it better that way." > Isn't there a standup comic who does a bit about people who pronounce > phone numbers wrong, with the pauses in unusual places? 'Wrong'? Why 'wrong'?? (Just because it's 'un-American'?) You are obviously unaware that in many, many places in the world, telephone numbers are other than the (w)-(xxx)-yyy-zzzz gringo formula. Cheers, Henry ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Unconventional Parsing Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:11:29 GMT In message <> Barry Margolin did ramble: > Isn't there a standup comic who does a bit about people who pronounce > phone numbers wrong, with the pauses in unusual places? Can someone > remind me who it is? Fat guy, has/had a FOX sitcom I think? I see dumb people, walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they wanna see. They don't know they're dumb. ------------------------------ From: dold@Unconventi.usenet.us.com Subject: Re: Unconventional Parsing Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 02:15:45 UTC Organization: a2i network Barry Margolin wrote: > Isn't there a standup comic who does a bit about people who pronounce > phone numbers wrong, with the pauses in unusual places? Can someone > remind me who it is? Long, long, ago, I moved into a new apartment. I had ordered phone service, and happened to see a telco guy next door, where people were also moving in. I asked him if my apartment was on his list. He said no, but if I called the dispatcher and told them he was nearby, on job something-or-other, he might be able to get scheduled to turn my service on. I tried repeating the nonsensical number that he gave me back to him, and he looked at me like I was a tad slow. He was reciting a phone number, but I was new to the area, and didn't recognize the area code or prefix. There was a pair of digits in there somewhere, and my cadence was off as I grouped around the pair instead of at the invisble hyphens. Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley (Lake County) CA USA 38.8-122.5 ------------------------------ From: richw@richw.org (Rich Wales) Subject: Re: Canada to Criminalize Watching Foreign TV and Radio Programming Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 16:37:16 UTC Mark Crispin wrote: > I personally witnessed an incident in which US newspapers were > blocked at the [Canadian] border and US TV channels on Canadian > cable censored, because they covered something that the Canadian > government did not want disclosed to its population. Of course, > individuals brought in newspapers and you could tune in the US > channels over the air, and find out what the Canadian government > didn't want you to hear. But then again, in the mid-1930s you could > listen to the BBC in Germany without getting arrested. I assume Mark was alluding to the Robert Pickton murder case in the Vancouver area -- and/or to the Paul Bernardo / Karla Homolka murder case in the early 1990's in Ontario. In both cases, Canadian judges imposed "publication bans" (gag orders) on the media, primarily in an attempt to prevent prospective jurors from being hopelessly tainted by pretrial publicity. Not surprisingly, there was no way that American journalists could possibly restrain themselves in the face of such sordid, salacious filth, and both gag orders were ignored by the US media. In all fairness, Mark, I really feel it's a distortion to refer to situations like these as government censorship, or accuse Canada of acting like a fascist police state, without offering any background. In case anyone is interested, here are references to some of my own USENET postings on this topic (mostly about the Bernardo / Homolka case). http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=20030519165935.J23660.richw%40jessejames.Stanford.EDU http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=19961230003058.richw%40yank.kitchener.on.ca http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=39egfb%24roe%40panix.com http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=38106d%24cqf%40ia.mks.com http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1994Jan26.133236.2591%40mks.com http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1993Jul10.042222.8977%40mks.com Mark Crispin also wrote: > There is nothing illegal under US law in taking your > legitimate Bell ExpressVu receivers into the US and > using them in the US. There may, in fact, technically be such a prohibition -- hidden in an obscure FCC regulation [47 CFR 25.131(j); 47 CFR 25.137(a)] that appears to say that a satellite receiving station used to receive transmissions from a non-US-licensed service must have a special FCC license, and that the granting of such a license by the FCC will be contingent upon whether the other country involved allows US competition in its own market. I've never been able, though, to get a reliable opinion on whether the above FCC regulations apply to private individuals, or just to commercial entities who might want to rebroadcast foreign programs in the US. I tried asking the FCC about this once, via e-mail, a few years ago, but the reply I received was wildly off point (it was clear that they completely misunderstood my question), and my subsequent attempts to get a proper answer were ignored. Even if these regulations do technically prohibit grey-market dish use in the US, I suspect it's a non-issue, because the FCC probably has neither the desire nor the resources to mount any enforcement measures against private individuals. And even if they did, it's not at all clear to me whether the regs would pass constitutional muster in the eyes of the courts. Rich Wales richw@richw.org http://www.richw.org ------------------------------ From: DevilsPGD Subject: Re: Revving the VOIP Market - Vonage Cuts its Prices Organization: EasyNews, UseNet made Easy! Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 06:10:15 GMT In message <> VOIP News did ramble: > Lou Holder, a vice president at Vonage, says the cost-cutting move was > a result of "economies of scale. To build the customer relationship, > you don't want to nickel-and-dime your customers. You want to be > fair." My one complaint about Vonage is that it feels like I'm being nickeled and dimed to death with service charges whenever I change anything (add a virtual number, add another phone line, etc) I've paid about $150 in setup charges, fees, shipping charges and whatever else they've dreamed up for three lines (I'm using one as a fax, but $12.99CDN/month for a fax line is a ripoff compared to $14.99/month for a 500 minute plan. The extra minutes will pay for themselves, and the call forward after 30 seconds and network availability number features are important to me. I see dumb people, walking around like regular people. They don't see each other. They only see what they wanna see. They don't know they're dumb. ------------------------------ From: ganga_mg@rediffmail.com (Gangadhar) Subject: 802.16(Wi-Max) Date: 20 May 2004 00:46:17 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com Hi, I am just doing some literature survey on this WI-Max and I got few doubts since I am new to wireless technology. Can you tell me what is the licensed and unlicensed band in wireless communication? The 802.16 standards say that throughput it provides is about 70 Mbps is it shared by all the users of MAN? And it says the area covered is around 50 km, since the frequency of operation is 11 Ghz is it possible to cover 50 km? Thanks, gangadhar ------------------------------ From: Temporary FL@L&ER Subject: Re: Question About Verizon Home Voicemail Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 07:39:12 -0500 Reply-To: w9vhe@arrl.net Unless I am mistaken, on 19 May 2004 11:41:56 -0700, dahauss@unlimitedsounds.com (Dave Hauss) wrote: > I have Verizon home voicemail and am trying to find out if there is > any possible way I can have it sent a text message to my cell phone > when a voicemail comes in. Right now, the only thing verizon told me > it can do is ring a number when a voicemail comes in. I don't want it > to do that. Any ideas? If you have the enhanced home voice mail, you can have it dial your cellphone -- don't think there is any way for it to do a speech-to-text conversion. All it will do is call whatever number you program it to, then it will *replay* the message over your cell. That's what you have, not what you want, right? Use the usual techniques if you wish to reply via email. Molon Labe! ------------------------------ From: David Quinton Subject: Re: The Making of an Idol Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 15:51:24 +0100 On Wed, 19 May 2004 15:19:03 -0400, Charles Cryderman wrote: > With SS7 implemented there is no need to actually complete a > call. What I don't understand is with ANI why are they accepting more > then one call per number. With SS7 and the abilities of computers it > should set up so only one vote per telephone number and that > information be put out. If they truly wanted to know which performed > the best it would be limited this way. The congestion would be reduced > and demon dialers would be useless. I think I read that, with World Idol, 1-800 numbers were used. In the UK, 090 numbers were used - so much money was made from the calls! Multiple voting therefore is encouraged ... > Now my disclaimer, I have watched it only a few times and found it > unworthily of my time. If you want to see quality programming watch > the Fox show "24". Agreed. UK Computer stuff from Morgan Auctions. Bids start at £1. No reserve. Sign up NOW! Track a Mobile phone: . ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: Ventures Aim to Cut Cost of Overseas Cell Calls to Pennies Date: 20 May 2004 08:07:28 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com VOIP News wrote in message news:: > http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/business/17voip.html?ex=1085457600&en=fec11120b8ab2792&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE > By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL > Now several entrepreneurs want to use Internet technology to reduce > to pennies the cost of using cellphones to call overseas. To call out of the county on my cell phone I use https://www.onesuite.com/ It is basically a prepaid phone card but you can do away with the PIN for calls from a phone you use all the time. Program it as a speed dial, you don't even have to remember their #. No monthly fee or minimum. If you use the promotion code "ray60273" we both get some free miniutes. If you call one country all the time, there may even be phone cards you can buy from a store catering to that countries nationals here in the USA offering even a lower rate. ------------------------------ From: rayta@msn.com (Ray Normandeau) Subject: Re: Best Consumer Answering Machine? Date: 20 May 2004 08:23:06 -0700 Organization: http://groups.google.com zmike6 wrote in message news:: > A google search suggested that this group had the most discussion of > answering machines. My 10-year-old dual microcassette unit is acting > flaky, and I fear will have to be replaced soon. I have three TADs and no longer use tape. I sometimes get paid for public speaking and I want my voice on my TAD to sound good. Potential bookers must be impressed by my voice on the TAD. Altho I have 2 TAD that were originally $400 each, Muratec VF1000, I am equally impressed w/the voice quality of my GE TAD which I got for under twenty dollars a few years ago at Best Buy. Underside it looks like it indicates it is a model 1906. ------------------------------ Reply-To: From: Douglas Charles Subject: Infozech/TransNexus Launch Product For Small Service Providers Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 13:29:40 +0530 'The Joint Solution Provides Pre-Paid and Wholesale Billing to a Carrier Class IP Interconnect Solution for the Lowest Price' Washington DC, May 14, 2004: TransNexus and Infozech Software Inc today announced that they have partnered to provide a standards based, complete end-to-end solution to manage IP Interconnect and offer related wholesale and prepaid billing services to new and emerging carriers. The solution brings together the industry leading open IP interconnection solutions from TransNexus and Carrier Access Billing & Settlement solution from Infozech. The integrated solution allows Carriers and ITSPs to manage their Interconnect in a secure fashion and be able to bill for it in near real time. With this offering the carriers can implement a retail pre-paid solution and a low-cost wholesale IP interconnect solution for approximately $60,000 USD for 5 million minutes monthly. The TransNexus solution provides security, multi-vendor H323 interoperability, routing and collection of accounting information from a central platform while Infozech's iCAS provides for retail and wholesale billing and Settlement with interconnecting partners and performs bill audits for revenue assurance on a Windows platform. The TransNexus platform provides iCAS with the Call Details in near real time for the purpose of rating and balance updates. The solution also manages the wholesale credit control. Infozech's CEO Mr. Ankur Lal comments, "The partnership enables new and emerging next generation carriers an affordable and reliable end-to-end Interconnect solution. They no longer need to plan 100's of thousand dollars (USD) to enable a regional pre-paid and wholesale IP telephony solution. This offer is intended to enable low cost calling on a worldwide basis " Speaking on the occasion, TransNexus Vice President, Mr. Frank Estes remarked, "In the era of deregulation, TransNexus and Infozech have provided an open, efficient, carrier-class and low cost platform for service providers to quickly become international carriers for their customer base. We see this market as an underserved market by traditional proprietary, large equipment and billing system providers". About TransNexus: TransNexus provides VoIP interconnect products for H.323 and SIP networks. The NexSRS(TM) server provides interdomain routing, number translation and secure access control. For more information please contact: TransNexus Inc Tel: +1 (404)-526-6060 info@transnexus.com www.transnexus.com About Infozech: Infozech As a leader in Telecom services and billing solutions, Infozech is focused on providing complete e-commerce automation and integration for any Telecom Service provider. For more information please contact: Infozech Software Inc. Winston Michael, Tel: +1 (703)-406-6091 ussales@infozech.com www.infozech.com This message is brought to you as a service from the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, to help you in your export promotion activities. There is no formal relationship between the sender of this message and the person(s)/organization(s) for whom this message was distributed. ------------------------------ 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. 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